Today’s  “Theory and Practice” column in The Wall Street Journal was about the shelf life of CEOs’ “hunker down” strategies. It seems that the Great Recession inspired some leaders to innovate and seek customer or employee input. One example was Regus, PLC, a company that introduced several new pricing packages for its outsourced office space. The company held focus groups and discovered they were not providing the range of pricing and options desired by its customer base. Before the Great Recession, the company didn’t “bother” to seek customer insights very often. The customer-driven pricing models and packages not only were a success in winning back existing clients, but Regus also opened whole new markets.

Another example was Duke Energy who turned to their employee base for ideas on how to save an aggregate $100 million. The company met its goal and issued bigger bonuses, based on the economies achieved

The executives interviewed for the column claimed that these initiatives would survive past the economic downturn. To me, this is like seeking salvation on your death bed after ignoring your family for decades, and then living past Extreme Unction. While the death bed heroics may force the person to behave differently, imagine how much richer the repentant’s life would have been had s/he  practiced a few basic principles like listening, engaging with others and building meaningful relationships before they thought they were going to die!

All of us have experiences with companies every day that leave us stunned and wondering why we are not listened to and treated better. Just yesterday, I tried to print out a boarding pass from home. I had used miles to upgrade and owed a stipend for the privilege. Although I have a current credit card on file with the airline, and have been a member of their loyalty program since its inception, I was not allowed to pay online. Even though it clearly said on “my Itinerary” at the site that I was cleared for online check-in.  A call to the airline got this response, “Oh yeah, we get complaints about this all the time. Just go to the kiosk at the airport and use your credit card there.” As it was, I had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to make my flight and wanted to avoid any extra steps when I got there. But, no dice. It didn’t seem to matter to the airline that I was one of their “best customers”.

Obviously, I can only use miles to upgrade if I fly your airline a lot, which means I have an opinion about your products and services. Yet you have never asked me anything. Hello, are you listening? A whole bunch of your best customers have complained about the exact same thing. What are you doing to correct this, or at the very least “message” your online check-in process differently.

Maybe this airline will get religion on its deathbed. In the meantime, lots of smart companies are using both traditional and social channels for seeking customer insights. The really smart ones are acting on what they hear and engaging in real, meaningful conversations. It should not take a Great Recession for a company to decide to get ideas and feedback from customers, employees and other stakeholders. And, this behavior should not be rewarded as “innovation” by one of the most respected business papers around.

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Right before the holidays I had the honor of presenting at the All Services Social Media Conference, which was sponsored by The School of Continuing Studies at Georgetown University. The event was part of an ongoing initiative spearheaded by Colonel Kevin Arata to share social media experiences, best practices and approaches.

Lots of smart people and big thinkers presented at the conference. One of the best was Peter Klaus of Fleishman-Hillard’s Digital Media Team. He presented a case study about a program his team put together for the Department of Defense. Called That Guy, it uses an interactive social website as a pivot for a widespread campaign to curtail substance abuse in the military. One device is a set of clever interactive “trading cards’ that help a person self-identify as a specific species of “That Guy”: the comedian guy, the angry guy, the dancing guy, etc. (you know who you are!) The cards list behavior traits, link to video, provide a way to send the card to a friend who fits the description, and so on. The site uses every motivational and teaching device that appeals to its target including humor, games and even a bar calculator for those who are only motivated by their pocket book. Check it out; wonderful program.

Some other sessions were lead by Katie Paine (measurment0, Rohit Bhargava (engagement) and Andrew Krzmarzick of GovLoop.

I led a session about how to plan and build a strategic social marketing plan. The session sparked a lot of audience participation and of course, the interaction and shared learning among the participants was where the real value occurred. Representatives from across our armed services shared challenges that they face in managing and integrating disparate social media programs. I was blown away by the savvy and sophistication of the questions and insights of the group. At ComBlu, we work with a lot of experienced marketing teams of major corporations, and talk to countless others every week. Many of these conversations do not match the social media knowledge or maturation levels displayed by the mostly military audience at this conference.

I should not have been surprised. Look at the social programs the military uses for recruitment, addressing the concerns of parents and other family members, supporting the efforts of military commands, etc.These are just a few examples. There are many command social media sites, user generated communities for parents and families that are not sanctioned but supported by the military, Department of Defense programs, etc.

One observation about all this activity: just like their corporate counterparts, the military social media approach still seems to be one of “experimentation” or what we call “lots of bricks; no building”. Many public and private organizations have yet to create a social strategy mash-up. Our recent research shows that only 20% or so of major corporations exhibit a cohesive social marketing strategy. While this is starting to change, ultimately the full value of social marketing will only be realized when it is integrated and organized in a way that leverages brand value and offers stakeholders a easy, comfortable way to engage.

Our firm, ComBlu, hosted the Midwest regional judging of the WOMMy Awards a few weeks ago, which are sponsored by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). A group of judges from agencies, not-for-profit and big brands got to determine the bronze, silver and gold winners in the engagement category. It was very interesting to see the state of the art of word-of-mouth engagement programs. The entries ran the gambit from internal stakeholder engagement to big brand extravaganzas. The winners will be announced at WOMMA’s Summit in Los Vegas in mid-November so I can’t say much more about the entries or the winners.

One of the best parts of the day was meeting our fellow judges and hearing their perspectives and different takes on the entries, the industry and their own campaigns and programs. One judge was from a local university and mentioned that they had launched a community for parents a few years ago. She relayed how much they had learned over the past few years and talked about how their skills and point of view had morphed to meet the needs of this new social medium. She told a story that occurred early-on when a colleague commented, “There’s no activity in the community this week; isn’t that great?” We laughed because in this instance, of course, “no news is bad news.”

The whole point of the community is engagement with the parents, helping them have a great experience with the university and to feel secure that their children are in good hands. A great mission for a university-sponsored community. Her colleague was applying old school thinking to a new media solution. In the past, no interaction with the parents was equated with no complaints! In the community model, however, they want action and reaction. They want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly. They want to improve parent/university relations and learn from these constituents in real time. It’s a smart strategy; these parents will have a great story to tell other parents in their networks whose kids are considering this choice for higher ed.

This judge’s story was interesting; more so than some of the entries! Not all of them really had a lesson to teach, which I think is at the essence of what an award winning program must do. Award winners should model best practices against a defined business challenge as well as demonstrate exceptional ROI. They also need to be strategically brilliant and stun us with their creativity. Not necessarily their creative, but their creative execution of a well thought through strategy.

Many of the entries did just that while others are still representative of early efforts to give social marketing a whirl. Nothing wrong with that, but I was heartened to see how far the industry has come. Many of the entries demonstrated solid business results and used some tried and true techniques in unusual or new ways. That we have tried and true techniques alone speaks volumes of the growth and evolution of this marketing discipline. I can’t wait to hear about the winners in the other categories. I’ll share more insights from our group after the awards ceremony on November 18^th.