Ground Zero Memorial

Now that the frenzy has passed. I feel comfortable to publish these thoughts.

This is my story and it can as well be yours.

It’s been ten years since I am glued to the news.
Ten years since I check with religious regularity news websites, aggregators, feeds, alerts. I feel as I am one of the first people on the planet to find out when major events happen. Fortunately (or unfortunately for my maniac dependency on news) the kind of news that gets your heart pumping only happens every couple months.

I have seen the rise and fall of many social networks.Most have gone, some are still here. And still, every time I open CNN I expect it to have crashed or only to have a simple html feed.

The seed was planted that day. That tragic day made us act as one in shock, disgust, heroism and brotherhood. Ten years later, the need for people to communicate in real time, openly and across all boundaries has become a turning point of the economy and it is changing the face of civilization.

Today I am fortunate enough to have a place I can call home: Manhattan, New York (as well as one in Montreal, Canada). The profound need for social media came on that ill-fated day, September the 11th 2001. That was the day our humanity shivered and embraced the web in the most extraordinary effort to communicate and connect.

We are human because we care for the weak and the unfortunate. We are human because when we are hit and fall down, we stand up and keep on walking. We are human because when we are hurt the whole planet sheds a tear.

We are human because we are New Yorkers.

Larry "Kickass" Page conquers social

Everybody is bitching about “Not another social network, I already have 5 to update”.

Imagine having one social network that combines Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Email, Groupon, Pictures, Search, Analytics, Readers, your Entreprise network, blog, and some other cool features. All while being privacy oriented and giving you complete power over your data.

Too good to be true? Welcome to Google +.

Gosh, not another Google + retarded post. Don’t read if you want to find out about Google+ features. Just Google them.

A couple premises: Google is a love brand, a trust brand and a smart brand. Its brand equity is substantial. In this context launching a new product is always easy. Now the company has to deliver.

With G+, Google is bringing a much needed breath of fresh air into the social media sphere. Here are a couple points I find interesting to mention after a couple weeks of using G+.

1. With the launch of G+ Google could prevent the social media bubble.
In the past 2 weeks Facebook probably lost about $20B in market cap. In 2012 competing with a year old G+, Facebook will not be able to IPO at $80B.
Suddenly every other social network is worth less than in June 2011.

2. G+ brings back on track the social media paradigm
Soon, social media data will be unlocked making it very easy to gather business intelligence and integrate services. Of course there are other social networks that use this philosophy but none have the reach to make an impact on the social media paradigm like Google does.
This is the promise of social media: connectivity, serendipity, ubiquitous communication everything supported and guaranteed by an open marketplace.
Google+ brings everything back on track.

3. Search is still the king
For all intensive purposes, Google owns the web. Adding the +1 button to the search results will shift SEO strategies into new, open and transparent territories. G+ feed is RSS ready, your content is as public and searchable as you desire, bringing new possibilities in content sharing, indexing and improving advertising targeting.

4. Who should be working harder?

Facebook: They wanted to become the next MySpace… Now this is their chance. When people love your product don’t fuck with them. Or they will grab a glass of wine and pitchfork marshmallows over your burning company. Again, it’s all about perception of arrogance and not giving in to consumer privacy groups, etc. Facebook people are awesome, we just have some brand work to do and stop listening to old school marketing boomers.

Twitter, Foursquare, Groupon: G+ just does it better. Google Offers, Places, Maps, Hotpot, G+. If all of these will become intelligently integrated it can conquer the local market.

Linkedin: G+ offers a very simple way to organize and contact people. 3rd party APIs will allow adding layers of intelligence and communication that have the potential to make the professional network obsolete. This is great news since now Likedin has the capital to invest into interface improvements and innovate a bit on the business model side.

Apple: Open web vs Closed web. The market share of Android is more than double of that of iOS and it will only get bigger. Nevertheless Apple is a very smart company with a lot of cash in hand. Very often Apple will test consumers with the closest posible option then it starts opening it up. So I am not very worried about them.

5. It’s not only about technology and innovation.

Too much innovation kills products. Larry brought Google back to basics. Simple, greatly intuitive interfaces or already in use by other products.

