Groove sharing, v2

 

 

If I were to tell you that “sharing” was met with fear, confusion, consternation and a scant level of curiosity would that sound familiar? Well, then we share the same experience. Change management is not about cheerleading; at least not solely about cheerleading, so we’ve learned. Everyone said it was a GREAT idea that we start eating our own dog food. Everyone agreed that our value proposition, applauded by our inner circle of clients, employees, and friends, would be embraced by a broader community if we simply got the message into the market. Everyone agreed that we were actually living “sharing” at the client level, enabling our clients' customers to “feel, learn, do or be.” And everyone agreed that “sharing” was a top-three priority for the organization.

 

But that’s where everyone stopped agreeing.

 

So we’re now living another maxim of the organization: slow down to get there faster. We have to slow down to add structure, clarity, directives, and support to our “sharing” program. The Client Services team is creating IP and sharing it through channels like Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, Flickr and such. We’re also joining communities where our clients live and learn.  We’ve identified brand advocates (creators and critics) and brand loyalists (collectors, joiners, and spectators). For the most part we’re learning and listening, all being loyalists, because we really need to understand the environment before we add a voice. Hopefully, as everyone gains confidence over the next few weeks we’ll transition to advocates. Interesting discovery was that “sharing” becomes a personality thing – some will become great advocates and some will play another role as loyalists. Take our technology clients: some folks within the organization advocate innovation, killer apps, and market trends. Others deal with programmer blogs and customer service. Both vital but very different.

 

The rest of the organization is just getting their feet wet. They need structure first. We’re providing the tools and some education. For now they are spectators and that’s fine. Tools are hugely important because jumping on board is hugely intimidating. Sarah Hartshorn at Social Media Today provided solid advice about tools (most of us are using Tweet Deck: http://bit.ly/9JTYGD). Once the structure is in place we're going to provide the space for them to explore, get comfortable, and grow. Then we'll figure out the editorial calendar. For now it's just about comfort... for everyone.

 

More soon.