How will I accomplish all that? No, I haven’t succeeded in cloning myself (much as I’ve tried!). The answer is simple: Techrigy has been acquired by Alterian, a leading integrated marketing platform  provider. Alterian specializes in providing tools for marketers with robust analytics and at Techrigy we have a leading social media monitoring and analytics tool. Techrigy SM2 will provide a complimentary fourth component to Alterian’s three product lines: Email, Web Content Management, Analytics (Database & Operational Marketing).

The acquisition means a lot of things. It will provide our customers with more training resources, 24/7 customer service, enhanced product development and so much more! I have never minded working 7 days a week, but it will be nice to have help in supporting our customers worldwide. Our growth rate has been incredible.

And I am really excited to be joining a company that not only recognizes that there is a marketing revolution happening, but who want to be a part of that revolution!Their vision is to shift mass marketing into an individualized engagement experience. I have noticed at conferences this year that there is a definite focus on the importance of quantifying interactions. And I have been incorporating that aspect into my presentations too. It’s apparent that there is much value in engaging in social media, but without metrics behind it, it’s very difficult to justify it. Alterian’s tools combined with Techrigy SM2 will offer communications professionals the opportunity to engage with consumers as individuals across multiple channels. That’s a mouthful and can be summarized with: Two leading companies are joining to provide best in class tools for their marketing & PR efforts!

My role will be twofold.

• I will continue to work with my Techrigy team as we move forward and integrate into the Alterian family
• And I will be helping Alterian build Community (It’s one of my favorite things to do!   )

I’m really looking forward to this new chapter as Techrigy transitions into Alterian. We share the same philosophy & I foresee a bright future! We are going to ROCK it!

Questions on Alterian’s products or Techrigy’s SM2? Let me know.

What public relations is:

Managing the flow of information between an organization and it’s public

Press releases used to be a top down process. (200 yrs)

Public is less reliant on traditional news outlets.

Social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. (Influencers are important)

ROI of social media = risk of ignoring

Channels of social media –

• YouTube
• Facebook
• Digg
• Blogs
• Social Median
• Twitter

A line item that says ‘social media’ is like a line item that says ‘email’. Be specific – which network?

So much grey area between marketers and PR. We’re communicators!

Mainstream media doesn’t mean it needs to be in a published medium. (It’s more about the influencers)

Share different info with different channels. It needs to appeal to what interests them.

Brands, Marketing & PR are all speaking to the same people in an open dialogue – that’s where the crossover is at.

The ecosystem has just changed

What comes after the press release?

Is a social media release a press release with sharing icons at the bottom?

No – A press release can’t be made social. The content, format, and delivery must be shareable.

Update –

Quote by Jason "if you have internets & an airport you can do anything! " (Who needs iPhones? we live without them!) He’s in Wyoming & I’m in rural Minnesota & does AT&T care?

On Monday I will be speaking in Minneapolis at a sold out event that will be keynoted by Jason Kintzler.

PR 2.0: THE NEW TOOLS OF THE TRADE
This day-long seminar features keynote presenter Jason Kintzler, founder of PitchEgine a social platform that enables PR professionals to package stories and share them with journalists, bloggers and influencers via the social web.  The day will also feature eight breakout sessions reflecting the most cutting edge and innovative thinking on how to navigate this rapidly changing industry. Special thanks to our promotional partners for this event, the Minnesota chapter of PRSA and Mashable: The Social Media Guide.

My session will be:

How to Monitor and Measure Social Media
PR pros are no strangers to monitoring media, old-school style. But, the same methodologies we use to measure traditional PR placements don’t translate to social media. In this session, we’ll explore some of the monitoring tools that provide visibility into the social media space and discuss the most effective ways to measure the value of the conversations taking place across social networks.

I’m really excited to finally meet Jason in person. He’s flying in from Wyoming so he doesn’t live in a city center either. You know how I feel about working online & living at my house in Minnesota. I believe that someone can live anywhere in the world and contribute at a high level to the social media world. Jason has also proven that! I used PitchEngine to do a SM Release to announce Techrigy’s acquisition of Andiamo Systems. It’s easy to use & definitely a great service!

Jason Kintzler is the Founder of PitchEngine, a web tool enabling PR professionals to package and share press content via the social web. He’s a former print and broadcast journalist turned PR pro and now, entrepreneur.

