The big news in the world of social media today is the departure of Dell’s social media chief, Bob Pearson, who will now be batting as part of The Blog Council. If you’re not familiar with The Blog Council, it’s a industry group that focuses on social media. Members are leaders in social media and corporate executives who work in social media. The Blog Council is led by Andy Sernovitz, word-of-mouth marketing guru extraordinaire.
This is great news for The Blog Council. It’s always great to be able to attach a big-name company to something. It should also provide Pearson with a greater ability to actually lead social media efforts rather than being stuck under a corporate structure that is inevitably cumbersome to innovation. I’m sure his efforts met many roadblocks during his time with Dell. Nothing against Dell – that’s just how big corporations are. They can’t get out of their own way.
But I think Pearson said it best himself. In an article on BrandWeek.com today, Pearson was quoted as saying,
“The biggest challenge is what I call the antibodies,” Pearson said. “Every organization has them, and the larger ones have more. These are the people still trying to do things like they’ve done the last 10 or 20 years. They tend not to say no but not to say yes. They have lots of ways to stop progress with a smile.”
So true.
All I can say is it’s a great time to be involved in social media!
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.
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Loved the quote about “antibodies” and so true. I work in IT and you should’ve seen the “non fits” people threw when server virtualization with VMware was being adopted at a large Fortune 100 company. Sometimes being a pioneer sucks, but someone has to do it.