“We’re entering a new phase now and there are new kinds of challenges ahead. Healthy companies acknowledge the need for change even during the best of times,” Williams wrote. “As Twitter grows both internally and externally, we took a good look at our path forward and saw the need for a focused approach from a single leader.” [source]

Hrm. Translation? Time to actually start playing the game for real. Step up to the plate. Man up. Grow some balls. Pick your cliche.  Any of them will work.

Twitter is still Silicon Valley’s poster child for “cool service, but um, how’ya gonna make money!?”

According to Caroline McCarthy at The Social, “Twitter is growing fast, and closed a $15 million funding round in May. It weathered an engineering shake-up this spring and has managed to largely overcome its well-publicized server problems. Plus, Twitter has become a staple in tracking political zeitgeist–cable network Current TV displayed real-time “tweets” onscreen during the presidential debates.” [source]

All that’s true, but in the end, Twitter’s going to have to step up and get it done. No more of this random, fluffy stuff. They still need a community manager, and they have to figure out exactly how it is they’re going to monetize.

Now, Ev is the guy who invented Blogger, which, granted, has become a wasteland of temporary sites, spammers, link sites and companies who aren’t really into blogging enough to actually put their blog on their own site, at one point, that was the height of blogging technology. I have faith, based on Ev’s track record, that he’ll get something sorted out, but in the meantime, we’re all wondering exactly where this is gonna go. (image source: Twitter blog)

Post from: EveryJoe

Twitter CEO Shake Up

Alejandro from SuccessFool and I were talking one evening about his series on entrepreneurs and their stories. He asked me about my own entrepreneurial journey and what, if anything I would do differently the second time around.

I have a rather unique entrepreneurial path… I was working for a CFO at a college and just didn’t like it. He would hand me the school’s 3M budget, ask me to balance it and then take credit for my findings at the board meeting. Not cool.

I met a woman through my volunteer work who did PR and it was like the heavens opened up, there was a chorus and I saw the light. I immediately did some research, found a course that would get me the most hands on experience in the shortest period of time possible, quit my job and went to school.

Within the first two weeks of my course, I had my first in-house internship at a local hotel. I stayed with them for eight months, and still have a good relationship with my boss of the time. After that, I moved to the local branch of a large international agency and stayed with them for about 18 months.

It was a four semester (two year) course, and by the middle of the third semester, I had clients, I was getting paid more than my peers were in entry level positions, and I’d started my business. I took a half day off the day we graduated and then went out full time on my own the next day.

But things were different five years ago. PR was easier and it was more about the pitch and getting a client coverage. I was good at getting coverage, and I’ve had several reporters tell me I’m a favourite to work with.

Now, with the rise of social networks and social media strategies, it’s not as easy to reach out to reporters as it used to be. Media convergence and online news sites are killing the traditional publishing business. There are a billion traditional PR people out there who are now claiming to be social media experts because they have a Facebook account and they Twitter sporadically. These alone do not make you a social media expert.

What brought all this up, and why I felt like I needed to tell you all of the above in the first place was Doug Haslam’s (@dough) post about why a start up needs PR. I disagree. In fact, I agree 100% with Loic (the founder of Seesmic) who says that the success of your start up depends not on the backs of your PR people and your marketing messages, but instead on the entrepreneur him or herself. [post]

The PR world has changed. It’s not the same as it used to be, and it’ll never go back to being the way it was. To quote the clip above “in a [media] world…” this complex, I don’t want to play too deeply in the PR field anymore.

One of the first things Doug points to is Twitter and the fact that they don’t employ a PR firm [post]. I still say that what Twitter needs is not a PR firm but a Community Manager/Evangelist.

It might be that, for me, the “oooh, shiny!” is gone from PR. There are still thousands of folks out there completely enamoured with the industry, and I applaud them. But it’s going to take a lot to convince the now jaded, cynical PR person in me that start ups need PR, that companies like Twitter or Seesmic should spend their money on PR instead of evangelists, and that PR is still as powerful as it was, even five years ago.

Post from: EveryJoe

In a world that is changing so rapidly…

Biz just said “even if you’re frustrated and you know what’s going on, that’s 80% of it”. Yes. Now if all of the main users had that same knowledge rather than just the developers, that would make a huge difference.

Post from: EveryJoe

Twitter’s Ev Williams & Biz Stone talk about tech troubles

While there’s a lot of controversy over what Twitter is NOT doing, and a lot of cranky blog posts and bullshit about how they’re screwing up a good thing, there’s very little helpful or constructive comments out there.

Because of that, and because I think that people are just being cranky about the service, I now present you with:

An Open Letter to Ev, Jack and Biz.

Hi guys.

I’ve been an ardent Twitter user and advocate for you guys for what feels like a long time. I’ve only been a user since October, and didn’t start tweeting in earnest until January or so of this year. In that time, I’ve garnered almost 1,200 followers and tweeted a grand total of 8,555 times. As soon as I publish this, my tweets will go up, again.

Image Source: @colleencoplick’s Twitter Stats from TweetStats

I’ve spent a lot of time sticking up for you. I’ve defended you when the bullies on the playground are pushing you around, kicking you, and stealing your lunch money.

