The Social Media Marketing Blog: social media

Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts

Friday, July 18, 2008

Just What Is Social Media, Anyway?

When I begin to enthusiastically tell people that I work in social media, they typically look at me with a blank stare and ask, "What's social media?"

And my response is usually something somewhat descriptive, incorporating words like "blogs" or "Facebook" if I want them to follow what I'm saying. But when pressed to make it relevant for someone - it usually takes a longer exposition.

I'm assuming that since you're a reader, you have at least a few minutes to share with me. Given that you do, here's a really great slideshow from Marta Kagan, who posted it on Slideshare. Warning: there are modestly censored obscenities.

What The F**K is Social Media?

view presentation (tags: socialmediamarketing marketing web2.0 socialmedia)

If you think this is a great presentation (and given that some 27,000 people have viewed it, I think it's safe to assume it is), you might consider voting for it in Slideshare's World's Best Presentation contest.

World's Best Presentation Contest

How about you. How do you succinctly explain social media to the unwashed masses?

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Thank You, My Friends

This is the last post I'll be writing from the Boston area - or at least as a full-time resident of the Boston area - for the foreseeable future. I've lived in the region for 20 years and I've developed a number of friends and colleagues in the area, many through the advent of social media over the last couple of years.

Last night, I was roasted by a number of people who were kind enough to give up their Friday night and turn out for a very unique and memorable event. Instigated by none other than Chris Brogan and flawlessly orchestrated by John Wall, I was the recipient of fun-filled barbs at my expense.

Admittedly, I'm an easy target for a roast, but when stacked up against the auto industry and Detroit, there's an abundance of material. Last night's roasters spared no expense. They included:

Susan Getgood - was a fine dinner companion who refrained from flinging insults at the end of the evening.
Todd Van Hoosear - a man with Michigan roots himself, he set me up with the 3-1-3 gang hand gesture that might get me out of a jam if caught in downtown Detroit
John Wall - who noted that my new color a crayon should be "turd brown"
Laura "Pistachio" Fitton - who still thinks there's an opportunity to monetize our Twitter concept
Chris Brogan - who thought that crayon's thinning ranks should result in the company renaming itself "pencil"
Adam Zand - favoring his Elton glasses, he played the Henry-Ford-was-a-Nazi card
Len Edgerly - a class act, if ever I met one, he used skills akin to Sherlock Holmes to deduce why I would choose to go to Ford
Doug Haslam - he compared me to that other Renaissance man, George Plimpton, leaving me with a copy of Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback. He also showed a copy of my crayon resignation letter:

John manned the control panel and took care of the audio recording of the entire event. I've got to say, I have a very funny and talented group of friends who unleashed without mercy. Since I've got a good sense of humor, I took it all in the spirit it was meant, but I also got a chance to offer a rebuttal.

If you're not familiar with the concept of a roast, check out the Wikipedia definition. According to tradition at the Friars Club, "we only roast the ones we love."

I'm reminded of what the Wizard said to the Tin Man about his heart:

A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.

And after last night, my heart is filled with gratitude for the tribute paid to me by my friends, and not a little sadness for leaving Boston behind. It's a major hotbed of social media, with many bright, creative and selfless people. It's not going to be the same without you.

Farewell, my Boston friends. I look forward to many more interactions, both online and off, where I'm sure we'll continue our collaborations and our friendship.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

New WOM Concept: Shhh!

I don't know if it's a trend or if it's a clever way of handling a word-of-mouth (WOM) campaign, but I thought it deserved at least a passing mention.

There have been a couple of outreach efforts lately that have encouraged the comments of online influencers, but have requested the influencers to avoid mentioning the product being promoted.

When I was at crayon, this is the approach that we used when we encouraged 25 influential bloggers, podcasters and authors to use ooVoo. We wanted the technology to simply enable their conversations, rather than to be the focus of it, so we told them there was no requirement to talk about ooVoo, but instead, they should avoid it. The hero was conversation, not the client or the product.

