3 posts tagged “ragan”

Odd question posed by Ragan.

• Own as in who should start it? Anyone who has learnt what it is and thinks it's relevant, preferably someone in the internal communications team.
• Own as in maintain it? If it works and grows, then you need to speak to HR and IT. Get some community facilitators on board to help nurture the community.
• Own as in control the conversation/relationships? Shel Holtz says the employees that use it. That is, the community.

Social media internally or externally is not about ownership or the tools, but about the right culture of transparency and trust. Companies will adopt it if it is obvious there is a business benefit, and the learning curve (props Paul Adams) is steep and quick - and should be cheap.

A couple of recent posts from Niall Cook and Ragan show that free speech does have a price.

First, Niall warns seeders and buzz marketers that from May 26, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act comes into force in in the UK. The Act will hit those:

Falsely claiming or creating the impression that the trader is not acting for the purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession, or falsely representing oneself as a consumer.

Over at MyRagan (registration required), Jeff Dunsavage writes that SAP is being sued for $100m for failing to deliver an `out-of-the-box integrated end-to-end solution that increases...effectiveness.' The buzzwords sit at the heart of the claim from Waste Management.

The two examples are from different continents, one online and one in the real world, but both go to trust and transparency. Essential for social media to grow. Don't be stupid.

I like a Java chip frappucinno as much as the next guy when the sun comes out. Venti, no whip, thanks. And I like a blueberry muffin from Costa Coffee. A while ago I noticed that Starbucks had an electronic payment card. Not a bad idea. Costa has one too. Result - I got neither card and pay with my own (or cash as their machines take an age!)

Now there's another counterproductive 'me too' handbags going on - not in the commodity coffee world, but among trans-Atlantic communication groups Ragan and Melcrum. Both have social media systems - myRagan (Where communicators meet) and Melcrum's Communicator's Network (Becasue together we're smarter) - and both are banging the drum about their beta-phase numbers. I'm currently signed up to both and here are a one or three early thoughts:

• Does it matter that Melcrum has stormed past 2,000 members as their note this afternoon proclaimed and myRagan has about 3x that?
• Is the proliferation of social networking systems for internal communicators a good starting point or are they a slow lane to oblivion as open systems evolve much quicker?
• myRagan is more colourful and accomplished in terms of functionalilty at the moment, while the CommsNetwork is cleaner and more mature and adding tools quickly

Options - like Starbucks or Costa - are good. Communicators, however, have a job to do and I can't see how competing systems that currently appear incompatible could help the industry as much as a combined approach.