The Me2 Revolution

Remarkable essay titled The Me2 Revolution by Richard Edelman, a man who has forgotten more about corporate communications than I will know in a lifetime.

The traditional approach to corporate communications envisages a controlled process of scripted messages delivered by the chief executive, first to investors, then to other opinion-formers, and only later to the mass audiences of employees and consumers. In the past five years, this pyramid-of influence model has been gradually supplanted by a peer-to-peer, horizontal discussion among multiple stakeholders. The employee is the new credible source for information about a company, giving insight from the front lines. The consumer has become a co-creator, demanding transparency on decisions from sourcing to new-product positioning.

What I find interesting about this is that Edelman is making two profound points that have a point of convergence. First and foremost, institutions are not trusted, indeed in 6 of the 11 countries surveyed in the Edelman Trust Barometer a regular person is picked as the most credible spokesperson for your company. I suppose this is bad news for hte "celebrity CEO". Okay, so this is an obvious point to any blogger, no brainer.

The second observation that makes the first all the more important is the fact that there is an entire generation of young men and women who are most comfortable creating and sharing content without inhibition. The consequences of masses of people creating content who are also most likely to be trusted by their peers even though there is little reference base to base that trust on will result in a staggering strategic and tactical shift for traditional corporate marketing types.

Edelman closes with a number of recomendations, one of which is particularly noteworthy.

Be willing to yield control of the message in favor of a rich dialogue, in which you learn by listening.

Companies are not very good at listening, they are more attuned to reacting. Given enough time this will change, but it will take time and in many cases a change of leadership.

Comments

[cinderellagirl]

This is indeed someday the man I want the opportunity to work for. Richard is brilliant. He named Pam Pollace (former Intel Communications VP) as Edelman's Global Head of their Technology practice last July. And Pam operates out of Edelman's San Francisco office. Edelman's technology clients include: Microsoft, Samsung, Veritas, PMC Sierra, Avaya, Taiwan Semiconductor, Scientific-Atlanta, Symbol, the Wi-Fi Alliance, Harman Kardon, Synopsys, and InFocus.

A girl can dream, can't she...

cg

[Susan Wu]

Edelman's essay illuminates why the open source model can be so successful in garnering significant market share. (in the case of the Apache Web Server, about 70%)

The most credible spokespeople for your product are those with whom your audience enjoys the most affinity. Our primary audience at the Apache Software Foundation are programmers/developers. There are no better ambassadors to spread the Apache message/brand than our own developers. The use of developers as PR-spokespeople is particularly effective since developers are generally cynical of non-developers and can be difficult to market to via traditional methods. On the other hand, a potential negative (if viewing this from a traditional marketing perspective) is that Apache developers have been known to communicate in ways that are brutally honest and not always finessed. As a community, we've made the choice to allow everyone to speak on behalf of the organization / brand, and I think it's contributed to the goodwill our audience entrusts us with (despite some occasional moments that would give a traditional marketer agita!)

As Edelman points out, the old school "command and control" style of message management is increasingly less effective than a more organic style. Instead of managing talking points, organizations would do better by managing the overall vision. The employees/community stakeholders will each have their own personal interpretation of the vision that altogether will create a far richer tapestry.

-Susan
CMO, Apache Software Foundation
MBA Student