As an independent contractor who has seen (and maybe influenced) the path of social media use inside of large corporations, I can say, "those guys GET IT."  I listened today to presentations from Home Depot, Sharpie, Proctor and Gamble, and Molson.  It was great to hear the stories of "try."  It was great to hear Molson admit past failures and how they leaped forward from what they learned. Sharpie is doing it on a shoe-string budget and making it work. 

All of these companies had great stories. 

I was a bit surprised that the Manager of Consumer Holistic Communications from P & G had a closed Twitter account.  Being open is a key to success, in my opinion.  In like manner, Home Depot was unable to share some information about their internal "Warehouse" social media effort.  I suspect the presenter, Nick Ayres, had a bit of a gag order placed on him.  If I were consulting there, I'd advise a more open stance.

My perspective changes when I try to imagine the consumption of Blogwell presentations as if I were leading a large corporation that is considering social media involvement.

It was great to hear companies talk about the issues that seem to rise inevitably out of any first social media effort at enterprise:

• Fear

• Legal

• HR

• Where to start

• ...and my favorite - ROI

If I were such a corporate leader, I would have walked away from Blogwell in Chicago with a new found energy.  The fear might still be there.  Knowing that my company is not walking on the moon for the first time would provide me enough comfort to press forward. 

What do I need next (as a company leader ) to step into this world?  I need patience.  I need a willingness to try.  I need some thought leaders from my company who might share my beliefs that social media is important.  And then, to quote Steve Bendt, I need to decide what kind of relationship I want to have with my employees and my customers.