6. Engagement, new connections, recommendations

Anybody who used G+ will tell you. The engagement of this network is unprecedented. It goes beyond Twitter, Facebook and any other network. Users have the chance to start anew with hundreds of new connections (the Facebook friends list will naturally be built over time, same with Linkedin). If there is one thing other social networks should envy is this crazy engagement and the possibility of creating private lists (circles).

7. Content

On G+ anything goes. Period.

8. Integration

The secret lies in the integration of all Google’s products. It is a difficult game, dropping products that are loved in order to create a consistent social media network. Google is known for not being good at integrating their core products with new ones. The G+ launch success probably made them realize that there is a great need in the market and that users want Google to answer it. Now they only have to deliver and to not disappoint.

Conclusion

G+ is the shit and you should definitely try it.

Building a successful social network is hard. And finally Google seem to have a chance of making one. There are plenty of variables that can change the outcome of our analysis, however one thing is clear: the King of the web is back and is about to conquer social.

Oh, here is my G+ account: http://gplus.to/joker. Circle me!

Dos And Donts Of A Group-Buying Deal

This is a small series I prepared for our clients at Rock&Social. It is not necessarily news but it might help you get some insights. Make sure you read Socially Local Series: 1. What Is The Deal With Group-Buying Deals?

Here are a couple points to take into account if you are thiking of getting a Groupon deal for your local business.

DOS AND DON’T WHEN YOU ARE GETTING A GROUP-BUYING DEAL

1. Know your numbers: make sure you understand and calculate exactly how much money you will be making or losing.

2. Don’t treat your deal consumers as second class clients. And if you do want to fill up specific time slots be very explicit about it. Don’t ask your deal clients to mention the coupon just so you can give them unwanted tables or later time slots (‘gravy’ as one restaurant owner is calling the 9pm service).

3. Be on your best game. A group deal is like an open house. You need to have exquisite customer service. Everything must look impecable. Prepare your supply chain for the amount of new orders. Staff up.

4. Be ready to build your social brand community. A group deal is an investment. Set up all the tools to build a brand community. Don’t just expect your customers to come back. Make sure all the tools are in place to acquire repeat customers. Have your Facebook page well managed, referenced. Have your newsletter ready. Have in-store call-to-actions for your clients to join your online community and stay in touch via newletters, etc.

5. Take extreme care of your current consumers. No one wants to see their favorite restaurant flocked by strangers who don’t understand the vibe and who create a crappy experience for everyone. Inform current clients of the ongoing deal and explain what you are doing to keep the same quality of service during the promotion.

6. Follow up / Lessons learned. Make sure you have a way to sample and contact your new clients. Learn from this experience.

Group-buying deals and the art of money getting

This is a small series I prepared for our clients at Rock&Social. It is not necessarily news but it might help you get some insights.

WE WANT LOCAL

Everybody and their brother wants to go local. Small local businesses are under extreme pressures from various marketing and software companies.

WHO IS CALLING YOU?

So, you have a small local business and suddenly you start receiving dozens of calls / emails / letters a week . Who’s calling you?

• Group deal companies (Groupon, LivingSocial, etc)
• Yellowpages – They are constantly expanding their services to keep control of the local business niche
• Social software companies: Automatic lead-generation + some social media: tool detecting local conversation and presence via social networks (à la Twitter, Foursquare, FB Places)
• Social media consultants – freelancers – set up your Facebook page, start a contest, etc.
• Marketing agencies (traditional, digital, social media)
• PR agencies
• Other snake oil salesmen

GROUP BUYING: SOME BASICS

The group buying companies come at you with a very interesting deal: “Give us an agressive discount and we’ll use our network to sell hundreds and even thousands of your products. We’ll split the revenu and cut you a check.”

Exemples: Groupon, Living social

What are they offering? To sell thousands of your discounted products or services in exchange for a percentage of the order (15 – 50%)

What’s in it for you?: Get a cheque of a couple thousand $, get a bunch (couple hundred to 1-2 thousands) of new customers

WHAT TYPE OF CLIENTS A GROUP BUYING DEAL BRINGS YOU?

1. Consumers who are only looking for deals and don’t really care about the quality. These clients will likely not come back.
2. A few of will also be current clients who just already appreciate your business. However a bad review or experience outscores a good one. So, always give your customers the best experience. How can you be on your best game when you know you are not really making money?

