To understand what Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) is, we have to start with a clear definition. The definition must be clearly articulated and easily understood by individuals in the industry.

In the Magic Quadrant for Social CRM, Gartner writes, “Social CRM applications need to be far more customer-centric than more-traditional CRM applications. Without benefits for the customer, communities and social networks die, resulting in no benefits to the organization using the social CRM applications. To be successful with social CRM, organizations need to be much less focused on how an organization can manage the customer, and much more focused on how the customer can manage the relationship.”

The Gartner analysts then go on to define the fuzzy outputs of SCRM but never clearly define the SCRM beyond the previous paragraph.  And I’m not the only one who seems to be mystified by the definition. Paul Greenberg calls the report “confusing”, Estaban Kolsky calls the SCRM definition “mystical”,   and Chris Bucholtz compares the report to a variety of race cars in several races on the same track.

For me and the decision makers I talk to, SCRM is simply taking traditional CRM and adding multichannel social technologies, social analytics and social engagement strategy to help Sales, Marketing and Customer Service be more productive.

Jas Dhillon offers a more detailed definition which I like: “Social CRM is a business philosophy that expands the borders of traditional customer relationship management beyond information, process and technology to people, conversations, and relationships. The focus of sCRM is on people (i.e. customers, partner, suppliers), their relationships with other people, and the ongoing conversations that are occurring about the Company and its products. Finally, sCRM is also about engaging with customers and prospects, not controlling them, and establishing bonds of trust (hopefully love) between the Customers and the Company.”

So by this definition, please find the following revised and unauthorized “Reality Quadrant” for Social CRM decision makers:

The Reality Quadrant for SCRM

Download a larger size

Where Gartner Got it Wrong

To be fair, with respect to their analysis, Gartner typically gets it right.  Just not this time.

The problem is that SCRM is a relatively new concept with little in terms of real world business application experience. Therefore, the Gartner research is not likely based on empirical knowledge, but on their opinion of the vendors’ solutions and business strategy that was presented to them.

For the few of us that are using SCRM tools as mission critical business solutions, their SCRM Magic Quadrant is more illusion than conclusion. For example, how does Jive manage to secure the top spot on the Quadrant when there isn’t a Vice President of Sales on the planet that will choose them to manage their customer relationship, opportunity, pipeline and forecasting information?

Jive doesn’t effectively manage information about people, relationships and business opportunities. It’s not built for that purpose.  Jive is a listening and engagement platform that does not manage the people they are listening to; prospects, customers, vendors, and influencers.

But their solution is an incredibly effective social platform for customer and employee engagement. There’s a clear distinction that Gartner doesn’t seem to grasp (or perhaps chooses to ignore).

True SCRM starts out the with the customer, her demographics, her realities, her needs, her values. But it does not ignore the management of the customer. It’s not an angry tweet that someone in customer service responds to only to move on the next complaint. It creates a profile of that customer so that the organization can continue to nurture her.

So Gartner missed the customer relationship management aspect of SCRM.  They likely forgot that the CRM in SCRM is about creating new customers, managing the customer relationship lifecycle, and keeping existing customers happy.

The Winners

It’s essential to note that no vendor has a complete, end to end, integrated SCRM solution. But if you need to realize the numerous benefits of SCRM today, the following are the frontrunners:

Large organizations over 1000 employees: With Salesforce.com’s acquisition of Radian 6 in March 2011, they quickly accelerated into the pole position for SCRM.  Already a CRM leader, Salesforce.com has the most complete Social CRM offering. They are now faced with the daunting challenge of integrating Salesforce and Chatter with their recent acquisitions and socially enabling the overall solution.

Small to mid-size organizations with less than 1000 employees: Surprise start up Nimble  is the best choice for small and medium sized companies. If Salesforce.com is taking an acquire then integrate approach, Nimble is starting with Social at its core and building CRM components on top of it. Nimble is far more affordable than Salesforce and offers a rich Social and CRM feature set for small to mid-size organizations.