Jason’s goal is to evolve public relations as a whole, bringing authenticity and engagement to PR through the integration of social media content. By utilizing the PitchEngine Social Media Release, brands are not only engaging media contacts the traditional way, but also consumers. He’s fostering a new approach to a century-old craft.

And I can’t travel 5 hours without meeting my friends! So I asked for a Tweet up. Jennifer Kane, the conference organizer has kindly organized one for us on Monday night from 6-9 pm. So join us to talk about social media, community, and summer in Minnesota!

Where?  Tavern on France    6740 France Avenue South, Edina, MN

When?   Jul 13, 2009      What time?   6 – 9pm

On Tuesday I will be scheduling meetings so let me know if you’d like to get together. Send me an email if you’d like to get together (conniebensen @ gmail dot com). I always enjoy talking with people interested in community & social media!

My hats off to the Enterprise 2.0 organizer, Steve Wylie. When he first talked with me I advocated for sessions on ‘community’. And when I saw the agenda I was so pleased to see many sessions on community related topics!

It was a challenge to create a slide deck to span 3.25 hrs and not know my audience. We intermixed discussion with the slides & we moved through questions & concerns.

Here are my notes that I had going into the presentation:

Fear needs to be overcome. A topic of discussion recently is should social media efforts start at the grassroots level or executive?

There needs to be executive sponsorship and the company’s culture needs to be ready.

• Are you seriously interested in what customers are saying?
• Will you respond?
• It’s not cheap. It’s time intensive

For Case Studies, Peter Kim’s wiki has over 1000 case studies that can be searched by industry.

To ensure success, choose a small project, then establish goals & strategy.

Suggested blogs to read:

• Jake McKee
• Dawn Foster
• Fresh Networks
• Richard Millington
• Brian Solis
• Mack Collier
• Geoff Livingston
• Marshall Kirkpatrick RWW

Let me know what questions you have on the slide deck. And I have other presentations on measurement & community building on slideshare.net

An unintentional mistake …

I’ve watched it happen over the past couple of years. The blogging community is a warm tight knit community. But as with any group the leaders are held to high standards. They’re expected to set the bar.

It’s easy to sit back & watch the kerfluffle unfold. In the past I haven’t said much out loud because it was ‘safer’ to support people in the back channel. We went thru the puppet fiasco with Shel Israel. I got to know him at a personal level by supporting him in the back channel. The puppet videos weren’t funny if you put yourself in his shoes. And there is the person on Twitter who has a parody going. I’m not interested in being on their radar.

This spring I watched when Jeremiah Owyang made a slip on his blog. We talked by phone & he told me that many of the anonymous comments were from the same IP. I was glad to be able to offer my support & suggestions for weathering the storm.

Most recently I saw a post on SocialMediaToday criticizing Gary Vaynerchuk’s PR blogger campaign to promote his book, Crush It. I received the same email & agree that there was one sentence that won’t motivate me to engage:

On your side, anything you do with him is going to get an influx of readers to your blog due to his massive and loyal following.

I was interested in participating in promoting Gary’s book because:

• as a past librarian, books are amazing
• we were invited to suggest how we wanted to share the book with our community/network (allowing creativity)

I didn’t know Gary & so his personal brand wasn’t a motivation (hence that last sentence didn’t resonate with me).

What are the ramifications: At the time I put my opinion on the post, 600 people had viewed the post. I see that 2000 have now. I understand John Cass’ intention to use examples to teach others but at what expense to Gary’s brand? We agreed that we get bad pitches every day but this one came from a social media superstar.

The conversation was taken up on Shel Holtz & Neville Hobson’s live interview on Friday. Gary apologized & said that he realizes that some things could have been done differently.

My take aways:

• I disagree that an effective blogger campaign requires reading each person’s blog to find what motivates them. It’s not scalable. (Gary was trying to grow his community – the email just didn’t describe his book to connect with the audience)
• scaling a brand & connecting with potential new audiences on a personal level is difficult. How can one connect & build relationships?
• empowering others to help you with your work has its risks. They need to understand the space because even though this email was signed by someone else, it still represented Gary’s brand.

Gary graciously expressed his apologies many times in the interview. He did say that of the 500 emails, he had a 50% response rate which is really good. What success rate do professional agencies have?

