Marcia Conner is a partner at Altimeter Group and the co-author of “The New Social Learning.” She blogs at http://learnativity.com/ and tweets as @marciamarcia.

The book is a good read for anyone interested in learning more about how companies can leverage social technologies and tools to become, well, better companies. I asked Marcia a few questions to go deeper into some of the topics on the book, and here’s what she kindly had to say.

1. If social learning is truly a competitive advantage, how can companies that are late to the game differentiate and compete?

The competitive advantage doesn’t come from the technologies themselves associated with social learning. It comes from the expertise and perspective your people have today that’s often never shared with anyone or put to use in the organization. Social media tools can provide venues for people to connect in ways they hadn’t before, differentiating an organization by the quality and brainpower of their people who now can build new approaches together that they couldn’t before.

2. In today’s culture of sharing, does it make sense for companies to publicly display real-time information about how they are performing and how consumers are talking about them on the social web?

Customer perception — heck, even employee perspective— has been posted on bulletin boards and user group meetings for years. If you don’t believe that, google your company then read 10 or even 20 pages into the search results to see all of the places where you’re talked about now. The trouble with many of those venues is that they are only from a narrow slice of your customers, often without additional insights from people within your organization who have additional information. By engaging with those people in those spaces… or better yet, creating venues for a healthy conversation about what you are doing right and what you need to improve upon, you are far more likely to learn from people’s experiences and correct misperceptions and give people with alternative (and possible more favorable) views a chance to weigh in too.

3. What is needed to inspire and create change at companies with an “anti-social” culture?

I’ve worked with many organizations who consider themselves anti-social because their work is either solitary or senior leadership is very button up… or because middle-management has instilled a sense of fear in the ranks that talking with one another is grounds for dismissal. Each of these needs to be addressed slightly differently.

In the first situation, find bright spots where people are working together and learning from one another despite their individual paths. Use these as exemplars to find more opportunities to cross-pollinate ideas and build relationships between shifts, in common areas, or across online communities where people can congregate in the little moments between other tasks.

If senior leaders are modeling behavior that doesn’t appear to be social, and yet they are interested in fostering a more socially oriented culture, ask them to demonstrate some of the relationship work they do behind the scenes. Perhaps they are active in a community organization where they show a different side of their personality. Encourage them to participate in online social networks where they can be their introverted selves but in a more open and engaging way. Find ways to help them show a side that is committed to working in different ways.

And in the last situation, where there is a fear-based culture because people in the middle feel social is contradictory to productivity, work with senior management to reiterate the disconnect with the larger vision of a more social culture. Actively eliminate roadblocks in people’s path to work together by publicly changing rules and policies that stymie collaboration—and adopting ways of working that more accurately support people’s natural tendencies to learn from one another. You might not, at first, get the buy in or support of people who have been silenced for a long time but you will get newer hires to work in engaging ways, and that alone has the power to shift culture in less time than forcing people to work in ways they don’t believe will be well received.

 I’ve conducted collaborative culture audits with dozens of organizations and almost all of them at first showed an inclination to distrust anyone overly social or relationship oriented. Over time, with specific steps and activities, often with the assistance of easy to use and mobile social technologies, they each became more mindful of what social really means (interacting to get work done) and saw it as an opportunity rather than something to avoid.

4. From SharePoint and LotusLive to SocialText and SocialCast, enterprise collaboration platforms within the firewall are getting quite advanced. What key elements are important when considering these and which do you think is the leading product today?

Each enterprise collaboration tools you mention has pros and cons, environments where they are better suited than one of their competitors, so it would be shortsighted to say one is the leading product today. Having said that, though, I believe it’s important for organizations to carefully consider their culture, their resources, their objectives, and the gaps they are trying to bridge when making a decision on the right tools for their environment. Are they looking for an on premise solution because they have the people to manage the systems? Would a SaaS implementation free people up to focus on business processes and making strides in workforce productivity? Do workers expect one interface where they can access every type of information flow or will they be comfortable using different tools for different activities? These are the types of questions organizations should consider when discerning what’s best for them.