Conclusion

As Peter Drucker liked to remind us, the purpose of business is to create a customer.  And Social CRM is furthering this objective by enabling companies to locate and connect with current and  prospective customers while managing them through a relationship lifecycle.   SCRM is important, it’s not B.S. and it’s here to stay.

While it’s easy for me to Monday morning quarterback and to dispute Gartner’s decisions after the fact, many believe the SCRM Magic Quadrant results are unsatisfactory. So I’ve repositioned the Quadrant so that SCRM decision makers can make more informed decisions based on the real-world experience of executives like them.

Let me know if I got it right.

There are others with more followers, others with more Klout, others that tweet more, others that have written a book.  Others that are more popular, others with more buzz, others that run bigger communities and others with larger networks.

But none that have a multi-channel, multi-category social dominance like Tristan Bishop.  If you only followed Tristan Bishop, then you’d have a deep appreciation of Social Business . If you only followed the rest of the Social Business crowd, then Bishop will be a pleasant, refreshing surprise. Nothing about him feels fake. He is as genuine as he is considerate.

Being social is easy. Remaining social day after arduous day is difficult. Keeping followers entertained and educated is even more difficult. Building a new department from scratch to support a social initiative is perhaps the most difficult of all. Bishop is one of those rare social persons who manage to do all four.

But what sets him apart from everyone else is that he does it from behind the walls of one of the most secure companies in the world.

Symantec’s Social Business  

“As one of the top security companies in the world, we’re a huge target for hackers. So our culture has definitely been conservative from the regard of protecting our employees, our networks and our users from unauthorized access. So that almost conflicts with the Social conventions of sharing everything and being totally open,” explains Bishop. 

Bishop gives his boss, co-workers and Symantec CEO Enrique Salem full credit for allowing him the opportunity to create a social listening and response team.  “We needed to find a way to listen to our customers, be attentive, respond to their concerns, use their suggestions to drive customer experience improvement, and build their loyalty while still safeguarding what’s necessary. And the way we do that is through Social CRM. It’s through the correlation of the Social media IDs that exist out there with the backend records of our customers,” Bishop clarified.

Symantec’s Social Business Stats

When I asked Bishop about his team’s mission within Symantec, he quickly responded, “Our mission is to improve customer experience however we can. So it’s to be as helpful as possible.  I can boil it down to four words: ‘Be helpful’ and ‘Be Kind’. I haven’t really written it down yet.” 

On Becoming a Social Business

Bishop has just started in his new role.  So I asked him about some of the challenges ahead, he responded: “Right now we are probably perceived as an inattentive brand. I haven’t calculated it yet. We do a decent job monitoring our brand to channels. But we don’t respond to off brand mentions. If someone complains about us but it’s not directly to us…If you complain to us we will answer you. But if you complain about us, we won’t. And that’s going to change.”

I also asked him how he was able to fund his new team: “So tying social media monitoring to customer loyalty and net promoter is the way that I was able to demonstrate the value of pursuing this approach,” Bishop responded, “and so I began with my own management level and the layer of people above me and showed them what was possible. Then we demonstrated the value to our senior directors and our vice presidents and eventually to the chief technology officer, who I work under. At that point, it was a no-brainer for him once we showed what was possible.”

Remember, Bishop is creating a social listening and response team within one of the most secure organizations on the planet. If he is able to justify the creation of the team, it must certainly be easier for everyone else.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

One thing you’ll find about Bishop is that he’s easily quotable.  Take this Druckerian explanation of how he views Symantec customers: “I tend to see the business world in two buckets: the customer and the company. So I look at the customer and I look at Symantec and what can we do to help them? I don’t think in terms of silos or functions or departments. Just that’s the customer, they need us, we’re here to protect them, we’re here to defend them, we’re here to support them. Whatever we can do, we need to do.”

I expanded on his philosophy of serving the customer and asked him for some best practices.  The following are some of his best ideas:

• Identify your company’s corporate goals and align your social media programs to those objectives.
• Partner up with people across multiple functions, multiple business units regardless of reporting structure and who are passionate about helping customers.
• Gauge the effectiveness of you social media programs by changes in the organizations Net Promoter score. “There’s financial value associated with customer loyalty,” says Bishop.
• Connect your social conversations with your back end corporate data. Some people call it  Social CRM or customer relationship management with a Social context.

