Once confirmed there is interest, it was time to move from what it was a letter of intentions to a concrete initiative the aim of which is no other than creating a Social Media Plan, whose end result will be the fruit of collaboration of all persons who voluntarily chosen to participate without bias.

Like any other, the initiative from now on referred to as #OpenSMP, requires a place and some tools to be developed, besides resources to make it thrive. There is no discussion about Internet being the ideal place for the development of such kind of initiatives based on a collaborative approach, with 2.0 tools as the best mechanism for sharing ideas, concerns, experiences and opinions that allow us to learn from others.

Clearly, we can use many tools of many kinds, but it is also true that it is always necessary to fix a starting point. That’s why in order to facilitate the start of the initiative I created three tools available to all stakeholders:

- A group blog on Blogger to write and comment posts

- A working group on LinkedIn for discussing issues and include links to news

- A group on SlideShare to share presentations

Encouraging you to use the tag # OpenSMP in Twitter conversations as well as when tagging documents in delicious

In the group blog there is already a first post with a topic for discussion or comment through any of the tools. Like LinkedIn where there is also a debate on the same subject. Needless to say that the spirit of this initiative leaves free for all interested people to use any tools to open a new debate on another topic or to share information with other people in the group. If you do so, just let us know for the rest to know it.

As in the physical, in the virtual world neither the place (Internet) nor tools (2.0) are useful without people who either by affinity, curiosity, interest, or for whatever reason, decide to voluntarily support and actively participate in the initiative. The decision to get involved and at what level is a very personal one that depends on many different factors and varies considerably according to each person. What more will determine the success or failure of this initiative will be the attitude and determination of the people engaged to it. Therfore, that the initiative #OpenSMP will succeed or ends being forgotten, only depends on us. Would you join?

The fact of having had experience as Marketing Director in a company with similar characteristics and to be an active user of some 2.0 tools have made my colleague think that the commision could do well. In any case, and being aware of my limitations I accepted the challenge as a way to implement many of the things that I’ve been learning recently.

One of the attractions of the order is related to the type of company. This is a company that goes to the industrial market (B2B), the principal activity of which is the definition and execution of IT turnkey projects, which focuses on large enterprises of diferent economic sectors. So, it is a different case study compared with the examples we find in the specialized literature.

After analyzing and positively conclude that it was possible to create a Social Media Plan for any company and not just for those addressed to consumer markets, it was time to decide the model to use. After reading a lot about it, the one I believe best suits the characteristics of the company in question is the one defined by Enrique Burgos and Marc Cortés in their book titled “Iníciate en el Marketing 2.0“. The methodolgy was unveiled by Marc early in May at the Iniciador event in Barcelona and is divided into four major phases: Definition of Objectives, Brand Positioning, Listening and Talking and Measurements.

Later to the former analysis and once the model was chosen, the comes the SMP development. One of the great advantages of Web 2.0 and all the tools around it is how easy is to share knowledge and experiences which helps us to grow as people as well as professionals. The so often mentioned concept of shared learning when talking about all things world 2.0. Therefore, I am convinced that the best way to develop this SMP approach is through a collaborative work. Create a shared Social Media Plan, other than those found in the network, whose end result will be the fruit of collaboration of all those who wanted to participate.

Post comments on my blog, Twitter conversations including the tag # OpenSMP, a common space in delicious and/or shared presentations on SlideShare are a great way to start, but for this to become an enriching experience for all is necessary that each one contributes without fear and above all without any kind of prejudices. The only question to answer is: do you want to participate in creating a Social Media Plan?

Very likely the candidate has, his resume in one (or several) network (s) of professional contacts, which will be appreciated by the recruitment consultant making more easy for him to evaluate the suitability for a certain job. Being publicly exposed reduces the risk for the curriculum to be “inflated”, but something much more important than the fact itself of being visible due to the presence on the web, is the chance we have of moving from which up to now it was static information into something dynamic. That is to turn the traditional curriculum to a 2.0 CV.

In fact, our true value for a company is not our experience, our training or our contacts as such, but the difference that as professionals we can offer them. It is cristal clear that our value is more or less focused in one direction according to our training, our experience and contacts, but it will be depending on our willingness to share knowledge and experience, as well as of learning from other people, that we could create a professional value proposition or not.

