*Note: This is a cross-posting of a post I wrote for AdFarm. Check it out here.

For some companies, social networks are kind of like monsters under the bed. Instead of thinking about the great upsides, these folks worry about over-sharing by employees, losing control over intellectual property, damaging their brands, losing productivity, fielding sensitive questions, unleashing embarrassing secrets and all manner of other bumps in the night.

But when you think about it, none of these things are any more of a threat because of social media. They stem from deeper business problems. And deeper business problems make prime fodder for snarky conversations on social networks.

So, while I believe it’s a great idea for every company to have a social media policy and a functioning understanding of the various channels, there are sometimes more pressing matters than choosing the right Twitter handle.

If any of the following apply to you, it might be time to work on something other than your Facebook Fan Page.

1. You’re leaky

If your company holds onto private information as well as a sieve holds onto water, the problem might be your employee training or internal security practices.

Journalists will tell you most of the whistleblowers and leaks they talk to are people who feel they’ve been silenced or punished for disagreeing with something they find objectionable. Fixing the problem might be as simple as training employees and managers on how to better voice and field complaints. It might also mean fixing what I call confidentially overload – or overusing confidentiality and secrecy to the point where they lose their seriousness. Product development memos are confidential. Birthday party memos probably don’t need to be.

2. You create customer service horror stories

If you’re a regular feature on The Consumerist, social media shouldn’t be your top priority. You may want to review your procedures before you start fielding complaints on the public stage. It’s a proving ground everyone can see, so if you say you provide great service, it needs to be a promise you can keep.

Handling customer issues can make or break your brand. And if you do a bad job, you’re undermining all your other efforts. That’s just as true online.

3. You ignore and/or take legal measures against your critics

If this applies to you, you’ll find your entry into social media a bumpy ride. Odds are there’s a flotilla of critics just waiting to take shots at you. And while I think you should absolutely face your critics wherever they may be, you need to figure out how you’re going to do it first.

Letting your lawyers do your dirty work only gives your critics an incredibly effective us vs them story to tell. Half-hearted apologies feel just as fake to those who receive them as to those who give them. Fighting emotion with pure fact works against everything we know about the human brain.

Honest dealings are the second most valuable currency online. The most valuable is reputation, and you’re not going to make a very good one if you can’t deal with disagreements.

Anything else?

Sometimes we all miss the forest for the trees. Take a step back and see if you can think of some other fundamental business problems that prevent companies from finding success in social media. I came up with three. Let’s see how many you can come up with in the comments.

Jacob can do horrible, unspeakable things with words. But he’s chosen to use his powers for good, not evil. Follow him @jacobedenfield or contact him directly at Jacob.Edenfield@adfarmonline.com.

Photo courtesy of http://jesshillis.com

Something stuck me today while reading this article on bacterial decision-making. We all need more receptors. Now, that statement doesn’t make a whole lot of sense without the context, so here’s the context:

“As bacteria’s ability to make decisions goes, E. coli is kind of dumb, which makes it easy for researchers to study sensing and information processing — essentially, decision making — in this bacterium,” says Alexandre.

E. coli has only five receptors that direct its decision-making process about movement, while Azospirillum brasilense has 48, making it comparatively much “smarter” in its ability to detect changes in its environments and as a result, to make complex decisions regarding where to move. (via www.ScienceDaily.com)

You see, the article was all about some pioneering research in the understanding of how bacteria make what would best be described as decisions. It’s all based on the input they receive from their receptors. The more receptors, the more information a given bacterium can use to make its decisions.

It’s the most basic form of stimulus-response behavior. But I think we humans can forget what an asset it can be, instead getting all hung up in our fancy-schmancy analysis and reasoning.

If you want to know more about the world, use your receptors. Learn something new that you didn’t know anything about previously. Listen to someone or read something you really don’t agree with. Put your hands in some dirt. Look under the hood of your car. Visit a museum. Take a trip.

Using your receptors will only make you want to use them more. And in a world where everyone’s a specifist and an expert, you’d be amazed how valuable a little bit of general knowledge and experience can be.

Cheers,

jae

If you don’t live under a rock, you’ve likely heard of or visited Mashable. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no better news bureau for the happenings in the social media realm. Mashable articles rack up scads of retweets and Diggs on a regular basis, and the site’s founder, Pete Cashmore, is a regular contributor to CNN Tech. You should definitely check out his most recent article on 2010′s hottest web trends.