On Measuring Social Business Success

The corporate naysayers of social business are increasingly less cynical, but still there is doubt when it comes to funding a social initiative.  Some are still looking for a direct link from a social conversation to a signed contract. And while those connections are being made today, there are additional benefits that Symantec has uncovered. 

“We’re measuring share of voice within the industry for each product. We’re measuring volume versus our competitors. We’re measuring sentiment over time. We are tracking the amount of product suggestions and we’re looking at opportunities for social customer service that may help provide higher service levels at lower price points,” claims Bishop.

Bishop goes on to explain how important it is to monitor customer loyalty, “if you happen to track net promoter scores as we do, and observe how it positively impacts customer loyalty through social means, you’ve got a case that almost makes itself.”

I then asked him how he monitored the overall social program, “At the end of every day, we will use the summary dashboard to report out metrics and share these reports based on sentiment trends by product, influencers and engagement. We’re also looking at data to answer the questions, ‘so what’s the share demographically by gender for each product? What is the geography distribution of Social media mentions in English?’ And once we add multiple languages, we’ll be able to get deeper.”

Why Tristan Bishop is One of the Most Social Men in Social Business

Like tuning a radio station only to find the same broadcaster, Bishop is always there. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, he’s a veritable social jukebox but with infinite content. Most surprising, he produces a lot of the content on the fly. Better, he does not just reference inspirational quotes, he creates them.

	Social Stats
Twitter Followers	13,023
Klout Score	77
Twitalyzer score	99
PeerIndex	54
Top 25 most influential Social Business Lists	2 different categories
SocialMention Strength	41%

And while Robert Scoble comes to mind whenever a discussion around social media and business is mentioned, Scoble isn’t running a social media command center for 18,000 employees. Nor is he working for an organization whose natural impulse is to lock things up and secure all communications.    

So we all know content alone does not a social person make, his engagement levels are off the chart.

Search for a Digital Strategist on LinkedIn and Bishop’s name is at the top.  Ask the SCRM, Social Customer Service and Technical Communicator crowds who they rank near the top of their most influential lists and Bishop is sure to be mentioned. Need a quick, one-liner response to an angry customer, just ask him.  Who gives away more Klout than he receives? Tristan Bishop.

Bishop’s a many trick, social pony with a colored background. A background that includes being a lead singer in a boy’s band, a black belt in Mixed Martial Arts, a stint with Mancow Muller during the infamous bay bridge, Bill Clinton haircut fiasco, and a DreamWorks impersonator.

What can one learn from Symantec’s Tristan Bishop?

The aim of Social Business is to create and strengthen customer relationships. The aim of Social Business is to empower employees to act on the company’s behalf through social channels.  These are not abstractions.  They are the commitments through which a Social Business program must carry out.

Bishop understands these commitments. Lives by them. So after years of preaching about social leadership , he has achieved it.

Wise brands don’t "extract" value FROM customers: They "exchange" value WITH them.  -(Tristan Bishop)

Many are calling 2011 the year of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).  I can assure you, it will not be called the year of the Social CMO.  In our analysis only 15 of the 143 CMO’s and Chief Communication Executives (CCO’s) in the Fortune 100 we studied have active Twitter Accounts.  Worse, 15% of them have a net zero social footprint (meaning no social activity).

Yet in a survey by the MarketingSherpa team, Social Media budgets are expected to increase in 53% of the organizations surveyed.

Moreover, “US marketers will spend $3.08 billion to advertise on social networking sites this year,” according to eMarketer. “Spending will be up 55% over the $1.99 billion advertisers devoted to social networks in 2010 and will rise by a further 27.7% next year to reach nearly $4 billion.”

That is a tremendous amount of money to be spent by Marketing and Communication Chiefs. However if the Fortune 100 are any indication, the investment in Social is being led by a group of people that have remarkably little personal experience in Social Media and Social Networks. Does that make sense?

