That willingness to interact spreads to their PR team as well; Icrontic and other review sites have had great interactions with AMD reps over the years; they have always been willing to work with the enthusiast community, have always supported smaller sites with review hardware, and are great to deal with in almost every way. We've even had beers with AMD executives.
Weren't you sparring with @IntelNick just the other day, Cliffy?
A good read, and one hopes some other companies will also get people talking and listening to the masses. Hell, even Comcast started giving some reps the ability to really talk to their customers...
First, I am realy grateful for the platform Icrontic has provided me with, thanks all!!
@IntelNick does seem like a good sport. He was just defending the G45 integrated graphics against the AMD 780G/790G, obviously a tough position for him to be in. To be fair, he does seem very approachable, even if his company would prefer him to stay away from controversial industry topics.
We don't want to limit this new ideal for doing business to companies like AMD and Intel. I want to see a whole host of corporations make this effort. I am going to do some research and see who else is making that effort. I do see Antec's VP posting from time to time, and he comments back, he seems like a good sport. It will be nice if the day comes when talking to a large corporation about your thoughts and ideas as a consumer is never more than a tweet or a blog comment away.
I think smart companies will head in that direction, and I think AMD is off to a good start.
I agree with the last statement made by Cliff. Its not just about computers, even mobile phone service providers have started this.
To be honest, haven't had any encounters with Intel as of now.
The day Patrick was following me on twitter I was talking about it for atleast another 24 hours.
It makes a lot of difference to a customer when a company jumps the walls and comes to a place where he spends most of his time eg:- Twiiter.
Because of this article I finally went on Twitter. I can now honestly say, without a doubt, I'm getting old. Because after 10 minutes of browsing, searching, and clicking, I still have no clue what the big deal is about twitter.
It makes a lot of difference to a customer when a company jumps the walls and comes to a place where he spends most of his time eg:- Twiiter.
I could not agree more.
I respect AMD's movement into SM for two reasons:
1) I am first and foremost a customer in the semiconductor industry. I buy CPUs, motherboards and video cards like any other customer. I care about getting parts that I know will be built and supported at a high level of quality. If the trends stay the course, my next video card will very likely be a Radeon, and it's nice to know I'll have an open line if something goes wrong.
2) I am part of the fine staff trying to grow Icrontic into a profitable, career-making operation. A great part of fulfilling this role relies on having access to an endless stream of <i>information</i>. The very best kind of information comes straight from the horse's mouth. It's reassuring to know that I'm 140 characters away from the hard facts with at least one major industry player.
I can assure you that being stonewalled while trying to acquire facts and review samples that would generate nothing but positive press is quite frustrating.
Thank you, AMD, for being open and honest with us... The consumers and the reviewers.
Stick with twitter for a little while, see if you find value in it after giving it a fair shot. Start by adding the Icrontic guys, and I can suggest some really good tech people to follow.
Once you get into it, its really an addictive experience. The instant gratification it offers, and its simplicity is second to none.
Not to mention the new friends you can make. Without twitter, I would probably never have stumbled onto Icrontic, so its added allot of value for me personally.
Don't write it off, give it at least a week or two of day to day evaluation, see if you make a few new friends, or find some creative uses for the service. Its so simple, yet so amazing.
I really believe honesty, integrity, and transparency are key. I want us to follow these rules and not just hope that we don't get caught. The other element of this is not to make it personal.
I REALLY appreciate the post and all of the comments. Social media is new to AMD and I, and we have learned a lot along the way. In a medium that is changing weekly, establishing basic operating principles like honesty, integrity, and transparency are key.
The other principle we follow is called "fast-fail." This means trying out a lot of stuff quickly, learning from it, then share the experiences. One by-product is that we will make mistakes. Mistakes are expected, and we expect to learn from our mistakes. As in life, no one is perfect, and in the fast-paced world of boards, blogs, etc., it’s hard to be an expert for more than a week.
The real secret to social media success for organizations is this:
Social Media is not a "trick", nor a bag of tricks, nor a single formula that can be plugged in.
Social media is a philosophy; you either "get it" or you don't, both on an individual level and a corporate level; More and more companies are "getting it", including AMD, Comcast, Dell, Biggby Coffee, Zappos, etc.. Others aren't. And it shows.
