The document discusses the shift from an "opt-in" model of social media participation to an era of "asymmetric communications" where social media content is integrated across platforms and aggregated in a single location, forcing participation. It warns that companies who do not engage with social media risk losing control of their online reputation and brand. However, companies that build a community of loyal brand ambassadors on social media will have supporters defending them during any criticism. The document advocates developing a long-term social media engagement strategy to recruit supporters before a crisis and ensure all business practices can withstand scrutiny.

1. October 10, 2009
Brand Survival in the Age of
Asymmetric Communications
Managing the challenges and maximizing the
opportunities presented by social media's new
world order
©2009 MH Group Communications
MH Group Communicatoins, Tel: (212) 984-0672, Address: 100 Park Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, New York 10019
www.mhgroupcom.com

2. Asymmetric
Communications
October 10, 2009
If you are a corporate leader who feels safe ignoring social media because “your
customers don’t use social media,” you are in for an unpleasant surprise.
Your company’s online presence—your online media coverage and advertising,
your search engine results, and even your company’s own Web site—is about to
be overtaken by social media in a way you cannot stop, slow down or control.
Until now, your company may have ignored social media without suffering
obvious consequences. No more. We have entered the era of asymmetric
communications, and there isn’t a place on the Web where your company can
escape it. In every place that your brand exists on the Web, social media is there
as well, providing vehicles for giving feedback, offering praise and criticism, and
seeking a response. Your customers no longer need to seek out social media
content to be exposed to it—social media is now pushed in front of them
automatically everywhere they go on the Web.
There is hope, however. Companies who handle this new environment correctly
have an extraordinary opportunity gain trust, build connections, strengthen their
brand and ultimately sell more products to their customers.
Regardless, one thing is certain: The business world sits on the cusp of yet
another social media transformation, and this one is far less sensitive to
individual organization’s reluctance and concern. It’s the beginning of the
asymmetric communications era, and only the strong will survive.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: OPT-IN PARTICIPATION GIVES WAY
TO ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS
The age of asymmetric communications is distinctly different from age of
conversation that preceded it for a number of reasons, all of which center on the
distinction between opt-in and forced participation. The latter era was driven by
two-way conversations in which stakeholders—not corporate leaders—had the
final say in a brand’s relative success or failure. This was a huge departure from
past communications models, all of which were built upon top-down, one-way
messaging that executives delivered to stakeholders, who had very little say in
the matter.
Social media’s emergence upended this one-way model by introducing a means
for stakeholders to “talk back.” However, while this certainly had profound
implications for organizations’ brands and reputations, there was, at least to
some extent, an element of choice; social media platforms cross-communicated
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only manually, in the sense that conversations taking place within a specific
platform stayed there unless someone made a concerted effort to cross-pollinate
messages. As an executive, you had a choice about whether to participate in
social media. You could decide that
SIDEBAR 1: ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS
bloggers or Facebook users did not
VIS-À-VIS ASYMMETRIC WARFARE
represent an important audience for Conceptually not unlike asymmetric warfare,
your company, and therefore either in which both sides of a conflict use vastly
ignore these mediums or dabble in a dissimilar, sometimes guerrilla-like tactics
few areas of social media with a with the intention of exploiting one another’s
weaknesses, asymmetric communications
piecemeal strategy.
has profound implications for both companies
and their stakeholders.
Your company certainly ran the risk of
being taken off guard when a small Because neither side has the option to opt-
fire started in social media caught the out of participating in social media,
attention of traditional media and traditional “wartime” practices employed
during a crisis, including negotiating,
started a full-blown communications
bartering or even surrendering, are rendered
crisis. But until that actually
ineffective. The reason: New Web
happened, it was out of sight, out of applications that demolish opt-in models
mind. Social media was an opt-in have begun to emerge, and their effects,
environment. both positive and negative, are taking well-
established brands by surprise.
No more. Thanks to asymmetric
communications, this opt-in participation is no longer opt-in. Instead of needing
to seek out social media content proactively in order to be exposed
to/participate in it, you and your stakeholders will now be faced with social
media everywhere you go online, whether you like it or not.
The implications for your business: As a corporate leader, your only hope of
survival is to build a community of active online supporters who will support and
defend your brand against negative attacks. These brand ambassadors’
allegiance is the only way to enhance the company’s credibility and authenticity;
at the same time, the lack thereof will result in reputational crises the likes of
which may not be survived.
As you prepare yourself for this new asymmetric communication paradigm, you
must consider three dynamics that are largely responsible for driving its
evolution: Integration, aggregation and annexation.
INTEGRATION: In the opt-in age of participation, social media conversations
were largely contained within their respective platforms. In the new age of
asymmetric communications, information is exchanged as easily across
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platforms as it is within platforms. With one click—and often
automatically—online articles are shared across Facebook and Twitter; tweets
appear as comments on blogs; and user-generated YouTube videos appear in
Google searches as easily as corporate Web sites do. Content isn’t ranked on
search engines by category; rather, algorithms assign weight to
articles/tweets/blogs/videos without preference.