Mashable is currently running its third annual Open Web Awards, honoring the best of the social web. And one nominee is giving the agricultural community – and the larger web community – reason to stand up and take notice. Michele Payn-Knoper (@mpaynknoper), agricultural speaker and founder of #AgChat, is one of the final five nominees for Twitter User of the Year.

It’s a nomination well-earned, and as a frequent voter for her, I’ll be thrilled if Michele wins. Her service within the world of agriculture and her role in better connecting producers with consumers make her a worthy recipient. The weekly streaming Twitter chat, #AgChat (Tuesdays 8-10 p.m. Eastern) and its monthly sibling, #FoodChat (Every second Tuesday, same time) are shining examples of one person’s bright idea enriching the lives of many others. Her Gate to Plate blog is also a great read.

Now, in addition to the chance to honor a deserving member of the ag community, there are a few other things we should all take away from this experience:

1. If you still labor under the misapprehension that farmers, ranchers, et al. don’t care about the online world, you’re dead f*cking wrong.

2. If you’re still doubting the value of social media tools like Twitter and Facebook for personal and professional use, it’s time to take another look.

Voting for the Open Web awards is open until December 13th, and you can cast a vote each and every day until then. With that said, I’d ask you to go ahead and put that Facebook or Twitter login info to good use. Click here and cast your vote for @mpaynknoper for Twitter User of the Year. If you want to see why other folks think Michele is a worthy recipient, check out the links at the end of the post.

This is a genuine chance to do something great in service of the business of growing things – and an opportunity to help a deserving recipient beat out the celebs. Don’t forget to take the time to vote every day between now and December 13th.

Cheers,

jae

Nate J. Taylor – The embodiment of service

Ray Prock – Honoring those that motivate us

Jeff Fowle – Why I support Michele Payn-Knoper for Twitter User of the Year

Janice Person – Twitter User of the Year Nominees Includes #AgChat Founder

Eliz Greene – More Than A Speaker! Why You Should Vote Michele Payn-Knoper Mashable’s Twitter User of the Year

Michele Payn-Knoper – Gate to Plate Blog

Here at the AdFarm KC office this morning, some thoughtful person brought in these cool little recipe cards titled Fine Swine-ing.

Prociutto-Balsamic Deviled Eggs

Each one has a great recipe for some pork-tastic dish for entertaining. I tried looking around online for who might be putting these out, but I came up empty-handed.

The recipes looked so good, however, that in lieu of links, I’ll just post them here for your enjoyment. Happy Hog-idays. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Prosciutto-Balsamic Deviled Eggs
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Ready in: 1 hr

Ingredients
-12 eggs
-1/2 cup mayonnaise
-2 tsp white sugar
-1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
-1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
-4 slices bacon
-1/4 cup minced red onion
-1/4 tsp celery salt
-1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions
Place the eggs in a large pot in a single layer and fill with water to cover by one inch. Cover the saucepan and bring the water to a boil; immediately remove from heat and let the eggs stand in the hot water for 15 minutes. Drain.

Cool the eggs under cold running water in the sink. Peel and halve lengthwise. Separate the yolks from the whites, placing the yolks in a bowl. Arrange the egg whites with the rounded side down on a serving platter.

Place the bacon in a large, deep skillet and cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned – about 10 minutes. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate; chop.

Mash the yolks with a fork. Add the bacon, mayonnaise, onion, sugar, vinegar, celery salt and pepper; stir until thoroughly combined. Spoon the mixture into the egg whites. Garnish with parsley.

Hot Ham and Cheese Dip
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 2 hr
Ready In: 2 hr 10 min

Ingredients
-1 lb thinly sliced deli ham, sliced into thin strips
-1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, cut into cubes
-1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
-1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of celery soup, undiluted
-2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
-2 (1 lb) loaves of cocktail rye bread

Directions
In a slow cooker, combine the ham, cream cheese, cream of mushroom soup and cream of celery soup. Stir in the Swiss cheese.

Cover and cook on low until cheese is melted, about two hours, stirring occasionally. Serve on cocktail rye slices.

Brown Sugar Smokies
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Ready In: 30 min

Ingredients
-1 (16 oz) package little smokie sausages
-1 lb bacon
-1 cup brown sugar, or to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cut bacon into thirds and wrap each strip around a little sausage. Place the wrapped sausages on wooden skewers, several to a skewer.

Arrange the skewers on a baking sheet and sprinkle them liberally with brown sugar. Bake until bacon is crisp and the brown sugar melted.

Prosciutto-wrapped Grissini
Active Time: 50 min
Total Time: 3 hr 15 min

Ingredients
-12 thin slices prosciutto di Parma
-12 grissini

Directions
Wrap a slice of prosciutto around upper portion of each breadstick at an angle, slightly overlapping.

