Chad Hurley on the Rise, Acquisition, and Future of YouTube

Social Media is our genre's Industrial Revolution. It is the era of new influencers and the ability for everyday people to share their creativity, expertise, thoughts, ideas, and passions in order to participate in and build a community around common interests.

People are taking their destiny into their own hands and evolving their online, personal or professional, persona and brands online.

While there are many user-generated or people-driven social networks today, none generate the mainstream traffic or exposure possible at YouTube.

It has created stars, launched careers, extended brand reach and resonance, cultivated communities, promoted causes, and even helped politicians garner votes. YouTube has also created an entirely new platform for creating, discovering, sharing, and viewing content that might have otherwise never made it into the public spotlight.

YouTube has inspired an entirely new generation of producers, stars and also marketers with videos earning hundreds of thousands and millions of views and fans in the process. (see below for examples of people who transcended their Internet famous status into real world fame, and hopefully one day, fortune.

The other night, I had the opportunity to attend a private event that was host to a very special speaker, Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube. Hurley shared his experiences from inception to acquisition, and also touched upon the future of YouTube.



I’ll share some of the highlights from his trip down memory lane and also some of his insights and lessons learned along the way.

In the pre-launch days of YouTube, the team was absolutely focused on creating a video startup, but their business model and target markets were unclear. However, they soon realized that they needed to create a video upload site around a community, much in the same way Flickr was enjoying success with photos.

After a few days, the team brainstormed a good name and a memorable and consumer-friendly logo, which Chad actually designed. For those who don’t already know this, Hurley’s background is in design and it’s his attention to detail that provides the necessary perspective to accurately and successfully influence the look and feel, consumer friendliness, and new features implemented at the site.

Everything from the name, logo, and look was about popular culture. And as Hurley put it, “It was a chance to affect people’s lives.”

Like most startups, YouTube employees worked from their homes as well as the token garage that housed many startups over the years – going back to the early days of HP’s path to history.

They employed roughly 8 - 10 dedicated enthusiasts who were working without pay. Hurley told them, “that we’d work it out.” But, more importantly, he shared his tips for inspiring a team, especially a team not earning wages. This is the sweat equity that transforms into a form of real capital.

Chad emphasized, “The team believed in the project and in each other. It was about trust and friendship.”

He also reminded entrepreneurs that the biggest challenge of any startup is to find the right people to build a successful company, “You need a team to work well together to make it a reality. It’s the thing you can’t lose sight of. And, have fun along the way.”

The pains associated with the company’s early days would quickly become stories that they would tell to friends and family (and attendees at conferences) as a distant, but inspiring story.

Once YouTube hit the blogosphere and Slashdot, they never looked back.

Almost immediately, according to Chad, “the team evolved from the garage to working and eating at Sequoia’s office – the company’s initial investor.”

While at Sequoia’s office, YouTube hit one million video views per day.

His story for seeking YouTube’s Series A was fascinating and almost goes against everything entrepreneurs are conditioned to believe and follow.



The company started in January 2005 and closed its first round in November. They opted to bypass angel funding because they needed the level of financing that would help them scale along with the intense requirements that Web video demands.

“We didn’t have a presentation, we had a product and stats,” explained Hurley. “It wasn’t a business idea; it was a solution that we were pitching. We skipped the entire angel process because it was going to be expensive to store all of these videos.“

After making the rounds up and down the infamouse Sand Hill Road, the team secured its first round of $3.5 million through Sequoia and its network of Paypal contacts. This initial round was enough to build out the infrastructure they needed to grow and be successful – for the time being.

I didn’t get a chance to ask, and perhaps if Chad reads this, he can reach out…my question is, did the Paypal connections allows them to cut corners? Obviously, Roelof Botha of Sequoia saw the vision, but what was the response from other VCs? Did they get it or would business plans and presentations have helped bring others onboard? What was the back story on the reaction of others?

As the company grew, the team realized that they might be onto something much bigger. Early on, Nike had a breakout hit with a soccer video. Hurley, Steve Chen and investor Roelof Botha went to Nike HQ in Oregon to talk about it. Although nothing came from the meeting, the team realized that YouTube could play host to commercial solutions in addition to personal use – helping people and brands reach a mass audience.

Concurrently, the team’s resources were focused on creating a community that fostered the discovery and sharing of videos and also protecting or removing the content based on the owner’s rights. Chad mentioned that one of YouTube’s biggest differentiators, a milestone that the press usually misses, is that YouTube was one of the first companies to automate the DMCA process.

