“Management structures in a factory are clear and the models are ‘tried and true,’ as the saying goes. If you want to produce widgets these methods will work. In an idea and information based economy that is fueled by creativity, empowerment and independence they will at best produce mediocre results and at worst fail miserably,” he says. “The industrial model, which is to varying degrees the approach in most businesses today, is based on a strict adherence to hierarchy and the centralization of power. … In the new social business a model of management and leadership will be required and will feel very different from the industrial model. This is in fact, one of the reasons that the transformation to a social business model will be a long and difficult road. Many in management today could feel threatened in the new model.”

He compares the industrial model to the social modal:

The Industrial Model:

• Strict hierarchy with a clear chain of command both up and down
• Need to know mentality, information is hoarded and can become a power base
• Openness is not encouraged and often can be used against a person in a political struggle
• Strategy is disseminated from the top
• Decision making is centralized
• Policy and rule based control driven from the top of the structure
• Conformity is rewarded
• Managers are “served” by employees
• One way communications are common (from the top down)

Traits required in the social model:

• Coaching versus “managing”
• Information and content is the life blood of the social business and is shared openly and frequently (hoarding is not rewarded or tolerated) (I call this content liberation).
• Employees are empowered to make decisions (I’m not advocating anarchy, there will need to be some vision and strategy as a framework, but even the formulation of the strategy and vision is participatory and not centered in a select few). Empowerment also means the power and obligation to speak up when something is amiss.
• Transparency which leads to ethical behavior.
• Power and communication are networked not hierarchical and one way
• Managers exist to serve not be served
• Strong personal brands are encouraged and people’s individual brand gains advantage from association with the corporate brand in a symbiotic relationship
• People become the enterprise platform
• Everyone has a voice and can influence the company community
• Personal responsibility and accountability are rewarded and valued

“More than ever, a company’s brand identity and marketing efforts must be authentic.

Whether actions and words line up or not, word of mouth spreads like wildfire through social media channels.

This new dynamic is exciting because connecting to customers in memorable ways opens the door for savvy retailers and brands to innovate. For example, some retailers are urging employees to share their gifts and passions openly to connect with customers’ needs and desire to spend. Many of those retailers take advantage of analyzing customer data generated by social media and traditional sources in a sincere yet bottom-line-driven effort to remain relevant.”

Two Pew Internet Project surveys of teens and adults reveal a decline in blogging among teens and young adults and a modest rise among adults 30 and older. In 2006, 28% of teens ages 12-17 and young adults ages 18-29 were bloggers, but by 2009 the numbers had dropped to 14% of teens and 15% of young adults. During the same period, the percentage of online adults over thirty who were bloggers rose from 7% blogging in 2006 to 11% in 2009.Much of the drop in blogging among younger internet users may be attributable to changes in social network use by teens and young adults. Nearly three quarters (73%) of online teens and an equal number (72%) of young adults use social network sites. By contrast, older adults have not kept pace; some 40% of adults 30 and older use the social sites in the fall of 2009.

New survey results also show that among adults 18 and older, Facebook has taken over as the social network of choice; 73% of adult profile owners use Facebook, 48% have a profile on MySpace and 14% use LinkedIn. “Blogging appears to have lost its luster for many young users,” said Amanda Lenhart, lead author of the report. “The fad stage is over for teens and young adults and the move to Facebook — which lacks a specific tool for blogging within the network — may have contributed to the decline of blogging among young adults and teens.”

Other findings include:

Teens ages 12-17 do not use Twitter in large numbers – just 8% of online teens 12-17 say they ever use Twitter, a percentage similar to the number who use virtual worlds. This puts Twitter far down the list of popular online activities for teens and stands in stark contrast to their record of being early adopters of nearly every online activity.

Click here for the rest of the report, including a link to download it as a PDF.

A moment of silence for traditional PR. Seattle entrepreneur and angel investor Andy Sack declares that “PR is dead.” As Sack explains on his blog, “I declared PR (public relations) dead. It’s the past. It’s all about social media now. And social media is a more complex, more fragmented game to play. PR agencies of the past will have a hard time adapting–in my opinion.” Of course, not everyone has been as quick to roll out the hearse. Some of Sack’s readers offered up a spirited defense of traditional PR. In fact, one commenter went so far as to claim that social media is dead.

Social media certainly is not dead, but neither is PR. It’s just evolving. Traditional PR just doesn’t work well in the social media environment, and the more people become involved in social media, the less traditional PR will work.

By the way, Microsoft founder Bill Gates is on Twitter now, @BillGates.

Under the direction of Jim Farly, Group VP at Ford and Connie Fontaine, manager of brand content there, Undercurrent decided to depart from the viral marketing rule book. Bud told me they were not interested in the classic early adopters, the people who act as influencers for the rest of us. Undercurrent wanted to make contact with a very specific group of people, a passionate group of culture creators.

… I think the Fiesta Movement gives us new clarity. It’s a three-step process.

• Engage culturally creative consumers to create content.
• Encourage them to distribute this content on social networks and digital markets in the form of a digital currency.
• Craft this [as] a way that it rebounds to the credit of the brand, turning digital currency (and narrative meaning) into a value for the brand.

Ford’s success comes because it didn’t forget that the “social” in “social media” refers to people, not the electronic pipes that connect them, and that people – online or off – are still people, who still act in normal, human ways.

But that’s not so. In fact, Twitter and other social media are no more guaranteed-successful as marketing tools than are television and radio ads, or newspaper ads, or billboards. And not all forms of media are the right tools for all kinds of businesses. Twitter is more appropriate for some businesses than others – and for some entrepreneurs than others. For the others, the right tool might be a blog, or a media relations effort to secure free media coverage, or some combination of free, paid and social media.

Read the NBJ’s story here: Businesses using Twitter to build brand, bring in customers.