I recently learned of Lenovo's sponsorship of the Summer Olympics that incorporates 100 athletes blogging about their experiences under the title "Voices of the Olympic Games." Ogilvy's Digital Influence group recruited 100 athletes from more than 30 sports and 25 countries, gave them all a Lenovo laptop and Flip camera and helped them to all start a blog or continue their existing blog, chronicling their experience at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Ogilvy/Lenovo let the athletes know that there is no requirement to post positive opinions about Lenovo. The aim of this outreach, according to Rohit Bhargava, SVP of Digital Strategy at Ogily, is "to offer our technology to help them share their voices just as Lenovo is providing the technology to power the Athlete's Village at the actual games in Beijing."

As long as the influencers disclose any relationship with sponsors, I think this is a solid and unobtrusive way to execute some WOM campaigns.

Photo credit: caitlinburke

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Care to Help a Friend?

Here's a cause you can get behind, and all you need is an eBay account. As I've been the recipient of my community's generosity before, I like to promote and participate in other similar efforts whenever possible. It comes down to the old phrase, "In order to have a friend, you need to be a friend."

My friend Dave Delaney, who you can find on Twitter as @davedelaney or on his blog Dave Made That and his podcast Two Boobs and a Baby +, recently finished up a stint at Emma. But as fate would have it, a month later, they've come calling for their computer, which Dave thought was part of his severance package.

That's not good news in any social media consultant's world, especially when it's a Macbook Pro. Dave is scrambling to put together some funds to make the new purchase, but obviously he wasn't prepared for it (not to mention that the "baby +" part of the equation means other priorities). So, he's put his brains and creativity to use and come up with a way for the community to help him out.

He's got an eBay auction running where you can bid on the magic card used in his 8,000th tweet video (seen below). This is the perfect chance to help out a guy who has my full endorsement. Head on over and throw in a bid and let's see if we can get Dave up toward his goal!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Why I'm Blue

In branding and design, color plays an important role in evoking emotions. It also plays a key role in my life - in general, as well as at crayon, where I'm fortunate enough to be called "Consigliere."

When I joined crayon, I chose Midnight Blue as my official color - I believe I explained that here previously. It's the color of my blog, of one of the many sports coats you'll see me in, and a color that tends to inspire the sort of impression from clients that a consultant wants.

According to Brain Based Biz, Blue signifies:

Confidence, travel, freedom, truth, professionalism, wealth and power. Also tranquility, dependable, acceptance, patience, understanding, cooperation, comfort, loyalty and security. It is one of the most calming colors and is associated with the sky and the sea, intelligence, reassurance, and trust.

In short, it's a traditional, conservative and corporate color.

So perhaps it should be no surprise that my corporate genes have finally gotten the better of me and I'll be leaving the startup life at crayon to join the very blue corporate ranks. In fact, I'll be joining a company that's got one of the most recognized logos in the world incorporating the color blue. Next month, I'll be joining Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), to head the social media efforts there.

My time with crayon has been rewarding as I've had the opportunity to work with some marketing and social media greats like Joseph Jaffe, Greg Verdino, C.C. Chapman, Steve Coulson, Gary Cohen, while just missing working with Shel Holz and Neville Hobson. And it's been gratifying working with clients like Coca-Cola, American Airlines, Audi, ooVoo and more, who are all experimenting with conversational marketing in one form or another.

Now I'll have the opportunity to work with another talented team of communications executives at Ford, as well as Maggie Fox and the Social Media Group, who have been so successful in launching Digital Snippets with Ford.

Of course, it means leaving the Boston area and relocating out to Dearborn. There are so many friends and colleagues that I'll be leaving behind, particularly in the social media field. Having been here for nearly 20 years, it's going to be difficult to move on. You might even say I'm feeling a little blue.

But I'm looking forward to new friends and opportunities, and the prospect of building a solid digital communications strategy from within a company, making a difference to customers, employees, partners and stakeholders. It's going to be a nice ride.

Photo credit: Financial Aid Podcast

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Twitter Does It Again

If you're still doubting the use of or need for Twitter, this is the post for you. I'm constantly amazed at what a powerful personal and professional network it is for me. When it's working (which has been sporadic of late), it can transform the way you think about relationships.