This means that audiences no longer need to be proactively participating in
social media to consume social media content in the normal course of their
online activities. They don’t even have to click on a link to view dynamic
content; it’s all integrated into the “traditional” Web site framework, regardless
of whether or not the site’s owner put it there. As a result, if your company does
not have a Twitter strategy, not only are you not managing your reputation
within the Twitter community—you are also endangering your reputation
throughout the entire Internet as well.
AGGREGATION: Not only do conversations in social media now move between
platforms with ease, but they can also be consolidated in a single location for
user-friendly consumption. At this very moment, social media content related to
your company that exists on various platforms is being collected and stored on a
single site without your knowledge or permission; this site then becomes a
compelling destination for users who might not have scoured the Internet and
pieced together disparate shreds of information about your company, but who
would be interested to digest the information in a single location.
This relates back to the influence of user-generated content over individuals’
decisions to buy a product, use a service or recommend a brand, which was a
prominent pillar of communications and marketing in the age of conversation.
Numerous studies and reports confirmed that consumers trusted people like
themselves when it came to believing information about a company—much more
than they trusted the company’s executives, marketing messages or even
employees. Therefore, if a Facebook friend or Twitter follower had something
good to say about your company, it bolstered trust in your products/services. If,
on the other hand, online conversations were negative, the you probably found
yourself facing an image crisis.
Aggregation in the context of asymmetric communications makes this trend all
the more compelling, as users can find positive/negative feedback about your
company in one place—even on your own Web site—thanks to Web applications
like Seth Godin’s Squidoo [see Sidebar 2].
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This new generation of social media
SIDEBAR 2: SQUIDOO’S “BRANDS IN PUBLIC”
aggregators is of interest not only to
PROJECT IS THE CORPORATE “FULL MONTY”
your consumers, but also to Web
properties like Google due to the The “In-Public” project begun by Web guru
ever-growing array of content that Seth Godin in 2005, Squidoo’s latest creation
drives search engine rankings. Thus, came in the form of a mashup, launched on
you need to prepare for a world where September 23, 2009 in collaboration with
BzzAgent. Dubbed “Brands in Public,” the
sites aggregating social media content
service could very well be a ticking time bomb
will dominate your company’s top for companies big and small.
search results.
The premise: “Brands In Public” is a collection
of public-facing dashboards of some of the
ANNEXATION: The third and perhaps
world’s biggest brands, from Allstate [see
most compelling driver of asymmetric
Image 1] and The Home Depot to Zappos and
communications is annexation, or the In-n-Out Burger. Each dashboard compiles a list
ability for external stakeholders to of everything that’s being said about the brand
host conversations and commentary throughout the Web, whether it appeared on a
on any corporate Web site—yes, even blog, NYTimes.com, Twitter or YouTube.
yours—without being granted But here’s the catch: Most “Brands In Public”
permission from its host. The epitome pages aren’t controlled or authorized by the
of asymmetry, the choice to opt in/out brands themselves; rather, they are an
of conversations is completely absent, automated stream of tweets, comments,
thus leaving corporate leaders with no conversations and videos, aggregated so that
consumers can see what people all around the
way around social media adoption.
Web—and the world—are saying about a brand
Those who still choose to remain in a single location. That said, companies do
unengaged will find themselves in a have the option to “take over” the page about
morass of rogue stakeholder their brand and moderate the conversation—for
commentary—in their home territory, a $400-a-month fee. This doesn’t alter the
no less. aggregation of brand-related content from
around the Web, but it does allow the company
to respond to critics, highlight fans and
The most pertinent example of contribute content.
annexation-enabling Web applications
is Google’s Sidewiki, which allows Godin put the concept into context, saying,
“You can’t control what people are saying about
users to create a sidebar comment
you. What you can do is organize that speech.
section on any Web page in the
You can organize it by highlighting the good
Internet Explorer, Firefox and, in the stuff and rationally responding to the not-so-
near future, Chrome Web browser good stuff. You can organize it by embracing
[see Image 2]. The implications for the people who love your brand and challenging
corporate Web sites are enormous: them to speak up and share the good world.
And you can respond to it in a thoughtful way,
With Sidewiki’s September 2009
leaving a trail that stands up over time.”
launch, Google made each site social
without giving users the option to say
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IMAGE 1
Brands In Public” creates brand-specific dashboards that aggregate all
“no.” Now, disgruntled customers or employees can create a running
commentary on your homepage that will be visible to any other visitor, so long
IMAGE 2
Google Sidewiki enables consumer-generated commentary on any site.
as they have installed Sidewiki (which is free) on their own browser. In fact,
therein lies the disrupting factor: These conversations appear on corporate Web
sites, but they are hosted on users’ browsers, thereby removing all control from
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corporate executives.
In the ongoing arms race to control the Web, the likes of Yahoo!, Microsoft and
Facebook are sure to be on Google’s tail with their own similar technologies.
