For those of you who couldn’t make this, here’s the webcast from the excellent panel debate with Biz Stone,, Chief Executive of Twitter, Reid Hoffman Chief Executive of LinkedIn, and Stephen Fry…well you know who Stephen Fry is.
Focussing around Social Media: A Force for Good, the event was organised by NESTA as part of their superb Silicon Valley in the UK initiative.

Very much looking forward to speaking at the Capita breakfast event tomorrow this morning alongside Jon from  Google and Patricia from Capita Resourcing. The event is entitled: Deciphering social media:  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

I am going to be taking a different perspective on social networks tomorrow, focusing specifically on the changing role of search (defined increasingly by social search and real-time search [think Twitter]) , UGC [user generated content] and the impact on brand / employer brand.

As you may know, our view is that a brand’s home page is not [companyname.com] but in fact the Google first page of results for a branded search.  Already social sites / reviews are highly placed in these results but - with the advent of Google Social Search , Side Wiki, Twitter and  so on, every site / brand will become “socialized” - and those brands, like it or not, will be defined by individuals external to the enterprise.  The path in travel (meta search > social search > branded search ) will / is unquestioningly happening beyond that space.

How do brands / employer brands manage this? Well (obviously) seeking to provide the best service / products is the first step, but the key is in building effective advocacy / influencer programmes, and encouraging reviews / feedback - using positive choice architecture- at every turn.  The pres I’ll be working from is below.  See you there (or not.)

Details of the event on Personnel Today

Anybody on Twitter will have noticed the huge #welovenhs debate over the last few days following the rather uncalled for attack by US Republicans, who were trying to bring down Obama’s healthcare reforms. If you want the whole story, the Guardian will tell you all you need to know in the article it published today.

As a French national, I certainly don’t think the NHS is in any way perfect (and nor is the French healthcare system by the way, for those of you who may think I’m partial!), but I must admit I am quite taken by how proudly the Brits on Twitter have responded to the attack. After all the United States have more than 45 million people with no health insurance at all: that’s nearly 16% of their whole population! Anyway, this isn’t what this post is about. I just wanted to draw attention to how social media is changing the way people are able to voice their reaction to an event. With the twittervese leading the charge, comments are flowing on news sites like the Guardian (see link above), and at least one Facebook group has been created so far. A proper demo of cyber-citizenship!

I recently spoke at the British Library on the subject of developing a social media strategy with a focus on social recruiting for the social media in recruitment event

Thanks to those of you who attended the event and participated in the debate afterward.

For those who didn’t I include a copy of the pres below, outlining our 10 x point plan.

It doesn’t mean a great deal without the accompanying commentary, so here is are the key points of nos 1-5.  The rest will follow next week….

1. Are you ready?

In his excellent blog, The CounterIntuitive CEO (a must read for anyone in management) Colony (Forrester CEO) equates social media to sex : i.e. you can read about it as much as you want, but it’s only when you start doing it that you actually get it.

This is sound advice.  Taking it one step further, for us, social media isn’t about having a Facebook fan page or a twitter account; there is way too much tokenism / box ticking right now in this space.  The organisations that are really benefiting from web 2.0/ social utilities are embracing the values that underpin them - transparency, openness, authenticity, conversation. If your organisation isn’t really ready to act in this way, then you’re not really ready.

2. Listening

We’ve written lots of post on this before, and indeed social media monitoring / online reputation management is a key part of the Carve proposition.  We basically used a slide showing 2 ears and 1 mouth as a reminder that it’s critical to listen first. Who is saying what (customers, employees, past employees, potential employees, partners, etc), Where are they saying it (Facebook, forums, blogs, niche communities, etc) and What are they saying? Typically we recommend a full social media audit (about which Jeremiah Owyang blogged recently) if you’re serious about understanding you and your competitors corporate social networking environment.

3. Identify objectives

What do you want to achieve? Get more customers? Get closer to your customers? Give them a better service [think crowd-sourced CRM. If you've no idea what that means look at http://twitter.com/comcastcares then get in contact] In corporate recruitment it might be to attract the top graduates, develop external talent communities for your pipeline;  for recruiters it might mean finding new ways of engaging passive talent,  offering new services to your clients, etc.
Sounds obvious, but without it you’re not building a strategy.

4. Choose your platforms; Decide what you’re going to say

Often your business might want to do everything:  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing,  (Europe’s leading business network if you’re not in the know) YouTube,  a private Ning community… all, you know, like, yesterday.  We advise that (following points 2 and 3) you identify the key platforms for your audiences and make them fly first.