Nobody ever likes to pay full price once they paid 50% off. The experience must be exquisite and the client must really be in love with your brand in order to have a repeat sale.

A SIMPLE BUSINESS CASE

Let’s do some analysis in order to determine what’s the worth of a group buying deal.

Say you sell a service for $20.
Give group-buying deal: 50% discount
Your deal sels 1.000 items for $10 = $10.000
Your group buying partner gets 30% = $3.000.
You receive a cheque for $7.000 and a 1.000 pending orders.

Service industries are notorious for having razor thin profit margins. But let’s assume your business makes 20% net profit on a $20 service.

Regular pricing:
Sale of $20 / item => Profit: $4 per item => $4.000 profit per 1.000 items (service at-cost all expenses included = $16)

After group deal:
Sale of $7 / item => Loss: $9 per item = ($9.000) loss per 1.000 items.

You just invested $9k. Of course having the fast cash has its benefits and it could be an operational lifeline. Nevertheless, at the end of the exercice you put extreme strain on your business and employees and you dealt with an unprecedented number of clients. You could also see this investment as a marketing cost. However, there might be better ways to spend $9k marketing budget.

Of course, you can play with the numbers and get an appropriate estimation for your business.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series. Socially Local Series: 2. Do And Donts When You Are Getting A Group-Buying Deal For Your Local Business

Creativity as a gimmick

Our bullshit detector gets better and better. Transparency slowly but surely takes more and more space in our communications, politics, business and pretty much in any other social endeavors.

However gimmicks still work. The tail is very long… with believers in magic and empty promises.

There was a time when advertising was based on strong metrics and sales. Creativity was a way of bringing new perspective into buying a product and engaging with a brand.

Slowly but surely, design companies start to call themselves communication agencies. Creative agencies. Many completely ignoring the first goal of advertising, that of creating a strong enough persuasion so that it will generate a sale and a consumer relationship.

It is funny how most of the creative minds in advertising despise sales. Many very often will consider themselves some sort of working class heroes. Artists changing the world from the inside by working for the man.

Most creative agencies will organize themselves in associations, give each other awards and recognitions, will make cute videos, pretty websites, funny social media campaigns with no interest whatsoever in generating sales.

For a creative agency, experience always beats function. Especially in digital marketing. There is an exacerbated focus on generating intent through nauseous experiences. To the extent that harvesting intent through functional interfaces is regarded as a disgrace.

There is no cynicism nor shame in advertising a product in order to generate sales. Of course as long as it respects the written and ethical rules of the game.

Everything is measurable. Notoriety included. Or consumer engagement. Nevertheless this is the loophole creative agencies use in order to avoid being held accountable. Many argue that it is almost impossible to calculate the impact of their campaign on a brand, besides the basic unanalyzed Google Analytics.

Everything is measurable.

The most simple models are sometimes the most creative. For instance a pay-per-success model brings money, consumers and sales at the center of the advertising objectives.

As more and more people develop their bullshit detector, creativity as a gimmick will slowly fade away and creativity in generating results will become the norm.

Please share your opinion.

Leonard Doroftei vs Paul Spadafora, 2003

Seven years ago, I was managing the interactive communication of Leonard Doroftei who was fighting for the Montrealer club Interbox. In may 2003 I was in Pittsburgh for the WBA/IBF lightweight title unification bout, a match transmitted live on HBO. As usual, I was sitting next to the ring taking random photos for the website.

It is an indescribable feeling to sit with the elbows on the bouncing ring, feeling the two fighters hit, swear and to have droplets of blood and sweat land on your hands.

Doroftei was known for his careless-big-hearted Rocky-style, that usually left him bloody but winning the match.

During the fight, one of the official photographers pushes me slightly on a side and with a raised voice says: “Move over kid, I’m working here!“.

This phase stuck with me through the years.

I have the greatest respect for those with serious work ethic. Those who just want to be left to do their job; whether it is a cab driver trying to cut me off on the highway, a bartender who does not have time for my stories, an employee who over-delivers or a competitor who pushes hard to win a contract.

Are you ready to say: “Move over kid, I’m working here!“?

Social media to the rescue!

