CorpComms Magazine

Marshall Manson thinks that corporate communicators have a big, glaring flaw. 'We have to resist the temptation of falling in love with the latest bright, shiny object,' he states.

But the excitable North American, who is digital director at public relations agency Edelman UK, cannot help himself. 'If you held me to the ground and forced truth serum down my throat and asked me what the next big thing is, then it would have to be Google Wave,' he gushes.

'Google rounded up its best brains to look at the [online] communication landscape and asked them to re-imagine it. I think this is the most fascinating piece of technology to come out in many moons.'

Manson is one of many communicators who are rubbing their hands at the prospect of Wave. Jens and Lars, the Rasmussen brothers who created the hugely successful Google Maps, unveiled this dramatic new concept in social media during Google's annual conference in May.

The product, which will be free to use, is a hybrid of email, photograph sharing documents, existing social media, such as Twitter, instant messaging and much more.

It is based on the idea that this will create a much deeper and broader conversation between users, rather than just the write, read and reply system of a conventional email.

Being very technical folk, the Rasmussens first explained the concept via a blog, in which Lars wrote: 'In Google Wave you create a Wave and add people to it. Everyone on that Wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the Wave directly... Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content - it allows for both collaboration and persistent content.'

Communicators will have to wait a little while before getting their hands on the finished product. A small community of about 6,000 people are currently working on Wave, many of them developers trying to create useful applications ahead of a limited release to around 100,000 individuals and businesses this month.

Google hopes the grand launch will take place by the end of the year, though technical difficulties that currently result in about 25 per cent of Waves crashing will first have to be ironed out.

That gives communicators several months to draw up marketing and campaign plans for what is sure to become one of the most effective ways of reaching an audience. Facebook, which is a more limited social media outlet, is used by 83 of North America's 100 biggest advertisers, including sportswear company Nike and telecommunications giant AT&T, according to recent research from Havas Digital. Wave is likely to become even more significant for corporates promoting their messages.

Certainly, that is what Google would like the communications industry to think. Anthony House, UK communications and public affairs manager at Google UK, says that Wave will be 'very enterprise friendly', pointing out that the computer code for the project will be made freely available to businesses. Google makes money as Wave should encourage more people onto the web, so the company can attract new advertisers to its search engine.

Corporate blogging

House hints that some of the applications in development could be of particular interest to corporate campaigning. A blog programme is under construction, allowing people to add their thoughts to documents within a Wave.

So, if a company includes a Wave link on its home page to discuss a particular product, an individual can click on it and add their views. Tim Greenhalgh, consultant at online PR agency Liberate Media, uses the example of a press release. This could be issued as a Wave, allowing people to respond with ideas, questions and queries about the story. The release starts up a much broader conversation, one that could help corporates better understand the needs of their customers.

'Most forward-thinking communicators now realise that we have to join in a conversation, rather than simply lead a campaign,' says Greenhalgh.

New research backs up this argument. Paul Kennedy, head of consulting at Callcredit Marketing Solutions, says that his company has studied one billion conversations on social media outlets over the past two years to help clients devise their communications strategies.

What Kennedy has found is that traditional market research has become less effective. In particular, those aged between 15 and 25 years old do not act in a consistent way in focus groups.

Finding ways of quantifying candid comments on the Internet might be more effective. 'It could be that the runs on the banks could have been prevented through early warning signs in these messages [of people discussing emptying their accounts],' says Kennedy. 'Banks could have been on the front foot on how to respond.'

Conversational

Wave's conversations, with all manner of applications and social media on one screen, would be particularly instructive.

Antony Mayfield is head of content and media at digital marketing company iCrossing, which counts Coca-Cola and PR Newswire among its clients. He says that this hybrid approach will result in 'a richer experience' for all involved.

Recently, Mayfield gave a webinar presentation to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. During the presentation, he used his mobile phone to view the Twitter feedback his presentation was receiving. 'I got a better idea what people thought, so it was more in line with a real life presentation, where at least you can see people's reactions, if they are listening, or even if they are awake.' Mayfield says that a Wave, where all involved can make amendments to documents and reply to various points brought up throughout its history, will be like 'a conference call in three dimensions'. That same webinar would have involved far greater interaction.

He envisages successful campaigns gaining even greater attention. Mayfield cites the hugely popular Cadbury's gorilla campaign to promote Dairy Milk chocolate two years ago. The £6.2 million advertisement saw the beast bang the drums to the Phil Collins track In the air tonight.

Of the many gorilla advertisement appreciation groups on Facebook, the biggest has more than 13,100 members. Mayfield thinks that the creative team behind the campaign could create a Wave showing how they developed the idea, which could include original designs, emails and videos. People could then comment on what happened, helping to forge plans for future marketing plans.

On a similar theme, Kenny Fraser, media partner at big four accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers, argues that a chocolate bar wrapper could be designed through a Wave. The designers could make alterations and exchange concepts on the Wave and invite the public to help them with their own views and ideas.

'This would get people engaged in the product,' argues Fraser. 'You could also run a campaign by sending a Wave to, for example, 50,000 email addresses. You would try and make it viral by encouraging people to get their friends to join the Wave. Potentially corporate campaigning would be very effective as you wouldn't need a lot of personal data, just those email addresses.'

However, Fraser points out that the information on Wave is currently quite limited. He says that Wave seems to do 'some stuff that Facebook, Wikis and file sharing that other websites do'.

This is the great concern about Wave, that it simply won't meet the high expectations that have built up. iCrossing's Mayfield concedes that it is impossible to know how successful such a product will be, but he can't help enthusing. 'The guys who came up with Wave created Google maps, so they've got a track record,' he says.

Even if it disappoints, though, Wave will still be a step forward in social media, argues Edelman's Manson. 'If all it does is create a much more efficient instant messaging/email/social networking tool, then that will be itinerant progress.'

What Manson is hoping for, though, is a 'game changer'. Few envisaged that Twitter would revolutionise the way people keep in contact, but revolutionise media it has, be it through footballers moaning about not getting the transfers they want or singer Lily Allen tweeting of her attraction to an England cricketer.

There is far more pressure on Google Wave to deliver, and should it do so, corporate communicators will have to fundamentally change the way they reach their target audiences.

Wave by numbers

• The rumoured release date is 30 September
• 3.5 million people have watched the launch on YouTube
• 60 developers attended a 'hackathon' to test out the Wave
• It has taken two and a half years to develop
• Still in development stage, 25 per cent of Wave sessions end in a crash

share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet