Why Pre-Commerce is the Next Frontier

About 4,000 years ago, give or take a few decades, we developed the notion of currency to act as a valuable receipt for goods received.  If you were hanging out in Mesopotamia 2000 B.C., you might have trusted your buddy delivering the grain, but your boss still wanted to get a form of receipt to match the grain you would put in the temple storehouse.  Nothing personal, just business.  

 

About 30 years ago, we started figuring out how to order online.   In 1982, Minitel was introduced in France by France Telecom.  I remember it when working for Rhone-Poulenc Rorer in Paris.  It was revolutionary at the time.  You could book travel online via this little electronic box with green writing on the screen.   In the 90’s, we started introducing security protocols and improved our bandwidth dramatically.  In 1994, it became possible to buy pizza from Pizza Hut right from their site.  Not a revolution, but cool.  1995 then proved to be the breakout year.  Dell.com started with an initial goal of hoping to make $1MM per month, which was very bold at that time.  Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com.  Cisco started selling online and eBay was founded, all in the same year. 

 

15 years later, it’s safe to say that companies have focused on e-commerce as a way to purchase goods directly through the Internet.  And, quite predictably, the majority of promotional spend goes against this transaction.   We are good at the transaction. 

 

We are bad on reaching customers before the transaction.  And this is giving rise to the next wave of e-commerce, which I refer to as “pre-commerce”.   

 

Pre-Commerce is a reality due to how the web is being transformed by technology and the customer together.    And it is a major opportunity.

 

There is a reason why we ask our peers for advice before we purchase online or why we look for weeks/months before making a decision.  In the offline experience, we can see, touch and hear direct.  Online, we are often missing that experience of interacting with products, asking questions and putting our five senses to work.  So, we do the next best thing.  We explore by ourselves.  We often start with search.   15.2 billion searches were conducted by all of us in the U.S. only in January, 2010.  We ask our peers for direct advice often after sending them content to look at.  We visit the communities we trust to learn more and ask questions.  We go to Yahoo! Answers or Mahalo and see what others have said.  We look at Craigslist now and then.   We explore until we are satisfied…..then we visit to buy online. 

 

Basically, we substitute the offline experience we know with a rich, deep exploration online. 

 

It’s the world of pre-commerce.  It’s a world most marketers think they know, but actually have no idea where or how decisions are made before a customer ever visits your transaction-focused site.  Most companies are analogous to the retailer waiting patiently in their store for you to arrive.  It’s an old model. 

 

In the future, leaders will be experts at interacting with you appropriately before you make a decision and they will integrate community into their e-commerce site, so your experience continues when you visit.  Those companies will become a valid and trusted partner in the pre-commerce journey. 

 

This is what I love about the evolution of the web.  We think we have solved how do to something and we realize we’re just getting started.  We’ve come a long way from taking receipts for grain, but just imagine where we can go from here….

 

All the best, Bob

Google Buzz and the Enterprise: A Look at the Real Opportunity

The Enterprise is the new frontier for social media – the wild west.  It’s wide open for leadership and here’s why.

 

Today, email is the center of our world inside a company.    It’s a fact whether we like it or not.

Tomorrow, text messaging will increase in importance.  The next generation of employees have grown up texting.  They don’t do email and don’t want to. 

The mobile phone is often the device of choice to learn on the go.  We want our laptop and phone to be fully integrated.

And we’re increasingly parking our data and accessing solutions in the cloud. 

 

The winner in the Enterprise will likely be the “Switzerland” of data, email, conversations and community.  They will be able to combine structured and unstructured data in new ways that streamline how we truly communicate. 

 

The winner will provide us new and obvious ways to improve productivity, share and network ideas faster and gain insights that matter with incredible speed.  Relevance of data will be key.  We want to receive ideas and insights from peers we respect inside and outside our company, not a random onslaught of opinion from the entire company and all people in the free world.  We want to benefit from the wisdom of the crowds we are part of…..what we don’t need is more clutter in Outlook or Gmail or Hotmail. 

 

So today, email is not the center we want, but it is the center we have.  It is our main way we learn.

 

Many companies are trying to build out their proprietary solutions, which is typical and expected.  I guess I would do the same to build a company.  Salesforce.com has a great CRM platform, an idea community, integration with Facebook and mobile solutions.  Microsoft has a new and improved Sharepoint 2010, Outlook continues to look for ways to integrate from Xobni to LinkedIn and Bing is impressive.  Google has Buzz, Apps, the Droid and the best search on the planet.  There’s just one problem.

