great article and very correct analysis. The large pharmacos I am working with struggle right now still with really getting to know and getting comfortable with social technologies - a long ways still to setting them up. One of the major hurdles, I believe is that the organizations themselves are fragmented and not able to absorb the integrated nature of social marketing.
Hi Amy!
Hope your new year is off to a great start.
Couldn’t agree more with you. One additional thought. Per your suggestion to weave off-line into online, it’s great to see some groups doing the inverse, too.
For off-line events, organizations with concurrent online discussions should find a way to incorporate Internet activities into the in-person experience. That can be as simple as taking questions from online to displaying a live feed of conversation on a screen. Folks “in the room” can feel energized and galvanized by knowing that the dialogue/goal is affecting a bigger audience in real-time.
I’ve only seen a couple examples of this working really well on a relatively manageable/affordable scale. I bet we’ll see more!
Thanks for the comment; you raise an excellent point! If the organizations themselves aren’t able to think in a horizontal way about their work, there is certainly no way they will be be able to do so successfully with the online field. The organization’s size, structure, leadership and culture can all play a role in either aiding or pushing back on online adoption.
In your experience, what has been one of the most important factors when it comes to an organization’s ability to adopt social media tools successfully?
I have seen the kinds of on-offline integration you are talking about mostly take place at conferences as a way to broaden the scope and conversation. Sometimes it works to diversify the offline, in-person participants’ conversations, and keep the event’s lens focused widely. Other times though, and perhaps more often, it adds a dynamic of confusion really: where many of the in-person participants don’t know where the messages are coming from that are being displayed, there isn’t conversation happening online but just mentions or statements that are hard for in-person participants to find value in, or simply that in-person participants are unsure how to talk back/with the online bits they see broadcast through the space.
How do you think organizations could begin integrating on and offline on a small, frequent level? (I’m thinking about things that aren’t the one big event of the year.) Would love to hear your thoughts.
Hi Amy - thanks for the mention, and obviously couldn’t agree more about the benefits of blending online and offline into events. I’ve also found that a blended event can be a great way to help an organisation explore the potential of social media in their work, as I’ve described here. Digital Unite set up a blog to host video and reports from their Silver Surfer Awards Day. Staff learned about blogging, and on the day we handed around a Flip video camera as well as shooting stuff ourselves. You can see the Silver Surfers had a lot of fun, and the process sparked plenty of commenting and further engagement. We are now looking at a wider strategy, knowing we have a core of confident enthusiasts.
Excellent point; I couldn’t agree with you more. I don’t know that I could think of a better way to introduce social media tools than in an event like the one you mention: you have knowledgeable people available to help and answer questions, the environment is empowering, you can see the benefits of the tools immediately, and it’s fun! It is certainly the makings of success.
How do you bridge people’s interest in using the tools from the events to more regular commitment? Is there a way to open this window during the event?
COMMENTS
BY Silja Chouquet
ON January 12, 2009 07:55 AM
Dear Amy,
great article and very correct analysis. The large pharmacos I am working with struggle right now still with really getting to know and getting comfortable with social technologies - a long ways still to setting them up. One of the major hurdles, I believe is that the organizations themselves are fragmented and not able to absorb the integrated nature of social marketing.
Thank you so much for this article.
BY Qui Diaz
ON January 12, 2009 08:58 AM
Hi Amy!
Hope your new year is off to a great start.
Couldn’t agree more with you. One additional thought. Per your suggestion to weave off-line into online, it’s great to see some groups doing the inverse, too.
For off-line events, organizations with concurrent online discussions should find a way to incorporate Internet activities into the in-person experience. That can be as simple as taking questions from online to displaying a live feed of conversation on a screen. Folks “in the room” can feel energized and galvanized by knowing that the dialogue/goal is affecting a bigger audience in real-time.
I’ve only seen a couple examples of this working really well on a relatively manageable/affordable scale. I bet we’ll see more!
BY Amy Sample Ward
ON January 13, 2009 01:19 AM
Silja-
Thanks for the comment; you raise an excellent point! If the organizations themselves aren’t able to think in a horizontal way about their work, there is certainly no way they will be be able to do so successfully with the online field. The organization’s size, structure, leadership and culture can all play a role in either aiding or pushing back on online adoption.
In your experience, what has been one of the most important factors when it comes to an organization’s ability to adopt social media tools successfully?
Thanks again!
BY Amy Sample Ward
ON January 13, 2009 01:32 AM
Qui-
Thanks, and I hope yours is, too!
I have seen the kinds of on-offline integration you are talking about mostly take place at conferences as a way to broaden the scope and conversation. Sometimes it works to diversify the offline, in-person participants’ conversations, and keep the event’s lens focused widely. Other times though, and perhaps more often, it adds a dynamic of confusion really: where many of the in-person participants don’t know where the messages are coming from that are being displayed, there isn’t conversation happening online but just mentions or statements that are hard for in-person participants to find value in, or simply that in-person participants are unsure how to talk back/with the online bits they see broadcast through the space.
How do you think organizations could begin integrating on and offline on a small, frequent level? (I’m thinking about things that aren’t the one big event of the year.) Would love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks again for joining in!
BY David Wilcox
ON January 14, 2009 12:55 AM
Hi Amy - thanks for the mention, and obviously couldn’t agree more about the benefits of blending online and offline into events. I’ve also found that a blended event can be a great way to help an organisation explore the potential of social media in their work, as I’ve described here. Digital Unite set up a blog to host video and reports from their Silver Surfer Awards Day. Staff learned about blogging, and on the day we handed around a Flip video camera as well as shooting stuff ourselves. You can see the Silver Surfers had a lot of fun, and the process sparked plenty of commenting and further engagement. We are now looking at a wider strategy, knowing we have a core of confident enthusiasts.
BY Amy Sample Ward
ON January 14, 2009 01:38 AM
David-
Excellent point; I couldn’t agree with you more. I don’t know that I could think of a better way to introduce social media tools than in an event like the one you mention: you have knowledgeable people available to help and answer questions, the environment is empowering, you can see the benefits of the tools immediately, and it’s fun! It is certainly the makings of success.
How do you bridge people’s interest in using the tools from the events to more regular commitment? Is there a way to open this window during the event?
Thanks for joining in!