Fortunately, there are at least 20 executives in the Fortune 100 that understand social.   We’ve highlighted them here:

We created the top 20 Social CMO* guide using state of the art sentiment analysis technology from Lithium (formerly Scout labs) and social media metrics from HowSociable, Klout and Social Mention.

I want to thank Henry Min for converting my research into an infographic.  He’s a genius, I recommend you get to know him.

Why is this important?

We believe that as social media and content start to replace their traditional media counterparts; the companies listed above will gain a competitive advantage. In fact as we’ve experienced, social media is a differentiator that facilitates and accelerates word of mouth marketing. There’s nothing more valuable.

It’s important to note that this is not an influence or popularity list. The list was created to highlight Chief Marketing and Communication Executives that are not only using social tools, but are being recognized by consumers as positive influencers on their brands.

What’s odd is that the majority of the Fortune 100 CMO/CCOs, either do not recognize the power of their Fortune 100 perch or are concerned about violating Sarbanes Oxley.  As a former section 16 officer myself, some of the concerns are founded, but most are an excuse not to engage.

Note: David Mastroni from the Dachis Group does a terrific job of pacifying these concerns. I also recommend you follow Klint Finley from ReadWriteEnterprise for additional insights in this area.

Our Closing Thoughts

The study’s results were somewhat surprising given the small percentage of executive level social media participation in the Fortune 100. As influential pundits like Dennis Howlett and Martijn Linssen have pointed out in the past, executives have still not embraced social business.

But marketers have always been taught to “go where their consumers are” and still the Fortune 100 Chiefs seem to be personally absent. The giant red flag here is that if the Chief Marketers and Communicators do not understand how social media can be part of an integrated marketing/communications strategy; then how will the rest of the organization?

I asked Jas Dhillon of ThinkPassenger about his thoughts on the list.  Dhillon responded, “It appears based on your research that many of the CMO’s are saying ‘do as I say not as I do’.” It is hard to argue with him on that point.

What’s clear however, are how Social Consumers are relying on their social networks and social media to make purchase decisions.  As more do, companies caught without a clear and effective social strategy from their leaders will become less competitive.

All signs point towards a massive shift in consumer behavior from consumption of information from traditional media sources to information and content found in social media and networks. The goal then becomes one of  engagement with potential and current customers at all times.

Unlike traditional media however, marketers can have real one-on-one discussions with their community by leveraging social media tools. This is an incredible advantage over those executives still relying on traditional, indirect ways of reaching their consumers.

But how would your CMO know?

The Top 20 on Twitter (those with Active Accounts)

*In some cases where we use the term CMO, we also are extending the term to include Heads and Chiefs of Communication.   To follow these trends like the SocialCMO on Facebook.

** Google was pushed into the Fortune 100 due to their recent growth so we included Nikesh Arora in our research

A guide for Entrepreneurs

There is a lot of content created by the Venture Capital community that has helped countless entrepreneurs.  In fact, one of my favorites is How Andreessen Horowitz Evaluates CEOs.

I recently stumbled upon the article again and it reminded me of an article I’ve been meaning to write for my entrepreneurial friends.   We’ve all heard the horror stories (fairly or unfairly) of how Venture Capitalists have screwed over the founders of companies.

What we rarely hear about is the enormous value that some in the Venture Capital community create when investing in a startup.  Whether it’s strategic help, introductions to customers, joint ventures with other portfolio companies, and just plain fair dealings.  I want to help narrow your choices by providing a starting point.

How was the list determined?

I created the VC guide using state of the art sentiment analysis technology from Lithium (formerly Scout labs), confidential reviews from entrepreneurs on TheFunded.com, and four surveys that I issued across four different social platforms.  I also looked for mentions of individual VC’s on Quora to gain additional insight.

The result is the top 30.  If your company is fortunate enough to be working with any of these people then you’re working with a fair and devoted individual.   Using Lithium’s sentiment analysis tools, attributes like helpful, fair, brilliant, profitable, amazing, and knowledgeable are consistent attributes for this group.

It’s important to note that this is not an influence or popularity list.  The list was created to identify the people in the Venture Capital community that people respect most.   Of course this is not the definitive list but in my research this group came out on top.

