{"id":354,"date":"2007-11-05T14:24:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-05T21:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulgillin.com\/2007\/11\/last-group-of-ama-webinar-questions-answered.html"},"modified":"2007-11-05T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-05T21:24:00","slug":"last-group-of-ama-webinar-questions-answered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/last-group-of-ama-webinar-questions-answered\/","title":{"rendered":"Last group of AMA Webinar questions answered"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here is the final set of responses to questions that time didn’t permit me to answer during the AMA Marketing Seminar on Oct. 15<\/a>. Each of these permalinks is tagged \u201cAMA\u201d so you can easily group them together. Thanks again to everyone for coming and for asking such great questions.<\/span> <\/span> <\/p>\n

Q: Chris asks, \u201cDo you think this will impact corporate cultures? And how?\u201d<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n

That’s a big question, but I’ll try to summarize. <\/span>One enormous impact of new media will be to force companies to be more open and transparent about their activities, motivations and mistakes. <\/span>Once customers began talking to each other and sharing their experiences with your company, you have very little control over those conversations. <\/span>It’s going to be a lot harder to hide your blemishes and to keep secrets. <\/p>\n

Already, many marketers are finding that their carefully managed product rollout plans are sabotaged by bloggers who get their hands on secret information. <\/span>I believe that businesses, particularly large ones, are going to have to learn to live in a world where information can’t be covered up very well. <\/span>This will force them to be more transparent with their constituents about their plans. <\/span>That won’t be easy for everybody.<\/p>\n

Internally, I expect social media to flatten corporate cultures. <\/span>Communication within most companies has traditionally been controlled from the top down. <\/span>But once individuals have the ability to speak freely with each other, those lines become much fuzzier. <\/span>In most companies, this will be a good thing. However, a company that values a strict hierarchy will be challenged by this. <\/span>They can refuse to give their employees blogs, but they can’t prohibit their employees from communicating off-hours via blogs or social networks. <\/span>Again, this won’t be easy for everybody<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: Viktor asks, \u201cWill passionate social media users get paid at some point in time? <\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n

A: Many of them are getting paid now. <\/span>For example, I spoke in my presentation about Adrants<\/a>, which is a one-person operation that is generating good cash flow from advertising. <\/span>Many models are being developed to reward bloggers for their hard work, although in reality very few people can make a living in this way. <\/span>I expect that a small minority of people will be able to make decent income as new influencers, but only a very tiny number will become wealthy from it. <\/span>These are niche markets, after all.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Q: S Law asks, \u201cHow do organizations and businesses engage bloggers to get that positive word of mouth?\u201d<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n

A:<\/b> Much of my book is about this, so I’ll refer you to that<\/a>, or to other books I referenced earlier, including Naked Conversations<\/a> by Scoble and Israel; Marketing to the Social Web<\/a> by Weber; What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting<\/a> by Demopoulos, The Corporate Blogging Book<\/a> by Weil; and The New Rules of Marketing and PR<\/a> by Scott.<\/p>\n

To summarize, though, you need to take the following steps:<\/p>\n