0
LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited March 2009
Patrick Moorhead.
If this is the real Patrick Moorhead, I must say that the social media effort from AMD is not just PR talk, but real action.
Mr. Moorhead, it's a pleasure to have you post here. You are welcomed here anytime!
Patrick has issued the Icrontic community a little challenge to see if we can all be part of the battery life metric solution. I am going to write a follow up post with an idea to facilitate the discussion.
I imagine some of the folks here will have ideas far better than mine. Take a day, brainstorm. How do you use your laptop? What would a good testing regimen be? Who should be held accountable for the accuracy of the statistics? How would you like the stats reported? Think about it, I will be posting the follow up shortly and once we have some realy good discussion and ideas we are going to challenge AMD to run them up the ladder, and eventualy implement improvements with their partners.
Offline from Icrontic, I have had a few folks challenge the AMD strategy to say "you know, the only reason they do this is to make Intel look bad", While that might seem like a reasonable objective for AMD, I think there is more to it than that, and as consumers of tech products, we should challenge them to prove it. Personally, I have faith, I realy think social media in corporate space is something new and exciting, I think its going to lead to better relationships, and ultimately better products for all of us.
Welcome Patrick... as you will come to find out, we are a great group of friends spread out all over the spectrum. Ex-military, government workers, research field, high school, college, 20-something, 30, 40, 50, and I think a few 60-somethings... From USA, Canada, UK, South Africa, Korea, Australia... Regardless of your status with AMD, stick around and you'll find us covering about every topic under the sun.
I will reply directly to your blog, but felt this was also worth sharing at Icrontic.
If your main argument is that its unprofessional to be a little "snarky", I think we should all grow a thicker skin. Intel is the giant of the semi conductor industry, I am certain that they have a thick enough skin to handle a "snarky" comment from time to time. I also think we are all smart enough to gauge what that means to us in terms of any brands image.
As a consumer, what I really want from someone like Patrick Moorhead, is for him to be himself. Have a pulse, have a soul, have the guts to say something unpopular from time to time. Personally I think its exciting that because of twitter, I now have access to a VP level corporate executive at a company that I find exciting. A few company's are doing this now, with various rules of engagement. Personally, I like AMD's approach. That being said, I have no direct expectations for Patrick outside of him being honest, which I believe he strives to do. There is something to be said for taking a risk in connecting with the community that butters your bread. It can backfire, and AMD knows it, but they choose to peel back the corporate onion and let these smart talented people engage the audience on their own terms. There is something to be said for that. You know what your getting with a company that takes that approach.
In an attempt to outreach to Intel I contacted their social media strategist via twitter. To be fair, Brian Rhodes may have been under the impression that I was trying to ambush him, because frankly, my editorial is slanted as pro AMD. That being said, he took no risk in engaging me, instead just supplied the sterile link to their published strategy. I asked if he would be willing to have an expert at AMD engage in the battery life discussion that we may roll out on the forum here. He has not responded.
Why are you a bad guy if you value honesty over sensitivity? Why is that unprofessional, especially if what your saying has merit, and I believe what AMD is saying in the battery life argument has allot of merit.
Ed, are you honestly saying that irreverent bloggers are the only people in the world allowed to exhibit some raw uncensored humanity?
Ir0x0r, I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that you're off to an awesome start. Your entries about Mr. Bennett fail (entirely) to surprise the lot of us who have been doing this for a very long time; thanks for speaking out about the bullshit, and thanks for stopping by Icrontic.
And @Mr. Borden:
Clearly we disagree on the direction AMD is taking in their pursuit of a new public relations strategy, but I respect that your voice in expressing your malcontent with it. It's my hope that you visit us in the future. I will certainly be visiting you.
0
LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited April 2009
Ed and ir0x0r, both of you - welcome to Icrontic. Stick around, OK?
AMD's outreach is certainly professional as an BS commercial advertising, whether for coffee, an automobile, or an MP3 player.
I'll take the blogs, social media, and forum participation ANY DAY, ANY TIME over traditional advertising and so called news releases as long as the participants give disclosure of their affiliation. Wanna talk about low, misleading, and designed for a low common denominator - that's the good old, traditional way. If AMD wants to give the market a warm and fuzzy through a more personable approach, even if not completely genuine, I welcome it over the predictable and stale.
