Barry Libert
Barry Libert
As you might expect, there is a highly interactive We are Smarter Than Me web site where readers can join in the conversation and help shape the next book. You can follow Barry Libert's work on his company blog, Barry's Insights. For more insight on these topics, the Financial Times Press is currently featuring podcast interviews with some of the case study subjects from We are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business, including Angie Hicks, Lyn Townshend, and Jasmine Antonick.
Safari: You've taken a very unique approach to writing a book with We Are Smarter Than Me. Tell us about how this book was put together.
Libert: Tens of thousands of students, faculty and alumni of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as leaders, authors, and experts from the fields of management and technology were invited to contribute in a wiki-based community that coalesced at wearesmarter.org.
Members of the online community were asked to develop and share their insights about why community approaches work or don't work when it comes to marketing, business development, distribution, and more, and what companies have to do to make them work better.
Safari: What benefits came out of tapping this collective wisdom?
Libert: For one, it made finding case study companies a lot easier. We also got the community involved, and had bloggers, discussion leaders, and podcasters share their experiences about how community can improve distinct business processes such as sales, marketing, and product innovation. Moving forward, we're hoping the community we assembled will help us market and sell the book. We want to continue to drink our own kool-aid.
Safari: Are you satisfied with the final product? How well do you think this experiment has worked out and what did you learn?
Libert: Yes, we are very pleased with the end product - including the book and the online community. We believe the book provides tremendous insights to corporate leaders on how companies can leverage employee and customer communities to improve traditional business processes.
Some key learnings that we took away from the "experiment" were that writing a book on using a wiki is harder than we thought - including how to build, nurture and edit the content of the community for all who want to benefit from their contributions. We have yet to fully distill it all, but the community provided a wealth of suggestions for how to best create a wiki book. They didn't all agree of course and we hope to use some of those lessons in our next book. We also intend to document the writing and community-building process in a series of articles that we will publish on the website and in a number of leading publications.
Safari: What were some of the things that inspired this idea? Wikipedia is probably one obvious example, but were there other things you and Jon observed around the net that suggested the time was ripe for a book project that tapped into the larger collective wisdom?
Libert: The books Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki and Wikinomics by Don Tapscott were also influences. However, while those two books focused on how "crowds" or "communities" and collaboration are changing businesses, they were each written by one person. The goal of the We Are Smarter book was to partner with a community to write a book on how communities are changing companies., i.e. to practice what we preach.
We wanted to develop a book that addresses what other best-selling books on community have not - a practical guide about how to build communities in your company based on real case studies. Wikinomics, The World is Flat, and The Wisdom of Crowds have identified the phenomena of emerging social networks, but they do not confront how businesses can profit from the wisdom of crowds nor did they provide practical advice.
Safari: Safari's Rough Cuts program shares some of the principles of your project, by providing early access to the evolving manuscript of a book to interested subscribers. One benefit that authors in this program have realized is that they essentially get a wider community "tech review" of their book before it is finalized, which results in a better book. Did you feel like you had thousands of tech reviewers looking over your shoulder, and was this more helpful or distracting to getting a good final product?
Libert: To be honest, we got more feedback about the book writing process and the tools we used, i.e. the wiki, than we did on the actual prose. We had over 250 blog posts about the project and some provided positive and negative feedback. Most were curious as to whether or not the project would succeed.
Safari: As an editor, the idea of putting a book together with such a large and varied amount of user input sounds terrifying. What were the biggest challenges in this process for you and Jon?
Libert: The biggest issue that we tackled was getting the intellectual property issues settled. There are a couple of good podcasts that I would recommend that you listen to that discuss the project, the tribulations and ultimately some of the tough decisions we needed to make.
Editor's note: Check out this podcast with Barry, Jon and Tim Moore.
Safari: What are some of the most important ways a business can start using social networking and community-building techniques today?
Libert: The easiest way is to start blogging. It's a great way to get comfortable with opening yourself up to the outside world. Pick several people across your marketing, sales, product and senior teams. Also get your employees to sign up for a social network like Facebook, MySpace or create your own using a self-service product like Ning. Shared Insights will have their own self-service community offering coming in Q4.
Safari: What are the benefits for a business to investing time and resources in trying to build community around their product or service?
Libert: The big ones are improved product innovation, better customer service, and more effective sales and marketing.
Safari: Have you found that companies are generally open to working with these new tools and mediums, or is there still a lot of skepticism about all this social stuff out there in the corporate world?
Libert: It's very early yet and many companies are still trying to get their arms around web 2.0, social netwoking and communities. There are a number of early adopters that are starting to push hard and fast into this space but many are taking a wait and see approach.
Safari: Can you give us some examples of companies that "get it"? Are there businesses today that are improving their bottom line by using social networking techniques?
Libert: A few recommendations would be Cambrian House, InnoCentive, Proctor & Gamble, and surprisingly, Ernst and Young with their Facebook strategy. Several of our clients including WebEx, iRise and Deloitte are doing exciting things with their communities on a number of different fronts.
Safari: What are some of the common missteps you've seen companies take as they try and apply social networking concepts to their business? Are there pitfalls that should be avoided?
Libert: Make sure your CEO is REALLY ready for community. Community is about ceding control and letting go of day-to-day control. Good CEOs in the future will be facilitators with good leadership skills vs. today's top down approach. In essence, leaders will lead from the rear, not the front - something that will be new and unsettling for most managers and leaders.
The one pitfall that all companies should avoid is that if you do set up a community, DO NOT under any circumstances, censor user feedback. Obviously you don't want to allow foul or inappropriate language but you should be ready to hear negative feedback. Instead of quashing it, address it quickly. The community appreciates this type of open and honest dialog.
Safari: It seems like almost every week we hear about a new social networking tool or application. How can businesses stay on top of this rapidly moving area?
Libert: The bottom line - social networking and community building is less about the tools and technologies and more about the facilitation, moderation, and services that go along with them. Think eBay and Amazon and remember - they also have people who make sure that their "communities" work. It is the same for customer and employee communities. In essence, find an expert community manager like Shared Insights to be your company's community Sherpa.
Safari: Facebook is one of the most popular social networks (this week), and it has recently gone through a transition from being a service for college students to one that is also now being used by corporations and people of all ages. Is this a sign of an overall trend in social networking technology: the kids adopt it and then the grown-ups start seeing the value?
Libert: Yes. I have two sons and a lot of what I've learned about social networking and community I've learned from them. This is a phenomenon that will continue as parents watch some of the amazing things their kids are doing with their friends and classmates.
Safari: What's next, will you be doing more books coming out of this community process?
Libert: Yes. We have two more planned books (and hopefully more after that). Each will focus on a particular business function . Our next book is dedicated to how community is changing sales and marketing. The third will be on how social networking and community building is changing employee acquisition, retention, training, and alumni affairs.