Cook’s Note
Grissini can be wrapped 30 minutes ahead and kept, loosely covered, at room temperature.

Blue Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms
Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 33 min
Ready In: 38 min

Ingredients
-3 strips bacon
-6 large mushrooms
-1 Tbsp butter
-1 clove garlic, sliced
-3 oz cream cheese
-1/2 onion, diced
-1/3 cup bread crumbs
-3 oz blue cheese

Directions
Cook bacon strips in a large skillet over medium heat until crispy; drain on paper towels.

While bacon is cooking, remove stems from mushrooms. Set caps aside and chop stems. Add butter to skillet with bacon grease. When melted, stir in mushroom stems, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently until the onions caramelize – about 15 to 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). Spray a small baking dish with cooking spray. Once the onion mixture has reached a deep, rich brown color, place into a blender along with bacon, cream cheese, blue cheese and bread crumbs. Blend on low until ingredients are roughly chopped and evenly combined.

Stuff cheese mixture into mushroom caps and place into prepared baking dish. Bake in preheated oven until bubbly and lightly browned – about 10 to 15 minutes.

Sausage Stuffed Jalapenos
Prep Time: 25 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Ready In: 45 min

Ingredients
-1 lb ground pork sausage
-1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
-1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (Editor’s note: Use Parmigiano Reggiano or other fresh Parmesan, not that clylinder, you savage)
-1/2 cup shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese
-1 lb large fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded
-1 (8 oz) bottle Ranch dressing

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 C). Place sausage in a skillet over medium heat and cook until evenly browned. Drain.

In a bowl, mix the sausage, cream cheese and Parmesan cheese. Spoon about one Tbsp sausage mixture into each jalapeno half. Arrange stuffed halves in baking dishes. Bake 20 min in the preheated oven until bubbly and lightly browned. Serve with Ranch dressing.

Ham and Cheese Puffs
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 15 min
Ready In: 30 min

Ingredients
-2 1/2 oz sliced ham, chopped
-1 small onion, chopped
-1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
-1 egg
-1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
-1/8 tsp pepper
-1 (8 oz) package refrigerated crescent rolls

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients; set aside.

Divide crescent dough into 24 portions. Press into greased miniature muffin cups.

Spoon 1 Tbsp ham mixture into each cup. Bake at 350 degrees F for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Sweet and Sour Ham Balls
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 45 min
Ready In: 1 hr 5 min

Ingredients
-4 eggs, lightly beaten
-1/4 cup chopped onion
-1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs
-2 lb ground ham or pork
-2 (8 oz) cans crushed pineapple, undrained
-1 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 cup prepared mustard
-2 Tbsp cider vinegar

Directions
In a bowl, combine the eggs, onion and bread crumbs. Crumble meat over mixture and mix well. Shape into 1-1/2 in balls. Place in two greased 13x9x2 in baking dishes.

In a blender, combine the pineapple, brown sugar, mustard and vinegar; cover and process until smooth. Pour over ham balls. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F; basting occasionally with sauce.

You know that saying when it rains it pours? Well, it’s never been more apropos.

With economic woes, energy crises, renewable fuel debates, healthcare haggling and climate concerns, it’s not surprising that the importance one of our basest biological needs, water, has been sorely neglected. I’m not immune to the apathy; I was supposed to finish this post more than a week ago.

I guess it makes sense. The price per gallon of water is a pittance compared to what we pay for gasoline or diesel fuel. And for most folks in the U.S. access to water is as simple as turning the tap or spigot. It’s an incredibly important part of our lives completely taken for granted. But just because that’s the way it is doesn’t mean that’s the way it should be.

The U.S. debate about water will be a debate about access and rights. Who has the right to use a certain water source and how can they use it? It’s a tug of war that’s already starting to play out between states and between economic sectors. And the situation is only going to get more severe – because just about every good, service and action has a cost in water. It’s not just showering and brushing teeth. It’s the production, transportation, preparation and sanitation of the food we eat. It’s crucial to production of electricity and manufactured goods. It plays a role in every facet of our biology and our society.

The smart money in agriculture and energy is already looking at ways to make better use of water. Makes sense, as these two sectors are the largest consumers of water, according to a USGS report released in 2000 and updated in 2005. It’s the consumer market that’s lagging.

