Time 18:10

Alleluia the Mass Market is alive and well, we have rediscovered the masses. This is good news for all those companies that watched their mass market target disperse like cockroaches when you turn on the lights. Now the bad news, the path to reach them is through 1 percent of the people that participate on-line in social media – content creators, commenters, and communities. In this podcast, we chat with Jackie Huba, co-author of two books Citizen Marketer and Creating Customer Evangelists, about reaching the One Percenters as Huba calls them, and how they are the new gatekeepers to the mass market.

Huba is a keynote speaker at the NewComm Forum, a three day conference, April 20-23 in San Mateo, California, full of interesting learning about the application of social strategies in business, non-profit, and government, and as always excellent networking. As a listener and reader of the Marketing Edge podcast and blog use the promo code NCFPPP to receive a $200 savings if you register by March 12.

One of the interesting parts of this conversation with Huba is when she refers to social media as the “canary in the coal mine” for many companies. Huba is on the money with this metaphor. I associate this idea to political communications, a place where rumor can become perceived as fact fast. Political communicators are indeed accustomed to this position, I was in the national political environment for a decade. The speed of information puts an enormous burden on corporate communications to be tuned in 24/7 and on the corporate communications process (by that I mean approvals and empowerment) to be efficient in reacting to unfolding events.

Enjoy this podcast and use the promo code NCFPPP when registering for the NewComm Forum. Huba’s blog along with co author Ben McConnell is the Church of the Customer an interesting read as well.

How are you approaching the One Percenters? Do you think they are gatekeepers to the mass market, or do you approach them as market segments, separate communities similar to market segments?

Re-Tweet Shout Outs

I had fun last night during #brandbowl Twitter’s conversation about ads during the Super Bowl. Thanks to stephaniethum , shashib , and tkpleslie for advancing the conversation about when we’ll have television advertising created on the fly based on social conversations. It won’t be long now I’m guessing.

Remember comments to the blog result in a food item being donated to a St. Paul, MN food shelter. Your opinions matter.

This is not a plug or some third party affiliate cheer. I’m not one for the making money on the Internet crowd because those that scream that the loudest are old century thinkers in a new century world. Boo Hiss.

I just signed up for The Third Tribe at the early adopter rate because I view many of the individuals behind the program as rethinking the role of economics in an information society. My first peak under the members’ hood on The Third Tribe does reveal some aspects of making money online. Affiliate marketing is part of this I realize and perhaps I need to have a different perspective on it. However, the greater value of the information, seminars and forums of The Third Tribe is the new perspective of how economics are changing. It’s the hands on version of the Free Economy with substance, innovation, and creativity. In fact, in the first audio conversation, Sonia Simone and Johnny B Truant take on the “Internet Hawkers” and the world of make believe money. That’s the kind of candor that I enjoy about the substantive people on The Third Tribe and many of the other people I follow on Twitter et. al.

Other contributors to The Third Tribe I respect for their work, Darren Rowse of Problogger, Brian Clark of Copyblogger, and Hugh MacLeod among others which is another reason I want to see what’s going on in this Tribe. Their views about how communities are formed, how new tools are helping companies become social and not just use social tactics, and how value is established in a world with instant access to information and millions of content contributors instead of dozens of information gate keepers.

I also became a member because some of these ideas may have application to clients. It might not be applicable to me, but from what I’m listening to now regarding SEO and search tactics, this is something anyone in the consulting business needs to be aware of to address client challenges. It’s also another network of function experts to potentially be a member of an ad hoc project team.

Lastly, it’s a monthly pricing model that you can cancel at anytime. Today’s the last day for the “early adopters” pricing, $27/month. The way I look at it, the producers of The Third Tribe including Chris Brogan have given the community, our community, years of free information, this is a maturing of our value economy where we acknowledge valuable information with a form of currency beyond the Retweet.

Yesterday Chris Brogan and I strolled the Mall of America. This was the first time at the Mall of America for Brogan, who, as a father of young children, was amazed and delighted by the incredible distractions provided by the life-size roller coaster and other amusement rides at Nickelodeon Universe. To most outside of Minnesota, the closest you get to an amusement ride inside a mall is the $.25 horsey plugged in next to the candy vending machine.