Ranked #1, Brad Feld had this to say on earning the respect of Entrepreneurs in the Venture Capital industry: “I try hard to be straightforward and transparent. I do what I say I’m going to do and I’m very open about my thinking (see www.feld.com).”

What is Socialytics?

Socialytics or social analytics is the emerging practice of analyzing social media data in order to help with a strategic goal.  If you don’t like the term, please don’t take it out on me.

I used a weighted average ranking system to determine the list.  So even though Dave McClure and Marc Andreessen were not rated on The Funded, they ranked  high enough in the other categories to make the list.  Based on what I uncovered in my research, they deserve their spots.

Final Thoughts…

It’s interesting to note how many early stage investors made the list.  Are they generally more helpful?  Do they need to be in order to get their newly funded businesses off the ground? What is First Round Capital doing differently to have such a large share of the top 48 (see below)?

So what do you think?  Did I miss anyone?

The Top 30 with links to their Twitter Accounts

The Narrowly Missed List – High Reputations / (not in order)

A Guide for Consumers and Brands

Gartner estimates the Mobile Game market will reach $11.4 billion by 2014.  That’s a big number.  Compare that the Video Game market revenue of $18.58 million and Movie Box office receipts of $10.16 billion for 2010.

Mobile Games will be an important market.  Further, as mobile devices become more ubiquitous (especially in emerging countries), we’ll see developers utilize the GPS, accelerometers, camera and directional compass features to surpass the abilities of video game console platforms.  That may disrupt the gaming market.

We’ll also see mobile tablets and portable gaming platforms usher in millions more mobile gamers thus fueling increased demand.

The infographic below exhibits the hottest mobile game developers in the business today.  They are creating the most discussions, the most engagement, and the most buzz.  (Note: Read below to understand the methodology for determining Buzz.)

The Top 25 Hottest Mobile Game Developers/Publishers

Click here for the Largest Size (Warning – it’s poster sized).

Join our Facebook Mobile Game Developer Page

I’ve created a Facebook page for mobile game developers and mobile game lovers – please join for the latest in mobile gaming.   We also cover all of the mobile game developers listed above.

Buzz Methodology

We used the following sites to determine a Buzz score.  The score is a formula based on results from the following sites:

• HowSociable.com

• Google Trends
• SocialMention.com
• LinkedIn metrics are derived from the Business page of the company on LinkedIn.
• Facebook Fan metrics are derived by the Fan page of the brand (if there is one).

My Other Mobile Guides

<Click to launch>

The Top 25 Game Developers and their CEO’s (text based)

The Hottest?

So do you agree with the top 25?  Did I miss anyone?  Please add them to the comments below and I may include them in my update.

What I learned in 2010 can be summed up in one individual

Except for reading the occasional year end articles (notables include Kotadia, Maggie Fox, McAfee) I typically skip the tradition of trying to summarize an entire year in 10 bullet points. The Enterprise 2.0/Social Business space is just too dynamic with many starts, stops and do-overs.

Yet in 2010 I noticed the impact that Technology/Brand Evangelists are having on their companies.  I noticed how they’re using social media to create real sales opportunities.  I noticed how they’re creating exceptional buzz around their brands that was once the domain of the world’s largest media powerhouses.

And I noticed why Robert Scoble exemplifies this phenomenon.

Bottom line: These Evangelists are creating real shareholder value. Allow me to make the case.

Scoble’s Impact in Numbers

Is there a Scoble Effect at Rackspace?

When Scoble started at Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) on March 19, 2009 the stock was trading at $5.98 dollars. As of January 3, 2011 the stock was trading at $31.33 which represents an enormous 457% increase in stock appreciation.  I know you’re thinking that the increase may be due to a lot of other reasons, but let’s look at it in slightly more detail.

The only true way to measure causal effect is to conduct an experiment.  Since we can’t run an A/B test on Scoble’s employment with Rackspace, we’ll have to settle for an educated theory.

The graph below illustrates the Rackspace stock price (and some of its publicly traded competitors) before and after Scoble’s arrival (represented with a blue arrow).

