by Cathy Brooks (@CathyBrooks, CathyBrooks.com)

This is not another post about the “issue” of why there are fewer women in business and technology. This is a post about doing something about it.

You would think based on coverage, like this article last April in the New York Times and this more recent post in the Wall Street Journal that women had made little to no progress in Silicon Valley.

Hogwash.

To be fair, if we’re talking raw numbers women are still at a disadvantage. There are fewer of us, especially if we’re talking about hands-on, up to your elbows in code technologist work. The numbers on the business side are better, but there still isn’t anything really resembling parity.

My question is: Why on earth should that be a problem? It shouldn’t.

My bigger question is: Can we PLEASE stop complaining and just start doing the work? From the response I’ve heard in the last week to the Wall Street Journal post it would seem the answer to that may well finally be YES!

Sparked by a post penned by Michael Arrington, a litany of women stamped down their collective foot. The time has come to grab the glasscutters and storm the ceiling. Is there chauvenism? Yep. Is there misogyny? You bet. In continually talking about these things, we’re wasting time. I for one am done wasting mine and on Wednesday, September 15 I’ll be joining about 800 other women who feel the same way. The gathering is the third annual WomenWhoTech Telesummit.

Started in 2007 by Allyson Kapin of RadCampaign in response to the lack of opportunities for qualified female speakers, WomenWhoTech takes a decidedly proactive tone in its content. Rather than commiserating about how challenging it is to be a woman, this one-day virtual conference tackles topics like launching start-ups, diversifying founding teams, best practices in open source development and female ferocity as a business asset.*

Speaking about the premise of this Telesummit, Kapin notes that if you wait for the challenges to go away, you’re wasting time. She said, “Sexism … racism … all the ‘ism’s. Are they going to disappear any time soon? Probably not, but if we band together we can address the issues. Instead of being reactive, it’s time to be proactive and productive and become part of the solution.”

Some additional related articles on this subject:

• The perspective from a “real” geek, Leah Culver
• Jon Pincus gathered a great set of links stemming from the recent Arrington/WSJ debate.
• The Geek Feminism blog (penned by a collection of great female and male geeks) offers some reading materials

*Disclosure: Cathy Brooks is moderating the WomenWhoTech panel discussion on female ferocity.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

The competition for attention is focused on social networks as brands vie for awareness and consideration. Establishing a presence in Facebook and Twitter is as necessary as it is trivial. In the great social land grab, many organizations are missing true opportunities to connect with the fifth P of the marketing mix, people. It’s less about communicating with those individuals who are already following you online and more about those who aren’t.

To excel in social media, engagement has its rewards but it is through the acts of recognition, empowerment and reward that advocacy extends a brand’s reach across social graphs and social networks, online and in the real world.

Competing for the Moment: The New Influencer

Transcending visibility into presence and presence into community is the critical path for companies to earn a place in the hearts, minds, words and actions of the very people who define its markets.

In the real-time attention economy that is social media, branding gives way to resonance as recognition is not nearly enough to compete for the moment. Many businesses are focusing time and resources on engagement while others are experimenting with advertising and promotions. What’s clear, is that in social networks, information is not only democratized, it is deafening. For brands hoping to connect value with demand, rising above the noise is critical, but in order to see the effects of a rising tide, it must have a fleet of boats in the water.

Connecting with traditional intermediaries who maintain desirable audiences is one way to stay visible and relevant. Connecting with authorities and tastemakers directly in social networks represents a complementary opportunity to spread the word and apply a sense of endorsement and credibility to the marketing mix.

While the ideas of recruiting respected and connected individuals as brand ambassadors or creating digital street teams isn’t new in social media, it is still highly effective. As social media becomes pervasive, individuals are increasing their digital footprint through every connection they forge. Everyday people are gaining prominence in social networks and as such, a new genre of both audience and spokespersons are rapidly gaining traction.

In June 2007, I joined Chris Heuer, Tom Foremski, JD Lasica, Cathy Brooks, iJustine, Frank Gruber and others as part of the Intel Insider program. Our mission was to learn about new Intel initiatives and share its impact on the technology landscape and our lives in general.

