09 August 2011

Social Media: Lip Lock or Lip Service?

Social Media is the latest marketing porn from enterprise communication and contact center vendors designed to titillate users’ pocketbooks.  But unlike other business tools, social media enables us to see if the propagandists are users or insincere shills.  Put another way, should users place faith in the recipes of those who don’t cook?
What got me started was a June 15th Avaya webcast where Jorge Blanco (Product Marketing VP for Contact Center) gave a talk about the need for social media adoption by contact centers. He ended 15 minutes early and took no questions from the audience.  After I Tweeted this, he answered offering to answer any questions I had.  My response:  “@av_jblanco My first question may be why do I have a larger Twitter presence than someone trying to enlist customers into Social Media?”  (Blanco’s total Twitter usage as of that day – 17 Tweets, 63 Followers, 15 Following.)  Not surprisingly, my question went unanswered.  In the meantime Blanco has changed his Twitter handle but stands at a measly 22 Tweets, 62 Followers and 32 Following.  His last Tweet was July 14 and his Tweets are locked.
Before you think this is a Blanco Bash, he is not alone in not practicing what he preaches.  It turns out that social media usage is sporadic among “thought leaders.” But shouldn’t thought leaders by definition be leading, not abstaining? 
Methodology
Since every other word out of these “guru’s” mouths is Twitter or Facebook, I checked Twitter usage by senior executives, key management and selected analysts within the enterprise communications market as of August 7, 2011. I have concentrated on those vendors with significant contact center portfolios as this appears to be the niche where social media product integration is centered.
 Because every vendor has Twitter accounts run my marketing/advertising/PR departments, I have ignored those.  I have also ignored the product managers and marketers. What I’m measuring is the usage of the tools by those preaching from podiums, webcasts and conference tables.
Alcatel-Lucent
Alphabetically, I’ll begin with Alcatel-Lucent where we see CEO Ben Verwaayen largely absent from Twitter.  This is a very common occurrence as no CEO has a Twitter presence.  But what Mr. Verwaayen does illustrate perfectly is the “moth to the flame” effect of Twitter. While he has an account, he’s sent one Tweet, Follows two but has 121 Followers. If Twitter can be thought of as a stream of consciousness made of many minds, clearly he offers no value to the “conversation,” yet people cling to him.
Charlie Isaacs, who leads eServices and Social Media, illustrates another Twitter effect.  Mr. Isaacs is a smart guy and great to hang around with but there’s no way he can “Follow” 9,187 people with any cohesion.  I conclude that he has Following sub-lists with the rest being courtesy Follows.  But with 9,178 Tweets, he and his 9,611 Followers, clearly “get” what social media can do for personal enrichment and professional goals.
Global Sales Leader Tom Eggemeier also “gets” Twitter with 934 Tweets but like Mr. Isaacs, gratuitously Follows many people.  But he’s in Sales so we forgive him. J
Most surprising is Paul Segre, EVP and President of the Applications Group which includes the Genesys contact center application.  He has no Twitter account that I can find.  Chief Marketing Officer, Nicolas de Kouchkovsky appears to be new to Twitter but has become a semi-regular Tweeter.


Twitter Handle
Tweets
Last Tweet
Following
Followers
Ben Verwaayen, CEO
@verwaayen
1
Oct 28
2
121
Tom Burns, President of ALU Enterprise
@tburnssocial
114
August 6
102
219
Paul Segre, EVP. President Applications Group
None




Charlie Isaacs, eServices and Social Media Leader
@charlieisaacs
9,178
August 7
9,187
9,611
Nicolas de Kouchkovsky, Chief Marketing Officier
@nicolask3
286
August 7
76
204
Tom Eggemeier, Global Sales Leader
@TomEggemeier
934
August 2
1,611
1,746


Aspect Software
Considering contact center is pretty much all Aspect Software does, its Twitter presence is as virtually non-existent as its social media product strategy. Of all the relevant executives, just one has a Twitter account I can find, EVP of Sales Mike Sheridan.  Neither the SVP of Marketing Laurie Cairns (now gone) nor Director of Product Marketing Nancy Dobrozdravic appear on Twitter.  But at least Aspect isn’t hypocritical.


Twitter Handle
Tweets
Last Tweet
Following
Followers
Jim Foy, CEO
None




Mike Sheridan, SVP Sales
@MikeOnUC
1047
July 26
743
950
Michael Regan, SVP Engineering/Technology
None




Nancy Dobrozdravic, Dir Prod Mktg
None






Avaya, Inc.
WW Marketing honcho Chris McGugan has an honest set of numbers with over 1,400 Tweets and realistic numbers of “Followers” and “Following.”  Newish Twitterer, Steve Hardy is also trying to make an honest go of it. But as I noted above, Product Marketing VP for contact centers Jorge Blanco appears uninterested in engaging in what he’s telling customers to buy.  Others in the executive team are dabblers.  This inconsistent showing is especially dissonant given Avaya’s release of Social Media Manager for the Nortel Avaya Aura Contact Center.


