The Viral Garden

#blogchat update and how you can be involved!

2009-11-07T08:09:00.000-06:00

As many of you know, for several months now we've been meeting on Twitter every Sunday nite at 8pm CT for #blogchat. This is where we discuss various topics concerning blogs and sometimes other forms of social media.

The chat has become very popular (thanks to you!), and that's gotten me to thinking about how that popularity can relate to this post on how we need to find ways to focus on new voices.

You see, one of the things that's been sorely missing from #blogchat is someone that can do a recap of each week's chat. I simply don't have the time, and it's really tough for any one person to commit to doing it every week, as something always comes up for all of us.

So David Spinks had a great idea. What he suggested was that we let someone each week volunteer to do the recap for that week's #blogchat. David has volunteered to do the recap for tomorrow nite's #blogchat and it will be posted on Scribnia's blog. The idea here is that each week, someone else can do the #blogchat recap on their blog, and I'll promote their blog on Twitter ahead of time, so the blogger will be doing all of us #blogchattters a service by doing the recap, and the recap should help drive traffic to their blog and give them a bit of exposure.

Sounds like a win-win for everyone, right? As I said, David will be doing tomorrow nite's recap, and since it is his idea, he'll also be doing the recap in about a month. But at the end of tomorrow nite's #blogchat, I'll take volunteers for the next week's #blogchat.

As for this week's topic, when I was at the Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer, I attended Beth Harte's session on online communities. Beth asked the attendees how many of them had a community site, and without thinking, I put my hand up. Then I lowered it when I sheepishly realized that I had a blog, not a community site.

But I got to thinking about that, and maybe it's best that we DO think of our blogs as a community site, especially if we want to increase interaction and comments.

What are your thoughts? No wait...save them for tomorrow nite's #blogchat ;)

Stop asking the wrong blogging questions

2009-11-02T08:47:00.001-06:00

Whether you are a new or seasoned blogger, many of you likely have many of the same questions:

"How do I get more readers?"

"How do I get more comments on my posts?"

"What about blog subscribers? How do I get more of them?"

"How can I use Twitter to drive more traffic back to my blog? Or Facebook, or Friendfeed?"

Notice that all of these questions are focused on YOU, the blogger. How YOU can get something.

What if you instead asked this question: "What superpower will I give my readers?"

I'm totally channeling Kathy Sierra here, but think of your blog as a telephone booth, and your reader is Clark Kent. Clark Kent goes into the telephone booth, but he leaves as Superman.

When your reader comes into your telephone booth/blog, what superpower will they have when they leave? What will a reader gain from having visited your blog?

When you shift your focus from what's best for you (the blogger), to what's best for your readers, then your blogging efforts will start to take off. Here's some reader-centric questions to ask yourself:

What are you going to make your readers better at?
What information are you going to share with them?
Who are you going to connect them to?
What are you going to make your readers think about?
What value are you going to create for them?

Oh and BTW, there are BIG direct benefits to you (the blogger) when you create reader-centric content. Look at this post that Amy wrote giving Lois advice on how to improve her blog. Now look at the (currently) 30+ comments. The value of Amy's post has been increased dramatically by the dozens of comments that her readers have left. Also, notice that the most frequent commenter to that post, is Amy. She's sending the message to her readers that she appreciates their attention and comments, and she's encouraging more of them by responding so often.

So instead of asking "How do I make my blog better?", ask "How do I make my blog better for my readers?"

And the ironic thing is, if you ask the second question, you'll actually get the answer to the first.

Social media needs fewer rockstars, and more rockstar ideas

2009-10-26T08:00:00.001-05:00

Last week at the Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer, I was struck at how many amazingly deep and brilliant conversations I had with so many people. Well this is to be expected, you might say, when you spend a few days in the company of such social media smarties as Ann Handley, Beth Harte, David Armano, Jay Baer and Amber Naslund.

But here's the thing; most of those great conversations didn't happen with these people. In fact, they were with people that most of you probably haven't heard of. Heck I hadn't heard of many of them till I was introduced to them at the event.

And that's been gnawing at me for days. To be fair, this isn't unique to the Mixer, I noticed the same thing a couple of months ago at Social South, meeting and talking with people that have a 'low profile' in the social media space, yet being blown away by how smart they were. I kept asking myself 'why have I not heard of this person before now?'

I think/fear that the answer lies in how we determine the value of ideas in the social media space. I'm afraid that too many people are determining who is 'influential' based on how many followers/friends/readers they have. Which is a contributing factor, to be sure, but it's not the end-all-be-all for defining and recognizing people that put forth thoughtful ideas.

And what's worse, I think too many people are thinking if THEY don't have X number of readers/followers/friends, then they don't have the 'right' to share their ideas. That their ideas aren't worth sharing. I think when we call Chris Brogan a 'rockstar', I think some people will look at his 30K blog readers and 100K Twitter followers and think that means they must NOT be a rockstar, since they only have 500 readers and 200 Twitter followers.

If so, that's damn tragic. I've always said that the greatest thing about social media is that it gives everyone a voice. And I've always thought we do ourselves a disservice if we don't have the chance to hear as many voices as possible. This was a big reason why I started The Z-List three years ago, to help give deserving bloggers more exposure.

So how do we change this and bring more voices into the mix? I have some ideas, but definitely want to hear yours as well:

1 - Spend less time identifying the 'rockstars' and more time focusing on the great ideas. I am as guilty of this as anyone. I want to make sure that everyone knows how smart my friends are, but by labeling them 'rockstars', we are unintentionally ranking people. If David is a rockstar with 20K followers and 15K blog readers, the unintentional message may be that your ideas are less valuable if you only have a fraction of his followers/readers.

2 - Stop focusing on numbers to determine influence. I get why this happens. It's quick and easy, it's score-keeping. You can quickly compare your number of readers or followers or comments to someone else. But it isn't always (ever?) accurate. Is it an absolute that if I have more Twitter followers than you do that I am more influential there than you are? Or if you have more than I do, that you are more influential than I am? Of course not.

3 - Listen closely to new ideas from new voices, and magnify both when you hear them. So many of us complain about the 'fishbowl' mentality in the social media space. A great way to counter that is to bring new voices with fresh takes into this space. Introduce your network to someone they might not have heard of previously. Yes we all know who the 'rockstars' in this space are, so show us who's next.

The bottom line is that this space won't grow and reach its full potential unless we can continue to have fresh voices with fresh ideas being brought into the fold. If you want to be viewed as a 'rockstar' in this space, then IMO you have the responsibility to promote others more than yourself. You have the responsibility to see that the great ideas, no matter who has them, are brought to the top. And please, let your ideas stand on their own merits, don't think that they are less valuable than someone that has more friends or followers than you do. You've earned the right to be heard just as much as the rest of us have.

I say it's time we all got to work, what say you?

UPDATE: I've created a 'What's Next In Social Media' list on Twitter, a group of people that are really smart, that you might not be following yet. You can find it here -
http://twitter.com/MackCollier/what-snextinsocialmedia

Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer: Recap

2009-10-22T22:00:00.004-05:00

It's officially 'The Morning After' the latest Marketing Profs conference, the Digital Marketing Mixer. People are always asking me 'What are the best social media conferences to attend?' and the Marketing Profs' events are always at the top of my list.

I think if there was a general theme at this year's event for me, it was 'How do we integrate social media into what we are already doing?' And this is a progression from where we were last year, which was still 'What the hell is Twitter/Facebook, anyway?' The problem I see (and this is in general, definitely not just at this event) is that too many companies are focusing on social media tactics (How do I get started on Twitter? How do I create a kickass Facebook fan page?), as opposed to having a solid social media strategy in place. The strategy HAS to come first. You have to FIRST decide what your strategy is for using social media and what you are trying to accomplish, and THEN you can think about which tactics (blog, Twitter, Facebook) will work for your company.

As for the sessions, Day Two was probably better for me than Day One, simply because I got to sit in on more of them. Beth Harte had one of the best quotes of the day when she said 'I've been active in Social Media for 5 years, first as a human, now as a marketer.' I love that! A key takeaway from Beth's Building Online Communities session was (I think by Rachel Happe), that you should closely monitor the content being created by your online community to better determine relevant search keywords, as well as product ideas.