 

Not much changes in the Enterprise unless you can integrate easily with current platforms/infrastructure and if your solution is adaptable with time.  Innovation in the Enterprise happens incrementally when we are talking software and hardware. 

 

So back to Google.  Their search is a great solution internally for companies.  Their Apps are reasonably popular with smaller companies.  But they have not penetrated large Enterprise in a significant manner.    

 

The solution is not to win the battle, but to figure out how to integrate across platforms and win the war.   Search, email, text messaging and the phone will be central to this success….

 

One of these companies will figure out that social media and technology are so transformative that they can’t do it all by themselves.  If they can work more openly, perhaps even partner, to integrate email, data, search, conversations and community, they can win big long-term. 

 

Meanwhile, most of the attention is on the consumer world.  To me, it is ironic, since the consumer world is a community-driven world and it will be a long uphill battle to integrate community into email.  It’s a much easier game to do the reverse and integrate email into community.  The world tilts in favor of social media communities, ala Facebook, in this regard. 

 

The good news is Google is once again raising everyone’s game via their innovation.  It is what we need to push us to a new way to drive future innovation in the Enterprise.  And we’re really just getting started…. 

 

All the best, Bob

 

Advertising is a Catalyst, Not an Answer

Thousands of years ago, we learned how to tell our story visually.  Commercial messages have been found in the ruins of Pompei and paintings on rock walls were quite popular for awhile.   As more people learned how to read and write, we evolved how we communicate.  Rock walls lost their fizz and town criers became cool until we created the printing press.  Eventually, someone had the bright idea of creating a daily update and we moved into the world of newspapers.  With all this new space available to reach people, it wasn’t too long before the first paid advertising occurred in 1836 in the French newspaper, La Presse. 

 

Once ads started, ad agencies were not far behind with the creation of Havas in the 1840’s as everyone realized how ads could help newspapers lower price and reach valuable customers.   Not much changed for the next 150 or so years as we learned how to get more sophisticated in how we advertise, but the concept was largely the same.   We went from rock walls to billboards.  From commercial messages in Pompei to commercial messages on TV.  The concept was the same and when done well, it was amazingly effective.   

 

Fast forward to 1998 and our friends at Google emerge with a new way to learn and tell your story.  Disruptive for sure, but we are often slow to change, so many folks, even today, still hold on to the idea that advertising is the way to tell your story and for customers to learn about your brand.  Just one more billboard…one more SuperBowl Ad….just one more of a lot of things. 

 

The reality is we are experiencing a shift in the importance of advertising.  It is still important, but in a much different way.   

 

Advertising is no longer the most effective way to tell your story.  Customers believe their peers are more credible.  Most of us form our first impression of a brand via search.  We read ratings and reviews.  We learn on YouTube. 

 

Advertising is now a catalyst that triggers an offline and online experience that leads customers to learn, share and decide what they will do in the future and they do this on their own time.   Anyone who spends a lot of money in advertising or email marketing or other forms of promotion is experiencing this change. 

 

Future leaders in Marketing will  use advertising strategically to start conversations or to shift the conversation, but will not have the expectation that the campaign will be the answer and the key driver of all sales success.  It will lead to more focused use of advertising and less continual drip versions of campaigns. 

 

The answer is all about what your customers, the people who buy your brands, do when their awareness is triggered.  And they do this for weeks and months after their interest is triggered, not when you want them to do it.  Here is a sample of what is happening today. 

 

Consumers exposed to display advertising are spending far more time (55%) than average visitors going to a site up to 30 days after the ad is seen (and page views were up 50+% in the same study)

48% of Twitter users introduced to a brand on Twitter say they are compelled to search for additional information.

30% of this same group say their inspiration is to learn more.

44% recommend products in social media and 39%  have discussed a product specifically on Twitter.

 

Essentially, advertising starts the search to learn more.  And I mean, search, literally.

 

Even the large holding companies are embracing this change.  Group M, part of WPP, did research showing that consumers exposed to a brand’s social media and paid search programs are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand’s products compared to users who only saw paid search. 

 

So next time you are thinking of investing money in an advertising campaign, ask yourself the following questions:

 

#1 – Is this an integrated campaign that will create the right learning experience for my customer?

#2 – Am I measuring the online impact of how people search, recommend and discuss my brand related to the advertising over time or am I still stuck measuring the old school stuff, like traffic to my site and other short-term transactional measures?

