Those 20-somethings won’t join companies that ban Facebook on company time. Executives that don’t allow texting during a meeting are considered out of touch. Companies that don’t blog have missed out on the conversation that is the marketplace (their customers, prospects, and even competitors).

Wake up! It’s a new world.

Web 2.0 and social media are here to stay. These tools, technologies, features and Web platforms have forever changed user behavior online, as well as user expectations of the companies they purchase from. It is important for companies to understand and participate in this new Web.

Social media offers new opportunities to engage customers directly, influence the marketplace, increase brand awareness and affinity, build a better customer experience, and collect market intelligence. Now, why would you want to ignore that?

Learn and Apply

Today user-generated content (UGC) in blogs, podcasts, wikis, social networks, communities, virtual worlds, product reviews/comments, and videos is fast becoming the bulk of content on the Web. No longer can corporate websites, branding activities, and mainstream press programs alone drive the conversation online.

The vast amount of information created by customers, prospects, and industry bloggers through these new media vehicles can help employees gain a better grasp of trends, customer sentiment, competitor activities and product and service requirements. So encourage all of your employees to get online and learn!

In addition, employees can enhance and extend the company’s customer experience by creating and distributing content that adds value, and learning from and applying information created by external audiences. In the old-fashioned, hierarchical workplace, executives want absolute control over information going out of the company. That’s understandable assuming there are some crown jewels to protect.

But the wholesale rejection of employee blogging or interacting with social media as a part of their job is a grave error in judgment. The opportunity cost to a company can be huge. To meet the needs of both sides, there must be rules in place that guide employees through their online interactions.

Responsible Participation

Social media interactions and blogging by employees should be designed to build relationships with customers, partners, and bloggers, attract prospects, initiate or add value to the public discourse and embrace outside interaction. Employees can be encouraged to interact responsibly on social media such as blogs, wikis and through comments.

Getting involved in social media should be the choice of each employee. Anyone with a passion or interest should be encouraged to create a blog or participate in a group blog. Start with internal blogs to get a feel for how it works. And make sure you have written social media guidelines that every employee reads in advance. I’ve written in the past about specific guidelines that help employees make good decisions.

It’s critical at this point that you don’t let fear of the unknown hold you back. It’s okay to take baby steps. At least you’ll be walking in the right direction.

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Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas created this [a new] visual model of the social media tools that can be used to create, extend and enhance conversations online. [You can find it here.] [The starfish model below was created by Robert Scoble.] This is an These are excellent visuals for use in internal presentations to management when you need to explain how all of these tools/apps/sites relate.

You can find Brian’s post here.

I’m inspired by this diagram to create one for the social media monitoring, managing, analysis tools since that’s what people ask me about most often. Jesse, Brian, would you like to help?

Update September 26, 2008. (Jesse, thanks for the corrections.)

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I regularly advise companies to start their new media foray with a blog. Not because I think blogs are a universal panacea. But more for the reason that a well-done, strategic blog forces a company to see what social media is about and what it takes to do it well. And a successful blog creates an open conversation with their audiences that was previously unlikely or impossible.

Although blogging software is free or fairly inexpensive, designing a high quality look and feel that is aligned with the corporate identify can cost significant dollars. Moreover, it takes time to plan and write original, interesting blog posts every week. Social media seems simple on one level, but time is money, and social media is time-intensive.

I like corporate blogs because they force executives who are still accustomed to formal corporate communications to get comfortable showing more of their personalities and revealing more about their company. They also learn to embrace interactions with readers who may say things the company often spends a lot of energy trying to keep a “secret.”

Blogs can help executives to think differently about corporate communications. But interestingly, many companies who encourage employee blogging have missed the point. HP has 60 blogs none of which is focused, original, personal or revealing. Most HP employees or executives who have started a blog don’t post regularly so their blogs don’t have a chance to gain momentum.

Why you shouldn’t start a corporate blog? I couldn’t say it any better than BL Ochman’s recent post on the subject.

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You or your company may have implemented blogs, podcasts, wikis, and other new media. Or, maybe you haven’t yet. Either way, employees across your company are getting involved with Web 2.0 — somewhere. They’re on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or LinkedIn. They’re commenting or reading comments on Shopper.com, Yelp, or Amazon. It’s also fairly likely some of your employees log on to industry forums to ask questions or offer answers.

Whether or not your company is actively implementing new media, it’s important to have a set of guidelines that helps employees understand the rules when they speak online as an employee. Several companies including IBM, Sun, and the BBC post their social media guidelines. You can review these to get some ideas.

Here are several items I like to include. The focus is on responsible participation. Don’t forget to run the guidelines you produce through legal review before you post them.

1. Don’t be anonymous. Always identify who you are and what company you work for.

2. Only designated employees speak “on behalf” of the company. Everyone else speaks for themselves.

3. Be personal (share a little about yourself), but protect your privacy.

4. Respect others. (Need I say more?)

5. Consider the content carefully. It will be on the Web and in search results for a long, long time.

6. Respect copyright, trademark, and fair use laws (use links instead of excerpts, always give attribution).

7. Protect confidential and financial information (for your company and every other company)

8. The company’s Employee Rules of Conduct (or similar employee guide) applies online.

9. Become part of the industry conversation, link to other’s, and have fun.

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I get a comment or question on a daily basis about the amount of time social media requires. I find it difficult myself to write regular blog posts, twitter, keep up on Facebook, read the 100 or so blogs I’m fed, and write free ebooks on top of my day job.

ReadWriteWeb has an interesting post that tries to answer the question taken from a blogger who focuses specifically on new media for museums.

If you think of blogging, tweeting, and social networking as vehicles to sell product you would be making a mistake. These environments are for branding, influencing, and developing relationships. They are great for market learning. They can, however, take your prospects to other marketing venues where you can convert them.

Popularity: 44% [?]