Digital Strategy and B2B Social Media

IBM Study Unveils Top Inhibitors to Adopting Social

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:06:00 +0000

Sandy Carter (@sandy_carter), VP Social Business Evangelism at IBM, recently did a video interview in which she talked about the reasons why companies are hesitant to really get engaged with social media and use either internally within a hosted community or allow their employees to engage online - to post work-related communications via social networks.

IBM conducted a study of over 2,000 companies and asked them about the top inhibitors to adopting social media. Here are the top response areas. I wasn't surprised at any of these, but I'm glad that IBM's study groups the reasons into buckets so that we, as social media marketers, can help tackle the fears that companies face as we approach social media strategies unique to each company's needs.

Security - Someone might break into my private community and something bad will happen
Adoption - How will people use it? Will they come? Will they like it?
Culture - Is our company culture ready to listen to employees or clients? Are we ready to respond and react in this way?
Compliance - Regulated industries such as finance are hesitant to let anyone tweet/post about investments.

Sandy's high-level understanding of social media for business is impressive, and she's extremely articulate about it. I had the opportunity to have dinner with her at an IBM conference earlier this year and enjoyed meeting her and connecting with her.

Huge change coming to the Web: New gTLDs and what it means

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:58:00 +0000

I have heard about the coming change to website domain names but didn't quite understand it clearly until I read this article. AdAge titled the article "Are You Ready For One of the Biggest Changes on the Internet in a Decade?" At first, I thought that sounded a bit over-sensationalized, and perhaps it is, but if your ead through the finer points here (and I've only highlighted the key points) I think you'll see why it will change things quite a bit.

Amplify’d from adage.com

First, the basics. A "generic top-level domain" is the part of the domain name to the right of the dot, e.g. in "http://www.ICANN.org" - the "org" is the top-level domain (TLD). There are 22 generic TLDs (gTLDs) such as .COM, .ORG and .NET, and around 250 country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) that are specific to certain countries, like .JP for Japan and .MX for Mexico.

With ICANNs New gTLD Program to commence January 2012, the doors will be thrown wide open and virtually any word can become a gTLD if the company or organization meets certain criteria:

They can pony up the hefty application fee ($185,000)

They can prove they can afford to run a gTLD year after year

They can justify why they should own a particular word as a gTLD – e.g. a travel company is unlikely to be successful at justifying buying ".Apple" as a gTLD but they can justify buying ".adventure"

If a company can meet these criteria - then congratulations – they've just become a registry. Amazon can buy ".books" and JetBlue can buy ".fly". And if two companies want the same word and can't reach an agreement on their own, an auction commences with the word going to the highest bidder.

From a consumer's perspective: Just when we thought it was kinda safe to go into Internet waters because we had a basic understanding of what a safe URL should look like … now anything's possible. With hundreds of new gTLDs likely to be introduced starting next year, consumer confusion is virtually guaranteed. There's little doubt fraudsters intend to exploit this new window of vulnerability.

Now you can see why there is a lot at stake. Yet, when I spoke to my IT and marketing peers at the largest companies, there was a near universal lack of information on this topic!
Read more at adage.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1f6ip

How to Keep Your Company's Bloggers Motivated

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:20:00 +0000

I was recently interviewed by a writer for Microsoft's partner newsletter publication, Redmond Channel Partner. Perficient is a Microsoft partner, and we consult on installing and configuring Microsoft software such as SharePoint for large companies.

Barb Levisay has been publishing a series on social media in her "Marketing Matters" column. This week she covered our blogging strategy. Perficient currently has 5 active blogs and over 50 experts across the company who contribute to them weekly. I thought I'd share the details she covered about how we keep our bloggers motivated to publish valuable new content frequently.

Amplify’d from rcpmag.com

Commitment to Fresh Blog Content

If blogging is your social outlet of choice, consistent fresh content is the key to results. It's a challenging commitment, but if managed and rewarded well, a blog can give you a significant boost in organic search results and Web traffic.

Erin Eschen, online and social media marketing manager for Perficient, a National System Integrator partner headquartered in Missouri, said, "Blogs are the hub of our social media program. Our goal is to demonstrate thought leadership through our consultants' expertise. Most of our bloggers write their posts because they love it."

To keep bloggers motivated, Perficient also offers cash incentive programs based on milestones, like the most traffic to a post. Eschen said, "My bloggers are people who don't report to me so I give them constant feedback to recognize their success. We share the numbers of post visitors with the writers and they compete in a friendly way to write posts that will attract readers. It's important to share those numbers."
Read more at rcpmag.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1aipe

Using CRM to track the ROI of Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:46:00 +0000

I frequently find the insights of Radian6 employees to be forward-thinking and optimistic regarding social media. Not only that, but they also tend to be extremely analytical and technical in their approach. I met Amber Naslund (@AmberCadabra) in person this summer, and this recent article by Olivia Landolt (@livslandolt) shows me that the company hires those who truly understand the social media landscape.

Having worked in social media for 2 years now, with specific objectives in driving traffic, leads and ultimately revenue from social media marketing, I can only agree with Olivia that there can be a direct, positive ROI from investing in sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Below I've included snippets from Olivia's article on Radian6's blog. Particularly the aspect of tracking ROI that involves leveraging the source information in most Customer Relationship Management systems.

Ultimately, if you become diligent about tracking the source of the first contact, the first brand impression and/or the first point of engagement with a sales prospect, you can then track the sales lifecycle, average and total revenue, and much more. Getting leads from social media into your sales and lead tracking systems is critical to both driving results and proving that results occur.

Amplify’d from www.radian6.com

In one corner we have those that firmly believe that there is a definite return on investment from social media, and in the opposing corner those that firmly believe that there isn’t.

Tracking sales resulting from social media doesn’t just help to justify the time or investment spent. It can also help identify what networks are the most valuable to a brand.

Going beyond awareness and likes and retweets, companies may also consider traffic resulting in inquiries or purchases that were directly fed through to their site from social networks, which can be determined using web analytics tools, paid for or free.

One of the first questions to ask should be how are leads tracked outside of social media? While some might use Excel, for large organizations this is likely achieved in the form of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. These CRM systems or (even spreadsheets) will host contact information, history and sales but also leads and the source for these leads. So when tracking ‘website’ inquiries one can just as easily track ‘social media’ or ‘Twitter’ as another lead source. This will make it easier to track new leads as a result of either a DM Twitter inquiry or a Facebook wall post through the sales cycle, starting at the point of entry. Analyzing this type of data at the end of the month will provide a clear picture of exactly how many leads the various social sources have generated, if they have closed and if so the amount of the sale.
Read more at www.radian6.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1af70

3 Things Google Did While You Were Distracted by Google Plus

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:26:00 +0000

Steve Rubel wrote a great post in AdAge - and his personal blog - about three quite significant things Google did recently amid the media storm over Google Plus. While we're all trying to figure out all we can about Google Plus, Google's new "social network" designed to compete with Facebook, Google is making not-insignificant tweaks and announcements in other areas that you should pay heed to, particularly if you work in online content marketing in any capacity. I've "Amplified" them below.

Amplify’d from www.steverubel.me

First, on June 7 Google unveiled a new way for authors to claim ownership of their content around the web. This allows a writer to embed verified HTML code tied to his/her Google+ profile in all their content, no matter where it appears (e.g. my blog or AdAge.com). Once inserted Google then automatically includes the author’s profile image whenever these works show up in searches. Already the New York Times, CNET and The New Yorker have adopted this simple tag.

Next on June 28 Google began to make more data available to companies on the impact that tweets, Facebook likes and, most importantly, its own “+1s” sharing buttons have on site traffic.

Finally, Google News is starting to get more social as well. On July 14 the ten-year-old site launched a program that rewards regular users with social badges of authority for reading lots of news stories in a given subject matter.