#3 – Am I launching a campaign that actually builds intelligence on how customers want to interact, so I can understand how to build a lasting communications model that works for the brand and the customer?

#4 –Is my campaign flexible enough that I can adjust to what I learn?

#5 – Am I investing in what really matters to move the needle? 

 

We are at the beginning of a major transition in how we utilize advertising effectively.  It will remain valuable, but how we use it will change significantly. 

 

All the best, Bob

Google Debuts New Twitter Search Results

On December 11th, Google debuted their new real time search results for Tweets. This is the latest in a movement among social media and search companies that underscores a preference for real time content.

When searching for certain keywords you will now find call outs for the most recent Tweets pertaining to your search.

Why Measuring Click-Throughs is Next to Meaningless

Whenever we do something long enough, we start to assume it actually is meaningful.  Of course, this is often where we get into trouble.

 

A great example is our fascination with click-through rates.  If we run an ad and people click through to a site, we are endlessly fascinated by whether our click-through rate was higher than last time or higher than average.

 

The real conclusion?  It’s not relevant.  It’s at best a basic diagnostic measure. 

 

Here’s why. 

 

People often take action over a period of a month or so after they learn about something via display advertising.  We are not as pavlovian as once thought.  And when we do get around to visiting, we tend to spend 55% more time than average visitors to the site.  So ask yourself if you are measuring what is convenient (a click through) or what is real (activity over a period of one month). 

 

Now, think of social media sites.  One study showed that 48% of Twitter users who were introduced to a brand on Twitter were compelled to search for additional information.  44% of people said they recommend products in social media and 39% said they have discussed a product specifically on Twitter.  Facebook users edged out Twitter with 46% talking about or recommending products.

 

This is interesting.  What it tells us is that if advertising is truly compelling, customers will take their own action to recommend and discuss your brand.  The flip side is that if there is silence, it is more clear than ever that you did not make a real impact.   Are you measuring the conversations you generate or not?  Good question to ask yourself.

 

Now, how about a nod towards integration.  Research by GroupM basically says that if you do a campaign in isolation, it doesn’t achieve nearly as much as if you combine social media and paid search.  In fact, you are 2.8x more likely to have someone search for that brand’s products compared to users who only saw paid search.  So, when you measure one variable such as paid search, is this actually correct or should you be looking at the total impact you make over a period of time based on what you do via natural and paid search? 

 

I believe I know the answer.  Evolve how you measure.  In today’s world, we can see quite transparently if customers care or not by what they say.  Don’t guess, make sure your measurement tells you definitively what reality is for you.

 

All the best, Bob

Common Sense POV: Facebook's New Promotions Guidelines

Facebook recently released new Promotions Guidelines, which will likely have huge implications for brands and companies engaging with their customers on the platform.  This newest policy update applies only to contests and sweepstakes -- however, it is yet to be seen whether or not Facebook will extend such guidelines to other promotions such as coupons.

Perhaps coincidence, but it’s interesting to note that these new guidelines come only weeks after the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials - which  we’ve discussed here and here, and on the heels of the FDA’s public hearing on promotion via the internet and social media, summarized here by Bob Pearson.  

Although Facebook’s new guidelines do not prohibit companies or brands from running promotions, this is a significant change in that Facebook is moving towards monetizing yet another stream within the platform (e.g., advertise or bust).  In a way, it’s not unlike moves that YouTube made, only they did it earlier and it was predicated by the technological requirements of running a video (only) platform.

The complete Facebook guidelines can be found here.  To save you the click, I’ve included a few key highlights below.  You can also check out Michael Richter’s (Deputy General Counsel for IP at Facebook) blog post, in which he explains their thinking about the changes:

Section 1 General

1.3 You will not in any way use our name, trademarks, trade names, copyrights, or any other of our intellectual property in the rules or any other materials relating to the promotion, without express written consent.

While this isn’t new to Facebook, I’ve noted it here as I believe it will tie into point 3.6 below, so worth keeping in mind for planning purposes.

Section 3 Administering a Promotion through the Facebook Platform

You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval. Such written approval may be obtained only through an account representative at Facebook. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the approval process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative. If we provide you such approval, you agree to the following:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an application on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the canvas Page of an application on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page.

3.3 You will include the following language in a clear and conspicuous manner adjacent to any promotion entry field: "This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to [recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for [disclose any way that you plan to use the user's information]."