In 2008, Graco launched the Graco Nation Ambassador program for online influencers looking to build a deeper relationship with the Graco brand and participate in unique opportunities.

Also in 2008, Walmart established the ElevenMoms program to humanize the Walmart story with those customers seeking advice from respected peers rather than solely relying on company messages and value propositions to help may common household decisions.

In April 2010, I joined a powerful Social Media Envoy along with some truly incredible people on behalf of the United Nations to raise awareness and the donation of bed nets to help #endmalaria.

Over time, many companies enlisted influential voices to help brands directly connect with existing and new audiences through social networks and blogs. In the last year alone, we witnessed an explosion of social media advertorials that created a new classification of sponsored media where influential individuals were paid or rewarded for their commercial support through Tweets, blog posts, YouTube videos and status updates. Companies such as Izea, MyLikes, and Ad.ly led the way, eventually catching the attention of the FTC and prompting new guidelines for companies to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act. The amendment marked the first update since 1980.

Recently, Ann Taylor was the subject of the first FTC investigation as a result of the new guidelines. The FTC’s Associate Director of Advertising Practices Mary Engle stated in a letter to Ann Taylor’s legal team, “We were concerned that bloggers who attended a preview on January 26, 2010 failed to disclose that they received gifts for posting blog content about that event.” The investigation was later closed without any fines or penalties imposed, but it did serve as a very public reminder that individuals who possess reach are not pawns for corporate marketing messages. The FTC believes that consumers deserve the ability to delineate between paid or leveraged information in order to make informed decisions and judgments.

The Influence Factor

Many social services are verticalizing the horizontal nature of peer-to-peer networks creating a defacto digital hierarchy. Klout, Edelmen’s TweetLevel, and PeerIndex, for instance, introduce a level of prominence into online connections measured by complex human algorithms.  From tastemakers to bloggers to mommy bloggers to you, a new trend in influencer relations is emerging, one that fuses recognition, reward, reach, and disclosure with those individuals who turn social networking into a verb.

When we look at what defines influence online, the definitions are as varied as they are debated. I believe influence is the ability to cause measurable action. Working with this interpretation allows us to examine an interesting approach by Klout, a SF-based startup that employs a rather sophisticated human algorithm that measures activities and relationships fostered by individuals on Twitter (and soon Facebook) to calculate social capital. Social capital represents the balance of your stature as dictated by the social currency exchanged with others via public and backchannel conversations, recognition, reciprocity, and the relationships that form as a result.

Klout is much more than a credit score provider for the social Web; it is a database of influencers that sorts through the massive cloud of collective consciousness to assign weight and authority to individuals based on themes and topics. One could only imagine the possibilities to connect with the long tail individuals that cause significant and measurable actions online around any topic, brand, cause, or movement.

Relevance. Resonance. Significance.

As I wrote recently in a post for the Harvard Business Review

How can businesses, which, one could argue, typically represent a “pay it backward” approach (ie, pay me for my goods and services), thrive in this environment? In my experience as a longtime social media observer who advises companies on how to successfully navigate the new media landscape, the key lies in embracing the linear concept of Relevance, Resonance, and Significance (R.R.S.).

Starbucks was among the first companies to experiment with a formal Klout influence partnership. In fact, it was the first such program for Klout as well. Essentially, Starbucks sought to connect with influential coffee socialites or more accurately stated, individuals with authority who tweet about coffee. In recognition for their prominence, these “coffee influencers” were offered a cup of Pike Place Roast on the house.

What was previously available to communications teams via media databases is now completely reimagined through the long tail of conventional clout.

Starbucks isn’t alone in its exploration of new influencers to help awaken new possibilities. Virgin America recently partnered with Klout to reward notable personalities on Twitter with free flights to Toronto. What might appear as a clear violation of the renewed FTC guidelines is actually an example of how to do it right. The flights are not an exchange for coverage, it’s simply an “opt in” reward for those who willfully submit their email address to see if they qualify for the free ticket. And, the disclosure to enjoy the flight without any obligation to publish is front and center.