My view... I view Tweets and chats as semi-official forms of communication. Yes they should maintain some professional demeanor but I also expect a more relaxed environment. A press release is not interactive and the vast majority of consumers are unable to directly talk with company leaders unless they live close to their corp offices or near a conference. Twitter is a great way to communicate and directly with enthusiasts.
If anything, we're at least exploring the fact that social media is dynamic enough that different people can want completely and dramatically different things out of it.
I'm going to try to get specific and see if I can't write up a proposed AMD social media strategy, maybe to explore even for myself what I'm really talking about.
This is article is an interesting find. I recently found my self discussing hardware with some people on twitter, only to realize they were AMD employees. It is pretty cool that they are out there and are really interacting with the consumers. It says a lot about the company and makes it hard not to want to be loyal to them.
Cliff_Forster
Icrontian
Comments
A good read, and one hopes some other companies will also get people talking and listening to the masses. Hell, even Comcast started giving some reps the ability to really talk to their customers...
@IntelNick does seem like a good sport. He was just defending the G45 integrated graphics against the AMD 780G/790G, obviously a tough position for him to be in. To be fair, he does seem very approachable, even if his company would prefer him to stay away from controversial industry topics.
We don't want to limit this new ideal for doing business to companies like AMD and Intel. I want to see a whole host of corporations make this effort. I am going to do some research and see who else is making that effort. I do see Antec's VP posting from time to time, and he comments back, he seems like a good sport. It will be nice if the day comes when talking to a large corporation about your thoughts and ideas as a consumer is never more than a tweet or a blog comment away.
I think smart companies will head in that direction, and I think AMD is off to a good start.
To be honest, haven't had any encounters with Intel as of now.
The day Patrick was following me on twitter I was talking about it for atleast another 24 hours.
It makes a lot of difference to a customer when a company jumps the walls and comes to a place where he spends most of his time eg:- Twiiter.
I could not agree more.
I respect AMD's movement into SM for two reasons:
1) I am first and foremost a customer in the semiconductor industry. I buy CPUs, motherboards and video cards like any other customer. I care about getting parts that I know will be built and supported at a high level of quality. If the trends stay the course, my next video card will very likely be a Radeon, and it's nice to know I'll have an open line if something goes wrong.
2) I am part of the fine staff trying to grow Icrontic into a profitable, career-making operation. A great part of fulfilling this role relies on having access to an endless stream of <i>information</i>. The very best kind of information comes straight from the horse's mouth. It's reassuring to know that I'm 140 characters away from the hard facts with at least one major industry player.
I can assure you that being stonewalled while trying to acquire facts and review samples that would generate nothing but positive press is quite frustrating.
Thank you, AMD, for being open and honest with us... The consumers and the reviewers.
Stick with twitter for a little while, see if you find value in it after giving it a fair shot. Start by adding the Icrontic guys, and I can suggest some really good tech people to follow.
Once you get into it, its really an addictive experience. The instant gratification it offers, and its simplicity is second to none.
Not to mention the new friends you can make. Without twitter, I would probably never have stumbled onto Icrontic, so its added allot of value for me personally.
Don't write it off, give it at least a week or two of day to day evaluation, see if you make a few new friends, or find some creative uses for the service. Its so simple, yet so amazing.
BTW Welcome to Icrontic!!
The other principle we follow is called "fast-fail." This means trying out a lot of stuff quickly, learning from it, then share the experiences. One by-product is that we will make mistakes. Mistakes are expected, and we expect to learn from our mistakes. As in life, no one is perfect, and in the fast-paced world of boards, blogs, etc., it’s hard to be an expert for more than a week.
Social Media is not a "trick", nor a bag of tricks, nor a single formula that can be plugged in.
Social media is a philosophy; you either "get it" or you don't, both on an individual level and a corporate level; More and more companies are "getting it", including AMD, Comcast, Dell, Biggby Coffee, Zappos, etc.. Others aren't. And it shows.
If this is the real Patrick Moorhead, I must say that the social media effort from AMD is not just PR talk, but real action.
Mr. Moorhead, it's a pleasure to have you post here. You are welcomed here anytime!