3.4 You will not mention “Facebook” in the promotion's rules except in the following ways: (i) "You can enter the Promotion through the [application name] application on the Facebook Platform. You can also find the application on the [tab name] tab on the [Page name] Page on Facebook."; (ii) to fulfill your obligations under Section 3.7.

3.5 You will designate an individual to act as a primary contact to address any communications from us with respect to the promotion.

3.6 You must submit materials for any promotion you plan on administering through the Facebook Platform to your account representative for our review and approval at least 7 days prior to the start date of such promotion. Promotions not approved in writing within such time period will be deemed unapproved.

3.7 You will include the following provisions within your official rules for the promotion:

3.7.1 Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

3.7.2 Complete release for us from each entrant or participant.

3.7.3 Any questions, comments or complaints regarding the promotion will be directed to you, not us.

The most important section of these guidelines – outlining specific requirements on where you can run a promotion, what specific disclaimers you must attach, and the fact that you must get approval of promotional materials at least 7 days in advance – through your Facebook account representative (e.g., you’ll need to establish an account representative (code for: you need to advertise!)

Section 4 Publicizing a Promotion on Facebook

4.2 In the rules of the promotion, or otherwise, you will not condition entry to the promotion upon taking any action on Facebook, for example, updating a status, posting on a profile or Page, or uploading a photo.

This mandate seems to directly target the more recent, growing trend with contests and promotions to require a Facebook status update.  Hat tip to Facebook’s attorneys for foreseeing future litigation and putting this on paper now.

While these guidelines provide some additional hurdles, the good news is that they don’t shut the door on promotions done right.  The bad news is that added steps and (no doubt) advertising costs will prohibit many companies from running repeated, small prize contests, which are often more effective than one time contests with big payouts.   What do you think?  Is Facebook making itself a more or less attractive channel for contests and promotions?

Social Media is the Center of your Customer’s Online World. Why are you Treating it in a Vacuum?

Social Media is fairly well established as the headliner of the online world.  Even its predecessor, the search engine, has ceded to social media by positioning sites like YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, blogs and user forums at the top of search results, and building in preferential treatment for websites that are updated often. 

A quick look at the list of Alexa’s top websites in the U.S (full list below) confirms that 11 of the top 20 websites are hardcore social media sites.  Click through the rest and you will find social media functionality on all of them.

This realization, coupled with the announcement earlier this year that if Facebook was a country, it would be fourth largest country in the world, and similar stats from other top social media sites (the average online video viewer watches over 6 hours of online video per month), confirms that social media is indeed the mothership of your customer's online experience.

So why do companies insist on giving the social media team their own lunch table?  We’re nice people – really.  In fact, our shining personalities are critical success factors in representing your brand in social media.  So why can’t we play with others?  Your .com team, e-commerce folks, CRM manager, search and digital agencies, there are plenty of people who would find our jokes funny. 

And why stop there?  Successful social media campaigns do not exist in a vacuum.  They are integrated to the Nth degree.  They are cross-linked from your homepage, integrated into the email design of your loyalty program, noted in the boiler plate on your press releases, displayed as hyperlinks on your TV spots, painted on the side of your trucks, incorporated into your executives’ speeches, printed on your print collateral or packaging, and more.  Social media is now the most ubiquitous and most volatile element of your brand. 

In social media, your customers are shaping what your brand means every single day.  Often times, you can help shape that conversation by giving them assets and direction.  So why is your social media team playing with their own set of blocks while the rest of your organization marches to the same beat?  In few other places is consistency and coordination so important. 

Below are the three reasons why most companies keep their social media team in a vacuum and what you should do about them:

1.    We don’t understand social media so we don’t think it’s related to anything else we do.

a.    Get educated. Lean on your social media team to teach the rest of your organization and make the learning hands-on and mandatory.

2.    Social media is the wild west and our social media team is a bunch of renegade cowboys.

a.    Fire them.  Social media is an important and serious marketing discipline.  If you wouldn’t hire the professionals managing your social media as Communications professionals, don’t hire them for social media.

3.    Social media is too hot right now. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and I don’t want to step on any toes.

a.    Man up.  It’s time to decide who is going to be in charge of social media. Is it PR? Marketing? Digital agency?  E-Commerce?  A Social Media Expert? (please don’t).  Decide who is running the show and then force all the other players into the same room and make the decision clear.  Now we can all move forward with less jockeying for dollars and more discussions about how to make things a success.

