Knol’s greed appeal will make it a winner

In the two weeks since Google announced plans to unveil a Wikipedia-like encyclopedia called Knol, the blogosphere has been buzzing about its potential impact. Is this the Wikipedia-killer? A nefarious attempt to undermine media companies? A market-share play by a near-monopoly?

In my opinion, it’s none of those things. Knol is just a good idea that fills a gap in the market and that is likely to become a rich and useful alternative to Wikipedia. If Google and its contributors make money in the process, what’s wrong with that?

Knol will succeed because (for lack of a better term) it exploits the greed factor in community knowledge-sharing. Think of Wikipedia as public television or radio: it’s a public information source that is endearing, in part, because it’s so free of commercial interest. Sure, some people do use Wikipedia for business benefit, but most do so for the sake of sharing knowledge and contributing to the public good. Wikipedia’s anonymity is a virtue in that respect. There will always be value to that model and an audience for it.

Knol is a commercial play. According to sketchy details provided so far by Google, users will be able to attach bylines and profiles to their contributions and submit to community ratings. Articles will move up the popularity stack based upon a Digg-like process in which visitors identify the most useful content. Contributors could also see some financial reward if their work is heavily trafficked.

The fact that Knol promotes the identity of its contributors will give it significant commercial appeal, particularly for experts who don’t have the benefit of a big forum for their knowledge. I’ve written the past about an experiment called Wikibon that is a precursor to Knol. The creator of Wikibon, David Vellante, spent many years in market research and understands both the power and limitations of that model.

Market research firms charge high fees because they have a reputation for quality. The analysts who work there command big salaries and enjoy considerable influence in their markets. It’s the think-tank model and it’s tried and true.

The problem with think tanks is that they shut out the vast majority of potential experts. In most business-to-business markets, there is a huge body of knowledge locked up in the minds of practitioners, consultants and small businesspeople who don’t have the wherewithal to become part of the giant research firms. Their expertise is available only to the small number of people they can reach through whatever means they have available.

Wikibon is a long-tail experiment that tries to tap into that knowledge and create a quality information resource at a cost that’s potentially much lower than that of the think tanks. The idea is to remove all of the organizational overhead and just let people showcase their own expertise. If they do it right, they can grow their professional profile and improve their chance of landing good jobs or consulting assignments.

The same factors will apply to Knol, and that’s why it will be so successful. Few Web properties have Google’s capacity to showcase individual experts. There are many blogger networks out there, but Knol should quickly become the biggest blogger network of them all.

For individuals with the time, skill and savvy to promote themselves through a vehicle like this, the payoff could be significant. That’s why I say that Knol appeals to the greed factor. People will continue to contribute to Wikipedia because it reaches a vast audience. They will contribute to Knol because it promotes their personal interests. There will be a place for both models on the Web. There’s no reason that either has to be successful at the expense of the other.

Daily reading 12/27/2007

Internet Marketing Best Blog Posts of 2007 – techipedia, Dec. 26, 2007

• Here’s a fantastic list of links to blogger advice on nearly every imaginable aspect of business social media marketing. Many of these articles are specific to individual services like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit. The list is a bit overwhelming in its scope, but you can find just about anything you need there, from effective blogging practices to advice on how to use Facebook in marketing campaigns.
   - post by pgillin

A manifesto for the new PR

The Arthur W. Page Society has just released a manifesto for the new world of corporate communications, and I’d recommend that anyone who works in PR or marketing download it. The Society is an exclusive group of senior execs from big companies, so their opinions carry some weight. While the report is short on quantitative research (though there is a survey of 31 CEOs discussed at the end), it’s hard to argue with its overarching conclusions: businesses no longer control their messages; constituencies are expanding and diversifying; and corporations must be more transparent and open about nearly everything they do.

“The 64-page report is called The Authentic Enterprise: Relationships, Values and The Evolution of Corporate Communications. Below are some excerpts that I snipped from the PDF. They’ll give you a flavor of the recommendations, but it’s worthwhile to read the whole document.

Thanks to George Faulkner at IBM for tipping me off to this new research.

Quoting:

“For those corporations that remain public and that aspire to build trusted brands, sustainable marketplace success and community reputation, the imperative of authenticity will inevitably grow in importance.

“We are no longer in control of our traditional spheres of professional activity. Indeed, all business functions are at the dawn of an era of radical de-professionalization.

“…New priorities and skills for which the Chief Communications Officer must now assume a leadership role: 1. Leadership in defining and instilling company values; 2. Leadership in building and managing multistakeholder relationships; 3. Leadership in enabling the enterprise with “new media” skills and tools…

“For business, globalization has long been transforming markets for capital and labor. Now it is reshaping the footprint – and even the idea – of the corporation. This institution is shifting from a hierarchical, monolithic, multinational model to one that is horizontal, networked and globally integrated.

“The chief communications executive and the communications function of a 21st century corporation will increasingly be responsible not only for the reputation of their single company, but also for understanding, communicating and even helping to shape the reputations of its ecosystem partners – such as clients, partners, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other influencers.

