Details:

Date/Time:
Tuesday, June 30th
5:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Location:
David’s Banquet Facility
5131 Stars and Stripes Dr.,
Santa Clara, CA 95054
(408) 986-1666
Map/Directions

Advertisement

Also, if you are in Silicon Valley and would like to network with other business professionals who use Twitter, we are launching a new site, Silicon Valley Tweetup and plan to have monthly meetings and networking sessions. We are also partnering with the Anissa Lopez Foundation and the George Mark Children’s House and will be accepting $5 to $10 donations. Everyone who donates will be placed into a raffle and have the opportunity to win an HP Netbook.  More details to come later.

Here is my presentation, followed by some commentary:

Title Slide:

Before we start talking about engaging with consumers online, I think it’s imperative that we first start referring to them as people and not consumers, target audiences, or segments.

From my experience in working at Yahoo! and now Intel, is that when it comes to building relationships online, people relate to other people more so than a logo or brand.
Once we can accomplish this organizationally, we can then be better equipped to be more human and directly engage with people.

So, I hope you don’t mind, but I changed the title of today’s discussion to, “how to start game changing dialogue with people”

Slide 1:

How to Start a Game-Changing Dialogue with Consumers people

Slide 2:

There are few different ways to engage with consumers on Facebook. There is a branded fan page; a Facebook application; and lastly, through personal profiles (a community manager). And, when I refer to a personal profile, what I mean is a community manager or an employee who uses his/her personal profile to drive brand engagement within their own micro communities.

Slide 3:

We know through some very specific research that a high percentage of our audience join and use social networks here in the US. We also know how they behave in the social web. So, not only is it important for us to engage in direct dialogue with consumers, but we can also build in those social capabilities that our consumers are familiar with.

One of the key fundamentals in any social media engagement is authenticity. But, more importantly, a brand or an employee representing the brand needs to be believable. And in order to be believable, you have to spend time in a community and listen, observe and fundamentally understand the dynamics of that community. Once you foster trust and begin that relationship building process – you, the BRAND become believable. So when I say that this Netbook is awesome and fits my mobile lifestyle, people will actually believe me and maybe even buy one.

The topic of personal profiles versus branded profiles comes up a lot at Intel, especially in reference to twitter, and personally I think there is a strong need for both. At Intel we cannot legally tell someone to talk about Intel within their communities. If they do, of course disclosure is important. We have a comprehensive training program where we equip our employees with tools they need to engage online.

Slide 4:

Mass Animation was one of two programs we had to support the launch of the Core i7 processor, which is a desktop processor for content creators (multimedia, film animation, rich media). It was the first ever collaborative effort to utilize Facebook and its community to create an animated film. Basically, the way it worked was that we provided the community with a storyline and 3D character assets. The community downloaded the assets; downloaded Maya software and animated a 5 second clip. Then, they upload their clip and the community votes on the best clip.

The dialogue – which is still happening today – happened on the Mass Animation fan page; and it also spread to twitter and even our Intel blogs.

Slide 5:

Present these metrics to senior management and they will be pleased with the results. What they won’t see are the rich conversations that are still happening today; and the relationships that have blossomed from this program.

I think of Twitter as a news ticker (like those annoying streams of text headlines scrolling on the bottom of your TV screen during the morning news). For brands, it’s a way of driving traffic to specific content on their websites — or a specific call for action.

People interested in your brand will follow your company on Twitter. If you’re a B2B or B2C company, you could use Twitter to call attention to a new product, a new blog post, an interesting discussion in the forums, etc.

Why bother with Twitter?

• Most folks don’t think to check your site every day.
• Email is not always effective at providing information — particularly eNewsletters.  Most marketers know that email open rates are generally around 12-20% and CTRs are 2-5%.  Plus, you have to take some action for email (even if it’s to delete it); whereas the Twitter feeds just jam on by.

Given the massive growth rates, chances are becoming higher each day that your customer is on Twitter (and Facebook) every day (or at least a few times a week).

So Twitter is an “onramp” to your community.  I suppose you could think of “tweets” as billboards along the highway. When someone sees something that catches their eye, they follow the link in your tweet.

If you’re a store, say a supermarket (Kroger, Safeway, etc.) or a clothier (The Gap), for instance, you could use Twitter to call attention to a sale or you could “tweet out” an online coupon. Another onramp.

Comcast uses Twitter to connect with customers to strengthen the brand and escalate issues to support as part of the company’s social media monitoring and response program. Some recent tweets:

@annaonthemoon Can we look into it for you?

@peteskomoroch757 The modem was connected and responding properly to me. Pings looked good. I did reset it. What lights are on modem?

