Loading ...
We’ve had some insightful comments on my previous What’s next for Supply Excellence post. Other bloggers, including Charles Dominick and Jon Hansen, have taken up the subject on their blogs as well. A few of the key take-aways and my notes in parenthesis:
- Blogs are not dead - although one reader strongly disagrees - and can still provide a valuable platform for subject matter experts to lead discussions. (Couldn’t agree more that “blogs” in some form or another are still VERY valuable for contributors and readers alike. The evolution of blogs seems to be into a more collaborative, social platform that includes many-t0-many communication rather than the one-to-many vibe many blogs give off.)
- The content from our category management team is valuable, yet could be more effective if it went deeper and was more frequent. (Agree and would add that getting other category managers and experts engaged in the form of discussions or blogging privileges on Ariba Exchange could be an even more powerful way to leverage the collective knowledge of the masses.)
- “Crowdsourcing” and socialization of products, solutions, strategies, etc. are effective and increasingly utilized. (Absolutely agree. And it’s in that spirit that we’re having this ongoing discussion.)
Am I missing anything? Or worse yet, misinterpreting anything?
And now, if those are the thoughts of our trusty readers, what should be the course of action?
First, I’d like to clear up two perceptions that seem to be pervasive.
One, we haven’t made a decision on whether or not to continue publishing Supply Excellence. The jury (of which I consider anyone currently reading this to be on jury duty) is still out.
And two, this conversation about the future of Supply Excellence is taking place not because Ariba views social media as an undertaking that’s difficult to justify. In fact, it’s quite the opposite and I think the launch of Ariba Exchange shows our commitment to facilitating communication and collaboration through social media. And, our efforts in social media will certainly include blogs. There’s no question that we find them to be a great platform for sharing information with our audience. In the case of Supply Excellence, that typically meant sharing the insights from our subject matter experts on largely vendor-agnostic topics, like category/commodity strategies, best practices and supply risk. But we also see the potential for blogs to help people in our solutions management, support and even executive roles to engage as well. Blogs play a critical role on Ariba Exchange. That platform simply lets us ramp up the breadth and depth of content - from our own bloggers and from the community members’ discussions, comments, and in the near future, “ideas”.
The crux of this discussion, and ultimately the decision of how best to move forward, rests in what’s best for the people. Where and how do people want to consume and contribute to the social media conversations around spend management, categories/commodities, best practices and Ariba’s solutions? Is a site that works to collect those various stakeholders, practitioners and experts more effective than a network of disjointed sites? And to put that in further context, how can a community evolve to be helpful while people are actually engaged in projects?
These are not necessarily easy questions to answer. And certainly all opinions are encouraged. But please, given the time, effort and energy we’ve put into Supply Excellence, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms, give us the benefit of the doubt that we’re trying to evolve in the best interests of our community.
So, my question at this point is, what’s the downside of including Supply Excellence content in a broader collaborative platform rather than as a stand alone blog?
Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of Supply Excellence. For any questions or feedback on the blog or its contributors, Justin can be reached at jfogarty[at]ariba.com.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Tim Cummins // Mar 16, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Tricky question, Justin!
I think the positive aspects of a blog are when it is relatively short and relatively focused. I think the multi-author route perhaps dilutes the coherence of the messaging, unless they are working on very consitent themes.
Second, it seems to me that the advantage of the stand-alone blog (versus a broader platform) is that it is uncluttered. I struggle to bother with things like LinkedIn and Twitter, I have so rearely found anything useful on either of them. The blog can be more like the daily news headlines, once you trust the source (and again, that brings us back to either one or few authors and strong editing).
2 Jon Hansen // Mar 17, 2010 at 6:03 am
Tim (Cummins) hit the nail on the head in terms of his reference to a stand-alone blog being uncluttered. In fact this is one of the problems I have with the Ariba Exchange.
A stand-alone blog as part of a collective network that includes Internet Radio, Internet TV and strategic social network interaction through venues such as groups enables you to meet the audience where they are most comfortable.
For example, I posted an article to the Procurement Insights Blog on the recent Congressional hearings centered on the Toyota acceleration problem. While I received some comments directly through the blog, I had approximately 35 answers in the LinkedIn open forum alone. I of course provided a link back to the original post in the Procurement Insights Blog (re cross pollination).
I also aired a 30-minute special on the topic with author and ADR CEO Bill Michels on the PI Window on Business Show ob Blog Talk Radio. The blog post of course provided the link to the On-Demand broadcast - cross pollination.
The key is that I did not force the audience to come to a “central exchange” but engaged them at there point of interest and comfort.
That is the strength of a collective social media network . . . interconnecting, yet individual and uncluttered venues.
3 Uncluttering Your Brand: Why The Ariba Exchange is The Same Old Song with an Ineffective Beat « Procurement Insights // Mar 17, 2010 at 7:04 am
[...] Tim Cummins, CEO IACCM commenting on the March 16th Supply Excellence Post “What’s next for Supply Excellence? (Part 2)“ [...]