5. What role do executives have in social learning? Do they only provide direction or should they lead by example?

Executives are learning today socially whether they recognize that or not. They learn from their management teams, from fellow executives in other companies, and from being active members of the world around them. While they provide direction to others, if they don’t demonstrate to those that work with them and for them that learning and relationship-building are important, they can undermine their guidance and miss a critical opportunity for people to learn from them too.

6. There are many monitoring tools out there, but they often lack in engagement, social CRM, and analytics capabilities. Do you think they will expand into these areas or will the industry remain fragmented for a while?

Organizations are often so trapped in their fear that relationship-building is anti-productive that they haven’t even begun to consider some analysis of the payoff from those engagements might prove otherwise. This becomes a chicken and the egg dilemma. Organizations are expecting analytics and useful measures of the gains made by working together… and because that level of monitoring isn’t yet widely available, leaders continue to focus on what they fear will happen. Until social technology vendors, on their own, deliver measurement capabilities (and ways to put those metrics into context that proves meaningful, not just numbers for counting’s sake) and up the conversation about the deep change these tools can create, the industry will remain fragmented and there will always be an err of mystery about the value of these tools.

7. In terms of Social Analytics, what should companies with social presences be measuring?

Organizations using social technology to connect people within their ecosystem should, at the least, measure four things:

1) Initiative (how many people logged in)

2) Persistence (how many people came back, presumably because they found value)

3) Connection (how the network expanded)

4) Technology Transition (fewer documents sent across email, for instance).

These four measures will demonstrate to those needing numbers to perceive value that change is underway. It will also begin to create conversations about the usefulness of legacy practices and the multiplier effects of expanding relationships.

The transparent nature of social media makes it easier to measure what’s going on because it can be observed and tracked. For instance, you can analyze what people are searching for and map what they find. You can analyze not only where people go with their social tools, but also how they get there, how long they stay, and what they do when they are there. Although this does not verify the transfer of knowledge or skills, it is a pretty good indication.

The next level of measurement look at functional outcomes rather than simply asking, “Did they engage?” There is little value to the organization if people don’t apply what they take in—put into practice what they learn and how their decisions have been informed. The best measures go the next step to connect using new skills and knowledge with how they affect measures such as the bottom line.

8. By 2014, aprox half of the workforce will be Millenials. Many such Millenials have grown up with video games like Halo, Counter Strike and World of Warcraft. How can companies introduce gaming mechanisms to encourage collaboration and learning?

Children and animals don’t play because they have free time. They play to move through developmental stages and to learn from one another how to interact and how to grow strong. With that knowledge, organizations can introduce more playful practices — be it pool tables in break rooms or races to see which team can come up with more novel ideas to vexing organizational problems. Video games can be introduced in leadership development, customer service training, and even program bug hunts to extend those practices and connect with young workers who enjoy games. Just don’t convince yourself that video games are required to engage a young workforce. Playful, interesting, meaningful work, where people can learn new things and connect with people around topics that matter to them will retain them for a long time.

9. It seems “immersive environments” like Second Life have lost some of the appeal from some years ago. Why is that?

Social tools these days are getting lighter and more mobile, being used to augment work, not as the activity itself. Many of the virtual immersive environments still require a great deal of processing power and big displays that don’t fit easily in a purse or a pocket. This means that the tools providers are either going to need to create an even more captivating and compelling reason to use their tools—or they are going to need to find ways to miniaturize the experience or find ways to take it with you through projection or augmented environments.

10. Should social learning be led by cross-division teams or should it be ”owned” by a specific division/group?

The idea any group or cross-division team can own social learning is like asking one department to be responsible for organizational health. The only people who can own social learning are the individuals who themselves are learning each day, from one another, based on their work and in the flow of work. One department can set strategy and review tools, and even document and advertise healthy social learning practices, but at the point when they give the impression it is their responsibility to manage the learning, they step back in time to an age when we thought training (or knowledge management, or human capital development, or..) was a discreet set of activities and events that could be turned on and off like a light switch. Rather, learning and collaboration are ongoing actions taken by individuals in concert with one another to produce something greater than anyone alone could create. And that is owned by (and directed by) every individual all of the time. Remove the obstacles in people’s paths to do what is hardwired into their DNA—to learn together to grow strong—and you’ll find it creates healthy organizations where social learning is their lifeblood.

