Wide Angle

Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo!, recently identified the volume of information flow as one of the largest challenges facing corporate leaders today.  In marketing, the issue is not simply one of volume but of information richness.  Well beyond the reams of rational data about customer click-thru rates, viewing behavior, etc., the emotion and human insight embedded in unstructured information available via social media (e.g., dialogues, comments, ratings) elevates this challenge for marketers above volume alone. 

Ms. Bartz suggests leaders simplify and interpret the flood of information for employees and stakeholders.  Building on this, I’d urge marketers to focus on 3 C’s as they grapple with information richness:

1.  Clarify - Help your teams and internal partners separate important information from distractive. Identify 2-3 attitudinal or behavioral objectives for your brand or product and develop a list of metrics that directly connect to those objectives, as well as a list of metrics that don’t.  Keep the lists front-of-mind and updated throughout the year.  Teach your team to focus on those direct-line metrics, and spend little or no energy on others.

MLC Members: see the Return on Objectives approach for more details.

2.  Connect – No matter how rich information becomes in 2010, it will never rival the tacit knowledge held by employees around your organization.  Enable connection of this information by strongly advocating for social media internally. If you don’t have an internal social network of some kind, push for one.  If you do, lead by example in a way that drives emotional connections between employees across functions, which is much more likely to open the gates of tacit knowledge exchange about your customers and the business.  For more on this idea, I found this HBR blog post by John Hagel III and John Seely Brown provocative.

Use social media to spur live connections that go beyond simply rational, work-related topics.  This kind of connection is the critical precursor for unique insight (see Combine below).  Looking for inspiration? See this WSJ article on Silicon Valley leaders connecting their organizations over board games.

3.  Combine – Much is written about gathering insight from data produced by digital and social media, but not enough about differentiated insight, which propels brands and products to real market advantage.  The best path to differentiated insight combines information and knowledge sets in new ways.  Having connected tacit information in the step above, give it a boost by being your brand’s chief collaboration broker.

As a marketing leader, one of the more leveraged ways of driving collaboration is to align goals and incentives.  Get together with your peers in Customer Service and PR, at a bare minimum.  Jointly audit the 2010 goals, objectives and incentives of key individuals on your teams to find opportunities for alignment. 

MLC Members: see how Microsoft has done this, or view the webinar replay in which Ray Day, VP of Communications with Ford, talks about marketing and PR integration.  

Or discuss these and other issues related to social media live, with your marketing peers, at the Council’s upcoming meetings in London on 9 February, Melbourne on 22 February or Chicago on 23 February.