We are all nobodies, now

[Like Homer Simpson, Andrea Weckerle, Eric Eggertson, and Ike Piggott.... I am a nobody.  Here is my sad tale...]

I've always known I was a nobody. I was firmly told this by my seatmate in first grade, and told most recently by the neighbor's dog, who always runs past me as if I am invisible (what? I don't even rate a crotch sniff?).

But it's never been in print.

That's changed. In next month's Journal of Employee Communication Management, editor David Murray writes that I am a "nobody in communication" -- a "rude" nobody, at that -- and that I keep harping that social media is the "Next Big Thing" in corporate communication, without ever proving the point.

The Ragan equivalent of a crotch sniff, I guess.

[Note: the following paragraph, in its original form, gave great offense to Steve Crescenzo.  I have edited the paragraph to remove the offending passage, and apologize unreservedly to Crescenzo.]

Now, I stopped reading JECM in 1997, when  Steve Crescenzo offended many of us at an IABC dinner party, and then went on to gloat about it in JECM. I stopped reading JECM on the spot and it hasn't been a career stopper.

Yet, when you are called a "nobody", even by a Ragan publication, you have to stir yourself a little; you sigh "ok....alright..."

Murray says, "I'm looking for the First Big Thing in Internal Communication in Quite a While.... I'm being told by people like Jenkins ... that social media is It, and that my problem is I can't get my head around it."

He goes on to ask, "Is social media The Next Big Thing in our business?"

No, David, it is not the "Next Big Thing." And I have never told you that. Neither have other "nobodies": Holtz, Hobson, Hopkins, Pepper, Gahran, French, Hallett, Weckerle, Wagner, Eggertson, Bickford, Manuel, Albrycht, Gomes, Papacosta, Goldhammer...

If you read us carefully -- if you read us at all -- you'll find we all say something like "Social media is changing internal communication" and "Social media will change internal communication in ways that neither management, staff, or us can fully understand and predict... so let's talk about it."

None of us foresees revolution, upheaval or a New World Order.

But social media does move internal communication:

• Podcasts let managers, editors, team leaders, and colleagues talk and save... and let listeners choose their time to listen. I was often "on the road" for my company, and missed many department meetings... podcasts would have meant I was there and could have responded.
• Weblogs let project email go public. Transparent and thought provoking. Brave employees will blog about their views of management's ideas. Some will be fired. And some companies will thrive on it.
• Wikis: high-end, low-tech knowledge management. Screw Lotus Notes.
• IM: Managers constantly bemoan "around the water cooler chat." When the water cooler is the planet?... suck it up.

Now, none of this is revolutionary. It creeps in, slowly, and we must all adjust.  And it will keep happening.

25 years ago, I got a letter of appreciation from my commanding officer, when I was in US Navy Intelligence, for sending a 100-page fax (we called them "Da-coms" back then, not faxes)  in a 12-hour watch... this had never been done before.

Today, we grin when we see a fax number on a business card... how 'yesterday'... but are you going to tell me that the fax wasn't important to employee communication?

Some of us are talking about it  -- more often, we ask about it.  You're welcome to join in, David, if you want. But since you are -- how to put it? a nobody on the Ragan payroll -- you'll have to come out and play. Will Mark Ragan let you?

Technorati Tags: david murray, ragan communication

Posted by Allan Jenkins on April 6, 2006 at 11:43 AM in Is Tedious in the House? | Permalink

Comments

Hmmm, Allan, somehow I feel like a somebody because I've been included in a group of so-called nobodies. ;-))
There's no denying that social media are changing internal comms...slowly...but it's happening.

Posted by: donna papacosta | Apr 6, 2006 1:18:48 PM

Hey, Allan:

How come when you want to take a swing at David Murray, you also have to hit me in the side of the head? I never called you a nobody. I would never call anyone a nobody.