I recently participated as a panelist on a webinar titled “Your Brand Advocates- How to Find Them and What They Are Worth,” along with Kety Esquivel (from Ogilvy), Rob Fuggetta (from Zuberance), and Frank Eliason (on his last day at Comcast — he’s now with Citi). We talked about what a brand advocate is, and how brands can identify and energize them. Here are my slides along with a few thoughts and tips.

Brand advocates, at their core, are people who really like and care about a brand. They are the opposite of critics because they’re out there talking about the brand and recommending it to their friends  (aprox 150 if they’re sharing those recommendations online, according to Forrester). What they say actually resonates with others because there is a trust between friends and connections. These brand advocates cannot be bought, forced or created, so others perceive them as genuine fans of the brand.

Brand advocates are brand advocates because they’ve had good experiences with a brand and they are willing and able to share some enthusiasm. Of course, brand advocates aren’t always positive and they aren’t always the most vocal or social (as we might assume they are). They do expect the best from you… and that is a good thing.

Anyone representing a company in social media should seek to connect with this special group of passionate and supportive customers. Once you find one (yes, one is a big deal), try to develop and nurture a relationship. If you’re passionate about your company and its products/services (as I happen to be at Samsung), then this should be easy and natural for you. Help them connect with other fans and try to provide them with valuable and memorable experiences (that can be anything from good on-going conversations to content they actually might want to watch/read). Whatever you do, don’t take advocates for granted (regardless of how connected or influential they might seem).

Not sure what to think yet? Here are some stats if that’s your kind of thing:

McKinsey & Company has found that 2/3rds of the economy is influenced by personal recommendations. Zuberance says that a brand advocate may help provide 5 to 7 times more economic value than the average customer. Keller Fay Group has found that consumers mention 56 brands in conversation per week. According to Weber Shandwick, 1 in 3 people come to a brand through a recommendation, and according to Bain & Company, the most recommended company in any given category grows 2.5x the category average.

So, does anyone care about your brand enough to proactively and genuinely talk about it with friends? Are you ready to be an advocate yourself and join the conversation?

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on this blog are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of Samsung.

Here are videos of the Q&A at the Corporate Social Media Summit in NYC last week. Some of the questions asked were around the role of a Social Media Manager, Foursquare for brands, Twitter follower management, and how to be customer-centric when a community continues to increase in size.

There is also one video with questions by the guys at Served Fresh Media.

 Check out the slides and videos from the presentation here.

 DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on this blog are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of Samsung. Posts by contributors reflect their personal opinions and not those of their employers.

Here are the slides and video for my presentation about Samsung’s Customer-Centric Approach to Twitter and Social Media at the Corporate Social Media Summit in NYC.

For videos on the Q&A, please click here.

You can follow Samsung USA @samsungtweets and follow me @samsungesteban and @socialnerdia.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on this blog are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of Samsung. Posts by contributors reflect their personal opinions and not those of their employers.

You probably already heard about the fake @BPGlobalPR Twitter account that was created to criticize the tragic BP oil spill. The account pretends to be an official BP handle, and with a mere 138 tweets, it already has aproximately 85K followers (and it has been listed by 2095 users!) in just a few days.

Of course, the AdAge article and other media have helped spread awareness of the account, but the reason for its speedy rise in followers is mostly due to the severity of BP’s oil spill combined with the the cleverness and relevance of the tweets.