I’m a true fan of Virgin America and their work in new and social media having covered their creative campaigns over the years. So, I reached out to the team to get insight into the program and the inspiration that brought it to life.

Klout and Virgin America hand-picked influencers based on Klout scores in the Toronto and California markets who fit the Virgin lifestyle.  The goal was simple: explore new, innovative, and authentic ways to engage with guests and prospects while also amplifying awareness in new and existing markets. The key is here is that budget wasn’t infinite and therefore any dollars spent had to focus on the right people with the ability to connect for less than other traditional means.

To help inspire creativity for those who may read this, I asked the very question that you are actually asking right now, how do you view the balance between recognition and reward…even though you are not requiring any form of media in exchange, the gesture naturally begets a response.

Jill Fletcher of the Virgin America new media team offered a genuine and inspiriting perspective, “We really view this program as a way to engage influencers and induce trial of our service, which we believe is unique in the skies (and a great fit for tech-forward flyers in particular). All participants are subject to the Klout Influencer Code of Ethics, which means that they are free to Tweet whatever they like about the experience – be that negative or positive – or Tweet nothing at all. Our hope is that their experience is positive, but if it isn’t, we hope that they provide us with valuable feedback on ways we can improve our service.”

Naturally, Klout is a hot ticket for brands looking to connect with these authoritative audience who each possess audiences of their own. For those looking to experiment outside of a formal program, Klout offers the ability to search for influencers on any given topic. In fact, many services such as Radian6, CitizenNet, Flowtown, mBlast, and PeopleBrowsr’s analytic.ly also offer the ability to surface influential voices on key topics and themes across multiple platforms.

The future of brand prominence and resonance starts with the recognition of the people who have earned stature in your markets. Recognition is a start. Reward is a gesture. Engagement and reciprocity is how we christen relationships. As the idea of influencers continues to diversify, embracing eminence is just the beginning.

The true promise of influencing the influencer lies in the power to become the very influencers we rely upon to tell our story. The same tools, services, and techniques that propel socializers atop these emerging social hierarchies also works for us. This is our time to not only connect with new influencers, but also establish influence and influential relationships through our intentions and actions.

#ThisisYourTime

Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Facebook

I invite you to take a look at Engage!: It was written to help you find answers…

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Get Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and The Conversation Prism:

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Lead Image Source: ShutterStock

Source

Imagine this scenario. It’s election time and you find yourself engaged in a heated debate with someone about a particular candidate. Fairly foaming at the mouth, this individual rails on about lousy legislators.

Then you find out this person is eligible to be but is not registered to vote.

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m of a mind that if you don’t register to vote, you cede your right to complain about politicians.

So when several conference producers with whom I spoke said that not only do women rarely submit speaking abstracts but they also tend to decline when asked to speak, I began to question where we’re putting the blame for the missing link where female speakers should be.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not letting conference organizers wholly off the hook. Nor am I giving men who don’t step up to recommend a more diverse pool of their peers when asked, a free pass. First, however, we need to put all the cards on the table.

We have some systemic issues to address, and we have some immediate action we can take. The bigger institutional monsters – like the fact that we need to get more young women engaged in the business realm – will take time. I intend to keep hammering at this topic and will be exploring things on this front in future posts here at PR2.0.

This post isn’t about the systemic issues. Those issues are legion, and combine glass ceiling with an array of other social, cultural and economic factors. This post is about what we can do now.

With that, I extend my arm, point my index finger, wag it in the collective face of my sisters, and toss down this gauntlet: If we want to change this situation there are some pretty basic things well within our purview we need to straighten out.

And in the interest of short attention spans, here are highlights:

1) Don’t wait to be asked: One organizer told me he had a woman tell him that she “won’t speak unless invited”. Well, unless you’re Kara Swisher, Marissa Mayer, Gina Bianchini, Sarah Lacy, or some other visible, established presence, chances are likely you’ll have to work to get on those stages. So do it. Any conference site has a link that explains how speakers can submit pitches. If they don’t, call or email them directly. Make a point of finding out the kinds of subjects/sessions that work for their event, what theme they may have for the conference and if you know people who have spoken there in the past, ask them about the experience and get insight on what works best for that audience.