CORPORATIONS VS CONSUMERS

Corporations are built around consumers. And naturally, consumers expect brands to revolve around them. However, many brands have consistently avoided, or fought hard to minimize, any contact with consumers.

Consumer communications channels have always been limited. The few ways consumers could communicate with a brand were at the point-of-sale or though dedicated customer support phone lines.

For the past few decades, brands have been outsourcing their customer support to call centers. The message was simple: buy our product and then we’ll ignore you until we need to sell something else.

With the arrival of the Internet, other technological consumer support channels have been opened in the form of email, chat support and forums.

Invariably, the Internet allowed consumers to organize around specific interests and niches, often in ways that were separate from the brand. In these cases, the brand cannot control or lead the conversation, but simply participate.

HERE COMES SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media tools are products resulting from the basic human need to communicate, interact and play. We can safely say that given technological frameworks such as the Internet, humans will start to form communities based on similarities and interests.

For a brand, a social media presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare is necessary. Why? Because everybody else is present: consumers, potential customers and competitors.

Suddenly, a customer-centric approach began to arise. Ten years ago, consumer support and engagement were seen as an expense to eliminate and outsource. Now, brands are struggling to internalize community creation and management and other social media practices. Brands want to talk to their customers and keep them engaged.

Having a strong brand community has become a great asset for any brand. A brand community allows the gathering of detailed business intelligence, effective new product launches and consumer acquisition and support.

CAN YOUR BUSINESS ADAPT?

With or without you, social media and customer-centric business is inevitable. Your customer-centric approach can no longer be limited to your mission statement. The bipolar approach – ‘talk to us on Facebook but we’ll ignore you on the phone’ – will only alienate your consumers and open a door for more consumer-centric competitors.

The strongest competitive advantage a brand can have is an engaged brand community – an army of evangelist consumers, whether satisfied or not. And if your business is scared of unsatisfied consumers, then your product is not good enough and misleading. Period. And still, unsatisfied consumers will help you improve and optimize your product and processes. You can no longer ignore this.

And that’s not all. A consumer-oriented business approach takes into account not only individual consumers, but also their environment. Social responsibility, authenticity and transparency are the glue that holds your brand community together.

Siloes will need to become more permeable, your communications will be more authentic, your products will improve, your brand community will grow, your business will gain and your stockholders will rejoice!

For once, it’s good to be good. Walking the talk has never been cooler.

–

I would love to hear your point of view on the Consumer-Oriented Economy.

—
[This article has originally been published in the Industry Trends section of Uranium Interactive's newsletter.]

Is it really up to you?

YOUR CHOICE

You shouldn’t allow anyone to choose in your place. Ever.

Everything you ever did can be traced back to some decision. Got late for a meeting, you decided to sleep longer. Failed an exam, you decided to enter a too difficult program or not to study enough. Got stuck in a boring and repetitive life, you decided not to act.

Because of course, choosing not to choose it’s a choice in itself.

EXISTENTIALISM AND INDECISIONS

There is nothing genuinely wrong with being undecided. However, understanding that the decision is yours will help you assume your condition and understand your playing field. On a side-note, this is what philosophical existentialism is all about. (You’re free to choose, thus you’re responsible. Assume yourself and deal with it. And since we’re not robots, through human condition, existential anguish and despair become inevitable. Crying or laughter is a matter of courage.)

DECISIONS TO OPEN OR RESTRAIN YOUR POSSIBILITIES

I see two types of decisions. The ones that open your possibilities and those that restrain them.

You might think that the decisions that open your possibilities are the ones challenging social norms.
Physical and social environment crafted the human beings as we are today. Thus the most freedom you’ll get is by understanding the social norms and deciding to play inside the field to your advantage. This approach will help you detect the cracks in the system that will make you change it (should you really want to do that).

Decisions that restrain your possibilities are basically everything you’re doing right now, and you did your whole life. Going to school, having friends, getting married, having kids, getting a dog, joining an online community, liking a specific band or reading this post. Again there is nothing wrong with getting tangled in social connections, because at the end of the day we, humans, got to evolve through social experiences. And when you get too tangled, and your possibilities are too restrained, you must look from the outside and reverse some past decisions.

It’s that easy, if you have the courage. Yes, and it’s never a better time than now.