Let me give you a real-life example.

Earlier this week, I headed down to New York to see a client. I usually do day trips on the Acela, but this time, I had an evening commitment and I needed to be in Washington, DC the following day. So the day before, I went online to find a hotel room in the city - which is usually not a problem, especially with the last-minute travel sites.

Only this time, it was different. No rooms in the city were to be had for under $800. I could stay at a hotel near the airport, but my commitments required me to be other places in the city, so it would be a logistical nightmare (and expensive) to stay near the airport. What to do? I turned to Twitter, of course.

Many people in my network were willing to help - I received replies directly on Twitter and private direct messages. Suggestions ranged from specific hotels they knew to areas of the city to consider, all the way to someone who pulled up a specific price quote on a room for me. The problem was, all of these places were sold out.
As I was waiting, I tweeted:

Well, I learned never to underestimate the power of the crowd. Tim Peter (@tcpeter) came forward to say:

Turns out he is working with a group that does luxury reservations and this was their impetus to start a Twitter account (@luxres). I received a tweet from them asking how they could help, and within the next 15 minutes, they got me a reservation at the Mansfield, a boutique hotel in midtown Manhattan. Perfect! While the price was a little more than I wanted to spend, it was nowhere near the gouging for some of the rooms I had seen.

Thanks to a well-connected and attentive community, I was able to keep myself off of a Central Park bench for the night. It just goes to show, that if you take them time to invest in relationships and being a valued member of a community, it can work in your favor when you need it.

Special thanks to (a bunch of people you should be following on Twitter): @tcpeter, @luxres, @chelpixie, @SavvyAuntie, @DonnaPapacosta, @Spangles, @joec0914, @adamcohen, @stevemann, and @ParentopiaDevra.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Social Media in Plain English

I've been writing about social media for almost two years. But I still have to explain what social media is to people who aren't familiar with marketing and communications. Well, maybe even to some who are familiar with the marketing and communications...

Anyway, leave it to the good folks at Common Craft to give us Social Media in Plain English. As usual, they do a fine job of taking the complex and making it understandable.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Segway Goes Social

I've often said, "The last thing the world needs is another social network." And while I stand by that statement from a broad perspective (think Facebook, MySpace or Bebo), I think my advice can be ignored when it comes to an integrated, vertical approach to online communities. And I've got a perfect example.

Segway Social - the social network current and future Segway scooter owners.

The revolutionary two-wheel self-balancing vehicle was introduced in 2001 by inventor Dean Kamen to much acclaim. Since that time, there have been numerous ways that customers have either created their own or requested customized versions. So what better way to find out about some of these than to connect users with each other, so see what they're up to and how they use their Segways?

There are some nice features on the site, including a wall for news, an interactive map, the ability to create groups, and a photo section. While it was initially launched with photos from Segway's Flickr photostream, there's the ability for users to add their own photos in as well. One of my favorite features is the ability for users to add their own "Glides," or Segway routes that they've discovered or created. These can be displayed on that map feature.

There are also sections that allow Segway users to share tips & tricks with each other in a wiki-like platform, and a calculator to see how you're saving the environment by not using a gas-powered vehicle. Naturally, you can create your own profile and participate in the message boards/forums as well.

The site has a really clean and fresh design and a logo that I really like. If you had to compare it to the product itself, I'd say it's a great fit - balanced, intuitive, and very cool.

My friends & colleagues at Plaid - the interactive agency that did such a stellar job with the My ooVoo Day With... site (ooVoo being a client of crayon, my employer) - designed the site for Segway. An interesting side note is how they actually got the business.

Last year, they took an appropriately designed van on tour across the eastern U.S. and called it Plaid Nation, stopping in at various locations, sometimes announced, sometimes unannounced. The stop at Segway headquarters in New Hampshire was not announced in advance, but the cold call, coupled with Plaid's ability to understand and navigate the social media space, was significantly impressive enough to convince the marketing team at Segway that Plaid was worth bringing on board. Wanna see how fun it is to work at Plaid? Check this out.