2) If they ask, say yes: I’m not suggesting you say yes to every speaking opportunity. Actually, scratch that. I am, but not perhaps as you might think. If you’re asked to speak and you really just can’t do it, don’t just say no. Proffer a replacement – and make sure you’re not just giving them a friend who you want to support really think about whether the person is the right fit for the format/content. Remember, this isn’t about women for women’s sake this is about making sure we have the right women speaking in the right places.

3) When they solicit, speak up: Rick Calvert of BlogWorldExpo told me they reach out to people they know asking for recommendations for speakers and in almost all cases the men reply to him. The women rarely do. (And in an ironic twist, he added that if women do respond, the speakers they suggest are often male.) The point? If given a chance to let your voice be heard, take it.

Plenty of women may take umbrage at my remarks. They will say they have pitched themselves to speak and tried to participate all to no avail. What I would say to them is, have you really? Many years ago I took an acting class. The teacher told us there are two kinds of people who work in Hollywood – the kind who are brilliantly talented and the kind who never ever give up. Rejection after rejection they keep coming back to audition. Role after role, they persevere and continue until they establish a toehold.

So too must we persist. I know. I know. It feels like we’ve been doing this forever but how about a little perspective folks? You need only watch an episode of Mad Men for a clear reminder of the truly deep misogyny that saturated the business world merely 40 years ago. That sounds like a long time. In the big picture, it’s not.

We have made progress. Now it’s time to kick it up another notch.

To that end …

Conference organizers have incentive to diversify their speaker rosters. As both Rick and SXSW Interactive’s Hugh Forrest explained, if they don’t have a strong mix of speakers along all lines, everyone loses. These two events are among the most successful at achieving this balance, with both boasting at least a 30% female roster for the last several years. They also said that having a more effective resource would be helpful.

Tim O’Reilly made mention of wishing for a place where you can view videos of female speakers in action. He suggested a YouTube site. Brian Solis also suggested the creation of a searchable database of experts organized by content and expertise not unlike a Facebook for speakers, with images, content, videos, and also reviews from conference and event attendees.

After looking at some features and functionality I opted to launch a site on Ning where women can join and upload their videos directly. That won’t be all. The idea of this resource will be to encourage and support women in preparing more effectively (and aggressively) to speak at conferences – whether that’s making sure to know when abstracts are due, giving people a place to collaborate and support each other on pitches, or getting tips on presenting by watching each other’s work.

Having such a site may also help conference organizers avoid putting the wrong speaker into the wrong situation – as happened this past week at Gnomedex. Chris Pirillo with whom I attempted to speak several times to no avail, had four women on the program. Best as I can tell that’s about 17% of his roster. That wasn’t my biggest issue. Rather it was that one of the women, a clearly very smart, capable and articulate individual, crashed in her presentation because, quite honestly, it was the wrong crowd for her talk. Whether that was a function of poor booking, disconnect in preparation or just an unexpected oversight I’m not sure. I’m hoping Chris will engage in a discussion in the comments because I’m not one for speaking of others without their having a chance to have their say.

The reason, though, almost doesn’t matter. What matters, is that the audience had a bad experience, I imagine the speaker didn’t feel too great about it either.

And in that scenario, no one wins.

As Brian Solis so eloquently stated in this post, we are in a time where reaching across the boundaries between groups – any groups – is fraught with great challenge, but also great opportunity.

It’s time for women to seize this opportunity. Where we go from here, is entirely up to us.

There are more men than women in the tech and new media sectors…

I know. Shocking.

Joking aside, I thought it was time to take a slightly different whack at the conversational kerfuffle that’s percolated yet again in recent weeks. Yes, that seemingly unsinkable subject – the lack of women on the tech industry speaking circuit.

So when Brian Solis graciously offered me the opportunity to guest post here and use this topic as my inaugural soapbox, I couldn’t say no. Well, I could have, but it would have been silly.

To set some context, let’s be clear. This debate is not a new one, though the flames have been fanned recently as you can read in this post … or this one … or this one.

If you’re already up to speed on this story let’s wait here a second for the folks who went to peruse those links above.

