Deborah Schultz

P&G Digital Hack Night: Learning to be a good digital citizen

In the footsteps of Yahoo and Google Hackathons - P&G  gathered a group of social web companies, geeks, marketers, agencies and P&G folks to Cincinnati this week for one night.  The goal? To demonstrate and learn about the power of networks and the impact of the digital world as it relates to marketing.  The press, madison avenue, and some bloggers [see complete list below] have written and focused on the the tactics of the event - using twitter and other online tools to promote & market a cause.  In my mind there is also a larger point and challenge. 

How do you teach a large, process driven organization to be innovative, work organically and think socially?

The hurdles to "getting digital" are not a technical understanding of the tools - they are cultural and organizational.  There are basic principles at play on the social web that need to be understood before one can jump in.  

Some principles and dynamics to think about:

• Opening up & loss of control
• The collaborative & organic nature of the medium
• The power and dynamics of network effects
• The importance of constancy and participation vs big grand gestures
• The personal intimate nature of the medium
• The importance of trust and relationship
• The always on - 24/7 nature of the web

The only way one can understand  and learn these attributes is by DOING. For those of us who live and breath this space, unpacking this etiquette seems stilted - we take the basics for granted.  To learn how to be a good "digital citizen" you need to understand the rules of the road.  Heck - even those of us who have grown up in this space can't keep up and continue to reinvent the rules.

The evening was chaotic and energetic. There were plenty of learning's on "both sides".  In full disclosuse [as many of you are aware] I have been working with P&G for the last year and a half as a "social web sherpa" of sorts, so it was exciting to get a good chunk of the digital ecosystem in a room to hash out and demonstrate some of these issues in real time.  I was not consulted on how the experiment was set up.  I probably would have eliminated the competitive nature and spent a bit more time on strategy and set-up ahead of time, but overall it was interesting to see the dynamics at play.  

Here are some of my quick learning take a ways:

•  Many of the P&G folks' thought the first task was to figure out the messaging of the campaign, where as the external folks just dived right in in plain English.
• The social web folks jumped on their networks first without necessary realizing the impact and focused on a long tail one-to-one approach figuring that network effects would take over.
• The P&G folks understood the need to identify where to get the biggest bang for their buck.
• The speed nature of the exercise brought out some incredible creativity. I had a sense that this freedom was very liberating for the P&G folks once they got into it.  Some of my teammates quickly brainstormed a quick rap [yeah-it's dorky, but they did it without planning or thinking about it too much.  We even got the team at Pandora to write a catchy little ditty. [Thanks Tim. It arrived a bit late, but kudos to them for jumping in.   Compare that to the month long planning cycles most companies go through.
• The P&G folks were often very process oriented and the invitees where comfortable with more chaos - meeting somewhere in the middle brought out the best.  
• Even the "digerati" who understand the principles of the social web stepped over the line a bit in the exuberance of the moment - to me this is a cautionary tale about the future of "influencers" and everyone's personal  understanding of their relationships, networks and personal brand.  Just as in the real world you are judged by your actions - so too are you judged online. Remember - Google is now the long tail of reputation.  
• The need for a different set of skills and expertise - teams needed a human connector to bring it all together and a catalyst to kick it off.  I see this as a growing skill set in business as a result of the social web. Think Community Manager meets Senior Executive.

In the end this was not about cause marketing - it was about demonstrating and learning the importance of the new principles and culture of the social web.  It is easy to say the big guys don't get it and walk away.  You only learn by doing.  I have a big cynical side, but I I have more faith in the social web and people.  I think that bad behavior will ultimately NOT be rewarded and I would rather educate and teach those who don't get it the rules of the road upfront.  We want big companies to take risks and experiment - let's not slap em too hard when they put a toe in  the water.

Other event-related posts [thanks Peter]:

- David Armano:  Make A Difference. NOW.

- Shar VanBoskirk:  P&G Tests the Power of Social Media

- Kevin Dugan: Being Digital at P&G, Raising $100k for Disaster Relief
- Everything Typepad:  Get A Cool Shirt, Save The World

- Chas Edwards:  P&G Digital Hack Night: Selling Tide T-shirts for Disaster Relief

- Bob Gilbreath:  Helping Victims of Disasters—LIVE at P&G ‘Hack’ Night

- Dave Knox:  Support Charity with a Tide Loads of Hope Vintage T-Shirt

- Jason Falls:  A Tide Retro T-Shirt For A Good Cause

- Karl Long:  Tide selling vintage washed T-Shirts for charity

- Kelly Mooney:  Special Ask - Help Me Help Families in Need

- Jory Des Jardins:  Blog for your life! ... and help save Disaster Victims

- Brian Morrissey:  The feel-good social marketing bribe
- Peter Kim: Recap on P&G digital night

Note: make sure the check out the comment threads on brian and peter's blogs - good dialogue and healthy debate!

