Back in 1980, Michael Porter (most famous of creating Porter’s Five Forces) published the study Competitive-Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. It was more or less the beginning of what you today would call Competitive Intelligence - the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization.

Be Curious. Wonderfully photographed by Patricia Glogowski.

Personally I think that time has come for change. Organisation and brands today tend to believe managers are supposed to create business development departments that make sure the company stays ahead of competition. I don’t agree. In the complex world we live in it’s time to make each and every employee a part of that competitive intelligence process. In other words it’s up to you. You are the ones that can make it happen.

A constant flow of information.

The world is becoming smaller and smaller. The Internet has erased borders and will sooner or later erase even language barriers. As a result your company isn’t fighting the local competitor around the corner any more. Your brand and even you are going global. When you apply for your next job you’ll find yourself beat by someone who doesn’t even speak your language. On top of this the things you know might  not even be worth knowing tomorrow. In fact, the half-life of your knowledge has gone from a lifetimes worth to three years according to research Fredrik Svensson referred to (YouTube in Swedish) as we (and my speech in Swedish) both spoke at Digdel some time ago.

As a result of all this we all have to listen, read and learn more about everything, every day, and every hour. It’ll be what your success depends on in the future.

Here’s Johan Ronnestam’s formula for keeping track of the world.

Back in 1996 I started to gather information online with different tools. It’s funny cause I’ve never enjoyed reading books on trends but online reading never seems to kill my curiosity. I guess it’s the fact that online information often is as fresh as it can come. It’s real time. So, here we go:

Netvibes – My hub of inspiration

My first and foremost tool is my Netvibes reader account that I’ve written about before. It’s filled with all kinds of things and to make sure I read the feeds I’ve entered the Netvibes site as my home page which means that every time I open my browser I’m being fed good things from all around the world – every day, every hour and every minute.

Netvibes – The source of my inspiration

Netvibes is simply an RSS reader that I’ve filled with about 350 blogs and websites that I think is necessary to keep track of. The content is a mix of both things I do have to read and other stuff that surprises me every day. When you’re looking to keep track of the outside world – make sure you’re constantly surprised by things you didn’t know you wanted to know about.

On top of that I’ve also filled it with filtered feeds. As an example I’ve gathered about 70 design blogs that are being pulled into one feed with the help of Yahoo Pipes. Another example is reading the top most saved bookmarks on Delicious. This way you’ll make sure that you read stuff you never dreamed of reading.

Netvibes is also the ultimate tool when it comes to creating dashboards in order to keep track of both your own brand and potentially your competitors. Head over to my other post on that subject.

Sharing is caring
Since I believe in sharing I also decided to post my Netvibes file here (right click to download) so that you can get going faster than you ever thought was possible. Then head over to my guide on how to install it here.

Twitter – Real time social P2P information distribution

Writing about things like this and not mentioning Twitter (here’s my Twitter account by the way) would be a crime. For many people Twitter seems like that stupid 140 character social network where people tell the world (that doesn’t listen) that they just brewed a cup of coffee. Nothing could be more wrong. Twitter, to me, is the ultimate combination of knowing what’s up in the world, keeping in touch with friends and other people who you don’t really know but might be interested what you’re up to.

Once you’ve registered an account you should of course start to follow a bunch of people. On Twitter there’s this thing called ‘follow friday’ where you more or less recommend your followers who to follow. Other people on Twitter tend to follow everyone back that follows them. In my case I actually try to read most tweets through out the day and given the fact that I’ve got more than 4000 followers it would be impossible to do just that. So in my case I’d say that my #FF are the 429 people I follow today.

In Twitter you can create your own lists (here are some I’m listed in) or follow other peoples lists. This is also unmatched. If you quickly wanna get updated (in real time) on a specific subject. Just go ahead and search for some authorities and then have a look at which lists these people are placed in. Follow one of those lists and you’ll be amazed how many great things you’ll learn in no time.

Don’t get stuck with the Twitter site. Use Tweetdeck or something similar.

When you start your Twitter venture. Don’t forget to download some kind of Twitter reader to your desktop. Using Twitter via their webpage just wont work over time. There are tons of different tools you can use. Personally I use Tweetdeck for my computer and an app called Osfoora for the iPad and iPhone. As with everything else – keep experimenting and try different tools as you get more used to this social network.

Finally, using Flipboard as stated below, in combination with Twitter and Twitter lists is the ultimate laid back ‘keeping up to date’ tool.

Flipboard – Social Reading.

This app for my iPad is the most wonderful tool in the world. Not only does it let me read my Facebook accounts and my Twitter feeds as a book. On top of that I can enter other Twitter lists, searches, Flickr accounts and most importantly Google reader accounts.

Flipboard lets you read feeds relaxed and focused

What I’ve done here is analyzed my Netbives reading behavior and then collected the 50 most important ones. I’ve then imported these into my Google reader account that I personally don’t use in my computer since I think the presentation mode stresses the hell out of me and makes it impossible for me to stay on top of my content. But with the help of Flipboard that problems is solved.

By downsizing my Netvibes feeds into the most important feeds and reading these on my iPad I’ve got the perfect tool to keep track of the world when I’m on a plane, a bus, a train or just wanna lay down on the couch and consume inspiration.

Delicious – Social Bookmarking

Another tool of mine is Delicious. It’s more or less a social replacement of your bookmark manager that you’ve got in your browser. The difference is that it’s cloud based and therefor always accessible. Comment your bookmarks and tag them with keywords and slowly but surely you’ll turn your bookmark history into a searchable history. Personally I like to tag things with both keywords, client names that they might be important for and finally cases that I often use when I speak in public.