Next was Dr BJ Fogg's keynote on why Facebook and Twitter are winning, and it was amazing. His premise is that Facebook is winning because it has put Hot Triggers in the path of the user. He called a Hot Trigger an action a user can take right now, as opposed to a Cold Trigger, which is basically a call to action that the user can't perform right now. It would be like a billboard asking you to check out the Wall Street Journal (Cold Trigger), versus walking past a newstand where the owner hands you a copy and asks you to check it out (Hot Trigger).

He talked about how it's become a ritual to check Facebook and Twitter. If you're active on those sites, you check them constantly. And he added that the platforms of tomorrow will be based on the behavior that's become ritualized. He also added that anything big, started small, in other words, with fewer features, then drawing on community feedback, additional features and functionality is added and incorporated. But if you start out big, you'll probably have a bunch of features that really don't service the community you want to attract.

Finally, Marketing Profs closed with a session that recapped the key takeaways from the event, giving attendees 30 or so 'key points' to remember and take home with them. THIS right here is why Marketing Profs rocks, because they listen to their attendees. At the B2B forum in June, I was talking with Ann Handley and one other attendee and the attendee mentioned that it would be great if there was some way that Marketing Profs could bring together the 'best tips' from everyone that was taking notes, and share them so everyone had access to them. And what does Marketing Profs do at the Mixer? They named four people 'Mixologists' who went to sessions in each of the four tracks and took copious notes and monitored Twitter for relevant points being raised by attendees. Then at the end of the event, the Mixologists share their notes and points with everyone so that's the last thing they get before going home. Classic example of listening to your customers and implementing changes based on their feedback.

Here's a few of them (I won't share them all, hey that's why need to attend the next MP event!) concerning social media:

1 - Allow your employees to use social media, but govern their usage and give them clear guidelines

2 - Also when crafting those guidelines, have your legal department consult with other companies that have launched successful social media efforts

3 - Don't blog about your products, blog about how your products fit into your customer's lives (IE, 'The Bigger Idea', guess who's session this idea came from ;))

4 - You have to have a plan for social media. Use Twitter because it FITS into your plan, not because it's the 'hot new thing'

5 - Engage in online communities as a person first, as a marketer second

All-in-all, a very beneficial event for me, as I knew it would be. I left with my mind energized, and I've already got a list of things to improve upon, and yes, blog about! And it was SO amazing to meet so many people that are smarter than I am, that's the real value of these events, being able to connect with these special people. I can share with you all the insights, tips and tricks I learned, but the real value comes from the connections you make. So I hope to see you at the next Marketing Profs event, I know I'll be there!

Pic via Flickr user Marketing Profs Live

Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer : Day One

2009-10-21T22:31:00.003-05:00

My brain is full of social media and marketing goodness from the Marketing Profs Digital Mixer, but I wanted to give you my takeaways and thoughts from Day One.

The day for me started with the Blog Hot Seat Lab, and in talking with the attendees, I think blogging companies should keep these points in mind:

1 - Assume every visitor to your blog arrived there by accident, has never heard of your blog, and has no idea what it's there for. The point is, you need to organize your blog so within 3-4 seconds, any visitor can see who you are, what you do, and why the blog is there. Make this info very easy to find.

2 - Think about how your blog is organized and how your content is positioned, and how this ties into what action you want your readers to take while they are on your blog. And that action should tie back into your blog's larger business goals.

3 - If you want your readers to interact on your blog, make sure the tone of your posts is conversational, not dry.

The first session I attended was the Twitter Success Stories session moderated by Paul Chaney, and it included case studies from Whole Foods, Dominoes, Razorfish and the CME Group. Some of the key takeaways:

"Automation is a relationship killer." - Marla Erwin, Whole Foods

Razorfish encourages ALL of their employees to tweet, and instead of worrying about what they might tweet, VP of Marketing David Deal explained that Razorfish considers '"what can we learn from what our employees are tweeting?"

"Be a part of the conversation, or start one." - Ramon De Leon, Operating Partner, Dominoes Pizza.

Also loved Ramon's story of how he's been using social media for over a decade, and using AOL IM to connect with customers.

The main feedback I've heard from attendees so far today is that there has been a wealth of case studies, which were very well received. I missed two of the most popular sessions, Amber Naslund's Social Media ROI session, and Mari Smith's session on Facebook for Business. I'll have to do better tomorrow!

Social media is worth making time for

2009-10-20T14:40:00.002-05:00

This is my current view as I sit in the airport waiting for my flight to Chicago for the Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer. The past couple of months have been a very busy time for me professionally, and work with clients has taken up a lot of my time. Which is a great 'problem' to have, and I am grateful for it. But I've often caught myself putting my writing here and at my business site on hold, to spend more time helping my clients get their social media efforts off the ground.

And I realized that I was doing exactly what I've told clients and others that they cannot do. I was putting the blog on the backburner. One of my favorite sayings is that 'your blog does not have an expiration date'. And it's true, once your company starts blogging, you have to assume that you're in it from now on.

That means you have to make an effort to stay in touch with your customers and readers via your blog. Maybe it means you have to send a quick mobile post on your phone in the taxi on the way back to your apartment. Maybe it means you have to write a post while you're at the gate waiting for your flight.

But the point is, it's worth the time and effort it takes to connect with people. Especially your customers. If you promise to never forget that, I'll promise to remember it as well.

BTW I've been thinking about how I will handle blogging while I am in Chicago for the Mixer. Normally what I do when I attend conferences is I don't blog while I am there, then give you my thoughts via a 'recap' post when I get back. But I decided that for the Mixer, I will share my thoughts with you at the end of each day, instead of having no new posts up till next week. Besides, I did a recap post for last year's Mixer, and I am sure this year's will be just as great.

So my plan is to attend as many sessions as possible, take copious notes, and share my takeaways with you each day. Sound good? Hope to see some of you in person at the Mixer!

If you want to be a vlogger, pay close attention to this video

2009-10-19T08:00:00.002-05:00

Whether you are an individual that wants to start vlogging, or you're a company that's wondering about using video to help connect with your customers, watch this video. What Chris has done is use video to not only give you a personal glimpse into his life, but to back up everything he's saying. He's talking about putting in long hours, getting up early and hustling. And notice there's no one else up, he's the only person you see in the video.

This wouldn't have been half as effective if he had written just a post, or only recorded this as a podcast/audio file. But as a video, it works perfectly. Chris uses video to build on and enhance the idea he's trying to communicate.

If you're wanting to use video either personally or with your business, watch this video closely.

Three quick and simple ways to make your blog posts prettier

2009-10-16T11:41:00.004-05:00

One of the 'basic' rules of blogging is that you need lots and lots of pictures in your posts. Ideally, every post should have a picture. But it's not always easy to find visuals to add to your posts. This morning I was giving a client some ideas for finding visuals for your posts, and thought I'd share these ideas with you. Here's three sources of visuals for your posts:

1 - Flickr photos that are licensed as free to use with attribution. These are photos that the Flickr user has said you can use on your blog IF you give them attribution for the pic. I always link back to their Flickr account and to the CC license, as I did at the end of this post, for the above sunset image. And it's just a good idea to 'thank' the person that let you use their photo. But this is an AMAZING source of stunning visuals. If you can't find a gorgeous picture for your post via this search, you probably aren't looking hard enough.

2 - iStockPhoto.com. This site also has amazing photos and visuals, but they are for sale. Still, a great site to find visuals for your posts, and I often buy images there to use in my presentations.

3 - Embedding videos in blog posts. Ok what if you've racked your brain and simply can't find the 'right' image for your post. What about adding a video? Many (but not all) of the videos on sharing sites such as YouTube allow you to embed them in blog posts. And an informative or funny (like the Darth Vader 'Thriller' video below) video is often much more effective than a visual.

So that's three quick tips on how you can make your blog posts prettier. I know you guys must have some ideas of your own, so how are you adding more visual 'pop' to your posts?

Pic of sunset via Flickr user kcdsTM

My 'first date' with Google Wave

2009-10-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

I've finally had a chance to spend a couple of hours with Google Wave, and I wanted to give you my VERY early impressions. I'll say up front that it's completely possible that I'll change my opinion dramatically yay or nay on Wave from what I state here, but still wanted to let you know what I think early on. I've noticed with most social media sites/tools that I tend to change how I use them over time.