Susan Moskwa, Webmaster Trends Analyst, suggested that site owners look more deeply at other metrics such as conversion rates, bounce rates (how quickly users abandon a site) and search click-throughs.

Google urged publishers to think beyond the almighty PageRank number that SEO types historically pay much heed to.

Google is slowly reinventing the core of its business by refining the quality of what people turn to it most for - search results - by favoring explicit and implicit signals of authority.
Read more at www.steverubel.me

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a19lwv

Digital Overload Puts a Premium on Thought Leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:26:00 +0000

"Thought leadership" is a great term. It might be a bit overused in today's social media marketing space, but it's important that we social media marketers, particularly in the B2B space, keep it in mind with our business goals.

Almost two years ago, when I began work in social media marketing and set out to define Perficient's social media strategy, I defined our goals in social media in this way:

Develop a community and "center of knowledge" around what we do, proving our abilities and expertise
Generate an interest in Perficient by prospective clients who seek us out as a result of our merits.

This has thought leadership written all over it, and there is no shortage of thought leadership within the company.

Last month, Mashable posted an article that proves this was the right approach, enabling us to capitalize on a key trend in online content consumption and purchase decision-making that has exploded over the past few years. Erica Swallow recapped a presentation by Steve Rubel, EVP of Global Strategy and Insights for Edelman.

Below are the key insights from Steve Rubel, highlighting a shift in consumers' trust from seeking out information and advice from peers, to seeking out the companies who provide:

expert insights and technical experience
good content curation: separating the art from the junk for people to understand it.

We now have over 30 experts across the company empowered to blog weekly or daily and tweet from company profiles. They are constantly curating the best content in their subject areas and contributing unique thought leadership in their space. View all of our active blogs and Twitter profiles here.

With limited time and attention spans, people are experiencing information overload as well as “people overload.

With the dot-com crash, though, publishing costs decreased, enabling almost anyone to be a publisher — thus, the era of “Democratization” (2002-2010). Cue the entrance of mainstream bloggers and Twitter fiends, accompanied by the shift of authority and trust from brands to individuals.

In 2006, during the pinnacle of the era of Democratization, the study found that people trusted their peers most when forming opinions about companies.

The 2011 Trust Barometer survey illustrated an essential shift in trust, with academics, experts and technical experts within companies rising to become the most trusted sources.

“Every company can be a media company.” This is the idea that every brand can create valuable content.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are driving increased engagement with brands and increased traffic to the other media spheres.

Find your company’s subject-matter experts and empower them to “cultivate new ideas and engage in meaningful conversation around them,

unprecedented opportunity for companies and individuals to gain authority and become thought leaders by being the ones who “separate art from junk for people to understand it.” Curation is just as important as creation.

People on the Internet do not read,” Rubel says. “They read 20% of a webpage before they move on; 57% never come back to that page; and we spend 15-20 seconds on a webpage before we move on.

The solution is to make data and information more visual and entertaining.

Publish your company’s content, such as slideshows and white papers, on hubs like SlideShare and Scribd, so that interested parties can access it and “go deeper” when they want to.

“Be a source of knowledge,” says Rubel. Social media is a great outlet for doing just that. Rubel recommends that companies empower all of their employees to ask and answer questions via social media, instead of putting a few people in charge of that responsibility.

The Internet is not just a playland; it is an extension of our offline lives, a place where individuals and companies can become highly influential and respected.

How companies advertise on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:53:00 +0000

I often get asked how Twitter makes money. Their revenue model is largely based on advertising, and ads are actually called "promoted tweets." I thought this recent article from Ad Age did a great job summing it up. You can also click the link to see some of the top promoted tweets from the past year, created by companies including Old Spice, VW, Ford and Google.

Amplify’d from adage.com

From the start, Twitter has charged for promoted tweets on what it calls "engagement" or user action -- a retweet, response, click on a link or when a user marks a post as a "favorite." Marketers don't pay when the tweets go nowhere. Twitter also only charges for the first retweet of the original; subsequent retweets are "earned" and free.

As sales chief Adam Bain says, "Marketers are rewarded if they are good, not just if they're loud."
While ad spending on Twitter is expected to grow to $150 million in 2011 from $45 million in 2010, according to eMarketer, brands are still working out how to use the platform effectively.
Read more at adage.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a127l1

How J-School Made Me a Better Marketer

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:17:00 +0000

I am one of those Mizzou J-school grads who got out of news reporting as soon as possible after J-306 my junior year and jumped right into marketing. However, when I look back, one of the most influential factors in setting me on my thoroughly enjoyable career path of interactive marketing has been the HTML editing class I stumbled into as part of an Online Journalism elective course my junior year. I "geeked out" so much in this class that I actually ended up becoming a teaching assistant for the class my senior year, which means that I spent hours per day building websites and helping other people understand Dreamweaver, CSS and web site code.

Fast forward a decade later and you have the recipe for a social media marketer. I'll always remember one of the first interviews after graduation in which the hiring manager looked at my writing and editing abilities, website building skills and marketing passion, and instantly pinned me as an online marketer. Soon after I was informed what "SEO" and "PPC" meant, I found myself working for a software and online services company where I edited websites, purchased online ads and advised website owners every day on how to convert their site's visitors into customers. I realized there were more than a few things I had learned in J-school that continue to lend themselves well to success in an online marketing and social media marketing career. Here are just a few of them:

The Inverted Pyramid Method of
News Story Writing

Always be thinking about what your target audience wants or needs. J-school taught me how to find the most important facts about a story and present them in the most compelling way to the reader. My professors taught me about the inverted pyramid, the method of "placing of the most important information first within a text". It essentially forces you to be concerned primarily with your audience's needs and wants. Answer the question: "Why should I care?" This concept translates so well outside of just story writing, especially in today's "ADD age" of Internet prevalence and vast access to information, where, for example, the most newsworthy info is the tweet and the headline to the story, the important details are the body of the article, and the background info are the outbound links.

As it relates to online marketing: You have a visitor on your site: What are they looking for? Make it really easy for them to find it. Then explain it in simple terms, and make it easy for them to buy it. Don't have enough visitors yet on your site? Then think like they do: Where are they looking for the thing that your company offers (Google, for example)? Go get yourself in front of them and make it easy for them to choose your product or service over your competition. Think of (and talk about) your company and your products in terms of unique selling propositions, not just features and benefits. What does the customer want? Convince and convert.
As it relates to social media: Anyone and everyone you want to connect with is going to ask themselves, "What's in it for me?" Why should I be-friend you or follow your Twitter stream, especially if you represent a company? Don't serve me press releases and company promotions all the time. Be human and foster a relationship with me online by offering me useful, valuable information and entertaining, interesting bits of information and commentary. Be concise with your message, which you're going to have to be anyway because in many cases, you only have 140 characters with which to do it.

Be extremely efficient with your time and efforts. It must have been my first week of working for the local newspaper in Columbia, Missouri, aptly named "The Columbia Missourian" that I felt I was working 12-hour days (on top of 12 additional credit hours of school and a part-time job to pay the bills) for an end product that was not an adequate translation of my blood, sweat and tears. Essentially, in J-school, part of your education is a course in which you are officially a reporter for this paper as an unpaid part-time job. This method of learning the ropes of being a true reporter by being thrown into the fire is called "The Missouri Method."

While I understood that we were being given a rare opportunity for real bylines before graduation, I also felt that the number of eyes that made it to my page-8 article that had taken me 15 hours of interviews and 6 revisions to complete just simply didn't translate. The return on investment, from my perspective, was negative. It was a very personal decision of mine to get out of reporting and editing as soon as possible, and it was the right one for me. But that experience alone taught me that I personally would only be satisfied in my career if I could find ways to make a big splash with everything I do, with the most efficient expense in time and energy. This isn't about being lazy. It's a rather simple equation: The less it takes to make a quick win, the more time you have to spend on the next one, and the sooner you can start working on it.