While, there are now hundreds of competitors, YouTube has and always will be focused on building solutions for consumers, businesses, the industry, and also the content. They’re dedicated to providing free and legal ways to use content, and as Hurley explained, “Really what it comes down to, what people miss, is that we created a community around video – and it continues to grow to this day.”

As the company grew wildly, so did their reliance on scale, servers, and people. YouTube’s Series B extended the life of the company, but not indefinitely. As the company grew, they were always facing bandwidth, growth, and storage issues. Raising another series of financing later in the company’s lifespan appeared as a less attractive proposition.

Just to give you an idea of the infrastructure required to support a seemingly never-ending onslaught of video, the company today serves hundreds of millions of videos a day and receives over 13 hours of video every minute, and they’re still in the process of growing.

When it came to the state and future of advertising and online video, his honesty was also refreshing. As he pointed out to those wondering about revenue and monetization, Hurley expressed, “The ad market for online video is just developing. YouTube has only been around for three years. Traditional media has had 50+ years to work on its business model. One of the nice things about working with Google, is that we’re on the same page for monetizing content.”

The audience goes where the video is, and that’s why a library of content is critical. It creates and facilitates a network effect. Since its inception, YouTube wanted to build a community that was easy to use, and that philosophy continues today.

The company moved from San Mateo to San Bruno on the day the Google deal was officially announced. A funny little story he shared, is that the press showed up to their old office, allowing them to elude reporters.

What many didn’t realize is that the deal was actually closed within two weeks. It was an important decision to make, and it really came to a head the weekend before it was announced. But they knew it was the right thing to do.

Chad admitted, “I’m not sure any of this would have been possible without Google. Even today, they still let us run things our way, which is how we can keep our culture alive, not only in our office, but in the YouTube video community as well.”

YouTube continues to expand and grow at a blinding pace. The YouTube team, at the very beginning, wanted to create something that would allow people to create a real community around video. But in his own words, “We never anticipated when we started this site we would have such a profound effect on popular culture, that really just by unlocking this video solution and creating this global audience behind what we were doing, we’re really just enabling so many more people to express their views, not only their talents, but to get a message out there, and that’s what really drives us.”



He continued, “What continues to inspire us is that we’re providing an opportunity to prove the experience and express their views, help people monetize content, help candidates in political races, help people make money. We’re supporting and fostering creativity. We’re taking talent to the next level and helping people sign a record contract or a TV deal.”

Hurley provided a brief glimpse into what’s next for YouTube. The company views the community as a platform and through its API program, they plan on making that platform portable and pervasive. The future of online video is the ability to access it across the landscape of popular convergence appliances, such as the iPhone, TIVO, AppleTV, etc.

“We want to make YouTube a super distribution hub for your media, available on every device, around the world, in any language.”

The company is also innovating around its upload API to make it easier for people to share content outside of the PC. One such example is in gaming. The highly anticipated game of the year is Spore, and YouTube integrated its uploader for gamers to capture and upload gameplay directly to YouTube.

“We’re opening it up to expand the experience,” Hurley exclaimed.

Ultimately YouTube is an incredible story, one that is still being written today.

The founders and the team, built a system that relied on the community and as such, provided people with the tools to protect that community. To date, it’s one of the largest proactive communities online. Without content, there would be no community. And, viewers are the enabling force that determines the popularity of that content.

Now employing up to 350 people, the team continues to focus on its original premise. They’re providing solutions for people and businesses to share their stories, visually.

Chad and Steve created a new genre of storytelling, which has influenced the evolution of communities, communications, branding, advertising, broadcast media, and entertainment. It’s changing the game and forcing traditional media to adapt the new rules of engagement that companies such as YouTube, Flickr, and other community-powered networks are creating.

Most importantly, YouTube is leading the way for people to create their own destinies using video. We’re empowered with the tools and the community to express our creativity, thoughts, expertise, ideas, and passions, and with a little luck and strategic marketing, we can cultivate communities around our personal and professional brands.

YouTube, Broadcast Yourself.

People Who Have Leveraged YouTube to Create Their Own Celebrity

Kina Grannis



Marie Digby



Amber Lee Ettinger aka Obama Girl



Jessica Rose aka LonelyGirl15



Tom Dickson of Blendtec aka WillItBlend?