Brogan is president of New Marketing Labs providing strategy and execution of social programs for Fortune 500 and major brand companies. We talked about trends in social emedia and how corporations are incorporating social media into their processes. I use the term processes here because it is inaccurate to single out a business function say marketing or customer service. Social media impacts all parts of a company, and last century’s corporate structure, today needs to bend with an increasingly social consumer base.

Pete Blackshaw of Ag Age has a post today called A Short and Personal History of Social Media, also pointed out what Brogan and I discussed which is benefit one - Social media is forcing silos and fiefdoms to work together. This is more like the way consumers view a company. When a consumer has an issue and tweets about it, the fact that XYZ company only uses Twitter as a media relations tool is a bogus response to that consumer. Smart corporations are using this “learning moment” to rethink their processes, to creating greater lines of communication to solve consumer issues, develop better products, and elevate the consumer, and their comments, within the company. This is a wonderful result at a number of levels.

Embracing this concept can be the difference between a company using social tactics, to being a social company.

Blackshaw writes

“So this is big — really big. But where is it going? Looking ahead, expect to hear much more about “enterprise social media” strategy. Good, old-fashioned customer-relationship management will take on new meaning and resonance, as we’ll quickly realize that half the game in social media will be understanding the relationship between existing business processes — service, employee training, product performance — and conversational output, and adjusting strategies and tactics accordingly.
Marketing organizations will continue to undergo dramatic transformation, as social media softens all silos, unleashes both friendly and hostile departmental and agency competition, and sets new standards of accountability thanks to the radically transparent nature of the content.”

Brogan comments in this video about the vast opportunities in 2010 which brings us to the second major benefit of social media – Opportunities with structure. What was referred to as the wild west of marketing on the internet a few short years ago is now taking a bit of shape — you know towns,(communities) trails,(measurement) sheriffs (FTC guidelines and trust agents). In some cases the shapes are similar to what we are familiar with, and it others it is a brave new world.

The familiar parts being implemented in the social world are functions like media relations, with a social twist ( Pitch Engine and Matchpoint ) and targeted audiences (community participation and sponsorship by corporations for example).

The opportunities presented by the brave new world part of this equation may be issues such as companies being more open in conversations. This may be implemented in a concept I’m pushing of an embedded corporate journalist. There are opportunities in new areas of measurement upon which individual employee and agency performance goals are established. Metrics such as number of conversations, Pass Along Readership (this is an old school print advertising concept that has morphed into today’s RT or retweets et. al), or number of uploaded photos.

Opportunities as Brogan mentions for larger agencies and companies to tap into social platforms like Live World, Awareness, PeopleBrowsr, CoTweet, Ning, and dozens of others, (if I missed you, comment, each comment I’ll donate a food item to a food shelf.) Blackwell mentions availability of social tools in his post as well.

Individuals too are finding ways to add value. In some cases it is by default where they play the role of trusted , personal technology trainer, and thought leader apart from the agency relationship. In some ways, they are seen as not being part of a larger revenue generation, project creation machine, but an independent auditor. One that can verify whether the time spent down some new social path is worth the effort.

Lastly, we have moved deeper into an economic landscape of individuals with individual profit and loss. Yes, more consultants, but this means free forming networks of talent, at times viewed as competitors, other times viewed as partners. From the perspective of companies in need of talent, the picture could not be better. The ability to form an all-star team is as close as your next tweet. Brogan’s venture launched today, The Third Tribe, touches on this a bit. The formation of a network sharing ideas, gaining examples and creating a dialogue that ultimately produces a more knowledgeable pool of talent. This is the land of opportunity and 2010 will give greater clarity and shape to what was once the fog of social media.

Time 33:11

Some how the color purple has become associated with remarkable things. The marketing community probably owes it all to Seth Godin and his book Purple Cow written in 2003 . “Wait stop the car!” now that’s something special.

We could go back to the dawn of time to Barney the Purple dinosaur, now that must have caught Grog’s attention, so remarkable even a… well you know the rest.

However, my vote for the most remarkable purple reference would have to be the resurrection of Christ long symbolized with the color purple. Now that’s remarkable.

But for this podcast we’ll stay a bit closer to Godin’s application of remarkable, and it’s appropriate because he is viewed by many as a marketing god who appreciates a good paragraph when he sees one.