As for Google Wave, my initial impression is that it's a souped up IM service. And for me as an individual, I don't see a ton of 'wow' factor happening here, since I don't often have a need to connect with small groups of people and collaborate on ideas, which is where I think Wave has some value.

But I can see how Wave could benefit a company, especially a virtual company (Ann and the gang at Marketing Profs, I'm looking at you), in giving them the ability to collaborate on ideas in one space.

The main backbone of Google Wave is the ability to create messages, which Google calls Waves. It seems as if Google is trying to position Waves as being Email 2.0, but it really looks to me like IM 2.0.

I can create a Wave that's 5 paragraphs, and send it to Beth. Beth can then go in and break up the Wave and reply to each paragraph. I can then reply to each point Beth made.

Now let's say at this point we decide that we want to bring Amy and Jason into our Wave and get their ideas on what we've been talking about. First, they are going to see a Wave that's probably confusing as hell, because it will be my original 5-paragraph Wave, which was then broken into 5 parts (where Beth replied to each paragraph), and then I replied to each of Beth's replies. So it looks like a complete cluster to anyone that joins the Wave at this point.

But Google Wave would give Amy and Jason the ability to 'replay' the wave and see how it was created. They could first see the 5-paragraph wave I wrote, then see Beth break it down into replies for each paragraph, them my replies to her replies. So it's less confusing.

One thing I wish Wave supported (and maybe it does and I haven't been able to find it yet) was the ability to pull items from other social sites. For example, let's say in tomorrow's feed from Google Reader, I find a blog post that's critical of my company. If I could move that post from Reader to Wave, I could then share it with my co-workers (let's say 5 of them are also on Wave), and then we could collaborate via Wave on how to handle this critical blog post. The same thing could be done with a tweet from Twitter or a comment on a Facebook Fan Page. Again, maybe it's possible to do that now, or will be soon.

Anyway, that's my VERY early impressions of Wave. Now it should be mentioned that few of my contacts are on Wave right now. In a month if most of my contacts from Twitter have moved to Wave, the service could be much more valuable to me. But I can already see the potential value for companies as an internal collaboration tool.

If you've been using Wave, what are your thoughts? What potential can you see for the tool? Do you see it having more value for individuals, or businesses?

Five Ways to Avoid Writing Lazy Blog Posts

2009-10-13T07:00:00.003-05:00

This one tweet from @wilsonellis during Sun nite's #blogchat sparked a lot of discussion, and a bit of debate on its merits. (BTW here's the transcript to #blogchat)

Her point was that every post you write should ask for the reader to take SOME action. Now I think some people didn't like the term 'Call to Action', so I asked if maybe 'Call to INTERaction' would be more appropriate. But the thought is, you want to create content that sparks the reader to want to take SOME action. Otherwise, they will just come, read your post, and leave. And probably start reading other blogs that are interesting enough to spark them to take some additional action.

So drawing inspiration from Debra, here are some Calls to Action (or Calls to INTERaction) that you can add to each and every post.

1 - Ask for comments. If you want an interactive blog, the four most important words you can learn are 'What do you think?' And this ties into the most valuable lesson you can learn; your readers, as a group, are ALWAYS smarter than you are. So the more input you can get from them, the smarter you will be AND the more interesting your posts will be.

2 - Ask for emails. Believe it or not, some people prefer to talk just to you, and via email. Give them this option. And maybe you prefer this as well.

3 - Ask for subscriptions. Chris Brogan does this well, check out this post. Hey we are all in a hurry, and sometimes it helps to make it painfully easy for someone to subscribe. What better way to remind a reader to subscribe, than writing a post reminding them to do so? Oh and notice that at the end of Chris' post that he asks his readers what they want to see more of in the future. Perfect!

4- Ask for newsletter signups. If you offer a newsletter, ask readers to signup for it, and explain why they should read your newsletter in addition to reading your blog.

5- Ask for the order. Now stop wringing your hands! Yes you can ask people to buy your stuff on your blog! No one is going to throw you into Social Media Jail so calm down! I think the key is the CONTEXT in which you ask for the order. If you end every post with 'Hey! Hire me!', it can get a bit irritating. But if I write a post on '10 Steps to Launching the Perfect Business Blog', and at the end of the post remind my readers that I provide these same services for clients, and tell them how to get in touch with me, then I've asked for the order in a CONTEXT that makes sense. But if I wrote a post on how I use TweetDeck, then at the end pitched my ability to launch a Facebook Fan Page for your company, it looks out of place.

Now to be clear, you shouldn't attempt to do each of these in every post, but the idea is to start thinking about giving your readers a sense of direction. Give them a reason to interact with you, it could be to write a comment, send you an email, or buy your product. But if you're writing a blog that your readers don't care to get involved with, then they won't be your readers for very long.

What do your favorite blogs do to keep you engaged?

Let's go to Chicago for the Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer!

2009-10-09T09:19:00.004-05:00

In a couple of weeks I'll be headed to the Windy City for the first time to attend Marketing Profs' Digital Marketing Mixer! I'll be speaking there, joining some of the top minds in the social media space, including; Jay Baer, Becky Carroll, Paul Chaney, Leigh Duncan-Hurst, Li Evans, Ann Handley, Rachel Happe, Beth Harte, Amber Naslund, Andy Sernovitz, Mari Smith, and many more. And if you register by clicking on the pic to the right (Disc - It's an affiliate link), you'll get a $200 discount!

On the first day, I will be conducting the Blogging Hot Seat Lab, covering the blogs of three attendees. The format will be very similar to what I do here with the Company Blog Checkup series. If you'd like to have your blog submitted for the Hot Seat Lab and you WILL BE ATTENDING THE MIXER, then email Marketing Profs and let them know you are interested or leave a comment here or email me. But make sure you hurry as there are only 2 slots left at most.

That's it! I am constantly being asked what are the 'must attend' social media events, and I always put the Marketing Profs' conferences at the top of the list. They demand that their speakers providing teachable sessions, make themselves accessible to the attendees, and that they send you home with 'homework'. You can get home and immediately begin putting into action what you've learned at their events.

Will I see you there? If you live in Chicago there should also be some tweetups associated with the event, so come on out if you can!

Social Media Mavens - An Interview with Patagonia's Kasey Kersnowski

2009-09-30T09:13:00.003-05:00

If you're reading this post, then you probably know that I'm a big fan of Patagonia's The Cleanest Line, and often use it as an example of a great company blog in my social media posts and presentations. So when Kasey Kersnowski, Patagonia.com and The Cleanest Line's managing editor emailed me to thank me for covering his blog, I had to ask him for an interview (BTW notice Kasey was smart enough to be monitoring for brand mentions, and reached out to me because I was blogging about his company). Kasey graciously accepted, and here he gives us a 'behind the scenes' look at what goes into crafting one of the best company blogs on the internet.

MC - As you know, I'm a big fan of Patagonia's blog The Cleanest Line, and how you position the blog as being focused more on customer-centric themes such as environmental activism and the outdoors. Why did Patagonia take this approach?

KK - Our founder, Yvon Chouinard, laid the foundation that made the choice an easy one for us. We have a heritage of story telling in our catalogs that goes all the way back to the first Chouinard Equipment catalog in 1972, before the company was called Patagonia. To this day we still devote a significant number of pages in our catalogs to environmental essays and sport-themed field reports -- pure editorial content. We know from years of printing these types of stories in our catalogs that they resonate well with our customers.

The Cleanest Line gives us a place to tell the stories we don't have room for in our catalogs. By telling stories we inspire one another to experience new things and new places, or take action on behalf of worthwhile causes. Part of Patagonia's mission statement says "use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis." The nature of social media makes it a great way to fulfill that part of our mission.

MC - Does Patagonia actively monitor what customers are saying online about the brand and your blog?

KK - We're very interested in what people are saying about us. We monitor on a daily basis. It's free feedback that helps us improve all aspects of the company. The key is properly interpreting what is being said, both positive and negative, and recognizing what feedback is appropriate to act on. Every company will have to make those decisions on their own.

MC - What impact has social media had for Patagonia as a business? Are you able to apply any lessons learned from The Cleanest Line into other areas of the business as a whole?

KK - It's helped us get to know our customers better and empowered them to play a bigger part in Patagonia's success. One example: We now give our customers the opportunity to review products on Patagonia.com. They tell us what we're doing well and what needs improving. That's always existed to a degree – customer letters and phone calls have been around for a long time – but the fact that the comments are now public has given our customers a more potent voice.