Web 2.0 and those tools around (blogs, social networks, instant communication channels) are an ideal complement to our curriculum in the network.  Use a blog to share views and thoughts on topics that we know, actively participate in professional social networks like LinkedIn, Xing, Viadeo and/or using Twitter to share knowledge and further expand our network of contacts, are some extremely useful mechanisms to create a value proposition beyond the professional curriculum vitae 2.0.

A professional value proposition has three essential characteristics: it is unique, it is extremely dynamic and totally up to date. Unique because it reflects what we (no others) can bring to an organization, differentiating us from other candidates, besides identifiying us as the ideal candidate for a concrete job. Dynamic in the sense we are using several ways to increase and share our knowledge. And up to date according to how often we make contributions and comments.

This does not mean that we should use all the tools intensively, or that it is necessary to devote the entire day to do so, but it is appropriate to reflect, think about what can we offer to the market and identify which tools are best suited to create and disseminate our unique professional value.

When Facebook friends were university fellows of Mark Zuckerberg, it was only necessary a single computer connected to the Internet to enable them to share information among themselves. But as the company grew, the number of servers and staff also grew, and so do the consumption of energy resources. Certainly many of current Twitter users do not know that, this company which has grown nearly 1400% in a year with users who have hundreds of thousands of followers, has not changed too much from the time when those who use it were few and considered by the vast majority as geeks.Twitter maintains a small number of workers and computer systems. How can they do it? Thanks to benefit from a relatively new trend in the sector of Information Technology known as cloud computing.

What is cloud computing? is a difficult question to answer because there is no clear definition. After researching over the net, I found the following video that I think explains it quite clearly.

To summarize and assuming the risk of defining something so complicated without being an expert, I would venture to say that cloud computing is the trend to use a variety of resources (equipment, applications or services) available through Internet and shared by multiple users or businesses. As everything it has advantages and disadvantages as well as authentic evangelists and staunch detractors. But beyond technological or business considerations arises one really important, that is to take into account the energy consumption reduction associated with the concept of shared information systems across the network.

Twitter, unlike Facebook, is one example of a company that leverages the opportunities offered by cloud computing. Google for its part, as well as providing free software as a service (SaaS) with GMail, it offers a set of solutions called Google App Engine, accessible through the Internet, designed specifically for software developers.

The approaches to the concept of cloud computing that Twitter and Google do are different (one as a user and the other as a supplier), but in both cases they benefit from what I like to call the green cloud concept.

Also, living in a society implies to socialize, that means to relate, in a greater or lesser extent, with people we communicate. We do it differently depending on our environment (family, professional), proximity (parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, bosses, customers) and the implicit or explicit objectives we have set (get a job, to do business, dating or just for entertainment).

Since the advent of the so-called Web 2.0, Internet is increasingly becoming one of the principal ways we use to communicate and therefore to socialize.

As could not be otherwise, the virtual world has many parallels to the real world. Although in general, to communicate and interact over the Internet is not very different from the off-line world (after all, we are the same people), there is a shift in how we communicate. It is no longer necessary to coincide in time or place to share concerns, ideas, knowledge, opinions or feelings with many people at once. It can also be done with people you do not know and with whom you have not crossed a single word before. All that is required is to have common affinities.

What makes possible this new way of relationship are Web 2.0 tools.  Basically social networks (Facebook, Meetic, LinkedIn) for its increasingly widespread acceptance and new channels of communication (Twitter, YouTube). As everything new, is understandable that these tools, especially social networks, generate concern among some people. What not to do is fall into temptation of demonizing them by the mere fact that someone has written an article, or a broadcast television program, which falls disproportionately on the potential risks that are social networks for their users. On the other hand, it should be also avoided to become a staunch evangelist, although fully convinced that the benefits are far greater than any potential threats. Someone who has not previously used any of these tools could experience a feeling of disappointment at not seeing fulfilled his or her expectations. Like everything in life, it is necessary to assess things and give justice to the importance for each one, no more no less.

More and more people are asking me in which 2.0 tools “should be”. Very recently, a good friend of mine not very used to new technologies asked me to help define her profile on Facebook. When I asked her why she wanted to be on this social network, she said “because everybody is on Facebook“  

 To be or not be on Facebook or other social networking tool should be a personal decision which cannot be guaranteed because it is trendy or because everybody is on there. My response to my friend was “if you want to be on the network and begin building your digital identity, just do it, but decide where you want to volunteer to be, why you want to be and what you want to do” No others than those are the real issues.