Enter Stan Phelps, who with due deference to Godin is working on the Purple Goldfish Project, a quest to obtain 1,001 examples of purpleness, remarkable ways companies large and small are treating customers. Phelps adds a bit of his own twist which he borrows from the Louisiana culture called Lagniappe (Lan-yap). Lagniappe is synonymous for “the gift.” In the Bijou, lagniappe was the little extra a merchant would go to make you feel special. For example, butchers would give you a bone if they knew you had a dog, or the baker would toss in the extra donut just because you may have had a house full of kids.

Marketing Lagniappe is what Stan and I talk about in this podcast. Stan invites everyone to contribute to the Purple Goldfish Project, by submitting examples at the Marketing Lagniappe website. Here are a few examples:

Lou Mitchell’s (#83 submitted by CAA’s Simon Green) “There are reasons native Chicagoans and tourists alike consider Lou Mitchell’s a must-visit — from the donut holes and milk duds while you wait to the double-yolk eggs that make every dish even more sinfully indulgent, Lou’s knows how to do breakfast. Located in the South Loop, the restaurant has been a Chicago institution since 1923, and decades later, they’re still dishing out thick French toast, enormous platters of pancakes, fresh-baked pastries, and of course, those famous skillets.

Courtyard by Marriott (#57 submitted by PR Workbench’s and eNR’s Jack Monson)

“A few years ago, I was traveling to the Twin Cities often and stayed several times at the same Courtyard By Marriott in the suburb of Eden Prairie since it was close to two clients’ HQs. By the third trip in a few weeks’ time, I had a nice surprise waiting for me. I walked in after a cold and delayed trip from Chicago to see a big sign in the lobby saying “Welcome Jack Monson”. The manager informed me that I was their guest of the week and gave me a card for free breakfast in the morning. (PS: Jack is a great sales person and account manager, I use eNR’s Matchpoint. I know that Jack also practices marketing lagniappe with his clients with attention to detail, listening to new product ideas, and pulling research reports to demonstrate the capabilities of the system.)

AJ Bombers (#152 Submitted by Phil Gerbyshak) One of my favorite Purple Goldfish is AJ Bombers (@ajbombers) in Milwaukee. Joe and his team consistently provide the Purple Goldfish by offering free peanuts…shot at you in metal WWII bombers. It’s way fun to get those from the bartenders. Making AJBombers even more fun is the fact he is on Twitter, recognizing customers and anyone who mentions the place, hosts Tweetups at Bombers, has guest bartenders where he donates shots folks can sell…with all proceeds going to the charity of the guest bartender’s choice. Full disclosure: I’ve been a guest bartender and raised money for my charity. Last but not least is everyone who wants one can get a Sharpie and put their Twitter handle anywhere they want at AJBombers, so when friends come in, they can look for your Twitter name and leave you a tweet…in real life.” (And where am I going the next time I’m in Milwaukee to visit my son at Marquette? You guessed it, I love the Twitter handle on the wall idea.)

Stan and I get into the discussion that all this purple warm and fuzzes can cost money. Well does it? Is this a question of money or priorities? My point is even the average can be remarkable. How? Focus on a few things where you are going to exceed expectations. Whether it’s service or product, but ask yourself, Do you have something in your offering that is worthy of writing home about? It used to be an expression, “nothing to write home about”, but who knew millions of people actually would be writing home about their experiences on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, et al. The Purple Goldfish Project is about writing home, join in by contributing to the project at Marketing Lagniappe.

One of my favorites is David Meerman Scott’’s World Wide Rave. Send me an email with with Rave in the subject line to marketingedge@providentpartners.net , we’ll include you in the drawing. In the podcast I make reference to an example that David has in the book from CWS advanced toilet systems and mentioned I’d have a link to the Clean Seats commercial that has more than a million views on You Tube

Every comment on the Marketing Edge blog we give a food item to the local food shelter.

This is a follow up to the last podcast Five Ways Social Media Will Generate More Leads I read David Murray’s piece from Ragan Communications Protecting Your Sources Leads to Incomplete, Empty Stories

In this piece Murray makes the point that sometimes as a journalist he was concerned his sources would not like the piece when published. He refers to some writers, whether they be journalists or paid writers on internal corporate publications, who attempt to sanitize the piece, not including candid statements or personality traits, that may well be of interest to readers, but perhaps would be viewed as embarrassing for the source.