This year, Plaid Nation '08 kicks off on July 21 and is based on the west coast. I'm sure there are going to be some great tales from the road that they'll chronicle as they fulfill their mission of "spreading social media, one cheap motel at a time."

Hmm. I wonder if they'll be packing their office Segway in that van...

Saturday, April 19, 2008

My Social Media Birthday

A number of bloggers write entries about the anniversary of their blogs, or note some milestone achievement. But this post is a little different. Keeping in what I suppose you've come to know me for, this is more personal.

Yesterday was my birthday. Now, I'm not someone who makes a big deal out of his day (a former colleague used to celebrate his "birthday month," to stretch out the fun), but I'm not one to shy away from admitting when I have one, either.

But this year, I have more of a reason to celebrate. It's because of you - my community, my social network. This is the first birthday I've had since I've truly been an active and recognized member of the social media field, so when I have my birthday listed on my Facebook profile, it should have been no surprise that many people would come out of the woodwork to wish me a happy birthday via Twitter, Facebook, emails and direct messages.

I tried to respond to everyone personally, but it was tough to keep up with. I apologize if I missed you. But I'd like to publicly thank everyone here by pulling an Amanda Gravel - a very savvy and community-minded acknowledgment that you mean a great deal to me and that you should try to connect to each other, if you aren't already connected.

To wit, here are the Twitter handles of everyone who reached out to me today. Start following!

Thanks to: @ldpodcast, @DougH, @jljohansen, @gradontripp, @SavvyAuntie, @charlierobinson, @kolsen29, @arunrajagopal, @ModaMags, @Pistachio, @adelemcalear, @WasatchGirl, @jackhodgson, @MaThurrell, @davidberkowitz, @Armano, @jaffejuice, @MattDickman, @KyleFlaherty, @jtnt, @EdenSpodek, @asimpson, @pamelump, @kimhaynes, @KristaNeher, @danieljohnsonjr, @ChrisShouse, @swhitley, @melgallant, @krislynch, @nathantwright, @shey, @kristiewells, @saulcolt, @JasonFalls, @eileen53, @jackvinson, @tarable, @SheilaS, @changstein, @Kristin_Gorski, @lizstrauss, @jstorerj, @susanreynolds, @darrylohrt, @Exsec2u, @hardaway, @nickhuhn, @mousewords, @chrisbrogan, @sMoRTY71, @TobyDiva, @GeoffLiving, @mdy, @BeckyMcCray, @TDefren, @gracepiano, @BryanPerson, @jjtoothman, @sass, @Dayngr, @CathleenRitt, @misterboh, @drewmclellan, @jeffglasson, @danschawbel, @BrianReich, @davedelaney, @davidjhinson, @alvinfoo

Thank you all for making it a truly happy birthday!

Photo courtesy of LaughingSquid

Friday, April 18, 2008

From Mundane to Engaging: How One Man Does It

A couple of weeks ago, I said that conversation was like the weather. It's ubiquitous, and marketers seem to be the only ones interested in talking or doing anything about it (while everyone else just HAS conversations).

But it got me to thinking about something we probably all take for granted, but rarely have a reason to talk about: the weather forecast itself. You probably can't count the number of times you turned on the TV in the morning to catch a glimpse of the 5-day forecast, or dialed TellMe (1-800-555-TELL) and asked for "weather," or clicked on Accuweather.com or Weather.com for your local forecast.

Local matters
In weather and in social media, local content and connections are part of what make them relevant to us. People care about the communities in which they live and invest a great deal of time, energy and money there. To wit: the Newspaper Association of America just announced that over $2 billion was spent last year on local advertising on newspaper web sites. Why? Because it's targeted, it's relevant, and it connects people to the world immediately around them. If content is king, local content is the emperor.

Now think about how you interact with some social media connections. You're likely to have a network from around the globe - whether you're an individual or a business. But the relationships that you build based on repeated interactions and sharing of content, information and insights - those are brought to the next level when you meet face to face. A sales call, a Tweetup, or a social event in your locality make the interaction even more relevant and create the opportunity for deepening the relationship.

