I’ve just returned from the “Generating Buzz: Building awareness through social networks and word of mouth advertising” session held by the Access Group (with sponsorship from IBM) at Second City.

This was the second “kitchen table” session that I have attended (the first is described here). This one was different from the first in that it was bigger – about 60 people, vs. about 30 in December – but it was consistent in that it featured a combination of panel and roundtable discussions, a format that seems to serve all of the attendees very well.

I was a panelist at this session, so my ability to take notes was pretty limited. Still, though, I did get an opportunity to participate in some of the roundtable discussions, notebook in hand – so when the “grand finale” came around, I had jotted down at least a few ideas that I can share here as well.

At the close of the session, moderator Rick Wolfe asked each of the panelists to highlight one thing that they had heard during the day, and to ask the audience one question that would help them to orient their social networking strategy over the next year.

For the first part of my response, I chose to expand on comments made by Jinha Chung, owner of Miax Project Services, and Craig Brown, Senior Manager, Customer Experience Strategy for Allstream. As Jinha was talking about the need to implement Web 2.0 technologies despite the difficulty in quantifying the ROI, I found myself considering his remarks in the context of an earlier observation by Craig (in which he said something to the effect of, “could you build an ROI case for email?”). I decided that in some ways, quantifying the impact of social technology – especially with respect to reaching “generation y”-aged prospective employees and/or customers – is a little bit like doing an ROI on slang. It may not be easy to establish the precise value of building a better ability to understand/communicate with employees and customers, but there is evident benefit in developing the capability nonetheless. And over time, as social networking/media becomes even more prominent – as it continues to displace television as a primary means of communicating with mass audiences – the analogy will shift from “the ROI on slang” to “the ROI on oxygen”.

For the second part of the answer – the question that would help event participants to shape/evolve their social media strategy – I opted for a two-part response. The first was, “Are you able to establish an authentic voice in the online discussions that take place around your category, your products, and your brand and competitors?” I went on to say that those who are successful in this can move on to the next question – “can you guide the conversations around your category, your products, your brands and competitors?” I closed by saying that when the Access Group repeats this session next year, I would be happy to sit in the audience and listen to those who had managed to meaningfully address both questions.

Other notes on the event…

In the closing remarks, I really enjoyed two observations. One was from John Reid, President of CATA, who pointed out that it is essential to create “structure to integrate these technologies” into business processes. John wasn’t limiting his point to technology architectures – and I think he’s correct in stating that management _frame_works that enable organizations to take advantage of sophisticated IT-enabled capabilities are more important to success than the mere existence of the technology itself.

Another interesting observation came from Steve Johnson of Second City, who pointed out that success depends on management’s ability to “create an environment of trust and transparency.” This, too, is clearly true: all social interactions require a degree of trust, and long-term relationships require an element of transparency. Neither attribute is native to the technology itself; management needs to work to ensure that its staff and/or customers (for internally and/or externally focused initiatives) believe in the trustworthiness and transparency of the medium and the messengers.

One last point – instead of an observation and a question, I expected Rick Wolfe to ask us for “takeaways” from the session. I prepared three, and I’d like to share them before I turn the page in my notebook. They are:

There are three ways to use social networking/social media technology: in recruitment, in building more efficient internal collaboration, and/or in engaging customers, prospects, or other third parties. It’s important to be clear on which strategy you’re pursuing – what you are hoping to achieve – so that your efforts and metrics are aligned with your objectives.

Don’t get sucked into the “crowd-powered wisdom” vs. “wisdom of the individual experts” debate. This is a mugs' game, perpetuated by people who have a vested interest in the outcome. In the end, the answer is “and”, not “or”; success will come from combining the perspectives of individual experts with the knowledge that comes from mass participation in meaningful debate.

Etiquette matters. It’s easy to treat social media as an extension of traditional media – and as a result, to treat individuals as faceless members of a mass audience. That’s a mistake in the online world. If you want someone to visit your site, visit theirs, and figure out where they are coming from before you send them an email; if you want someone to add value to your site by contributing their ideas and observations, be prepared to share ideas/observations that they will find valuable as well. It seems self-evident, but a key to interactive media is understanding that it is interactive – you need to be prepared to participate, not just package and broadcast.