In a section Murray writes “People, I have found somewhat to my surprise, want less to be praised and more to simply be seen—for who they think they are—and heard, for what they have to say.” And this is my contention for the concept of the embedded corporate journalist. Corporations will gain more among their employees and their intended audiences by living a bit more actively and willing to talk about the elements of decisions as they are unfolding instead of waiting for everything to be perfect and scripted.

The embedded corporate journalist must align what is news worthy, what contributes to the topic, with the expertise and perspective his company or client. This is not about “Spin Doctoring” which is the art of twisting the topic to the point of confusion. This is about “Topic Engineering” which is contributing to the discussion in such a meaningful way that greater clarity is achieved.

More on the embedded corporate journalist

Is your company a candidate for having a embedded corporate journalist? Why or why not?

Time 26:57

First, I dislike the kind of headlines like the one above. It’s called the Reason Why Headline and it is one of the most effective at getting the reader’s attention. I dislike it because it proliferates across the web making thousands of websites look the same, but I can’t argue with Copyblogger and other copy writers who say Reason Headlines are effective.

Yes, lead generation starts with getting attention and good headlines are one of many components. Of course there are more ways to get attention than headlines, and social media provides many opportunities. In the context of generating leads for a complex type of sale, integrating social media is becoming essential. I’ll define complex sale for B2B and B2C products and services in the following way; in the case of B2B it is usually for business mission critical products and services, like enterprise software, strategic business consulting, and/or decisions that touch many departments in a company and have a significant financial investment. In the case of B2C it is usually a higher ticket item, that will have a long duration of usage, where there is a potentially strong brand attachment opportunity; products such as appliances, computers, and vehicles are examples.

Second, in the world of long sales cycles, relationship building, and credibility I believe the following are essential elements to generate leads:

1. 1. Content that is valued by the audience (beyond the headline, content does matter)
2. 2. Formats that are most powerful (all formats are afford, using video, audio, and mash-ups are effective)
3. 3. Frequency that generates SEO benefits (In this search engine dominated era you have to be known for something, and that something must be indexed by search engines)
4. 4. Community participation (It is anti-social to think your company is the center of the universe)
5. 5. Thinking like a reporter ( I think I coined term is the embedded corporate journalist)

In this podcast with Mark Palony, former digital marketing manager for the enterprise software company Softbrands, we discuss the social media tactics he used in conjunction with traditional marketing tactics. Disclosure: Mark and Softbrands were a long-time client until a much larger company Infor purchased Softbrands last summer.

Over the course of years, Palony integrated video, audio podcasts, audio and video soundbites specifically for individual sales cycles, blogging, community participation, and Twitter, among other social elements, as part of a comprehensive marketing program. These components allowed Softbrands to develop a greater relationship with prospects while establishing credibility among its intended audiences. Examples of integrating social media in the B2B enterprise software lead generation include:

• Video channel with customer stories about implementing SoftBrands inside manufacturing plants.
• Using Twitter to build relationships with SAP marketing and subject matter experts. (this enabled Softbrands, and SAP partner gain greater exposure within SAP)
• Effective digital assets developed for sales process (A video and audio library of relevant content used by sales and in conjunction with blog posts, Twitter commentary, and community comments.)

I think many companies are treating social media as a side bar, not an integrated component of their marketing. Sure they throw up a Facebook page or Twitter profile, but don’t incorporate them in a comprehensive editorial picture. Is this the case from your perspective? Are marketers and corporate communications treating their content as if they were publisher? Are they participating in communities or communicating to communities?

Seminar on Integrated Marketing

Mark Palony and I are conducting a seminar using elements of what we learned during the years of implementing social tactics for lead generation of the complex sale. Some might call this content marketing. The seminar is Friday, March 12, The New Marketing Mix.

David Meerman Scott’s the World Wide Rave will be given to one Marketing Edge podcast listener or reader. To enter, send me an email to marketingedge@providentpartners.net Include Rave in the subject line. In this book, Scott, provides entertaining examples of how companies incorporated social tactics to create digital product advocates.

