Let’s connect some dots.
DOT 1 – Social media recognizes, even rewards candor and honesty.
DOT 2 – Traditional media is declining and those journalists that remain must do more in the same amount of time – God Bless You.
DOT 3 – Recession is causing executives to search for something less costly, more effective in marketing.
DOT 4 – Companies realize they are not the center of the universe, just part of it.

A recent article I wrote for Upsize Magazine, a business publication in Minnesota, received some traction yesterday on Twitter thanks to a few re-tweets, thank you for that Twitter readers. It was called “For better PR create a newsroom culture in your company.”  So I thought I’d highlight it in a blog post.

The executive summary of the article is this, with the dots I mentioned above, there is an opportunity for corporate PR to have more of a news mentality than a promotional one which will be more beneficial to the company’s communications goals. Dots 1 and 4 mean if you are less of a corporate shill and contribute to an objective conversation of issues impacting your universe, others in the online world, journalists, bloggers, customers et. al. will respond favorably.

Instead of only looking inward to pick off the low hanging PR fruit such as new product release, new hire (or recent round of layoffs), earnings (or lack thereof) report, and new client win (Oh please God), instead of that, let’s dig deeper and examine how the company appeals to a segment of the market, how it is participating in new technology standards, what is its reaction to the Obama stimulus package, or where it envisions job skills changing in their industry.

Have a heart and make it easy on everyone, build a story for multiple platforms, Dot 2. Journalists are writing blogs, hosting podcasts, and in general breaking their butts to accommodate new media. Package your content in those formats, meaning, produce a series of soundbites that can be used in a podcast, create a video (preferably not talking heads) that enhances the storyline, post a powerpoint on Slideshare with pretty charts and graphs, better yet, also have those single images available on a newspage or blog post for easy linking. Yes, this is more work, but it costs much less to do today than just a couple of years ago.

Which brings me to Dot 3, all formats are affordable, video, audio, even news distribution services (depending on which one you choose). I said affordable, not free. Sure, tools like Help a Reporter Out and Pitch Engine , and on Twitter MicroPR among others can be used at no cost, but someone needs to put this stuff together. Time is money and people still need to eat. However, shooting quality video and multi-purposing that content is a fraction of what it was. I bet for around $5000 (either time or cash) you can get a comprehensive story told in video, audio, images, and text that can be used across many platforms such as YouTube, Blip.tv (an example of a B2B video channel for enterprise software), iTunes, Flickr (just see how many people take pictures of coca cola),Utterli (a great platform for producing audio and other content) blogs, and other appropriate platforms.

Throughout the year pick off several issues and you’ll look back to see the following:

1. Better position in the market as a thought leader/player
2. More news media mentions and coverage in social media
3. More conversations about your company
4. More and better information that sales teams can use
5. Higher quality employment candidates

Put the dots together and you’ve got your self a fully functional, multimedia newsroom, ready to capitalize on issues in your universe, whether they are generated internally or externally, framed in a style that is more valuable to your audience and distributed in a channel that is likely to share your story with others. What’s your take?

Two for the Price of One Conference

An invite to attend the NewComm Forum and InBound Marketing Summit in San Francisco April 27-29. It’s a combined conference with strategic and tactical workshops on using online marketing, PR and social media. There is a line up of terrific speakers and ample opportunities to focus in on your specific questions. The NewComm Forum, sponsored by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) is colocating the forum with the sponsors of the InBound Marketing Summit making for a comprehensive event.

Marketing Edge listeners and readers, email me for a discount code at marketingedge AT providentpartners DOT net with NewComm in the subject line.

Time 22:32

True story, I get a pitch about a marketer who is getting ready to leave the hustle of the rat race to go on a Buddhist retreat next year. I’ve got to tell you that I was a bit skeptical, I think the two disciplines, marketing and Buddhism are about a contrary as you can get.