Okay, everyone back?

Are we on the same page?

Good.

Now turn the page.

I began flipping forward to the next chapter last week when I reached out to Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media. He produces some of the top conferences in tech (which extends to vertical focus like government, healthcare and green/eco friendly) he also was directly involved in the most recent set of public discourse on this matter.

More than getting his take on the situation overall, I wanted to hear Tim’s thoughts on where the challenges can be overcome. During a phone chat Friday afternoon Tim agreed that the current dearth of female speakers overall needs to be addressed and he called on other conference organizers to do the same. “I think the talent bench is way deeper than any (directories or conference organizers) show. It’s time (for those of us producing conferences) to dig deeper.”

He also explained that it’s critical to remember that producing a conference is telling a story.

“It’s not just about finding fungible talent. When I’m trying to put a conference together. I’m trying to put together a story and I’m trying to find (qualified) people who are aligned with that story and are really able to drive the point home,” he said.

In other words, this isn’t about having a woman speak just for the sake of having a woman speak. That doesn’t do anyone any good. She must be qualified on the content and she must be able to articulate it. After all, if it’s a public speaking opportunity that whole speaking thing becomes pretty important.

I couldn’t agree more, and I will take it one step further. Beyond the need to ensure that the most qualified, well-versed women are chosen, it’s also critical to ensure that the right women are chosen for the right formats. As I detail in this post, some folks just aren’t cut out for some kinds of presentations.

Kara Swisher offered a more salty perspective – literal and figurative. As we finished up a Fort Funston beach romp with dogs and kids on Sunday afternoon, I mentioned this blog post and topic to her, and her perpetual intensity sparked. She emphasized that she and her irascible partner in crime Walt Mossberg spend considerable time ensuring the composition of their on-stage roster is as balanced as humanly possible. In the case of All Things Digital, where the same C-suite mandate O’Reilly faces with the Web 2.0 Summit comes into play, this becomes challenging as the ranks of available speaker candidates thins rapidly on the rise into the Fortune 500.

With the assumption that we’re talking about truly qualified, articulate, solid presenters, what’s next?

The fact that the issue is on the table again is good. The fact that there are new conversations happening to address the issue also is good, but talk is cheap. It’s time to take more bold action.

Like making a point to step up and be counted.

Like working together to appropriately support relevant, credible individuals.

Like turning to our male colleagues and ensure that they have our backs.

These are all great, socialized actions that will go towards chipping away at the institutionalized behavior to which we are all accustomed on this front.

What about something a bit more tactical? As Brian Solis and I discussed in Los Angeles during Twiistup6, what about creating a centralized, searchable resource through which organizers can find qualified, well-vetted female speakers and conference attendees can comment on performance, experience, and expertise?

After many conversations I keep coming around to the idea of a resource center that conferences organizers could use to source great speakers who happen to be female.

And of course any good idea worth having is likely to have other instances, as does this one. Several years ago Mary Hodder and some others launched a wiki on which they began a speakers list. Personally I think the list is a great start, but has some several limitations. For starters it’s too unwieldy, and that’s largely due to the fact that this list is not curated in any way. There’s no determining which speakers have more expertise, who has the best stage presence for a given format or, frankly, if they are as great presenting as they are on paper.

This is the problem Tim mentioned when we talked about the speaker database resources that currently exist. He noted that generally those lists are filled with people “who tend to heavily promote themselves.”

I get what Tim means. I’ve certainly been around my fair share of those sorts who spend so much time promoting themselves as experts of this, or gurus of that, I can’t help but wonder – when do they actually do any of the things about which they purport to have such expertise? Oh so many “pick me pick me” voices sound shrilly in my ears, or perhaps more accurate to say they ring hollow.

So do we need some resource lists for qualified female speakers? Yes. Should they be wholly open and just anyone can be on the list. I think not. Lest you think this is based in elitist or exclusionary principles … well, you’re right, they are.

I think there should be a barrier to entry. There should be qualifiers, because when it comes to public speaking, no matter how qualified someone may be on paper, their ability to translate that into a compelling discussion – whether as a panelist or on a keynote – may not be in sync.