I'm in Helsinki right now, as I write this. 30 minutes ago, I just finished a four-hour seminar on Social Media at the Nokia Headquarters. They're doing some cool things with blogs and other social media . . . and it was a great four hours.

I like all the social media stuff. I agree that IS changing how we communicate. At Nokia, a top executive who is new to the company is doing a blog titled, "My first 100 days at the company," and it's getting great feedback and comments.

And other people are blogging their brains out over here, and it's terrific to watch.

So I'm on your side, my brother. And I think it's actually changing internal communications more than you think.

Now . . . about this dinner ten years ago. Was it the one in LA? The first-ever meeting of the Compuserve Forum people?

I don't remember insulting anyone at the actual dinner . . . what I did was write a piece about the entire conference, and had some fun with that dinner (when everyone went around and introduced themselves using their Compuserve id numbers, or some crazy thing like that).

If I remember correctly, everyone got mad about the article, not my behavior at the dinner itself. I mean, I'm rarely rude in person. Hardly ever, in fact. Ask anyone.

Steve Crescenzo

Posted by: Steve Crescenzo | Apr 6, 2006 4:07:04 PM

God save Finland!

No, I meant to say, are you coming through Copenhagen on your way back?

Nokia has a long and well-deserved reputation for adding new technology and thinking to its business, then moving along quietly. I'm struck how often I read "For example, Nokia...." in the business press.

That was the dinner, but it was our fourth, which is why it probably seemed new to you. And, yes, you were rude.

But I've been rude lots of times since then-- just ask David Murray.

Posted by: Allan Jenkins | Apr 6, 2006 4:28:27 PM

No, no stopovers in Copenhagen, much as I'd like to. If we were, I'd buy you a coffee.

Come on . . . I was rude in person? I was actually rude AT the dinner?? I think not. I think the article caused a big stir, and, as happens, people remember things differently later on, and it somehow became accepted that I was actually rude at the dinner, and not just in the column.

I don't have it in me to be rude in person. And certainly not at an IABC event. And certainly not 10 years ago, when I was a true nobody, and just starting out in the field.

It's an urban myth, my friend. An urban myth. Now, the article in question? THAT was rude. I'll grant you that. But not me. Not in person.

You're making that up.

Steve C.

Posted by: Steve Crescenzo | Apr 6, 2006 4:34:57 PM

'Fraid not, though I must admit I did not sit next to you (well, I did, but only for about five minutes).

But the "girl who brought her time zone with her?" Her wrath started that night, in that restaurant. Which is why my reaction when I saw the article in JECM was the "SayWA!?" the Washington State tourist board would like to excite.

Posted by: Allan Jenkins | Apr 6, 2006 7:02:47 PM

Well, I guess we've really made it as a profession when we start slagging each other in print (or pixels as the case may be).

Makes sense, I guess - when we write for our employers and clients we have to be unfailingly polite.

Posted by: Tim Hicks, lapsed ABC | Apr 6, 2006 7:42:55 PM

Allan:

Great post and great insight ... especially the part about none of us really knowing where we're headed.

In fact, the more I blog, the more I believe blogs might have a bigger impact on internal communications than they do on external, or marketing, communications.

These discussions do have value as we are all learning from one another ... at the very cusp of change. David Murray and Ragan would do well to be a part of the conversation.

Posted by: John Wagner | Apr 6, 2006 8:08:32 PM

John:

I couldn't agree more. I think blogs are going to have a bigger impact internally as well. Just got back from dinner with the Nokia folks . . . if they are any indication, social media is going to change the way companies communicate.

Granted, Nokia is a little ahead of the curve . . . but more and more companies I go into as a speaker or consultant are starting to get it.

And it's happening fast, too. When I started my master class seminar last year in September, the section on blogs was like a glimpse into the future for a lot of people.

Now, I'm getting e-mails from someone every week who has taken the plunge. The Tipping Point is upon us.

Steve C.