The marketer, James Connor is the author of the book the Perfection of Marketing. It’s a quick read and told though the eyes of Connor as he weaves a story around a typical discussion with a CEO about marketing. It certainly is a different narrative than most business books, and I recommend it to every marketer as a gift to a skeptical CEO.

So I write back that I’d like to interview James not just about the book but what I see as the contradictions in the idea of being a marketer and a Buddhist. This is part two of my conversation with James Connor. We focus on the spiritual aspect of his journey in life and business. Did he completely convince me that marketing and Buddhism are made for each other? No, but Connor opened my eyes to a different perspective, and for that I’m very grateful.

As a participant of social media, Connor’s spirituality is insightful and shows the beauty and peace of giving. These insights give him a unique perspective on human nature and that perspective is an asset as a marketer. A premise of Buddhism is the concept of giving, and taking care of others. The best way to succeed is to help others, and I believe that is a principle of social media. Those that understand this principle and live by it will get back more than than give.

Comment & Give to Others

Leave a comment below or better yet, call the comment line 206-600-6887. Enter the contest to win the book The Perfection of Marketing by email marketingedge AT providentpartners.net put the word perfection in the subject line.

Time 21:52

I’ve always found it interesting that many company CEOs view marketing as an after thought. Their concept of brand begins with a logo rather than a culture. Some may believe that brand is only for large companies that have time and money for a brand strategy and its execution.

I take a different view. Brand is rooted in a company’s belief system and value proposition, so while you are thinking about why a company should exist, it is also thinking about its brand. So when you think of service in the hospitality industry Ritz Carlton comes to mind, and when it comes to automobile safety it’s no accident that you think of Volvo.

When a company views a brand as part of its core, part of its reason to exist and the major quality that motivates people to purchase their product or service, then it is much easier to execute the messages that will flow from their brand position.

Just as Stephen Covey refers to True North as the ethical and moral direction for personal growth, I think True North for a company is its core brand value.

James Connor, author of The Perfection of Marketing believes you can drive sales in three steps to brand building. We get into the details in this podcast the first of a two part conversation. Tomorrow we chat about Connor being a Buddhist and a marketer, a seeming contradiction for me.

Enter the contest to giveaway Connor’s book by emailing me at marketingedge AT providentpartners DOT net and in the subject line put the word Perfection.

Every entry, every comment on the blog or on the Marketing Edge comment line 206-600-6887, Provident Partners will give a food item to a St. Paul, Minnesota food shelter. The Marketing Edge podcast is celebrating its fourth anniversary this month, gives us a call and we’ll get you on the next show.

Also check out a new show I am hosting Social Media Throwdown First show is a discussion about the merits of personal branding with Hajj Flemings and Geoff Livingston

It is a story replayed across the country, small business struggles to stay afloat, owners don’t take salary, banks don’t give them credit, now what? Every publication is looking for angles on the same theme and so the Wall Street Journal did a piece on JW Hulme a manufacturer of fine leather goods, briefcases, duffle bags, and other luggage items. Yipes.

As a business owner, I’m reading the article in yesterday’s paper half wondering how they are going to get out of this predicament and half hoping it doesn’t happen to me, Double Yipes.

This post doesn’t have the answers to JW Hulme’s financial situation, at least not all of the answers, but my heart and my head have given this issue some time and I’d like to share what they have come up with.

1) The article is a great read, many other reporters will want to retell it, fine. Now, however, is the time, today, to put a blog on your website you basically have had 1 news release a year for the last couple of years. Not enough communication.

Now that you have exposed your story and acknowledged the initial response with a public letter to your customers that appears on your site, keep talking.

You have revealed the human side of JW Hulme through the eyes of co-owners Chuck Bidwell and Jennifer Guarino, there is plenty more we all can learn from you. Better yet, there are plenty more customers, colleagues, business peers and prospects who may want to share their thoughts with you. Let them do it by you fully participating in the social web.