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Please also read: Building Bridges Between Knowledge and Aspiration.

Image Credit: Jeremy Ginsberg

I’m fascinated and inspired by the unity, education, and collaboration spurred by the socialization of media. The sources for insight, artistry, and influence have proliferated globally, giving voices to, and creating communities for, every day people who share ideas, passion, and aspirations.

The Social Revolution is Our Industrial Revolution

Intel is also inspired by education. The company recently created Inspire, a new community that spotlights education through innovation. It is a platform to celebrate the people, voices, and actions that are making a real difference and impact in our lives. It’s also a resource hub that spotlights the remarkable programs, events, and projects around the world designed to improve education.

As an Intel Insider, I was asked to share my inspiration on camera for inclusion in the Inspire network. Inspire also features videos from fellow Insiders, Tom Foremski, Frank Gruber, Cathy Brooks, and Irina Slutsky.

So, what inspires you?

Over the last several months, I’ve had the distinct pleasure and honor of working with some of the most visionary people online to develop a solution that WE, as social architects, need to stay connected, and also, centered.

I’ve invested a significant portion of time and energy into the support, development, and refinement of an ambitious project led by Jodee Rich. I did so, because I believe that it is one of the most compelling and promising services for uniting our distributed social presence and the relationships that make us stronger – personally and professionally.

Introducing PeopleBrowsr, an attention-centered dashboard for managing your online relationships and communication in Twitter and across multiple social networks.

It is making its public debut in Alpha today, which means that it is still in an early, but a highly functional, stage of development. The only way to improve it is to let real people have access to it, without restrictions.

PeopleBrowsr offers a vast breadth of features and functionality. If you’re a Social Media power user or a brand manager, this is a wish come true.

At its foundation, PeopleBrowsr is a first of a kind meta-network for social networks that works with Mozilla FireFox 3, Safari 3.1 or Google Chrome – no download or plug-in required. It essentially turns your Web browser into a simple, visual social media dashboard. While there are many third-party tools for Twitter, PeopleBrowsr brings the best features from all of the popular add-on services into one solution – without requiring a download or a browser plug-in.

It combines your profiles and your connections across multiple social networks into one, easy to manage place, including, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Upcoming, among others. You can mix views to include activity from all or selected networks simultaneously, individually, and also communicate with your contacts across networks, from one place.

Mixing your view and interaction.

As an introduction to the service, we’ll start with Twitter.

Anyone familiar with TweetDeck will enjoy an instant familiarity with the friendly interface. But that’s where the similarity stops and the unique benefits emerge.

PeopleBrowsr supercharges Twitter.

With one simple to use browser-based hub, everyone can view, group, and communicate with friends, and friends of friends, in and across all of the popular networks. You can update status, view posts, connect with contacts, make new friends, and share content within and between networks.

At first sight, PeopleBrowsr provides either a columnar view (The PostStack) or a “people” grid gallery of organizable tweets from “everyone” in the Twitter stream with additional distinct columns for “following” and replies. Additional stream options feature the ability to view direct messages and other standard views into dedicated, scrolling columns. PeopleBrowsr also provides integrated search functionality of Twitter directly within streams, displaying results in new stream columns. And, if you want to focus on key regions, you can also run hyper local searches to see who’s tweeting in a certain city. Searches can be additive for further refining of streams.

But wait, there’s more…

With PeopleBrowsr, you can monitor brands, engage with communities, and improve communications with friends through a myriad of unique features that include, the ability for power users to easily build and communicate specifically with dedicated tag-formed groups; scheduling tweet posting at a later time; and also network-wide, wiki-style tagging of people for grouping, categorization, and also searching.

Most importantly, PeopleBrowsr introduces the foundation for the very first address book for Twitter.

Take a deep breath, PeopleBrowsr is much more than a dashboard for Twitter, it’s a social network for all social networks.

Today, many people participate in multiple online social networks. From Twitter to FriendFeed, LinkedIn to Facebook, and Youtube to Flickr, the attention of today’s online enthusiasts is thinning and distributed. While the alpha version of PeopleBrowsr focuses initially on empowering the Twitter community, the service actually unites Social Media and the Social Web.