P.S. And maybe you shouldn’t forget to play nice because everybody has the same issues as you.

Stories For Adults

Here is another secret.

Adults are a bunch of scared puppies. They might talk louder, but their back hurts. They have trouble sleeping. Stomach pain. Their neck is always tensed. They are always stressing out about stuff. They find in money the only way out. Every adult has a boss. Especially those who say they don’t have one. Adults are by definition not virtuous. Even if they all prone virtue. All they’re saying is ‘Don’t be like me.’ They all steal, lie, envy, cheat, cry, and all are afraid to die.

Adults create stories in desperate efforts to escape reality. Then they convince themselves that those stories are real. They all want to believe that their life has more meaning than simple survival.

Adults will teach you to be afraid of the unknown. Adults will teach you that history matters.

They are all tangled in relationships they don’t want to be in. They are exhausted. Ready to snap.

Most adults don’t enjoy life. They despise it. And still they cling to it.

Kids. Be smart. Live your life. Don’t burn it. Stay a kid.

Born to rock

We were born to rock.

You owe me a beer.

Unhappy Strikers Gonna Strike (source?)

If the nature of your business is changing, your business must change. As I’ve mentioned in Social Media and the Age of Agile Business Modeling, Social media is one of the forces pressuring the classical business concepts. Moreover, these days the nature of the corporation is in question.

An agile business model is incomprehensible in today’s diluted MBA business culture.

Imagine a business that offers evolving products and services where customer support is sometimes provided by the PR department or the product innovation is brought in by the community manager.

Imagine a business with fluid products servicing its customers throughout their lifespan, instead of being always stuck in a 18-34 niche.

Imagine a nimble corporation strictly focused on servicing the consumer, period.

Imagine a corporation that does not have to bullshit every time it launches a product.

Imagine a corporation that focuses on servicing and genuinely helping the consumer. A corporation that will always be a service provider, even if it sells products.

Imagine a corporation that consumers feel part of, that they genuinely love and protect.

Imagine a corporation with no structural historical loads. A corporation where a smart, well intended and consumer oriented employees can make a change.

Imagine a corporation that by its very nature cannot be stuck in the past.

Imagine a corporation that is no longer a corporation. An organized structure able to morph into whatever the consumer needs.

This might seem complicated, childish and unpractical. However, how complicated, childish and unpractical is to chain an organic ecosystem and species in stables and wooden prisons. The profound nature of business is to serve and improve life. Because what is wealth than an improvement of living standard for all? The technological interconnectivity is too widespread to continue to assume that wealth is the consequence of class tensions. Time has come for a change of paradigm. The current corporate system cannot be improved anymore. We can only go as far with 300 year old technology. Why wouldn’t this be the case for the corporate structure?

The age of knowledge and creativity is over. It is time to adapt and evolve. Time has come for structural changes in the ways we build and manage corporations. Customer first philosophy will only create consumer and corporate wealth and wellbeing if corporations fundamentally change their operating structure towards an agile and adaptive model.

Corporations are made by the consumers.

Ken Leee Tulibu Dibu Douchoo

You might think we live in accelerated times.

BUSINESS SILOS
Traditionally businesses have been organized in silos. Innately there is nothing wrong with the division of labor.

Some common issues arising from working in silos are

• difficult communication between silos
• power struggles
• slow decision making
• even slower execution (when this implies silo-collaboration)

Usually, work within a silo is fast and well executed. And that is the point.

Problems appears when several silos have to work in concert on a single deliverable. When activity dependencies span several silos.

As solutions to fix silo-related-issues we have hailed:

• collaborative software (technology)
• cross-functional management (methodologies and technology)
• breaking silos (business modeling, methodology and technology)

If working in silos starts to hurt your business then this means that the nature of your company is changing. As a result, the business model has to evolve.

Adding management layers and software tools can be helpful if they are part of a bigger strategy and they do not come as a knee-jerk reaction.

ENTERPRISE 2.o TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS ARE NOT NECESSARILY EVOLVING YOUR BUSINESS

This is like buying the state-of-the-art kitchen robot and wondering why your dishes suck.

