Forrester Social Computing Summit in Cambridge - Part 1

Two weeks ago, Forrester Research held a one-day session in their Cambridge office entitled “Social Computing: Tapping Into the Power of Connected Customers.” I was lucky enough to spend the day with analysts Peter Kim and Jeremiah Owyang along with several other attendees across a broad range of industries, discussing examples of companies (both B2C and B2B) using the various aspects of social computing to better engage with their customers.

These experiences and interactions were all framed up with Forrester’s P-O-S-T framework, the cornerstone of Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s latest book Groundswell.

Below is an overview of P-O-S-T, plus the five different objectives that should be considered for social computing* success. I’ll be exploring these five objectives in more detail in a future post.

*Note: According to Owyang, Forrester refers to these tools and technologies as “social computing” rather than “social media”. Per Owyang, “media” implies specific types of media used as a tool to connect. “Computing” implies a mix of culture, business, and marketing, and the impact these tools have to change our respective corporate cultures and organizational structures.

P-O-S-T

Before embarking on a social computing journey, you need to stop for a moment and consider HOW you’ll get to your destination. The order of the steps you take is critical; while many companies become enamored of a specific tool (like blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks, etc.), the “T” in tools comes last.

Consider a typical scenario:

An executive at your company (or even yourself, despite your best intentions) reads about a new social media toy, or has a friend send a link to a new web 2.0 website, and she immediately falls in love and demands that you implement something similar. Sound familiar? If not, I can assure you that in most cases you'll blaze bravely down the road to fast-track an implementation (of what, you're not quite sure, because you don't really have the time to stop and ponder).

You implement, turn the key, start the engine, and then....nothing. Two weeks later no one is quite sure how to use this new toy, and four weeks later you're all collectively shrugging your shoulders (or worse, pointing fingers and tossing blame like a hot potato), and the project is doomed. Worse, in classic one-bitten-twice-shy mode, it's 10x more difficult to launch the next social media idea, even though you know this is something that your company has got to move forward with.

To help avoid some of these pitfalls, Forrester prescribes the following approach:

P – People: Where do your customers spendtheir time online? Are they already on Facebook, or Twitter, or mySpace? Is there an existing online community where they’re already connected with other like-minded individuals? If so, perhaps
you can use this to your advantage. If not, perhaps you’re better off looking somewhere else.

Bottom line: Don’t go with Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams mantra…you may build it, but it doesn’t mean that they’ll show up!

O – Objectives: What are you looking to accomplish? Today you can create a blog in minutes. The technology part is easy. But why are you starting a blog in
the first place? If the driver is to use blogs as a mean to communicate new products and services that your company offers, great. If you’re starting a blog
because your competitors have one, you’re doomed. You need to have a clear answer behind this, because these initiatives are long-term branding initiatives.

Bottom line: Without true clarity around what they are and what they’re for, you won’t have a solid framework in place to guide through the tough times or give you the backing you need when your initiative comes under fire from disgruntled factions within your company that may not be as supportive.

S-Strategy: How do you expect your relationship with customers to change? This is perhaps the most important question you should ask yourself, because
it forces you to ask yourself internally what you’re really hoping to get out
of this exercise. Are you looking to improve your transparency, and to build more trust with your customers? Are you looking to get direct customer
feedback from some or all of your customers to drive your product development
activities? Are you looking to use these tools as ways to identify those vocal brand advocates that to date have remained hidden, but now that you’ve found them, you can energize them as a secondary sales force to support your brand?

Bottom line: You’ve got to be absolutely
clear in your own mind how you can see the dynamic between your company and your customers changed as a result of using these tools and technologies. Otherwise, you’re not truly ready to jump off and run the risk of hitting one or more bumps along the road (some of which could have been avoided with some careful pre-planning.

T-TechnologyWhat tools and technologies can you use to support these goals? It’s no accident that the technology aspect comes last. Again, implementing the technology is the easy part. It’s designing your organization and your approach to these new tools where the real work comes in.

Bottom line: Choose the technology solution AFTER you’ve gotten clarity internally on WHY you’re doing this, what you expect to get out of it, and how you expect your relationship with customers to change.

Forrester’s Five Key Social Computing Objectives:

• Listening
  
• Talking
  
• Energizing
  
• Supporting
  
• Embracing

More to come on these five objectives in a future post. In the meantime, feel free to check out Forrester’s Groundswell site for more info.

What P-O-S-T means for other businesses:
Can social computing initiatives be done without following this approach? Sure, and it happens a lot more than any of us would care to admit. And most often, the technology solution is picked long before any thought is given to objectives or strategy, or even if this will resonate with one’s customer base. (joking referred to as T-O-P-S instead of P-O-S-T).

But if you subscribe to Forrester's theory, you’ll save yourself considerable time, energy, and money by adopting POST, and most importantly this can help you build some early credibility through a few quick wins targeted on some achieving some concrete business goals. Even if you're a small business that's considering launching a blog, start by asking yourself "How do I want to change my relationship with my customers?" If you can answer this, you've already safely navigated through several potentially dangerous pitfalls.

The concept of social computing often leads to murky waters at many companies, and with the first sign of blood the sharks will swarm, devour the victim, and quickly disperse, moving on to business as usual.

Don’t let your social computing efforts become wasted chum. Instead, consider using this philosophy to clarify “why to do it” rather than “how to do it”. Hopefully you’ll avoid a lot of pitfalls along the way, and will build some early successes that can translate to bigger initiatives to help enhance your business.

Good luck!