Shel Holtz Ragan Presentation: What’s Next?

I’ve known Shel for several years, and I try to keep in touch via Twitter, his RSS feed and listening to his For Immediate Release podcast (with his sidekick Neville Hobson.) Still, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve heard him present, and this talk at the Ragan conference with SAS was really interesting and helpful.

As I sit in the Charlotte airport, loving the free wi-fi, I’m taking the opportunity to clean up my liveblogging post from his talk, and to add some links to the sites he mentioned.

The title of the presentation was, “What’s Next?” and he had ten key trends he saw as important. I missed #9, so if anyone else (or even Shel) can fill in the missing info, I would appreciate it. But before I get into those trends here were a few of Shel’s observations.

Shel says the high-end webcast is going the way of the DoDo, because now anyone can do a webcast using Qik or Ustream.tv.

Seesmic – lets you record videos at your Webcam. Put video up instead. Twitter for video. And WordPress now has a plug-in that lets people comment on your posts via Seesmic.

Integrated social networks. Websites, networks merge. Conversation with customers becomes part of the online presence.

Fastcompany.com has redesigned its Web site extensively to incorporate conversation. All of the content except one cover story is contributed by the community.

Tulane University is using LiveWorld.

Google Open Social will enable you to turn your Website into a social network, just by copying some code.

Shel says Web 3.0 involves these key trends:

Trend #1: Ubiquitous connectivity

  • Broadband
  • Wireless
  • Mobile computing – get to the Web anywhere you have a phone signal. Very few organizations have mobile phone strategies; they (we) really should.

Trend #2: Network computing. Web services, cloud computing, grid computing, distributed computing

Shel uses Live Mesh. I like Dropbox. Google has a video service just for corporations, available only to employees. Videos are hosted outside the firewall. Company IT departments will need to get comfortable with software as service like this. Shel uses Google Docs to develop and store his documents. He mentioned Yammer, too.

Trend #3: Open technologies – APIs and protocols, software, data. This is a huge trend. Why spend a half million dollars on a CMS when you can download a free open source package that is just as powerful, and pay someone $10K a year for support?

Trend #4: Open Identity – Open ID, Open reputation, Open portable identity

Business world doesn’t like this because companies want to gather your info.

Trend #5: The intelligent web. Use Pandora, for instance. It looks at music you like and finds similar songs that are what you’ll like. Recommendation agent. Natural language search instead of keywords. Semantic Web. Check out Twine.

Trend #6: Distributed Databases

Trend #7: Technology Populism: Tech has gotten so easy that you don’t need an IT person to help you implement it. That’s really one of the main ideas behind SMUG. “It’s Not That Hard.”

Trend #8: The information workplace. Getting people whatever information they need when they need it.

Prologue is a WordPress Theme that can be added to a blog you have behind the firewall.

TownSquare is a plug-in for Microsoft SharePoint that adds functionality like Facebook. Not available yet.

As Shel mentioned, FriendFeed is a great way to pull together information.

Yahoo Pipes is a really interesting service and Shel showed a video that demonstrates it. Here it is:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3h6ROs__II]

Gotta play with that.

Trend #9: (Updated) Aggregation–Friendfeed, Dubpages, Google Reader, Yahoo Pipes (mashup feeds), Feedburner – (Thanks to sktuttle for providing in the comments.)

Trend #10: Widgets will also increase in importance for distributing your content.

Comcastcares uses search.twitter.com to do customer support. Symantec has a fan page on Facebook.

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Comprehensive List of Communications Channels

Kay Sessions Golan from the CDC asked whether there is a comprehensive list of Communications Solutions or Tactics that communicators can use in their planning, to have a wide spectrum of old-to-new media as a reference that could be incorporated into an integrated plan.

So I said, “Let’s put it on a wiki!”

Sorry about jumping right to a solution, but this is a good way for people to get a feel for how to use some of the social media tools while also pooling our knowledge. So please go here to the SMUG wiki, where I have created a section called Comprehensive Communication Channel List. Add things wherever you think they make sense, or reorganize as you see fit. Let’s create the mother-of-all-tactical lists!

Change Communication Planning

bonfiremap.jpg

Bonfire’s Audience-Centric Communication Planning Map (click above to enlarge) moves through these steps from left-to-right in the map below, instead of just jumping to the final step. When the CEO says, “I want a blog,” that’s just jumping to a solution.

They recommend instead starting with:

  1. Audience Concerns: Who is the audience and what do they care about? Aggregate audiences by concerns and how the technology will impact them instead of artificial hierarchical structures or functional roles. For example, look at technological skill level of audiences. Create tiers of concerns. Some will cut across functional roles. What information is most essential? What will get people’s attention and address their concerns? What do people need to hear to jump on board? What is the connection and disconnection between the communicator and the audience? The great thing about Web 2.0 technologies is that they enable users to choose what they want to receive, and what information is relevant to them.
  2. Sponsor Concerns/Business Outcomes: What do we or our sponsors expect us to achieve? What business metrics are we chartered to move or influence? What are the stated and unstated expectations? What behaviors or actions are we to inspire or reinforce? What is the fundamental issue that we are trying to address? What are the business objectives you’re looking to achieve in how people Think, Feel, Know and Do in the Current State vs. Future State. What is the fundamental shift needed to get people to Think, Feel, Know and Do what you would like them to do? Example: a casino shifting to a consumer-driven healthcare environment. How do you get people who work in smoky casinos start to make healthy choices? “Just do it” wouldn’t work. Instead it was “Choose wellness where it works for you.” Tagline was: “Be at your best.” This is the way toward working together to lower healthcare costs.
  3. Communication Objectives. Look at three phases: Awareness, Understanding and Action. Match the Audience Concerns with the Sponsor Concerns/Business Outcomes. Explain to the audiences how these are aligned. What are our SMART communication objectives? Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Actionable, Realistic, Time-Based.
  4. Story/Key Messages: How can we create a conversation that moves people? Create a “North Star” or mantra, with key messages that support. Communicators are the most equipped group of people to guide the cultural conversation. How can we create a shared vision? How do we share a common view of current reality? What is our STORY from this journey and what actions will make the difference? What mantra will shift behavior?
  5. Design Criteria: How can we design communications for impact? How do our audiences take in information? How do they learn, share knowledge and collaborate? What design elements will appeal to them the most? If there is an existing brand framework, what is the relationship to the new design criteria?
  6. Communication Solutions: At this point in time, what are the right messages and solutions for these audiences? What are all of the possibilities that we should explore? What tools share knowledge, build skills and support change over time? What are our selection criteria? How do we create a rhythm and pulse while sustaining our efforts?

Changing the way people orient to information can shift their view of the world and influence lasting behavioral change.

Note: Photos from today’s session will be uploaded to the SMUG Student Union site on Facebook.