Steinbruegge getting loud
with an air horn

As an online marketer, not only do I feel that my megaphone has become much larger, but I also need to see that the end result is that opportunity to make a tangible impact - on revenue, sales, money! With SEO and paid advertising, I can reach new audiences all over the world, and with a compelling message and product, I can drive the bottom line for a business. Oh, and don't forget that, Voila! Online marketing gives you web analytics and conversion tracking! Is there anything more magical than being able to directly attribute your blood, sweat and tears into actual, quantifiable results? (See image to the right for another example of a great Journalism-grad-turned-online-marketer known for frequently "getting loud" and making a big splash. Proof that it comes with the territory.)
As a social media marketer, I have never felt more visible and more connected to an international network of experts, professionals, entertainers, social mavens, connectors, mentors, influencers, brand advocates, customers, co-workers, prospects...you name it! Twitter gives me a pretty big "megaphone" to reach whomever I desire in a valuable way. The end result of my time investment in social media creates such a compelling and valuable end result, serving both my employer and myself in unique ways. I learn new things every single day, I drive brand visibility and sales opportunities, I get to help shape the public's perception of the company, I am inspired, I get breaking news before the news organizations can give it to me, I have new friends I never would have met otherwise...the list goes on.

More importantly, leveraging social media for marketing purposes requires one to be efficient with how they spend their time. Tweeting all night long just because you can't sleep doesn't automatically make you a social media marketer, even if it has brought you 200 new followers in a day. There are now so many social networks, millions of people on each of them, and now more and more companies, messages, products all clamoring for those consumers' attention. You have to be selective, specific, and targeted - both with the personal and the professional messages you choose to publish and with the individuals you aim to connect with. The more efficient and focused you can be with your time investment in social media, the more successful you will be. Isn't that a fun challenge?

There is certainly a piece of all of this that can be attributed to innate characteristics and how I've evolved to think about things. I may not call myself a journalist today, but the Missouri Method, its rigorous work ethic, high expecations and standards, a focus on the audience's needs, and the entire curriculum around distilling information into a concise, targeted message -- each of these things groomed me throughout my Journalism school experience -- and each of them has made me a better online and social media marketer today.

How do you Prioritize Content Marketing in B2B?

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:54:00 +0000

I recently read an article that outlined some important considerations for leveraging your company's content for marketing purposes. My favorite highlights from the article are quoted below.

It can be extremely difficult not only to produce a good quantity of unique and valuable content but also to match it up to the right stage in the buying cycle. This is even more difficult for companies that have a lot of solutions, like Perficient does, or who want to target that content by industry, geography or other data points.

We break our content down into several types:

Website Copy
Blog Articles: We have four active blogs with over 30 people blogging on behalf of the company right now.
Twitter & other social media content (Example: @Perficient)
Whitepapers
Webinars: both video replays and slide shows
Video Content: in the form of tutorials, demos, interviews, panels, speakers, events, and more.
Solution Sheets
Case Studies
Podcasts / Audio Files
Email Newsletters

It has been an ongoing effort to tag all of this content to appropriate solution-based categories and or target market segments in order to promote and leverage them in the right way for lead generation purposes. More importantly, in our industry, insights and techniques can become outdated very quickly, so keeping on top of these assets and updating them frequently is very important.

Some of my goals as a B2B marketer involve taking this list of assets and doing just what the article referenced emphasizes is so important:

Make all unique content easily sharable - across social networks and via email.
Evolve the content experience from A) providing insightful value to the reader - to B) demonstrating the wealth of thought leadership at my firm - to C) solving a business need.

If you work in B2B, what types of content are you prioritizing in your marketing efforts? Are you trying anything different from my list above?

Highlights from "B2B Social Media and Content Marketing in the Sales Funnel." by Jeffrey Cohen:

Social media has expanded both the need and the reach of content.

One of the strengths of social media is to drive awareness of a company, product or service. Many B2B marketers set up Twitter accounts and Facebook Pages to promote product launches, trade show events and other company-centric ideas.

Content generated leads can be tracked in a company’s CRM system, along with the description of the content that drove the lead.

As buyers move into the consideration phase, they are looking for more than just product information. They are looking for solutions to business problems.

Customers are doing more online research before purchase than ever before, and are further in the buying cycle before they ever have a conversation with a salesperson. This makes it vitally important to have consumable content, easily available and shareable, to keep a company’s products relevant and appearing in search results.

According to a study by strategy consulting firm AMR International, the first and third priorities for B2B online marketers are lead generation (38%) and awareness (28%).

While the second priority in this survey was customer retention, an important online tactic, there is no mention of middle of the funnel marketing.

B2B marketers need to respond to the changing online environment and changing needs of prospects to make more information available on social platforms and in shareable formats

All social content needs to be created with two thoughts in mind. Does this show a prospect how their business need can be solved, and would they be willing to share this with other connections online?

4 Must-Attend STL Marketing Events in the Next 30 days - #SMCSTL

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:39:00 +0000

Note: I edited this post to "4 Must-Attend STL Marketing Events in the Next 30 Days" instead of "3" because somehow I thought the highly anticipated "State of Online Influence" event was next month, but in fact, it's next week, April 28th at Soulard Preservation Hall!

As an involved and active board member for the Social Media Club and the Business Marketing Association in Saint Louis, I am very interested in local marketing events. My employer, Perficient, a national IT consulting firm based in Saint Louis, also hosts local events from time to time, and the one we have going on this week is a short breakfast seminar on how to make your website more user-friendly and sales-oriented.

Additionally, tomorrow night, Social Media Club is bringing two renowned social media thought leaders and authors into town to give what's sure to be a priceless, entertaining and thought-provoking presentation at Lumiere Place (which guarantees a night of fun anyway).

Here's a rundown of three events going on over the next month that I deem a "can't miss".
If you're attending any of these, let me know, and I look forward to seeing you!

Websites Speak Louder Than Words, from Perficient

What: A breakfast networking event and presentation about creating dynamic Web experiences with Microsoft SharePoint

When: Thursday, April 21st, 8:00 a.m - 11:35 a.m.

Where: Microsoft North Central District Offices, 3 City Place Dr., Suite 1100, St. Louis, MO 63141

Why: Brad Nunnally (@bnunnally) is a local UX guru, and he'll be presenting alongside Aaron Sloman (@aaronjsloman) of Perficient. Aaron was a lead architect in Microsoft’s eBusiness team, building some of the largest eCommerce sites and customer portal properties on the Microsoft technologies.

Register / More Info

Follow Perficient's Saint Louis team on Twitter: @Perficient_STL

Social Media Club STL Presents: The Now Revolution Book Tour

What: Networking party, presentation and discussion from two nationally renowned social media thought leaders.

When: Thursday, April 21, 6 pm - 9 pm

Where: Lumière Theatre, 999 N. Second St. , Saint Louis, MO 63102

Why: Learn to take advantage of seven major shifts - from culture to process - that savvy companies of today need to adapt and thrive in a social business world. Amber Naslund (@AmberCadabra) and Jay Baer (@jaybaer) will explain these shifts with examples, useful tips, and actionable implementation advice, and they'll also talk about their book, The Now Revolution. This presentation (and the book) is appropriate for both social media professionals and executives, if there were ever an event to bring your boss to this would definitely be it.

Register / More Info

Also, follow the Twitter hash tag #SMCSTL before, during and after the event to get the scoop on what attendees are learning and observing.

Huge thanks to Armstrong Teasdale, Standing Partnership and Lumiere Place, without whom this event wouldn't be happening!