AGILE BUSINESS MODEL; SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES; FIXING PROBLEMS

When a consumer addresses a brand through a random channel (Twitter, Facebook, phone, chat) she does not care if she talks with the PR, customer service or the marketing department. She converses with the brand. And the brand says whatever the intern hired to update the Twitter account writes.

If the nature of your business is changing, whether the industry sector is evolving or the consumer expectations, then your business structure and model must change.

Social media force your business silos to be more permeable. It is shaking up your internal processes and employee’s roles and responsibilities. Social media conversations push your business to focus on the consumer. This results in better services and more loyal consumers. Everybody wins. So open up. Good luck.

—-

And here is a bonus.

This is serious stuff!

Your Twitter photo screams that you are the most important person in your life and you want everybody to acknowledge your emotionally stable, yet creative, exciting and important existence while life is passing by and you are still smiling for others, a smile that you hope will cover your backache when everybody you know pulls you in every direction dismembering you like a rack you received as a birthday present from your muse along with endless worries about your annoying job, and the inevitable daily how-can-I-make-more-money routine like in a merry-go-round you have already seen everything yesterday and you’ll see it again tomorrow whilst you close your eyes a nauseous dizziness takes you deeper into your loneliness that makes you open them again teary and wide, you grim a sexy smile.

Hippos. Lethal but cute.

STARTER

Last Wednesday, October 6 2010, I gave a conference about Facebook at INIS.

A recurrent question was trying to find how Facebook compares with Google. This was driven by some news that Facebook traffic overtakes Google and that Facebook might be worth $33B. Many compare Facebook to Google’s growth.

FACEBOOK VS GOOGLE

Will Facebook become the next Google? No. This is not Google’s story. Google had as mission to make information universally accessible. Facebook’s mission is to connect people. Facebook comes from a different age. An age where good and evil are relative. An age of no nonsense. An age where instead of scanning and using artificial intelligence to process every possible content in order to make a recommendation, you just ask your friends.

SOME REAL MONEY

One thing is sure. Facebook is pretty strong. And it will only become stronger. The power of FB comes from the strength of its social graph.

Its current valuation varies between $11B – $33B with revenues of around $1B for 2010. And this does not mean anything. Compare it with eBay that has a cca $30B market capitalisation, $9B in revenues and around $3B profit (2009 numbers). eBay makes real money.

MORE REAL MONEY

Tactic-wise Facebook still has lots of money on the table to tap into. Consider:

• Places becomes widely used – point-of-sale deals
• The revamped groups have the potential to replace small businesses enterprise softwares (intranets & co)
• Brand Pages have exceptional consumer traction displacing classic banner ads. Big brands with great social media strategy and community management will be ready to invest to make their communities stronger and attack their competitors.
• FB took control from Microsoft of their exclusive deal on banner advertising, one year earlier than originally dealt.
• The Social plugins can be extended to extreme levels (see even WordPress). FB should continue to connect people at any price and not necessarily take over the internet. That would be a useless fight.
• Applications + a more comprehensive micro-payment platform.
• Trends and analytics (insights) can also be a great model. Microsoft it’s on it already. But so it’s Canada . Facebook’s correctional officer.
• But more important somehow they will get the beacon out. Maybe through the Instant personalization. And once they will get a working model (it’s not yet the case) and if it will be adopted then Facebook will be ripe. Only then FB should IPO.

LOVE IT OR HATE IT

Facebook’s genius is knowing how to walk the privacy line. They always generate ambivalent feelings in users. Facebook is a brand users love to love & hate at the same time.

Philosophically it is refreshing to watch Facebook fight the bad/good fight trying to push our privacy boundaries, struggling to connect us to one another and to the things we consume. Behind our backs.

So, you hire a social media expert who recommends an Enterprise 2.0 software solution and gives a couple of trainings about how important Twitter is, how Facebook will become the biggest country on Earth, why Obama won, and how you have to wake up and understand the fundamental shift civilization is going through: social media is the next industrial revolution.

So, you go back to your office, close the door, and quietly start crying.

This is too much.

How will you ever survive in this jungle? What if the Mayans were right? This really feels like the end of the world. Maybe you should tweet about it.

Wiping your tears you stand up.

Ask your assistant to buy some beer. Call everyone in the conference room. Put some Michael Jackson on.

“Drink.”

Your people are confusingly conforming.

“So? What’s up!?”

