David Armano

Search Is Information Based

There are two primary ways a digital participant finds content across the digital cloverleaf (paid, owned, earned, social properties). One scenario is to initiate a search using a popular search engine such as Google.

Our friends over at the Community Roundtable have done a wonderful job of summarizing key insights on the state of community management as it relates to the emerging development of social business. I was tapped to write this years Introduction to the report which is full of both breadth and depth of insights and information on the maturation of digital community building as a business strategy.

At first glance, this looks like a technical issue. The person managing the Chrysler account probably meant to send the tweet from their personal account. This is an assumption—I have no knowledge if that's the case or not. But, the individual responsible worked for a firm which serviced Chrysler and was terminated as a result of the communication, so that lends credibility to the theory.

On a Saturday evening, through my Facebook feed—I heard about Charlie Sheen's next move on the internet. I clicked on the link and waited for about 10 minutes as the crew of "Sheen's Korner" grappled with technical difficulties and then a few minutes after it's "advertised" air time, the show came on. Welcome to the new prime time. Sort of.

Watch this video, because it's worth watching. But don't confuse social business with innovation. Social Business can lead to innovations—but it's inherently about doing business in a more connected, open, transparent, collaborative, ethical, and ultimately human way.

One of the trends colleague Steve Rubel and I identified for 2011 was the re-emergence of Google through furthering the integration of social into their search ecosystem. Google's latest iteration of social search now further integrates platforms such as Quora, Flickr and Twitter more aggressively and points to a new reality for businesses in how they approach social integration themselves. In short, ignore at your own peril. So what's a business to do as search increasingly integrates signals from multiple ecosystems? Here's a few tips:

The e-mail landed in my inbox and I immediately had 2 reactions. The first, was that of marveling at the brilliance of the idea—one of the ways Klout will seek to monetize will be through targeting influentials in a new kind of e-mail marketing initiative based on ones influence. I can see a great deal of brands signing up for this—who wouldn't want e-mail access to individuals on the Web with large and effective social footprints?

Earlier this week Facebook announced its intentions to capture attention where it naturally lives--in the stream (or in the case of Facebook, your wall). The move signals what is likely going to become a standard for businesses hoping to become more visible and relevant to their audiences, it blurs three types of media (paid, earned, and social).

Some may have scratched their heads a bit when I announced a little over a year ago that I was joining a "PR firm", especially since I've never worked formally in the field. But I think the recent news of Edelman making the Advertising Age "A-List" and specifically some of Richard Edelman's comments both in the video and article do a nice job of articulating why I moved into the direction I did.

Unlike Facebook but very much like Facebook Groups, Quora the social Q&A ecosystem is designed to support individual participants, not companies (for now). In either case, it's increasingly becoming clear that this is a place where people talk about companies and brands. As Altimeter analyst Jeremiah Owyang recommends, this is a domain where a business should "monitor and respond". From Jeremiah's blog: