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Hi – My name is Bob MacKie and this post is about corporate reputation, trust, Web2.0 and “word of mouth” becoming “word of web”. 

Web2.0 – A Major Paradigm Shift for Business

I recently listened to a video called Building private-sector diplomacy from the McKinsey Quarterly.  McKinsey is a large US consulting firm and the video was of Richard Edelman a Public Relations expert in New York who was talking about corporate reputation and trust.

I think he hit upon some of the key differences that managers in today’s business landscape face. He talked about:

•  Being solely profit motivated as in the Milton Friedman model no longer applies – shareholder value includes reputation and mutual social responsibility.
• You can be a great communicator but actions must match words.
• Business is accustomed to talk at people and is not participating on social media such as Facebook or Twitter.
• Companies must have their own media and include the good, the bad and the ugly.
• A democratic and decentralized world is foreign to companies. We have the knowledge and you don’t, so we will decide; no longer works.
• There is a dispersion of authority – people now have to read something 5 times before achieving belief. Not so long ago it was two times. It is a lack of trust environment.
• Evening news has 1/3 the viewership it used to. Society is not authority driven, it is experience driven.
• People share things on social networks because it will benefit the next person.  Some have described this as the move from an information to a collaboration economy.

The key components here speak to a huge communication difference driven by what is called Web2.0. The fact that communication was always from corporate or organizational authority figures to the masses was not because people (the masses) had nothing to say . . . they just had no way of saying it other than to those they came into contact with. Corporations always knew the power of word of mouth in purchasing decisions and reputation. Now there is the power of word of web by blogs, wikis, reputation and review capabilities on ordering sites such as Amazon all over the internet. 

Web2.0 and Your Customers

Google “nike site:youtube.com” and you will get over 735,000 hits. (Which I have a hard time believing; but  . . .).  That includes many Nike ads that I am sure they would love to have people see on YouTube; but it also includes one titled “Human trafficking in Nike’s sweatshop factory in Malaysia” that they are likely not so happy about.

Your customers can now be heard.  Maybe you should be talking to them. There are lots of possibilities . . . contact me and we can discuss pragmatic possibilities.

Thanks for your time,

Bob, Salt Spring Island

Click here to link to a McKinsey study on Business and Web 2.0.