Posted by: Steve C | Apr 6, 2006 8:41:23 PM

P.S., Allen:

But your post also points to the inherent weakness of blogs. No accountability for accuracy. Little or no fact checking. The fact that it's so easy to slam someone online.

You went from basically saying I was a drunk (I assume that's what you meant by the euphemism "overly tired")slob who "insulted everyone I could" at the dinner, to admitting that you didn't even sit by me, and that you're mostly basing your facts on the impressions of one woman, who I poked fun at in the article, and who has hated me ever since, apparently.

And I wasn't even rude to that woman in person. She may have said I was, but I remember it very well. She got pissed about the article, not about my behavior that night. And when she got pissed about the article, she turned it into something else.

One question, and I beg you to be honest: Was I rude to you?

And that is a problem with external blogs: You can say whatever the hell you want to . . . . which is great, until other people's reputations are involved.

There isn't a newspaper columnist in the world who could get away with writing what you wrote: alluding to me being drunk, saying I was rude to the entire room, etc. etc. They'd be hung by their mouse cords.

But with blogs? Anything goes . . . . . and, while that can be refreshing most of the time, it can also be dangerous.

Steve C.

Posted by: Steve Crescenzo | Apr 6, 2006 8:50:11 PM

John, we are a part of the discussion. I write and publish about blogs and blogging constantly, and as I said in The Editor's Letter That Roared, I'm very much hoping to see evidence of a fundamental change in the business, be it caused by social media or any other force.

It's just that, out here in the blogosphere, I see much more heat in the form of an insiders' "we get it, you don't" attitude, than light from actual practitioners whose own communication programs and corporate cultures are being transformed by social media.

As I said in the Editor's Letter Heard Round the Blogosphere (not written for bloggers, but rather, everyday communication pros), I'm looking for evidence on the ground--evidence beyond single vehicles like the "First 100 days" CEO's blog that Steve describes. (That's a cool idea; but Michael Dell was doing a kind of internal blog five years ago and this kind of "first 100 days" communication has become standard operating procedure at big companies.)

I'm looking for pieces with themes like, "how I got employees blogging and changed the communication culture around here" ... or "why I canceled the employee magazine and invested all the money in social media for employees" ... or "what IS the role of the internal communication 'manager' in an unmanageable social media environment?"

In the 500-Word Screed That Got the Attention of the Blogging World Like Nobodies' Business, I do not say social media isn't important. I say: Show me (and my readers) how it's transforming our business and how we can all take advantage.

In any case, I think I speak for Mark Ragan when I say we "closed-system" publishers, as we've been referred to, not only want to be part of the conversation, we ARE a part of it, even from behind the protection of the paywall.

David Murray

Posted by: David Murray | Apr 6, 2006 8:54:08 PM

Nice comments on the social media side, Allan and Steve. I think Shel Holtz's recent comments about adding digg-like features to intranets is one example of the huge potential of online tools to help people find and share information among a group.

Just for the record, I never suggested Allan isn't rude.

Posted by: Eric Eggertson | Apr 6, 2006 9:21:28 PM

No, David, you aren't a part of the conversation. You write, Ragan prints, and the rest of us talk about it.

Come out and play, David.

Posted by: Allan Jenkins | Apr 7, 2006 12:48:32 PM

I have no comment, because I'm nobody :-)

Posted by: Josh Hallett | Apr 7, 2006 5:02:30 PM

David ... I would agree with you 100 percent. At this juncture, there is a great deal more heat than light.

I think we are all just talking to each other, and waiting for the shoe to drop.

At some point, I believe it will, and I believe it is more likely to happen via internal communications than external. I'm beginning to think that blogs as marketing tools are either just wishful thinking or way ahead of the times.

Until then, we are learning as we go, and there's still a great deal that we don't understand. Hence the navel-gazing and lack of real results you mention.

Posted by: John Wagner | Apr 7, 2006 9:46:48 PM

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