Time 37:29

Make no excuses, only make decisions. That’s the quote I’ve come up with as a result of talking to our Marketing Edge Podcast guest Laura Fitton. Fitton is known to many by Pistachio, the name of her consulting firm and what she uses on Twitter. Fitton was in a pressure situation, mother of two young toddlers, going through a divorce, yet the desire to pursue her passion was so strong, and the network of innovators in social media was so supportive, that Fitton’s passion became a reality.

This podcast will cover two areas, the first is about how social media is providing a channel for entrepreneurial innovation. There are plenty of low cost or free tools to test your ideas, build a digital presence, and connect with networks that can be supportive. Fitton proves this statement and we chat about the tactics and principles of other social media business pioneers Liz Strauss and Gary Vaynerchuk who have been beacons for many in this the social media era. Vaynerchuk is also a passionate Jets fan so he is excited at least for another week. Go Jets.

The key bullets on pursuing your passion that I have identified are:

• Persistence
• Timing
• Vision
• Network

At first for Fitton, that passionate reality was a consulting practice focused on Twitter for business, today it has grown into a community platform for Twitter applications. You can participate in it at www.oneforty.com a community that supports, discovers, and exchanges information about Twitter applications. OK, the short description is, Oneforty, a Twitter app store and here is my Twitter App profile so far.

It’s a great resource for corporate marketers, social media and PR decision makers to quickly identify applications that may be a solution for your challenges. It’s also great for anyone, on Twitter or not, to explore the concept of real time, mobile information. The website lets you see what people are using Twitter for, stupid or not. Remember, beauty and stupidity are in the eye of the beholder. Oneforty incorporates crowd sourcing of those using Twitter apps and supports the Twitter application developer community.

Oneforty is developer friendly. Starting January 12 developers will be able to sell their applications on Oneforty and Oneforty will pick up the PayPal fee for donations made through the Oneforty site, and the developer will get the full donation. This is one way Oneforty demonstrates their support for the Twitter developer community.

Give this Marketing Edge Podcast a listen for inspiration to pursue your passion or discover the latest Twitter applications. Is there a passion you are hiding? Shine a light on it this year.

The coming challenge for social media is keeping it simple? Some social media types and companies would love to just focus on Twitter and Facebook. Ah, those will be the good old days of social media. The way I figure those days were the first 2 weeks of June of 2009. Now it’s going to be about topics, interests, comments, and rather than platforms and applications. You can see the early sprouts of this trend with the development of lists on Twitter, Listorious, and TweetDeck’s interest directory

Monitoring brand mentions and sentiment is child’s play compared to a full fledged corporate social play. There are dozens of social platforms similar to Facebook, plenty of microblogging platforms, and now enter geotagging mobile platforms like, Foursquare and Gowalla and many others. How will companies respond to brand mentions across thousands of communities, blogs, and mobile platforms? In addition, how will midsize, non-household name brands, efficiently build relationships.

We mentioned products that attempt to aggregate and monitor, then integrate that capability with a workflow which imposes structure on random relationships. Cotweet, People Browsr among others allow for monitoring and then creating an action item. To me, this is the key for the future of social media within a corporate environment, it must be worked into a quantifiable, disciplined process.

The latest of platform to follow this trend is Clove. It has fast and robust features to segment conversations, search terms and multiple profiles. Their development team is working on introducing a variety of modules as the market needs present themselves.

I interviewed one of the founders of Clove, Tim Erickson. You can register for the beta version of Clove. Its as close a competitor to Tweet Deck which is familiar to many social enthusiasts. I found Tweet Deck is a bit of a memory hog, Clove is efficient, fast and light.

Do you believe you need to monitor multiple companies and topics? How about participating under multiple profiles?

Time 20:52

This year a marketing firm that will go nameless gave me a gift. They showed me the importance of being relevant. It was an interesting lesson that I turned into an entertaining podcast, but it’s better if you be the judge of that.

The story begins with the presentation I gave about social media in health care to the Minnesota Medical Group Management Association this summer. The group is a professional association for those in clinical practices for the most part. They attended the presentation to discuss how social media is being used by health care delivery practices. Here is the summary of that presentation.

The conference had around 300 or so attendees, and exhibitors. I ended up on the list of attendees I suspect because two weeks after the conference I received a prospecting letter from the account manager of a marketing firm that either attended or exhibited at the show. This is where the fun and the lesson begins.