—————————

Drinks 2.0. Enterprise communication problem solved.

... and Rock & Social was born

A NEW VENTURE

Starting a new venture it’s always exciting.

This time around, I have decided to invest in social media. Although, I am still passionate about strategy, advertising and business management (and Jaime Candy still provides these services), I became convinced that social media will give birth to the marketing agency of the future. An agency that will only minimally be about marketing and advertising.

Social media is about directly connecting brand and consumers. Social media open the door to no-bullshit marketing and to constant product and service improvement.

Social media achieved what god was not able: to make Steve Jobs apologize and fire his iPhone hardware chief.

Amazing and difficult times are coming ahead. Net neutrality, privacy issues, new ROI models, content curating, location-based and point-of-sale  services, mobility, etc.

For all these reasons and many more, I have decided to invest myself in this new venture.

WHAT IS ROCK & SOCIAL?

Rock & Social is a social media company specializing in brand community building and management. Simply put, we help clients build stronger and more engaged communities. More about our model here.

We also provide the following services:

• Social Media Policy Creating
• Brand Monitoring
• Crisis Management
• Community Management

All our services are offered in English, French and Spanish.

WHO ARE THE FOUNDERS?

R&S was founded by @octavianmihai and @mikart in May 2010. More info here.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

• Let us know how you feel about R&S.
• Share this info with your friends and especially with those who might be interested in our services.
• Follow us on twitter @rockandsocial.
• Join our Facebook page here.
• Bookmark our website and share its contents
• Keep on rocking!

WE ARE CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR:

• New clients
• Marketing agencies to partner with
• Community managers
• Possibly a new space (we currently have an office, but we want to explore a symbiotic joint venture with an agency)

Looking forward to hear from you.

Dreams and promises...

[this is a cross-post from the Rock&Social blog]

There has been some confusion lately regarding Rock&Social’s services. This post is meant to clarify some of the misunderstandings.

We are not a marketing company. We completely understand all forms of marketing since in past lives we worked in traditional and digital agencies.

However, Rock & Social is not a marketing company in the classic sense. Social media is more than advertising.

We are not selling a dream. We are not selling a promise.

We are selling authentic and engaged communities. We are selling the creation and management of communities that reflect your company and products.

Advertising is often needed but not necessary to target the right demographic. Nevertheless your efforts should not end there. Community building and management are defined by a long term commitment. Our business model is operational and not project based. We make money by helping you and your community become more successful and engaged. This is a long term commitment that does not end with your advertising campaign.

In exchange, your community can help you improve your products and your services. Your customers will always show you the way. All you have to do is listen and engage.

All the options are on the table but our approach will always be the same: build genuine conversations and create value for your community and your brand.

Social media allows us to discuss in real numbers and results, not in promises and adjectives.

Soshul Meedia Community Manager

The first step towards implementing a social media presence for your business is defining a comprehensive social media policy.

Here are a couple obvious points to keep in mind when preparing a social media policy:

1. ENSURE IT REPRESENTS YOUR COMPANY VALUES AND BRAND PROMISE

If your brand is about openness and blue sky then make sure your social media policy does not encourage tight control of your community and its communications. Walk the talk, otherwise nobody will follow you.

2. MAKE IT CLEAR, SIMPLE, EASY TO REMEMBER

Your social media policy is meant to be respected and enforced once in a while. And it shouldn’t be regarded strictly as a legal or PR issue. The most important role of your social media policy is to set the guidelines of a coherent community building and engagement strategy.

3. LIST ALL STAKEHOLDERS OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SPACE (CONSUMERS INCLUDED)

Even though your social media policy is mainly aimed at employees, you shouldn’t forget to explicitly define the official discourse guidelines (to be used by your community manager), the employee / associate / investor guidelines and the user / consumer guidelines.

4. DEFINE STAKEHOLDERS RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES (COMMUNITY MANAGER’S INCLUDED)

This is the missing link in most social media policies. Being part of a brand community entails having certain rights and privileges but also responsibility. Most social media policies forget to mention the responsibility aspect of the community member. Also you should not forget to include the rights and responsibilities of your social media community manager.

What social media policies are you aware of? Does your company have one?

Here is a compilation of social media policies from FastCompany.