Humor goes a long way when it comes to Twitter. Fake accounts like this one are created all the time, but they rarely make much of an impact. We’ve seen fake Twitter accounts for everything from presidents dictators (ie. @ChavezCandanga_) to Star Wars characters (ie. @DarthVader), but the most effective ”fake” Twitter accounts are often parodies (ie. @BogusBogusky, @ChuckNorris_ @Nick_Nolte) or created by actual fans (ie. @PeggyOlson and maybe @BadPeggyOlson). However, @BPGlobalPR is going against BP with intelligence, and dare I say it.. strategy?

I have no idea who is behind this @BPGlobalPR account, but I wouldn’t be surprised if another “fake” Twitterer like @michael_bay was doing it.

BP has decided not to go after the rogue account, at least for now, and I applaud this because they have decided to focus on communicating through their real account @BP_America and seem to be doing a very good job there despite the huge challenge they are facing. (Update: The @BP_America account was recently hacked for a short time.)

BP could’ve easily asked Twitter to suspend the @BPGlobalPR account soon after it was created, as most companies would’ve done, and as CNN and Megan Fox probably did with @cnnbreaking and @the_megan_fox, respectively. I guess BP could try to reach out to the creator(s) to try to make some peace, but who knows whether much would come out of doing so.

So where does a fake @BPGlobalPR account with a potentially serious, long-term agenda go from here?

Some fakers like @stephentcolbert, with an impressive 96K followers, seem to be trying to profit from their clever tweets through Ad.ly ads. Of course, independent Twitter ad networks are on the way out so @stephentcolbert better have a book something in mind because his ad.ly tweets are not going to keep paying for the broadband connection.

Unless suspended, the @BPGlobalPR account will likely stay open for a long time. And what about spreading itself to other social networks? Well, they seem to have recently opened a fake Facebook Page.

The Facebook Page only has 8 fans at this point, but with several comments (spammy ones) on Mashable’s FB posts, I’m sure other people will start to “like” the FB Page.

(Update: Looks like there is a another “BP Global PR” Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/BPGlobalPR and that one has 315 fans.)

One thing is for sure: The @BPGlobalPR account will be remembered as one of the most toxic (very sorry for the pun) cases to remember when considering a crisis response plan. It’s become quite obvious that every company needs a very integrated approach to PR, customer service, and social marketing so everyone should consider the worst of the worst when it comes to getting prepared. We should also pay close  attention to the way that companies like BP, Nestle, United, Domino’s, and others have reacted in difficult times. Learn from those who have been proactive, those who have responded quickly, and those who have extended heartfelt apologies.

More importantly, we should not point a finger at the companies that have failed to respond effectively because as real-time communication becomes the norm and as lurkers become “critics” and “creators”… this could easily happen to any company or person for any kind of problem or crisis. If you think you’re immune because of the industry you’re in or the history you’ve had, it’s time to let go of your complacency because we live in a brave new social world that can be quickly changed by anyone with an Internet connection.

If you’re reading this, you’re a human being. A person with feelings, thoughts, joys, passions, fears, etc. All companies are made up of humans; people just like you and I. Sure, you can automate much of what a company does, you can hide it behind buildings and legal terms and conditions. You can even use technology instead of people to make them more efficient, effective, and easier to manage. But, deep down, every company is comprised of people.

If you’re reading this, you’re also a “customer.” The word is not as exciting as “people” because none of us want to be seen as mere “buyers” of things. Still, we are all customers because… we buy things.

So if we’re all humans and we’re all customers, companies could act a bit more like people, right? And they could see all customers a bit more like, well, people. Humanizing a company or brand is not making it less powerful; it’s simply realizing that without the human beings working there and without the human beings purchasing things/services, such company would not be much more than a bunch of tangible and intangible things that would eventually rot.

I bring this up because the rise of the Internet and real-time conversations have forced many companies to be much more human, and that’s a good thing. Still, companies need to WANT to be more human. The power of apologizing is one example of how a company can be more human.

Apologizing does at least four things: First, it acknowledges the harm done. Second, it shows your humility and expresses respect and appreciation. Third, it opens up the door for forgiveness. And finally, it provides the opportunity to change.