2) Judging by the article, Bidwell and Guarino are of a mind to give back to the community. In a previous position, Bidwell was a proponent of Hero Cards to build local currency in volunteer programs.

Guarino was General Manager of Minnesota Parent a popular magazine with a natural community of engaging people. That magazine has been active in community service. Now it’s once again time to give back, perhaps there are ways to use some JW Hulme inventory to benefit a cause, or because the inventory is relatively high, according to the Journal article, use the manufacturing capacity to make something for an organization. I realize this is not conventional wisdom, doing work that isn’t about generating revenue at a time when revenue is essential, but we don’t live in conventional times nor has conventional wisdom done much for any institution in America right now. It’s a good time to tell conventional wisdom to “take a hike”

3) With all of the mentions in the WSJ article about how JW Hulme uses catalogs and not one mention of online efforts, I thought that might be a problem. After a quick review of JW Hulme’s web presence it has the basics, but there is plenty more to do that doesn’t involve up front payments to printers. No offense, I’m not against the printed, colorful page, but the market seems to be in transition on that one.

4) Lastly, this is an opportunity. WSJ reporter Julie Jargon, did a wonderful piece capturing the left and right brain elements of Bidwell’s and Guarino’s plight. It’s real life without the “reality-TV” spin. It represents the essence of what being social is in today’s market. Will it sell more leather and canvas luggage at a few hundred bucks a pop? I have no idea, but the opportunity I speak of is not that narrow minded (I understand some banker will call narrow mindedness focus). The opportunity I speak of is to open your story up and let the rest of the world engage. You and I have no idea what will result of that opportunity, but you already made the decision to be public on the story. I can tell you my experience from being a part of the social web as a business owner, you have already done the hard part, now you just need to create a way to create a dialogue. Good luck, if you want to have a cup of coffee I’m just up the road from you.

Apologies for the long headline, but that quote from Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at Procter & Gamble Co, will go down as one of the greatest business quotes of all time. He said it in a recent speech where he questioned whether marketers have a place in social media. He doesn’t even like the words social media!

I admire McConnell for his position and longevity at Procter & Gamble, one of the most successful companies in the world. So I hope he doesn’t mind if I take his quote and place it in a slightly different medium just for the irony of it. P & G made an entire category of deriving money from real estate dedicated to men and women breaking up, the soap opera. GL baby, Guiding Light and its super couple Reva and Josh, known in web circles as Jeva If there is a way to monetize the continuing saga of emotional discovery, P&G can find it.

More Movement Than Market

Here I go again with this movement idea, but McConnell’s perspective supports this concept, social networks are more a movement of communities, than a marketplace for your stuff. A movement to connect, a movement to share, a movement to change – albeit in many of these movements there may be occasion to purchase something, and surely everyone in these movements is a consumer of something. I contend, and perhaps if I’m interpreting his words correctly that McConnell may agree, that social networks are a unique breed of communication. He is quoted in Ad Age “I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory,” he said. “Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

His words underscore what many in social media (ok networks) have said, for a company to be in the social space it requires a cultural change at the corporate level. To benefit from social networks is to be a part of it, not an intrusion in it. The prerequisite of admission is to be truthful, candor helps, to give in the spirit of community growth not corporate gain, and to recognize that being social is a two-way communication. So be prepared to change a few things based on what you hear. P&G’s main rival, Unilever produced one of the text book examples of social media at its finest, Dove Evolution

Given his perspective then, it makes sense that when Comcastcares on Twitter aka Frank Eliason, responds to a customer, it is from an empathic user who may have suffered the same frustrations.

Is Business Week reporter Steven Baker active on social media (podcasting, blogging, & twitter) because he doesn’t have enough press releases to read? No, it’s because he is curious what he may be missing, excited about the new answers he’ll get on his blog that, had it not been for these relationship creating channels, he would have never known, and I would have probably not been quoted in Business Week.