(Note. Yahoo has signaled that they might shut Delicious down. But it seems it wont happen any time soon)

Instapaper – Turning Internet Pages Into ‘Books’

Then of course there are always resource that might seem to long to read of the screen. The computer screen that is. The Instapaper combined with your iPad or iPhone is the ultimate tool.

Instapaper turns ugly websites into a beautiful read

When you end up finding yourselves short of time, simply save the link to Delicious and then click ‘read later’ that you’ve place on your bookmark bar once you’ve created an account over at Instapaper. Boom – now that site of yours is transformed into book-look-alike that you can open on your mobile device. Once there you can favorite, archive or delete the text.

Ouora – Ask And You’ll Be Answered

Got a question. Quora probably got the answer. Otherwise just go ahead and ask. It’s as simply as that.

LinkedIn groups – Social professionals

LinkedIn hasn’t really turned in to my favorite tool just yet. But I do like the groups in there. The best part of that are usually the summaries that are being sent to me via email. I’m a member of some 40+ groups at the moment and even though lots of them are filled with spam – every now and then a pile of diamonds pour out of that network.

Facebook – Reach more than 600 million people!

Last but not least. Let’s not forget Facebook in this post. Finally, tons of good things come to me via Facebook. Both from the people I’m connected with, but also through the groups and pages I’ve liked. Use the search in Facebook and find the groups and pages that match your interests.

So. That’s how I do it. Of course I could go on about podcasts, Slideshare, YouTube, Flickr tons of other sites. But the stuff mention above is what I constantly come back to every day.

Feel free to leave your own tips in the comment field!

I am pretty darn proud to announce that I’ve been picked as a member on the jury of the first international social media award show for communication and marketing professionals. The award show called The Bees Award will be held in San Francisco on November 9 later this year and it’s open for submissions as of today.

The Bees Award have gathered some of the leading social media experts from around the world to judge this award and I’m honored to be included in that list. Apart from the honor it’s also a great opportunity for me to scan some of the best case studies in the world when it comes to social media. I’m sure once the 9th of november has passed I’ll be packed with inspiration to share with you guys.

This new buzzing contest will award winners in the following categories:

• Best 140 Characters (SMS, Tweet)
• Best Use of a Micro-Blogging Platform
• Best Use of a Social Media Platform
• Best Use of mobile
• Best Relationship With Bloggers
• Best Conversation with Customers
• Best Use of Alternative Tool(s)
• Best Use of Media Press Room
• Best Writing
• Best Art Direction
• Best Social CRM
• Best Student Work
• Best Innovation
• Best Campaign
• Agency of the Year
• Client of the Year

And besides me, here’s the jury and their twitter accounts and blogs:

• Liz Strauss – Chicago, USA (@lizstrauss)(Liz’s Blog)
• Gary Goldhammer – Los Angeles, USA (@g24khamr) (Gary’s Blog)
• Paul Hoffman – Woodstock NY, USA (@hoffmanpaul) (Paul’s Blog)
• Mitch Joel – Montreal, Canada (@mitchjoel)(Mitch’s Blog)
• Helder Araujo – Sao Paolo, Brazil (@haraujo)
• Jesus Hoyos – Mexico City, Mexico (@Jesus_Hoyos)(Jesus’ Blog)
• Ralf Rottmann – Dortmund, Germany (@24z)(Ralf’s Blog)
• Matt Rhodes – London, UK (@mattrhodes)(Matt’s Blog)
• Eric Maillard – Paris, France (@PRland)(Eric’s Blog)
• Gaurav Mishra – New Delhi, India (@Gauravonomics)(Gaurav’s Blog)
• Rajiv Dingra – Mumbai, India (@rajivdingra)(Rajiv’s Blog)
• Andre L. Pan – Shanghai, China (@popoever)(Andre’s Blog)
• Isaac Mao – Boston, USA/Shanghai, China (@isaac)(Issac’s Blog)
• Li Ang Wang – Shanghai, China (@WebLeOn)(Li Ang’s Blog)
• Gao Ming – Shanghai, China (@gaoming)(Gao’s Blog)
• Toru Saito – Tokyo, Japan (@toru_saito)(Toru’s Blog)
• Alister Cameron – Melbourne, Australia (@alicam)(Alister’s Blog)
• Dave Duarte – Cape Town, South Africa (@DaveDuarte)(Dave’s Blog)

So, what the heck are you waiting for. Make sure me and the other jury members eyeball your social ideas!

I have gotten the question over and over again from people, organizations and brands: “How do we start a blog the right way” – I’ve decided to put my advice into writing.

Some of you might think this post is unnecessary. Other people have written about this already. I thought so too until I started searching for good posts on how to set up a kick ass blog and learned most things written on the subject either covered the tool or the actual writing but not actually leading you to do it the right way I think there’s room for another post on the subject.

The purpose of this post is sort of a combination of two things that I hope will lead to the following:

1. Make sure agencies cannot charge big money for setting up your blog. Setting up your personal or branded blog is to me a democratic right and should be free and accessible for anyone who has something to share.
2. I think more people should start a blog. It’s good for you. It’s good for the democracy. It’s good for the world.

Here is the essential guide on how to start and configure a blog that will rock the world:

1. Buy a unique domain name for your blog and preferably do it at the same place where you intend to host the blog

Personally I’ve followed WordPress own recommendations and used Bluehost.com to buy my domain name and then installed a WordPress blog with their simple script functionality. It’s a 3 minute process from registering that domain until your blog is actually up and running and accessible from anywhere in the world. It’s a wow feeling!

Of course you can pick any hosting facility but if you’re not into setting up databases and shit – make sure they have some sort of simplified way of setting your blog up.

