Lionel at Dell weighs in on the Blog Council

Lionel Menchaca, the primary author of Direct2Dell has weighed in on the instantly controversial Blog Council. Of course, he is optimistic about the Council's future, a cynic might say. His employer, after all, is among the Council's founding members.  But is you make that assumption, you don't know Lionel.

I too, sang praise for the Council launch and cynics might note that I work with SAP, another founding member.  But then, if you think that, you probably don't know me either.

Will the council change anything? Who knows?  Predicting outcomes is always dangerous, and the graveyards are filled with the heavily hyped councils and consortia of yore. Eached launched with bravado that turned out to be much bigger than their actual accomplishments.

There was no news conference for the council. No big party with free champagne and designer bling. No PR Agency took any media trained spokesperson on tour. No trees died for a glossy covered press it. Instead the Council put out a simple, adjective deprived press release over the wire and emailed a heads up--not to the NY Times--but to a small handfull of bloggers.

And in some circles, people I know, like and respect, competed to tell you how it will suck. Maybe it will, but then maybe, this council will move the social media needle in many of the world's largest companies.

It happens that I know a few of the players involved and they are not your corporate traditional marketing suits. They've been the forward observers taking the enterprise hill. They've taken inches of enterprise terrain, then defended and expanded on it. And after a couple years effort, they represent companies who have come to see the value of social media. They are also a highly qualified group for addressing issues that befuddle us all, issues of governance, measurement and the release of outmoded and ineffective attempts to control message and customer.

Yeah, the Council could fall flat on its face, but I hope not.

That brings me back to Lionel at Dell. When it comes to having a cynical start for a large corporation, he has been there and done that. We should look at what happened when and after Dell started blogging.

Has blogging saved Dell? Of course not. It takes much more thn some cool blogging and Twittering to do that.  It takes better product and a whole lot more. But social media has taught Dell that it is good business to listen to customers and that's a big slice of the success pie chart.

I think the Blog Council opens the door a crack for more companies who behave the way Dell used to behave to use social media to become more like Dell is.






Technorati Tags: lionel menchaca, blog council, direct2dell

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Comments

[Andy Sernovitz]

Shel -

You said it right: "the players involved and they are not your corporate traditional marketing suits. They've been the forward observers taking the enterprise hill. They've taken inches of enterprise terrain, then defended and expanded on it."

Lionel and the other Blog Council members are fighting a worthy fight -- teaching companies how to value social media and real consumer reaction. It's a tough battle, but it's making a real difference. One by one, they are waking up companies.

The blogosphere should be working to support them instead of undercutting this important work.

Andy Sernovitz
Blog Council

[Kami Huyse]

I am with you on this one Shel. How is this any of our business anyway? I am looking forward to see what comes out of this group. And like I said, I hope they choose to share what they learn with the rest of us.

[Paul Chaney]

Shel, would you say that all the chatter amounts to little more than an over-reaction?

Like Kami, it's my hope this group will share what they learn with the business blogosphere at large. That certainly qualifies as a "best practice" if ever there was one.

Of course, when and if they do, it's likely to only lead to even further criticism.

[shel israel]

Paul,
Frankly, I'm surprised by some of the comments. I would have expected a whole lot of "Well, we'll just have to wait-and-see-about-this, but the immediate animosity seems to me like overreaction. The closest related case was the strength of cynicism that faced Dell when it started blogging. The Blog Council is going to have to be very transparent in its deliberations. People will need to see real people struggling with real and complex issues.