The State of Online Influence

What: The presentation features a panel discussion with St. Louis’ top online influencers and keynote speakers Matt Ridings from Tech Guerilla and Tom Webster from Edison Research.

When: April 28th, 3:00 - 8:00 pm

Where: Soulard Preservation Hall, 1921 South 9th Street, Saint Louis, MO 63104

Why: It's all about Saint Louis influential online marketers and influentials. How could you miss that? For the 2nd year in a row, Infuz is releasing its annual STL Index report on the state of social media activity in Saint Louis, and in conjunction they're offering a fantastic panel of speakers and excellent networking.

Register / More Info

Follow hashtag #STLi

What's Branding Got to Do With It? Solutia's Case Study and the Importance of Branding for the B-to-B Enterprise

What: BMA St. Louis May Marketing Masters Luncheon and Presentation

When: Thursday, May 12th, 11:30 am - 1pm

Where: Spazio, 12031 Lackland Rd, St. Louis, MO

Why: Strong brands, supported by proper mission, vision, values and positioning are nearly a mandate for some B-to-B companies that want to ensure that their suppliers have standards that match their own.

Emily Bealke Parenteau, Director, Planning & Coordination at St. Louis-based Solutia, will talk about the re-branding of Corporate Solutia from brand research to new logo development to global launch. Mark Vogel, Senior Partner at Avant Marketing Group, will explain the importance of brand management in the b-to-b environment, but will explain its proven process of brand development and its proprietary “Living the Brand” training that focuses on making all employees in your organization true brand fanatics.

Register / More Info

Follow BMA Saint Louis on Twitter: @BMAStLouis

Guy Kawasaki's new book...Keyword: Enchantment

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Last night, I began reading Guy Kawasaki's new book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions . I was pretty impressed with what I learned in a short period of time. The book is chock-full of great tips for pushing forward your ideas and your projects socially. Whether you're an entrepreneur or just want to learn how to become more effective as a marketer with either your company's message or your own personal objectives, I think you'll benefit from this book. In one chapter, Guy talks about having a good handshake (dry, cool, firm grip and soft skin while looking directly in their eyes and smiling genuinely), and he emphasizes the impact one can have in interpersonal relationships by consistently making --not faking-- a true smile, and speaking in active voice, not passive.

Media mogul Richard Branson put it best when he said,

Guy's book captures the importance - and the art - of believing in an idea that delivers something entirely unique to the customer. The power of a really good idea to transform the marketplace and individual customer experiences is huge, and this book offers a wealth of insights to help businesses and entrepreneurs tap into that potential. -Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group "

Until midnight tonight, when you buy Enhancement, you can get a copy of his previous book, Reality Check, for free.

If you know anyone who might like this deal, please point them to:

https://alltop.wufoo.com/forms/early-enchanter-offer/

Guy says: Sorry but I can only make this offer for copies bought from U. S. retailers, and we can only ship the Reality Check to U. S. addresses.

I decided to write this blog post about the book because I know so many marketers, small business owners and leaders who already like Guy for what they know abut him but might not have been given that tipping point reason to buy his latest book. Here's my vote: I think you should read it, and let me know what your greatest takeaway is!

Paid Advertising Less Effective in 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:01:00 +0000

I thought this article had some fascinating stats regarding methods of online advertising and which ones can be more effective in driving clicks to your site. However, paid advertising can still drive brand impression benefits for you. Take a look at how social media has increased as a traffic driver.

Amplify’d from www.b2bbloggers.com

Trends And Strategies To Market Your Website In 2011

61% of adults say they still find websites using natural search results

The next biggest traffic driver is referrals

Paid advertising is now the least effective method of driving traffic to a website

The effectiveness of paid search advertising has dropped by 10% since only two years ago.

A mere 3% of surveyed adults say they visit websites from paid advertisements.

Social media marketing has been holding steady as a major traffic driver. 16% of adult internet users find websites through social media profiles and links.

20% of users who view a paid advertisement online choose to search for that website’s organic results before visiting the website.

Your paid ads aren’t worthless just because other forms of marketing are taking center stage. Consider that your paid ads can offer you real-time analytic information along with their functionality as ads. This analytic data is useful for improving all aspects of your campaign.

mpressions matter. Just because your ads don’t seem to be driving clicks directly doesn’t mean they aren’t adding to the overall awareness of your brand. Remember that many users now view search results after viewing an ad and then navigate to a website – focusing on multiple aspects of your campaign can help target these users.

Mobile marketing is of growing importance. 1 in 3 internet users under the age of 18 browse the internet at least once a week on their mobile phones. Target these users to increase your success.

In Conclusion: Additional Tips for Success

Read more at www.b2bbloggers.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/btg27

Conversion Conference West 2011: Come See Me Present!

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:53:00 +0000

I'll be on a social media panel in San Francisco in less than 2 weeks at Conversion Conference West. I recently blogged about it.

I am very excited to hopefully meet Bryan Eisenberg (@TheGrok) and also Michael Summers (@ez2use) - both exceptional authors in the digital marketing space.

Here's the news release that the conference organizers put out recently, picked up by www.digitaljournal.com

Conversion Conference Keynotes Reveal Secrets to Delivering Revenue from Website Visitors, San Francisco, March 14-15, 2011

Conversion Conference, focused exclusively on increasing website conversion rates, is a must-attend event featuring keynotes by industry experts Tim Ash, Author, Landing Page Optimization (and Conversion Conference Chair), Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Author, Call to Action, and Always Be Testing, Michael Summers, Co-author, Creating Websites that Work and Andrés Amézquita, V.P. of e-commerce at Mattel Inc. Attendees also have access to a special guest keynote from Thomas Davenport, Author, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning.

eet the leaders in the field and hear live landing page critiques, 20 educational sessions, 4 keynotes, book signings and have roundtable lunches with the speakers whose strategies and tactics are presented in practical how-to sessions, case studies and actionab

Meet the leaders in the field and hear live landing page critiques, 20 educational sessions, 4 keynotes, book signings and have roundtable lunches with the speakers whose strategies and tactics are presented in practical how-to sessions, case studies and actionable takeaways.

“Realizing the already-existing value from website visits is a board-room imperative when corporations have spent millions on driving traffic to their websites," says conference founder Tim Ash. "Conversion Conference’s expert speaker roster delivers the tools and expertise to their interactive teams.”

Other notable Conversion Conference speakers include: Mani Iyer (Kwanzoo), Patrick Bultema (CodeBaby), David Szetela (Clix Marketing), Erin Eschen (Perficient), Justin Rondeau (TemplateZone), Ole Bahlmann (SoundCloud Ltd), Raquel Hirsch (WiderFunnel), Steen Rasmussen (IIH Nordic), Howard Kaplan (Future Now), Lance Loveday (Closed Loop Marketing), Aaron Kahlow (Online Marketing Summit), John Cecil (Innovate Media), Todd Barrs (Webroot Software), Bob Garcia (Optimize), Khalid Saleh (Invesp), Rob Snell (Gun Dog Supply), Joanna Lord (SEOmoz.org), Darrell Benatar (UserTesting.com), Charles Nicholls (SeeWhy), Scott Brinker (Ion Interactive), Seth Berman (Blue Shield of California), James Niehaus (Symantec), Andrés Amézquita (Mattel Inc.), Joe Weller (RealNetworks), Justin Davis (Madera Labs), Pete Olson (Amadesa), Amy Africa (Eight by Eight), Chris Goward (WiderFunnel), Paras Chopra (Wingify), Eric J. Hansen (SiteSpect), David Rodnitzky (PPC Associates), David Szetela (Clix Marketing), Susan Weinschenk (Human Factors Int'l), Andre Morys (Web Arts AG), Byron White (Idealaunch.com) and Jeanne Hopkins (HubSpot).
Read more at www.digitaljournal.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bsncn

I "Like" Your Brand; Now Let's Make a Deal

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:52:00 +0000

"Coupons! We want coupons!"