PeopleBrowsr empowers power users and “the rest of us” alike to concentrate energy in one place instead of wrestling with a distributed presence. You no longer have to open different tools and browser tabs to log in and connect with people through disparate services. As a single social media dashboard, PeopleBrowsr allows anyone to manage all of their personal network profiles. It simplifies communication and relationship building with friends and like-minded individuals – regardless of social media network.

PeopleBrowsr also introduces PeopleBrowsr IDs (PBIDs), a new genre of intelligent social media profiles for those looking to learn more about interesting people. These rich IDs offer an instant and highly detailed overview of an individual’s presence across the social Web by automatically aggregating their other network profiles and blogs as a social graph. You can also can share what you know about each individual for others to see using PeopleProfiles.

Here’s me…

The team is reading Tweets and implementing fixes, fine-tuning the product, and integrating new features ahead of the beta release due out at the beginning of the new year. “Live” Tweets from the community are being used to build a new product in real time. They’re listening!

At the very least, I hope PeopleBrowsr offers a refreshing and helpful alternative to centralize your online presence and the relationships that define who you are today and tomorrow.

Please spread the word…

I also wanted to send a special thank you to each and everyone who took the time to meet with Jodee and me to share their initial reaction and feedback to help us get to where we are today.

Thank you.

Ariel Waldman
Cal Hendrickson
Cathy Brooks
Chris Saad
Christopher Golda
Dave Mathews
Frank Gruber
Guy Kawasaki
Jason Kincaid
Jeremiah Owyang
Jodee Rich
Justin Kan
Laura Fitton (Pistachio)
Loic Le Meur
Louis Gray
Mike McGrath
Robert Scoble
Sarah Lacy
Tara Hunt
Tim Ferriss
Tim O’Reilly

For more on PeopleBrowsr, please read:
Louis Gray
Robert Scoble (with video demo)
Read/Write Web – Sarah Perez

Related posts on PR 2.0:
- Introducing @MicroPR, A PR Resource for Journalists, Analysts and Bloggers on Twitter
- Twitter Tools for Community and Communications Professionals
- In the Social Web, We Are All Brand Managers
- The State of Social Media 2008
- The Social Revolution is Our Industrial Revolution
- The Essential Guide to Social Media
- The Social Media Manifesto
- PR 2.0: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations
– Introducing The Conversation Prism
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Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku, Social Median, or Facebook
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peoplebrowsr twitter facebook flickr social+media socialmedia brian+solis social media pr2.0 pr+2.0 2.0 media+2.0 media2.0 network visionary dashboard linkedin guru marketing communication expert brand manager keyword

You’ve heard of Intel Inside, the now legendary marketing program that intelligently convinced consumers to make purchasing decisions based on the chip that powered their PCs. Now, I’m proud to introduce the new Intel Insiders program, a new initiative that extends the company’s genuine intention of reaching and engaging with people, while freely trusting the brand’s future to the very people who can and will shape it.

Not only am I proud to introduce the Intel Insiders program, I’m also humbled to actually be part of the team of advisers to Intel on all things Social Media.

Let this serve as a working standard for other businesses to follow. It’s no longer a matter of if, but when. And time isn’t slowing for anyone.

The “Intel Insiders” include:

Justin Ezarik, ijustin
Cathy Brooks, Seesmic
Christina Perry, SF Beta, SNAP Summit
Sarah Austin, Pop17
Frank Gruber, Somewhat Frank
J.D. Lasica, Darknet
Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher
Brian Solis, PR 2.0 and bub.blicio.us

We join existing in house Social Media strategists, Chris Heuer and Ken Kaplan.

First, I applaud Intel and the people leading this initiative to embrace social media and intentionally place its technology and reputation into the court of public opinion. Intel is is not an emerging brand by any means. It’s a publicly traded, globally influential powerhouse. It could be very easy for Intel to disregard socialized media and rely on a top-down targeted messaging campaign to steer its brand through broadcast distribution channels. It’s what big business knows and practices day in and day out.