While we can’t with certainty state that there’s an association between Scoble’s arrival and the RAX’s superior stock performance, we can note that prior to Scoble’s arrival RAX maintained price parity with its competitors.  Shortly after his arrival however, RAX broke from the pack and has maintained a superior return.

There are of course many other factors that we can examine to determine causality of superior stock performance and I recognize that.  Yet one thing is certain. Scoble’s impact on social media and his public relations (PR) value to Rackspace.  And I believe the PR value is translating into dollars.

Why You Need a Robert Scoble

While to some Scoble is an outlier – even an exception,  I view his role as essential and the baseline example of what every company should have on staff.  I recognize the dedication, hard work and craft Scoble brings, but I don’t believe he possesses a set of unique abilities that can’t be found in other people.

But not every company is like Rackspace.  Some executives will quickly label the role as wasteful and not necessary. I disagree (and so does Rackspace).  What these executives ignore is the reach and influence of people like Scoble.  When Scoble uses his multi-channel, multi-media approach to communicate – many tune in.  He has the ability to produce what psychologists call the herd effect.

And who doesn’t want a herd focused on their own brand?

In fact it has never been easier and cheaper to create powerful stories about your industry or brand and communicate them to decision makers and influencers of your product.  Smartly, Scoble doesn’t limit himself to covering Rackspace’s industry.  He expands his reach into a broader technology spectrum that over time attracts prospective customers that normally never hear of Rackspace.

His reach and influence turn into real dollars.

Some other notable Corporate Evangelists

At MindTouch I have the unique ability to talk to a lot of people.  Many of these people are official Evangelists and some just inherit the title.  While they aren’t as visible as Scoble (yet) each has an impact on their respective companies.   I’d like to highlight a few:

	Hutch Carpenter Company: Spigit		Matt Asay Company: Canonical
	Tristan Bishop Company: Symantec		R.J. Jacquez Company: Adobe
	Sam Ramji Company: Apigee		R Ray Wang Company: Constellation Research

Wrapping up 2010

While Scoble does not look like a celebrity (I think he’d agree ), he certainly has the power to influence like one.   In my opinion, he also has the ability to impact shareholder value.  Which for me is one of the primary lessons I learned from observing the space in 2010.

Every company needs a Robert Scoble.  Why doesn’t yours have one?

P.S.  If you wish to follow Scoble, I’ve created a clickable list

According to a recent Edison Research study 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks.  That means they are most likely following your brand and your product.

That means they are discussing how, why, when and where they use your product and service.  And you’re not there? 

Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users with 300,000 signing up every day.  180 million unique visitors use the site every month.  It’s a giant laboratory and meeting place and it’s likely your product is being discussed.  I’ll bet if you did a Twitter Search right now, you’ll find someone talking about your product, company or something you product solves.  Try it.

The point is that if you’re participating, you’re learning more about how your products and services are being used.  You become more effective as a Technical Communicator because you’re discovering more about your customers.  You’re also able to socially curate the best of Twitter in order to learn more about your industry, competitors or problems your product solves.

Here are the questions to ask yourself or your Technical Communicator

1. Out of the 55 million tweets per day, how many are about your product/service or about something your product solves?
2. If 180 million unique visitors use Twitter every month, why aren’t we asking them questions about our product to learn more about how we solve their problems?
3. Why aren’t we building a following on Twitter so that we can ask our followers to help us with market research?
4. Why aren’t we monitoring consumer sentiment about our product or service so that we can take action to rectify or improve negative situations?
5. Since there are ongoing conversations about our product/service, why aren’t we participating in them to build good will?
6. Since we can segment and target users on Twitter, why don’t we convey information about our product directly to customers and prospective customers?
7. Why don’t we provide valuable links to reports, videos, whitepapers about our product to Twitter users?
8. Why aren’t we asking Twitter followers to help improve our product documentation?
9. Why aren’t you following and networking with other Technical Communicators to learn more about trends, strategies and best practices?
10. Did you know that there are many organizations that provide drip learning through daily tweets about their product or service?  Follower counts increase as a result.