Small businesses, merchants, website owners - anybody with something to SELL - are you listening? Your customers want to connect with you on Facebook, but primarily because they're looking for a deal - a discount, a coupon, a freebie. Give them what they want, and they'll keep coming back, right?

This online survey by Ad Age/Ipsos Observer of 1,000 US adults and their digital media habits indicates that if you have something to sell to the average US adult, you need to be on Facebook. In fact, it wouldn't hurt for you to give some location based services a try, such as one of my favorites, Foursquare. Try offering coupons exclusively for fans of your Facebook page, and monitor your brand's mentions across social profiles to ensure a positive experience and speedy response and resolution of issues.

Amplify’d from adage.com

41% of respondents said they want to receive communications from marketers on Facebook -- more than double any other digital platform. One in three said it was their "preferred" platform

42% want better customer service, 28% sought branded games and only 22% care about customer news.

Nearly three-quarters of Facebook users have "liked" at least one brand on the platform and more than a third of users have liked six or more.

Coupons were also the main driver listed for users of location-based check-in services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places and others.

are driven by the game-like aspects

Some 40% said they use the services to keep track of friends or let friends know where they are and 15% are driven by the game-like aspects of earning rewards like Foursquare's badges

There are 241 million residents aged 10 and older in the U.S. and 149 million Facebook accounts, which are only open to those 13 and older. When you consider that the latest Pew data shows 79% of adults have internet access, you start getting to a point where saying "Everyone who is online is on Facebook" isn't that far off.
Read more at adage.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs8h7

Social Media Marketing for Conversion at "Conversion Conference 2011"

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:58:00 +0000

I am super psyched to be presenting once again at Conversion Conference West, 2011 in San Francisco. This conference starts on Monday, March 14th (agenda) and goes 2 days. I will be on a panel at 4:00 on Tuesday, March 15th (agenda):

Panel Discussion: Social Media Micro-conversions (S20)
David Szetela, Clix Marketing
Erin Eschen, Perficient
Justin Rondeau, TemplateZone
Ole Bahlmann, SoundCloud Ltd
Having a Facebook fan page and a Twitter profile are not enough. This panel of social media experts will teach you how effective conversation tactics can be measured by micro-conversions. Learn how to leverage the concept of the Viral Loop to develop leads that turn into new customers. Get the latest information on building and managing campaigns on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yelp and how to elevate your social media efforts from basic brand building to sales & lead conversion.

I have often spoken of social media marketing as bringing, among other things, two very distinct opportunities to a business:

Building brand awareness, brand equity, reputation and reach -- all part of the same bucket of building your brand, as most people call it. Social media gives you an additional medium for messaging who you are and what you can do for your target market. It's a medium for finding and connecting with prospects, customers and advocates and building conversation and interest in your brand, your products and what you're all about.
Driving leads and sales. There is a big difference between A) someone who now knows your brand name or company, how you are positioned in your marketplace and what you sell (#1 above) and B) someone who is a hand-raiser - someone who says, "I not only know what you do and that you compete with X company, and that you sell Y products, but hey -- I'm interested in talking with you more about your products and seeing if I may want to buy them."

I believe that both #1 and #2 can be built via social media marketing investments. And getting more hand-raisers should lead to more leads and ultimately more sales in the long run.

Many social media strategists and also skeptics alike are publicly voicing doubt over social media's ability to convert. But I believe there's evidence to the contrary. And that's what I'll be speaking about. Join me at Conversion Conference West 2011 in beautiful San Francisco by the Bay!

Tim Ash of SiteTuners is the inspiring and fearless leader of this conference, and I'm excited to see that Aaron Kahlow of Online Marketing Summit series will also be speaking.
Lastly, the online advertising and e-commmerce guru with one of my favorite accents, Rob Snell of Gun Dog Supply and author of Starting a Yahoo Business For Dummies will also be presenting on Day 2.

Last year, I spoke about conversion in social media when the conference was held in San Jose.

Why Twitter is Your Path to Making New Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 18:37:00 +0000

Biz Stone tweeted this article today and I found it to be an articulate explanation of why Twitter is so great for meeting new people of similar interests, while Facebook is all about connecting with, as Mark Zuckerberg has frequently said, "friends you already have."

Amplify’d from www.economist.com

Despite—and perhaps because of—the trivial and by necessity shortened discourse on Twitter, several friendships have blossomed, recently confirmed in person. That description may sound a bit bloodless, but Babbage turns his steely eye upon his own soul and motives, not just those of others.

Twitter enables the sort of chitchat impossible among strangers on email or instant messaging, and outside the scope of Facebook. Facebook's boss, Mark Zuckerberg, often describes his service as a way to connect with friends you already have. Facebook creates circles upon circles of acquaintance, but most conversation is among those already known to each other.

Twitter, however, is a different beast. The asymmetry of follower and followee creates a different rhythm, allowing the possibility of falling into conversation with an unknown someone without invading his or her space. It is a simple matter to ignore or block those who you find uninteresting. And people you know and trust outside the electronic realm lead you to their friends, colleagues and family. Likewise, you may be on the receiving end of tendrils of acquaintance. The shared set of relationships and communication among those you know vets new people for you and you for them.
Read more at www.economist.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aq2dv

IBM's Social Business Jam: Sharing social business insights online

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:58:00 +0000

I'm participating in IBM's Social Business Jam today on behalf of Perficient. It's an online event where many people working in social business come together and share ideas, insights, opinions and experiences. Here is IBM's description of it:

Connect and share your insights with thousands of subject matter experts from other companies, industry analysts and thought leaders in the area of Social Business. The Jam will continue for 72+ hours (ending Thursday, 11 February at 12:00PM Eastern Standard Time), so you can come and go as your schedule allows.

This Jam will provide valuable insights relevant to many roles including those in marketing, operations, human resources, IT and line of business executives. We encourage you to invite others from your organization and your network to join us. They can register at http://ibm.co/joinsbjam.

Today, one of the most active threads has been the one started by Lauren Walker of IBM asking the question: "Can you measure the ROI of social media?"

"How are companies assigning value to their social media activities? What is the measurement of "successful" social media for business?" she asked.

In a reply to one of the respondents, Lauren later referenced the ROI Pyramid put together by an Altimeter study here.

I thought I'd share my reply to Lauren's question and see what you all think?

Lauren, I did see that Altimeter report. I ended up copying a bunch of the slides and blogging about it recently: Three Goals of Corporate Social Media Strategy in 201

Thank you for sharing them here and commenting on the possibility of gauging ROI.

I believe it is very much possible to at least work toward tracking and measuring as many quantifiable metrics related to social media marketing and social business operations, and then using those to at least directionally understand if improvement (in internal collaboration efficiency, or in brand visibility) is happening, even if you can't gauge a true ROI from those metrics (i.e. actual conversions or sales).
With some types of businesses (Dell, for example, using Twitter to drive sales) it is providing a measurable and obvious ROI.

Regardless of whether you're selling actual products and can measure direct ROI or your sales cycle is 9 months long and you just won't know for a while how it pays off, do what you can to measure every metric possible and use smart tools to track progress.

From my experience, It's still worth playing in the space, understanding it and doing your best.

Most Consumers Prefer Traditional Contact with Brands over Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:59:00 +0000

Found this article today summarizing a report by Razorfish about how people interact with brands and what they are looking for in that brand interaction related to:

- Control

- Value

- Trust

- Efficiency

- Consistency

- Relevance

The report found that most consumers prefer traditional methods of connecting with brands, such as email or word-of-mouth over using Twitter of Facebook. This doesn't surprise me as Twitter & Facebook are much newer than email, however, it's worth a reminder to all marketers as we continue to evaluate the amount of time & effort we invest across channels and methods of connecting with our target market.