Liam Kyle Sullivan, Shoes



Andy McKee



The Evolution of Dance



OK Go



Chris Crocker



Journey discovers Arnel Pineda through YouTube



Arnel Pineda with Journey on Ellen



See my album on flickr for more pictures from the event or visit bub.blicio.us.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

About Startup2Startup:
Dave McClure lives up to his online persona of the Master of 500 Hats. He’s a successful entrepreneur, angel investor, conference organizer, connector of incredible people, and overall, a tremendous resource to the startup community. The group meets monthly over dinner to discuss relevant topics in technology and entrepreneurship, connect with new people and companies, and most importantly share real world knowledge and experience – successes and failures.

Dave’s latest endeavor, Startup2Startup, is a monthly series of intimate, very exclusive, and incredibly valuable conversation-based dinners.

youtube chad+hurley video viral brian+solis lonelygirl15 pr+2.0 pr2.0 journey arnel+pineda social+media social media media+2.0 media2.0 chris+crocker ok+go the+evolution+of+dance Liam+Kyle+Sullivan willitblend obama+girl obama marie+digsby digg digg+girl girl kina+grannis

Intel Insiders to Advise Intel on Social Media Strategies

You've heard of Intel Inside, the now legendary marketing program that intelligently convinced consumers to make purchasing decisions based on the chip that powered their PCs. Now, I'm proud to introduce the new Intel Insiders program, a new initiative that extends the company's genuine intention of reaching and engaging with people, while freely trusting the brand's future to the very people who can and will shape it.

Not only am I proud to introduce the Intel Insiders program, I'm also humbled to actually be part of the team of advisers to Intel on all things Social Media.

Let this serve as a working standard for other businesses to follow. It's no longer a matter of if, but when. And time isn't slowing for anyone.

The "Intel Insiders" include:

Justin Ezarik, ijustin
Cathy Brooks, Seesmic
Christina Perry, SF Beta, SNAP Summit
Sarah Austin, Pop17
Frank Gruber, Somewhat Frank
J.D. Lasica, Darknet
Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher
Brian Solis, PR 2.0 and bub.blicio.us

We join existing in house Social Media strategists, Chris Heuer and Ken Kaplan.

First, I applaud Intel and the people leading this initiative to embrace social media and intentionally place its technology and reputation into the court of public opinion. Intel is is not an emerging brand by any means. It's a publicly traded, globally influential powerhouse. It could be very easy for Intel to disregard socialized media and rely on a top-down targeted messaging campaign to steer its brand through broadcast distribution channels. It's what big business knows and practices day in and day out.

But, Intel learned a painful and valuable lesson during the early days of Web 1.0 with the release of its Pentium processors.



Sean Maloney, Executive Vice President, General Manager, Sales and Marketing Group
Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Intel explained his experience with us, "Someone posted online that there was something wrong with the product. We didn't grow up online, nobody did - apart from bulletin boards. But, no matter what we did or what we said, we were unable to stop it or keep up with it."

We're talking about the early days of community-powered influence. During the days of The Well and the emergence of services such as Yahoo Groups, everyday people were building what would eventually evolve into powerful, market and policy-changing interest groups. It was during these years when I was inspired to explore the foundation for PR 2.0.



Maloney continued, "I set up our Intel presence online, and in the period of about six-to-eight weeks, we dealt with this constant firestorm of online messages. It was an early lesson that, it's not what you say about you, it's what they say about you. Which really is the social spirit of the Web. It's not what commercial companies says about themselves, it's what everybody says. And, that lesson has sunk through the industry over the years and it's still happening."

Truthfully, this is how most companies are going to learn how to embrace and participate in the social web - out of necessity and usually in the form of crises communication and response.

Sean Maloney and team isn't just stopping with the formation of an advisory board for social strategies. The company is moving nearly all of its advertising and attention away from TV and traditional media into online marketing - and have been shifting money over the last year.

We're talking about the number two executive at the world's largest chipmaker here. And, he sat down with us to genuinely share his mistakes and his aspirations for truly building meaningful relationships online.



Maloney shared his reasons for why we were there, "Where we are today...like everyone else, we've gone for years and years of learning and making mistakes online. About a year ago, we realized that we were wasting our broadcast money. Over the years, the penetration rate of TV ads has continued to drop lower and lower. There's just too much going on [to compete for attention]. So we're taking hundreds of millions of dollars online, and at that level you have to be incredibly involved at a granular level looking at what works, what doesn't work, and how to spend it. That takes you to the social web. As a company, how do you play in that? What's the correct thing to do to be accepted, listened to, influenced? Personally I feel like we're walking in the fog...hopefully you can point us through that fog."