Social media is too important to your brand and your customers to allow it to be derailed by any of these things.  Your social media work needs to be integrated into everything else you do.  Just as brand guidelines penetrate every level of your organization, so too should social media.  Inconsistency here is often worse than not showing up at all. 

Paul Dyer

Alexa.com Top 20 Sites in the U.S.

1. Google

2. Yahoo!

3. Facebook

4. YouTube

5. Myspace

6. Wikipedia

7. Windows Live

8. Blogger.com

9. Craigslist.org

10. eBay

11. Microsoft Network (MSN)

12. Amazon.com

13. Twitter

14. AOL

15. Go

16. ESPN Sportszone

17. CNN - Cable News Network

18. Bing

19. WordPress.com

20. Flickr

Why Share of Conversation Trumps Share of Voice

Imagine yourself leading a global brand.   An outside firm walks in full of smiles and power points and says:

 

 “I have this great measurement tool that ignores the majority of the world’s 1.7 billion people online.  It only tells you what the media is saying about your product vs. competitors in a limited pool.  We don’t let our measurement tool get distracted by what customers are saying and we sure don’t include word of mouth or ratings and reviews or forum questions, since who knows what’s happening when a message rips across multiple forms of media.  We do this, since a message is only delivered correctly if it is published.  This idea of people “sharing” your content is not relevant to building your brand.  Who really knows who these folks are, right?  So we give you a precise read out for a limited group that avoids this “customer static” about their beliefs.  The result is that we only measure what is said about your brand, not the conversations and topics customers are actually talking about, since that is “off-brand”.  Finally, we like to provide you with imprecise sentiment scores so you can make up a story of what is really happening, since we have to admit that all of these pie charts and data don’t really tell us a whole lot.”

 

Two seconds, maybe three before you throw them out of your office? 

 

Well, if you believe that……please read more on how the world has changed.  I know the above quote is sarcastic, but it’s reasonably close to reality for past measurement systems.

 

We live in a world where share of conversation is what matters. 

 

Share of voice is this limited look at a brand and its competitors.  It makes for nice charts showing increases or decreases each month vs peers, but it is not how customers think. 

 

Here is how the world has changed and why it matters.   Conversations are as important or, in some cases, more important to impacting search results. Conversations occur in high volume 24/7.  Search is now forming the #1 first impression for your brand.  Video search via YouTube is now part of that impression as the 2^nd largest search engine.  And, as 3 out of 4 peers routinely look to each other for advice on their next important move, it is their conversations that matter.  It is what your neighbor says that we care about the most……

 

What it means is that it is less important about what you said at a press conference.  It is increasingly important to know what is being said on a Saturday morning on a forum that is relevant to your brand that you may not be participating in today.  

 

Share of conversation is defined by the topics and conversations that your customers care about. They are often not brand-related at all, yet they are directly relevant to you.   I’ve measured hundreds of brands online and I can tell you that share of conversation is routinely 20-40x higher in volume than share of voice.  Here’s a few examples using Google search as a simple diagnostic tool, so you can do your own analysis after reading this post. 

 

If you search Orbitz, you find 8.14MM results, but travel has 770MM.  Salesforce.com has 3.03MM, but cloud computing has 31.3MM.  I’m writing today on a Latitude E4200 which has 3.14MM results, but laptops has 63.1MM.  Even Google has 2.1 billion results, while search has 5.6 billion.

 

The action is in the larger search.  Ask yourself if you know personally the people who are driving share of conversation on topics like travel or cloud computing or laptops or search.  If not, why not?    Ask yourself next if you have ever thought of asking these leaders of the conversation to participate with you in any way, shape or form.  If not, why not?  And finally, ask yourself if you know which topics of conversation are most relevant for your brand? 

 

There are many other ways to show how our customers are measuring us every day via their actions and conversations, ranging from their use of forums to how they recommend or dismiss or ignore our products.  This is the real conversation you want to measure and know where you stand.

 

It’s less about how you are doing vs. your competitors.  It’s much more about your relevance with the people who may decide to buy your product. 

 

So next time you hear about measurement, ask what your share of conversation is.  Ask for precision on exactly who has influence, why and what they believe is important.  Ask how you will know if you are becoming more relevant in the peer to peer world we live in.  Climb deeper into the world of your customers and let the models of the past gracefully move towards extinction. 