Here's a summary of the findings:

Amplify’d from www.mediapost.com

Most people still prefer to connect with brands through more traditional methods, such as email, company Web sites or word-of-mouth.

The goal was to look at customer-relationship management more from a consumer's standpoint than a marketer's to understand how people choose to interact with brands.

That's among the key findings from a new report from Razorfish titled "Liminal"

both the hipster who DMs a company on Twitter and a boomer who sends a letter in the mail both ultimately want the same thing. Thus, companies should worry less about building out numerous channels and touchpoints and more about ensuring each customer interaction communicates value," advised Razorfish.

Among the six qualities that define engagement -- feeling valued, trust, efficiency, consistency, relevance and control -- control ranked as the least significant among consumers. "Apparently, the consumer does not need to be in as much control as we thought, seeing other things as far more important," stated the report.
Read more at www.mediapost.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/e0oQDf

7 Characteristics Of Companies Effectively Using Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:01:00 +0000

This article from B2BBloggers.com showcases findings from a report from a report by Harvard Business Review called "The New Conversation, Taking Social Media from Talk to Action."

I found the seven characteristics of effective social media use to be very interesting, as many of them are in line with what we do at my company to drive awareness and business using social media.

1. We do have a social media strategy. It has been documented, analyzed and evolved as time passes. It includes specific, tangible, achievable and quantifiable goals, and it also includes specific ways that social media efforts integrate with other online tactics as well as offline marketing methods.

2. We do have a budget - meaning we do spend money on social media marketing - and we also engage in more than four social media channels, including YouTube, SlideShare, Facebook, Twitter, Corporate Blogs and LinkedIn.

3. We certainly track progress via quantifiable metrics obtained through a variety of social media monitoring tools. I feel this is an imperative piece of expecting results with your social media marketing strategy.

Amplify’d from www.b2bbloggers.com

Sixty-three percent of the effective users said they have developed and implemented a social media strategy.

They’ve taken an integrated view of social media and have made it another part of their overall marketing strategy, not “shiny object” or fad. They are working toward stated, documented goals that are specific.

Effective users were TWICE as likely to have a social media budget as compared to the rest of the respondents.

Effective users are far more likely to use more social media channels — four or more.

Effective users were much more likely to be fully-leveraging the benefits of social media by using multiple social media channels to:

reach customers,

learn about customers,

research new products,

establish user groups among customers,

monitor trends, and

collect and track customer reviews.

Effective users are more likely to be:

be doing more multi-media sharing,

participating in review sites, discussion forums, and blogs, and

know where their customers are talking about them on the Web.

The use of metrics and analytic tools also sets the effective users apart as effective users are measuring their efforts as well as the social conversations about them.

Finally, this group was also far more likely to integrate their social media monitoring solution with their other marketing solutions. (Again demonstrating an integrated approach to their social media initiative.
Read more at www.b2bbloggers.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ao4sd

Impact of Social Media on University Learning and Recruitment - #SMCSTL Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:53:00 +0000

The Social Media Club - St. Louis January Meet-Up last night at Gio's downtown sure delivered on its promise to be "an exciting look into how something that has touched all of us in life, education, is evolving and innovating to stay current with today's technology and youth."

I recorded key points and insights from each of our dynamic panelists, and below you'll find their answers and what Erin Steinbruegge (@steinburglar) likes to call "Twuggets" -- little nuggets of gold that are meaningful to understanding social media and also short enough that they are perfect for Twitter.

The crowd mingles after the panel came to a close.

Speaking of Twitter, it wouldn't be a Social Media Club St. Louis (@smcstl) meeting without hundreds of live tweets, all tagged with #smcstl for your convenient digest. Check out the stream from last night, and let me know what you took away from the event. Don't forget to connect with Allison, Patrick, Jill and Colby. In addition to their in-depth understanding of how social media is shaping higher education, teaching style, recruitment, learning opportunities and collaboration in and outside of the classroom, this group of folks tweets daily (and blogs!) about many things social media.

A bit of Social Media Club news before we get started with our recap from last night.

Within a month or so, our board will be ready to announce a new website! Right now, smcstl.com directs to our Facebook fan page, but before long, we expect to have a collaborative hub of blog content, images, video and much more. Stay tuned for that!
Within the next week, we'll be announcing the February meet-up. Just ask anyone who attended last night's event to find out why you should definitely mark your calendar for February's. Next month's meet-up will not feature a panel or topic. Instead, we're reserving this one for pure networking.

Here's the lovely panel from last night:

Allison Babka - Marketing Specialist for Undergraduate Recruitment at Saint Louis University - @AMBabka

Patrick Powers - Interactive Media Manager at Webster University - @PatrickJPowers

Jill Falk - Assistant Professor, Mass Communications & LUTV News Director at Lindenwood University - @JillFalk

Colby Gergen - Student at University of Missouri - Columbia, President Mizzou AAF - @ColbyWG

SMCSTL Moderator Brian Schwartz with Allison Babka & Colby Gergen

Brian Schwartz (@creativereason) did a fantastic job moderating this panel, opening it up with some deep questions and inciting some lively banter when panelists amicably disagreed on a few points. Note that the following is a digest of notes I took during the panel, and it is in no way a verbatim transcript nor is it comprehensive of all of the topics discussed.

One other key observation about the panel which I heard mentioned several times was the value found in including not only marketers on the organization side but also a student and a teacher. I personally think this is probably the most defining factor in the value of this event, and kudos to Brian for gathering a diverse panel so that we could all enjoy earning from the unique perspectives provided from each angle of social media's impact within education.

Brian: What are the most popular social media tool being used by students?

Patrick: Facebook! I see10 times the traffic and I can get people to do 10 times as much using Facebookover Twitter.

Patrick: Median age of student is 31, which runs right in line w/ median age of Twitter users

Allison: Most of our market comes from Twitter, but we get a lot of parents and alums on Facebook.

Jill: Facebook during class (laughs) and she hears that the students are mostly using Facebook.

Colby: Twitter is really catching on but it's a different step to get it to be used in the classroom than it is to use it to connect with friends. Most of my friends and fellow students who tweet, I follow them for the humor. A lot of what's posted is off the wall. So many students checked in at Cornell Hall one day that most earned the Swarm Badge on FourSquare. Students are getting more and more used to FourSquare.

Jill Falk chats with attendees after the panel.

Brian: Are students being given recommendations about not tagging photos on Facebook?

Allison: We don't say anything to students about what to do on Facebook. We're not in the helpful phase, we're in the awareness phase. For students we choose to use in our ads or internal publications, we do vet them on Facebook.

Jill: There's no coordinated effort at Lindenwood to tell kids to be careful about Facebook but some professors are advising students on it. In one of my classes recently, I advised them to Google themselves and do a write up. A lot of them said, "My facebook page came up, and I didn't like a lot of the pictures that were there!.... I didn't know this stuff was public!" You would think that to a lot of them it would be obvious, but it's not, and they do need a wake up call.

Colby: Not sure how I got started in social media. A few of my friends came to me and said check out Twitter so I did, and it great from there. According to mytweet16.com my first tweet is "oh man my car broke down" and then 2 weeks later, "my car broke down again" (laughs).

Personally I'm not too strict about what I put out on social media. For me it's a personal philosophy. I am who I am. Take it or leave it. But other students have an opposite view of it.

I think it's important when educating students to tell them they need to be themselves.

Do a brand audit of yourself. Same as you would do with any business you'd work with. Google yourself, audit what comes up. And find out how to get that LiveJournal from when you were 13 and figure out how to get rid of it.

Lisa Keller (@lisackeller) having fun at SMCSTL.