Is Guy Kawasaki blown away by Twitter just to sell books? No, and while people do learn of his books on social channels like Twitter, they come to know him through by interacting with him. That’s what blows him away about Twitter. I know this from listening to him on a teleseminar yesterday, that I learned about from social media. Imagine that.

Coincidently, a few weeks ago, I was involved in a Twitter conversation with Kawasaki and a couple of other folks. It was about the economy, plus I had a surgery that week so it was an anxious time which must have been evident in my posts. Kawasaki sent a direct message to cheer me up (thanks Guy). There is a person that need not reach out at all. His physical world circle of friends must have been large enough to keep him busy, entertained, and enlightened. You see, but there is always more, more ideas, more debate, more risks, failures, and successes. That is the joy that is social whatever the noun you give it, technology makes being social that much easier. Is there money in that? Well, I did buy Kawasaki’s book Reality Check.

I enjoyed George Colony and Forrester’s exceptional work in research and analysis for more than a decade. Like Colony, I have lived through the 90s enterprise tech ascent and the ‘01 free fall. Recently Colony listed 5 reasons this tech recession will be different.

Colony contends that technology will be down but not out in part because technology is more prevalent in our daily lives than in the past. Let me highlight his fourth reason by citing it directly here because it involves social media, Colony writes,

“4) Customers live on tech. The consumer landscape is very different than it was in 2001. Forrester’s consumer surveys show that each succeeding generation takes more tech into their day-to-day life. The delta between the Y generation (18-27) and the X generation (28-41) is extraordinary — Y spends twice the amount of time on cell phones and half the amount of time reading newspapers. For more on this, check out our report, The Gen Y Design Guide. In a recession, the use of Facebook, Linked In, eCommerce, blogs will increase, not decrease, as people look for jobs, companies stay closer to their customers, and easier-to-ROI Internet advertising accelerates. Companies will have to stay focused on their web sites, social strategies, and eCommerce this time around — or risk losing their next generation of customers.”

Colony accurately believes social media is a general platform upon which millions of people live and work. I however, believe business and sociey can maximize the benefits from these technology platform by expanding social media’s greatest contributions (freedom of expression, connecting ideas, allowing for deeper thought) to reach other corporate culture silos. What is missing from this observation, perhaps assumed by Colony, (I’m not one to doubt GC) are corporate culture shifts that are required to maximize the benefits experienced by society from this rich, broad space called social media. Here are three areas that need a different paradigm for companies to benefit from social media.

1) Hierarchical View - (Advertising & Marketing) The corporate view that the social space is more or less like a mass market with “A” listers, and media properties and through aggregation services to net the small fish, it can become something with which they familiar. This is an old and tired perspective. Allow social media to breadth within and around your brand so the company and its people can absorb the influential ideas surrounding it.

2) Short-Sighted View – (Finance) The 30 day and quarterly “make the numbers” rat wheel that was prevalent in the 90s, and led to all kinds of PR an accounting schemes to make the numbers work, (Enron seems so long ago doesn’t it) are an imposed deadline. ’

Tell me really, are innovators really driven by a deadline? Do cancer researchers really need another goal that involves a stock price for their reward or do they get up every morning to beat a disease that claimed their parent or child, or stimulates their intellect to the point of obsession? Patience is a human virtue that seems to have little relevance in an economic world. That perspective needs to change.

3) Human Capital View – (Human Resources and just general office politics) Let me preface this one by saying, it could be a naïve pipedream. The last 20-30 years has seen and escalation of divisive communications. It’s not limited to politics or election year cycles, these topics and times just call more attention to it. The divide and conquer mentality is a function of economics, in vogue trends, work environments, two generations of 24-hour news cycles, the entertainmentization (new word) of news, and plenty more. What it has created are cultures that hinder innovation and foster a “gotcha” environment under the guise of accountability.

In numerous companies bureaucracy is stifling innovation. In some cases their customers and employees circumnavigate the obstacles using social media, gain some wins to run up the flag, and pray those that see it will have enough backbone to be their champion. A skunk works mode of innovation to be sure, and not one that has been accepted by the corporate culture allowing it to multiply.

