DISQUS

Hey! Looking forward to it...

When that cat catches you it's going to KILL you! Beware!

Hey Jason - we tried for the whole honourary Canadian thing, but the Queen said no go, right before riding away in her dog sled ;-)

But seriously, I think if these things are going to happen, they happen quickly. I could not be more pleased, and our combined teams are well-positioned to do some major damage.

Hey Scott - thanks for the props, and we are rarin' to go!!!

Zoe - this is absolutely hilarious! I was going to send it to you, Lee - but I see you already found it.

Very cool!

Hey Steve - great write-up! Hope you enjoyed the event!

Hey Scott - so glad we're going to be working together, and so glad you agreed to come on board! Who knew that when we started talking in December this is where we'd end up?

You're joining an amazing team of people (as I'm sure you know); looking forward to pushing the envelope ever further with you at the helm!

Hey Mathew - looking forward to it! Mesh is a fabulous event and SMG is a huge supporter. We're also really pleased to be able to bring beer to the people as sponsors of the "in the middle" party. See you in a few weeks!

Hey Chris, since we are working with Ford (and many other clients) on their global social media strategy, I feel pretty qualified to jump in here :)

Your readers are right on the money - when we begin working with a new client, we always advise them to listen first. They need to understand what people are talking about before they can join the conversation in a way that is appropriate and adds value. As you can imagine, with a vertical like automotive, the conversations are plentiful and varied - that's why it's also really important to determine your clients' business objectives - which conversations to they view to be really critical? That will help determine your focus (though, of course, you need to be open to surprises).

But as far as your larger question goes, what do you do when you're "set up", when everyone in your organization "gets it" (if I understand you correctly)? IMHO it's way, way too early for almost any company to say that, except perhaps for some early adopters like IBM, who are significantly ahead of the curve. For most orgs, the wins are incremental, with the goal being to spread understanding and get more people to incorporate these tools (and this way of thinking) into their toolkits. Once people are comfortable doing that, the strategies can get more complex, because they are supported both from a funding and resource perspective as more people see the demonstrated value.

Not very sexy, but slow and steady wins the race!

And YES - Ford is actively looking for an internal social media evangelist. If you'd like to find out more, please contact me for more info!

Wow - talk about being in good company!

Hey Ryan - what a great idea! And you have a good list there - of course I 100% agree with you about Collin ;-)

But a point of interest - the only good people you seem to know are men! :)

Why not - all the other cool kids are doing it...

http://twitter.com/maggiefox

Wow - that's weird. I was sure I'd left a comment on this thread, but maybe I just planned to? :-)

Anyway, Lisa - very frustrating, but I think you're in the right. Social Media Agencies are a different breed, and should be recognized as such. The fact that the Wikipedia trolls (and I do think some of those editors can accurately be described by the term) don't recognize what's happening in the world of communications simply means they're out of touch.

How frustrating, Lisa - and how fascinating that apparently blogs are not a credible source. Would that be all blogs? What about TechCrunch, Scobelizer or Engadget, to name just a few?

I think we should all keep pushing on this one, because we are different from advertising or PR agencies, and that should be recognized.

Hey Andy - it was a pleasure being on the panel with you. I thought we had a great discussion, and it was extremely nice to finally meet you in person!

Well put. My thoughts exactly on the Dvorak piece - just because busts have happened before doesn't mean that everything technology-related ends in one (which seems to be his reasoning).

And Elton John is just a greedy piggy, if you ask me.

Hey Mathew - glad you enjoyed it, and you're too modest. It was a really interesting discussion about the intersection of journalism and blogging. Well worth a listen!

Gaaa! Things like that scare me deeply - though I don't suspect anyone with any sort of remnant of a brain stem would place the reputation of their brand in the hands of someone charging just $30. I would hope.

I agree, Andy, the farther away I get can from clients that purchase based solely on price, the better. I'm not going to put clients that do value quality over cost in a position where they have no other metric to go by.

What we all need is a Quality-O-Metre (Cdn spelling;-)

Part of the promise of social media is the storage of institutional memory (something also often lacking in newsrooms, in my experience). Leaving the story up and flagging it as inaccurate allows Digg to remind and us to remember. By deleting it and "pretending it never happened" (which is not possible, and often results in more attention, rather than less) they remove the reference point and details - paving the way for the same thing to happen in the same way, with no learning, again, and again, and again...