Allison: When prospective students are a friend of our school on Facebook, after they get accepted, we siphon them off into other more relevant Facebook pages: into the schools they want or the class they're going to be in. Student ambassadors answer questions related more specifically to what they're going to do at school. Then the ambassadors can connect with them over these topics and create a more personalized experience.

Patrick: Prime drivers to website are academic program info, financial aid info, and then fill out the application. We have to create an experience across social platforms that cater to these desires.

Brian: Do people who don't get into the school complain on your Facebook page?

Allison: (SLU) says no, but Patrick (Webster) says yes.

Patrick says it's important to Webster to always approach students or rejected students as human, even if the exchange occurs online: be compassionate and be understanding.

Allison says she's fearful of the day that they have to deal with an angry student who doesn't get in.

Says they've had no negative content generated other than media related fires they've had to put out.

Jill: There's always going to be haters out there. I take advice from Scott Stratten not to worry about the "trolls" out there. We try to tell students to be authentic.

Question was raised as to how social media impacts classroom assignments.

Jill: has all students keep a blog, and all assignments for "Intro to Social Media" class are submitted online.

In the last year or so, been incorporating video and other more dynamic content and links. Jill says she asks herself and her students: what can we incorporate into our blogs and into the assignments that will expand their horizons a bit.

If you're going into communications and you don't understand social media, who's going to hire you?

Jill's classroom actually communicates and collaborates about classroom curriculum and assignments publicly on Twitter: #com130 @com130

Jill: Media changes every day, and here's a textbook, here's all my years of experience, but all of a sudden, I'm old and I don't know anything. Now I can send them links after class is over, and it's really become an expansion of learning.

Colby: If you're a teacher, be on Twitter and pay attention to it. It has opened up so many roads for me. Teachers are constantly available instantly for questions. There are teachers who I've never had in class yet have been the best teachers I've had by supporting me on Twitter.

Jill: Instead of coming to me during my office hours, when they have a question about blogging or media, they ask a question on Twitter, and before I even answer, my other students are jumping in with answers.

Panelist Allison Babka

Brian: Do universities monitor current students' online presence for bad behavior?

Alison: I watch but I don't do anything about it.

Patrick: (to the rest of the panel) Do you friend your students or fellow teachers on Facebook?

Jill: I say to my students, "When this class is over, if for some reason you think I'm cool enough to friend me on Facebook, send me an invitation, but while we're in this class, I'm not that comfortable with it."

Colby (student): Yes, I do. But if you do friend your students, make sure you trust them and there's a relationship there you trust or it may backfire int he end.

Patrick: We tell admissions counselors not to friend their Facebook students. We have a policy. Some have said "Well I'll just start a second profile and friend them" and we tell them this is against Facebook's terms of service to have two profiles.

Valerie Jensen is an admissions counselor. Val doesn't want to friend the 15 year-olds she's talking to and engage in conversation. It might be inappropriate in some cases. So instead, the way our university handles this is that Val has set up a Facebook page (not a profile) that has her name, with Webster University tied to it. It's a fan page. They can like her, and she can message them. But it takes out the personal and risky elements of friending students via your personal profile. This way she can operate as the employee via her page and via her personal profile she is her true self.

Questions ensued in the audience, largely from Eliot Frick, regarding how "authentic" this is - to have a "fan page" that is not fully representative of yourself. He asked the panel if this makes them uncomfortable or if they find this activity redundant rather than just allowing the teachers to connect directly with their students via their own Facebook profiles.

Brian: We're always talking about how social media breaks down barriers between universities and people or between companies and people. Where do you draw the line? Where do you want/get to lock down any private content?

How do you protect your online self and offline self? I don't check in on FourSquare at home, for example.

Jill: One of the advantages of Twitter over Facebook is that it is more public. I can respond more openly to a student's question on Twitter at 11:00 at night, and it's okay. It's not creepy, because it's public.

Patrick: Facebook is where the numbers are. That's where the students are, and if that's where they are, that's where we need to be.

This is me, tweeting up a storm on the #SMCSTL hashtag.

Responses about how each handles blogging:

Allison: We're finding that people are reading the blogs and then they're going to the sections of the admissions site where we want them to go even though we get very few comments on the blog posts. That's how we know it's working for us.

Colby: As much as I think it's great to get students blogging, it's one of those things where I feel like if students are not that into it, it's a question of "Do i really want to invest their time in it?"

Allison: We have students blogging, and it has worked out well for us. In the same way that we select students for advertisements, we vetted them and made them apply to be bloggers. We very, very carefully vetted and selected our bloggers. We make sure we cover various disciplines.

Brian: How do you vet candidates for admissions?

Allison: If there's a whiff of anything not wholesome, we won't consider them.

Patrick: Who determines wholesome?

Alison: (without hesitation) Me!

(Audience Laughs)

Brian: Do you change your tone and approach to adjust to different audiences in your social profiles?

Allison: I'm gonna put on my 16 year-old 'dude' voice when I'm writing for kids, but I'm going to be professional when writing for parents.

Brian: As a journalism thing and a writing thing in general, people don't write in AP style all the time. How do you handle the "disingenuous" factor of writing for your audience? Is writing in a more conversational tone becoming more prevalent?

Jill: Definitely. 50% of my classes are on the broadcasting side, so I am encouraging them to be more conversational. Sometimes I have had issues with blogs being too informal, and they're writing text message style or with very poor punctuation. I don't get upset. I advise them to look into it and consider these things. I try to respect their style and their tone when they're writing on blogs.

Colby: There is an important difference between conversational typing or conversational style and plain old laziness.

Social Media vs. Social Networking: What's the Difference?

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:03:00 +0000

I have also often heard "social networking" and "social media" interchanged. I think the important element to consider is "marketing." The way I look at social media, it is a channel for marketing much like any other medium. Largely, social media marketing is about branding, visibility, reputation management, sales, etc... while social networking is all about connecting, sharing information and collaborating. Connecting with friends on Facebook is a form of social networking. Connecting with a brand on Facebook is a form of social media marketing for that company. My colleague at Perficient, Mike Porter, is very experienced in the social media and social networking space, particularly when it comes to social collaboration tools such as those provided for the enterprise by companies like IBM and Microsoft. He weighed in recently in a blog post here. I agree with his analysis. I think it's important that as both of these continue to grow and evolve, we should use the correct terminology to help distinguish between what is inherently a more internal, private or personal connection (social networking) and what is a more business directed activity (social media marketing). What do you think?

Amplify’d from blogs.perficient.com

So I’ve seen a lot of people change up how they use these two terms. In my minds, they are very different although the base technologies used as people going about networking and working the social media may have a huge overlap.

social media: the use of tools like twitter, facebook, blogs, etc to both monitor how your company is doing with your customers and to market your company.

social networking: the use of web 2.0 tools like twitter, facebooks, jive, sharepoint, lotus connections, wikis, blogs, etc to keep up with colleagues, share information, and find information. This is a natural evolution to the social network you probably already have when you call people, engage people around the water cooler, send emails etc. These new technologies make it easier to find people and find answers even if your legacy social network is small.

As people continue to make use of web 2.0 tools to to do both, I think we’ll see a maturation of thought around it and of additional tools like social analytics to measure both the quality of social media efforts as well as how a company is using a social network and who is important to that network. Can you imagine a time when HR will use a social analytics tool to look up a person before they allow a counter-offer to be made in order to keep him or her?
Read more at blogs.perficient.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/anu9w

My Personal Brand's Board of Directors - Who's on Yours?

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 04:40:00 +0000

I read this article, "Who's On Your Personal Board of Directors", by Cortney Rhoades Stapleton, and it presents a fantastic take on what it means to build your personal brand along with the help, advice and inspiration of a handful of some leaders within your career network. I don't think this article intends for anyone to actually create, document, organize and gather a "board of directors" to advise them. This is pretty much something that just happens naturally as you expand your network.