When we met someone who is an entrepreneurial, we automatically think of a person who, at some point, started his or her own business project. But Entrepeneurship is a broader concept. If by it we undertake to create and develop new business, we should also include within the definition those entrepreneurial people who working for others, propose the development of a new activity. The internal entrepeneurs.

We’re not talking about improving business processes or management of the company, this would be innovation,  but someone who is proposing the creation of an activity that no one in the company had raised up to that time.

There are many internal entrepreneurs, both on large and small companies, but they are not knwon. This is because the recognition of his entrepreneurship is limited to the scope of the company, not often transcending beyond the boundaries of it. In the best case the recognition performes a promotion. However, there are very few occasions on which the recognition of the entrepreneur work is made public.

Is this “fair”? If successful, the self entrepreneur becomes an employer and society at large recognizes their contribution. There is a direct association between the success of the company and the figure of the entrepreneur. It is true that the internal entrepreneur is not ”beting” his own money and does not have to go to the venture capital market to seek funding because it is the company which invests in the project, but in most cases, and particularly if the project is large, the gestation process of the new project is the same as that by which any self entrepreneur passes (an idea that emerges, a project to write, an action plan submitted to the board for obtaining resources and funding and if successful it must be executed correctly).

How can we recognize a internal entrepreneur? The internal entrepreneur is motivated by the idea of developing new projects, new initiatives. It is therefore concerned that a person tends to seek a career change at the time he believes the current job is consolidated. The professional field of social networks as LinkedIn, Xing and Viadeo allows us to know who has done that throughout his career, helping to identify potential internal entrepreneurs.

Proposing the launch of a social media plan, opening a new trade delegation, going to foreign markets or developing new lines of research in a consolidated company, is it not entrepreneurial mindset?

Apple is a company that is mainly famous because their products are innovative to the point that often revolutionize the market but, a priori, it seemed that the new iPhone was not anything new from a technological point of view, not more than combining an iPod with a broadband mobile phone, and some shortcomings if compared to similar products from competitors. If technology was not the cornerstone of the sales strategy, then what was behind Apple claiming that they expected to sell 10 million units in less than one year after the launch of iPhone 3G?

Surely there were those who thought that this would be the result of a well-orchestrated marketing campaign from the Californian company. It should be said that in Spain, before the launch neither Apple nor Telefonica carry out marketing campaigns on traditional or new media. Later on, marketing campaigns have been rather “modest”. So, why few minutes before ten o’clock on July 11^th were over 700 people queuing up at the main phone shop of Telefonica in Madrid to buy the new iPhone? Why in Hong Kong the truck transporting the devices to the shop had to be surrounded by strong security measures? Were just a few of fanatical of the technology or brand devotees? The reality is that three days after Apple had sold over a million units.
If the new iPhone was not a major technological innovation, nor have intensive marketing campaigns and all purchases can not only be due to devotees of Cupertino’s company, which one is the key for the iPhone to become a global success product which has sold over 17 million units?

From time ago on, manufacturers of mobile phones are trying to capture the interest of consumers focusing on aesthetic values or social significance, rather than on adding new technological capabilities to devices. Adjectives like most fashion, the sexiest or most glamorous are among the most widely used in hundreds of blogs and Internet forums in relation with iPhone 3G. There is no doubt that buzz or viral marketing via the Internet contributed greatly to the excitement generated after the launch of the new iPhone.

A vast community of over 50,000 software developers responsible for the majority of the more than 25,000 applications available on iTunes Store, including many related to social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace or 2.0 tools like Twitter, ended up adding a differential use component on the iPhone when compared with the majority of devices sold by competitors, making a product that goes far beyond of being a simple iPod plus a broadband phone.

Definitely, success of the new iPhone has to be found on the right combination of technological innovation, marketing and communication campaigns part of Apple’s branding strategy and buzzing actions done by  the most devoted customers using those tools (especially 2.0 ones) brought to them by the own technology. Time will say whether this combination of technology, marketing and devotion is sufficient to withstand the attack of Android, the Google operating system for mobile devices.

I am certainly not in favor of making predictions. I always thought that to guess the future is very little science and lots of luck. So although it might seem, the title of this post should not be construed as such, but as a personal reflection to the question what Apple brings to Twitter?

I personally believe there are five reasons for Apple do not buy Twitter:

1. Twitter needs a business model to make profitable the $ 700 million investment, according to rumor, Apple would be willing to assume. Despite the success of iTunes Store, Apple is not an Internet company.