I imagine some of the folks here will have ideas far better than mine. Take a day, brainstorm. How do you use your laptop? What would a good testing regimen be? Who should be held accountable for the accuracy of the statistics? How would you like the stats reported? Think about it, I will be posting the follow up shortly and once we have some realy good discussion and ideas we are going to challenge AMD to run them up the ladder, and eventualy implement improvements with their partners.
Offline from Icrontic, I have had a few folks challenge the AMD strategy to say "you know, the only reason they do this is to make Intel look bad", While that might seem like a reasonable objective for AMD, I think there is more to it than that, and as consumers of tech products, we should challenge them to prove it. Personally, I have faith, I realy think social media in corporate space is something new and exciting, I think its going to lead to better relationships, and ultimately better products for all of us.
This seems like a cool community you have going here, bravo. A very good slice Thrax! With the many sites popping up today, I love the vibe here.
I will promise you guys a BS-free zone from me when I come here. There is too much processed info and none of you need any of that.
AMD... I applaud the effort and initiative.
To those that are in that same sphere. Average Joe isn't, so it doesn't matter to him/her as much, if at all.
http://www.edbordenblog.com/2009/03/amd-case-study-how-not-to-use-social.html
I will reply directly to your blog, but felt this was also worth sharing at Icrontic.
If your main argument is that its unprofessional to be a little "snarky", I think we should all grow a thicker skin. Intel is the giant of the semi conductor industry, I am certain that they have a thick enough skin to handle a "snarky" comment from time to time. I also think we are all smart enough to gauge what that means to us in terms of any brands image.
As a consumer, what I really want from someone like Patrick Moorhead, is for him to be himself. Have a pulse, have a soul, have the guts to say something unpopular from time to time. Personally I think its exciting that because of twitter, I now have access to a VP level corporate executive at a company that I find exciting. A few company's are doing this now, with various rules of engagement. Personally, I like AMD's approach. That being said, I have no direct expectations for Patrick outside of him being honest, which I believe he strives to do. There is something to be said for taking a risk in connecting with the community that butters your bread. It can backfire, and AMD knows it, but they choose to peel back the corporate onion and let these smart talented people engage the audience on their own terms. There is something to be said for that. You know what your getting with a company that takes that approach.
In an attempt to outreach to Intel I contacted their social media strategist via twitter. To be fair, Brian Rhodes may have been under the impression that I was trying to ambush him, because frankly, my editorial is slanted as pro AMD. That being said, he took no risk in engaging me, instead just supplied the sterile link to their published strategy. I asked if he would be willing to have an expert at AMD engage in the battery life discussion that we may roll out on the forum here. He has not responded.
Why are you a bad guy if you value honesty over sensitivity? Why is that unprofessional, especially if what your saying has merit, and I believe what AMD is saying in the battery life argument has allot of merit.
Ed, are you honestly saying that irreverent bloggers are the only people in the world allowed to exhibit some raw uncensored humanity?
The quote I like the most is, "There are no experts here. Get in, have a simple strategy, hurry up and make mistakes."
I think AMD is spot on with what they are doing and woe to the competitor that doesn't get on the train.
And @Mr. Borden:
Clearly we disagree on the direction AMD is taking in their pursuit of a new public relations strategy, but I respect that your voice in expressing your malcontent with it. It's my hope that you visit us in the future. I will certainly be visiting you.
AMD's outreach is certainly professional as an BS commercial advertising, whether for coffee, an automobile, or an MP3 player.
I'll take the blogs, social media, and forum participation ANY DAY, ANY TIME over traditional advertising and so called news releases as long as the participants give disclosure of their affiliation. Wanna talk about low, misleading, and designed for a low common denominator - that's the good old, traditional way. If AMD wants to give the market a warm and fuzzy through a more personable approach, even if not completely genuine, I welcome it over the predictable and stale.
My view... I view Tweets and chats as semi-official forms of communication. Yes they should maintain some professional demeanor but I also expect a more relaxed environment. A press release is not interactive and the vast majority of consumers are unable to directly talk with company leaders unless they live close to their corp offices or near a conference. Twitter is a great way to communicate and directly with enthusiasts.
I'm going to try to get specific and see if I can't write up a proposed AMD social media strategy, maybe to explore even for myself what I'm really talking about.
I think there's a better way.