The right social media experts indeed are beacons and lighthouses for navigating intelligently, genuinely, and gracefully through these times where vision and visibility can be greatly impaired and clouded. The Intel Insiders program is also an extension of the Intel voice and spirit and we're free to share insight and information internally and externally, our way...and I believe they'll truly listen.

Intel gets it. They're not rushing into social media blindly. As the company celebrates its 40th anniversary, Intel is strategically observing, listening, and learning. They're also participating. But, they're looking to increase presence online and spotlight innovation, while humanizing the company across the fragmented silos and communities that define the social landscape. It's no easy task, and it will take a whole lot more than blogging, sending tweets, or creating profiles in social networks.

It all starts with listening.

Fellow Intel Insider Tom Foremski captured it well, "I like the calculated risks that Intel is taking by involving some of the top names in the blogosphere and not imposing any restrictions on what we write about. What I like about the Intel Insider program is that it's innovative but it's not about technology -- even though Intel's business is all about innovation in technology."

I'm forever a student of new and socialized media, the sociology that cultivates and shapes online communities, and the dynamics that foster personal brands and relationships. As I recently shared in The Art of Conversation, "We all purport to be social media experts these days, yet most of us are truly students. Many of us overlook some of the most rudimentary elements that define and inspire the socialization of content, especially the social sciences involved with observing the culture, behavior, and conversations within online societies."

As Maloney emphasized, "It's not what you say about you, it's what they say about you."

He's right and it's usually this small, but critical consciousness and inflection point that most companies fail to breath in, accept and embody.

The way I view it...

It’s what you say about you, what they hear, how they share that story, and how you weave that insight into future conversations.

Follow the Intel Insiders on Twitter.

Pictures from the inaugural Insider meeting are on flickr.

Related:

The Essential Guide to Social Media.
The Social Media Manifesto
Cultural Voyeurism and Social Media
Customer Service, The Art of Listening and Engagement Through Social Media

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

social media expert manifesto blog blogger ijustine sean+maloney tom+foremski social+media social+media+expert guide ebook pr public+relations brian solis brian+solis pr2.0 pr+2.0 2.0 guru intel intel+insider insider inside media+2.0 media2.0 branding socialmedia promotion publicity brand marcomm marcom communication

The Art of Conversation - Thoughts and Observations

We all purport to be social media experts these days, yet most of us are truly students. Many of us overlook some of the most rudimentary elements that define and inspire the socialization of content, especially the social sciences involved with observing the culture, behavior, and conversations within online societies.

We're excited, and maybe even obsessed, by the tools. We frantically rush from service to service in an exhausting attempt to keep up with our peers, fearing that we may one day relinquish our position as a leading authority on the subject of all things social. We are edglings, and the membership dues are paid in the form of time, attention, vision, and translation as we bring shiny new objects from the edge to the center.

But, are we losing sight of the guiding principles and teachings that foster meaningful and rewarding relationships simply because we're practically held captive by a never-ending cycle of new and popular social tools? Our thinning attention may be clouding our ability to see the bigger picture.

Suddenly everyone is a social media consultant, yet very few of us are true online sociologists, observers, or genuine conversationalists. The firsthand research and lessons learned in the field are invaluable and definitely tier the experience and expertise of those selling their services. But, just because we're on Twitter and Seesmic, blogging, or uploading Flip videos to YouTube doesn't qualify us social media experts.

It's so much more than the ability to guide companies on how to create fan pages on Facebook, islands on SecondLife, accounts on Pownce or Plurk, and profiles on Bebo or Myspace.

It's the listening, charting social maps, drafting strategies for meaningful engagement, understanding our relevance in the short and long tail, and the definition of metrics and ROI that count for everything to businesses and respective decision makers these days.

- Traffic
- Links
- Trackbacks
- Comments
- Threads
- Registrations
- Referrals
- Sales
- Loyalty

This list provides us with real world, measurable attributes that can be tied to any conversational marketing program, today. We need to start backwards and work our way forward.

I often ask, how do we measure the value of online relationships?

It all starts with defining the attributes for relationships. And, keep in mind, that relationships are bolstered by metrics on both sides as they are only successful when there are mutual benefits.

The real art of conversation is mastered before it even begins. It's the listening that tells us everything. It allows us to identify where are our customers are sharing and discovering information, what are they sharing and how, and how and when to participate. Listeners make the most engaging conversationalists. Listening defines our metrics.