@kekil Is the modem new or used? If used could be registered in different area. You may need to call to have set up, should be easy

Motorola’s Developer Program uses Twitter to connect with members, informing them on a wide variety of topics. Some recent “tweets” include:

• 5 Mobile Development Headaches by Mike Riley at Dr. Dobb’s Portal - http://twurl.nl/6ddu1n
• great mtg at the Silicon Valley Android Developers Meetup. could on only stay for first two presos on AdMob and Flurry. http://ow.ly/3JhB
• talking about customer service & mobile apps on http://blogtalkradio.com/mo… #android

Both Comcast and Motorola don’t just use Twitter to broadcast, they also use it to listen — and when appropriate, to then respond.

How are you using Twitter? And is your company using it? Or thinking of using it?

As companies like the one I work for across the world—and the web—tackle the challenge of how to listen and respond to customer feedback or criticism, we’re beginning to see a trend emerge: companies with strong customer service skills and an online presence (like Dell, Comcast, Southwest Airlines, & Ford) are winning fans (and creating passionate brand advocates) across all industries. From agencies who service these clients to the small and large businesses themselves, the voice of the customer is being given more weight than ever before. And this is a terrific thing for innovation, companies & consumers, and the economy as a whole.

Just today I noticed two blog posts that tackle this issue. One was Jeremiah Owyang’s post on the “Future of PR: When Agencies Represent Communities–Not Brands.” It talked about the growing power of online community voices and how agencies might harness that power into creative ideas. Additionally, Southwest Airlines today announced it was dumping its use of powder creamer for coffee and switching instead to liquid creamer at the request of its customers.

So with all this talk of listening and responding to customers, we’re also seeing the emergence of a new paradigm: the rise in the need for customer service reps. Unlike the past when corporations were scrambling over each other to hire outsourced customer service agents in call centers across the globe, increasing numbers of companies are looking inside their walls for people who can speak the language and who have familiarity with social tools to join online conversations where they are happening.

Last week I presented at the Social Media Club of Portland on the topic of careers in social media. I summarized many of the different jobs that are needed as more companies look to connect with customers online. These include:

• marketing and PR professionals
• strategists
• lawyers
• web designers and developers
• community managers
• online customer service reps (in my opinion the most important)

This last group of folks includes the people brands are looking to as the front-line response teams to reach out and respond when customers discuss their company or product in the many online forums that exist.

All this is super sweet news! I’m guessing this might be a harbinger for a whole new type of workforce–one who is well connected and possesses the super stellar customer service skills to wow and woo online.

Ok I just have to realize my naivete, and that too often I have my head in the ground.   Great example was a discussion on my FaceBook wall regarding Twitter.  I made the observation that many the people who started to follow me were following thousands of users.  My immediate reaction…. how can somebody follow that level of the conversation.

I was quickly educated

 Ed Borden at 6:43pm March 15

There are tools that measure this stuff online. They take into account how many people @ you and RT and some other metrics.

• No longer an organically evolving conversation
• Being manipulated as a marketing vehicle (I know ironic from a marketing guy from Intel)
• Evolving from a social conversation to a channel of communication

Disturbing or an opportunity? So what can we do about it?  Two schools of thought; “Fight the Establishment” or “When in Rome”

What will you approach be? Will you play the game to build your followers and use Tweetlater, Mr Tweet, and WeFollow to autotweet and follow folks with high followers?  Or will you say no to these tools, keep it organic, and evangalize measurements like retweets over follower count.

The dark side is tempting.  And I totally get why people are doing this.  I just don’t think people have thought through the result.  In the end may Twitter will be less relevant if we are all following each other.   There’s a good post on this, Can Twitter Survive What’s About To Happen To It   from Nova Spivack.  Food for thought.

That’s what skittles did in what can only be described as a bold move to embrace Web 2.0.

What a unique approach. In a traditional viral campaign, you launch a viral concept and it takes on a life of its own, living in media largely beyond your control. Skittles did one better. They launched a viral campaign and turned their website into an incubator for the virus. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! An argument could be made that the skittles website isn’t core to their product sales, so replacing it with a twitter results page isn’t as big of a risk as if a B2B company were to do it. But still, you have to respect the moxie of Skittles’ Web 2.0 marketing team. What a great campaign!

Josh is definitely seasoned in front of the camera. He is also the community manager/evangelist for Intel’s VPro Expert Center. Josh is high energy, full of passion and has tremendous wisdom in building valuable relationships. You can follow Josh on twitter if you like.

If this post provided some value to you, please consider subscribing to our feed, or you can always follow me, Michael Brito on Twitter.

Two years ago I had a challenge to build a community for an audience that was not already knocking at our door. This audience  used and valued our products but they did not connect with the company and the brand.  

So how do you become relevant?  How can you be successful with social media when you are not top of mind? 

After some trial and tribulation I can boil the community manager strategy down to a methodology akin to the actions of P. Diddy aka Sean “Puffy” Combs.  As the mack daddy player of hip hop he is a magnet of activity and relevance in his industry.   To follow the P. Diddy method you don’t need all the glitz, glamour and bling of a hip-hop music icon.   But there are things Mr. Combs does that relate directly to building relevant online communities.  

