How to Orchestrate A Social Initiative

[June 29, 2010] After a year of blog writing, tweeting, posting, and studying the state of social technologies, and making not an inconsiderable number of rookie mistakes, I've come to a pretty solid understanding of social technologies; what they are, and what they are capable of doing. Or not.

And to be certain, I'm not one of the 12,000+ self-proclaimed social media 'experts' on Twitter. I mean really, social is about 8 days old; how can anybody be an expert?

Which is not to say there aren't leaders, which to me are those who have followers.

Forrester Research, Inc. is a leader I follow. They've helped me understand the opportunities social presents, and its limitations too. And, what can be reasonably expected for the investment.

Knowing the parameters of any initiative allows us to take next steps; to apply innovative and creative thinking that achieves strategic objectives. Because otherwise we're only fielding random tactics, most often all over the board without connecting, thus without the possibility of building and sustaining momentum.

If you want to arm yourself with more than vagaries about social, check out the April 29, 2010 Forrester paper for Marketing Leadership Professionals recently made available by another great resource, CMO.com, titled "CMO's Must Orchestrate Social Initiatives."

It is brilliant, and well worth a read. It's a reference to which I refer often, because my sense is we are still very much at the dawn of what social will be. And the time to get started or to take a program to the next level is now. My competition surely is; is yours?

The paper is available free, as of today, by clicking here. Enjoy.

Please call me if you have questions, or would like to engage me to help accelerate your program.

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