This week Sterling and I sat down to chat about traditional public relations methodologies and how the new media phenomenon is changing the landscape with regard to how companies can communicate their message. Feel free to listen to the podcast by clicking the player below or by downloading this episode to your computer. 

 

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Today comes word from Peter Kafka on Silicon Alley Insider, via correspondent Alberto Escarlate, that Cisco will soon launch a social media solution called EOS. That stands for Entertainment Operating System at Cisco, or if you're a Cisco investor perhaps, it could stand for Everybody Ought to Spend… Swoon… Sign up?

So what is it? That's vague. Here's what Mr. Escarlate reports based on what a Cisco senior vp and general manager had to say about it:

EOS… is "an open software platform for creating and managing a community-based entertainment experience." It's a back-end infrastructure that will power entertainment and media based on discovery, community, multimedia.

An operating system, a creative platform, infrastructure? Two or three mints in one? A lemon drop?

Apparently in support of the goodness and appropriateness of this product development and Cisco's credibility in the endeavor, this same senior VP referenced Five Across, a San Jose-based builder of corporate social networks that Cisco acquired earlier this year. Here's a VentureBeat report on that by Matt Marshall from the time and which notes Five Across employed 11 people.

You know, assuming the reporting is accurate, if a company isn't ready to talk about a new product, shouldn't it remain quiet until it is ready unless a little good preconditioning, using words and phrases people understand, can chill would-be competitors and/or get a head start on sales to early adopters? If, alternatively, someone doesn't know the product well enough to talk about it — and I'm not saying that's the case here… maybe it is, maybe it isn't… shouldn't they find someone who does know enough to say the right things clearly at the right time?

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A recent survey indicates that nearly a third of Web marketers plan to increase spending significantly on social media–such as blogs and discussion boards. The marketers don't look to ROI as the top measure for such media's success, the survey shows.

I like the first half of that and will never understand the second part. It's from a report yesterday in Online Media Daily, a MediaPost Publication, by Tanya Irwin.

Imagine for a moment if you will ladies and gentlemen a 500-seat auditorium in which every seat houses the fanny of a Fortune 500 CEO. Each CEO has had a wire inserted into that part of the brain that drives the profit motive. All the wires plug in to a MeaterEater Monitor on stage that features a Satisfaction Index with what's being said. So far, the needle is way left, registering little or no interest and some disdain. 'They want more money and they can't tell me how much of it and then some that I'll get back…'

The whole point of commercial social media as far as I'm concerned is that it is measureable. Two, the things that can be measured relate over time to customers, prospects, sales, margins, share, etc.

Asked about social media return on investment (ROI), 35% reported positive ROI and 41% said that ROI was "unknown."

I think the 41% with the unknown ROI are at risk of having their social media projects drained of funds or discontinued. In this era, shareholders, stakeholders, CEOs, and board members, to mention a few, aren't buying the old "feels good, looks good, seems right" justification for marketing expense. 

Prospero Technologies, LLC  did the survey. In fairness to Rusty Williams, co-founder and vice president of Prospero Technologies and who is quoted in the piece, I think he's saying what I'm saying, maybe, in a way? Let's return to the wired CEOs while they listen to what Mr. Williams says about the survey respondents:

"The majority of respondents see engagement with their brand as the most important measure of social media success, while more concrete ROI measures such as sales and new business leads carry less weight…"

Someone gets up to check that the dormant MeaterEater Monitor is plugged in. Most of the men and some of the women in the room have been 'engaged,' in one way or another, at least three times themselves and want no part of it. Mr. Williams continues…

"The reality is the key value to most companies is attention… "

Wires warming.

"If you look at what people say was important it was repeat visitors and total page use."

Needle moving to the right. 'The number of people getting my message can be measured, right?'

"That attention translates into people buying from you…"

Ding ding ding ding. Needle spikes way right.

"Attention is a unit of measure for success right now rather than a hard dollar return."

'Huh?' Needle spikes back to zero. Is it any wonder so many CEOs are confused or skeptical or down-right hostile toward social media initiatives?

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