So here’s the P-Diddy 3 point plan for Community success

1. Build A Posse
2. Throw Awesome Parties
3. Go On Road Trips

So where do you sign up right?  Well if you have multiple community projects all supporting various initiatives and interests then you may need to be a sideline P-Diddy.  But don’t let that stop you from sporting sun glasses while indoors.  Your Community Managers are the ones closest to the community content.  They are the ones you should encourage to emulate Puff Daddy.

Here’s what to do.

Build A Posse: First thing to focus on is making friends. Know your industry players and subject matter experts  i.e industry peers, service providers, vendors, OEMs, industry fellow travelers, ect and have them know you.  Connect with them often. Be a generous and inspirational figure to energize them on your community topic. Take time to mention them and promote their interests. Interview them, bring them together in panel discussions, and help evangelize their voice and perspectives.  

Tools to use: Follow and interact with them on Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In. You can use a free service like BlogTalkradio.com, to do a phone interview that becomes podcast content for your site
  
Throw Awesome Parties:  Host online communities and events. Invite the right players, who you’ve made friends with, to be key participants and content producers. Don’t force the conversations but help it along.  As the host you are there to keep the pace and interest in the community lively.  So engage as needed but see yourself as the master coordinator that allows your community members to interact. 

Tools to use: According to a recent Forrester Research report Jive Software and Telligent are best of breed community platform solutions

Go on Road Trips: Get outside your community and participate in others sites.  Make your presence known. Attend real world events and use them as opportunities to capture content and 3rd party perspectives on your community topic.  Do a live web-cast. Interview participants at these events. Post these and your perspectives on your own community site.  

Tools to use: For live web-casts ustream.tv and BrightTalk are effective low cost or free services for live web-casting.

In the end it boils down be being connected and facilitating connections.  This is where Sean Combs is a master.  He is so successful at being connected in his industry that his personal brand stands for being relevant.  So have fun with this.  It doesn’t need to be hard work but it does require continual effort to ensure you are connected to your community and your community programs are seen as relevant portions of the conversation.

For most marketers, CIO magazine is not very relevant. But for us B2B Enterprise IT marketers it’s a pretty big deal.

If you’re selling IT to the Enterprise, the CIO (or your companies equivalent) is the most important person you want to influence. And CIO magazine is a highly read magazine in these circles.

Not only does CIO magazine’s online property have an article on Twitter, they have a whole series on Twitter:

Twitter: How to Get Started Guide for Business People - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership
Twitter’s Potential for Business Users - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership
Twitter Etiquette: Five Dos and Don’ts - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

I don’t know if these actually ran in the print version but if you’re trying to sell your company on the value of Twitter (or social media in general) and you’re in the B2B IT space, pointing to these articles could at least give your points some validity.

This post originally ran on NewCommBiz
Image by RubyJi via Flickr ]]> http://www.conversationsmatter.org/2009/02/17/ciocom-tries-to-explain-twitter-to-your-boss%e2%80%99s-boss%e2%80%99s-boss/feed/ http://www.conversationsmatter.org/2009/02/15/people-are-the-new-currency/ http://www.conversationsmatter.org/2009/02/15/people-are-the-new-currency/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:57:20 +0000 Wesley Faulkner http://www.conversationsmatter.org/?p=397 Many novices just getting involved in the social media space seem obsessed with getting more friends, followers or fans. When I started out, I also felt the need to get as many people following me as possible. I kind of used it as a method of determining my own importance.

I visualized every new follower as a rung in the ladder as I climbed up the social media totem pole. If you just do a quick Google search on how to get more followers, you’ll get over thirteen million hits. Of course it’s easy to see how having more followers is a nice tangible to point to when trying to gauge how influential someone is. I personally disagree with the theory that the more followers you have the better marketer you are. If you look at the likes of Scoble, Kevin Rose, and even Obama, they have tens of thousands of followers. What you can’t tell by that number, is how many people are like minded individuals, and how many people agree or disagree with their opinions.

At the peak of the Howard Stern show, he was paid millions because of the amount of listeners he had. I would say a significant amount of that following adamantly disagreed with what he stood for and his message. Simply looking at the total number of listeners that he had did not directly translate to his ability to sway the opinion of this vast following. The same truth can be applied to social media. I contend to assert that quality should always trump quantity. Thinking about numbers alone is the mindset of old media. The people who find your message valuable and the interaction and participation of that community is truly what we all should strive for.

Humans are the new currency in the social media space but each individual person is not the same denomination. Someone who has a fat role of one dollar bills is flashy and can get a lot of attention for the bulge in their pocket, but they’re no more important than the person who has a bank account with an equal balance. When looking for alliances, look for someone who stays on message, on point and is true to their beliefs; not necessarily the person who has the biggest audience. Someone who likes your product and is willing to talk about it carries more weight than someone who just may be a shill to the highest bidder.