Jeremiah Owyang worked as a senior analyst over social computing for Forrester Research for almost two years. Now, he’s a partner at the Altimeter Group, which focuses on emerging technologies and has a large “Twitter Updates” section above the fold on its homepage. So Owyang was a good choice to speak about social media and business at BlogWorld.
(Coverage of the BlogWorld conference continues at murdok Videos. Keep an eye on murdok for more notes and videos from the event this week.)
“Social everywhere” was one of the main themes of Owyang’s talk. Corporate websites are becoming irrelevant, he claimed, and must at least integrate social media (as most mainstream media sites already have). “Join customers and fish where the fish are,” Owyang advised.
Two other ideas he put forward were aggregating customer opinions on product pages and integrating community support within products. “Why would you do this? Because the conversations these solutions create are more trusted,” Owyang said.
Owyang also said that real-time reactions aren’t always fast enough, and as an example, cited the “Motrin Mom” mess. So try to get ahead and anticipate customer needs by developing an active listening program and empowering a customer advocacy program. Think holistically about your corporate strategy and prepare for personalized content, too.
Then Owyang issued a few tips with respect to blogging. Time is like money, he observed, since you never have enough and everybody wants a piece of it. So budget your time, pay yourself first, maintain your blog on a regular basis, and be sure to make agreements with your employer.
murdok Video reporter/anchor Abby Johnson contributed to this report.
