Who owns social media continues to be a key question on marketer’s minds. I recently penned a guest post on the subject for AdAge’s Digital Next Blog. It’s a question out of sync with the reality of  social technologies being embedded across business functions.

As blogging goes I’m that guy. One of those enthusiastic folk who toils away enthusiastically then goes dark. The blog sits unattended for days, months, years. It becomes part of the vast blog wasteland.

This desert of misfit musings is big. Apparently up to 95 percent of blogs are dormant, most permanently abandoned.

I started blogging back in 2002, interested in the pending collision of social technologies, media and marketing.  In 2006, I went dark. Simple reason. I became consumed in the work.

Those deeply engaged in social media know the score. This stuff is hard. Has no road map. It requires total commitment to design smart social strategies and execute what you’ve suggested be done.

I  feel lucky to be fully committed, helping to influence and lead social media learning labs inside my firm and for a number of big brands. I’ve seen communication programs fail miserably. Others that unquestionably show impact to be made calibrating new opportunities with a company’s ability to take advantage of them.

These lessons learned from the front are invaluable for helping people address pressing issues now and anticipate what’s next.

While the frenzy around social media would leave you to believe the idea of “Going Social” is now past perspective the reality is we’re only scratching the surface. Barely, really.

Such heady issues warrant more than a constant stream of musings framed in 140 characters or less. And why blogs still matter.

A void exists in more comprehensive translation of what social means to business. Now is consumed with translating how social technologies impact media, marketing and communications. The future is about using social media to change business. Going beyond the interface to impact processes, policy, products, not to mention how people are organized in the firm.

That’s why in the sea of social media commentary there’s still a market for alternative perspective to be shared. And why pulling one more blog from the desert seems to be in order.

This quarter Strategy + Business spotlights the restructuring of media and marketing industries in their Field Guide for the New Marketer cover package (registration required). Booze Allen Hamilton consultants focus on “engagement media” as the core disruptive change to upend the marketing world as we know it. The guide also carries a primer on the anatomy of the 21^st century marketing professional that’s a worthy read. If you don’t sense the extreme changes occuring in our business consider this anonymous quote from an US auto company CMO: “Two years ago 10 percent of my advertising budget had an online component. Today it’s 30 percent. Two years from now it will be 50.”

Technorati Tags: social media, marketing, media, public relations, advertising

Red Herring reports today that Yahoo plans to tap an army of citizen media equipped to cover breaking news literally as it breaks. While details haven’t been released from Yahoo, RH reports they will incentivize consumers to submit content and remove technical barriers by allowing contributors to upload video and still images directly to the news service via their mobile device.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, consumer generated content, citizen media

Following conversations generated through its Morph blog, the Media Center kicked off its We Media Forum today in London. Having attended it last year, it’s a phenomenal event covering the fast-changing media world and implications on business and society. Gloria Pan’s team has extended the boundaries of conference attendance and participation by blogging and streaming the program through the We Media site. I took a quick jump into the site this morning and found Karen Stephenson’s video commentary to be especially relevant adapting to the new media world:

“Ones that are successful are the ones who can let go of what made them secure in the old world. It requires emotional maturity that not many people have, because what brought them to their positions and made them feel secure are exactly the things they need to let go of – and it takes a strong person to do it. Most people can intellectualize through it, or think through it, but they need to behave through it, walk through it, and that is hard work.”

Technorati Tags: wemedia, social media

Newsweek’s looks into the revival of the tech scene thanks to the rise of peer-to-peer poster companies like MySpace and Flickr. While Steven Levy and Brand Stone primarily cover both in the article, their lead-in captures the current state of affairs in a compelling and apocalyptic way for those not with the program:

“What makes the Web alive is, quite simply, us. Our presence, most often conducted at the speed of broadband, is constant and mandatory. Thanks to our activity, the Web has replaced phone books, and is in the process of replacing phones. It’s the place that answers our questions in four tenths of a second and ships us funny clips that mix the “Back to the Future” guys with the “Brokeback Mountain” soundtrack. It’s the main news source for the non-arthritic population, and a megaphone for those who make their own media. As we keep offloading our activities to the Web and adding previously unmanageable or unthinkable new pursuits, it’s fair to say that our everyday exist-ence is a network effect. That has made some splendid opportunities for smart, nimble new companies, and threatened the existence of old ones now afloat in the mainstream.”