Equally important is - seriously - what the heck are you going to say? There must be a million blogs, twitter accounts, Facebook pages and LinkedIn groups all set up - and all saying nothing. What is going to be your USP? What reason are people going to want to read you / retweet you / quote you / engage you in conversation?
Your organisations thing might be perhaps thought leadership… or the best insight into the market.. or using these tools to encourage peer to peer communities... or to give the deepest insight to the latest jobs… or to help your customers become prosumers and engage in your R&D process… or.. well you get the idea.

A good touch point is the 3C’s - community, content and conversation (as picked up by Recruiter in fact who covered our presentation )

5. Develop a Roadmap, build a team

Having chosen your platform, you need a roadmap for that platform, which a beginning, an end and attendant milestones / KPIs along the way. Here for nothing is a version we’ve developed for LinkedIn from the perspective of  a corporate recruiting environment.

Then build a team.
Do you know the first thing we strive to do when engaged to help an organisation or recruitment firm develop a social media /  corporate social networking strategy? Its to identify an internal champion - someone who really is passionate about dialogue, your customers.  They don’t need to be an expert on Facebook - but they do need to be able to enthuse their co-workers about the whys / wheres / hows of doing this. Secondly, you’ll need someone from your management team involved.   Get corporate comms on board, HR, legal.  And (perhaps) hire yourself a Twinten.

Points 6-10will follow next week. Please find the embedded presentation below.

The FT just published a good article on how brands market themselves on Twitter. The article notably compares how Twitter created a hugely successful viral campaign for KFC’s new grilled chicken, whilst Habitat is still suffering from the backlash to its “#MOUSAVI Join the database for free to win a £1,000 gift card” campaign. To be fair though, the KFC campaign was to get Oprah Winfrey to direct viewers of her show to a web page with a coupon for a free KFC meal. And what happened then? People spread the news furiously on the Twitterverse, bumping KFC to the top trending topic at the time. More than demonstrating KFC’s proficiency in marketing itself on social networks, I think the story here is really about the potential that Twitter - amongst other social networks - shows for brands who utilise the site in the right way.

As Twitter continues its amazing growth, more and more brands are jumping on the ‘Twitter bandwagon’. And whilst it’s all good brands now realise they can’t ignore social networks and have to find a way to work with them, it’s all the more crucial they think long and hard how they’re going to do it. The top down approach: ‘let me evangelise you about my brand’ isn’t working in a web 2.0 environment. If brands don’t start by listening to their customers first and foremost, there is absolutely no way they are going to be able to engage in a conversation the way these customers want to nowadays. Make sense?

We hear more and more about companies hiring ‘twinterns’ - one of these elusive Gen Y that live and breathe social media like no one above the age of 25 can really pretend to. Great step I think, if only for the educational process for c-level managers, as demonstrated by the story of 15-year old Matthew Robson, the Morgan Stanley intern last week. Unfortunately, ‘twinterns’ not managed properly can lead to the Habitat disastrous story.  As Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang tweeted yesterday (@jowyang):

Spoke to a social media strategist at large tech company. Some brands give strategy to interns (native to social) but there are dangers

Interns, while creative, heavy in social, and not ’soiled’ from corporate culture are great at tactics –but may not know business side

I’ve heard from a few brands where energetic bright eyed interns are paired up with slower seasoned executives –to teach each other

Food for thought, surely?

This cartoon blogged on Social Media Today - originally from webcomic masters XKCD - made me laugh out loud, not least because it relates to a deeper truth about the social media. That is, it’s easy to create lots of noise - but it’s who you’re conversing with (not shouting at) that matters, whether you’re a brand - or a government.

Twitter and similar could and should be incredibly valuable tools in the time of (potential) global crises, like a swine flu pandemic. But as the same time, misinformation / rumour / panic could spread faster than the virus itself. As one of the bloggers on SMT puts it, “crowds are almost never wise”.

So its 01:28 UK time, and I was going to write a detailed blog tonight about a couple of things concerning the US presidential elections.

Firstly, probably like the vast majority of the rest of planet that doesn’t have a vote in the US presidential election (an election that arguably effects us as much our own choice of policy makers…), I am rooting for Obama. There is just something about that man which just seems to suggest greatness, a la JFK. That he will (hopefully) become the first black president of the USA is a momentous thing. Let’s just hope the Bradley effect doesn’t ruin the hopes and dreams of a country…and indeed the wider world.