2. Why a WordPress blog?

The famous WordPress content management system

There’s of course different blog systems but if you want the best I’d say you should go with Matt Mullenweg’s WordPress. I think most professional bloggers today would agree with me and the stats speaks in favor of me. WordPress is the most used blogging platform (and in many cases content management system) in the world and as a result you cannot find any system that gives you more themes and more plugins.

Matt Cutts who’s responsible for Google’s search engine even says there’s no better tool in the world if you wanna make sure your website is being watched the right way by Google’s spiders.

3. Don’t design your blog. Find a theme that you think suits your needs and tweak it.

Theme is another word for design. WordPress separates functionality from form in the most beautiful way. Swapping between different designs is easier than saying hello in Swahili. What’s even better is the fact that there’s tons of great designs out there for free. However if you intend to turn into a mighty blogger you might look already now look into a paid theme. Woothemes and Themeforest has some sweet themes for any kind of business.

Personally however I prefer the Thesis theme by Brian Clark over at Copyblogger and Chris Pearson. The sweet thing with Thesis is that it can be customized into infinity with hooks and customized functionality. Another advantage with Thesis is the fact that it’s more or less perfectly prepared for Google and other search engines. Once you’ve decided on a theme – upload it with a FTP software of your choice and ad your own logo and style to it. Personally I use CSS Edit to tweak the style sheets but any old CSS tool will do.

4. Set up your WordPress blog right

Once you’ve set up your blog you can login to your domainname.com/wp-admin with your login information. Take some time to get acquainted to the left menu. Later when you start to write you will use the Post menu to start blogging. Of course you can set up a couple of pages too but the actual blogging will be done by adding posts.

5. Change the link structure

Setting the right permalink is one step closer to success

You don’t want to use the original set up in WordPress when you’re going live. This will decrease the Google traffic. Instead head into the menu settings called Permalinks found under ‘Settings’ and change the permalink structure from http://www.ronnestam.com/?p=123 to /%postname%/ . There are some different opinions out there which structure is the right one. But I’ve found over time that most people tend to recommend this one.

6. Make sure your blog pings the right blog search engines and portals

Google, Yahoo, Technorati, Swedish Knuff and a lot more sites out there are listing and indexing blogs. WordPress has got this sweet functionality that lets you automatically update these blogging portals once you’ve posted something new. There’s of course different ideas on how to do this. But I’ve decided to share my personal PING information here.

Just ad the ‘code’ below to start updating search engines etc

Copy this information below and enter it into your Update Services option that you’ll find under Settings/Writing

http://rpc.pingomatic.com

http://ping.weblogs.se/

http://blogmatcher.com/u.php

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php

http://ping.myblog.jp

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de

http://1470.net/api/ping

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

http://nyligen.se/ping/

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://rpc.twingly.com/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

Copy the ‘code’ above and paste it into the bottom field under the section Writing in settings. This way you’ll make sure your content is visible to the important search engines online.

7. Choose your title wisely

You’re almost done configuring the settings. The last thing you might wanna do is setting up the title of your blog. You’ll find that under General Settings.

Choose this one carefully as you shouldn’t change this one later. Once you’ve earned some page rank and you’re up to speed you don’t wanna make Google angry by messing with this one since it actually sits on ever single post from now on.

8. Download and install the following WordPress plugins

Find and learn how to use an FTP software. That’s important for anyone who wants to keep a website updated. For bloggers it’s essential since WordPress plugins and themes are the corner stones of a good blog. Others have written great stuff how to choose the right FTP for PC or Mac so I’ll leave that part to them.

The essential plugins that I think you need to install for your blog however – that I’ll share here. All your other needs can probably be catered for if you search for WP plugin and whatever you want either on Google or in the WordPress plugin library. Hell, you can even turn your blog into an E-commerce with the right setup.

These are the WordPress plugins I think you should make sure to start with:

Aksimet
Activate the Aksimet plugin to take care of SEO spammers, bots and trolls. No need to download this one – it’s inside WordPress and waiting for you!

Disqus or Intensedebate

The Disqus plugin let’s people join the conversation

Install a commenting system that treat your conversation right. This is what Disqus and Intensedebate does. On this blog I’ve had Disqus making sure visitors can interact the way the want. Lately however I’ve grown more fond of Intesedebate and only weeks ago I activated that on my Whisky blog in order to try it out. I think maybe I’ll switch on this blog too soon. One advantage with one of these plugins over how WordPress treats comments is the fact that you gain a small social spread over other networks. The biggest advantage however is that people can choose to login and comment with Facebook connect, OpenID, Twitter accounts and personal Disqus or Intense Debate accounts.

WP Super Cache
You’ll do fine without this plugin until the day you do something really really right. Let’s say for example that you end up on the first page of Digg.com, the online social newspaper, then tens of thousands people will swarm your blog for blood (your post that is) and only seconds later your server will crash. WP Super Cache takes care of this and turns every page in to static html pages that lets people ride rodeo over that blog of yours without falling off. You need WP Super Cache.

The All In One SEO Pack or the HeadSpace 2 SEO plugin
Same here. If you’ve gotten Thesis as your theme then move on to the next bullet. If not this plugin is essential. SEO is an art form many people have yet to master. But using the All In One SEO plugin will at least give you the right tools. [updated] Simon Sundén suggested I should ad the HeadSpace2 plugin as an alternative (in his mind better). So now I’ve done that. Thanks Simon!