Sharing information isn't the only ante. It's the ability to be genuine, trustworthy, empathetic, and informative. It should go without saying, but it does require words. The art of conversation is rooted in the ability to also humbly spotlight the brilliance of others. Perhaps equally, conversations and relations are also fortified when we can embrace mistakes and apologies.

The art and science of dialog is not only in possessing the aptitude to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the most tempting moment.

As social media and conversational marketing rapidly evolve, let us responsibly help those who look to us for guidance. It's not for everyone and that's alright. Nor will two plans resemble each other. It's the listening and that tell us where to start, how to help and how we can measure the value of conversations.

For more on this subject, please download The Essential Guide to Social Media.

Related:

The Social Media Manifesto
Cultural Voyeurism and Social Media
Free ebook: Customer Service, The Art of Listening and Engagement Through Social Media

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

social media expert manifesto social+media social+media+expert guide ebook pr public+relations brian solis brian+solis pr2.0 pr+2.0 2.0 media+2.0 media2.0 branding socialmedia promotion publicity brand marcomm marcom communication

The Essential Guide to Social Media - A Free eBook

I’ve been involved with Social Media since the beginning and the more I work, write, and speak, the more I learn. Over the years I’ve observed a series of questions and reactions that I’ve documented along the way and have actively included them in my posts, ebooks, contributions, as well as at my speaking appearances. Over the last year, I’ve assembled the most commonly asked questions and the answers into a free, downloadable ebook as a way of contributing to this active social community that has so graciously shared knowledge, insight, and experience.

The Essential Guide to Social Media is a "quick start" overview of how to listen and participate in social media and new media marketing.

I hope this helps you and please let me know if there’s anything missing so I can be sure to include it in the next version.

The content from the ebook is below and you also can download a Word or PDF file on Scribd or Docstoc.

---

The Essential Guide to Social Media

An executive outline of Social Media tools and resources needed to listen and participate, guiding PR, Customer Service, Product Development, and Marketing

Introduction - The State of Social Media and Business Marketing

We live in interesting times. We’re currently enthralled in an immersive, confusing, and definitive transition in our “day job.” If you don’t engage, your competition will. This session will help you become a Social Media sociologist and participant observer, not a cultural voyeur, in order to get to work and build relationships along the way.

Question: If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?

Indeed. Conversations are taking place with or without you.

If you’re not part of the conversation, then you’re leaving it to others to answer questions and provide information, whether it’s accurate or incorrect. Or, even worse, you may be leaving it up to your competition to jump in to become the resource for the community. Yes, there will be negative comments. Yes, you’ll invite unsolicited feedback. Yes, people will question your intentions. Negativity will not go away simply because you opt out of participating. Negative commentary, at the very least, is truly an opportunity to change the perception that you did or didn’t know existed.

Many companies are participating in social networks as a form of proactive outbound customer service with a twist of social marketing such as…

- Zappos

- JetBlue

- Southwest

- H&R Block

- Dell

- Wine Library

- Freshbooks

They’re engaging customers on their turf, in their way, in order to help them solve problems, find information or simply engage them in valuable dialog. In turn, they’re turning customer relationships into a powerful competitive advantage.

It’s breaking new ground and it’s setting a new standard.

Engaging with and empowering your customers as an extension of your marketing efforts isn't new. However, in the era of Social Media, there are new tools and philosophies to more effectively listen and engage with customers and in turn…

- Cultivate a more significant community

- Enhance your brand

- Build relationships

- And, create evangelists along the way.

Participation is marketing.

Intention is everything.

And, actions speak louder than words.

However, marketing needs to be clarified as I am not referring to the traditional marketing that typically "speaks" at “target audiences” through "messages."

In Social Media, this is about dialog, two way discussions that bring people together in order to discover and share information. Joining the conversation isn't as simple as jumping in however.

Social Media Tools

If you’ve ever walked into the tool section of any hardware superstore, you’ll be more than inundated with options.

There are tools for everything, more than we knew – with more introduced every week.

Let’s not forget that these tools serve a purpose, some general, while others more specific.

- You wouldn’t show up to fix a hole in the wall with everything in the store.

- You bring what you need and you learn how to use them.

With Social Media, there are more tools than you can possibly imagine and quite honestly, more than you can ever or should ever use.

We assess the tools based on our objectives and the conversations that are taking place.

- We don’t just start using everything because they’re shiny, new, slick, or popular.

We embrace only the tools that facilitate conversations between the people we want to reach, where they’re taking place.

- The rest is about Social Science and the art of nurturing discussions and relationships.

