X-posted from custardether.co.uk

Steve Clayton is the author of the “Geek in Disguise” blog and works as Software + Services lead for Microsoft.  He opened his keynote by verbalising what many of us feel when considering social networks – we are reaching information overload!

 

The main theme of his talk followed on from this by discussing ways to make these experiences more meaningful.  Using social networking in business, he argued, is all about generating trust and building trusting relationship with customers.  He demonstrated this with a cartoon showing that “all products are conversations”

 

Clayton asked us to think about where we go to search for businesses when we have a need.  He demonstrated with a hand pole that more people now search using Google than with a hard copy of the yellow pages.  However, he noted that we usually get our quality recommendations and advice at the pub or an equivalent social environment – you believe the advice you given by others in this environment, because you have interacted with them.  Google is not always a trusted environment for recommendations, as many of the top ranked results are paid advertisements, not necessarily the most appropriate recommendation for your needs.  Blogs are fast becoming the social network equivalent of the pub – the way of recommending and locating quality recommendations and reviews.

 

Clayton next examined how communities can play with corporate marketing materials and make them social objects.  He showed what happened to a promotional video for “Gears of War” when users remixed the sound in an amusing way.  How, as a business, do you deal with this?  Well, if you follow the example of Microsoft in this case, you learn to recognise that once your promotional material is out there on the web, it can be come a social object for communal play, and that this can be a positive thing, as many more people are interacting with it in a more meaningful way, because they are engaging in a community activity – talking about your piece of promotion, which can be far more valuable to you as a business than getting precious about it.  In the case of the “Gears of War” promo video, about 1000 mash up versions were created by internet users, making it a great, but unintentionally viral piece of marketing.  People wanted to talk about the video, have a conversation around it and engage with it – thus developing a kind of community ownership.  This was definitely an aspect of social activity on the internet that I had not previously considered, and whilst you cannot engineer such a situation easily, if it occurs it can certainly be useful feature of social activity on the internet.

 

He also showed a leaked internal video comparing Mac and Microsoft packaging design, which somehow escaped onto the web.  As an internal spoof poking fun at themselves, this could have been disastrous for Microsoft’s corporate image… but instead they discovered that people had a conversation around the video and from it formed the opinion the Microsoft had a sense of humour.  People wanted the company to have a personality and to be connecting with them in this very personable way – engaging them in conversation. 

 

The strong emphasis throughout Clayton’s talk was the need for conversation and user engagement with your company, its products and its marketing.  To get higher up on Google (without paying for the privilege) you need to get people to have a conversation with you and therefore link to you.

 

The two-way, conversation aspect of engagement with internet-based customers is what most companies get wrong.  Clayton noted that 70% of small business have a website – but 2/10 do not have contact details on it, so no one can engage with them in conversation and therefore build up a relationship that may lead to a sale or a recommendation.  Monthly website updates are most common, but Clayton suggested that companies need to be updating more often to generate conversations and therefore a link with their customers.

 

A good example of this was Clayton’s citation of English Cut, tailor of Savile Row who set up a blog talking about suits.  The blog did not try to sell a single product, but instead just talked about fabric etc, engaging interested people in a conversation.  He got lots of links and therefore the blog reached the top of the Google results for Savile Row.  He has a great online brand image, but the blog itself is not sales orientated.  However, the conversation has generated huge amount of business – more than the company can possibly deal with.

 

Microsoft has used blogging to have direct conversations with customers – a point discussed in detail by Eileen Brown at last year’s NLab Women, Business and Blogging conference.  Engaging in conversations builds up trust.  He also noted that Twitter is fast becoming like a global pub where you can go for a response from people you may not know directly or in person, but because you have this intimate, direct relationship through Twitter, you trust what they have to say.

 

Clayton had a few recommendations for us to conclude, which I will include here so I for one can locate them in the future:

 

“The World is Flat” – a book about globalisation and how the internet has flattened the arena for conversation.

 

Common craft.com – short videos explaining social networks

 

Change This.com – archive of free manifestos