Twitter Handle
Tweets
Last Tweet
Following
Followers
Kevin Kennedy, CEO
None




Jorge Blanco, VP Prod Mktg Contact Cntr
@Jorge_R_Blanco
22
July 14
32
62
Lawrence Byrd, Dir of UC Architectures
@LawrenceOfAvaya
114
June 21
83
195
Chris McGugan, VP, WW Mktg - Contact Cntr
@cmcgugan
1,443
July 22
154
500
Steve Hardy, Dir UC Prod Mktg
@steevh
270
July 27
1,055
1,203


Cisco, Inc.
I figured Cisco would be all over social media and they are with Marketing-driven anonymous personas for every type of potential Cisco customer.  However, like other contact center social media solution vendors, their internal Kool-Aid pitcher remains mostly untouched.  CTO Padmasree Warrior is mythical in her numbers of followers.  Unfortunately Cisco’s social media participation by UC and contact center executives is pretty low with Contact Center GM John Hernandez squeaking out just 15 Tweets in 22 months.


Twitter Handle
Tweets
Last Tweet
Following
Followers
John Chambers, CEO
None




Padmasree Warrior, CTO
@Padmasree
8,029
July 21
240
1,397,161
Ross Daniels, Director UC Marketing
@rdaniels1999
204
July 14
157
167
Barry O’Sullivan, SVP Voice Tech. Grp.
@barry0s
68
August 3
1,803
1,272
Laurent Philonenko, VP/GM Cust. Contact
@Laurent08
381
August 7
189
387
Blair Christie, SVP Corp Communications
@BlairChristie
63
July 29
44
600
John Hernandez, GM Contact Center
@ciscojohn
15
August 4
93
80
Michael McNally, VP Software Dev. Contact Center BU
@michaelmcnally
96
May 22
788
363
Alex Romero, Social Media Bus. Analyst
@Arom1000
1,148
August 7
4,141
4,388
Lynn Lucas, Sr. Director Collaboration
@Lylucas
1,042
August 7
101
290


Interactive Intelligence
Everyone’s favorite at Interactive, Tim Passios is the only executive I could find using Twitter personally.  CMO Staples and sales leader Blough don’t appear to have accounts.  Unsurprisingly, it’s the Social Media manager who’s knocking it out of the park in participation.  (It’s always the manager layer that’s really doing the work)


Twitter Handle
Tweets
Last Tweet
Following
Followers
Gary Blough, EVP Sales
No Profile Found




Joe Staples, CMO
No Profile Found




Tim Passios, Dir. Solutions Mktg
@tpassios
617
August 1
91
230
Denise Meyer, Social Media Comm. Mgr.
@DeniseMichelle
1,384
August 4
557
701


Siemens Enterprise
Siemens told the world social media was coming so many years ago that the critical integration was to MySpace!  Their product execution mirrors their executive participation.  We see Eve Aretakis, the senior executive for product development who has re-Tweeted someone else’s thoughts in all but 7 of her 59 Tweets.  The relatively new outside CMO hire, Chris Hummel has just 5 Tweets under his belt.  Contact Center Director Don Greco,  on a panel discussion at EnterpriseConnect for social media in contact centers, doesn’t even have an account.  Oh, and who stood on the podium touting integration with MySpace?  Mister 4 Tweets, Mark Straton (who hasn’t Tweeted in nearly two years).  The lone winner is Adrian Brookes who not surprisingly came from Cisco.


Twitter Handle
Tweets
Last Tweet
Following
Followers
Hamid Akhaven, CEO
No Profile Found




Chris Hummel, CMO
@ch22
5
12/12/2010
10
16
Eve Aretakis, EVP Prod Mgmt & Dev.
@EveAretakisSEN
59
March 30
81
138
Gerald Kromer, EVP/GM Services
@GeraldKromer
67
July 25
12
137
Mark Straton, SVP Marketing
@mstraton
4
11/26/2009
8
46
Paul Lang, VP Marketing
@paulwlang
107
July 21
50
70
Adrian Brookes VP CTO
@abrookesuk
591
August 4
135
234
Paul McMillan, Dir. UC
@bithead001
402
June 21
131
155
Don Greco, Director Contact Center
None found






Analysts
By and large, the analyst community “gets” social media.  They understand that social media used well can generate business but also provide synergistic insights from the communities they maintain.  Obviously there are exceptions. 
Gartner’s UC and Contact Center practices are non-existent with no Twitter account found for Bob Hafner, Steve Blood, Bern Elliot, Drew Kraus and Jay Lassman.  Whether this is a policy or not, the result is the same.  Likewise, old-timers like Marty Parker, Ken Landoline and Jim Burton reflect the aversion of their generation. Their credibility is questionable.  Similarly, I would call out Sheryl Kingstone from Yankee.  She wrote a research report on social media but her own experience is pretty light.  At the other end of the spectrum, we give Vanessa Alvarez our Mavis Beacon award for her stunning 20,968 Tweets!


