I Said, OK

I got a kick out of Sandy’s headline. I’m as far from Social Star as possible, so it was extremely humbling to be interviewed by Sandy for her blog.

I met Sandy a few years ago when I was working at KickApps. We were both invited by Jeremiah Owyang, who at the time was working at Forrester, to attend a day long roundtable about the Social Web. Sandy’s one of those people that you can’t help but listen when she talks. More importantly, she makes you think. She’s also been a terrific pioneer of social marketing at IBM and has written several books about her experiences.

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated the blog. Mainly because the last few months have been pretty busy. I left KickApps in January and joined Deep Focus, an interactive agency in New York City. I’m still gathering my thoughts about the move and also about the future. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about it all.

So, it appears that Seth, AT&T’s blogger guy, works for its PR agency Fleishman Hillard. A question was posed on Twitter by Todd Defren about whether AT&T should have disclosed that Seth works for FH.

From a consumer’s point of view, that’s not really what’s important. For all intents and purposes Seth works for AT&T. By putting him out there as the mouth piece of AT&T, he is AT&T, so to speak. Sure, he’s a ‘blogger’ but do we expect anything impartial from he if he works for AT&T or its PR agency? I think Todd’s question in some ways has more to do with the flaws (and insecurities) of the PR industry more than what matters to customers.

The more important point to me is that AT&T is still missing the real opportunity. All they’ve done is more of the same, just a different wrapper. A different channel for the same old message and business practices.

Everyone of us knows when we’ve come across the real thing and we know when we’ve encountered bullshit. We know when the people in our social circles aren’t real. We know when advertising is bullshit. We know when PR people are doing their thing. We know. This ain’t real.

In leveraging the power of the social web the only thing matters is that AT&T is REAL about their business.

Simply put: do the right thing by your customers.

Create a great product. Sell it for what it is. Back it up and have customer service policies that put the customer first.

I’m writing this on a JetBlue flight where the TVs aren’t working. We’re all getting $15 coupons after the flight. JetBlue doesn’t have to do this. They could simply have an asterix in their advertising that says, “no guarantee of TV service.,” or nothing at all. AT&T, how about something back for all those dropped calls? Acknowledgement? A sorry? A cookie?

Using the social web successfully has to start with the business and the sooner people realize that it’s not just a marketing thing [no, boys, "it's marketing, you can say whatever you want," does not work!], the more successful they’ll be.

My problem with Seth (not him the individual but what he stands for) is two fold:

1. He’s nothing more than the same old wrapper of bullshit marketing. You see that ahead of you AT&T? It’s a giant wall of competitors and alternatives fueled by a new world competition backed by the social web.

2. The message is way off–see my earlier post. As an aside, it just hit me that maybe AT&T is being real with the message. Maybe they’re just whiny assholes, in which case, good luck my blue and orange friend. Who can benefit from this? Check this post out.

All is not lost though. Can they turn things around? Not if they stay on this path.

Look in the mirror, AT&T. Do you like what you see? Would you want to be treated that way? AT&T employees, are you proud of your work? Your company? Are you doing everything you can to build long and lasting relationships with your customers that can withstand the fiercest of competition? Say, when Verizon starts offering the iPhone?

Think about that and I’m pretty sure your next Seth video will be very different. Your next customer service call will be very different. Your next retail experience will be very different. Your next TV commercial will be very different. Your Facebook wall will start to feel very different.

Coming out of last week’s panel on the future of social media at the Digital Media Conference 2008, I’ve been thinking more about the discussion we had and the questions from the audience.

One idea I’ve been thinking more about is that social media is as much a feature on any websites, or at least will be soon, as it is a destination. By destination I mean social networks (e.g. Facebook, MySpace and Linkedin), blogs and media sharing sites (e.g. YouTube and Flickr), etc.

The premise is that any website’s owner cares a lot about increasing the number of people who come to the website and spend more time on it. This translates into more pageviews, which equals more advertising inventory.

The fact is that the social web has broken through. People like it. They use it to interact with each other, discover new things and make new friends. What this means on a website is more engagement. In the past media has been largely a one way deal. Call it a monologue if you will. With social media we have the ability for a multilogue–a multitude of different conversations going in different directions. This means greater volume (pageviews), greater involvement with your website (people care enough to interact in your environment) and greater brand affinity and (a degree) of loyalty for those who are repetitively active.

The technology exists today to very easily and cost effectively add these features to your website. It’s a commodity. I think this is a good thing–clearly, since I work at KickApps.

So, fact #1 of the Future of Social Media = it’s no longer just a destination.

Come to think of it, maybe that’s not the future as much as it’s the present.