Social Media is About Social Science and Not Technology

Social Media is much more than user-generated content.

It’s driven by people in the communities where they communicate and congregate.

They create, share, and discover new content without our help right.

They’re creating vibrant and rich cultures across online networks and using the social tools that we learn about each and every day to stay connected.

- Any social network is a melting pot of various cultures.

What are the Social Sciences?

Social sciences provide us with an understanding of how human interaction and the ensuing ecosystem shape individual attitudes and behavior.

Sociology is the study of human social behavior, especially the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society.

- Observation of cultures, people, and the dynamics of interaction.

- The recognition of people independently from the tools is an important reminder that their interests are at the center of what we do.

Sociologists study society and social action by examining the groups and social institutions people form.

Anthropology is the scientific study of people, including the development of societies and cultures.

Ethnography is the study of people in their natural or "native" environments—where they live, work, shop, and play.

- In many cases, it is an ethnographer (or someone following in the guiding principles of ethnography) who observes a community to learn the socio-cultural behavior and interaction to hopefully become accepted by the community and in turn, engage as a true member of the desired digital society.

Margaret Mead is known for championing a style of anthropological research called participant observation.

Participant-Observation Fieldwork - When Margaret Mead studied in the field, she set out to both observe people and also participate in the life of the community. It was her belief that it was the only way to more fully understand the culture. Participant-Observation fieldwork is a hallmark of contemporary anthropology.

Social Sciences and Social Media

In Social Media, communities take the form of social networks and the communal groups within them.

People establish associations, friendships, and allegiances around content, objects, products, services, and ideas.

How they communicate is simply subject to the tools and networks that people adopt based on the influence of their social graph – and the culture within.

- Cultures are different and unique within each social network and the groups that define them.

Through social sciences, we’re learning to peel back the layers of our target demographics to see the people underneath.

It reminds us that we need to humanize our story.

- We would never speak to our friends and family through messages, so why should we speak “at” the very people we want to reach and befriend?

We’re opening our ears and our minds to acknowledge that we can no longer push our impressions upon people in order to earn resonance

We have to listen, talk, listen again, assess, and contribute value – as if we were citizens of each respective community we wished to join.

Differences Between Listening and Research

By listening, reading, and participating, brand marketers have an opportunity to make their brands more approachable and shareable than ever before.

Most Social Media Marketing initiatives have started with the tools first…

- Brands opt to engage using the most popular tools and networks to attract relationships instead of going to where their existing or prospective customers are congregated.

- They didn’t observe or listen prior to jumping in.

Many have incorrectly viewed the process of social media as “build it and they will come.”

Companies simply create profiles on Facebook and Myspace, accounts on Twitter, uploaded videos to YouTube and images to flickr, and simply hoped for a mass wave of friending and interaction.

- We can’t simply walk into a public square or park, plant a sign behind us with our name, interests and affiliations and expect real people to come up to us for meaningful and long-term dialog.

- This is the equivalent of setting up camp next to a village because you have the tools to do so and expecting the village to integrate you into their society.

Conversational marketing requires observation, which will dictate your engagement strategies.

It starts with a combination of social and traditional tools to discover, listen, learn, and engage directly with customers.

- It helps us find where the conversations are truly taking place.

- The goal is to help them make decisions and also do things that they couldn’t, or didn’t know how to do, before.

- Build relationships through conversations without objectives.

It’s about gathering intelligence.

It removes the tendency to “market at” people and instead naturally shapes a more honest, meaningful, and informative approach.

It helps us humanize our story in order to create loyalty and earn customer business and ultimately their respect.

Social Media Voyeurs

Many marketers are merely engaging in cultural voyeurism at best

They look from afar and roam the perimeters of online societies without ever becoming a true member of any society.

They don’t truly understand what, where, or why they’re “participating,” only jumping in because they have something to say and have access to the tools that will carry their messages into play.

This like someone standing on top of a table during a cocktail party shouting marketing statements at the party in the hopes that it may inspire, compel, or resonate with someone to start a series of healthy and spirited conversations that extend the intended messages.

- Instead, the only conversation it’s starting is propelled by disbelief and/or anger for interrupting the dynamic of the interaction and the flow of dialog that was already underway.

The Breakup – A Comedic View of One-sided Relationships

Video Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DkOHsjZKBB0

There’s a popular short video circulating the Web that demonstrates the marketing stereotype of taking through messages without listening directly to the needs of the customer.