What's the weather got to do with it?
When it comes to the weather, you're really only interested in the conditions where you live or where you're traveling. And you generally don't care how you get your information, as long as it's accurate. Sure, you may develop a one-sided "trusted" relationship with a particular weatherman, but I'll wager you don't think much about the actual presentation of the forecast - seemingly a commodity.

Well, I've got to tell you that every day in various markets on Accuweather.com, there is a remarkable weather forecast. If you haven't had the chance to see Jim Kosek in action, here's your chance. He's bringing passion and creativity to his job and in the process is taking something the boring and making it truly engaging.

What I like the most about this story is that Jim's employers have given him the license to be as crazy as he wants to be. He still does the basics of his job, but he incites viewers - for good or bad - which in turn gives Accuweather a sense of its viewership. More companies should embrace this kind of creativity - not as a gimmick, but as a natural extension of their employees' personalities - to boost morale, productivity, and marketing gold.

Have you got a story about how something mundane and ordinary has sprung to life because of a different approach? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Standing Apart from the Rest

On Monday, May 22, I'll be part of a panel for the Institute of Management Consultants New England Chapter meeting. The panel is called Social Networking and Web 2.0: What you need to know to use this medium to separate your company from the pack.

The IMCNE is a professional organization that has been around for 40 years, and if you know management consultants, many of them are veterans of the corporate world who are making a good living consulting on organizational, operations, and leadership consulting. It's no surprise they may be a little light on social media, so here's our opportunity to give them something a little different.

I'm excited about being part of this discussion for a few reasons:

The panel moderator is Lewis Green, one of my co-authors from The Age of Conversation, someone who attended Blogger Social with me a couple of weeks ago, and author of the business and leadership book Lead With Your Heart
I'm lucky enough to be teamed up with some other smart individuals in the social media space: Aaron Strout from Mzinga and Laura "Pistachio" Fitton. If you don't know them, one of the best ways to get to know them is on Twitter: @astrout and @pistachio.
Lewis is using the principles of social media to build the panel discussion - he's involving his audience. Over on his blog, Lewis has asked "What would you ask?"

Keeping in mind that the panel is about how to use social media to make your company stand out, I find it fascinating that the concept is being batted around. Less than a year ago, a number of companies were simply starting to hear about some aspects social media. When you consider the quick adoption of a number of tactics, it's not surprising that companies are seeing this as a competitive advantage.

But are they missing a larger takeaway? It's not enough to stand apart from your competition. You need to think about what you're doing to build relationships with your customers to make them the most loyal advocates for you. Over time, as you get to know them, you'll be able to better serve them and give them a better experience every time.

See if you can drop over to Lewis' blog and give him a comment or two about what you would ask if you were part of the presentation. While you're at it, leave a comment here too.

How would you recommend using social media to separate your company from the pack?

Photo courtesy of nickwheeleroz

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Do Taxes and Social Media Mix?

April 15, a date that Americans typically dread - because income taxes are due - seems like a perfect time to write about the intersection of social media and taxes. But not from the angle you'd expect.

I'd like to share a story with you about impatience. I know, I can hear you asking, "But what does that have to do with social media and taxes?" I'll get to it. Just bear with me.

Like many marketing bloggers, I receive my fair share of bad pitches. I suppose that makes me hypersensitive to emails in which writers indicate that they've been reading my blog and think there's a fit for their pitch. Usually the fact that they haven't commented or that they only make reference to the last two or three posts is what tips me off to their insincerity.

But let's be honest. Blogger outreach is a hard job. Unless you're already embedded in the community, you have to get up to speed with your target audience very quickly - and usually with many of them. It's incredibly labor-intensive. I really empathize with the people that are doing this, especially with experienced marketing bloggers on the receiving end. We can be harsh critics, maybe simply because we're pressed for time. Impatient, one might say.

And I can be pretty harsh. Most of the time, with good reason. But recently, I let a pitch slip by that I should have spent a longer time considering.