The Cleanest Line also helps us embrace a more transparent business model. The feedback we received when we launched the Footprint Chronicles was filled with negative comments toward China and the fact that we manufacture some of our garments there. Instead of hiding that fact or blowing those people off, we engaged them on our blog. By hosting the conversation in our house, so to speak, we were able to respond to questions more quickly and clarify our reasons for doing what we do.

The result of that interaction was an important shift in policy. Previously, our catalogs and Web site only listed whether a product was "Made in USA" or "Imported." We now tell our customers the specific country where each of our products is made. If a customer doesn't want to support a product that's made in a particular country, they now have the information to make a precise, informed decision.

MC - Finally, everyone is talking ROI and measuring the success of social media efforts. For The Cleanest Line, how does Patagonia track the 'value' that's being created by the blog? For example, if you write a blog post today, what will need to happen for you to determine that it was a successful blog post?

KK - We track basic statistics like page views, comments, clickthroughs, fans and followers. We certainly want to know if our efforts are relevant and attractive to people. But it's very hard to directly attribute a growth or decline in sales to social media efforts. Our metric is simple: Are we having a good conversation with our readers? Is it inspiring? Are both parties benefiting from the interaction? Through conversation you build a relationship, and the bottom-line of any worthwhile relationship isn’t dollars, but trust. If we can establish trust through our social media outlets, then all our efforts have been worthwhile.

Great insights from Kasey, and I love how Patagonia is using its main website, as well as The Cleanest Line as a place to collect feedback from customers, then implement changes based on their feedback, then notify them of those changes! Perfect example of how you use social media to give your customers a greater sense of ownership in your brand! Make sure you read The Cleanest Line and follow Patagonia on Twitter.

If your company would like to be considered for a future interview in the Social Media Mavens series, please email me. Look for the next interview in this series in two weeks!

If you create online content, Google's SideWiki just changed your world

2009-09-28T13:31:00.003-05:00

Seth Godin has ruffled feathers for years in the blogosphere by not allowing comments on his blog. He's stated flatly that he appreciates your feedback, but if you want to leave comments, you're going to have to do it somewhere else, besides on his blog. In fact in 2006 he flatly stated that "So, bloggers who like comments, blog on. Commenters, feel free. But not here. Sorry."

But that was back in 2006.

Last week, Google launched a browser add-on (For only IE and FireFox, no Chrome, yet) called SideWiki. What SideWiki allows you to do is comment on any webpage, and read comments that other people have written. If you want to comment on the content provided, you can do so. If you want to reference a point made and provide more information, you can do that. The screenshot above is a bit hard to see, but it's Seth's Brands in Public post from last week that caused quite a stir. Seth still doesn't allow comments directly on his blog, but notice that if you use SideWiki, you can read comments that others have left on this post.

If you create online content, your world just changed.

With SideWiki, you now have the ability to review any product, right there on the company's website. And you can read what others have said. But you also have the ability to respond to other commenters, and engage them, as Jeremiah did here.

This is just another example of how empowered consumers have become, and how their ability to express themselves online can no longer be ignored. As with other social tools, this will be a potential problem for companies that ignore it, and a potential advantage for companies that embrace it.

What do you think about SideWiki? Is it a great thing, or is it wrong for bloggers such as Seth to have control taken away from them with something like SideWiki? And remember, just as customers would now have the ability to leave comments on a company's website, couldn't competitors do the same thing? Should they be able to?

A lot to consider and digest, but either way, I would advise taking a look at SideWiki and becoming familiar with what it does, cause it might just be the future.

Seth attempts to monetize social media, much teeth-gnashing ensues

2009-09-24T10:50:00.003-05:00

Two or three years ago I likely would have been very upset about this.

The gist of it is that Seth has created a Squidoo (Remember them?) lense for a few hundred brands, that aggregates social content about them. Such as blog posts, Twitter replies, even news articles from Google.

And if you pay Seth $400 a month, he'll let you have control over the 'development' of that page, meaning you can put your own content on the wider left column. The right column will still aggregate blog comments, Twitter replies, posts and news stories.

The people that are upset about this, and there are a lot of them, seem to have two main issues:

1 - That Seth is charging for this.

2 - That these pages will probably rank well in search results, and some see that as if Seth is 'blackmailing' companies into having 'control' over the lenses.

First, let me state that Seth is doing this because there is a demand for pulling together content for big brands so they can monitor it. There really is no shortage of companies that understand so little about social media that when they see a negative comment about their company, their first respond is 'how do we get this taken down?' Seth's idea caters to those companies.

Second, while there is a need for this service, companies can do SO much better. That seems to be a complaint of many people, that Seth shouldn't be charging $400 for such a crappy offering. Folks, $400 a month is nothing to these brands, and compared to what they are doing now to monitor brand mentions (probably nothing), it's money well spent.

I do have a bit of a bone to pick with the way Seth attempts to explain the value of the lenses, asking: "There are already monitoring tools online (like Radian6) that allow big brands to watch from behind the scenes. That's great, but what are you doing in front of your audience? Is there a low-cost, easy way to let one of your non-technical marketing people lead and engage with people who are already in the conversation?"

There's no shortage of free tools that will quickly and easily give you access to the same information that Seth will collect for you. And despite Seth's implications to the contrary, you don't need a 'page' to respond to these mentions, you can respond AT THE SOURCE. Why would you want Seth to pull my negative post about your company to HIS site and then you pay him $400 a month for the right to respond to me THERE? How is that helpful since I will never see that?

But come HERE and reply to me for FREE, and that's impressive. That likely changes my tone, and reflects well on you in the process. And it doesn't cost you a dime, other than the time it takes to respond.

Again, Seth is doing this because there's a demand for this type of service. So to that end, I have zero problem with him charging for this service that DOES have value to companies. Granted, this is the 'fast food' version of social media engagement, but for companies that are doing nothing, it's at least a tiny step in the right direction.

My advice to companies would be to invest the money in doing this right. Have a consultant or agency set up a monitoring system internally for you, then have them instruct you on how to respond to customer content appropriately. That way you'll have access to the same customer-created content, and then can respond to it AT THE SOURCE. That's what increases brand awareness, and improves brand perception.

And yes, I offer this service to clients. Please email me if you're interested in a price quote. Be forewarned, the cost is more than $400 a month, but then again so is the value you'll receive from learning how to address and deal with customer issues and complaints via social media channels.

What do you think? Is Seth out of line here, or are people simply upset because someone is trying to monetize 'free' social media?

Which comes first; the social media strategy, or the social media tactics?

2009-09-17T11:07:00.000-05:00

This is a no-brainer, right? Because we all know you create the strategy first, then find the tactics that help you best execute that strategy. Right?

But.

So many companies are jumping on Twitter and Facebook (for example) because they are the 'hot' sites of the moment, and/or because they think they need to be there. They use these sites for a couple of weeks, then realize they have absolutely no idea what's going on. That's when I get the 'we started using Twitter/Facebook but really have no idea what we are supposed to be doing with it' email.

I get that email because the business started using Twitter and Facebook without first having a social media strategy in place. They assumed they had to be on these sites, and once they were there, had to scramble to figure out how being there was going to help their business.

Get the strategy in place first, then decide on the tactics that help you execute that strategy.

Don't focus on social media tools, focus on the reasons why you are wanting to use social media. What are you wanting to accomplish? Some examples:

1 - Grow awareness of a particular product or service, or your entire company.

2 - Establish your expertise within your industry.

3 - Provide greater customer service.

4 - Share and communicate information more quickly with customers, especially during a crisis situation.

Once you know what your strategy is, then you can talk tactics. Because each tool works in a slightly different way, and as such, makes it more or less likely to work for your particular strategy. If you want to connect with your customers quickly, as in a crisis situation, or to provide customer service, a tool that facilitates more real-time communication, like Twitter, would probably work well. If you want to establish your expertise within your industry, maybe a blog would be your best bet.

But before you jump in and start using a particular tool, you have to make sure that it fits your strategy, and that it fits your existing human, skill, and time resources. I understand that many companies now feel the need to 'do something', but you still need to have a plan. And if you aren't sure how your company should craft your social media strategy, please email me and I'll be happy to help you!

