If you're one of hardy souls who think there that Twitter has a bright future in the corporate world, you're bound to be encouraged by Niall Cook's Five steps to a successful corporate Twitter presence post which was viewed by than 2500 readers last week on The Customer Collective, SMT's community on sales and marketing.  Cook, who is Worldwide Director of Marketing Technology at Hill & Knowlton, one of the world's largest PR agencies, has earned a lot of credibility in the social media business, having been one of the first PR people to spot the potential of blogs. 

"I guess I was one of the early "PR bloggers" - that is someone working in PR, blogging about PR, although with a background as a graphic designer and software developer, I don't really consider myself a traditional PR guy," he says.  "Social media first grabbed my attention in 2002 when I was asked to tell Hill & Knowlton clients - some of the largest multi-national corporations in the world - what the biggest trend affecting reputation might be in the next five years. I look back now with a inner sense of smugness when I recall all the blank faces staring back at me when I told them it would be blogs."

He was also one of the first to recognize that blogging networks had far more reach and power than individual blogs standing alone.  One of his innovations at Hill & Knowlton’s was to create a community of blogs on one common platform called Collective Conversation and tie it to the Hill & Knowlton brand.  Its guidelines and registration process are a case study in how to encourage people to start blogging.

"Like any communication or marketing technology that reaches such adoption levels, social media is heading into mainstream," Cook says.  "By that I mean it will become another way of communicating, in the same way the printing press, the telegraph, telephones, faxes, email and cellular did. That's why it's so important that anyone involved in business not only understands it, but actively listens to what their customers are saying and participates as part of their wider marketing and communications strategies."  

But, unlike some counterparts who have become total social media Kool-Aid drinkers, Cook suggests a bit of caution is sometimes in order.  "My first consideration is always what it means for my clients - if there are risks, then I'll focus on those before the opportunities," he says.  "For big brands using social media, I think it's better to ask for permission than have to ask for forgiveness."

Although Cook works out of Hill & Knowlton's London office, his home is 180km away in rural Suffolk which he shares with his wife of 10 years, his 2-year old daughter, two Hungarian Wirehaired Viszla, one Tibetan Terrier, one cat and five chickens.  (The pygmy goats are arriving soon, he says.)

"What has social media done for me?  For one, it's made me - and thus my clients - smarter," he says. I"'d like to think that it's done the same for my colleagues who have taken to blogging, either through their own blogs or on the platform we created specifically to help them understand the medium and advise their clients about it based on "real" experience. Personally, it's also got me opportunities to speak all over the world - as well as a new book--Enterprise 2.0: How social software will change the future of work, published in July this year.