I look forward to seeing Gary’s book (and the other nine! He signed an unprecedented 10 book deal). You can read John Cass’ follow up is here & I respect his opinions. John’s intent was to use it as a learning experience. After commenting on the post Gary sent me a personal note & we are now connected. He works 19 hrs a day & I am guilty of that too. We need to support each other as we’re all going to make mistakes. Let’s speak up for what we believe in & not be too hard on each other. What will happen when you stumble?

Photo credit: gicol/Flickr

Alistair started his presentation with – Community gardening is going to change. It’s about capitalism. Companies are concerned with the bottom line & everything needs to be measured. He wasn’t hard on community managers at all. His challenge was simply: We need to take it to the next level for it to be taken seriously in the Enterprise.

I totally agree & echoed the importance of measurement at my session on the day before. His presentation took it to the next level with a focus on measurement and is aligned with the book that he’s co-authored with Sean Powers, Complete Web Monitoring.

Measurement & reporting are key to building value around the community/social media role. The only way to grow the position is to provide concrete data supporting how it’s contributing to the goals of the organization. And in most cases that’s to increase revenue.

The Big Quandary – I can’t measure social media, right?

Everything is measureable now. Web analytics are mainstream and provide the statistics related to your site. Now conversations online can also be gathered, measured & analyzed in a number of ways. There are many free tools as well as professional ones. I work with Techrigy SM2 & we offer a Freemium version so you can get a feel for aggregating the conversations. (Many use it for their consulting businesses).

Alistair took it one step further. He shared ideas that make it easier for your web analytics software (Google Analytics in particular & it’s free) to track your ‘campaigns’. I’ve also been helping my Techrigy customers do likewise so they can maximize their measurement capabilities.

Why is this so important?

1.  Show Value – Quantitative data is the proof in the pudding. Every other department has reporting requirements, so this isn’t any different.

2. Grow your role – The only way that you’re going to get more resources (ie: time & people) is by providing concrete numbers on your progress.

3. Increased budget – Budgets are only provided to those that can justify them.

5. Expand the benefit to the company across more departments. We already know that there are huge benefits to talking with the customers across the touchpoints of the organization. The only way that more people will be empowered to work directly with the customers is by proving the value of that with numbers.

6. Job security – If you’re providing excellent service your organization will sense that. But how will they know what impact you’re having?

I look forward to reading their book! I predict that it will be a key read for anyone in a social media role.

Check out Alistair’s slide deck from his presentation.

What are you measuring? Is it showing the value of your role?

If you’re in the area, join us! I want to meet you!

Monday night – Rachel Happe & Jim Storer are two people who really know community! They have founded The Community Roundtable, a resource for Community Managers to network & learn together in a peer environment. Rachel & Jim have put together a meetup for me in Boston. Join us to talk about all things community!

Dutch treat drinks/dinner at The Barking Crab

Monday, June 22, 2009

6:00 PM – 10:00 PM (ET)

Sign up (limited spaces)

On Tuesday night, there’s a meetup organized by Peter Kim. It’s another great opportunity to connect.

Here’s an overview of my half day workshop on Monday:

Session Title: Redefine Customer Communication: A Framework for Social Media Success #e2conf5
Date: 6/22/2009
Time: 1:00 PM
Room: Lewis

Sponsored by one of my FAVORITE resources!

Are you Ready to Redefine Customer Communication? Customer engagement is being revolutionized by new tools and methodologies in social media. Leading enterprises which embrace the adoption of social media are experiencing profound improvements in how they engage with customers, whether in marketing, product development, sales or customer service. Online consumer conversations offer companies the opportunity to realize increased customer satisfaction & loyalty, shortened sales & product development cycles, expanded markets, competitive insight & more. This half day workshop will discuss a framework for how social media can be adopted in business and the strategies that will help you to effectively connect with your customers in a direct and cost efficient way.

Course Outline

* Explore key concepts & methodologies for monitoring online conversations & community related activity with relationship of how they relate to your business needs.

* What are your business objectives for listening, engaging & supporting community?

