ZN

(This is a cross-post from Steffen’s blog)

Four words I’ve ruthlessly hijacked from a pamphlet I read this week. Four words which neatly explain a significant part of why the way in which organisations operate and communicate is so drastically different now compared to just a few years ago.

How? Power, influence and impact are not necessarily derived from how far up the proverbial food chain you are, but increasingly by how good your network is. The two are often aligned, but often not; someone can build and influence a network without having climbed too far up the traditional ladder. Meaning that the blogger who builds up a huge readership can be as relevant as a mainstream publication; or that the smart lowly employee who engages with the right people online can have as much of an impact on perceptions of his employer as the CEO.

What does this mean for organisations? It’s both a threat and an opportunity. A threat in that it’s harder to keep control if everyone has a megaphone. At the same time, it’s a stunning opportunity. An organisation’s combined talents are far more likely to be shared and harnessed in a world of networks; while an individual’s talent is far more likely to be exposed. Result? Potentially, a more creative, innovative and ultimately successful organisation.

And for the people tasked with communicating on behalf of organisations? Gone are the days of rigid messaging and press conferences. Added to the mix is harnessing the best of what the internal networks have to offer by handing them the mic. Don’t just use your CEO or Comms Director to represent you: use the intern, the engineer, or (even better) the guy who doesn’t actually work for you but loves what you do. Whoever has the best story to tell, frankly. But for communicators, networks go much farther than that. Whatever your sector or issue is, there’ll be a network of people engaging about it online in some way, and you’ll need to make sure you’re listening to what they’re saying and responding to it. That’s how you keep on the ball and avoid communicating in a void; and it’s how you try to make sure you’re engaging with the people who matter even if they’re not in the higher echelons of some hierarchy.

Back to wisdom to get back on track…I was very inspired by the first part of Barry Schwartz speech and was ready to write about why big organizations were not wise and why they did not know how and when to make an exception to every rule, with some juicy cases on guideline compliance. I then went through the entire video and just decided not to do so. His message is much more deep and fundamental than whatever I planed to write and there is much more value just passing the idea. Just take a 20 minutes break to hear a truth you and your company might have lost for a while.

A few months ago, when the crisis/recession started dominating the news in Europe, we tried to understand how these changes would affect our business – that is the business of online marketing.  We shared with you a couple of articles from McKinsey, the Economist and other sources (on this blog and on Ning) that all pointed to the possibility of the trend not affecting the web in a direct way or perhaps even the opposite.

Over the past two weeks I have been observing, first hand, the consequence of this trend in our day to day activities.  I have had a succession of meetings with new clients, sometimes old prospects, who have been very open to the very serious exploration and use of the internet as their core marketing channel for next year.  They all agree on the same thing: traditional marketing has been ‘frozen’ or cut or put on hold completely.  On the other hand they recognize that the web is a comparatively low cost alternative and is measurable.  Many of these companies or individuals have never taking this line before, and I think that it is actually being driven by the environment.

So it seems as if 2009, might be the year of the shift to online that we have been expecting for some time, driven not by hype, but by necessity, experience and an almost inevitable transformation of the marketing landscape.

We have yet to see how far and how deep the transformation will be, but 2009 will probably mark the no return shift to a new marketing structure.  Clearly, this is a very bad time to be in traditional advertising.