The video spotlights a young couple dining at a local restaurant where he represents The Advertiser and she The Consumer.

The scenario plays out with the woman raising concerns over their relationship, specifically complaining that “he” never listens to her, nor does he really understand her wants and needs.

As she continues to share examples of his one-sided behavior, he responds with witty, one-liner messages that paint a very vivid, and familiar picture of how brands usually approach relationships.

In one telling scene, the Advertiser proclaims he cares by referencing a big television ad, a print campaign and even a billboard in Times Square which “was like a 200 foot tall declaration of love.”

When the Consumer tells the Advertiser that she has changed and he hasn’t, the advertiser responds with “coupons!”

After being told that he knows nothing about her, the Advertiser says “I know everything about you. You are 28-34, Your online interests include music, movies and laser hair removal. You have a modest but dependable disposable income.”

The Advertiser merely continues to speak at the customer ignoring her complaints and concerns, behaving as he always has.

This is a representation of how not to engage in Social Media – but it unfortunately happens every day.

Relationships require more than one person and definitely offer benefits to all parties involved.

You can’t manage a relationship, you need to be a part of it, fully engaged.

By embracing the social science in Social Media, we can not only observe social behavior and engage with our peers, but also keep communities intact and unaffected by traditional marketing.

The customer comes first, and if we fuse sociology, social media, customer service, relationship marketing, experiential marketing, and traditional marketing, we’re creating a new formula for outbound influence and fueling a new generation of brand ambassadors and loyalists.

Getting to Work…

Observation

The true form of observation starts with just that, observation.

It’s the listening and monitoring that tells us everything.

We’ll learn:

- Where the relevant conversations are taking place

- Who’s participating

- What they’re saying and the tone of the discussions

- The specific information they’re looking for

- Impressions and conceptions

- The patterns of behavior within specific communities

Important Next Steps

Identify who your customers are and where they go for information.

Search for key words: Product and Company names as well as competitors and their products and services.

Please don’t forget the relationships that exist in the real world.

- They're also indispensable for providing the feedback and insight you now and later.

Social Tools for Listening

There are many tools available to us for listening, both free and those that require subscriptions, which will reveal the conversational hubs that require our attention.

At the moment, the tools are mostly specific to each category of social media as well as specific networks.

Social Bookmarks

Ma.gnolia

Delicious

Diigo

StumbleUpon

Crowdsourced Content

Digg

Yahoo Buzz

Mixx

Hubdub

Reddit

Newsvine

Blogs/Conversations

Google Alerts

Blogpulse

Radian6 (paid)

BuzzLogic (paid)

Ask.com

Google Blog Search

Technorati

Blog Communities

Blogged.com

MyBlogLog

BlogCatalog

Bloglines

CoComment

Tangler

Micromedia

FriendFeed

Pownce

Tumblr

Seesmic

Jaiku

Plurk

Utterz

Pinger

Jott

Kwiry

Twitxr

Specific to Twitter:

Tweetscan

Hashtags.org

Summize

Twemes

TwitterLocal

Social Networks

MySpace

Bebo

Facebook

Niche Networks

Ning

Plaxo

LinkedIn

CrowdVine

Location

TripIT

Dopplr

BrightKite

TwitterLocal

Live Video and Audio

Ustream

Justin.tv

Veodia

BlogTV

Kyte

Qik

BlogTalkRadio

Customers Service Networks

YahooGroups

GoogleGroups

GetSatisfaction

Yelp

Video

YouTube

Metacafe

Blip

Viddler

Video Aggregation

Magnify.net

Pictures

Flickr

Zooomr

Smugmug

Documents

ThinkFree Docs

Scribd

Docstoc

Creating a Social Map

By searching for keywords in each of these communities, we can create a detailed blueprint for engagement. Here’s an example of the communities I identified that were important to my personal brand as determined by my research and listening.

Immersion

Sociology isn’t simply relegated to observation, it encourages and requires full immersion.

Once you’ve outlined the targeted conversations and who should engage, the process of participation craves a very human approach.

- It starts with respect.

- Participate as a person, not as a marketer, sales person or message factory.

- Be helpful and bring value to the conversation.

- During this entire process, you’re contributing to the personality and the perception of the brand you represent.

-- It’s the only way to earn their respect in return and hopefully their business and loyalty.

- Remember, the lessons learned in the field should in turn be fed into the marketing, customer service, product development, sales, and executive departments.

-- This inspires more intelligent, experienced, and real world initiatives across all forms of marketing, PR, sales, service, and advertising.