“More than 300 million camera phones were shipped in 2005. They are now the most widespread image-capture devices in the world. At current growth rates, there could be one billion camera phones in use worldwide by 2008. That means nearly one person in six is a potential photojournalist – or, with the spread of video capabilities, documentary filmmaker.

“Teens in the U.S. – the consumers of today and the employees, shareholders, voters and leaders of tomorrow – spend 60 percent less time watching TV than their parents, and 600 percent more time online, interacting with, influencing and being influenced not by institutions, marketers or professional communicators, but by their peers.

“Procter & Gamble…“imports” 50 percent of its new ideas from outsiders. And Eli Lilly has created an open R&D marketplace called Innocentive to match problems needing solutions with independent researchers who can solve them.

“All of this makes the 21st century enterprise vulnerable at a wholly new level to unexpected developments that can damage the brand, negatively affect employee commitment, undercut outside relationships and destabilize management, including the CEO and other corporate officers and Board members. This, in turn, means that the stakes are much higher for what corporate communicators do.

“We used to segment communications carefully to targeted audiences. In an open information commons, everyone can see (and, increasingly, modify) any public communication, no matter to whom it is targeted.

“Message ’segmentation’ is no longer practical or desirable. Despite the proliferation of diverse stakeholders, all are now on a level playing field.

“Values are the fundamental basis for enterprise communications. “To be an effective communications function in the authentic enterprise:

• “We must not only position our companies, but also help define them. While expertise and authenticity are essential, communicators’ counsel to the corporation must now encompass its fundamental business model, brand, culture, policies and, most importantly, values.
• “We must not only develop channels for messaging but also networks of relationships. In a business ecosystem of proliferating constituencies, communicators must lead the development of social networks and the tools and skills of relationship building and collaborative influence – both to seize new opportunities and to respond to new threats.
• “We must shift from changing perceptions to changing realities. In a world of radical transparency, 21st century communications functions must lead in shaping behavior – inside and out – to make the company’s values a reality.

“Conduct public relations as if the whole company depends on it. Corporate relations is a management function. No corporate strategy should be implemented without considering its impact on the public. The public relations professional is a policymaker capable of handling a wide range of corporate communications activities.

“Realize a company’s true character is expressed by its people. The strongest opinions – good or bad – about a company are shaped by the words and deeds of its employees. As a result, every employee – active or retired – is involved with public relations. It is the responsibility of corporate communications to support each employee’s capability and desire to be an honest, knowledgeable ambassador to customers, friends, shareowners and public officials.

“[CEOs] say that the emphasis of communications work must shift significantly toward internal communications, as they seek to transform their organizations’ culture and workforce skills – not just to make them more efficient and productive, but to embed the kind of pervasive transparency, personal responsibility and values-based decision making that enterprise-scale authenticity requires.

“The greatest danger corporate communications faces, ironically, may lie in our very success over the past two decades, if that success blinds us to the new demands that lie ahead.”

Four social media books worth reading

I’m actually not much of a book reader, but I’ve been delving into a number of social media books this year as preparation to write another book of my own. Here are some of my favorite new titles. Although this is by no means an exhaustive list, you can’t go wrong with any of them:

Everything Is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger — This is the best book I read about social media this year. While the book isn’t technically about marketing, the principles it contains are important to anyone who is trying to understand the changes wrought by community publishing. Ultimately, the book is about social tagging, but it’s really about how we organize information and how out tools and tactics are changing in the age of the Internet. Weinberger takes us back thousands of years to illustrate how we arrived the expertise-driven model embodied in the Dewey Decimal System. He then demonstrates how communities can develop far richer and more useful organization schemes than those ever envisioned by experts. Written in an engaging and often entertaining style, this book will open your eyes to the new dynamics of self-organization and stimulate you to envision its potential.

The New Rules Of Marketing And PR by David Meerman Scott — Scott’s book, which has topped the Amazon charts much of this year, is as drop-dead practical as Weinberger’s is theoretical. Some of his advice is why-didn’t-I-think-of-that simple, such as to write marketing communications using terms that readers use in search engines. Scott takes a holistic approach to advising his readers on how to make a web presence work for them. This isn’t just about social media but about online marketing in general. There are plenty of examples of successful companies that have leveraged new media channels to great effect, and Scott’s pedagogical approach is emphatic without ever being condescending. If you want a how-to manual for the new world of PR, get this book.

Marketing to the Social Web by Larry Weber — A lot of new-media marketing books cross the line from advocacy into arrogance. Their tone seems to imply that readers are stupid if they don’t embrace the concepts espoused by the author. There’s no question that Larry Weber has an agenda; he was one of the first PR visionaries to forecast the decline of mainstream media and to urge marketers to change their thinking about their work. However, this book takes a storyteller’s approach to advocacy, preferring to persuade its readers rather than to talk down to them. It’s also rich with case studies and third-party commentary, making it unusual in the universe of books written by marketers for marketers.