I received an email titled "Do Taxes and Social Media Mix?" I thought it was an odd combination, and when I looked at the body of the email, I noted that the author of the note referenced some recent posts I had made on the blog here. Rather than being encouraged that she was taking an interest in my work, I assumed it was a form email with recent topics plugged in and "social media" as the topic of my blog simply inserted into the title "Do Taxes and _____ Mix?" I immediately hit the Delete key as I thought it was a contrived effort.

I made a mistake.

It turns out that it was part of a pretty well thought out campaign for H&R Block from 360i, the agency where my fellow author David Berkowitz works. Evidently, H&R Block has a pretty sharp VP of marketing for their digital tax solutions, and she's really savvy about social media.

The campaign was pretty comprehensive, including:

A MySpace profile

A Facebook page

A YouTube channel

An interactive Web page where you can discuss taxes and download podcasts

A Twitter presence

And one of my favorites, a Common Craft video about Tango, their online tax solution.

If you'd like to read a couple of summaries and professional opinions of the campaign, check out Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer and Jake McKee at Community Guy. Both are positive but fair assessments of H&R Block's efforts.

The bottom line is, had I taken the time to learn about the effort a little more and been less judgmental on the opening salvo, I would have been more likely to pay attention to the campaign.

I probably would have been even more likely to pay attention to it had the author been participating in my community, used a different subject line or been a little less scripted in her email.

Then again, if I had a little more patience, these points would have been moot. Suffice it to say that patience was just a little too (dare I say it?) taxing for me last month.

Update (5/15/05): H&R Block gave a presentation this week at AdAge's Digital Bites breakfast in which they shared what they learned.

Photo courtesy of PPDIGITAL

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Putting the 'Social' in Social Media

The more time I spend in the digital world, the more I realize that it's real-life connections that matter. Sure, it's amazing how easy it is to connect with people on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., but to me, what matters is building relationships in person. There's just no substitute for a face-to-face meeting.

When I was at SXSW recently, I noted that I was meeting people for the first time, but I felt like I had been part of their lives for a long time. With presence applications and frequent blog posts, we end up sharing so much of our lives with our online communities. The result is that we're forming what I like to call prelationships - meaningful interactions with people before we ever meet them. Then of course, when we do meet, it's a preunion.

So as you can imagine, I'm really looking forward to heading to New York City this weekend for Blogger Social. Among the 80+ attendees will be many of my co-authors from The Age of Conversation (Volume 1), not to mention fellow Twitterers, bloggers and podcasters. There's a harbor cruise on Saturday afternoon, a nice dinner on Saturday evening, and plenty of meetups in between. I can't wait to meet so many of these people that I've admired and respected for quite some time.
If you're interested in seeing what kinds of people participate in this kind of activity (maybe to convince you to attend something similar some time), take a look at the list of profiles that Steve Woodruff has compiled. Not only are the participants impressive, but Steve's effort is worthy of admiration as well.

And if you're more into the visual arts, you can check out the video that Mark Goren created:

I suppose this is a great reminder that, no matter what business you're in, it's important to get up from behind the desk, get out of the office and meet with your clients, customers, prospects and fans. Business is inherently a social business. Are you making it so?

The Blogger Social '08 attendees:
Susan Bird Tim Brunelle Katie Chatfield Matt Dickman Luc Debaisieux Gianandrea Facchini Mark Goren Gavin Heaton Sean Howard CK Valeria Maltoni Drew McLellan Doug Meacham Marilyn Pratt Steve Roesler Greg Verdino CB Whittemore Steve Woodruff Paul McEnany Ann Handley David Reich Tangerine Toad Kristin Gorski Mack Collier David Armano Ryan Barrett Lori Magno Tim McHale Gene DeWitt Mario Vellandi Arun Rajagopal Joseph Jaffe Rohit Bhargava Anna Farmery Marianne Richmond Thomas Clifford Lewis Green Geoff Livingston Kris Hoet Connie Reece CeCe Lee Toby Bloomberg Seni Thomas Darryl Ohrt Joe Kutchera Paul Dunay Marshall Sponder Chris Kieff Tara Anderson Jason Falls Paul Soldera Roberta Rosenberg Saul Colt Todd Andrlik Nathan Snell Ryan Karpeles Mike Sansone Jennifer Laycock Neil Vineberg Cam Beck Mike Arauz Matthew Bailey Heather Gorringe John Rosen Cathleen Rittereiser Tamar Weinberg Rita Perea Linda Sherman Matthew McDonald Kaitlyn Wilkins Terry Starbucker Jennifer Berk Jane Quigley John Wall Scott Monty Kevin Horne Virginia Miracle Amanda Gravel Susan Reynolds David Polinchock Shashi Bellamkonda David Berkowitz Vahe Habeshian

