Expert opinion on Blogs and Social Networking

I am proud to present to you an exclusive interview with Charlene Li of Forrester research .In this interview Charlene talks about social networking , blogging and its implications on society . Charlene is a VP and Principal Analyst in Forrester Research . She is an avid blogger and researcher.

1.Myspace.com is a very popular site in the US , a lot of elections material and content is being routed through the website , and almost all the Presidential candidates have their profiles in Myspace. Going forward do you see websites such as these becoming more and more popular in creating and managing public opinion

These sites have always been about relationships, participation, and communication. Moreover, once something hits a chord with someone, they are more likely to tell their friends as well. So it’s natural that organizations that want to influence public opinion – politicians, marketers, religious groups, non-profits – would want to be there to influence individual opinion and engagement.

2.Blogging is becoming immensely popular and with the meteoric rise of Google Adsense , there is a lot of incentive for being able to provide breaking news . One such example of breaking news was reported by my friend Basab Pradhan in his blog this was about the delay of the launch of the iPhone , which was blogged and had an adverse effect on the Apple price . Blogger's as a community would like sensational news to reflected in the blog without necessarily being sure about the validity of the news , where according to you does the balance lie between posting sensational news and ensuring validity of the news before you post ?

Let’s take a look at the original breaking news “blogger” – Matt Drudge. Some people love him, others can’t stand him. You know when you read him that the “news” has to be read with a huge grain of salt, but that there’s some truth to what he’s saying.My favorite example of this recently was the Google and Salesforce.com pending “strategic”announcement – the speculation ranged all the way to one Google’s acquisition of Salesforce.com Or the supposed negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo! about a potential merger/acquisition.I don’t think it’s about the money only – it’s also about the notoriety of being first, being the most connected, and having the most cred that drives this. But I put a lot of trust in blog readers having some sense – they are able to figure out pretty quickly and with multiple posts, who the best bloggers are.I don’t think it’s about the money only – it’s also about the notoriety of being first, being the most connected, and having the most cred that drives this. But I put a lot of trust in blog readers having some sense – they are able to figure out pretty quickly and with multiple posts, who the best bloggers are.

3.A lot of companies do have corporate blogs , and some are in the verge of setting up blogs , how do companies who have blogs justify the business benefits of blogging.

The key benefit is buzz and brand awareness – blog are great at generating attention, links, and subsequently, search engine rankings. Others include lower costs to support customer service or sales. I have a long post about this at

http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/01/new_roi_of_blog.html.

4.Social networking sites creates a platform of sharing of ideas , views etc , people from different walks of life come and upload content , what could be the unintended consequences of social networking (example –there are many cases when photographs of people have been downloaded from orkut and have been morphed and displayed in pornographic websites) and how can these be mitigated

With social interactions also come social diseases, and the loss of control of your identity and image is one of them. The only way to mitigate this is to limit access to your information to the people that you trust, hence the popularity of private profiles on places like MySpace and Facebook.

Blogs Enhancing Customer Experience

Yesterday , I had an opportunity to be part of a short lecture session delivered by Prof Venkat Ramaswamy co-author with the celebrated CK Prahlad of "Future of Competition " . I had met Venkat before and was fascinated with his concept of Experience Co-Creation . The central idea of Experience Co-Creation (as i understand it ) is :

1.Businesses build processes to service the customer better , ...however these processes often become so rigid that instead of serving the customer it becomes counter productive .

2. Customer engagement is important in all businesses , its important to recognize it and proactively engage the customer to create pragmatic processes which are contextual and customised .

3. Customer surveys generate a lot of data , but not necessarily insights , and therefore its imperative to build direct channels of communication with the customer

The theme of this post is based on point 3 above , and elaborates how blogging is a great medium of creating a channel of communication with the customer

Jeff Jarvis and the Dell Story

In early 2005 an irate Dell customer Jeff Jarvis resorted to blogging to tell the world about his harrowing experience with Dell .His quest to fix his US 1600 Dell machine , included countless unanswered e-mails and lengthy phone calls to the Dell helpline . An agitated Jarvis started his blog Buzz Machine in July 2005 to tell the world his story and build support for his cause against Dell. As you would expect a large and successful corporation like Dell would believe that this would be one of those freak cases which would they could get away by simply ignoring it . The blog stuck a chord with other Dell customers and according to Intelliseek by August 2005 his blog had approximately 10,000 daily visitors .Matt Gallaway documents the extent of blog bitching in his post after Jarvis complained about his Dell experience . He got a refund August 22 , but from then on Dell started in its journey of transformation using blogging as a tool .

