My panel talk at Independent Power Producers ’09 #ippbc09

photo credit: f_shields

Today I was part of the social media panel organized by Elisha McCallum (Director of Communications for Plutonic Power) at the Independent Power Producers conference, held in Vancouver, November 2nd and 3rd, 2009. I was honored to share the stage with Alexandra Samuel (Social Signal), James Glave (Hoggan & Associates), Chris Hatch (PowerUp Canada) and Gillian Shaw (Vancouver Sun). While I hadn’t met Chris before, I am friends with the remainder of the panel so the chemistry and flow of information in the panel was incredibly smooth. I created a ScribbleLive iFrame so that people could read the live-tweets (it’s embedded on my research blog but you can also read it below).

I was the last panelist, which is almost always a total risk because you never know what the other speakers are going to say. Two themes resonated within the panel: the importance of sharing your story online and building an online presence and brand. I spoke about 4 things that social media will not do for your power producing company and my top 10 best tips for doing social media within the alternative energy online space. These tips are definitely applicable to other brands, verticals and online spaces, but I spoke directly to energy issues in this talk. What follows below is a very loose crib of my actual talk.

The crib begins here

Thank you everyone for coming to our panel. I am the last panelist so my points will definitely resonate with what you have heard from my amazing colleagues. While I admit that I have a bit of split personality (I have two online personas, one that is social media and consulting and the other, my academic self), my talk will actually discourage you from doing what I do (yeah, Raul, practice what you preach, eh?) and instead, I will urge you to create a unified, coherent and cohesive online presence. There are reasons why I keep my identities online separate that I can share with you in the question and answer period if you are still interested.

First of all, I am going to tell you the 4 things that social media will NOT accomplish for you:

1. Social media will NOT replace your all of your other communication strategies. Social media will augment whatever other communications efforts you are using to put your message out there. But what it won’t do is to substitute for a solid strategy. So, if you don’t have a solid, coherent and broad communication strategy within which you insert social media tools, you probably should start with that, first of all.

2. Social media will NOT avoid the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) phenomenon for your company. I am an academic. I know that NIMBY happens, and it actually happens with a multitude of alternative power producers’ technologies. I’ve read the literature on NIMBY opposition to wind farms to extensive lengths. I would not be surprised if people oppose your alternative power projects. And whether you like it or not, you have to accept that social media won’t avoid NIMBY conflicts. It may, however, help you manage your relationships with the community you are immersed within. And perhaps, that might just help you deal and mitigate NIMBY opposition.

3. Social media will not create your community just by producing and maintaining an online presence. It’s up to you and your company’s staff to build a community around your website, around your company and around your online platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, to name a few).

4. Social media will not pay back immediately. Whoever tells you that social media will produce an immediate return on investment and that it doesn’t cost a cent is lying to you, and you should refer them to me so that I can slap them silly. I’m just half-kidding here. Social media is about community building, and the same way that Rome wasn’t built in one day, online communities aren’t built in 3 weeks. Whoever tells you otherwise is lying to you. And that, in good time, will come and bite them back.

Now, for the top 10 tips I can give you on how to best do social media…

[The rest of my crib is actually just going to be the tips themselves. I think they're self-explanatory]

1. Tell a story. Your company has a story to tell. Tell it!
2. Go multi-platform. Don’t just stick to Twitter or Facebook. Go where your audience is.
3. Be authentic. If you screw up, admit it and clean up after yourself. We are all humans behind the computer screen.
4. Monitor your brand. Your company is being talked about online, even if you think it’s not.
5. Build a community. I can’t stress this enough. Social media is about building a community around you.
6. Be patient. Success overnight takes between 10 and 15 years. So, don’t expect to build a community in 4 weeks.
7. Hire a good consultant. Same as with coaching, there’s only so much you can do. And then, you get someone to help you move forward. Be choosy when you ask for consulting services.
8. Align your social media strategy to your overall strategy. Nothing worse than having a social media strategy that achieves only part of the overall goals of the company.
9. Build a cohesive online identity. Create a central platform (I use my blog and recommend you do too) and then use social networking sites to share your message and bring the community back to your core platform.
10. Remember to network wisely. Don’t abuse your networks. Share stuff, be generous, and remember that everyone is connected in this day and age.