Monday, March 17, 2008

Thank You and Welcome

I'm going to get personal on you for a bit - but with good reason, so I hope you'll bear with me. Today was a big day for me, as I was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal for the first time (that's right, I said "first time." I'll be back.)

I was interviewed about the "My ooVoo Day With" program that we at crayon developed and executed on behalf of our client, ooVoo. The resultant article, Attention, Bloggers by Shelly Banjo describes how small businesses can use nontraditional marketing methods, such as blogger outreach, to build awareness. We were very pleased that ooVoo got a nice mention.

But at the same time, I got some surprising press as well - Ms. Banjo asked me for a list of recommended reading material to complement the article that was part of the Small Business edition of today's Journal Report. I ended up with my photo included in Marketing with Social Media, along with books, podcasts and blogs that I consider to be top-notch. Click the link to see the full list and a line about why I think each is worthy of your time.

(Full disclosure: I had also included Join the Conversation, JaffeJuice and Media Bullseye in my list, but the editors removed it.)

The "thank you" I referred to in the title of the post goes to all of the friends, colleagues and connections who were kind enough to congratulate me on this bit of good fortune. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and support and I hope I'll continue to earn it.

And the "welcome" is for anyone who is happening by this blog as a result of the article. I do hope you'll consider subscribing - it's completely free. I hope you'll take the time to look around, comment, provide me feedback, join me on Twitter, and let me know what's on your mind.

While the editors only had space for 8 -10 recommendations, there are many more than could have been on there. While I feel like I follow many (too many!) such blogs out there, I'm sure there are some that I'm missing - and my blogroll needs some updating. So here's your chance to help me out: what are your favorite blogs? Leave a comment below and I'll take a look at them. Who knows? They might even end up on my blogroll or feedreader.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Using New Media to Respond to Customer Feedback

Here's a video that captures the essence of why companies should be thinking about social media with regard to customer issues. And it's from no less an old media bastion than the Wall Street Journal.

Interestingly, they advocate for blogging to come from all levels of the organization, citing the oft-quoted fact that people like to hear "from people like them." So, it's not just for the CEO to blog anymore. And it doesn't just end with customer relations, it's also can help with employee relations.

For the full scoop, click on the video:

Via Shel Holtz.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Corporate Blogging - How the Pros Do It

Has this ever happened to you? When you're at a conference that offers many tracks, all of the really interesting sessions are at the same time. It happened a number of times to me during SXSW. Only I typically missed all of them, due to making personal connections and discussing topics of mutual interest with colleagues in the hallway.

The good news is that on my final day, I didn't have to make that decision. The first session of the morning was one that I was really looking forward to. Called "The Future of Corporate Blogging," it was a panel discussion between Lionel Menchaca, Mario Sundar and Kami Huyse, moderated by Mack Collier.

There's no question that this was a worthwhile session - with two living case studies of corporate blogs that really work, rich examples of how to do things well, and some of the very individuals who made it happen. Add in a consultant's view of measurement and tools, and an insightful moderator who operates in this field, and you've got a great mix. So, on with the summary!

An introduction from the experts
Lionel is the Chief Blogger at Dell's blog Direct2Dell and Mario is the Community Evangelist at LinkedIn - and these are two great examples of corporate blogs. Both were founded in response to a particular problem that needed to be solved; the prevailing thinking was not "we need a blog." Note that. The blogs were part of an overall communications strategy; blogging itself is not a strategy.

