Ensight – Jeremy Wright

I’ll keep updating this post throughout the session, since there’s no audio.

Author’s Note: This is mixed with what Andy said, my thoughts and his quotes. The notes and my thoughts are intermingled. I’ll try and fix the quotes later.

[9:04am]

Andy’s talking right now about the side of participatory communications and how it affected him.

Andy opened it up with the Epic video. Great way to open a keynote. He’s moved into the reality that blogs will happen. You can either block it or enable it.

Jonathan Schwartz from Sun (Andy used to work at Sun) started his blog because he wanted to. Not because anyone wanted him to.

What’s the easiest way to get executives blogging? Get them to read half a dozen key blogs for 2 weeks. They’ll either be chomping at the bit to see this happening or they’ll think it’s utter crap.

[9:07am]

Andy’s a big believer in TypePad, because you can get started in 5 minutes and just try it out. Talking to Tom Collins earlier (me, not Andy) and he mentioned that he encourages people in his Business Blogging Boot Camps to open a TypePad blog and keep it private for at least 2 weeks so you can nail your voice, etc.

Andy just encouraged everyone to start a TypePad blogging. The SixApart guy is smiling

[9:10]

Blogging is great for making sure you’re right: people WILL correct you. Blogs are great for archiving.

“There are bloggers who are journalists, and there are journalists who are bloggers. We are not all journalists.”

Bloggers are breaking as many stories on a daily basis as the Associated Press.

“Blogging is the most important of these movements because of the depth it has”.

[9:15]

This is grassroots. Perhaps not from the social perspective (”Blogging could simply be the only tool that scaled to the point where social interaction was possible on a global scale”), but certainly from a technical perspective.

No CIO went out and said “let’s blog”. It just happened. And companies are now having to deal with blogging as an issue, a technology and a revolution.

[9:20]

Blogs democratize the customer relationship. A customer posting on a blog is just as important as a Fortune 500’s comments.

Information is increasing in value, because it will never be lost. “I’m sitting with Scott McNealy. It’s really amazing how Mark Benioff has made loads of money from this ’software is free’ concept. McNealy said ‘I stuck the idea out there 4 years ago’. This is an idea we’ve had an idea for a long time.”

The Internet doesn’t forget.

“I’m a big evangelist of publishing raw transcripts from interviews and keynotes.”

[9:21]

Andy’s a bit of an ass He’s goading people on with the concept of complete transparency. Always good to push the boundaries. Later today will be about balance I’m sure, but hopefully we don’t lose what is possible!

Google News is a great equalizer. Asian stories pop up first. It’s like a social phenomenon for news. There’s a change in the media dynamic.

[9:25]

Technology has changed the social atmosphere of markets since the beginning of time.

2 general trends: Always been a drift away from mass to more specialized media (model train magazines and home decorating magazines… niche and boutique publications are huge… That’s all blogs are). The broader trend in the media: it’s dominated by a small number of dominant players.

“It behoves us as communicators to go out of our way to support the media that is further down the foodchain. To ensure that they can communicat eand differentiate in the market.”

[9:30]

Media as a business vs. Media as a community. The people are moreimportant than the business and the advertisers.

People go to the sites that have the bes communicators, best arguments, best communicators, best comments. Not to the most high profile. That’s where the ad dollars will go. Invite bloggers who are most influential.

Appointment driven consumption vs On demand news consumption. RSS allows people to get the news when and how they want it. Who cares when the New York Times comes out? We’ll get it when we want to consume it, not when you want to publish it. If you aren’t ready when we want to read, or your content isn’t available to me immediately, you won’t get my eyes.

“RSS is TiVo for the web.”

RSS subscribers are regular readers. Who cares about your visitor numbers? “The subscribers are more important.”

[9:33]

Open Source analysts (bloggers) will kill large scale business analysts. “I would rather read an honest comment from someone who can’t write than a pompous nobody who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

PR flacks aren’t dead. They have a more important role to play, because they actually get to RELATE to the PUBLIC.

[9:35]

Blogs are about the discourse that they allow in project management. “We are launching the project. If someone has a reason why we shouldn’t launch this, TELL ME NOW.” Lack of discourse kills projects. Kills productivity. The time people are most productive in companies is the 4 hours AFTER the weekly meeting. Blogs keep people honest throughout the week. Keeps people informed. Keeps people accountable.

“More of your stories are going to be broken by blogs than by traditional press releases.”

[9:42]

How to create a participatory communications network:

1. Listen: if you don’t listen to the world, you lose all value of the information you’re bringing in.
. Engage and participate vs transmit. “If you aren’t blogging. Cool. But read the top 8 blogs in your industry and comment on them!”
. Advocate vs control. Either you’ll try and control and tame the message and the message bearers. Or you’ll get people in, preach them on the virtues. Blogging is about communication. If you stop people from communicating it’ll get out anyways. It’s like trying to hold water in your hands.
. Bloggers are the canary inthe coalmine: they are the first expression of pleasure and of pain. Employee bloggers: Scobleizer. Recommenders: Engadget & Gizmodo. Track both. Bloggers as Ex-Employees.

[9:47]

Oop, back on topic. Bloggers as evangelists: if you don’t listen and engage in dialog, you’ll get value. Why aren’t airlines technorati’ing what people are saying about them and gauging customer sentiment based on that?

Blogger As Marketer.

[9:50]

1. Authenticity. Opacity (GM blogs) vs Transparency (Scoble). “Why don’t we become transparent? Because we don’t want to give too much away. Competition in the market is based on how much you know vs how much your customers know.”

“Blogging, you see, is a little first ammendment machine.” – Jay Rosen

Jonathan Schwartz wrote an open letter to IBM asking about porting apps to Solaris.

[9:57]

Authenticity axis

Opaque | Best in class
Graveyard | Aspiring

The more your behaviour is inconsistent and inauthentic, and the more transparent you are, the more you’ll hit that “best in class” target. The more your voice is authentic and you are transparent, the more you’ll hit the aspiring target.

“You can’t get away with fluffing the truth. Complete disclosure is your only option.”

“Your only other option is that there is nothing there. Either you are transparent or you saying nothing worth listening to.”

3. Love your “S Web”. Option 1: Conventional PR. Lots of unparticipatory PR. Stories. News pieces, etc. Option 2: start a conversation. Let’s partipate. Ask a blogger to start talking. Don’t tell them what to say. Just be open with them so they can be open with the community. The discussion changes. Key lessons: “We didn’t do it. We aren’t in a position of credibility. We got someone who did to do it.” S Webs are stakeholder webs.

[10:00]

Your ability to track the conversation and the phenomenon will be key to your success. Audience vs Community. An audience listens. A community converses, interacts and feeds back to you.

[10:05]

Have an editorial plan. Think about alternates to blogging. “What does your computer look like? A TV. Stop writing words and start broadcasting audio and video.”

Track the ecosystem (we at InsideBlogging do this). Who’s pointing, driving, linking and making the news?

What’s your “PN” Competency? Do you blog? podcast? search? Do you have a ringtone? Do you use RSS….

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Want your customers to blog? Start your own and show the power of the medium.