Chris Brogan: Listening-Google-Books E-Letter 20080814

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Hello to you!

I know I said I'd have a nifty new template. I haven't actually sat down to implement it yet. Sorry about that. But let's get on with the newsletter, shall we?


In this issue:

The Importance of Listening
What You And Google Both Need
Five Super Cool Applications to Check Out
Books and Social Media
Editorial - The Humbling Truth of Social Media

The Importance of Listening

If you're wondering how a retailer can use social media, check out this article in Internet Retailer about my experience with Garmin. (Side note: notice how Internet Retailer didn't put links to me or Garmin or anyone in their post, but that Blogger's Blogdid when covering it).

Listening is the most important tool that social media equips you with. The more you learn to listen using the free (and even the paid) tools, the more you'll benefit from the experience. Google Alerts isn't enough. Build listening into your practice using these tools:

• Technorati
• Google Blogsearch
• Twitter Search
• Twingly

We've talked about listening before, but at this point, if I talked about it every issue, it wouldn't be enough. Is your business listening? How are you doing it? How do you report on it? What comes next?

What You and Google Both Need

I recently blogged about a problem with Google, where Nick, my company president, lost access to all his Google accounts and the impact of it. The worst part of the story was that there wasn't much in the way of customer service, and not much in the way of outreach.

Except for Matt Cutts

Matt is a blogger and employee of Google. He's also quite active on Twitter, FriendFeed, and all the other social platforms. He came right onto my blog and responded: openly, honestly, and with apologies for how things went down for Nick. This response did a lot for me, and was reacted to by the community as well. When Nick got a personal email from Matt, it went a long way to smooth out the experience.

Businesses need to learn from Google, on both sides of the equation. Having better customer service in place up front, especially if they had something like online chat or Twitter support, would've helped Nick feel heard sooner. But at least having someone like Matt on staff as a trusted resource was a great follow up.

In a world where we all have blogs, and the ability to post our experience online, how fast can your company react, and do you have someone in place to relate with angry online customers? What used to be a luxury might not be in the near future. What's your take?

Five Super Cool Applications to Check Out

Yep, it's that time again. This time, my applications to consider are all over the map. Sometimes literally. Let's dig in.

1. Fire Eagle - Yahoo's location-based development platform is fascinating. There are a few sample apps already on the website, but those are just samples. The cool stuff is yet to come. Get in here and look if you're interested in the bleeding edge. Non-techies, wait a few.
2. Disqus - This is a commenting platform. Where it gets interesting is that it has all kinds of features that make it better than a blog's typical comment system. Further, you can see comments on Disqus on FriendFeed, which opens up discussions for another whole level. Finally, it integrates with WordPress and other blogging platforms, making it feel built right in.
3. Userplane Boards - Think message boards are old and dull? Check out this new version from Userplane. (Saw this on Mashable).
4. Qrowd - dumb name, tricky concept. Take all the web's structured data (okay, not all), and remix it. Pretty neat, but might be tricky for some of us (like me).
5. Alefo - This is neat. Take a chunk out of any website and drag it in here to make it your start page. There are lots of ways you can use this. It's like Netvibes, only *really* customizable.

There you are. We'll give you more to think about next issue. I'm glad you find this section interesting. This issue is a bit obscure, but hopefully, you can find one or two useful things here.

Books and Social Media

I grew up in a book family. I started reading early, thanks to comic books, plus that three-pack of Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet and the Swan. Did you have that set? That's how I learned. I've been in love with books ever since. I think book companies could do a lot with social media.

Communities Around Books

I can see this working great for both certain fiction titles and nonfiction titles alike. When I was huge into fiction, I'd have loved to see a Fight Club message board or similar place to talk about the book. When I read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I'd have loved to geek on Covey's ideas with other fans. Not sure why this isn't common place. Legal reasons? Maybe you know.

Collaborative Platforms

With genre fiction, there's a huge opportunity to let the fan base in to play. Imagine reading the Star Trek books, and then being invited to write interactive story snippets and/or build a character, such that you interact with the setting already created by the authors. There are all kinds of ways to spin this, and yes, the legal perspective is tricky, but the technology and the inspiration is there.

Follow the Leaders

If you're not yet familiar with people like J.C. Hutchins and Scott Sigler, get onto their sites and study them. These two have delivered their own success outside of the mainstream, and in both cases, have raised the mainstream's eyeball with how they did what they did. Learn from them. It will be very useful.

Books and other publications can do so much with social media tools. I could devote a series of posts on it, and maybe I will. But let's start there. Give you any ideas?

Editorial - The Humbling Truth of Social Media

There are some very impressive job titles subscribed to this newsletter. I just sorted you all out by title, and there are hundreds of CEOs, dozens of CXOs (mostly a mix of CIO and CMO), plenty of Vice Presidents, directors, and more. When I realize this, a little bit of a shiver runs through me. You're here because you want to know what's next in Social Media, and you're asking me to be one of the people who keeps you informed.

As someone who's been experimenting and then applying what I've learned almost daily for over a decade, I appreciate your confidence. On another note, this is all still very much a work in progress, this social media thing. We're all figuring it out a little at a time. Here's what I know:

• Podcasting and videoblogging won't make independents wealthy. Oh wait, they've brought in millions to Christopher S. Penn's and Gary Vaynerchuk's small businesses, to name an easy few.
• Blogging won't make you rich. Except for TechCrunch pulling in over $200,000 US a month, and several dozen other examples.
• Customers won't participate in your community. But Dell and Starbucks and GM and dozens more seem to have corrected me here.
• Corporations won't be able to use these tools because of legal concerns. Unless you're Sun or IBM or Johnson & Johnson.

The point is, you have a choice before you. You can either try some things, see what works, see what you can evolve, and throw out the rest. Or, you can sit on the sidelines and wait for more stats, hope for more pertinent case studies, and attend more conferences.

Me? I'm over here figuring out what comes next, and helping implement it here and there. I'm grateful that you're here. I'm hopeful that I can be useful to you. If I've not yet covered the thing you're hoping for me to cover, please reply and let me know. I'm helpful that way.

And as always, thanks for your attention and time.

--Chris...

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