Social Media Mavens - An Interview with Citi's Terry O'Neil

2009-09-09T10:41:00.002-05:00

One of the elements of social media that's been really exciting to watch is how large corporations are experimenting with these tools and sites as a way to better connect with and understand their customers. Earlier this year, Citi launched a new credit card program, Citi Forward, that features a strong social media presence. I wanted to talk to Terry O'Neil, Citi Card's Executive Vice President, about how the company is using social media in this campaign, and what their concerns about the space are.

Disclaimer - TMG Brand Communications is the agency of record for Citi Cards, and I worked with them (TMG) on the Citi Forward launch.

MC - Social media plays a big role in the marketing of Citi's Citi Forward Card. Was it a conscious choice to use social media, or did it just make sense to integrate social tools based on the market you are trying to reach?

TO - For Citi Forward, Citi is utilizing social media not only because it’s a great way to reach the target market – consumers looking either to build or maintain healthy credit – but also because it provides us with the opportunity to engage more deeply with our customers and consumers. This dialogue began when we were developing Citi Forward. Citi Forward is the direct result of working with both our existing and prospective customers to better understand their needs and wants relative to a credit card. To further this direct dialogue, we focused our marketing strategy almost entirely on the Internet and social media. And we also entered into a partnership with MySpace to build on those relationships we’re seeking with our cardmembers. Today, they can join the conversation at www.myspace.com/citiforward, on Twitter at @Citi_forward and www.youtube.com/citiforward.

MC - What has Citi learned from using social media to connect with Citi Forward's customers that Citi can carry forward when you use social media in the future?

TO - With this particular campaign we’re reaching consumers almost exclusively via the web and leveraging the power of social media to more deeply engage with our audience. While doing so, we’ve found that our partnership with MySpace and our presence on Twitter has presented us with a terrific opportunity to build upon our brand platform while establishing a two way dialog with our customers. Through social media, we are able to hear consumer’s views on finances and credit cards first hand and translate that valuable feedback into customer driven programs like Citi Forward.

We’re very pleased with the response to Citi Forward so far and the level of engagement we’re seeing from consumers. Over 3,700 socially responsible acts have been completed by MySpace Users through Citi Forward’s 12 Resolutions Program. @Citi_Forward has a growing base of followers on Twitter and has served as an important bridge between consumers and customer service. Citi Forward has quickly responded to cardmember inquiries, with one customer tweeting: “@Citi_Forward rocks!!! Thanks a lot for the efficient service.” Such response has resulted in GoBankingRates.com naming Citi Forward a Top Bank to Follow on Twitter and CreditCardOffersIQ.com highlighting @Citi_Forward as a Tweeter Every Credit Card Hound Should Follow.

Our social media efforts have provided us with an efficient marketing platform and an incredibly effective feedback tool. Looking toward the future, we’ll continue to seek ways to engage more deeply with customers and consumers.

MC - What are some of the real concerns that large corporations have about using social media? What are some of the issues that are relevant to your business environment that we might be missing when we ask why more companies aren't using social media?

TO - Social media requires a long-term approach and cohesive strategy. It’s about establishing and encouraging conversations with customers in order to strengthen and improve products and services. In doing so, companies need to embrace unfiltered dialog from customers, recognize they’re not going to be able to control the conversations and use this real time feedback to improve the overall customer experience.

Thanks again to Terry for letting us learn more about how Citi is using social media, especially with the Citi Forward card. You can follow @Citi_Forward on Twitter here. And if your company would like to be considered for a future interview in the Social Media Mavens series, please email me. Look for the next interview in this series in two weeks!

Pic of Chris Penn and Terry taken at the webcast for the launch of the Citi Forward card in NYC, and via Christopher S. Penn

Is speaking freely via social media REALLY a good idea for companies?

2009-09-08T11:15:00.004-05:00

On Sunday night as #blogchat was about to start, I was asking everyone what they wanted to talk about. Chris Heuer threw out that he wished we'd discuss why conservatives are 'fear and hate mongers' and that he thinks they will tear the country apart.

My kneejerk reaction to this was 'Ok Chris is sounding like a loon', but it turns out he was upset partly due to tweets like this that were aimed at his family.

But if I hadn't seen that tweet, I would have to go with my 'Chris is sounding like a loon' conclusion. And this goes back to a fundamental truth of social media; there are THREE sides to every conversation. There's your side, my side, and then the side of everyone else that forms their opinions based on what THEY saw.

And this is why I think companies need to be VERY careful about letting their employees get on social media sites and engage in hot-button issues such as politics, religion, etc. It is SO easy for people to get into arguments about these topics, because everyone has so much passion for their beliefs invested. And it is SO easy for someone to take a tweet out of context, as I almost did with Chris. On top of that, many people might want to stop doing business with a company if they discover that their employees hold a political or religious stance that they are strongly opposed to. Might not be fair, but it's reality.

What do you think? Should companies strictly forbid any non-business talk from their employees on social sites? Then again, isn't one of the great benefits of companies using social media is that it allows them to 'be more human', and doesn't that mean openly sharing opinions?

I can see both sides of this, but lean toward having greater limitations for employees on discussions involving certain topics such as politics and religion. What say you?

UPDATE: I like Tom Jones' (Tom do you have a site/blog I can add a link to here?) take on this in the comments:

"There is no way companies should try and limit what there employees are posting to only company related topics. This practice would be certain Doom to any company that attempted to impose it. However, it is not unreasonable to ask an employee that when they are representing the company they stay away from certain topics like religion and politics. This is not the same as limiting all speech but it does set guidelines when functioning as a representative of the company."

Subscription drive!

2009-09-04T13:34:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, I wanted to make sure everyone knows how to keep up with me on this and the other social sites I am active on.

You can subscribe to The Viral Garden via RSS here, or by email by adding your email address to the form on the right sidebar.

Also, I wanted to make sure everyone knows about my business site that I launched a few months ago, MackCollier.com. This site is aimed more at giving you information about my speaking/training and social media and marketing consulting services. The content there is aimed at companies that are new to social media, and are either thinking about using social media, or have just started. So it's more 'Blogging and Social Media 101', whereas the content here is a bit more advanced.

So if you're interested, please subscribe to MackCollier.com by clicking here. BTW, if you would like to get more information about my social media consulting services, please email me. Most of my clients are small to mid-sized businesses, and B2C companies. Blogging/social media strategies as well as customer-evangelist programs are my specialties.

Now, if you'd like to follow me on other social sites, you can find me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, SlideShare and Friendfeed.

Thanks guys, and make sure to have a great weekend!

Have kool-aid drinkers totally screwed the social media space?

2009-09-01T09:21:00.002-05:00

Apologies in advance because this post is going to piss some people off, but I want to make a point. I've had many a conversation in the past few months with fellow social media consultants, social media managers, and even conference organizers about the 'state' of social media.

One of the recurring themes I keep hearing is how the 'kool-aid drinkers' have 'screwed' this space by pushing the idea that 'social media is free'. Or at least that social media is cheap and easy to use.

I've been guilty of doing this as well. I think up till a year or two ago, many of us said something similar to this, because we were trying to make companies understand the potential of these amazing tools.

Now they get it. But the problem is, they assume that social media is cheap, or FREE. Because that's what we told them.

Another trouble spot is that because social media is 'free', that means anyone trying to monetize their social media efforts is a meanie. @ChrisBrogan is everyone's Whipping Boy of the Day on this topic. It also means that people that ARE smart in this space, often don't want to promote themselves, because that's not what social media is about, social media is about 'the community', right?

Lisa Hoffmann nailed this issue earlier this year, if the smart social media people stay silent, then companies will reach out to the hacks, because they are the only ones promoting themselves.

Folks, social media isn't free, and it isn't easy. I'm preaching to the choir here, but I think we need to be VERY careful in how we represent this space and these tools. And unfortunately, the Genie may be out of the bottle at this point and the damage done, but I think we need to carefully consider some key points here. These are my opinions, feel free to agree or disagree:

1 - It's ok for Joe Blogger to monetize his content. If Joe is creating great content, then he deserves to be compensated for that great content. Mainly because the more compensation he gets, the more great content he can create.

2 - It's ok for Ann to promote her social media writing/speaking/consulting services. If she's build up expertise in this space, it's ok for her to try to make money off her talents.