Secondly, I was going to get very excited about how Obama’s use of the internet (and specifically, Web 2.0) in terms of reach, dialogue, reputation management and fundraising . From Obama on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and his websites including www.barackobama.com and www.voteforchange.com, to his mobilisation of bloggers and advocates, his use of the web and web based communications has been just, well, phenomenal. There is a rumour we’ll be launching SocialPolitix next year, offering social media and community engagement consultancy to politicians and political parties, so we’ll address that in another post when I am not so t-i-r-e-d ( Interested? Email SocialPolitix@CarveConsulting.com )

Thirdly, I wanted to look at how the first YouTube Election is being covered online. However, unfortunately many major sites don’t seem to be able to cope with the numbers. At the time of writing CNN.com, ABC, Politico.com are all down; so are bloggers like Andrew Sullivan. Even domain registrar GoDaddy is inaccessible (people going URL crazy with speculative domain names based on the outcome??)

So unfortunately until this all comes back online, our options are limited. Right now I am enjoying Oliver Burkeman Blog on the Guardian, and the faster-than-you-can-read-it stream-of-global-consciousness that is http://election.twitter.com Also am checking out Citizen Tube and The Huffington Post which is just about holding up

Am now going to find out what is happening. More later.. unless I fall asleep… or indeed the internet gives up for good.

Thanks to Alan and the team over at Recruitment Communities Europe for inviting us to speak at the Global Recruitment Conference 2008.

We’re going to be talking about Emmployer Brands and the Social Media and looking at:

- the types of conversations that take place online
- how candidates are using social tools - from blogs and wikis to social networks like Facebook to business networks like LinkedIn and Xing - to validate employer brand proposition.
- why these conversations are important
- the implications for internal and external networks

Perhaps most importantly we’re going to look at how companies can listen to - and participate in - these conversations.

I will also be on the panel discussion on the Thursday:

Social Networks Around The World: How is Web 2.0 Changing Your Daily Life?
Introduction and Chair of Panel Discussion
An De Jonghe (CEO Ulysses Consulting)

Panel Members
Ricardo Risamasu (Rise.NL)
Hank Stringer, (ItzBig)
Isabelle Noir (Viadeo)
Peter Gold (Hire Strategies)
Paul Harrison (Carve Consulting)

There is a great line up of other speakers, and some interesting ideas including an interactive media zone. Details on both below.

The event is taking place in Amsterdam on 11-13 November 2008. There is still I believe some delegate spaces - if you’re interested in coming along quote for Delegate Discount rate of 25%, use Discount code CARVE 250 here

If you’re coming let me know and we can meet for a beer. If you can’t make it wer’ll be twittering highlights so make sure you follow www.twitter.com/CarveConsulting

About the event:

The recruiting conference that delivers it all on a global level.

Following the success of last year’s event in Amsterdam, Global Recruitment Conference 2008 (Amsterdam, 11-13 November) will help corporations from around the globe develop and sustain world-class, industry-leading recruitment and staffing functions. Join this unique and elite group of corporate recruiting leaders to learn and share best practices.

Global Recruitment Conference 2008 will explore the issues that local, continental and global recruiters see as key challenges for today and into the future, including:
• Building and managing a global hiring team
• Employee and corporate branding
• Social and business networking as a recruitment solution
• Building a world class career site
• Maximising the power of Google as a recruitment partner

Add to your learning with the interactive experience of the pre-Conference workshops, which include:
• CyberSleuthing
• Performance Based Recruitment Solutions
• Employment Branding
• Talent Futures
• Psychological Testing – Help or hindrance?

SPEAKERS INCLUDE
Kevin Wheeler
Global thought leader in pioneering the optimisation of recruitment functions and Talent Management

An De Jonghe
CEO Ulysses Consulting, author and thought leader on social networking

John Nurthen
Randstad Holdings

Luke McKend
Industry Head, Careers, Google UK

Roger Holdsworth
Founder/CEO Talent Q. Previously founder of SHL. The guru in the use of psychometrics in recruitment and employee assessment.

On the interactive media zone:

Interactive Media Zone
GRC 2008 will include a unique interactive media zone in the exhibitor/sponsor hall at the conference. This will provide delegates, speakers and sponsors the opportunity to put their opinions out on the web via their selected channels. All delegate catering and social activities take place in the exhibitor hall.