At O&B, we’re organizing some events to examine our office-wide and individual water use figures. It’s a way to shed light on an emerging issue that will have a profound impact on the markets we serve. And it’s a good way to remind ourselves to appreciate what we have, especially something as fundamental as water, which is a life or death issue for people around the world (See: Lifestraw, the situation in Mexico, MSNBC global shortage predictions, Foreign Policy failed state reporting, this World Bank worksheet).

I’d challenge you all (yes, all ten of you, dear readers) to take a look at the ways in which you use water. I’ll post some helpful links below. If you have suggestions for others, please leave a comment or send them via Twitter.

Water footprint calculator
Water use it wisely
Good magazine
WaterDrop

Cheers,

jae

Last week, messages started showing up in my Twitter stream with a birthday wish from @FarmerHaley (Mike Haley), an Ohio grain farmer and Simmental breeder. The wish: get the hashtag #moo into the top 10 Twitter trends at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, August 2. The reason: bring some much-needed attention to the economic plight of America’s dairy farm families, who are currently losing about 50 cents on every gallon sold at retail due to low milk prices and increasing costs of production.

In case you were unplugged this weekend, @FarmerHaley‘s wish came true! For about eight hours yesterday, #moo was one of the top 10 Twitter trends, rising as high as number 4 by my count.

I chipped in with thanks for my wife’s coffee cream and the wonderful cheeses that make up an enormous part of both our diets. I threw in a couple birthday wishes while watching the news, retweeted some important information while folding laundry and popped off a few tweets of support from the grocery store.

Turns out, about 1,500 other people were doing exactly the same thing. And once #moo started trending, even more people added to its strength with questions about the origins of #moo. California dairyman @RayLinDairy (Ray Prock) did a marvelous job getting inquisitive folks informative links about the trend and bringing light to the tough situation facing his fellow farmers.

It’s Monday now, and Twitter is mooing a bit less. But that doesn’t mean we should forget what’s happening on dairy farms (or hog farms, or ranches) right now. Support the folks helping feed your world. To read more, check out the following links:

Ray-Lin Dairy
Farm Bureau Voices of Ag
Gilmer Dairy

At the moment, I’m acutely aware of my personal failings. Trying to quit smoking has a way of bringing it out. Maybe it’s all those quizzes they ask you to take to determine your triggers and the things you associate with smoking.

For instance, apparently I:

-Smoke as a pick-me-up
-Smoke as a reward
-Smoke when I’m stressed
-Don’t feel like I’m fully awake until I’ve had a cigarette
-Experience difficulty sleeping if I don’t have a cigarette before bed
-Have difficulty handling stressful situations without cigarettes
-Have difficulty handling boredom or slow points in the day without cigarettes
-Experience intense cravings to smoke before/during/after meal times or coffee
-Experience intense cravings to smoke when drinking alcohol
-Use cigarettes as a way to mark the progress of my day
-Feel cigarettes help my concentration
-Feel cigarettes help me relax

So, if they were grading my quiz, I’d definitely get an A for ADDICTED. (All caps are acceptable in moderation)

I guess that makes sense after more than a decade as a smoker. And, like I said in the beginning, all this time staring one of my biggest, baddest personal faults right in the face has put me in a fairly introspective state of mind. It has also made it really difficult to drag myself out of the doldrums and put together a blog post. Until today.

I got to thinking (a comma and quotation marks denote internal monologue), “What it would be like to live in a world where people confronted, acknowledged and attempted to rectify faults?” More to the point, what would it be like if brands did that?

I read a pretty good post by Peter Madden about taking a long, hard look at his own agency. Read it here. Maybe it was his candor – or the nicotine withdrawal, but either way I got on a tear about how best to handle bad brand behavior.

You could take the Terrell Owens approach, with a nod and a wink to the camera:

Or you could take the overtly scripted, stiff approach taken in so many ignominious public “mea culpas” by politicians and legal-department-approved press releases from corporations. I’m not going to link to any of those because it’s actually painful to read/watch that kind of contrivance.

If you’ve ever done someone wrong, you ought to know the best apology is one that comes with a future change in behavior. If you don’t plan to do that – or if you don’t even feel sorry – why bother apologizing at all?

So, if your company or one of your clients has engaged in some bad behavior, get that apology right. And please, please make sure you don’t do the same thing again.

Cheers,

jae

I’ll admit it. I’ve anthropomorphized a time or two. In any creative profession, it’s an easy fix to ascribe a like mind to an object or creature. It helps make old stories new again or create a more compelling interpersonal narrative where one doesn’t naturally exist (see: Cars, WALL-E, Toy Story, the entire Looney Toons catalogue, the Disney empire, Babe, Charlotte’s Web, California Cheese marketing, Chick-fil-a’s long-running gag and the Honda Fit commercials).