Tweetmeme Retweet Button
The Tweetmeme retweet plugin is what places a small Tweet This button along every blog post. Just like the green little thing I’ve got on top of this post (press that one please). Sometimes you’ll write posts that people love. Then Tweeting that post is the fastest and simplest way for them to show their love. Other people that might land on your post will be more eager to read through your post if it has been tweeted many times. It’s like a quality mark. Make sure you’ve got an own Twitter account to go with this one since it will earn you followers over time if it’s your ID that is being retweeted.

WP FollowMe

By using the WP Follow Me plugin you’ll get a nice little bird watching over your blog
Make it easy for people to follow you on Twitter. This plugin places a badge to the right (or left if you want) on your blog that makes following you easy.

SexyBookmarks
In the bottom of every post on my blog you can see a set of buttons that lets you share my blog posts easily over your personally preferred social network.

I’ve decided to go with the plugin Sexy Bookmarks. I like the functionality and the tone of voice. However before I started using this one I had the plugin Share This taking care of business and it did a good job to so I’ll give that one a shout too.

PingPressFM
Allows you to spread your wonderful blog to 10+ social networks via Ping.fm.

Google XML Sitemaps
In order for Google to be able to list your blog the right way you should install this plugin. This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.

WP DB Backup
Last but not least. If you keep on writing every week or maybe even every day you’ll sooner than later end up with some kick as quality inside your database. WordPress usually don’t break down but we all know of Mr Murphy. That’s why you need to perform a back up every now and then. Don’t rely on your hosting service, even these guys mess up (trust me I’ve been through it a couple of times) that’s why this is best done with WP DB Backup. Then make sure you got Dropbox or something to place your personal backup in the cloud since we all know Mr Murphy will probably put your computer on fire otherwise.

Redirection
Manage all your 301 redirects and monitor 404 errors with this little plug.

WP Cforms
Make sure you don’t write that email of yours as it spells out since that will only award you with tons of spam. Instead write something like: nameATdomainDOTcom. Most people will get that. Also remember to inform people about your social presence on networks like Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Fan Pages (don’t use Groups), Skype, Slideshare, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and more. It’s also a good thing is always to post an extra page where you use the plugin WP Cforms to let people get in touch with you through a classical form. Personally I’ve also written my phone number on that contact page. Talking to people is after all very nice!

9. Time to start writing that blog post of yours?

I wont tell you what, how and why to write something. Other people have given great guidelines on that before me, both on style and SEO parameters. My only advice would be – find your own voice. Writing like other people will never get you anywhere.

However, once you’ve written that post of yours remember a few things:

Tag your content with relevant keywords.
Keywords will serve both Google and your readers with information. On top of this there’s some sweet tag clouds you can use to make people crawl your blog for more.

Ad the post not only to one category but to many.
By creating a set of categories that is relevant to your blog (not more than 15 though) you’ll help your readers to find the right posts later when your blog is filled with wisdom.

Remember to make use of that added SEO functionality
You’ve got a set of tools that came along with Thesis or The All In Once SEO Plugin. Use them! This means writing a specific header for Google. One that will earn you more readers (hopefully). Don’t worry – it won’t show up in your post.

Edit the URL of the blog post.
Make sure it’s relevant, SEO optimized and not to long.

Preview before posting!

Post at a good time of day.
I’ve written a longer post on the Social Viral Spiral that covers this subject.

10. Spread the love

Pick a series of social networks where you spread that love of yours further. Facebook and Twitter being the obvious ones. But don’t forget about all the rest. Think about what your content is all about and where people might be interested to read it – seed it there!

On top of this you should also remember to change the RSS feed into something like Feedburner for example. It gives you more control over it and you’ll be able to track your engagement.

I know tons of people link like crazy to other blogs in order to get higher rankings on different blogging portals. Personally I hate this. You should of course link to content that is of great importance to your blog. But linking to tons of blog posts only to gain traffic – that’s spam according to me.

11. How do you know your blog is doing good?

People tend to set up blogs and then they’re tracking the stats while wondering why nothing happens. Here’s a few pointers that might help you on the path to blogging heaven.

Comments and trackbacks
Once you’ve pressed publish your post is out there. This means it’s all out there. The entire world can now interact with you. Since you’ve opened up for comments (blogs are all about conversation) you’ll have to be prepared to actually respond to what people are saying about your brand. Trackbacks will also show you other blogs and sites linking to your content. Make sure you follow them to interact and praise fans or defend your standpoint.

Statistics
Ever blog should have a Google analytics account set up. That’s sort of hygiene. It will teach you a lot about your online presences and turn you into a professional blogger.

However for daily and even hourly stat reads I’m using Mint. It’s not free but at a low cost you’re getting a quick overview of where people are coming from and what they’re engaging. Seeing that traffic build up only minutes after a blog post turns you on – I promise. That’s the energy you need to keep on writing.

Is your content engaging?
Personally I’ve set up a Postrank analytics account that gives me a good idea of whats actually happening after I press that publish button. Postrank is a tool that measures the online engagement with your content. No engagement = not a good post (or at least no one else thinks so) Lots of engagement = you did something right.

Track your brand online!
Last but not least – remember to track your brand online in order to engage if people pick up and comment/debate that post of yours. I’ve written that guide on how monitor your brand online before.

Now it’s all up to you – I’m looking forward to reading your posts!

A common question I get from companies is “How do we get people inside our company to spend time on our intranet”. My answer is always – “make sure you tie your intranet closely to your daily operations”.

Make people feel visiting the intranet has something to do with their work and not only for the fun of it. Only this way will you create the need for the collaboration, socialization and engagement that an active intranet (and your company) needs. This however turns out to be a major problem for most companies since it’s to freaking hard and expensive to integrate ERP systems with existing intranet technologies.