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Consumer Generated Content, Web 2.0

Adrants reports on an emerging trend – hiring consumers to live lifestyles that embody brands then report back on their experiences. As this 55DSL gig shows, these are nice jobs if you can get them.

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Consumer Generated Content

The question triggering conversation on the Morph forum this week is around Cheney media storm and the appropriate measures (or lessons) media followers and communicators should take from it. There’s some good thinking being shared, especially David Vinjamuri’s piece on the shooting issue as a metaphor for the bigger story in play. I weighed in on the code-of-conduct broken that triggered the fallout and how that code translates to communicating in online communities. Here’s how it appears on the blog:

Cheney’s PR misfire is a reminder that in times of trouble today, one’s response is often a bigger event than the crisis itself. The Cheney story escalated not only for the absurdity for the situation, but more for the leak to the media and delayed acknowledgment with media that “needs to know.” It was a potentially a couple-day story that’s now becoming a defining moment of Bush’s second term.

Whether you’re in politics, business or being personally scrutinized, the Cheney incident represents a case study in-the-making on the perils of poor crisis management. The reason – his lack of immediate action to brief the media broke the code with the Washington press corps. Now the administration is paying for it.

It’s a timely lesson because the idea of press corps and related codes-of-conduct are no longer relegated to big government, big business and big media. They apply to everyone. Members of blogosphere share similarities with captive press corps, starting with clear expectations on how to operate especially in times of crisis. The code starts with listening and acting fast, then talking candidly, openly and honestly. It ends with outdated thinking around ducking, dragging, spinning, or even worse, lying about the situation at hand.

The margin for error in times of crisis is razor thin, as Dell, Sony DMG and Kryptonite exemplify as defacto, latter-day corporate cases. Learning from these lessons can not only protect your reputation but foster greater respect from the online community following your business. In the world of a nearly omniscient press corps, you’d wise to understand the code, live the code…or die by the code.

Technorati Tags: Blogs, Morph, PR 2.0, social media, crisis management

Jeff Jarvis writes today about the day-in-the-life of Howard Stern’s Howard 100 – the latest comedic news organization making waves. How soon before we’ll look into the day-in-the-life of a comedic PR organization?

Technorati Tags: Social Media, PR 2.0, Howard Stern

The Sunday New York Times’ prolific feature on Bob Greenberg is just that not only for its length – it a huge piece — but for the commentary that reinforces the content of this blog and others following the movement. As head of IPG shop R/GA, Greenberg is viewed as the lead visionary trumpeting a new, technology-driven era for the branding business. Whether you’re sitting in a corporation, ad agency, PR firm or integrated shop, you should listen closely to what he and his clients have to say. Some quotes and attributions you can find in the piece.

“All of the corporations, agencies and marketing professionals who jointly hone and fire off a fusillade of messages across the commercial landscape each day need to overhaul both their organizational structures and how they relate to consumers — particularly the 20-something buyers called “millennials.”

“The Web is not a one-trick pony. The Internet is a new language because it’s not linear. The novel is linear, film is linear, but the Web is not.”

“I think technology is going to wreak havoc on the agency business. Because of advances in technology and communication, we’re surrounded by information we see and hear. Overload is a huge issue.”

“It’s not just that the interactivity and creativity is about commercials, TV and advertising. The development that comes out of it all is about how people interact and communicate. It’s about how they learn.”

“I think things are going to get infinitely more complex. The challenge is about taking things that are infinitely complex and making them simpler and more understandable.”

“Major money is going to be in motion in the next decade and yet no one really understands exactly where it will land, or even if it will land, or just disappear altogether.” (From Verizon Wireless CMO John Stratton, an R/GA client)

“It’s all about one thing: creative problem-solving sponsored by corporations to get the story out.”

Not much else to say…

(But if the Times piece isn’t enough you can read more in a December Business Week feature located here).

Technorati Tags: new media, social marketing, PR 2.0, R/GA