Life isn't binary, neither is the Social Web

In the past few weeks as the economy has tanked, startups, VC's and pundits galore have taken a new look on what this means for the almighty ad dollar and the world of social media. None of this is new - it seems we live in a a cycle of pushing off these questions until we hit tough times. In a lot of ways it reads like a familiar scripted B-movie voice over.

"Can successful startups like Twitter and Facebook figure out a "real" business model? ; Will users put up with more and more ads inserted in the middle of their personal interactions? ; Will all this new data compromise individual privacy?: Will big advertisers flee back to old tried and true models in the face of economic uncertainty? Tune in next week to find out if advertisers will figure this out before struggling startups are forced to close their doors"

It sounds bleak, I know, but I actually have faith that we will weather this current storm and it will even be a forcing function for innovation in the industry. What is however troubling to me is that what is often lost in the above voice overs is the voice of the actual customer and what makes relevant sense.

So, when this Adage article with the provocative title "P&G Digital Guru Not Sure Marketers Belong on Facebook" hit the feeds, I got inundated with emails from a lot of folks asking me "what the heck does this article mean"? Given my current work with P&G [I am their advisor on all things social & emerging media], I am not surprised at being asked this question. What was more interesting was that there were two very different types of emails that took two very divergent views 1) business oriented-"what does this mean for advertising on the internet?" and 2) individualistic and purist-looking at the issue from the lens that says "big companies don't belong on my social network". Well, what it means to me is that we are at a pivotal change in how companies and customer's connect and we are still learning the new rules of the road. These issues are not black and white, all or nothing. I think Battelle summed it up rationally when he states that the social networks/social media and marketing can go together - the question is when and how.

A metaphor that we have used inside P&G is that "if you are invited to a dinner party and you show up and start selling Tupperware, there is a good chance you will not be invited back". In other words, you need to demonstrate value before you jump in and start yelling "buy me". Understanding how and when someone is interested in hearing from you inside a social network is radically different than when shouting across the airwaves with a 30 second spot. Ted demonstrates why I enjoy working with him and P&G - the consumer is always first. The mechanisms on the social web are different and we all still have a lot to learn. Smart companies  - be they big or small -  know that looking at the current version of the web with an old media lens ain't gonna fly. That is why I believe so strongly in the core principles I am working on both with P&G and the Doc Searls and the gang on Project VRM [Sean, Chris, Adriana and more] . Understanding that the user/consumer is in control is a foundation on which any business, ad or marketplace models will operate in the future.

This is the participatory web and the old media models are being shredded. The social web is my web - it's PERSONAL to me. I am not creating media when I am online so much as I am connecting with people using media as my medium. As today's "consumers", we lean forward, we skip ads, we have a strong point of view on products and services and we expect to be heard or left alone on our own terms. The social web can actually provide much deeper and more interesting connections for customers and companies than simply being a marketing channel - it ties into the entire product lifecycle. And that is where stuff gets really interesting...and much more complex. This is where relevance and context and trust and intention all come into play.

In a world where relationship and connection are at once more subtle and scalable than ever before the answer to the question of whether companies & social media can mix is not simply a Yes or No answer. Shame on Adage for oversimplifying this complex ecosystem in the hunt for business relevance. Both Facebook and P&G are working to figure what works for their users and their consumers. In the end it is respecting the individual and the consumer that is most important and I would hope we would take our time to innovate & figure out what works for the long haul and not jump to oversimplified "banner ad, yes or no" solutions.

The social web - just like life - is just not that binary.

Cocktails, cupcakes and food for thought..

A quick note to say thanks to Brady, Bre et al - for another great Ignite event.  Cupcakes were gorgeous and the talks were a blast.  I even got to express four years of "alley vs valley" in a compact 5 minutes!

Thanks to Sean

Test vs Scale - herein lies the rub

While working with P&G to develop the Social Media Lab, I am constantly wrestling with the  BIG and SMALL issues relating to how the Social Web impacts business, marketing, start-up business models and our lives as individuals. When there is a  new set of dynamics that fundamentally shifts how you communicate and do business - how do you ensure that the smaller tests you are doing have BIG learnings that can be reapplied.

So it was interesting to trip onto this thoughtful post from Francois Goussieaux on the nature of how big companies are approaching Social Media. 

There are very few social media marketing programs that scale to the point where they can truly be useful to multi-billion dollar companies. But why is that?

