Why All the Talk About Dog Food?

Have you ever heard the expression "eat your own dog food"? It's a funny-sounding concept that essentially means that one is "walking the talk," or leading by example.

For instance, a lot of well-known companies have talked about being "customer-focused," but how many really are? Unfortunately, just saying you're committed to doing something is dramatically different from actually doing it. There is no place where this idea is truer than in the world of social media and online communities.

A couple of months ago, Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, released the inaugural "Forrester Wave: Community Platforms" report (for Q1 2009). The report rates the top online community providers according to their tools, services, and methodologies. What the report doesn't do (and I'm not advocating that it should) is take into account how many of the companies reviewed in the report are "eating their own dog food."

Being the socially engaged person that Owyang is (there is no question as to whether he eats his own dog food), he announced the arrival of the "Forrester Wave: Community Platforms" report on his blog. In his post, he offered some color commentary on the process, the companies that were selected, and why those companies made the cut.

One of the first comments on his post asks whether Forrester has taken into account whether these social-tool providers are "walking the talk" by offering online communities to their customers; creating corporate blogs; and engaging with potential customers, prospects, and partners in social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter.

Though I was honored to be mentioned as an example of someone who does "eat his own dog food," it got me thinking about how important it is for companies and their customers who are engaged in social media to engage in those same practices.

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Aaron Strout is the chief marketing officer at Powered (www.powered.com).