The Dell Blog

Dell realised that for a custom build product , its important to have a structured channel of communication with its customer community and launched its own blog called Direct2Dell. The blog is a process where Dell understands its customers better and uses the data received from its customers to enhance the customer experience. It has appointed a Chief Blogger and has also invited Jeff Jarvis as part of their advisory committee.

The Take Away

Most organizations do customer surveys and brand studies and at the end of it all build processes to delight the customer . Unfortunately these processes become rigid over time and do not produce the desired results . Venkat talked about a very simple experience which many of us must have had with Jet Airways . Often when I take late night flights back to Mumbai , I prefer taking a close nap after dinner is served , its a personal preference ...However within approximately 5 minutes of dozing off , I am woken up by a air-hostess saying "Sir , tea or coffee..." and there goes my hope of a peaceful nap . Now if Jet was sensitive to the fact that some of its customers may not like to be disturbed in night flights , they could simply ask and leave the poor customer alone......but alas the in flight customer service process does not give that freedom to the crew.

As I mentioned earlier customer data often gets misrepresented in surveys , and surveys are not good to capture qualitative feedback......blogs are journals of real experiences of customers which are frank , forthright and direct. Blog entries are not like numbers which can be interpreted in multiple ways ....in most of the blogs you will find customers giving the company , pragmatic and easily implementable solutions ....so the company gets free consulting . In addition , the company creates an engagement process with the customer community which helps build brand loyalty and brings in more customers ........blogging makes great business sense .....India Inc are you hearing ...!!

US Military blocks popular websites in war zones soldiers forced to cut ties from home

On 5 April , I had written about the convergence of technology and politics and how websites like MySpace.com were being used as potent communication tools by the US Presidential poll candidates . At that time Myspace.com accounted for 37% of the Internet traffic of the US and more than 64.4 million unique American users . Since then Myspace.com has continued its consolidation as one of the premier social networking sites . While the context of my post of 5 April was Myspace.com as a channel for distribution of political content , it also fulfills a very important social connectivity need . Today , the Washington post reported about the ban of Myspace.com and 11 other such sites , by the US military in war zones . The American Defence establishment's rationale was to free up precious bandwidth in the battlefront for mission critical operations . One really cant fault the military rationale of this argument however it is also important to consider that networking sites provide a great medium for the war torn soldier to connect with friends and family . In its attempts to optimize bandwidth the US Army is perhaps insensitive to the affective needs of its soldiers ....is there a need to balance two conflicting needs ....bandwidth optimization and the social needs of the soldiers........... Hillary Clinton has more than 30,000 friends in Myspace , and am sure Uncle Sam's soldier is also entitled to remain connected with his friends ,a perk that he rightfully deserves for fighting mindless wars for Bush Jr !!

Welcome to blogosphere my darling

Neelabjo, my 5 yr old darling , while watching an NDTV program on blogging tonight told me that he wanted to blog like daddy.......he said "baba ,we will have a blog together..." i was overwhelmed by his thought !!

It might take him at least another decade to blog ........but this post is dedicated to you my son ....a formal welcome to blogosphere...Neelabjo

Baba

Blogging Facilitating democracy ??- Case # Pakistan

The Washington Post carried an article on March 8 , 2006, titled Pakistan's Blog Blockade. The reason for the blanket ban on blogs was ,that a few of them displayed the infamous Danish cartoons of the prophet which many Muslims regard as blasphemous. Amongst the sites blocked were Blogger.com which hosted hundreds of Pakistani blogs. To me the blogosphere is similar to a virtual democratic institution, wherein common citizens can express their point of view on topics close to their heart... . I would like to believe that blogging is a process which strengthens civil society and enables healthy exchange of ideas (provided blogs are not used to generate a hate campaign or treason ...) , .....what I failed to understand was the rationale for a blanket ban on the basis of the fact that some blogs might have contained objectionable content .I had read about this in 2006 and was of the opinion that nothing much can be done in cultures where freedom of expression is not valued.....however today I read another article which makes me feel much better....the article is a discussion with Mohammad Khan a local blogger . The discussion with Khan revealed that its now possible to openly critique the government; take stances against religious fundamentalists....... apparently Pakistanis were allowed to surf the net freely till early 2001 ....that changed in April, 2003, when the Pakistan Telecommunication Company began restricting blasphemous websites at the ISP level...things may have changed for the better and as Khan narrates its a freer press now .

As Indians we have many complaints about our nation, complaints about its infrastructure , about its civil amenities , its politicians .....to the extent that we enjoy in bashing everything about India ....but after having read this blog post don't you think that we are blessed being Indians , at least nobody stops us from expressing anything in blogosphere ....and the next time when we complain about the lack of "blah...blah.." in India , think about the little mercies of our democracy ....and lets start to learn to value them