Part of the problem, as I have described before, is self-inflicted. Many CMO’s know they need to dabble in the space, but that is all they do - run small pilot programs that don’t make a difference. The problem with this approach is that the dynamics of small scale social media programs are very different from large scale social media campaigns. So what may work in large programs will not work in pilot programs and the lessons learned from pilot programs may not be applicable to large scale implementations.

This argument sits squarely in the Social Media Lab's backyard.  Knowing that big companies do indeed have trouble making big changes all at once - the goal of the Lab is to help with baby steps - so the big programs can truly shine.

I also personally believe that there is no such thing as a social media campaign.  Social Media is forcing a fundamental switch in the power center of business and how information, markets and products are created and brought to market.  Whether you are a P&G brand or a start-up - the social web impacts how you connect with customers.  This is not only about social ads or viral videos.  And I sure as heck hope we can come up with better business models for Web2.0 companies than some newer form of banner ad.

That said, how do you run before you can walk?

As I wrestle with the issues of  innovation,  scalability, customer advocacy and new business models here is a sample of some of the questions currently rattling around in my brain:

• What is the best method for generating true innovation and new business models?
• What is the best way to test & learn smartly and efficiently?
• How do you best build bridges of learning across very different cultural groups - i.e. brands and startups?
• How do you best eliminate the fear of failure to encourage bold creative initiatives?
• When does connecting with the consumer cross the line to icky behavioral targeting vs helpful discovery?
• When are you enabling passionate fans vs exploiting them?
• How do you ensure that neither big business or small start-up leaves the customer in the dust in a rush to the shiny new thing?
• Do test programs help in developing innovative approaches to business or are they simply dabbling? [this applies to start-ups and big business]
• As Social Media is all about relationships and connections - can it even scale authentically to support a billion dollar business [see peter's post for more]?
  

I've got lots of questions and some hypothesis grounded in "ya gotta start somewhere", but I am also impatient, so what do you think?   How would you generate a big shift? 

Social Media - dig a little deeper

I was on a plane to NYC last week and missed Brian, Jeremy & Jeremiah's great posts on "social media is NOT conversation".  AMEN!  Point being that the current social software tools impact SO much more than simply talking.

I too dislike the phrase Social Media and have shruggingly accepted using it because - frankly, I am often accused of over-complicating this stuff. Well, this stuff is complicated!  The social web is not ONLY about Media and it is not ONLY a new channel.  It is powerful stuff.  I have posted about this before [here, here and here for starters] but the way some are embracing social media reminds me of the first incarnation of the web when everyone thought it was only brochure-ware or "new media" until people realized, "Oh my goodness, e-commerce? I can sell stuff here? This impacts customer service, product development, government, organizations, family? friends? lifestyle?

The internet is fundamentally about connection and communication, but that is only the surface.  We need to dig a little deeper.  The low hanging fruit is to see it only as communication and "conversation".  Communication fuels human connection and human connection fuels everything from - well - procreation to war.

Now, here is a perceived irony...

I have spent the past 8 months working with the world's largest marketer - P&G- to develop a Social Media Lab.  The objective of the Lab is to spend some real thoughtful time and analysis on understanding how the social web impacts the relationship between company and customer, how P&G can better serve their customers within the social media space and what are the potential new business models for technology partners and start-ups in this space. We have partners and brands developing experiments exploring the realities of this new world.

So, you would think I sold out, drank the cool-aid and am enabling the exact behavior I rail against.  This couldn't be further from the truth.

This stuff is so new and complex -- no one knows all the answers or even exactly all the questions.  P&G has always been an innovator when it comes to understanding people and as much as I am bringing new ideas inside their walls, I am learning just as much from them about how to think about these issues. P&G understands the social web is indeed about you and me and looks at this  new world from the lens of earning a place in their customers’ lives and where they should or should not be engaging.

Call me Don Quixote, say I am tilting at windmills, but when they approached me I saw it as a huge opportunity to transfer knowledge between some really smart folks in the social web space and the world's largest advertiser to create the world I want to live in.  I would rather be part of enabling and educating and leading the way on what works and what doesn't than to sit on the sidelines. 

Is this easy? NO. Big changes never are. There is no manual, no guidelines and no rule book - and don't let anyone tell you differently!   Will there be stumbles before there are wins - definitely.  This is a marathon and not a sprint - there will always be shiny new objects to play with but as you know "technology changes, human's don't". And we people are complicated! 

I plan to share more in the coming weeks and months on this blog as well as in a few new places to be named later.  I look forward hearing your feedback and thoughts.