SoTech Now

Loved this at #SoCol, definitely something that got people talking, and even arguing? Always a good sign.

It’s been at least 24hrs now since the #SoTech discussion and I’ve had feedback from two very different schools of thought, including:

The constructive:

1. This is naive, simple, patronising and dated. It doesn’t address the real challenges with Social. What they are suggesting around recruitment, HR is illegal. Something about …. X-Factor? (That bit got lost on me…)

2. The lead up wasn’t strong enough, it needed a far better, tighter explanation – the translation got lost somewhere.

3. Infographic? HAH! It’s more rave spreadsheet. )

The complimentary:

1. This is helpful, productive and a useful place to start from.

2. We’re already moving into ‘Social Business’

3. Like it, will add to it. will use it.

In the spirit of – “It’s far easier to edit than to create… ” we’ve drafted the framework to capture the thinking around this with the purpose of making it better. Before we draft a thoughtful response to the above… we need to ask some more questions and clarify some points. But we will.. and we’ll address it here.

In the mean time, if you’d like to throw in your two cents or an entire chapter… we’re all ears.

@ShannonBoudjema

[...] been working on-and-off on for about six months – we call it SoTech.  We produced a graphic/infographic that is meant to be a start of a real discussion and progression of our industry.  A way for [...]

[...] we'd been working on-and-off on for about six months – we call it SoTech.  We produced a graphic/infographic that is meant to be a start of a real discussion and progression of our industry.  A way for [...]

[...] 2010 newadorder Leave a comment Go to comments My friends at SoTech have produced this awesome infographic showing how social media technologies impact businesses (best viewed at full size, click on the [...]

this rocks! i think i burst a blood vessel trying to read the smaller fonts, but i’m totally going to share this around Grayling. It gives a great framework for some of the client inputs/outputs we deal with on a daily basis. Thanks for this. Wish I’d thought of it first!

Haha! We’ve definitely been given the gears re the amount of text and lack of graphic But we’re pleased you are finding it useful for the most part. We would love to hear how far it gets you and at what point you hit a snag… all in the name of making it work that much harder for us in Version 2. Cheers Ruby! S.

Massively comprehensive and signals the time when companies need to start thinking differently about social media – it’s about the business as a whole – not the department bubble you may work in. This is where the challenge will lie though as many people work within their disciplines without taking notice of the bigger picture (or whose main objective is to deliver against targets within that department). The point which I think was made very well by the three of you is that it is time to change the approach. This has to come from the top and understood by all employees – this infographic is a great starting point.

Conceptually its good at demonstrating that digital | social media is a pervasive in business functions as the PostIt note, the perrsonal computer or the laser printer. Though I feel the six segments should go round the button in the middle like spokes from an Eames wall clock.

Design-wise its too busy, font size is too small, needs more depth – which is the reason why I think this shouldn’t be one diagram; and I think that Volume of WOM in the Metrics box has a typo in the line. You may want to have a look at the work that StrategyOne did with online campaigns, strategic goals and metrics.

The big black border on the bottom: waste of real-estate could be handled more efficiently.

Thanks Paul for flagging this to me. An interesting piece of work, but you know me, never backwards in coming forwards. Hope my feedback helps…

Operational: Virtual as in VMware or as in Second Life!? What about internal comms?

Development: Metrics are outcomes not outputs, great, but difficult to assign effect to cause.

Leadership: “multitide”, and not sure about micro-financing platforms here?

Reputation / brand management: What’s an influence dashboard? and “Acquring”

From a higher perspective, I’d be reluctant to consider customer service separate to acquisition and retention. They are too intertwined.. the so-called customer journey. And I think together they result in what is most often called brand management and reputation management. To my mind however there is no such thing as brand or reputation management any more; brand and reputation are outcomes not outputs. Rather, it’s a case of stimulating and diligently participating in the conversation, which, when combined with great products and service delivery, lead to a growth in one’s reputation and the publics’ regard for one’s brands.

