Mass media has shattered into niche, and from there it went social. Today, it's not enough that you might publish a blog about your little slice of reality. Now, readers need a friend/peer that they respect to actually recommend that they pay attention to that tiny snippet in your blog. It is here where the viral aspect of your message becomes extremely important.

So the lesson, I think, is to make sure your company is willing and capable sharers of expertise, and that they do it online, daily if possible. Decouple the "corporate" voice from communication and find ways for managers to actively and intelligently evangelize the brand by building their own personal brands online, within the context of the company message. If that means your CIO develops a following, go with it! The ones that build a personal brand and stay…they are PR gold.

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It's New Years Eve here in South Natick. Like the holiday or hate it, you'll probably agree it is at least a time to take stock and make pledges to yourself about the coming year, both personally and professionally. Maybe in the time it takes the clock to transition from 2007 to 2008, you'll consider whether or not to make 2008 the year in which you'll make some wholesale changes in the way you market your products and services.

To evaluate that possibility, here's a column by Michelle Richard who is the co-owner of Coalesce Marketing & Design Inc. in Appleton, Wisconsin. It's all about a market target that in a recent survey was at the top of the list for more than 80% of marketing executives polled: Generation Y, which they say happens to be twice the size of Gen X.

The column is worth reading from beginning to end if you're interested in learning why traditional media isn't going to reach this audience; if you want to better understand how and why this group is becoming increasingly immune to old advertising formulas.

Happy New Year?

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This post isn't about whether or not AMD makes an X1950Pro AGP 512 video card that works with Vista or not. I don't know, and personally I don't care. The point of this post is whether or not, if you're in the corporate world, you currently have any idea what a lone individual in dispute with you can do to your reputation online, globally, overnight? Case in point: are you prepared to handle this.

That link takes you to a press release on a site called DesignerToday.com. In the release, a disgruntled consumer details his or her extreme displeasure with a product from AMD and his or her establishment of a website apparently devoted entirely to shining a spotlight on AMD's presumed deficiencies. The press release presents at least some compelling evidence that this lone protest powered by the Internet is being noted by some, worldwide, in the metasphere.

If you don't already have a plan and systems in place for this eventuality and something like this happens to your company, you're at an extreme disadvantage. That's because without an existing familiarity with the blogosphere you didn't see it coming, you have no idea whether this is one person picketing your parking lot or one guy with 5,000 followers; and since you're probably not engaging social media tactics of your own making and volition, you're without a ready response platform where you can answer such complaints and enlist the support of satisfied customers who could be useful in countering the product assertions of others, whether a lone voice or a mob.

In fairness to AMD in this instance, they do have some support forums. They do have developer blogs. They don't appear to have an executive-driven, high-level, online community where their brand could be explained, enhanced, defended, and discussed. Without such a thing, what are your options? If I were Mr. Hector de J. Ruiz, Ph.D., who is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AMD, I'd grab the product manager and call or visit this protester and try to resolve the issue. Ordinarily I'd say the chief marketing executive might do this, but AMD's executive management team as evidenced by this doesn't seem to have one. I guess Mr. Phil Hester could do it? In any event, AMD has a chance even at this stage to convert this person into an AMD advocate if they play this right.

If the situation can't be resolved directly, and AMD is without a high level social media platform, it's way too late and way too lame to start one just for this reason. Traditional PR isn't going to help much, if at all. That leaves the lawyers, as usual, of course. But that blunt instrument only plays into the hands of a lone protester who can position the legal action as the last resort of yet another corporation that's lost touch with consumers.

Folks, you're going to see more and more and more of this sort of thing in 2008 and beyond. Many of the online protests will be without merit. Some will be based on legitimate complaints. All will either temporarily or permanently affect your corporate reputation. All will likely be very skilled at website and community building. How you handle it, if it happens, depends on what you do now to prepare yourself, inform yourself, and grow comfortable with the same social media tools and techniques that are the growing source of power among consumers today.

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