I know you’re going through that awkward phase all teenagers go through. You’re growing like a weed, not really fitting into your clothes properly anymore, and probably also being teased a lot. But you know what? It’s ok, because there’s lots of us out there that still love you.

But it’s come time to show you a little tough love. I know you have some organizing and cleaning up to do there in San Francisco, but here’s the thing. If you don’t start taking some immediate steps to start showing your users that you’re listening to their concerns, they’re going to start abandoning you in droves. And if that happens, then your product is pretty much a moot point because there won’t be anyone around to use it.

What I think you need to do – no, what I KNOW you need to do – is hire a Community Manager, and basically immediately. Whether you like it or not, whether you had intended it or not, Twitter is a community. Every person has a community of people they interact with on a daily basis, and each person’s community is made up of slightly different groupings. For a more detailed description of what I mean by this, take a look at Laura Fitton’s (@pistachio) post, Twitter is My Village.

You guys are stretched thin trying to get everything upgraded and running smoothly there. You’re forced to wear a lot of hats and trying to deal with the community crises when they arise, which has got to happen quite a lot given the number of users you’ve got, has got to be difficult, or maybe even damn near impossible. You guys need to focus on all of the other things you have to do, and leave the community management to someone else.

It’s time that you found someone to help you with this. And, I feel like I can be honest here with you because we’re friends, I really think that you need to find someone outside of the city of San Francisco. I think that if you hire someone in your immediate vicinity, the perception of the community is that your Community Manager is “in your pocket” and doesn’t have the best interest of the community at heart, but instead is a company lackey.

Your community manager needs to be the liaison between the company and the users. Jeremiah Oyang posted the following, on the four tenets of a community manager [post], and I think they’re worth referencing here.

Your community manager is:

1) A Community Advocate
As a community advocate, the community managers’ primary role is to represent the customer. This includes listening, which results in monitoring, and being active in understanding what customers are saying in both the corporate community as well as external websites. Secondly, they engage customers by responding to their requests and needs or just conversations, both in private and in public.

2) Brand Evangelist
In this evangelistic role (it goes both ways) the community manager will promote events, products and upgrades to customers by using traditional marketing tactics and conversational discussions. As proven as a trusted member of the community (tenet 1) the individual has a higher degree of trust and will offer good products.

3) Savvy Communication Skills, Shapes Editorial
This tenet, which is both editorial planning and mediation serves the individual well. The community manager should first be very familiar with the tools of communication, from forums, to blogs, to podcasts, to twitter, and then understand the language and jargon that is used in the community. This individual is also responsible for mediating disputes within the community, and will lean on advocates, and embrace detractors –and sometimes removing them completely. Importantly, the role is responsible for the editorial strategy and planning within the community, and will work with many internal stakeholders to identify content, plan, publish, and follow up.

4) Gathers Community Input for Future Product and Services Perhaps the most strategic of all tenets, community managers are responsible for gathering the requirements of the community in a responsible way and presenting it to product teams. This may involve formal product requirements methods from surveys to focus groups, to facilitating the relationships between product teams and customers. The opportunity to build better products and services through this real-time live focus group are ripe, in many cases, customer communities have been waiting for a chance to give feedback.

Once you understand the tenets of a community manager, you need to understand what the role of a community manager entails. Jeremiah posted the following in March of last year. It’s still very valid now.

1) Community First
Puts the community or the customers as a priority over the company. This person is an advocate for the customers, and will often go ‘join’ the community, rather than try to build it. (I learned this from Tara [Hunt])

2) An Educator, two-ways
Teaches the community about the company and it’s products, often in a non-invasive manner.

3) Uses the tools and communication style of the community
In 2007, this is primarily blogs, online pictures. I see this moving to Video, Twitter, and a vast array of emerging tools.

4) Puts a Human Face on the company
This person actually shows their real face, both online and at events. Forget stock images and use a real person, who can relate to the community.

5) Not just a Marketing Role
This is not just a PR or marketing role, this role actually extends to:
Customer Support
Product Marketing and Engineering

6) Knows when to get out of the way
Sometimes this role is to connect the right people in the company (who know more about the product details) with the right customers. Also this role will connect prospects with customers, in a new form of “customer references”.

7) Pushes the “Membrane”
Scoble told me about this in 2005, he pushed the corporate membrane at Microsoft, which is a pliable movable invisible wall. Once he felt he pushed it, and was just about to poke through, he would back off. If Corporate Communications and Management gets uncomfortable with the community manager, then you’re doing the job right.

What Twitter needs, among with all of the above, is someone who is familiar with your community, who understands your tools, and who is prepared to face a challenge. They need to be prepared to think on their feet, be energetic and really grok your past, present and future. Of course, as I’m advocating that they aren’t in San Francisco, they need to be willing to come to the Twitter offices on a regular basis. Not only that, but they need to already be a huge Twitter advocate. Someone for whom continuing this role would not be a stretch.

So guys, think on this. Take some time to consider it. I really do mean this with all the love in my heart – I adore Twitter, and I want to see it become all it can be. I want to see it succeed, but I honestly am not sure that it can without an immediate intervention.

Post from: EveryJoe

An Open Letter to Twitter