Well – not anymore. Through Mashable I learned today that Salesforce is launching Salesforce Chatter. This is a Facebook lookalike that integrates email, intranet, office solutions, ERP systems and more into one platform built on the cloud concept Force. On top of that Chatter actually lets you connect the real Facebook and Twitter. (Sad for you companies that doesn’t allow your staff to spend time on Facebook and Twitter).

Salesforce, that for example also provides the engine behind Dell Ideastorm and My Starbucks idea and Salesforce CRM has got things wired huh?

Honestly there’s simply no need for any company to keep their building on their own intranet. Press delete and move to something like Chatter and you’ll see people will start to interact. After all, if their not they’re loosing business.

If you wanna stay ahead of the game tomorrow you can simply not stay put in systems that cost a fortune and becomes updated every third year.

Think social media and conversational marketing might be the next train to heaven for your brand but don’t know where to board? Well, here’s three social media marketing models that will make sure you’ll find your station.

If you wanna get moving into the social country of love where conversation rules you’ve gotta get one thing straight. Valuable content is king. Buying a loudspeaker and start tweeting wont get you anywhere. Swedish brands like Comhem and Boxer have effectively proven that just twittering the 140 sign language doesn’t earn you any followers. Every social network will provide you with it’s own possibilities and traps. A well executed strategy is a must or you’ll end up in a minefield.

Here are 3 models by Johan Ronnestam that will guide your brand towards a successful social media strategy.

3 Models That Will Guide You Into The Social Media Landscape

1. The Social Staircase

   The Social Staircase is a model that focus on the overall process. It’s the stuff that pays for your ticket to love.

2. The Social Tool Matrix

   Now you know what kind of presence your business needs. Now it’s time to map the tools to make sure you know what to keep your mouth shut, when to speak and when to listen.

3. The Social Viral Spiral

   This is about speed. Spread that love I’m talking about below. But make sure you do it with finesse and timing. Create a couple of Social Viral Spirals and you’re ready to make out!

How your brand makes good use these three models is entirely up to you. When I’m working with brands within this area I off course spend quite a lot of energy and time on getting it right. But hopefully it will be of value for you without my help. Here we go:

1. Get your strategy right with the Social Staircase

The Social Staircase consists out of 4 steps that guides your brand into the conversation landscape called Social Media

I have outlined 4 steps that make up the Social Staircase. These are the ones I’d suggest you’d use too when you wanna move into the social room.

• Step 1 -Strategy
  Establish a strategy that supports your business. Whatever you do in life you should have a strategy in place that supports your business. In other words this means you should strive to achieve your vision, your goals and making sure you don’t loose money while doing it. This should be your approach to social media initiatives too.You should of course be prepared to risk money since it’s still an early adoption initiative. But still you should strive to measure results and revenues. Sooner or later your boss will ask you what he’s paying for and then that answer should be well prepared.

• Step 2 – Presence
  The mother of all conversions is content. Think about it – when you’re at a party, how long do you think your conversation would last if you didn’t provide any true value. Bullshit or merely staying quiet wont earn you any new friends. Of course some people you’ve known since way back will stay put but sooner or later even them will stop inviting you to their party.

  I haven’t bothered to create any models for this step. It’s a simple rule. Think about you and your business. What value can you provide people with and in what format? Blogs, Video, Photos, Podcasts, Livestreams, Advisory, Games, Knowledge etc. Based on your strategy in step 1 – what kind of value can you provide your target group and potential fans with? Cause that should always be your goal – turning people into fans! If you’ve done your homework this should work like a charm.

  If you’re looking for inspirations. Head over to the Social Media Wiki.

• Step 3 – Tools
  Ok. So know you know that kind of presence you’re after. Then it’s time to gear up. Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare, WordPress, LinkedIn, Scribd, Google Buzz might be the obvious ones. But dig deeper – there’s something for everyone out there and you should consider where your content will do the boogaloo at it’s best!Tools defined? Then move on and figure out when to run with it and when to slow down. Move over to the conversation step, create a set of social viral spirals and get down to business.

• Step 4 – Conversation
  Listen. Talk back. Listen. Talk back. Listen. Talk…This is what a conversation is all about. We could actually call it interactivity. You create valuable content and then once you let it out in the open – listen and learn how to fine tune those spirals of yours.

  (I’ve posted stuff before on the listening part and so have others – that’s of course crucial in this phase. Since neither me or them have posted a tip on Silverbakk then here it is.)
  

  You should avoid creating to many spirals. They will only confuse you. But on the other hand if you got to few you might not hit the right spots. After all, segmentation has been around for ages and it’s not for the fun of it. Segmenting who and how to target your audience is essential.

Let’s move on and a have a look at the Social Tool Matrix.

2. What content goes where – Outline your tactical tools with a Social Tool Matrix

It’s all about structure, planning, organization and control (once you have something to say)

Don’t pick any tool out there for the fun of it and definitely don’t let one person in your organization handle them all. Every tool has it’s own advantages and should be treated that way.

Once you’ve passed the strategy and presence step in the Social Staircase it’s time to map which tools can do the work for you. It’s now time to create a Social Tool Matrix.

