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Controlling Content In A Social Publishing World

I read this PC World story and I couldn't help but think how indicative it is of the typical command and control mentality within enterprises. I know there's a balance between fighting the external social network (SoNet) effect and creating a corporate one of your own. With all the technology, horsepower, and APIs gone wild, shouldn't we be able to figure out how to create some harmony between the two?

The quote from one of the Gap's Web engineers sums it up pretty well:
"Do you really want Facebook to manage it for you in the outside world, or do you want to do it yourself so you have control?"
Control. It's a word I hear over and over: How will we maintain control of what's being said by the community?

I've talked to more companies than I can count about social publishing, social media, and setting up communities. The enterprises that typically lead the charge tend to be the ones that want to sell software or services to set up the community. But like communities in the real world, who wants to pay for the roads that others will use? When we talk to the brands in the community crosshairs, well, that's when you see the cold sweat start to break out.

The big brands hire teams of marketing folk from the best B-schools to manage their content. They pay the most expensive consultants to determine what color has which meaning for their brand; what word has which association in middle America vs. big cities; heck, how does this kid think vs. that adult. It's been done this way for years, decades. And now, that level of tight brand control is showing cracks.

For the last decade or more, people with a passion for products have expressed their views on the Web. The enterprise fear originates when the views aren't all that rosy. With all of their collective experience, too many companies still have the fear of shelling out big bucks to develop a social publishing strategy. Do they really want to give the rest of the world a forum to say what they're really thinking?

That train has already left the station, folks; the negative views are already finding their way through other sites and locations. I try to encourage brands to embrace both the negative and positive discussions their consumers have, preaching that it's important to learn from the negative and leverage the positive.

But for all of those brands that don't want to build the roads that provide more interaction with their consumers, your consumers are taking other roads already available. Enable them to speak freely with and about you. They're going to do it, no matter what, either way.

That's social publishing.

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