Time Flies

Wow, does time fly when you are having fun or what?? It seems just like yesterday I wrote my first blog and yet almost two months have flown by since my inaugural post. Life has thrown some curve balls these past 7 weeks that have allowed me to experience an array of emotions, learning and ultimately growth. This blog has become a friend to me in this journey and has helped me to stay energized, focused and confident that my next step will lead me towards achieving my ambition. Quite a bit has happened since I last wrote so lets get busy on what has changed in the technology and smart grid world since we last met.....

Smart Grid
The chatter on Smart Grid is getting louder as President-elect, Barack Obama and his transition team work to formulate agenda and policy details. Kathleen Hart wrote an article this week highlighting the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners meeting on November 16 in New Orleans. Given the President-elect's support for energy efficiency, hybrids, and smart grid develoment, FERC commissioner, Sudden Kelly stated there is an increasing interest among state and federal regulators in smart grid efforts. The US Dept. of Energy has agreed to fund a project that will act as a clearinghouse for analysis of lessons learned from smart grid pilot programs conducted in the US and Canada, with the intention of identifying barriers to cost-effective smart grid implementations helping regulators to make decisions on utility applications.

Mr. Kelly stated the key challenge to deployment is interoperability that will require additional push above and beyond FERC influence. Telecom and the Internet have experienced similar interoperability challenges presenting an opportunity for utilities and regulators to engage experts from those industries to help move forward with next generation infrastructure. Check out http://www.naruc.org/ and the http://www.oe.energy.gov/ sites for the latest smart grid information.

Next Generation Media
Exciting action this week in the world of next generation media, aka social media. Motrin launched an ad targeting "mama bloggers" and unfortunately the effort backlashed to the point that Motrin pulled the ad. The situation is unfortunate but is a great example of how important it is to understand how to use social media. The first rule when attempting to leverage the social media space is to understand it is a two way communication vehicle. A company must be willing to engage in conversation and not simply push their message. We are in an age where controlling your message is done through conversation, building a relationship with your customers, listening to their concerns and offering to address them.

Motrin missed out on turning this negative to a positive as they shut down the ad vs. opening themselves up to the conversation. I wonder what the result would have been if they had been actively monitoring feedback and engaging in conversations through the various social media channels such as Twitter. If asked, I would have suggested they open up a forum for conversation on their website so they could understand concerns, offer explanation for their ad selection and share what they were learning and how they might do it different next time. Instead, they shut down the ad, issued a day late dollar short press release and turned off mommies everywhere from using their product in the future.

The good news is there is a new company launching soon called LightThread right here in KC who will offer expertise to businesses to help them avoid a Motrin experience and instead utilize next generation media in a way that makes money vs. losing it. You can follow @LightThread on Twitter for upcoming launch announcements and contact information.

Enjoy your Wednesday and take care til we meet again soon!

Be who you are and learn to be better,
Lisa