2. Twitter does not complement the portfolio of solutions from Apple. Question would be, is Apple looking for a diversification? Everything is possible but for this to be real at least there should be a powerful justification. The extraordinary results just made public by the Californian company did not foresee the need to initiate a diversification strategy. Furthermore, current times do not seem the most appropriate. Risk for Apple would be greater than potential benefits.

3. On iTunes Store you can find many applications to twitt (Twitterfon, Twitxr, Twitterrific) from iPhone or iTouch.

4. Twitter does not threaten Apple as if it is for Facebook.

5. Purchases are not rumors but announcements. Experience tells me that when there is a rumor about a possible purchase will most likely form part of the buyer or seller strategy, depending on who launched the rumor. It’s play-offs, to divert attention from the media to negotiate more easily with the real potential buyer. A very recent case. When given by the fact that IBM would buy Sun Microsystems negotiations broke. Few days later it was Oracle who announced the purchase. There was no buzz about Oracle’s intentions.

In any case, the illogical logic of business makes that anything can happen, that is the grace, and otherwise everything would be too predictable. If finally Apple announce the purchase of  Twitter (they have money left over to buy it) it will not surprise me. Surely Steve Jobs and his team would have seen the value that Twitter brings to Apple.

If the Internet made possible for the society to access information, the use of 2.0 tools, most notably that of Twitter, is causing society to evolve towards a new model based on shared knowledge. As a fundamental part of it, companies cannot be alien to the changes that society is experiencing and that is why it makes no sense that some of them still even consider that using these new technologies could bring productivity improvements in the same way as it did Internet.

Companies must be renewed to meet current situation challenges. They cannot rely on difficulty of the times, being mandatory for them to spend time analyzing which tools and what use of those is best suited to their characteristics and needs. Otherwise, they can hire specialized companies to do such analysis.

Fortunately, everyday there are more and more managers who promote the use of collaborative job environments (Blogs, Twitter, Yammer, Delicious, wikis) that by generating discussion and sharing of information, obtained or generated by users themselves, contribute to increase knowledge in the company.

Fifteen years ago, just after its first publication in 1994, I read a book that surprised me as much as we find out how get used to twitter Spaniards are. The book, entitled “The Tom Peters seminar: crazy times call for crazy organizations” was written by management guru Tom Peters and I would like to recommend it to all those corporate executives and managers who are willing to a “little conservative” approach to find opportunities hidden by the current situation of crisis.

From my side, I have decided to recover the book from the shelf where it was stored so many years, to read it back again because I’m sure it is fully actual.

After thinking some time, I concluded that it was possible to group bloggers into three categories.  A first group would be the professionals, those who aspire to earn money with the blog, either through advertising, sponsorships or for writing a post for a brand or product. Another group would be formed by the prestigious as we might call, where to find those who wish to obtain a high degree of recognition (prestige) in the virtual society and care about how many followers they have and by their position in Technorati. Finally, we find the idealists, that is, those who write a blog with no specific purpose beyond the simple act of sharing views and experiences and learn from their reader’s feedback.

I personally believe that the vast majority of those who choose to start with the blog do with an idealistic view, but if they eventually ”succeed” (the number of fans that comment and broadcast their content is to become important) it is possible that the idealistic blogger begins questioning his “evolution” to a prestigious or why not a professional. In any case, the decision to do or not is personal and just as respectable as it is to those who may prefer not to.

One of the principal values of the idealistic bloggers is that they provide the opportunity to hear the opinion of an “equal”, someone who just wants to share their views and thoughts with those who are interested in the same subjects. Idealists are highly respected by his followers because they generate confidence, while prestigious and professionals have personal interests that are just as legitimate and respectable as any other but which undoubtedly influence their opinions. However, as in the real world we are accustomed to a celebrity recommending, with varying fortune, we do partners in a mutual insurance company or buy a gorgeous car, and nobody is shocked, no one should do it because of some bloggers charged money by recommending products or brands. The blogosphere is too big and the whole world has a place on it among other things because, fortunately, Internet users have disparate interests, different approaches and a wide range of value judgments. Everyone is free to choose which blogs to follow and which not.

The instinctive response I gave to the acquaintance aforementioned on why a blog, was that I do it just for the simple pleasure of sharing and learning. Write a post for my personal blog, simply for the pleasure of doing this, is to me one of the reasons that give value and meaning to this way of communicating.