3 - The world will not stop spinning if Clark calls himself a 'social media expert'. Really, the sun WILL rise again tomorrow. And this is doubly true if Clark is a complete idiot when it comes to social media that's out to make a fast buck. Somehow the world survived hucksters before the advent of social media, I think we'll be ok.

4 - If I don't like how Jessi is promoting herself on Twitter, then I can UNFOLLOW her. But I think it's silly for me to tell HER how SHE should be using Twitter so that it's better for ME.

Something else I've been doing in the last few months is talking to more people outside of the 'social media fishbowl'. And most think that 'social media people' are complete idiots. 'How do you guys expect businesses to take you seriously if the space is all about being free and easy?' is a question I was asked once. @AmyAfrica sent me a link to a blog post recently and added " I think people believe social media experts should not make $."

And I think there's a lot of truth to that. But again, before we start blaming others for that attitude, I think we need to look in the mirror. We create content on our blogs and give it away for free. Nothing wrong with that and I *love* doing this. I love sharing with others and learning from them. But when someone tries to monetize their blogs, a lot of people crinkle their noses. Why? Because social media is supposed to be 'free' and 'pure', right?

Another analogy that Amy had is being a library versus a bookstore with your social media efforts. Many people are trying to make money off social media, but they position themselves as being a library that gives all the value and knowledge away for free.

But what's wrong with being a Barnes N Noble? A place where everyone comes to hang out, read good content, drink coffee, have a snack, meet with friends, and still MAKE MONEY? When did wanting to be a Barnes N Noble become an evil thing? Why can't 'social media people' do the same thing?

Again, let me be clear before anyone jumps to the wrong conclusion in the comments, but I *love* how open and sharing the social media space is. Seriously, the best people in the WORLD are in this space, and I really do believe that. But at the end of the day, bills still have to be paid, and I don't think it's a crime for people to want to make money off their efforts. I don't think it's a crime for people to want to promote themselves.

And I think *we* need to stop acting as if it is. Bad promotion is still offensive, but we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. If this space is going to move forward and be as successful as it can be, then money has to follow and flow through this space. That's just a fact of life and for the 'purists' that think that bloggers should only write for the 'love' and 'passion', well that might work for some (and definitely does), but you shouldn't begrudge someone else wanting to make a few dollars off their efforts. Why is Jim 'selling out' if he decides after 5 years of blogging for free, that he wants to sell a sponsorship on his blog? Does that make Jim a 'bad' guy? Why is it wrong for me to expect a company to pay me to deliver a social media presentation that took me 20 hours to prepare?

Is it? Should it be? Again, when we frame social media as being 'cheap, easy and sometimes even free!', then we have to deal with these issues.

And this even extends to the tools. What happens every time rumors crop up that Twitter is going to start charging for accounts? Many people say they will leave. Yet when ads via tweets are suggested as a possible alternative to keep Twitter free, people balk at that as well. How many people hate Facebook ads? Do they hate the way Facebook does ads, or that they do ads at ALL?

It seems many people want everything in social media to be completely free and on THEIR terms.

Really?

I think I'll stop here because this rant is getting way too long, and I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Stop putting people to sleep with your Powerpoint deck!

2009-08-31T08:50:00.003-05:00

Two years ago, I started getting requests to speak on social media at conferences and private events. This was GREAT, but it also made me come to grips with a cold, hard reality; My powerpoint skills SUCKED.

Seriously.

So I had to get up to speed quickly on building a better deck. While I don't consider myself an expert, I do think my slides have gotten 1000% better, and I wanted to share what I've learned, so that hopefully you can improve your own decks. Here's my 6 keys to building a better Powerpoint deck:

1 - Think visually. We remember visuals better than words in most cases. To that end, please go buy Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. If you are serious about your speaking career, and have to create Powerpoint decks regularly, then this book is a MUST have. The book has wonderful before and after examples, especially of taking very basic and generic (read: boring) slides and turning them into something amazing.

2 - Fewer words are better. Think about it, if you have 10 words on each slide, the audience isn't going to be listening to what you are saying, they are going to be reading your slides. If that's the case, you could have given them a handout with the words and not even shown up. Distill your slides down to as few key words as possible, then explain the relevance of those words. If all the information the audience needs is on the slides, then why are you there?

3 - Use quotes and key facts or stats to back up your points, and then use pictures with them. In the What Rockstars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass With Social Media presentation I gave at Social South recently, I wanted to add a quote from Sarah McLachlan. I could have gone with a cookie-cutter slide like this:

But instead I went with this:

See the difference? And here's another tip; notice that's a LONG quote. So I bolded the key words that I wanted to focus on, and didn't read the whole quote to the audience, just pointed out the two bolded phrases.

4 - Bullet points must DIE DIE DIE! Seriously, these are a crutch that need to be removed. The only time I can halfway deal with bullet points are at the very beginning of a deck to let the audience know the key points that will be covered, and then again at the end to recap what was learned. But if you have bullet points in the middle, it forces your audience to stop paying attention to you, and start reading your slides. Not good. If you MUST have bullet points, at least add animation that brings in the points one at a time.

5 - Make your deck COMPLEMENT your presentation. Again, YOU are the main attraction here, the deck is simply a tool to help you educate, entertain and motivate your audience. Don't give it all away on the slides, for example, here's another slide from my Rockstar deck:

If you aren't a fan of @AmandaPalmer and didn't attend my session, you probably have no idea what this slide is about, or why it's important. But if you did, this made perfect sense, as it tied into a case study I explained about how Amanda used Twitter to make $11,000.00 in two hours. But the slide alone really isn't that valuable without the explanation. This also helps people that are worried about putting their decks online for fear that someone will steal their ideas. The value of your presentation should be YOUR explanation and elaboration of the points you are trying to make with your slides. This is another reason why your slides should have fewer words, which requires YOU to better explain the points you are trying to make.

6 - Strive to be an expert. I know two things; my Powerpoint skills are 1000% better now than they were two years ago. And I also know that there is still plenty of room for improvement. That's why I closely study how others create great decks. Two people's work that I recommend you follow are David Armano, and Kelsey Ruger. Both create amazing slides, and I always learn something from them.

BTW if you are looking for sources of visuals for your slides, two things I use extensively are SnagIt! for simple screenshots, and Flickr photos that are available for use. Check HERE for ones that are and make SURE you add a link back to the Flickr user in your presentation, either on the slide itself, or at the end of your deck. Oh and if you are interested in viewing my Rockstar deck, here it is:

What Rockstars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass With Social Media

View more presentations from Mack Collier.

And finally, click here if you'd like more information on my speaking or want to get a quote on my delivering this presentation or another at your event, or email me.

PS: Thanks to Valeria and Everything and Nothing for being my editors for this post ;)

Are we too worried with finding the ROI of social media?

2009-08-27T11:08:00.003-05:00

Several months ago I contacted a certain big company. One that's been using social media very well, and that's often used as a case study for how businesses can successfully use social media. I wanted to know what was their direct bottom line impact from social media? How had sales increased or decreased? What was the ROI of their efforts in terms of dollars?

Their answer surprised me. "We have no idea."

They further clarified "My boss has never asked for the ROI, because he sees the value in our efforts."

If you'll notice, I've been asking companies when I interview them in the Social Media Mavens series about ROI.

Best Buy's Gary Koelling had this to say about how they track the return on Blue Shirt Nation:

"I could correlate half a hundred metrics we watch as indicators of how we’re doing as a business with half a hundred metrics we watch as indicators of how we’re doing as a social network and probably correlate half a billion dollars in growth or savings as a result. One reason I don’t is because I don’t care, it doesn’t interest me. In fact it makes me sleepy. The other reason is that my sponsors have never asked for it. Not only do they see the value but they understand what happens when you measure things you don’t fully understand. A machine, any machine, will tend to become its own criteria. If I measure how effective BSN was at reducing turnover, it would become a machine that reduces turnover. I’m sure it does or doesn’t have an effect on turnover. The bottom line is it’s a network of humans, a true and thriving and vibrant network and every time someone uses it, it’s more valuable to the next person that uses it."

Kodak's Tom Hoehn said this is what the company measures the effectiveness of its A Thousand Words blog:

"

Reverb – That comment we noticed multiplied by the number of followers, fans, friends, BFFs, etc. the person making it has.
We are after hearts and minds instead of eyeballs. We feel we have a good story to tell on many levels and it seems to be resonating with people.
We of course look at table stakes measures like page views, refers, search ranking, etc. If you don’t do those things by now your head is probably swimming from all of the other information I have shared ;-)
ROI is the holy grail we are all chasing but we like to think that return on ignoring (thanks @DavidAlston) is even worse.

