transparency

The Authenticity Gap - that should be the title of my next book. Well, I don’t think I have time to write another book, it took me almost 5 weeks last time. I guess I will need at least 8 weeks. But no. Maybe a blog post, it takes only 15 mins. I do like the name, but I guess it won't sell well. Maybe "Authenticity Without Commitment", this is a far better title, I think I can sell 20,000 copies and sell a lot of seminars. Will get sponsorship from BP for sure.

“Transparency is Not Enough”

British Airways cabin crew are on strike for the second of what could be a number of strikes this year. Last minute talks were taking place over the weekend until they broke up. And BA CEO, Willie Walsh, is blaming the collapse of the talks on Twitter. Or more specifically on the Tweets of Derek Simpson, the boss of Unite the Union, the trade union representing the cabin crew, sent whilst the negotiations were happening.

A while ago, I was asked to describe the Social Web in just 5 keywords. Here are the 5 tags which I have chosen to summarise it:

P&G's new Pampers Dry Max diapers are under siege from a grassroots social media campaign accusing the product of causing chemical burns. Two class action lawsuits have been filed in Ohio. The company has denied all claims, both legal and anecdotal. The marketing trades are covering it as an emerging case for "the power of the democratized web" and I'm sure it'll appear in every digital marketing agency pitch that gets peddled this summer.

The Gulf Coast oil disaster is has already achieved horrors of epic dimensions -- 11 people are dead and a slick the size of Puerto Rico threatens to devastate ecologies and economies from Louisiana to Florida -- so talking about marketing right now seems somewhat irrelevant. But BP's branding plays a central role in both the run-up and aftermath of the crisis, so there's much to be learned from it.

Earth Day is behind us and I'm digging out of my cluttered digital desktop to uncover the nuggets of value that have been hidden amid the countless pitches and come-ons typical of April's environmental hoopla. Among those nuggets: three reports and guidebooks on ... making green pitches and come-ons.

PolicyTool for Social Media is a policy generator that greatly simplifies the task of creating a working social media policy. Answer about a dozen and odd questions and before you can hop across to Facebook, your policy is ready for your to copy paste anywhere.

Based on my answers (and relative lack of paranoia) here's what a policy for my own company (if and when I start one) would look like:

continued from part one, this article will be published in 10 instalments

eight: openness, transparency and disclosure

I confess that I have a warm spot in my heart for customer service operations. It is probably because I met my wife of 29.5 years Eileen Marie when she and I were on the customer service phones at the Polaroid Corporation. As an old phone jockey, it is apparent to me that the world of customer service is transforming.