* Breakout sessions to explore strategies for internal, B2B, & B2C communities

* Who should coordinate this effort? Definition of the emerging social media/community oriented role

* A review of compelling case studies to support discussions with executive level & stakeholders

* An overview of supporting resources

Who Should Attend
This workshop is intended for anyone interested in better serving their customers & improving their products to reflect consumers expressed needs & desires. This includes executive level & management from public relations, communications, marketing, product development and customer service.

You Will Learn
Join us in discussions of strategies that guide you with specific steps to identify online consumer conversations and how they will contribute to your business objectives.

We’re having a social media meetup in Rochester on Thurs evening at Label 7 at 6 pm. It’ll be great to reconnect with the local enthusiasts. Thanks to @susanbeebe, @markfrisk & @emiltsch for your enthusiasm & help organizing!

On Saturday we’re flying to Boston for Enterprise 2.0. It doesn’t start until Monday but it’s the first trip to the east coast so we’re going to do some exploring.

On Monday I’m doing a half day workshop at Enterprise 2.0 on Community Strategy & Connecting with your customers. They have a great line up of speakers so I look forward to attending & meeting people too.

More info on my workshop here:

Redefine Customer Communication: A Framework for Social Media Success

Monday, June 22,  1:00 – 4:15pm

I’ll post my presentation after. If you would like to attend I can find a discount code for you. Just let me know!

I look forward to seeing you in Rochester or Boston. Connect with me by email or by Twitter if you’d like to meet.

Working online has taught me a couple of things. Well really it’s only one: to be succinct! Long ago Jeremiah Owyang said he wouldn’t read my email if it was longer than a few bullet points. So the world has him to thank for my brevity in writing.

My newest skill is that I can call a team meeting and get everything accomplished in a half hour! For this I have my CEO, Aaron Newman, to thank. He’s not into meetings & we appreciate that. But they are a necessity for communication (especially considering my working remotely).

Then I happened up this article by Steve Roesler, Better Meetings, Better Leadership. I like the way he has divided meetings into 5 types based on the amount of participation expected. And he ties it into leadership skills. As a community leader stop & think about how you call meetings and what type are they? I’m putting my comments in parenthesis.

1. the Tell Mode – no participation is expected (umm send an email please)

2. the Sell Mode – in addition to telling, you want buy in (please take some time to make sure that the team is involved in the decision/policy! Then you won’t need to ask for buy in because they were part of creating the solution)

3. the Test Mode – you allow for some input (but this is sometimes met with apathy. Again make sure the team is involved in creating solutions)

4. the Consult Mode – you encourage participation & no decision has been made (note Steve comments that the leader listens. Aren’t these types of meetings more interesting to attend?)

5. the Join Mode – everyone arrives at a decision together (there’s nothing better than attending a meeting, participating, and feeling as if you’ve been heard & your input has been taken into account)

I see meetings as a place where we need to shift our organizations into being transparent and aspiring for the new culture that supports everyone being involved in social media and working with customers. The power shift is going to be away from the top down so will our meeting style need to reflect that?

If you’re leading meetings what type of message are you sending? And when you attend the various types of meetings, which type do you prefer?

I think that the community manager role is like parenting. Parenting has it’s challenges and there are no specific instructions. Each family has it’s own culture, routines, traditions and expectations. As a parent you wonder about things. My daughter is 20 and I’ve went thru many phases.

Here are the parallels that I see.

• a continual worry – are you doing the right thing by everyone?
• are you treating everyone fairly & not showing favoritism?
• are you encouraging everyone to spend time together & participate?
• are you giving the community space to grow independently?
• are you empowering them to be individuals? yet encouraging them to learn together?
• are you ensuring a happy, safe environment for everyone to participate in?
• are you introducing new ideas and encouraging the community to grow, thrive and contribute to it’s own success?

And I view my colleagues as my work family. And that’s just as important as the community/customers.

• are you encouraging your team to learn new things about social media?
• do you encourage them to work cross functionally and build on each other’s knowledge, share new ideas & grow the company together?
• are you sensitive to to other’s needs and support your colleagues when they need it?
• do you work to identify & break down barriers in a constructive way?
• are you introducing innovative ideas that better your workplace?

I’m sure that you can think of more! And if it sounds like the position is part social worker, psychologist and parent there’s probably a reason for that! Those of us that thrive on this type of work enjoy the challenges of working with people, leading, teaching and empowering others.

Do you agree with my analogy?