As we enter into this social, Enterprise 2.0 world of business, it’s becoming more and more about customer service. What we do after that is secondary.  The fact that you can publically reply to tweets about your products or what your products solves is incredible.

You’ve never had that kind of reach before as a Technical Communicator.  Word of mouth is the game now.  Word of mouth is how it used to be, and is now that on steroids.

So how do i get started? Read Anne Gentle’s article on the subject.  Also see Amit Agarwal’s use case on Dell.

Any objections to using Twitter as Technical Communicators seems trite.  The medium has proved itself.   That some still believe technical communication can still be done with Microsoft Word and a static webpage  is illusory and quite anachronistic.

But as obvious as that may seem to some of us, there are still quite a few people that believe the field of technical communication is still about one-way communication with our customers.  No sharing, no feedback, no curation.

Which leaves us with one more big question.  Why are Technical Communicators not embracing new Web 2.0 technologies like Twitter?

Ever wonder how Wikipedia maintains such a high degree of quality material on any given subject?  They have an army of unpaid content curators.   They also have you.

The all-volunteer team of curators is constantly checking new submissions to ensure they meet  the rules that Wikipedia established that were designed to prevent self-promotion, that articles only reference reliable sources, and establish levels of ‘notability’ for things that get their own article.  Those that don’t meet the guidelines, they improve or remove.

Wikipedia visitors (the crowd – and maybe you) help the Digital curation process by updating, tagging and categorizing content.  They may also link from one internal article to another thus increasing an articles notability.  Many users flag articles to help the official curators determine whether articles meet Wikipedia guidelines.

There are actually two simultaneous curation events occurring with Wikipedia articles.  One internally and the other externally.  The internal are the unpaid volunteers weeding out the spam or irrelevant articles (level one).  The external are the thousands of people curating the best articles simply by organizing, categorizing and linking to them from external sites (level two).

If you’ve ever linked to a Wikipedia article, Dugg an article, or Tweeted about it you’re micro-curating those articles. Why? Because in aggregate those links, tweets, bookmarks and tags are categorizing the best content into buckets of information to be consumed by other people.

Then the categorized or popular content is display on leaderboards where a content consumer can simply click on the most popular/relevant articles.  In theory, this leads visitors to the best most relevant content as curated by the crowd.  So instead of one curator, you have thousands (Wisdom of the Curators).

Most Level One (A single domain website) content is not curated while Level Two (external sites that link to your content) content is being curated.  Level two content is curated by social bookmarking and linking sites.

A valid argument could be made that Google/Bing/Yahoo search is a level three content curation tool due to the automatic algorithmic curation (like Page Rank) and subsequent search results displayed by relevancy.

The content curation debate

Some curation purists will argue that true curation can only occur if the curator has been trained in the specific field she is curating.  I disagree.  In fact, if that were true, then sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Slashdot and Twitter would never have been successful.

Why? Because we would have gone to the experts to find and consume the best content and not the crowd.

Why did we go to the crowd?  Because there are either not enough experts to curate the content or the experts aren’t very good at curating for the masses.  Especially when addressing the long tale of online content.

Steve Rubel wrote about the  The Digital Curator in Your Future where he predicts the current century to be remembered as the Digital Renaissance.  I couldn’t agree more.  But what to do with all that content?  Enter the digital curators.  Like Wikipedia, these are unpaid individuals and companies that are curating the web to unearth and package high quality content.

Since there is not an expert test for the millions of subjects being curated today, the task must fall to the crowd for news content and companies for their brands.   Either through an approach similar to Rubel’s or an approach based on popularity of the content (or both).

In the latter scenario, some of the content can automatically be curated by applying a curation formula (like Google Page Rank) or by the likes and dislikes of people consuming the content (think Facebook Like feature)

What’s missing in content curation today

Robert Scoble wrote a thought provoking article The Seven Needs of Real-Time Curators where he examines seven key needs for real time curators.  The tools don’t exist yet, but they are right around the corner.

You’ll see Google Buzz, Google Reader, Facebook, and Twitter bring to market tools in the near future that help curate, bundle and distribute the best content into organized categories and subject matter.   That’s good for the individual but what about an organization’s documentation about their products and services?