Kami is the principal at My PR Pro and is widely respected in the field of communications measurement. She rightly observed that if you want to figure out where to connect with your customers, you need to know something about them: namely how they communicate. How and where are they most likely engage with you? Do they use Facebook? Are they on Twitter? Do they read blogs? You should also find out what they need. When you meet needs in the place they're most likely to be, you'll find a wealth of engagement. Then you can decide what to measure.

A quick word about measurement
It seems like the holy grail of social media marketing is around measurement & metrics. I think it keeps coming up because there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Invariably, at the beginning of every campaign or project, you should be asking yourself "What would we consider a success?"

The panelists offered the following suggestions as a rough set of guidelines of measuring your blog or establishing a set of social media metrics for your efforts:

Use tools to benchmark yourself against the competition; track the number of blog posts of your company on a week-over-week basis
Track the tonality - positive/negative posts or comments over time; track against major announcements or events
Engagement - the word that is almost as over-hyped as 'conversation,' engagement can mean whatever you define it to mean: analytics, number of subscriptions to your blog, number of comments per post
If one of your purposes for blogging is to drive sales (personally, I don't recommend this as the primary purpose behind blogging) you can do conversion tracking or even use good old fashioned surveys

Kami actually put together a number of links on her del.icio.us page for reference:
http://del.icio.us/kamichat/sxsw2008

You've got a blog. So what?
Mack raised an excellent point: customers probably don't care that you have a blog. How do you make it relevant?

Dell makes it relevant by adhering to a social media framework:
Listening, analyzing, taking action. The first thing Dell realized is that there were lots of conversations going on about Dell on the Web. In fact, when the corporate blog started, about 50% of the comments that came in were negative. But, thanks to their openness and action, now 80% of the comments are positive.

Lionel noted that taking action is the most important step, and Dell has addressed this in a couple of ways. First, they've empowered every employee to apologize. Think about it. A huge corporate behemoth has stepped away from its usual scripted customer "service" language and allowed the company to become human for it a bit. That's a huge step right there.

Next, Dell established a way for customers to share product development ideas through IdeaStorm. A core team looks at new ideas that come in, assesses them, and then figures out a way to incorporate those into the business. Dell has received about 9,000 ideas from the community, with over 600,000 comments. An example of one idea is getting Dell to integrate Linux. To show you how effective it was, Dell put out a survey and in 8.5 days received 100,000 responses from customers. Now customers are aware that they can influence product development at Dell and it's resulted in the development of a community of loyalists.

LinkedIn wanted to help users better understand the site and the technology.
Mario noted that the company's vision was to establish conversations - a "playground of ideas" - on the site. The best way to teach customers how to use the site was to show them how to use the site, through demos. The next best way is to provide them with excellent customer support.

Overall, the panelists agreed that relevance lies in how easy you make it for your customers to interact with you. A surefire way is to create multiple touchpoints that meet the goal of reducing the amount of time between the identification of a problem and a solution. Sometimes you can find answers in unexpected areas. Despite our focus on the new shiny "2.0" things, forums are still a great place to mine for information, feedback and problems.

And in order for social media strategies to take root, the panelists noted, a company's culture needs to change. It's a step-wise process that can take years with layers of tools, technologies, and management that get more complex the longer you're in the game.

But not all is lost, even if you're in the most change-resistant environment. You don't need a fully-formed answer before you respond to concerns you identify by listening. Just be human and reach out - think of it as a conversation, where you add incremental value along the way and learn more about the person, the problem and the processes along the way.

And if there are any doubtful managers or executives in your company, sometimes seeing these conversations helps to dispel the myths/fears around negative comments. It's essential to demonstrate this on an ongoing basis, especially in a large organization, in order to show how direct communication with customers really matters.

New tools
Each of the panelists was asked about which new tools they'd recommend trying out.
Mario recommended trying Twitter as a customer service tool, for monitoring and response. He also had this cool idea: try setting up a livestream (video) as a response to users. He suggested that you use whatever tools