4 Jon Hansen // Mar 17, 2010 at 7:25 am
By the way, here is the follow-up post re the Supply Excellence Blog; http://procureinsights.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/uncluttering-your-brand-why-the-ariba-exchange-is-the-same-old-song-with-an-ineffective-beat/
5 Uncluttering Your Brand: Why The Ariba Exchange is The Same Old Song with an Ineffective Beat « PI Window on Business // Mar 17, 2010 at 7:45 am
[...] Tim Cummins, CEO IACCM commenting on the March 16th Supply Excellence Post “What’s next for Supply Excellence? (Part 2)“ [...]
6 Charles Dominick, SPSM // Mar 17, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Justin,
A couple of points.
1. You said that =”[b]logs play a critical role on Ariba Exchange.” If that is true, it doesn’t make much sense to have two blog sites running. If you do, every Supply Excellence post will be something that could have added value to Exchange. In addition, with Exchange, you guys are unlikely to want to devote the resources to keeping Supply Excellence what it was in 2009, arguably the best blog in the procurement space. If it can’t be as great, should it exist at all?
2. You’ve used phrases such as “facilitating communication and collaboration” and “people want to consume and contribute to the social media conversations.” Interaction seems important to Ariba. So, how do the measurements of interaction compare between SE and AE? I know many SE posts go without comment (as do many blogs) and many others just have one. Are you getting more interaction on AE? If so, I think you have your answer.
I’d hate to see SE go away. I wouldn’t mind adding it to the NLP portfolio…
7 Michael Justesen // Mar 18, 2010 at 5:17 am
Justin,
I’m reading Supply Excellence for its quality and to the point information. It means I can relatively quickly gain new insights in short bursts - whenever I choose to do so.
On many collaborative platforms like LinkedIn and alike you have to spend too much time going over non-relevant stuff - which means I have to spend too much time finding perhaps nothing.
So my question to you is: Are you after the ‘right’ readers or a larger crowd that cares less on the essence of Supply Excellence?
8 Tim // Mar 19, 2010 at 5:45 pm
As the “godfather” of Supply Excellence, I have been listening to this discussion thread this post has generated both here and across other industry blogs both with great interest and some frustration. Many readers and fellow bloggers provided valuable feedback on what they value about Supply Excellence; and about what we could do better. Yet, I believe others may have misconstrued the question about how you’d like to see Supply Excellence and our other social media channels as a declaration that we were shutting down access to the insights and content you’ve come to expect.
I wanted to join into the discussion to clear up any misconceptions. To borrow a phrase from the great Mark Twain, “The rumors of Supply Excellence’s death have been greatly exaggerated.”
This blog was the foundation of Ariba’s social media strategy. I launched Supply Excellence over four years ago with a single mission: to inform readers of leading spend management practices and simple tactics to drive functional and personal results and to tackle key business issues, such as supply risk and sustainability. Under Justin’s leadership (and through the help of Ariba’s global category and sourcing experts) this original mission has been expanded to provide current information on opportunities and shifts in global supply markets. Based on the feedback over the future of Supply Excellence, it appears that content has resonated with many of you out there - from practitioners and journalists to analysts and consultants. Given that, why would we ever “walk away”? The obvious answer is, we wouldn’t. This dialog is about how best to share the knowledge of our experts and engage the audience to bring their collective knowledge into the mix.
The level of engagement on Supply Excellence has spurred us to experiment with other social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and various social networks. In fact, Ariba has been very deliberate in our development, monitoring, and participation in each online channel through which we engage the market. Each of these channels brings its own unique value, in its own unique way, to its own unique (albeit sometimes overlapping) audience .
A couple of examples:
We established a number of process based LinkedIn groups to listen to the issues, challenges, and approaches practitioners are using to drive efficient and effective performance.
· Based on feedback from our customers, we launched Ariba Exchange earlier this year to engage customers (and allow them to engage each other) , prospects and Ariba subject matter experts on how best to use Ariba solutions to achieve their business objectives and how to help shape future roadmap.
Ariba remains committed to providing forums and information to advance spend management and cash management performance. We are constantly monitoring feedback within (and outside) these channels to understand how to adapt our content, participation, and approach to meet the changing needs of our customers and the broader market. As a good steward and guide, Justin was merely (and will continue) to query members of these communities to understand their needs.
9 /pd // Apr 6, 2010 at 12:25 pm
ok its me again.. I found a backlink of mine, so I had to find out what’s being said about me etc..
The laws of engagement will force people to churn and turn too platforms where the crowds are. In fact, how many back links has this platform obtained on via (a) another blog; (b) on Twitter ; (c) on Facebook (d) linkedin ??
me thinks the value driven backlinks are not coming from other blogs , rather its coming from the social platforms !
Just my 2 cents
Leave a Comment