Why should that matter?  Curating the web is hard enough right?  It matters because the same information overload phenomenon is happening around your organization’s products/services.  Whether you’ve built a community around your organization or someone else has, the amount of quality information exists in numerous silos around the internet.

Who then is curating the best and most relevant content for your customers and prospects?

Technical Communicators Take Note

If you’re a technical communicator you need to develop a strategy to curate your organization’s Level One and Two content.   Have you considered it?  If you don’t who will (or is)?

So what you may be thinking, why should I care?  It’s my contention that as the tools for user generated content become easier and more widely used, the online content  about your brand will be overwhelming.  So overwhelming that you’ll lose control (I’d argue you already have) to search engines and social networks.

You’ll have your very own Wikipedia problem of curating the content related to your organization.

Your job and value to the organization then shifts from simply creating product documentation and content, to aggregating, curating and editorializing the crowd’s contributions about your organization’s products/services.

In fact, you should be encouraging your online visitors to contribute content directly on your site.  Make it easy.  Your job then becomes curating the best of the contributions in order to provide the best experience possible for your potential and current customers.

The benefits to your organization and to you personally are numerous and important.  I’ve highlighted a few really powerful benefits in a recent article I wrote.   I promise it’s worth your time to examine (especially the infographic).  Give it a shot.

P.S. Are you sold on the idea of curation?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Many corporate champions liken the process of implementing Enterprise 2.0 solutions to corporate surgery.  The corporate patient realizes that an operation is needed, but may procrastinate until on life support.  It’s the enterprise equivalent of ignoring the pain to prolong the inevitable.

It doesn’t have to be.  In fact, I’ve created a simple E2.0 operating guide for you – complete with symptom and cure.  Beware, implementing the solutions requires a steady hand.  And if you’re not ready to implement on your own,  I’ve also provided the names of people that can help:  Take a look:

The Enterprise 1.0 Treatments

The Enterprise 2.0 Surgeons

What Enterprise 2.0 Corporate Champions Need to Know

The guide above is simply that.  To poke fun at the Enterprise 1.0 organization but recognize that it’s still not easy to implement Enterprise 2.0 solutions.  We recognize it, and are working hard to give you the anesthesia to dull the pain.

We also know it’s your company and your patient.  If you need to delay, then delay.  We’re patient.

We can go on and on about why you shouldn’t, but we know you have a sick patient to look after.

P.S. Thank you Robert Lavigne for the related video suggestion.

Thomas Edison’s most important achievement was the development of an effective incandescent light bulb.  Most people believe he invented the light bulb but in fact he improved upon a 50 year old idea.  50 years to create what we now know to be one of the most important inventions of the 19th century.

Imagine if he was armed with today’s innovation management tools.  Imagine if everyone were.  It’s fair to say that perhaps Humphry Davy (the first to invent the electric light) would have emerged the father of the light bulb had he been given access to the wisdom of the crowd.

The Innovation Management Players

While it doesn’t take 50 years to bring new products to market anymore, it still takes much longer than it should.   The innovation management companies Spigit, Jive Software and BrightIdea are looking to cut down an idea’s time to market while simultaneously surfacing the best ideas.  Between the three of them, they have a lot of success stories that make the case.

The Innovation Management Guide

Enterprise Champion Recommendations

Every company looking to improve their financial situation through innovation should evaluate at least one of the solutions above.  If you believe your company has a leg up on the competition already, be prepared to have your top competitors use one of these solutions to keep pace or try to surpass you.

Be equipped to enter a new era of the Red Queen effect.  In other words, “it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place.”   Your company will need to evolve through innovation and innovative practices to maintain a competitive edge.

I realize not every company is ready for innovation management solutions.  So find a department or division that is and give it a shot.  Start small and focus on progressive innovation.  Meaning improve a process or idea and execute on it visibly.  Learn from the experience and look for other areas to introduce the solution.

It takes guts to introduce change. It’s worked for me (mostly), but you need to have the stomach for it. If you do, there’s always room for more change agents.