One of the biggest lesson that social media is teaching companies is that they should be as open and transparent as possible to the market (their clients). It has no use to cover up screw-ups or denying like Iran tried to do. With YouTube, Twitter and Facebook out there, it’s next to impossible to stop it. As I always say in every presentation I give: “every problem is an opportunity in disguise”. The openness and transparency of social media could be used as a way to get back in control. Why wait till the crowd has discovered your screw-up and several stories which are not all completely correct run around the world in a couple of minutes? Why not preemptively publish the story on your corporate blog and link to it through Twitter? Yes, I know that this must sound like a nightmare for corporate PR, but think about it. The crowd has shown to be forgiven for mistakes, as long as you are open and honest about it and say a genuine “I’m sorry”. This opportunity to be in control does not only apply to companies but also to celebrities. One of the biggest issues they have are the paparazzi that hunt them down for juicy pictures and stories. Why not publishing pictures of yourself directly on your Twitter feed or telling what stupid mistake you just made? Just announce your break-up with the full story? Yes, it is a private matter but trust met, if you wait till the vultures come, it will be so much worse. Perhaps in time, this will become the end of the gossip magazine. Why pay for a magazine when the celebrities themselves are breaking the story on their Twitter feed? --- Lee Provoost is a Cloud Computing Strategist and ERP+ lead at Capgemini. You can follow his ongoing stream of thoughts on Twitter http://twitter.com/leeprovoost.
7 Comments
Leave a comment
Interesting thought. I think you're absolutely right. Social Media give businesses (and celebrities) the toolkit to control the damage of an error or mistake. Not only can you genuinely say "I'm sorry", but you can add "this is what I'll do to prevent it from happening again", taking that improvement opportunity and turn all into a positive thing.
Super cool post Lee! Agree with you on being transparent towards world around us. Nothing can be hidden anymore, social media has tremendous power and reach;-) One can consider it as thread, but we should look at it as a great tool to interact with masses;-) I recommend to watch video of Gary Waynerchuck about his book Crush It, where he talks about "I AM SORRY" possibility when you screw up;-)
cheers from Slovakia
i.
cheers from Slovakia
i.
Great post, Lee! This actually triggers another set of thoughts... probably a little on a different tangent.
I think this leads to the concept that has been often talked about, but has been mostly shelved aside: Open Enterprises.
Will we see enterprises having absolutely open systems in the future? There will be nothing confidential about anything. Everything from sales bids, to delivery of projects, will be open to the public. So its like the client already knows who the best for what and thus selects that vendor. Even during implementation, competitors can keep a watch, if you are not upto the mark, they will pounce upon you. This will also ensure that you do everything the best the first time.
Will we see this kinda of change in the future or is it just a hypothetical concept for a business school to debate on?
I think this leads to the concept that has been often talked about, but has been mostly shelved aside: Open Enterprises.
Will we see enterprises having absolutely open systems in the future? There will be nothing confidential about anything. Everything from sales bids, to delivery of projects, will be open to the public. So its like the client already knows who the best for what and thus selects that vendor. Even during implementation, competitors can keep a watch, if you are not upto the mark, they will pounce upon you. This will also ensure that you do everything the best the first time.
Will we see this kinda of change in the future or is it just a hypothetical concept for a business school to debate on?
very interesting thought nikhil! people would have called you crazy some time ago but look at open source...
not sure about publishing the RFP process ;-)
one question that comes to my mind is that you really have to make sure that you as a firm can add a big value that outweighs the potential loss of sharing all this "confidential" information. not sure if even Redmonk goes to that extend :)
not sure about publishing the RFP process ;-)
one question that comes to my mind is that you really have to make sure that you as a firm can add a big value that outweighs the potential loss of sharing all this "confidential" information. not sure if even Redmonk goes to that extend :)
It's interesting you say "not sure about publishing the RFP process". I was really interested to see how the Sunlight Foundation got on with putting together an RFP for the design and running of Recovery.gov (http://wiki.sunlightlabs.com/index.php/Recovery.gov_2.0_Bid). Unfortunately, it did not come together and Clay outlines why at <a href="http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/06/25/recoverygov-bid-we-failed." rel="nofollow">http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/06/25/recoverygov-bid-we-failed.</a> However, if you listen to his interview on Federal News Radio he says they did have discussions with various IT Contractors about potentially working with them on a transparent and open RFP in the future (http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?nid=19&sid=1705552).
In the end, I think Government needs to overhaul many of their Procurement processes to allow for this kind of open collaboration. This is something Vivek Kundra (US Fed CIO) has discussed a lot. We might not be there yet for Open RFPs, but initiatives like that of the Sunlight Foundation are going to become more prevalent as Government seeks to reduce Procurement times and engage in greater private sector collaboration.
In the end, I think Government needs to overhaul many of their Procurement processes to allow for this kind of open collaboration. This is something Vivek Kundra (US Fed CIO) has discussed a lot. We might not be there yet for Open RFPs, but initiatives like that of the Sunlight Foundation are going to become more prevalent as Government seeks to reduce Procurement times and engage in greater private sector collaboration.
Thanks Lee! Yes precisely the point. You just be so good at your job... that your work should speak for itself. Irrespective of whats publicly available, what you are doing should be so convincing that it out-beats the rest noise.
BTW, some people still think I am crazy when I say something like that. When I say so, please note that its more like a futuristic concept than a model you can imagine to deploy tomorrow. But if one can keep things of this sort in mind and be prepared, then for sure firms can be much better prepared to face the reality than otherwise! :-)
BTW, some people still think I am crazy when I say something like that. When I say so, please note that its more like a futuristic concept than a model you can imagine to deploy tomorrow. But if one can keep things of this sort in mind and be prepared, then for sure firms can be much better prepared to face the reality than otherwise! :-)
hmm lots of interesting feedback guys! enough for a new blog post :)