Plus, when integrated into social networks like Facebook, Sidewiki becomes all
the more powerful, allowing strangers to comment alongside trusted friends, and
vice versa.
You cannot moderate this commentary because it’s hosted on users’ browsers.
You cannot “talk” over it with advertising, because this advertising will still
appear alongside comments (plus, your will be paying for the ad space while
users’ comments will reside there for free). You cannot ignore the commentary
by diverting your energies to a different Web property, because that too will be
infiltrated.
So, what can you do?
THE PROXY WAR: HOW CORPORATE LEADERS CAN PREPARE
FOR COMBAT IN THE AGE OF ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS
The social media environs’ transformation from conversational to asymmetric is
challenging for all businesses, and not simply because of the reputational risks
involved. Overcoming the risks introduced by a truly uncontrolled social media
experience requires the equivalent of overcoming inertia—that is, a circumstance
in which the company becomes 100% serious about implementing an integrated
social media program.
Studies have consistently shown a company’s supporters will advocate on behalf
of the brand and defend it against unfair attacks—enough of a reason to engage
in social media in the age of conversation, and even more so in the context of
asymmetric communications. Today, a company’s best strategy is to recruit an
active community of supporters, and to built up a reservoir of trust and goodwill
that can be drawn upon when times get tough. These are the times when loyal
stakeholders need to be armed with facts about the company, which must be
detonated in the event of any misgivings.
Indeed, the people most likely to leap to your defense on the Web are people
who are very active in social media. Just as the best defense against a guerrilla
army is a native population that supports the “home team’s” cause, the best
defense against negative attacks online are your most loyal brand ambassadors.
They will be infinitely more authentic and compelling than any corporate
representative could be.
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In order to have these loyal brand ambassadors prepped and ready for battle,
your also need to fulfill the following obligations:
BUILD A ROOF BEFORE IT’S RAINING: A community of supporters
won’t spontaneously appear out of thin air once your company
is attacked. Rather, this community needs to be built and
engaged over time through substantive and authentic
interactions with the brand in social media channels. There are
many different ways to build a community within a social media
channel, but each requires you and your fellow executives to
begin before their reputation is at stake.
POLISH ALL BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATIONS PRACTICES: Influential
audiences will call you out on every single misstep via the same
social media platforms that you must use to defend yourself.
Therefore, your business processes must be solid, and the lines
of communication to each stakeholder group must be well
established and active. Your must remember that any
stakeholder can cause trouble, and the brand’s supporters won’t
come to the defense if they don’t have the facts or, worse, if
they feel your company is in the wrong.
THROW THE BEST PARTY IN TOWN: Ideally, you want these online
conversations to happen on your on turf, as that offers the
greatest opportunity to influence the conversation’s
trajectory—even if said conversation isn’t instigated on your
own accord. That said, stakeholders won’t choose to attend your
proverbial social media party if all that’s being served is
corporate drivel; instead, they will go where the real
conversations are taking place—where they will have plenty to
choose from. Thus, it is important for you to build social media
properties that contain engaging content. You must also be
responsive to your audiences. If you don’t answer the question,
your stakeholder will find someone else who will.
THE PAYOFF
So far, we have focused primarily on the dangers of the asymmetric
communications environment, but there are also many benefits for companies
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who engage correctly.
Think how much more credible your company's Web site will appear with a
sidebar of positive comments from your customers, or how beneficial a social
media aggregation site filled with people reacting positively to your online
content would be to your brand.
It is fair to say that companies who handle this new environment correctly have
an extraordinary opportunity gain trust, build connections, strengthen their
brand and ultimately boost their bottom lines significantly.
WE CAN HELP
Designing and executing a holistic social media engagement strategy is not an
easy task, and MH Group Communications can help you through it.
Created to take advantage of today’s dynamic communications environment, MH
Group Communications addresses the unmet needs of corporate leaders in
managing the challenges and maximizing the opportunities presented by social
media’s emergence and subsequent proliferation.
MH Group marries a traditional consultative approach with an entrepreneurial
spirit, bringing a unique combination of experience, creativity and dexterity to
clients who are dissatisfied with the value and impact offered by large, global
agencies.
Standing at the intersection of corporate communications and digital media, MH
Group helps clients recognize the opportunity in today’s disrupted
communications environment to gain a competitive advantage by implementing
smart, digitally driven strategies throughout their entire organizations.
MH Group’s strategies are always developed to maximize the divergent
characteristics of social media, which are not created equal and do not function
the same way across the board. To form a cohesive, integrated social media
strategy, MH Group will:
• Identify the best social media platforms through which to engage
influential audiences.
• Deliver communications messages through discrete programs designed
for specific digital platforms while ensuring each platform is completely
integrated with your overall business objectives.
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Contact:
Daniel P. Bingham
MH Group Communications
daniel.bingham@mhgroupcom.com
408-621-5786
www.mhgroupcom.com
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