The firm sent about 6 letters, 2 emails, and a cute, well designed die-cut, four-color direct mail piece. The assumption of all these communications was that Provident Partners, yes, the PR/marketing firm that produces this podcast and has been providing consulting services in using social media in healthcare, was instead a medical clinic.

Imagine my dismay when I was told that this marketing firm could help me with my social media marketing to seniors looking for healthcare. Am I missing something here? No, they just skipped the part of marketing that says know your prospect.

I just didn’t have the heart to call this local Twin Cities based firm to tell them they should check their prospect list first. No, instead I thought I could learn a thing or two from their work. I am as much a student of how business and people communicate as I am a practictioner. By remaining on their list, it reinforced for me the importance of being relevant to any prospect. If that means you need to spend 80% of your time researching prospects before you contact them, then that’s what you have to do. When a company takes the time to learn about each of the prospects on their lists, then, and only then, can they begin to establish a relationship of value.

In this case, it’s one marketing firm not checking the records on a conference list and sending prospecting materials to another marketing firm. No harm no foul. What if however, it’s that same methodology for a clinic. Would a cancer patient get a marketing piece for Lamaze class, or a “thanks for being our patient” direct mail piece to a patient who has passed on? Exactly, it does make a difference.

It’s a lesson we can all learn from and apply all year long. Focus on being relevant and the prospect will react favorably. What amount of time do you spend on researching prospects? Are mass lists useful in lead generation for health care?

If you are interested in more about social media in health care we have created a separate blog called Social Media for Health Care

Time 19:59

If you are business skeptical about social media here is a new way to look at it. What if someone wants to find a new widget (you make, sell or have something to do with widgets) and this person comes to your place. When they get there, they use their smartphone, one of more than 291 million sold in the third quarter of 2009 alone.

They will use an application for the Android and iPhone among others called Foursquare. This interesting application combines the use of the location of the phone, city maps, an increasing database of business, civic, and other locations, and taps the curiosity and competitiveness of human nature.

Here are some screen shots from Foursquare and how I use it. You can see when I check into a place, Starbucks for example, it give the number of times I have told others I am there, points for checking in, and when I do that more than others over a week’s time I can become Mayor of that location. A competitive or at least context reference point compared to your friends on Foursquare and others using Foursquare in that city. Foursquare has a variety of rewards like becoming a Mayor when you have checked in to a specific place more than others in that city, or earn badges for specific types of actions. In this podcast with Tristan Walker, vp of business development for Foursquare, we discuss ways retail and non profits are driving traffic to their venue.

Using the same incentive and reward concepts as scouting badges (or promotions, perks, and discounts, for big scouts) you can drive behavior. Hmmm that health insurance provider cutting those premiums for people who have the Gym Rat badge. The concepts are proven, the integration with other elements of technology and lifestyle are not.

The ability to share a piece of information when you are close enough to do something about it, that’s the logic behind Foursquare’s Nearby Special. I check in at a restaurant across from the Target Center in Minneapolis, and I see a message from the Timberwolves with a link to the game day media report and offers for that night’s game.

Today’s I’m attending the Social Media Breakfast Des Moines where will be talking about mobile applications and how the expansion of 3G networks and beyond, is creating innovation like Foursquare. Follow #smbdm on Twitter.

It’s early, so now is the time to push innovation with this application as a business. Foursquare is looking for what people, businesses, and organizations find of value in geotagging, crowd sourcing, consumer behavior, and demand creation. Foursquare will capture a marketer’s attention in the same way Twitter captured the attention of individuals. It’s a communications platform with plenty of potential uses, many of which are yet to be tried.

Robert Scoble reported this week on Foursquare releasing their API for developers to use with other applications. Ah, here is the catalyst of innovation, once you’ve created something people find interesting, give them the wherewithal to shape it to their needs. Innovation is like cookie dough, not cookies.

Scoble suggest in this post about how developers might use a Foursquare stream of individuals as a map of a lifestyle. Scoble refers to tracing the steps of noted wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk. I think if you are in New York City you might blurt out to your friend, ” Hey I’m going to have a Jimmy Fallon weekend,” and do the same things that he does an a weekend. Yes, this is a much better, honest form of celebrity endorsement.