"

PepsiCo's Bonin Bough said this about how Pepsi tracks the ROI of its social media efforts:

"All our efforts in the social media space are totally focused on ROI, and demonstrating the value of engaging with consumers on social media platforms. Measuring a program against key metrics and relationships is really important as we scale up our social media work across brands. For Trop50 specifically we are working with Ogilvy and their Conversation Impact model which tracks key metrics that ladder up to Reach, Preference and Action."

Graco's Lindsay Lebresco said this about how the company measures the effectiveness of its company blog:

"We use a variety of methods, some of them fairly standard (how many comments, how many links, how many visitors, how many clicked through to Gracobaby.com, etc) and we also look at the engagement of our readers. Are readers coming back over time?, how often are they commenting?, is the relationship with our blog readers extending to other SM platforms of ours?, etc) SEO is certainly another measure we look at."

These are some of the largest and most successful corporate social media case studies on the planet. And in re-reading these quotes, I noticed two things:

1 - None of them are mentioning the direct ROI (in terms of dollars) on their social media efforts.

2 - All of them can see the VALUE in their efforts, and apparently, so can their companies.

Some people will argue that if you mention the ROI of social media, that you have to speak in terms of dollars in, and dollars out. I'm not going to argue that point, but based on what I'm hearing from BIG companies that are having success with social media, they are getting C-suite buy-in and continued support from their efforts because they are creating something that the c-suite sees the value of for their companies. I especially thought Gary's comments about Blue Shirt Nation were interesting and not wanting to turn BSN into a 'machine' for a particular metric.

All of the above companies would likely be hard-pressed to find an ROI for their efforts that fits a pure business definition of the term. Does that mean their efforts are a failure? Or does it mean that the end goal should be that our social media efforts should generate something of value? Are we too hung up on finding the ROI of social media, or should we be focusing on value creation?

At the end of the day, should companies engaging or considering using social media ask 'What's the ROI of our efforts?' or 'What value is being created for our business via social media?'

I'm not sure, that's why I'm throwing this out to get your thoughts.

Social Media Mavens - An Interview with Best Buy's Gary Koelling

2009-08-26T11:15:00.004-05:00

For a while now, companies such as Dell and Zappos have been getting attention from their great external social media efforts. But what about internal efforts? Is it possible for large companies to create an internal effort that gives their employees the ability to connect just as many companies are wanting to see their customers connect?

Gary Koelling and Best Buy thought so, and launched what has become the wildly successful Blue Shirt Nation for Best Buy employees. Here, Gary walks us through how this effort came to be, and what they've learned.

MC- First, why go with an internal social network for employees, rather than an external one for customers? Was it a conscious choice that Best Buy made, or did the idea of creating Blue Shirt Nation make sense and you ran with it?

GK - When we first build BlueShirt Nation (BSN) it was an attempt to solve a specific problem. We wanted to get employee and customer insight that could lead to better, more relevant advertising. We never got a direct answer to that although you could argue it led to us to better advertising eventually. Any way, the users made it into a social network. Steve Bendt (the other founder of BSN) and I just happened to have the good sense to stick with it - whatever it became. As it turned out it became quite a phenomenon - a combination of the right executive sponsorship (new at the time), timing - social media was rising and the right target - most of our employees are very early twenties. Perfect storm. As to your question of why internal versus external - culturally we weren’t ready to have that kind of relationship with our customers. It’s only after three or four years of practicing on each other and getting familiar with where all the social media buttons and switches are can we even begin to try things with our customers. Some work out. Some don’t. But I point to our own social culture as a basis for even trying with our customers.

MC - Of course these days everyone is wanting to hear about how to measure the effectiveness of social media programs. But since BSN is an internal effort, how does Best Buy decide what value is being created by BSN for the company? Are you focusing more on numbers, or helping your employees connect and share information?

GK - What are numbers? I can tell you how many unique visits I get in a day or week or month. I call tell you what the bounce rate is, avg number of pages viewed, time spent on the site, number of articles, comments, votes. I can tell you what our employee turnover is now versus then or how the level of participation has gone up in our 401k program. We could look at customer satisfaction scores and correlate that to BSN participation. I could correlate half a hundred metrics we watch as indicators of how we’re doing as a business with half a hundred metrics we watch as indicators of how we’re doing as a social network and probably correlate half a billion dollars in growth or savings as a result. One reason I don’t is because I don’t care, it doesn’t interest me. In fact it makes me sleepy. The other reason is that my sponsors have never asked for it. Not only do they see the value but they understand what happens when you measure things you don’t fully understand. A machine, any machine, will tend to become its own criteria. If I measure how effective BSN was at reducing turnover, it would become a machine that reduces turnover. I’m sure it does or doesn’t have an effect on turnover. The bottom line is it’s a network of humans, a true and thriving and vibrant network and every time someone uses it, it’s more valuable to the next person that uses it.

MC - I'm sure when Best Buy first conceived of starting an internal platform for your employees, that you guys had in mind some ways in which employees would probably use BSN. But are there any ways in which employees are using BSN that totally surprised you guys? Anything they are doing with the platform that you never saw coming?

GK - I never saw any of it coming. It’s all been a surprise to me.

MC - Blue Shirt Nation is hailed as a great case study for how a company can use social media internally, but how has it impacted your external social media efforts? Do you think that starting with an internal effort first has made it easier for your employees to engage with customers via social media?

GK - There is no internal or external. There is only public or private. Not only has it made it easier, it has made it possible.

Thanks again to Gary for pulling back the curtain a bit on what Best Buy has and is doing with Blue Shirt Nation. Make sure you follow Gary on his site, and on Twitter. And if your company would like to be considered for a future interview in the Social Media Mavens series, please email me. Look for the next interview in this series in two weeks!

Pic of Flickr user toprankonlinemarketing

Targeting the big voices vs finding the RIGHT voices

2009-08-25T12:18:00.005-05:00

Leah Jones wrote a post yesterday that sparked a wonderful discussion of blogger outreach and the potential ethical concerns involved. The long story short is that Panasonic and their agency Crayon brought several 'influencers' to this year's Consumer Electronics Show, or CES to meet with Panasonic and try out various Panasonic products. One of those 'influencers' that Panasonic brought in was Chris Brogan, who while at the event, struck up a conversation with representatives from Sony (a top competitor to Panasonic), and is now doing business with them, as a result of their meeting at CES.

The key question that Leah posed was to wonder if Chris did something wrong in going to CES on Panasonic's dime, and then networking with Panasonic's competitors as potential clients.

Look, everyone knows how I feel about Chris. I like him, and consider him a good friend. So I'm willing to accept the possibility that I could be biased in favor of him when I look at this issue. But honestly, I don't see any problem with what Chris did. Last year I was flown in to speak at an event, and after I presented, one of the attendees loved my session so much that they asked me to present at their event. I confirmed with them, and a few months later the first event organizer contacted me about speaking at their event again, and I had to decline because I had confirmed to speak at the second event, which was being planned for the same weekend. Was I wrong to network with the second event organizer while at the first event? I don't think so, but maybe some do.

But in the midst of this debate, I think Spike Jones raised the key point, that many overlooked; Most companies are targeting the wrong people with their blogger outreach efforts. Why did Panasonic bring in 'influencers' to play with their toys instead of their own evangelists and fans? In most cases, influencers create short-term buzz, while evangelists produce long-term excitement. Why? Because the evangelists have a vested interest in promoting the company even before they reach out to them. Influencers usually don't have the emotional ties to the brands targeting them, so their desire to promote their involvement comes from a personal level moreso than wanting to promote the brand/company/products.

So which is more valuable to a company, one matter-of-fact Tweet from an influencer to her 50,000 followers, or one passionate evangelist with a fraction of the 'audience' that will promote the company from now on?

Short-term buzz vs long-term excitement. Evangelists trump 'influencers' every time.