 

All the best, Bob

 

Sharing UK experiences on B2B social media

If you want some insight into who’s doing what in business-to-business engagement with social media in the UK, the Dell B2B Social Media Huddle on December 7 is an event that you’ll not want to miss.

During a full day at Dell’s UK headquarters in Bracknell, we’ll be hearing about and discussing insights and examples of B2B communication with social media from a wide range of business people who have direct experience of planning and executing communication strategies in which social media have played a measurable role.

The aim of this informal event is to bring together senior communications and marketing professionals to exchange and share experiences on B2B social media for mutual benefit.

The event is divided into three principal sections:

1. A general overview of the B2B social media landscape
2. Case study mash-up / unconference
3. Roundtable sessions on:
   - Integrating social media into your programmes in the right way
   - Social media and monetization techniques

The second section – case study mashup/unconference – has great promise to be the most interactive experience for everyone. There’s no set agenda: if you have a business story you’d like to tell, you can do that on the day.

We’ve got a terrific line-up of speakers to help everyone make the most of the day:

• Neville Hobson, Head of Social Media Europe, WeissComm Group, UK
• Richard Binhammer, Senior Manager Corporate Communications, Dell Inc., USA
• Steve Lamb, PR Manager, Microsoft Ltd., UK
• Benjamin Ellis, Director and Co-Founder, Redcatco, UK
• Kerry Bridge, Digital Media Communications, Dell Public Sector, Dell Ltd., UK
• Jamie Grenney, Senior Director of Content, Community and Social Media, Salesforce.com, USA
• Michelle Goodall, Online PR and Social Media Consultant/Trainer, Econsultancy.com
• Sarah Wright, Enterprise Programmes Marketing Manager EMEA, Juniper Networks, UK
• Henry Clifford-Jones, European Director, Advertising at LinkedIn, UK

You can get the details, including the agenda, in the event PDF at Slideshare. The brochure will be updated as more speakers join us.

The event is free of charge: if you’d like to participate, just sign up.

So mark your diary: the B2B Social Media Huddle on Monday December 7, 2009, at Dell’s UK headquarters in Bracknell – a whole day to exchange and share experiences on B2B social media for mutual benefit.

[Credit for image used in brochure and above: The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas. Creative Commons licensed.]

This post also appears on NevilleHobson.com; and on Direct2Dell, the corporate blog of Dell, Inc.

Guidelines for using avatars in business

Do you ever pause and think about the avatar you use online as the visual representation of you: your persona or alter ego? What it says to others about you and the organization you work for or represent?

Avatars are creeping into business environments and will have far reaching implications for enterprises, from policy to dress code, behavior and computing platform requirements, according to a report from industry analysts Gartner.

Gartner predicts that by year-end 2013, 70 percent of enterprises will have behavior guidelines and dress codes established for all employees who have avatars associated with their organization when they’re online.

Gartner suggests six tactical guidelines that organizations can follow to make the best use of avatars in the business environment:

1. Help users learn to control their avatars
2. Recognize that users will have a personal affinity with their avatar
3. Educate users on the risks and responsibilities of reputation management
4. Extend the code of conduct to include avatars in 3D virtual environments
5. Explore the business case for avatars
6. Encourage usage and enterprise pilots.

Read the detail of these in Gartner’s report.

I’d add four more:

1. Encourage employees to consider how their avatars will appear to others in different cultural environments: what’s amusing or looks cool in the UK, for instance, may have very different reactions from people in, say, India or Brazil.
2. Help everyone understand and respect the intellectual property rights of others: if someone wants to use an image or artwork created by someone else, they must ensure that the creator has given permission or that it’s clear what type of usage by others is allowed (eg, though a Creative Commons copyright license).
3. Produce some simple how-to tutorials that help employees with the practicalities of avatar creation: the objective here is to help ensure that everyone is able to create their avatars to a high quality and that images look good however they're sized.
4. Involve employees in different areas of your business in defining avatar usage best practice: don’t just create a policy and simply cascade it out in the traditional way.

Although 2013 is less than four years away, organizations should have guidelines in place well before then as more interactions between people happen online and such interactions are key to a fundamental aspect of building relationships: trust. That’s the most important point, in my view, which is directly relevant to the bigger picture: reputation.

Just as with overall behaviors online where developing guidelines to help everyone understand what are the rules of engagement – especially significant in the wake of the FTC’s announcement last week – how employees visually represent themselves online to others needs similar consideration.