The Naked CEO
How Social Media, Communities,
and User Generated Content is
Forcing Change in Organizations
Rachel Happe
Principal & Founder
The Community Roundtable

President Truman Controlled the Message

Gov. Patrick is Just One Participant

Social media is kind of like this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/conbarba/2929522485/

Looks like chaos to the untrained eye – but
it does self-organize http://www.flickr.com/photos/dey/2918626312/

It’s also unlike the physical world where
things must be organized
http://dclibrarylabs.org/monday-fun-books-organized-by-color/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatknot/118219395/

Making organized business types….

…cranky.

So what do you say when?

Or when?

One Option
10:54 a.m @pblackshawI was made aware of it this morning and I'm tracking down our
trademark counsel to weigh in on it. Not good.
11:13 a.m. @leeTrans@davidrinnan @Energy_Geek @petertdavis @insideline_com I'm
personally looking into it. Hope to have an answer soon.
11:23 a.m. @ContractorTalk I'm in discussions with our Chief Trademark Counsel about it right
now. I'm none too pleased. #ford
11:31 a.m. For anyone asking about the Ford fan sites and legal action: I'm in active discussions
with our legal dept. about resolving it. Plsretweet
4:34 p.m. @BrettTrout Please correct that. We've since remedied it http://tinyurl.com/6b7njd
message to 21,000 more Twitter members.
4:56 p.m. Here is Ford's official response to the fansite cease & desist debacle http://is.gd/b3qd
#ford Please retweet
Credit to Ron Ploof: The Ranger Station Fire

Another Option

What’s Going On?

Drop in Cost of Content Creation
$40,000

Drop in Cost of Content Creation
$300

Drop in Cost of Communications

Drop in Cost of Communications

Drop in Cost of Discovery
6 Billion

Drop in Cost of Discovery
1 Billion

Drop in Cost of Discovery
200 Million

How Is This Changing Organizations?

STRATEGY

You Need An Engaged Network
Having a passive constituent base
is no longer enough
Investors
Customers
Employees Partners
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/1804295568/

Alignment
Customer Brand
Perspective Messaging
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73937087@N00/422507353/

Expectations – Reality = Satisfaction

What To Do
• Think of customers as marketing partners
• Determine how socially-enabled your
constituents are
• Identify the drivers that will help you build a
network
• Acknowledge and articulate who you are as
a organization
– The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
• Align how you talk about your company and
products with what customers think about you

OPERATIONS

The Good News? Cost of Sales is Dropping
Cost of
Content
Creation
Cost of
Information
Distribution
Cost of Sales
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisefly/2948707192/

Implications – Cost of Sales
• Customers can be found more easily and
cheaply because they are discussing their
interests and issues online
• A lot of content can be tested to see what
changes behavior
• Transitioning toward a world of less
advertising and more content targeted at
developing leads
• Smaller marketing & sales infrastructure is
needed

The Bad News? Margins Are Eroding
Cost of
Information
Discovery
Margins
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mon_oeil/2803417816/

Implications - Margins
• Customers harder to keep if they are not
happy
• Information allows customers to negotiate
better deals
• Customers can easily organize with each
other
• It is harder to hide product quality issues

What to Do
• Shift investment percentages from customer
acquisition to relationship development
• Develop new skills sets in online community
management and moderation
• Enable and encourage customer content
creation
• Accept that you do not control your marketing
message – use that to your advantage
• Understand that no amount of marketing can fix
a product – and it can backfire

CULTURE

Informal
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jspad/142160659/

Informed
Informed
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwanja/3169447879/

Powerful
Powerful http://www.flickr.com/photos/gargi/2483623130/

What You Need To Do
• Interact informally with customers
• Keep up with customers online
• Know more than your most well-informed
customers do
• Be as responsive to customers as their
friends are

LEADERSHIP

Transparent
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22971881@N02/3104553057/in/set-72157611215947198/

Authentic
Photo by T.McEnroe

Modest

What You Need To Do
• Practice conversational and facilitated
communications internally
• Experience self-organizing environments
– developer communities, India,
Wikipedia, user groups
• War game radically different
communications cultures – using games
like BafaBafa

Embrace your
inner Naked
Cowboy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/linksmanjd/1958153930/

Thank You
@rhappe
rachel@community-roundtable.com
www.community-roundtable.com
I blog at www.thesocialorganization.com