Visiting with Edelman's David Brain in London

It's always nice to have a "brain" when your name is Brain and I can truthfully report that David Brain, president and CEO of Edelman Europe, is scary smart. Had the pleasure of having tea with him yesterday afternoon in London.

After we chatted for an hour, he pulled out his cool new mini video camera (from Pure Digital, if you're interested) for a 60-second video interview. I'm more comfortable on a blog then in front of a camera so it was a bit painful, but here it is.

Useful Link

European bloggers find their voice (David quoted in Financial Times, Oct. 10, 2006)

The World Economic Forum is "event blogging" to the max

The World Economic Forum kicks off today in Davos with a high-octane meeting of movers and shakers and thinkers. The focus is the Shifting Power Equation. That includes a discussion of how technology is leveling the playing field for both business and media, of course.

In addition, their comms team has several blogs going to document the scene, provide color and, hopefully, offer a real peek inside for those of us who can't attend.

This is "event blogging" at its best. Follow along this week at Forumblog.org (where a handful of CEOs are also set up to blog.) Also check out Davos Conversation for videos.

As I've said many times before (and I cover in The Corporate Blogging Book), an "event blog" is a great way to dip your toes into corporate blogging if you're just getting started. It gives you a focus; it's time limited; it gives you an out.

P.S. One of their staffers noticed my earlier post and was kind enough to add this blog to the Forumblog's blogroll. Cool, huh?!

What happens when a tree falls in the fôret (forest) and no blogger is there to record it?

Update: turns out this week's Le Web 3 was indeed the reason our Dec. 5th corporate blogging event didn't get any coverage. But... stay tuned. ZDNet.fr columnist Capucine Cousin wrote an article on consumer created content for Les Echos (en français) and quoted me from our interview in Paris:

"Tout le jeu consiste à métamorphoser des clients passionnés en « évangélistes », les marques plus malignes choisissant de « capitaliser sur eux pour faire du marketing gratuit », note Debbie Weil, consultante, auteur de « The Corporate Blogging Book » (édition Portfolio, en anglais), qui vient de sortir en Europe."

- Capucine Cousin

Original entry, cont.

You got it. Nothing. Nada.

Unfortunately, that's been the response to the presentation I gave last week on corporate blogging at the lovely offices of Fleishman-Hillard Paris. They're in what I assume is a 19th century building. It's on the stately boulevard Haussmann in central Paris. Ornate, rococo ceilings, floor to ceiling windows and other wonderful details. Wish I had taken a photo. (If I'm wrong about the architectural history, someone please set me straight.)

A crowd of about 50 was expected: Fleishman corporate clients (I don't have the all the names; it was a good mix of multinationals and French companies), prospects and a handful of journalists. But it rained (a downpour), there was snarled traffic and about half that number showed up. They were an attentive audience, however, and asked lots of questions. The event had two purposes: to launch The Corporate Blogging Book in Paris and to release the results of a blogger - media study conducted by Fleishman.

I was interviewed by Capucine Cousin for ZDNet.fr but haven't seen a story or blog post yet. (I did see The Corporate Blogging Book on a ZDNet.fr shopping page.) Guillaume Devauz, a reporter for Journal du Net, asked if he could reprint part of Chapter 1 along with other blogging tips. Haven't seen that either. (Update: he emailed to say he expects his article to be published.)

Now it's true that Fleishman's soireé was vying for attention with Le Web 3 which took place in Paris this week. But that was an entirely different kind of event - a mega networking confab for established bloggers and Web 2.0 players. Photos here.  (The "3" in Le Web 3 refers to the fact that this is the third year for Les Blogs.)

Fleishman's event was specifically geared to the non-cognoscenti, the not-yet-playing in the social media space types. (I'm pretty sure there were no bloggers in the audience other than the two journalists I mention above.) In addition, Fleishman Paris has a sadly antiquated Web page which doesn't allow for easy updates and offers no reason for anyone to visit or to link back to it. I'm wondering if that's a fatal combination when it comes to generating a bit of buzz in the blogosphere. I.e. no sneezers or influencers and no place to sneeze.

(I did upload Fleishman's blogging survey and it sparked a few comments.)

We're at the inflection point for corporate blogging

As I noodle around with a number of presentations** I've got coming up (I've finally figured out Keynote for the Mac), I want to take a stand.

It's the end of marketing, advertising and corporate communications "as usual"

It's not enough to say that blogging is important or that social media tools are going mainstream.

Here's my little manifesto

I'm still noodling with it. Feel free to jump in and add something, help me clarify my thoughts or tell me to stuff it:

The Inflection Point of Corporate Blogging

- Blogs and other social media tools are here to stay

- Blogs are just next-generation Web sites

- Social media tools (RSS, blogs, podcasts, video, wikis, etc.) can be used by any company, large or small, B2C or B2B

- They symbolize community, conversation, mutual respect between users and an ethos of sharing

- These tools are more powerful at informing/influencing/persuading than traditional forms of marketing, advertising and corporate communications

- They help you get found online

- If you can't be found, you don't exist

Conclusion: This isn't optional

You gotta start using blogs, podcasts, online video (social media) today!

Defining an inflection point

Google's acquisition of YouTube yesterday for $1.65 billion is extremely significant. (Watch the CNN video with the announcement.)

Yes, it's a lot of money. Yes it's eerily like the dot com boom days when companies with no revenue were perceived to be hugely valuable.

But I see it as more than that. It's a tipping point (thanks to Malcolm Gladwell). Or an inflection point.

Intel's Andy Grove popularized "inflection point" as a business term. It's really a mathematical expression meaning a point on a curve at which the tangent crosses the curve itself. I don't pretend to understand calculus so don't ask me to explain.

Translated into business, it means something new is happening and there's no going back. No more "business as usual."

Read Andy's explanation here. It's an excerpt from his 1996 book, Only the Paranoid Survive:

"Strategic inflection points can be caused by technological change but they are more than technological change... They are full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting new technology or fighting the competition as you used to may be insufficient. They build up force so insidiously that you may have a hard time even putting a finger on what has changed, yet you know that something has. Let's not mince words: A strategic inflection point can be deadly when unattended to." - Andy Grove, founder of Intel

** I'm speaking at a bunch of different venues over the next two weeks - both here in the U.S. and also in London (Oct. 18th and Oct. 25th) and at a private event in Paris! (Que j'adore Paris!)