Join the Conversation by Joseph Jaffe — While I found this book to be unnecessarily long and Jaffe’s writing style, with its frequent parenthetical digressions, to be difficult to follow, there is no question that the author is an authoritative source on social media. Jaffe’s passion is apparent, and his style is personal and persuasive. It’s like listening to a someone talk to you over beers at the pub. The book even includes one chapter that was created from a sequence of posts and comments on a wiki. I’m not sure it worked for me, but I applaud the author’s innovation for trying it.

On my list for early in the new year: We are Smarter than Me by Libert & Spector, and Measuring Public Relationships by Katie Paine.

Daily reading 12/24/2007

The Pitfalls, and Potential, of Corporate Social Networks – Baseline, Dec. 21, 2007

Daily reading 12/20/2007

Top 5 viral video advertisements of 2007 – FT.com, Dec. 11, 2007

A Beginner’s Guide to Social News Websites – Dosh Dosh

• Sound advice on how to build your reputation and traffic via social news sites. Key takeaways: focus on one or two sites, build relationships with key influencers and contribute regularly. The payoff can be big, but it takes time to build the necessary trust with the community.
   - post by pgillin

FCC gives media conglomerates an early gift – Newspaper Death Watch

• My own commentary on the FCC’s rather incredible decision to grant media conglomerates and exemption to the commission’s own anti-monopoly rules in some major markets.
   - post by pgillin

10 Year Anniversary of Blogs: Time Flies When One’s Overwhelmed! – Consumer Generated Media

• Peter Blackshaw celebrates the 10th anniversary of blogging by (what else?) blogging about it.
   - post by pgillin

Striking writers in talks to launch Web start-ups – Los Angeles Times, Dec. 17, 2007

• Possibly a distant mirror for the formation of United Artists eight decades ago.
   - post by pgillin

A look ahead at tech PR in 2008

In the final Tech PR War Stories podcast of 2007, David Strom and I stretch out a little and ruminate on what’s ahead for 2008. Here, in no particular order, are our predictions. It’s going to be another wild year for tech PR, but one in which savvy PR pros can elevate their status with employers and clients:

• The end of beats at technology publications. Reporters will become more generalized and contract experts will contribute more of the specialized coverage;
• Fragmentation in coverage of technology; it will come from a variety of sources;
• Google will buy Second Life and Skype. Paul sees big opportunities for the search giant to leverage those core technologies into franchise businesses;
• PR pros will have to do a better job at creating meaningful relationships with press. They’ll also have to reach out to unexpected places for coverage;
• Increasing concerns about privacy in social networks. Facebook’s Beacon was just the tip of the iceberg;
• The Wall Street Journal will become a free service. Rupert Murdoch has already made it clear that he wants to take the paper in this direction and that will have big implications for tech coverage as the Journal asserts itself as a major online news force;
• The rise of social search, addressing some of the inherent limitations of search. Mahalo and WikiaSearch are early proofs of concept of an evolution of the search utility;
• Vendors will increasingly become publishers and will need help from PR people to create useful and interesting content.

Download the podcast here (19:00).

Daily reading 12/19/2007

On Facebook, Scholars Link Up With Data – New York Times Annotated

Snips:
“S. Shyam Sundar, a professor and founder of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Penn State, has led students in several Facebook studies exploring identity. One involved the creation of mock Facebook profiles. Researchers learned that while people perceive someone who has a high number of friends as popular, attractive and self-confident, people who accumulate “too many” friends (about 800 or more) are seen as insecure.

“An important finding, Ms. Ellison said, was that students who reported low satisfaction with life and low self-esteem, and who used Facebook intensively, accumulated a form of social capital linked to what sociologists call “weak ties.” A weak tie is a fellow classmate or someone you meet at a party, not a friend or family member. Weak ties are significant, scholars say, because they are likely to provide people with new perspectives and opportunities that they might not get from close friends and family.”

Social Marketing: How Companies Are Generating Value from Customer Input – Knowledge@Wharton Annotated

This article covers several examples of successful word-of-mouth marketing efforts and offers advice on what works:

• Keep branding to a minimum
• Engage with customers in a way that’s meaningful to their lives
• Be self-deprecating and funny
• Have a thick skin; you will encounter some criticism

Several examples and case studies are included.

Report: Half of online adults, 85% of online kids to use social nets by 2011

eMarketer says that 37% of online adults use social networks at least once a month and that the figure will grow to nearly 50% by 2011. Among teens, usage is already well over half and will near 85% by 2011. Social nets clearly offer value that conventional news and information sites don’t.

Allan Cattier, Director of the Academic Technology Group at Emory University gave a mind-blowing statistic in his presentation to the Communintelligence Executing Social Media conference in Atlanta last month. He said Emory had surveyed its freshman class and found that more than 80% of the students log on to Facebook 18 or more times a day. Imagine how our institutions will be shaped by this trend in coming years. He also showed a compelling video called “A Vision of Students Today” created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University. See below.

Daily reading 12/17/2007

24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook – The Facebook Marketing Bible, Dec. 9, 2007

• Here’s a great list of resources and tips for marketers trying to unravel the secrets of Facebook. It’s a detailed guide to Facebook features with advice on how to leverage each specifically for social campaigns.
   - post by pgillin