SMBMSP 13 Podcast

[Rick Mahn]

Yep, you heard right, this is the inaugural SMBMSP podcast. We'll be working on the format and content for the next event, but this first one was as much to see how it'd work as it was for fun.

Many, many thanks to Brad Bellaver for his patience and diligence in creating this podcast. He's a true pro.

[Brad Bellaver]

You two better save some for the event on the 18th!

[Rick Mahn]

Thanks for the links - just proves I have more reading to do. :)

[Albert Maruggi]

The more you and I talk the more issues you bring up that I've blogged about - First this is a good interview with the authors of the book Millennial Makover and another post call All Politics is Social

I think you'll enjoy

[Rick Mahn]

Agreed on that. It's a troubling thing for larger companies though too - the bigger the brand, the longer the memory when they screw up. Do they try to turn around an answer quicker to address what they believe is a small group of internet geeks or do they take time to massage an answer to placate their base? This sounds too much like politics, but then again, politicians are simply another brand.

This is of course, near and dear to my heart right now, and I'm really interested in how these things play out.

[Albert Maruggi]

I'd argue they have to cut across. Example Target blogger request about advertising photo get's dissed by PR department. However, did they check with any call center to see if people are complaining? I'd like to know if in fact there is a process that alerts other departments when issues are simmering, not boiling, simmering.

It's been my experience that larger companies/organizations, don't act or react as fast as communities can. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not.

[Rick Mahn]

Excellent - this is what I was trying to get at, but didn't verbalize well. To develop a community for an organization is one thing, but as you point out, people who are effective at it are able to cut across the organization and bring the information to the parties that can do the most with it.

[Albert Maruggi]

If you subscribe to the broad definition of Public Relations meaning every audience outside the company, then it is moot point. However, the issue is about developing a culture of sharing within a company so that the community can do their job better. A customer service issue may come up in a community and therefore it needs to be handed off.

An area where it may not come under the definition of PR is when the community raises a new function or design feature they would like to see in the product. That might otherwise come under the domain of product manager or at best market research, not PR. So I think community manager has to have a wider reach within a company to get answers and funnel information so that it is evaluated and (important point here) a response is given back to the community.