Companies make mistakes. Just like customers need to better understand that companies are not perfect, companies need to understand that such imperfection needs to be acknowledged. Mistakes can be hidden and ignored, but sooner or later, someone will point them out.

So the acknowledgement of mistakes is a good start, but it should not be the final outcome. Impressions, visits, rankings, awards, or even sales, I’m afraid, should not be the end either. The end should be a new beginning: Learning from mistakes and actually doing something about them reduces the likelihood of making mistakes in the first place.

People will forgive companies for their wrongdoings. They really will. But just as when a person does you wrong, we all tend to forgive more often and more fully when there is an apology. And more importantly, as with all relationships, change is required for the relationship to truly be strengthened.

Sure, anyone can market the idea of change, but I’m not talking about self-promotion, PR or TV commercials showing off how sorry you are. I’m talking about saying sorry, in private and/or in public, and then doing something to change the root cause, even if it starts with baby steps.

Being in a field (social media + marketing) where people constantly demand perfection from you and often point out the imperfections of your company (and your own), it is often easy to get a bit thick skinned. And that thick skin is good to have at times because it is not always easy to take it all in. The fact is that there are some people that simply like to complain and they will never be satisfied.

But, having a permanent thick skin shows what you truly have: indifference. Having an real DESIRE to recognize mistakes, apologize (in real-time if possible), learn from what happened, and become better (as soon as possible) shows that you CARE. Caring beats indifference every single time.

No matter what you do for a living, make sure you care about the people you interact with and that you apologize when you have to. You may not always be able to apologize or you may not be allowed to do so, but make sure you care deep down.

As long as you care, you will be able to build strong relationships, and you will be able to make yourself and your company better. Never settle for what you are right now, and never settle for how you’ve done things in the past. You can always be better and you can always try harder.

Care more, try harder, and say sorry when you’ve realized you haven’t cared or tried enough. The rest may be out of your control, but you will definitely see the fruits of genuinely apologizing to your customers, apologizing to your fans, apologizing to your followers, apologizing to your enemies, apologizing to your frienemies, apologizing to your friends, apologizing to your family, and apologizing to yourself.

Saying sorry is not a weakness; it is much more powerful than you think.

I’ve been thinking about the idea of crowdsourcing a lot this year. Last month, I wrote about giffgaff’s unique approach of crowdsourcing not just marketing and R&D, but also customer service. And, for the 33rd and last “The Social Nerdia Show!“ of 2009, I spoke with Robbie Hearn, the Chief of Member Experience at giffgaff to learn more about how this MVNO from the UK operates. Prior to joining company, Robbie was Head of Retention at Be Broadband, a O2/Telefonica subsiduary where he first realized just how powerful it was for a company to have a very engaged community.

Listen to the entire conversation with Robbie on the Flash player below. You can also subscribe to us on iTunes, stream from mobiles on Stitcher, and listen to upcoming shows LIVE on blogtalkradio.

giffgaff officially launched on Nov 23rd. “The project as a whole started to take form 9 months ago,” Robbie told me. “It’s gone from nothing to full launch in that period of time, which is very quick for a mobile company.” At first glance one might assume that giffgaff is just a regular MVNO, but giffgaff is truly changing the way a mobile company interacts with its customers.

I asked Robbie to explain what makes giffgaff so unique. ”We see a need and a gap in the market for a new model. We’re what we call people-powered,” he said. “In essence, we’re trying to really leverage all the great new trends and technologies around crowds; we want to engage our members more than any other mobile network in the UK.” Unlike other companies that try to control everything related to their brand, giffgaff lets its ‘members’ interact with the company and with each other online, and allowing them to be part of the company’s “marketing, R&D, and customer service; recruiting members and especially helping answer questions.”

Crowdsourcing Customer Service

Thanks to Wikipedia and companies like Doritos and Starbucks, we’ve all come to know about various forms of crowdsourcing, especially when it comes to marketing and R&D. But crowdsourcing customer service? Now that’s a new idea.