I certainly have found a collection of close friends and acquaintances here in the St. Louis interactive and social media community who have done wonders for helping to build me into who I am today professionally. They have inspired me and taught me many of the skills that have made me of value to an organization. I consider myself lucky, and I also thank social media for enabling it in a big way.

The post has a unique take on roles that a personal brand advisory board might take, and I had fun thinking about how my network of Brand "Directors" fit into those roles.

And here are those esteemed professionals. Compare their "Job Title" to the descriptions from the article, below:

"The Supporter" Lisa Keller (@LisaCKeller), marketing manager at The Loud Few interactive marketing agency in St. Louis.

"The Sage" Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees), VP of Social Media at Falk Harrison and T-shirt entrepreneur

"The Questioner" and "The Risk Taker." Erin Steinbruegge (@Steinburglar) Owner and Leader of The Loud Few interactive marketing agency in St. Louis

"The Bridge" Brad Hogenmiller (@JavaSTL) of Infuz and President of the Social Media Club - St. Louis

"The Maven" David Siteman Garland (@TheRiseToTheTop) of The Rise to the Top and author of "Smarter, Faster Cheaper"

Who's on your board? Comment below or blog about it and shoot me the link on Twitter to @ErinE

Here is the description of roles from the article:

You are never too young or old to start building your personal board of directors. I’ve represented several executive search firms in my PR days. Years ago, I did a media pitch about people’s personal board of directors when looking for a job. At the same time I started my own. With every career milestone I reassess my board and make sure nobody needs to be retired. I thought it was a good time to share who is on mine – and see who is on everyone else’s!

The supporter. This person is a master listener. They know a ton about the marketing industry but also about me as a person. They are always there to lend an encouraging ear, a hug or a kick in the butt.

The sage. Everyone needs a director they admire, somebody who has done it all in your field, made the mistakes, learned from them and triumphed. This is one of the most trusted positions on the board.

The risk taker. This person is an inspiration. They have made mistakes and wrong decisions but they have learned from them and they will encourage you to do the same. Their mantra is “you won’t know if you never try.”

The questioner. This is an imperative board seat. Unlike the kings and queens in the book I just read for my book club (“Pillars of the Earth”); it pays to surround yourself with people who will question your motives, decisions and intentions. This person makes me a better marketing professional and helps me understand and process judgments and next steps.

The bridge. Otherwise known as the connector – predictably, this is the matchmaker for your career. Connectors love to engender relationships among people who might not otherwise have met. Connectors are infectious; this person inspires others to be more like them.

The maven. My maven is an expert in innovative marketing communication theories and techniques. They are often ahead of the curve but their expertise goes beyond B2B communications for professional and financial services companies. In Malcom Gladwell’s definition these are the folks who help us make informed buying decisions. I trust the way my maven thinks – they help me make smarter career judgments.

The hallmark of a good leader is your ability to listen. So no matter whom you add to your personal board, make sure you listen to them – after all – that is what a board is for.

Who is on your personal board of directors and why?

February Marketing Masters Luncheon from BMA St. Louis: Phil Clement, CMO, Aon

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:53:00 +0000

Phil Clement, Global CMO at Aon Corporation, will speak at the Business Marketing Association's February luncheon at Spazio's Westport on February 7th at 11:30am. I'll be there! I am a board member for the BMA St. Louis chapter, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every luncheon I have attended. The thought leadership is priceless, the networking is great, and the food is pretty good too. A great way to pass a lunch with other business marketing (B2B) professionals in St. Louis.

The topic: Engaging Employees, Customers & Prospects Globally

The New Year heralds a new challenge for B2B marketers... to become "content marketers". Our "product" is now content, and methods of packaging and distributing brand benefits is rapidly changing to include channels like blogs, songs, podcasts and even sporting event sponsorship... especially when trying to reach a diverse global market.

Aon Corporation made a big splash in 2009 when it announced it would replace AIG as the global sponsor of UK-based soccer (football) team Manchester United, the #1 brand in the #1 sport in the world, in the 2010-2011 season. The season began in June, and Aon Global CMO Phil Clement will give luncheon attendees the first glimpses of what Aon is doing to leverage its reported four-year, $132 million investment in this single global sponsorship platform to unite the firm into one global culture and maximize engagement with all audiences worldwide.
More info and register here: (please tweet and share this link!)

February Marketing Masters Luncheon: Phil Clement, Global CMO, Aon Corporation

Social Media Bigger than Marketing and PR?

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:01:00 +0000

Michael Brenner (@BrennerMichael) was quoted by Tom Pick (@TomPick) in a recent blog post, and I'm curious: Do you agree with what he has to say? "Social is much bigger than marketing and PR," he said. I don't have the source article from Michael, but I'm not sure I agree. I think Marketing and PR are fields of practice. Social media is a channel. Now, as it grows and grows, and as we look for ways to align marketing roles within organizations into focus areas, you may be able to say that "social media" is actually becoming its own field of practice. However, I do not believe the three are mutually exclusive, and thus I don't know that they can be compared to one another. I think there's a fantastic overlapping and intersection between marketing, PR and social media, as well as interactive advertising and other methods and channels.

What do you think?

Amplify’d from webbiquity.com

“Social is much bigger than marketing and PR. “Social is much bigger than marketing and PR. It’s a customer phenomenon. This will demonstrate itself as social moves into product development, operations, customer service and even sales,” according to Michael Brenner.
Read more at webbiquity.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bl71a

Social Media for PR: Thought Leadership, Conversation and Connection

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:08:00 +0000

Kate Schackai, Social Media Director at Crawford PR and author of White Hat PR, just wrote a fantastic article about the difference between marketing and PR in social media. She gives great suggestions on using social media for effective public relations efforts online, but I got a lot of value from her perspective on the way social media is evolving the "sales approach" to more of a conversation and a social experience than just a pitch (whether in marketing or PR). I love watching this evolution happen.

We're seeing this transition occur much more specifically in the B2B space, where the sales and marketing style offline has historically been less about "buy this!" and more about the conversation and the relationship between buyer and seller (referrals, dinners, golf) compared to consumer marketing which is more traditionally about features, price, benefits, etc.

Whether we're talking about marketing or PR, the bottom line for me is that social media permits a brand to demonstrate its skills and build its reputation by shifting the focus from the product or service toward the deeper value the brand can deliver in its thought leadership; how connected the brand is to the industry or space; and how serviceable it is -- how social and supportive it is -- to its customers and to other thought leaders.

Here are my favorite clips from Kate's article:

Amplify’d from www.customerthink.com

Too many devotees are treating the terms “social media PR” and “social media marketing” as interchangeable–when they are anything but. And if you can’t tell which you’re engaged in, the odds are you’re not succeeding in either.

In the great era of one-way messaging, the distinction between marketing and PR was clear: if you were talking to consumers, it was marketing; if you were talking to the press, it was PR.

Marketing sells products. PR builds reputation. And while media matters, social media has opened up a new way to communicate directly, not just that someone should buy what you’re selling, but why.

a constant sales pitch in an area designed for conversation is somewhere beyond annoying; it’s completely tone deaf.

Your online content should comment on industry news, hot stories, trends related to your product/service. This requires that you and your team actually read the news and understand your relevance to it.

If someone replies to you, make sure they are answered and thanked. Quickly. And not just with a link to your product.

Speaking of links… Your PR force should be out there reading and commenting on other people’s content, and not just putting links to your site on theirs.

If you’re looking to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry, but your social media content makes you sound like a door-to-door salesman, the first step might be admitting that you have a problem.
Read more at www.customerthink.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ijvn