But, Intel learned a painful and valuable lesson during the early days of Web 1.0 with the release of its Pentium processors.

Sean Maloney, Executive Vice President, General Manager, Sales and Marketing Group
Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Intel explained his experience with us, “Someone posted online that there was something wrong with the product. We didn’t grow up online, nobody did – apart from bulletin boards. But, no matter what we did or what we said, we were unable to stop it or keep up with it.”

We’re talking about the early days of community-powered influence. During the days of The Well and the emergence of services such as Yahoo Groups, everyday people were building what would eventually evolve into powerful, market and policy-changing interest groups. It was during these years when I was inspired to explore the foundation for PR 2.0.

Maloney continued, “I set up our Intel presence online, and in the period of about six-to-eight weeks, we dealt with this constant firestorm of online messages. It was an early lesson that, it’s not what you say about you, it’s what they say about you. Which really is the social spirit of the Web. It’s not what commercial companies says about themselves, it’s what everybody says. And, that lesson has sunk through the industry over the years and it’s still happening.”

Truthfully, this is how most companies are going to learn how to embrace and participate in the social web – out of necessity and usually in the form of crises communication and response.

Sean Maloney and team isn’t just stopping with the formation of an advisory board for social strategies. The company is moving nearly all of its advertising and attention away from TV and traditional media into online marketing – and have been shifting money over the last year.

We’re talking about the number two executive at the world’s largest chipmaker here. And, he sat down with us to genuinely share his mistakes and his aspirations for truly building meaningful relationships online.

Maloney shared his reasons for why we were there, “Where we are today…like everyone else, we’ve gone for years and years of learning and making mistakes online. About a year ago, we realized that we were wasting our broadcast money. Over the years, the penetration rate of TV ads has continued to drop lower and lower. There’s just too much going on [to compete for attention]. So we’re taking hundreds of millions of dollars online, and at that level you have to be incredibly involved at a granular level looking at what works, what doesn’t work, and how to spend it. That takes you to the social web. As a company, how do you play in that? What’s the correct thing to do to be accepted, listened to, influenced? Personally I feel like we’re walking in the fog…hopefully you can point us through that fog.”

The right social media experts indeed are beacons and lighthouses for navigating intelligently, genuinely, and gracefully through these times where vision and visibility can be greatly impaired and clouded. The Intel Insiders program is also an extension of the Intel voice and spirit and we’re free to share insight and information internally and externally, our way…and I believe they’ll truly listen.

Intel gets it. They’re not rushing into social media blindly. As the company celebrates its 40th anniversary, Intel is strategically observing, listening, and learning. They’re also participating. But, they’re looking to increase presence online and spotlight innovation, while humanizing the company across the fragmented silos and communities that define the social landscape. It’s no easy task, and it will take a whole lot more than blogging, sending tweets, or creating profiles in social networks.

It all starts with listening.

Fellow Intel Insider Tom Foremski captured it well, “I like the calculated risks that Intel is taking by involving some of the top names in the blogosphere and not imposing any restrictions on what we write about. What I like about the Intel Insider program is that it’s innovative but it’s not about technology — even though Intel’s business is all about innovation in technology.”

I’m forever a student of new and socialized media, the sociology that cultivates and shapes online communities, and the dynamics that foster personal brands and relationships. As I recently shared in The Art of Conversation, “We all purport to be social media experts these days, yet most of us are truly students. Many of us overlook some of the most rudimentary elements that define and inspire the socialization of content, especially the social sciences involved with observing the culture, behavior, and conversations within online societies.”

As Maloney emphasized, “It’s not what you say about you, it’s what they say about you.”

He’s right and it’s usually this small, but critical consciousness and inflection point that most companies fail to breath in, accept and embody.

The way I view it…

It’s what you say about you, what they hear, how they share that story, and how you weave that insight into future conversations.

Follow the Intel Insiders on Twitter.

Pictures from the inaugural Insider meeting are on flickr.

Related:

The Essential Guide to Social Media.
The Social Media Manifesto
Cultural Voyeurism and Social Media
Customer Service, The Art of Listening and Engagement Through Social Media

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

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