Pic via Flickr user cameronparkins

Sweet Home Alabama! - Social South recap

2009-08-24T11:31:00.010-05:00

I have to admit that I was pretty damn excited about Social South. I knew with the speakers and program that Scott Schablow and his team were putting together that the event would be a success. But I think what happened over two days in Birmingham blew everyone away, from the attendees to the speakers, to the organizers. We had RichardatDell and LionelatDell together on stage for the first time ever, probably the most audience participation I've ever seen at a social media conference, and a woman from Bahrain move an entire conference to tears with her story of how she's using social media to help others.

Before getting further into the recap, I must stress what an AMAZING job Scott and the team at Provenance Digital Media did in planning and executing this event. Scott was literally working several hours a day on SoSo on TOP of his 'day job' at Provenance. I would often get up in the morning to see he had left me emails about SoSo sometimes as late as 3 and 4 am. He even had to cancel his session on Twitter during the event, because he simply didn't have enough time to finish preparing for it, while trying to run the event at the same time. Jason Hill and Stacey Hood also were wonderful about taking care of the speakers, they shuttled us all over the place, from and back to airports, to the event, to bars, everywhere. The speakers were taken better care of at this event than any I've ever spoken at. Easily.

Now as for the sessions themselves, the biggest problem I had was that there were too many good ones. At every time slot there were at least 2 sessions I really wanted to see, and usually 3. Before every slot I had to go around apologizing to speakers because I would have to miss their session. It was especially brutal in the Sat morning slots. On Friday, the crowd was honestly larger than I expected. The first session I attended was Beth Harte's session on Social Media Planning and Measurement, and it was standing room only. I think one of the biggest takeaways was that marketers have to prove their worth to their bosses, and this is especially true of anyone engaging in social media. Great session from Beth and I think this was exactly what many attendees wanted and needed to hear.

My session, What Rockstars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass With Social Media was next and I won't get into it here as I'll have a full recap of the session on MackCollier.com later. In short, I was honestly surprised at how well the session was received, I think it's the most popular presentation I've ever given, based on feedback I got from the attendees. Beth's session gave me a great lead-in crowd. Next was Toby Bloomberg's session on Social Media, Southern Hospitality Style. I loved this session because SO many people make social media harder than it has to be. So much of being successful in social media is simply about being friendly and respectful and hospitable. Qualities that people in the Deep South have in spades. Loved Toby's analogy of the front porch conversation, and the corner grocery store.

Next came Friday's keynote, which saw RichardatDell and LionelatDell speaking together on stage, for the first time. I have to say that getting the honor to introduce Richard and Lionel as Social South's first keynote was one of the very highlights of the event for me. Richard and Lionel told a story that was probably familiar to many of the speakers (the ones that have been immersed in this space for as long as Dell has), but for the attendees, it was an invaluable look at how a huge company is using and integrating social media. And I thought what was really telling for everyone was not only what Dell has learned about social media, but what Dell has learned about their CUSTOMERS, thanks to social media. But the biggest lesson of all is, if a big online company like Dell can use social media as a way to develop individual relationships with their customers, your online company really has no excuse.

The Friday afternoon session saw us move to our 'Conversations' portion. If you've ever attended # blogchat on Twitter, then these sessions were structured as being 'live Twitter chats'. They were led by 2-3 speakers, who facilitated room-wide conversations around a particular topic. This is where the speakers at Social South really shined. The speakers had almost no coaching on this format (mainly because we didn't want it to be a presentation, we wanted it to be an open discussion), but they ran with it and made it come off flawlessly.

And this is also where I really discovered that we had some damn smart people attending Social South. Scott and Jason had told me that the audience was mostly past the Social Media 101 level, and they really were. They asked smart questions and left ME taking notes from them. This made the discussions even more rewarding for everyone.

Day Two opened with me apologizing to David Griner, Tom Martin, and Paul Chaney for having to miss their talks. Seriously, there were just too many amazing speakers and sessions at Social South. But one thing I loved about the Saturday program was that CK and Ike Pigott were set up as a nice 1-2 punch for overcoming fears and objections to social media, and selling your boss on social media. CK's session was on the Six Demons that make companies want to fear using social media, and how to overcome those fears. At one point CK was explaining how Dell uses Ideastorm to connect with customers, while Lionel was sitting in the front row. My first thought was that I hope that the Social South attendees appreciated how lucky they were to be seeing this. I think they did!

Next, Ike had his wonderful session on overcoming corporate objections to social media, based on Pac-Man. Wonderful analogy, and I'll just point you to the deck on Slide Share. To complete the triple-play, CK and Ike later hosted a Roundtable on Selling Your Boss on Social Media. I think this played perfectly off the sessions that Ike and CK had delivered, and was one of the last sessions of the event, which gave attendees the right information at the right time.

But this recap would be woefully incomplete if I did not mention Esra'a Al Shafei's Saturday keynote. Esra'a was originally slated to deliver her keynote at the event, but days before Social South, she learned that the US had denied her visa to the country. So Scott and his team had to scramble to come up with an alternative, and decided to go ahead and have Esra'a do the keynote, but via Skype video.

So here we are looking at a young woman up on the screen with her headset on starting her keynote in what appears to be her room, halfway across the world. I think 'this is pretty cool!', and snap a picture on my cellphone to post on Twitter. Almost as soon as I take the pic, Scott rather forcefully interrupts Esra'a and asks the crowd to please NOT take pictures of Esra'a or take video of her presentation. He explains that Esra'a goes to great lengths to ensure that there are no pictures of her online, because many people would like to discover her true identity to stop her from doing what she is doing. Possibly even by killing her. When you suddenly realize that a person is possibly putting their life in danger to talk to you, it gets your attention.

But Esra'a's cause is one that she believes that strongly in. She detailed for the next hour or so the efforts of Mideast Youth to use social media to draw attention to the plights and persecution of people in the Mideast and Africa that are having their human rights violated. People that are being jailed and even killed for simply questioning their government, or not practicing a 'government-approved' religion. In short, people that are being persecuted for attempting to engage in a level of freedom that we in the United States mostly take for granted. At least I know I often do. But Esra'a's story was so amazingly compelling. When she calmly stated that she knew she was putting her life in danger by speaking out and drawing attention to what certain governments were doing, and that she was not afraid and ready to die for a cause she believed in, it truly made me appreciate the power of social media. It made me appreciate how Esra'a is not only using these tools to help others, but how these tools made it possible to hear Esra'a's story, even though people and even governments were trying to stop her voice from being heard. Tears streamed down my face and everyone else's in attendance as we gave Esra'a the standing ovation she so richly deserved. Jason Falls has an excellent recap of her keynote, and here's where you can learn more about what Mideast Youth is doing, and here's where you can follow Esra'a on Twitter.

Seriously, Social South was an amazing event. If you missed #SoSo, stop kicking yourself and start planning for attending it next year. Thankfully, the response blew everyone away, and I think that's ensured there will be a Social South 2010. So to everyone I met at Social South, the speakers and attendees I reconnected with, thank you ALL for creating an amazing 2-day experience!

Pic of the Daily Fix Crew via @treypennington

Fortune 100 companies embracing social media; especially Twitter

2009-08-18T10:46:00.003-05:00

A recent study by Burson-Marsteller,via eMarketer, had some interesting findings for how Fortune 100 companies are using social media.

First, Twitter seems to be the social-media darling not just with mainstream media, but with the world's largest companies as well. According to the study, 54% of the Fortune 100 companies surveyed are active on Twitter. Another interesting stat is that 21 of the Fortune 100 companies use only Twitter or Facebook Pages or have a company blog. Of that 21%, 76% of those companies that only use one channel, use Twitter. Given that the tool can be picked up quickly, and is especially useful as a customer-service management tool for larger companies, these figures shouldn't be a big surprise.

Another interesting finding is that 32 of the Fortune 100 companies are blogging. This figure is over twice that of the Fortune 500 companies that are blogging. It's also a good sign because blogs require a solid time-commitment, much moreso than the average Twitter presence.

And finally, the study found that 60% of the Fortune 100 is using one of the three sites/tools of Twitter, Facebook Pages, or a blog. And 17% are using all three.

Now let's remember that not EVERY company should be using social media. BUT for larger companies, that have many more customers, using social media makes much more sense. As these companies have more customers, they also have more customers online, and likely have more customers that are online and using social media to discuss that company.

So it's good to see that most members of the Fortune 100 are at least experimenting with using social media to connect with their online customers. But the rate of adoption should probably be much higher, and likely will be in the next couple of years.