The Social Tool Matrix basically makes sure you and your organization analyze and choose a set of social tools that can deliver on strategy. While you’re entering stuff into the matrix you’ll be forced to answer the following questions:

• What tools shall we use to fulfill our strategy?
  Choose your tools carefully. Just because your competitor is riding the wave over at Facebook doesn’t mean you should. Look back at the social staircase. What strategy and what presence should you support?
• Why should we use this tool?
  Publish, interact, spread, buzz, images, video etc. Remember that sometimes you’ll be better off with more than one tool doing the same thing. Video for example. YouTube, Viddler and Vimeo are all about video but have different advantages.
• Who should be responsible for the updates?
  Don’t drop the entire load on top of a webmaster. Make sure your social marketing is spread out horizontally on your organization. The right person for the job huh?
• What’s the naming / domain conventions?
  I use ‘ronnestam’ everywhere I can. What’s your strategy? Think before you act and then keep track of it!
• When can we say we’re successful?
  This is a hard one. People that comment your blog posts. Diggs. Linkups. Facebook recommendations. Re-tweets. SEO effects. Actual sales. You pick your own index but make sure to pick a couple. Both qualitative and quantitative cause they’re both important.
• Can we measure the return of investment (ROI)
  If success was hard this is pretty darn impossible when it comes to social media. Some of you might say it’s not. But isolation of social media effects are hard. One of the few examples I know of is Dells Twitter outlet and that’s pretty unique.
• What social spiral shall we use (this will be defined in the next stage)
  You’re not here yet. But once you get to the next stage of this post. That’s when you decide on the social spirals. Every time you activate a tool. Remember what and what good it does. The Social Spirals will lead the way!
• And whatever more you think should go into the matrix.
  Last but not least. This post is inspirational – not an actual guide. You have to do your homework and your business might need a lot more inside the matrix than my actual example. Get it right and you shall succeed!

Once you got the social matrix mapped you and everyone in your organization is prepared to start the conversation it’s time for one last thing – the Social Viral Spirals.

3. Get viral with the Social Viral Spiral

Choose your tools wisely and start a conversation

Many of you have of course seen Brian Solis Social Conversation Prism.I love it too but it’s more of a wonderful image that maps all the possibilities with the social web than help for brands who are trying to figure out what to do and where to do it. Of course you can do everything and in some cases maybe you should. But what you really need once you’ve got an idea what you can do is a tactical tool.

I’ve created the The Social Viral Spiral for exactly that purpose. Use Brian Solis Prism and then translate the tools and services you need and create your own set of Social Flowers depending on what you are trying to achieve.

What the Social Spiral does is basically define where, what, how and when you should seed that content of yours into the social web. Triggering conversations online must start somewhere and then continue over a series of social networks and tools depending on what your purpose is. Marketing campaigns are in need of a lightning speed spread. Corporate information might not need that spread at all but still needs to go social due to SEO reasons for example.

A brand or company can have as many spirals as they want but I personally think you should aim for 3 or 4 depending on what kind of product and services your brand produce. The purpose of these spirals differ depending on a set of factors and you will probably have to adjust them over time.

Once you’ve got an idea on what kind of content and activities should be matched with a certain spiral you will surely have better chances in succeeding and most importantly you will have moved the knowledge about conversation from a specific employee to your organization!

Things that affect the intensity/speed of your spirals.

• Type of content
• Timezones
• Time of actual publishing
• Internet behavioral patterns
• Where did you act the last time
• Number of followers on Twitter
• Number of friends in social networks
• Amount of social networks where you intend to interact
• How unique is the content you intend to promote
• What brand do you represent?
• Purpose – marketing, operations, news, etc…

Got that wired? Good. Then it’s all about creating that content and spin the wheel.

Right now you might have tons of open questions about this post OR it seems perfectly clear. I really don’t care which since I’ve gotta get this thing published before it consumes me.

Best of luck!

We’re fed up with boring old school advertising. We don’t want your information and rational explanations. We wanna dance, laugh, feel and love. We do not want be treated like idiots!

James Dean knew how to seduce people while looking pretty darn boring. But face it. He’s dead and would be pretty out of date now!

Information is all over us. We’re accessing it everywhere faster than ever. The more shit we get our hands on the less we wanna mess with, so you’ve gotta stand out.

Future brands don’t buy media they create brand dramas that build value and generate SEO equity – only then will you reach your future friends (aka. target group). Future brands tell stories.Future brands rely on drama and constant innovation – totally integrated.

Here are eleven bullets of love that you can load that brand gun of yours with: (or a crash course in modern branding)

1. Social currency

As social networks spread all over the world the opportunity to spread your brand globally is bigger than ever. What you’ve gotta do is get your head around your own brand values and think hard…think harder than ever before…what – can – you – give – to – me – that – builds – ME – among my peers. Yes. You heard right. You’ve gotta turn your mind around. It’s not about you winning. It’s not about you getting things. Give and you shall recieve. After all, we’re only humans deriving straight from a slimy fish or something. We only wanna fit in. And your brand can help us do that.

2. Creative excellence

People around the world are savvy. We’re accessing information from all around the world on the fly. We’re evaluating it on the fly. There’s no room for flaws. Get your business right when it comes to design, ideas and creativity. Only then will we support you! If you need some advice – talk to Mr Steve Jobs.

3. Value

You might trick us into falling in love with you. But in order for us to stay married you’ve gotta give us value for our money. A well known brand had a problem with too many calls to their call center. People complained about their products. This had led to a meeting where the management team were discussing how to develop the call center so that they could serve more people. A friend of mine were in the room and said “Why don’t you make your products better instead” – bang on target. Tomorrow there’s no room for errors. You’ll end up in price comparison engines, your page rank will drop or at least be associated with the wrong things, you’ll have protest groups on Facebook etc. Provide us with a true value and we’ll stay in love.

4. Open source

If you’re looking to race against the best you’ve gotta drop your pit stop times. With this blurry talk I mean – don’t get stuck in a big ass back-end system that won’t let you change things fast and cheap. Go open source as soon as possible. Drop everything else and run for it!

5. Know your target audience better than you know your mother in law

We’re not runners anymore. We’re not car lovers any more. We’re not mac fans any more. We’re not Nike lovers. We’re not adidas lovers. We’re everything! We want to be the best in everything we do. We don’t settle for less.

