Last month Dutch strategist, innovator, social media expert and writer Menno Lanting published his fourth book titled “Iedereen CEO“. In this book one of the main things he discusses, with pragmatic writing and real-life examples, are the changes in traditional corporate organizational structures due to the influence and importance of social media and new technology. The core principe of the book is that in this network era everyone is/can be the CEO.

Months ago Lanting contacted me via Twitter to discuss social media at Accenture and my view on the phenomenon. The vivid discussion led to several published pages in his new book, including an excerpt from page 137:

“Back in 2005 social media was not even a definition yet. We started our corporate blog ‘Blogpodium’ to offer our people a platform to share their knowledge, insights and opinions with the outside world. The objective was to give our people a human face and that’s why we wanted (and still want) them to share their expertise and discuss this with our target audience. People want to connect with other people, not with a brand. The brand itself acts as a facilitator of interactions between people. We follow these people as Accenture operates in the ‘peoples branche’ and, whether in a physical or digital form, we move towards them wherever they may go. That’s why we at Accenture have embraced the inherent power of blogs, and all other forms of social media.”

The piece continues with my views on the future of corporate websites, which in my vision will no longer exist in the current shape in the near future (also see my earlier post, ‘Social marketing in professional services’ and on Frankwatching, about my views on the future of corporate websites and blogs). Social media platforms will become the marketplace to exchange information and insights with others. Professionals often claim that social media is a waste of time and money, and that the benefits don’t outway the costs. A key element of social media is about building relationships. And building relationships costs a lot of time (something none of us have in abundance) in the real world as well as online, because it isn’t based on transmitting your message to an audience who doesn’t have the means to respond, but rather on creating interdependencies and finding common ground as the basis from which relationships can grow. To get people engaged, it is foremost crucial to understand your audience, what drives them, what keeps them up at night, by really listening to their challenges and base the discussions around that.

That’s why at Accenture our thought leaders are what we call ‘Digital Citizens’, because they ‘live’ and interact with others as they would in the real world. To meet all our Digital Citizens on Blogpodium, please visit http://www.accenture-blogpodium.nl/bloggers/.