Twitter Handle
Tweets
Last Tweet
Following
Followers
Brian Riggs, Current Analysis
@brian_riggs
2,262
August 5
364
1,401
Ken Landoline, Current Analysis
@klandoline
0
Never
13
17
Jerry Caron, Current Analysis
No Profile Found




Vanessa Alvarez, Forrester
@VanessaAlvarez1
20,968
August 7
834
5,674
Henry Dewing, Forrester
@hwdewing
283
August 2
98
362
Rob Arnold, Frost & Sullivan
@rob_arnold_ucc
675
August 7
119
562
Elka Popova, Frost & Sullivan
@epopova
1,310
August 7
169
735
Melanie Turek, Frost & Sullivan
@melanieturek
310
March 1
91
557
Audrey William, Frost & Sullivan APAC
@ Audrey_William
785
August 7
174
336
Adrian Ho, IDC
@adrianho11
3,602
August 7
478
583
Christine Bardwell, IDC
@C_Bardwell
1,479
August 7
403
1,164
Maribel Lopez, Ind.
@MaribelLopez
2,544
August 4
521
2475
Sheila McGee-Smith, Ind.
@McGeeSmith
2,921
August 7
360
1,406
Stephanie Watson, MZA
@steffwatson
9,698
August 7
1,219
1,427
Ian Jacobs, Ovum
@ianjacobs
2,061
August 7
476
1,299
Blair Pleasant, UC Strategies / CommFusion
@blairplez
5,035
August 7
984
2,267
Jim Burton, UC Strategies / CT Link
@JimBurton
3
8/31/2009
3
65
Marty Parker, UC Strategies / UniComm
No Profile Found




Don Van Doren, UC Strategies / UniComm
@DonVanDoren
296
May 5
100
307
Nancy Jamison, UC Strategies
@NancyJami
1,118
August 7
476
607
Zeus Kerravala, Yankee
@zkerravala
683
July 21
205
719
Sheryl Kingstone, Yankee
@skingstone
101
July 12
78
392


Summary
And there you have it.  A representative sample of who uses social media and who’s just trying to talk customers into buying  into it.  Given the consumerization of the enterprise, I think it’s more than fair to question vendors' and presenters' use of the tech and toys they’re selling.  In decades past, it was understandable that an analyst or executive didn’t have a PBX running under their desk, but today that’s changing. 
As I have said repeatedly, as an end user exploring a new technology, I’d talk to those who use it and those who have NO vested interest in you buying it. “Do as I say and not as I do” is not a convincing mantra.

5 comments:

  1. Another great post, but I think you miss the point a little on the whole social media culture. Whether or not some big wigs at the contact center vendors use social media is kind of besides the point imo. Who really relates to those guys anyway? But they (rather their engineers, marketers, etc.) understand the importance of social media and that the entrprise contact center can benefit from tie- ins, so to stay relevant and to continue selling their products, they are tying them into these 'consumer' vehicles. I for one am not a huge social media guy, but use it when necessary to fulfill some need on my part, but only a fool doesn't see it's huge popularity. For these UC nendors not to try and exploit that would be foolish.

    It is kind of funny though to see how little the top guys use these products.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the point is that customers should be skeptical of "thought leaders" who don't use the technology they're preaching.

    Why do forums and trade fairs have executives talking about the benefits of something they don't use themselves? Big name with no credibility using others' slides and opinions.

    All hail the "borrowed-thought leader."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good post, thanks for the mention and the kind words. Although, my name is misspelled, and I don't care about that because I am more concerned that my handle is misspelled, should be @charlieisaacs :) I also have a few other handles I started and killed, handed off, suspended, etc. because I let them go when I left my previous company. For some reason they wanted their own branding. So giving some of my colleagues the benefit of the doubt they might be in the same boat. Thanks again

    ReplyDelete
  4. Charlie, sorry for the spelling gremlins. They have been fixed.

    I tried my best to find everyone's Twitter handles, but given Twitter's lackluster search options, I did the best I could also polling friends to see if they were aware. I've since been told that Steve Blood from Gartner has an account but that his tweets are locked (and because it's Gartner, I assume a credit card is needed to access).

    ReplyDelete
  5. If and when I start advising clients on twitter, then I'll be sure to be using it with more vigour. Right now (no pun intended) I don't see why I should be pressed into "joining the club" and "exposing all" for those that feel otherwise. Wonder how it was this 2 month old blog suddenly got reinvigorated? We all use social media, but not all in the same way.

    ReplyDelete