6. Join the conversation

Your brand is out there – everywhere. And you’ve gotta do your best to be part of it. Did you hear that – be part of your own brand. I mean it.

The blue dot is your brand!

Your brand is no longer built primarily on what you tell people about it. It’s built upon what other people say about it. Given that’s a truth I think it’s time for you to step into the crowd and start listening.
Note – start listening!

7. Linkonomy

Page rank – the one formula you should learn in school

This one is simple. As long as Google rules the empire – make sure people link to your site, your content and your domain. There’s no other way you’ll be seen. Ah…you probably have to link to them too

[updated]

@deeped commented that page rank is not all that simple to explain to companies. That’s not really my intention. But it’s a great point though. The guys over at SEOmoz, the best site on SEO, posts a great piece called Search Engine Ranking every two years. The survey includes the Top 5 Ranking Factors, the Top 5 Negative Ranking Factors, the Top 5 Most Contentious Factors and the Overall Ranking Algorithm. It’s a must read.

This year the Top 5 Ranking Factors were:

1. Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links

   73% very high importance

2. External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)

   71% very high importance

3. Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)

   67% very high importance

4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag

   66% very high importance

5. Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains (e.g. TrustRank, Domain mozTrust, etc.)

   66% very high importance

Head over to SEOmoz to read the full survey.

[end of update]

8. Usability

Curiosity used to make us ask for directions but not anymore. No matter if we’re talking online usability or how to direct people in a subway – lead us to the good shit now! Loading times no! Confusion no! Simplicity yes! Hospitality yes!

9. Kick Lucifer out of the basement and trade your media money for content

If you lead a large brand you probably have one budget in your safe. Then a couple of hundred meters down in hell you’ve got a big bag of media budgets waiting to be blown up. Ever thought about what that money can do for your brand online if you build things by the book (seo book that is)? Cut your media money by half and move that half over to the equity side of your marketing mix – online content. Built right, written right and distributed over the right social networks it will do ten times more for your brand than any 30 second commercial will ever do.

10. Make us laugh

Is there anything better than a refreshing laughter? It’s a trip. It’s a drug. It makes us fall in love. Never ever forget that. If you’re a CEO or a Marketing Director representing a brand that creates boring, no good, sleep ‘pilling’, price fighting commercials. Report yourselves to the next mission to Mars – cause we don’t want you on our beautiful planet!

11. Finally drop the following word from your vocabulary:

Control. You don’t need it and you can’t have it.

See you out there!

Yesterday I was sent an email from The Economist through their social communication agency We Are Social. The mail presented their latest campaign – Thinking Spaces. A campaign presenting a number of opinion leaders and their ‘Thinking Spaces’. One part of the campaign contains a social component where they’re asking bloggers to contribute with our own stories alongside those of the leading personalities already featured like movie director Claudia Llosa, musician Jamie Lidell and Spotify founder Daniel Ek among others.

The campaign piss me off cause they’re asking me to contribute with quite a lot of content and traffic generation without really giving anything back. On top of that it’s clear that Spotify is featured for more than one reason as there’s obviously a hidden marketing component where I’m asked for my favorite Spotify playlist. (I would know since I’m running a Spotify playlist site on the side)

Dear Economist, let me tell you a little bit about me and MY thinking space.

This is MY thinking space.
If you would have respected my thinking space you would have started this campaign entirely different. I don’t get why you have created a flash site when you could have integrated the entire campaign on a blog platform. You could then have written a series of posts explaining your campaign to people and in that post also publicly linked to the blogs you asked to participate. This way you would have given us credit before you actually ask us to give you credit. Now the actual campaign leaves out social contributors.

The questions then?
I don’t want to answer a set of question about my personality that fit’s your campaign mold. On top of that I don’t get what Spotify has to do with it? (of course I do since one of your ‘leaders’ is the Spotify founder Daniel Ek). Why didn’t you ask participant to crowdsource your questions for you? Or give us one single question. One single question would have challenged my creativity. Now you’re more or less asking for my resume and an entire novel.

When you do social campaigns – give something back before you ask for support!
If a campaign like this would come from a brand like Kiva, Unicef, The Red Cross, Amnesty or another aid organization I’d love to participate without getting anything back. But a commercial brand like yours, The Economist, has to do better. On the campaign blog I read: “The Economist might feature your own Thinking Space on the site, along with those of the original featured personalities.” That’s not enough for me! If you succeed with this link-bating campaign I’ll end up in a long list of blogs that I don’t know if I want to be associated with.

Why didn’t you think social for real?
I don’t see why you didn’t choose 50 bloggers from around europe and built the entire campaign around us instead? I bet the budget you paid for this campaign and that flash site would have covered it. You also have access to something we don’t – a paper. If you would asked us bloggers for a unique story and in return done a piece on our blogs in your paper rather than on a campaign site you would have gotten fantastic content, trust me! And if you don’t then why bother asking for my participation in your campaign.

All in all. It’s good that you’re trying to go social with your campaigns – but don’t act like the dinosaur brand you are – think smaller, think friendly, think like you’re one of us and think social.

Finally.

I get that I’ve contributed to the SEO & link-bating part of your campaign. That is of course if people don’t decide to link to this post with the title The Economist Thinking Space campaign then I’ll be the winner.

Now I need to get back to spending my summer in the best possible way.