You can see from the list, anthropomorphizing can be helpful. It can be fun. It can be useful.

Most of the things on that list I like, remember and enjoy, save the Disney catalogue. With a younger sister, I watched a crooning Caribbean crab serenade two young lovers one too many times.

But there are a few places where anthropomorphizing shouldn’t be taken lightly. Like the animal welfare debate. For every happy cow, there’s a very unhappy cow nipping at your heels in the Google results.

You see, people are very clever, but our brains are even more clever.

I once took a seminar on Philosophy of the Mind, and we spend a good chunk of time discussing Theory of Mind. Basically, it’s our ability to, by attributing our own self-understanding to another, figure out what he or she may be thinking, what he or she intends to do or what underlying motives the subject may possess. It’s the mechanism that helps you anticipate and respond to questions in a meeting before they’re even asked. It’s what helps us offer helpful advice to a fellow sojourner. It’s the reason you talk to your dog like a baby. It’s the mechanism that allows us to function as a society without coming across as total dullards or feeling as if we have to constantly explain ourselves.

Theory of Mind makes the world work. It’s also what makes it so easy for groups like HSUS to solicit enormous amounts of money with heartstring-tugging ads and so difficult to sell a story of animal care based on sound science. Being a science buff myself, I kinda hate those odds.

By the way, if you’re interested in reading it, you can download the CAST paper from that last link for free. It’s a good read if you’re the type of person who gives a damn about the conclusions of logical, critical minds who study these issues day in and day out.

So maybe it’s a good thing we have a heifer from Wagner farm in North Dakota tweeting her story, following in the footsteps of the first four-legged Twitter star, Sockington.

After all, it should be a hell of a lot easier for good-hearted producers and veterinarians, who spend time around them every day, to write a better story about our anthropomorphized animals than the people with all the bucks but none of the science or experience on their side.

So here’s a call to arms. For all the folks out there with the ability to do so, give a tweet on behalf of your favorite sow, hen, heifer or steer. People want to know what they’re eating, but you have to reach them in a way they’re compelled to pay attention to. All the science in the world doesn’t go half as far as a great narrative that exploits the built-in mechanisms of the brain.

Cheers,

jae

I was picking up some tortillas at the grocery the other day. As I’m surveying the choices (and there are startling number for an item that’s just flour, fat and water), the woman beside me turns and asks what kind of beans she should get for a corn and bean salsa. I say black beans are definitely the way to go because they’re more squishy than the pintos, and a nice offset to the crunchy corn.

She furrows her brow, smirks and points to her Bluetooth headset. I fucking hate those things.

Pardon me, lady, for thinking your eyes looking directly at me while your mouth formed a question implied that question was directed to me.

This is what failure to properly segment looks like to your customers. It’s speaking at, not speaking with, and it makes you seem tone deaf and out of step.

A well-tailored message in the proper venue speaks clearly and unambiguously to the people who need to hear it. Fail to put in the legwork to identify your audience, and you’re just another clueless Bluetooth user shouting questions down a tortilla aisle.

Cheers,

jae

Like anything new, when I bring up Twitter to my clients, I get a lot of sideways glances. Maybe it’s because I look like Hobo Jesus and think operating based on “institutional wisdom” is a contradiction in terms. Or maybe it’s just a healthy skepticism for something that is, for most, largely unproven.

Luckily, I have a few new arrows in my quiver. #IranElection, for instance. In particular, this was the Damascus Road moment for yours truly. Last Friday, sitting in front of my laptop, mesmerized by the wealth of first-hand accounts, photos and video coming my way from Tehran, I realized I was witnessing the world’s newest news bureau. Now couple that with the very public #CNNfail shaming at the same time.

Along with very productive tweetchats like #agchat and a very cohesive community of plugged-in ag professionals crystallizing and growing every day, this is a party that’s not to be missed. It’s a chance for genuine connection and a chance to add and share value. That’s something you can’t achieve with a print ad, a corporate Web site or a shiny TV spot. All those tactics still have an important place in a marketing mix, and they’re great for raising the profile of a product or issue, but when it comes to mobilizing people, engaging people and having a connection to your stakeholders, it’s time to jump into Twitter with both feet.

If you don’t think your audience members are there yet, I have news for you – many are. At the very least, they’re waiting for an invitation. Encourage that direct dialogue, and you’re providing a service to your organization and the people you hope to reach.

For now, Hobo Jesus is going to keep pushing the issue. Because I won’t be happy with my job performance until I start seeing follow notices from some familiar names.

Cheers,

jae