And if you agree with that assertion, the corollary is that today’s departmental structure is no longer fit for purpose. The organisation needs to restructure around delivery and influence, including both influencing and being influenced.

The left hand side of the infographic is not departmental, so why does the right hand side have to be?

Cheers Ged – deffo going to check out the SO one. Appreciate the feedback – deffo lots for V2.

Cheers Ruby – appreciate you forwarding around – please encourage them to give us their feedback too.

Full disclosure – George and I work at Kindred together – an integrated agency – interesting to see the different viewpoints so far. Looking forward to see more.

Amen! Philip this is exactly what we’re looking for. Deffo lots to improve on for V2 We’re thinking brands and sub categories and altogether interactive – this is a great start but it’s not the easiest read. We tried to remove jargon etc but there’s more work to be done. Re metrics. I think it’s fair in some cases but others not – more food for thought / we may break down this further in future too. Typo is bad – deffo will rectify in v2! There is lots of intertwining – we made that clear in the presentation but less so here – our bad (presentation here: http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2010/10/4/sotech-infographic-v10-your-feedback-requested.html). Interesting re rep management etc as outcome – going to have to think about that a bit deeper – I’m not sure what you describe isn’t desired vs actual. Checking with team re last comment – not sure is the short answer – certainly not the only way to do it I’m sure.

Full disclosure: Philip and I are on the CIPR Measurement Panel.

FWIW, writing my book, so spending more of my time on the ‘desired’ than ‘actual’

Talking of which, love everyone here to help with my research… http://bit.ly/inflpro-Qs

Cheers.

I love that your feedback builds on and sets out to improve a thought process… which by default you appear to be supporting. Correct me if I’m being too naive – seriously. I can take it. HAH!

Technology enables business. It evolves the tools in our toolbox and understanding how it increases revenues and/or reduces you cost of business is where the value is. I just took your survey for your book… it appears you’re investigating something similar … how does PR, Customer Services, Marketing, Sales work together to enable acquisition and retention. I am looking forward to reading the book… and am tilting my hat in thanks for sharing your thoughts. Cheers Philip!

Love the Eames Wall Clock analogy. Design wise. You win. We know it… it shall evolve… perhaps even more clock like ) Thanks for the StrategyOne tip… will definitely investigate. S.

Talking from a very biased community management perspective, here’s my brief feedback…

I’d fight to include ‘social networks and brand communities’ into the Reputation/Brand management section. That part of the diagram seem to be coming from a very high automated perspective and I think it lacks the more hands-on/listening approach (at the risk of sounding like a complete hippy).

I’m not sure what an ‘influence dashboard’ is either. Sounds fun though.

Just from what I’ve heard from a few organisations I’ve worked with recently I think there’s a real necessity to fix the recruitment/acquisition process, and proprietary talent pools (i.e. brand-owned communities that are geared towards attracting potential talent and keeping them warm) seems to be the obvious path. Maybe somethign along those lines needs adding to the acquisition/retention section?

Ooo like the ideas on recruitment. You’re right we do need to be more explicit in hands-on community engagement. Will ponder.

[...] not a lot more explanation needed, but click here if you want to check out some of the comments and responses about the work. Without further ado, [...]

It’s an awesome starting point to get the whole business thinking social. Next steps? Well, departmentalisation makes for simplicity but doesn’t point towards integration and shared efforts. It would be awesome if the flow of insights from each area could be shown e.g. from customer service feedback into R&D or from brand insights to aquistion. With the increasing adoption of social in organisations we’re bound to see massive duplication of effort — can v.2 go some way to helping people think about ways to avoid it? Also there’s a big emphasis on automated tools—particularly in the reputation section—which we know aren’t quite there yet. Overreliance on these tools could lead to some bad big decisions being made. Although social allows for faster, wider data to be captured there’s still so much to be said for human intepretation and insights.