Best regards from the Swedish archipelago.
Johan Ronnestam

ps. Some blogs obviously got hooked. So far these blogs have joined the campaign:

Bibliobibuli, Chewytha scratchynutz: Tribeca, Code is poetry, The Curious Brain, Creative Bits, Creativity Online, Eskimon, Geoffrey Dorne, Lasse’s Findings, Marty’s Musings, Moleskinerie, Neoplayground, Nicola Davies, Notcot.org, Not For Paper, QBN, RA Forum, RiotInc, Rubbishcorp, Shawn Blanc, Theendofdecember, This May Be It, Unseen Said, Viva La Network, We Are Pop Slags, Wink at creativity

The Japanese group Sour was about to create a new music video for their latest song ‘Hibi no Neiro’. What to do?

Get some fans together from around the world, put them in front of a web-cam and let them co-create the video for you. Once you’re done – put it on YouTube and another 7 days later you have quarter of a million people lovin’ your music.

I don’t think it will be the same hype as the Ok Go video but it will sure spread like wildfire.

Updated: Jonathan Sulo linked to this post and in his comments I found another great example of crowdsourcing. Erik Torsner suggested we should feast our eyes on the Eternalmoonwalk, a tribute to the late Michael Jackson. I of course went over there and submitted a video myself. Another great example, not as controlled as the Sour video but still a great idea.

I am sitting on a plane between Chicago and Hawaii reading Jeff Jarvis book ‘What Would Google Do, WWGD’. (after seeing a recommendation on Daytonas site). This got in me in the mood to write a blog post that gives you my point of view what the big triple play telcos should do differently if I were to decide.

Comcast, Orange, RoadRunner, Telia, Comhem and all of the other telco that got their triple play services wired. These are all brands that got the consumers wired. They’re selling telecom, broadband and TV. However, very few of these brands got future marketing covered. They’re all stuck in history and outspending one another in traditional marketing, much to the joy of traditional advertising agencies that doesn’t do shit for them.

If you are among the top spenders in your country you can be sure that you’re being ‘recalled’. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the advertising you’re broadcasting.

After having worked with some of them and since that time my wet dream has always been to get control of their total budgets. The big telco’s has everything you need in your product portfolio when it comes to modernizing communication. But on the downside they have the most traditional set up and their management people seems to be born before the dinosaurs vanished from the face of the earth.

So, here are 36 things that Ronnestam would do if we had control of a telco brand

WWRD – ‘What Would Ronnestam Do’ ›› Telcos.

1. The first thing I would state would be – We are in the entertaining business, let’s act as such!
2. The second thing I would state is – We need to try new things, fail, fail again. But we need to learn and change.
3. I would force my brand to mentally go from selling products & services to sharing knowledge that was relevant from a communication perspective.
4. I would build a network of marketeers including people from Facebook, Nike, Apple, Dior, Porsche, WE, Bollywood etc. We would meet once every 3 month somewhere exotic and change ideas.
5. Our IT department would not be allowed to control anything that had something to do with communication. No more building interfaces on already decided technology. Technology should be build on interfaces that connects us with the consumer.
6. We would launch social press rooms much like the one Electrolux has.
7. The CEO of the company would have to treat social media better than he treats the finance market.
8. I wouldn’t have a marketing director on board that first and foremost didn’t understand what digital communication is all about.
9. I’d force the board of directors and the management team to look at Kevin Kelly’s 5000 days at Ted.
10. I’d make our company place a new communications guru like Seth Godin or Jeff Jarvis on the board and I would demand to be placed in the management group of the company.
11. Our customer service would be educated in social media and networks. Once they’re up and running I would rename them to customer friendlies.
12. I would compete with Hulu.com
13. I would compete with Google Docs & Gmail
14. I would compete with Rebtel & Skype
15. I would compete with Dropbox
16. I would compete with iTunes
17. Our start page would the entry to the tools we provide to our customers, not a portal where we sell stuff.
18. The brand I worked for would develop offline products and services that were connected to social networks.
19. At least 50% of the media budget (probably more) would go into creating an online presence where we offered people, small and large business help on how to use communication services to be more efficient, keep contact with friends and family and evolve as human beings.
20. I would make sure ever single piece of information on our own sites were searchable for bots.
21. I would have both management and people ‘on the floor’ blog on our sites
22. I would create a video driven help section that solved most problems people have (based on social interaction) with computers and mobiles. All videos would of course be found on YouTube, Vimeo, Blip etc etc.
23. I would focus on creating a presence everywhere online not a presence on our own website
24. Search optimization would be considered in everything we do. Even the naming of products.
25. Statistics manager would be strategic competence who would report to the board on a weekly basis. Every activity in the company should be taken from a statistics point of view.
26. We would monitor social networks, we would interact with them and we would listen to what they had to say.
27. I would initiate crowd sourced support. Probably through Get Satisfaction or similar.
28. I would implement open source in every possible place.
29. I would have our management team chat with customers via Bambuser once a month. They should be on Twitter on a daily basis.
30. We would not do press releases but instead do events where bloggers would be treated as bloggers. This means we’re putting on a show and people can download the material in whatever format they like.
31. We would offer all our own produced content to be distributed under Creative Commons agreements.
32. We would aim to set a profitability target for the company. Anything above that would be given to organizations and partners that supported our sustainability policy.
33. We would aim to cut the costs on every service we have.
34. Every marketing activity would initiate a process that generates automatized effects in social networks.
35. Our invoicing would include an up time quality index. If our services would not have met our goals our consumers would not pay 100% of their bills.
36. To interact with our company would be consider fun and entertaining.

So, there we are. Some thoughts on how to change the world of telecom. But why 36? Don’t know, i sort of felt it was time to press publish.

Ah, and I heard a great quote in a movie (that I can’t remember the name of) on the plane:

“Let’s focus where you end up. Not where you are and were”