“Crowdsourcing customer service is almost like a misnomer. You don’t need a huge crowd, just a small group that’s absolutely motivated by helping other people; they are the super users,” Robbie told me. ”We don’t have a call center,” he added. “You go online, you type in whatever question you have, and the integrated search identifies an answer based on information giffgaff has submitted as well as information provided by users on the forum.” 

That sounds like what many of us have done in web forums and message boards, but the fascinating thing about giffgaff is that its model of rewarding engaged members allows for quick resolutions to all kinds of problems. ”What we want your experience to be like is to be quickly answered by another member, and interact with that person.” So far, according to Robbie, every question has been answered in the forum; not one has been escalated (questions get escalated after 20 hours without a response), and the top ‘super user’ is getting close to reaching 1000 minutes on the web site (if he hasn’t already).

I asked Robbie if we could call this ‘Social Customer Service,’ but he did not like the idea very much. “To me, I just think that sticking social at the start of everything has made it lose its meaning a little bit.” He then compared adding the word “social” to customer service to adding an “i” (as in iPod) to a product.

There are times in which the crowds won’t be able to help giffgaff customers. “If you really need to, you can actually contact a giffgaff agent that will reply to your query,” Robbied explained. ”I don’t believe you can rely 100% on crowdsourcing for every customer service problem because there are always things like billing or credit card information that are not suitable for public forums.”

The giffgaff Culture

As you might imagine, giffgaff’s culture is pretty unique too. Robbie described the people there as “very passionate about what they’re doing.” He said that going to work is fun for the team and they all “believe in the idea behind the project.” Sure, they’ve all worked really long hours, but Robbie assured me that it has been “very rewarding..  it’s not often that you get a chance to make things happen the way you want them to happen.”

In order for the low-cost giffgaff model to work, the company is running the way a start-up should. In addition to not having to invest in infrastructure (they are MVNO after all), “there are only 14 permanent employees.. we outsource everything possible, we use second-hand desks, and keep costs down wherever we can.” Low prices and member rewards, and of course profitability, depends on the company keeping costs down so I asked Robbie if he worried about users eventually not helping each other out. ”The model is already working. I’m not too worried about the costs running out of control,” he responded.

Brilliant Marketing and The Cuddle Monster

“We really want to give people a chance to get involved. We have a tiny budget by wireless company standards. We’re not going to do TV, etc. We’re trying to use creativity and letting others create videos for us,” Robbie said.  The “tool hire” campaign encourages people to make videos with “tools” that giffgaff actually ships to them and the community gets to vote for a winner. The cuddle monster, one such “tool,” is a 5-person monster outfit. As Robbie put it, ”it’s cold, everybody is in recession, who wouldn’t want a cuddle from a 5-person monster?”

Leading Member Experiences

Robbie first saw the power of having a strong community when he worked at Be Broadband, which he described as having an “open and transparent model, with a really engaged community.” Robbie got to know Be Broadband’s customers quite well, often running weekly calls with some of the most engaged customers, including gamers, to talk about their views about the service and the company.

After Be Broadband was acquired by O2/Telefonica, Robbie was asked to join giffgaff as their Chief of Member Experience. ”I’ve tried to explain to my mom what that means and even my friends don’t always understand what I do,” he joked about his role with the company. There are two main areas that Robbie leads, member service and CRM.  Everything that happens to a member, everything they experience and feel as a customer, is under his jurisdiction. He is responsible for setting up the community aspect of the site and all the messaging that goes out customers from the time they sign up.

Looking Ahead

I asked Robbie about any international expansion plans. “I’m a big fan of keeping things focused and making sure they work first. But, we do see potential or this working in othe countries and other industries. We would love it if giffaff went global.”

Regarding where he would like to see giffgaff in a year, Robbie said he would want to see a thriving community with very engaged super users. “I would also love to see innovations based on ideas generated by the community. With great ideas like a “people-powered call centers,” the giffgaff community is already coming up with great stuff.

“People love to communicate, we’re just facilitating something that people really want to do and trying to not get in the way as it has happened in traditional wireless companies.”