Audio Interviews
Mike Taylor of Web Based Recruitment will be conducting Audio interviews of delegates, speakers and sponsor/exhibitors throughout the event for posting to his site as well as the RCE site. Naturally available for your use as well.
As an example of Mike’s interviews, here is one he has done of conference chairman Alan Whitford this month: http://www.web-based-recruitment.com/expert-interviews.htm

Video Interviews
Bill Vick of Extreme Recruiting will be doing Video interviews of delegates, speakers and sponsor/exhibitors during the lead up to the conference as well as selected remote interviews throughout the event for posting to his site, ERE and Fordyce in the US, YouTube, the GRC and RCE sites and your site in Europe. For examples of Bill’s interviews, including Alan Whitford, see the event home page and visit: http://www.xtremerecruiting.tv/

Blogging Shack
We will have a dedicated blogging area where delegates, speakers and sponsors will have access to the Internet for posting thoughts about GRC 2008 (or any other topics) direct to RCE blogs, their own sites or any other blogging outlet. Super Bloggers from across Europe will be on hand to provide advice to neophytes as well as posting to their own sites. Bloggers will include Louise Triance and Peter Gold of UK Blogging fame.

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? How could something like Twitter threaten a gossip mag like Heat?

Those of you who have already caught the Twitter bug (after several months resistance I seem to actually enjoy this site…. much to my wife’s amusement) will know that this is a rapid fire communications platform. Users are asked to answer the question “What are you doing?” Simple stuff hey? Users have 140 characters to advertise/ promote what they are up to. Many use it to promote their business or service. Some to promote blog posts, some seem to use it as a replacement for internal email. Some people purely and simply answer the question – leading to tweets (to the uninitiated that’s what twitter posts are called by the way) that are as simple as “I’m off to the shops” or “I’m thinking about quitting my job.”

Pretty straightforward.

Where it gets interesting for someone like Heat Magazine (or a Heat reader for that matter) is if you look at some of the people who are using Twitter these days. One or two people you may have heard of:
- Barack Obama (this man must have the best web people behind him. I must at this stage deny any rumours linking the Senator with a Carve Consulting E-PR campaign. As you can imagine, I’m not allowed to go into any details…
- No10 Downing St (We’re definitely not working with Gordon…)
- Kevin Rose (the founder of digg.com – who has in excess of 50,000 followers)
- Diablo Cody (writer of “Juno”)
- Henry Rollins (former punk rocker now political activist)
- Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook – who currently has his tweets protected, come on Mark, open it up! Wait a minute…. do you think we could get a big enough Facebook group to persuade him?)

Given Twitter originated in the US our friends across the water have adopted this a little quicker, however there are one or two signs that UK celebs may just be getting in on the act… Now who would be top of your Twitter wish list? We’d go for:
- Russell Brand
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Sir Alex Ferguson (preferably discussing Ronaldo’s “slave” antics, live on Twitter)
- Gordon Brown – the real one, not whoever is doing No10 Downing – web 2.0 is all about being real – and transparent. Come on Gordon!
- Billy Connolly
- Liam and Noel Gallagher
- Sienna Miller

Other than Carve Consulting (www.twitter.com/carveconsulting - follow us!) and myself (http://twitter.com/alexstrang) who would you like to be able to follow on Twitter? Wishlists in the comments box please… Bottle of Carve Cava to the best wish list (decided upon by a neutral judge, highly likely to be my wife….)

OK that’s the fun side of Twitter. Anyone interested in a follow up post on more business related uses of Twitter (like how to get instant, real customer feedback – and how US recruiters are using Twitter to source professional staff.) If so drop us a line and we’ll follow this post up.

A very interesting initiative that we’ve just been made aware of (via http://twitter.com/downingstreet) has been launched to under the title: ‘Show us a better Way’.

The website carries the following mandate:

Tell us what you’d build with public information and we could help fund your idea!

Here’s an excerpt from the first post:

Ever been frustrated that you can’t find out something that ought to be easy to find? Ever been baffled by league tables or ‘performance indicators’? Do you think that better use of public information could improve health, education, justice or society at large?

The UK Government wants to hear your ideas for new products that could improve the way public information is communicated. The Power of Information Taskforce is running a competition on the Government’s behalf, and we have a £20,000 prize fund to develop the best ideas to the next level. You can see the type of thing we are are looking for here.

To show they are serious, the Government is making available gigabytes of new or previously invisible public information especially for people to use in this competition. Rest assured, this competition does not include personal information about people.

So, central government plugs into power of peering, being open, and sharing. Clearly someone in Whitehall is reading Wikinomics - which has got to be good news for all of us.

Look forward to following this with interest. And two cheers for someone over there whose idea this was (three cheers on final outcome). Ending the introduction / call to action thus is absolutely spot on:

“We’re confident that you’ll have more and better ideas than we ever will. ”