Any sociologist will tell you that the best way to truly “go native” in a new culture or society is through immersion.

- However, they’ll caution you on several things.

-- Don’t be naive, don’t be ignorant, and don’t get too immersed where you lose your perspective and value.

Becoming the Customer

In life, you are also customers.

- You buy things.

- You complain about products and services you don’t like.

- You recommend those that you love.

You have to be a customer to think like a customer.

You have to have experienced the product or service your represent in order to be empathetic, knowledgeable, and genuine.

We’ve all heard that in Social Media, we can’t control the message.

- To some extent, we can’t control perception, but we can help steer it.

Be helpful and ensure that your solutions and benefits are clear in a way that can be understood by the different demographics of users that populate your markets.

They need to hear things differently across each segment, from the head, to the long tail across every chasm in between.

It’s not just about the masses, but the niche markets as well.

The importance of engagement is to ensure that you engage on their terms according to the rules, and culture, across each community.

Be the people you want to help.

Resources – Personnel and Budgets

Based on the research results, you can measure:

- The average frequency of relevant conversations

- Identify the more active hubs and communities

- The context of the conversations in order to determine time and variety of resources required (a community manager is required at the very least.)

The formula is calculated this way:

- The number of average relevant conversations per day per community.

- Multiplied by the quantity of relevant communities

- Multiplied by 20 (minutes required to research and respond and also monitor for additional responses), variable +/- dependent on the case, usually +

- Divided by 60 (minutes)

- Equals the amount of time required and in turn, the resources and associated costs required depending on internal labor or external consulting fees

Throughout the research process, you’ll undoubtedly see that relevant conversations occur across disparate networks.

- They’re representative of a sweeping variety of related topics

- They require varying responses

- And, they usually map to specific departments within your organization (those most qualified to respond)

-- Marcom

-- Product management

-- Customer service

-- PR

-- Executive management, etc.

Keep a pulse on relevant conversations.

Feed them, intelligently, to the right people internally.

Guide them on the required response.

Follow-up to ensure that the interaction is more meaningful and helpful

- Distribute the responsibility across existing resources.

Establishing Policies and Guidelines

Understand that whether they know it or not, everyone within the organization contributes to the public perception of the company brand.

Create communication policies and guidelines for all personnel, not just those tasked with participating in social media.

- There are examples and tips online, review them for inspiration and also adapt what works specifically for your organization.

Get IT involved as in many cases, popular social networks are blocked at the firewall.

Craft outlines and determine response strategies based on a series of predictable scenarios.

Assign leads for listening and responding.

Training and education bring things into perspective for everyone.

- Share examples of how to do it right and also circumstances where a variety of scenarios didn’t pan out ideally.

-- Note how they were or weren’t corrected.

-- One of the best lines I’ve heard when thinking about establishing guidelines is “don’t be stupid.”

Your Personal Brand

Even though you’re representing other brands, your personal brand is also a factor in Social Media.

- It is sculpted and shaped by your online activity.

Determine upfront, whether you are participating as “you” or as “you@company name.”

- Either way, be transparent in your engagement.

Beware the things you share on social networks.

- Realize that everything you share online can be used against you, usually when you least expect it.

- Everything you upload, say, tweet, comment, post, etc., is usually indexable and discoverable through traditional search engines.

- It can positively or negatively affect the company you represent.

Use this as an opportunity to demonstrate and build thought leadership, value, and expertise.

- Google is the new resume.

- Knowledge and relationships are portable.

Summary

At the end of the day, we’re all people and thus we should approach conversations as such.

It may seem like common sense, but as classically trained marketers, we tend to approach these things with our marketing hat on.

- It’s the difference between authentic conversations and one-sided talking “at” people similar to the examples above.

Conversations are feeding communities and communities are markets for relationships.

- Relationships need cultivation and value from both sides in order to grow into something of value and longevity.

Relationships are the new currency in Social Media.

In a social world, engagement is a privilege.

- Friendship, trust and loyalty are the rewards.

In Social Media, we earn the relationships, and the reputation, we deserve.

Additional Resources

Society for New Communications Research – www.sncr.org
SocialMediaClub – www.socialmediaclub.com
Gooruze – www.gooruze.com
Marcom Professional – www.marcomprofessional.com
Now is Gone – www.nowisgone.com
Sphinn – www.sphinn.com
Junta42 – www.junta42.com
Free ebook: Customer Service - The Art of Listening and Engagement Through Social Media

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.


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