Transparency Continued

Admission of a mistake openly serves the greater good, e.g. Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital’s wrong side survey as blogged by their CEO Paul Levy. His leadership should be recognized as it was by US News and World healthcare editor and writer Avery Comarow he wrote, “Levy has been agitating for more transparency for some time… Others should emulate this. I doubt that many will.”

This transparency should also be held as an example across all of corporate America. Hhmm we can we begin, oh yes I did quick search in the social media monitoring tool Radian6 using a rather limited word combination of transparency + bailout, it was mentioned more than 20,000 times in the last 30 days. Yes more transparency may have prevented the Wall Street Meltdown, nice catch to all those concerned.

So if we are to be transparent we need to be what, less vengeful, less harsh, less quick in assuming that transparency = accountability that leads to punish by detractors waiting in the wings. That kind of environment defeats the purpose of transparency which is improvement and discussion. I’m not decoupling responsibility from accountability, I’m reinforcing that transparency is a function of improving, of shared learning, that makes something greater than the individual better.

Sometimes our divisiveness wants to conclude the case before hearing all the facts, understanding the intent, learning from the mistake. Sometimes human nature instinctually pounces on prey that is bleeding instead of supporting its healing.

Maybe I am a bit naïve about the transformation social media can help bring about in corporate America and society. Perhaps George Colony is wrong when he asserts that people will spend more time connecting online with Facebook, LinkedIn and the like, that the youth generation intensify their friend relationships by being constantly connected with their phones. And perhaps Forrester was wrong in 2007 when they said that Facebook marketing means communicating not advertising, as does all social spaces I contend. Perhaps T Boone Pickens is just a rich old man with nothing to do. (He is leading a huge social network of passionate followers of new energy)

If we are wrong, then all this social stuff is just another channel. Direct Mail, 1-1 marketing, email marketing, it’s just another one of those Meatball Sundaes to use Seth Godin’s term. Then have at it spammers of the world, congratulations because nothing will change, innovation will stay about at the same pace as always, unless of course the rest of the world catches up to us and then it won’t stay the same here now will it? It’s what my generation of wiseguys would call SSDD.

I, however, think differently. And you?

Time 31:36

Creative marketing takes time to, well, create, and time to execute. So when I saw a case study about Hubspot’s inbound marketing system on Marketing Sherpa I was intrigued by their approach. Instead of a typical “we are greater than sliced bread” marketing, the Hubspot internet marketingcreated a unique website that invited businesses to use a small part of the Hubspot system. That part of the system is called website grader and businesses by the thousands visited www.websitegrader.com to enter their website. The website is then graded on a series of attributes that search engines look for in ranking sites on a scale of 100. We start this conversation at about the 4:00 mark in this podcast.

Provident Partners, thank God, first pulled an 85, however, still room for improvement. That’s why we have on this podcast Mike Volpe, Vice President of Marketing for Hubspot. We get into the 5 key areas essential to getting a passing grade and increasing the odds you’ll achieve your search ranking goals. And yes, we use the www.providentpartners.net site as the “patient” in this visit to the search engine doctor. Volpe starts this commentary at about the 19:00 mark in the podcast.

5 Key Areas to Improve your website’s rankings are

1) Title on all pages can change
2) Keywords and descriptions meta tags of page content for each page
3) Put blog on a company URL and integrate into your website
4) Domain renewal – sign up for as many years as you can afford
5) Permanent redirect for yourcompanydoman.com and the other for www.yourcompanydomain.com

This Example Can Apply to Other Businesses

Volpe is an excellent marketer who realized Hubspot needed a way to break out in a crowded field of marketing platforms. I believe the tactics used in this campaign can be replicated by other marketers for a variety of product launches, professions and industries. The keys are as follows:

1) Create a web presence that allows prospects to experience part of your product or service.
2) Product needs to have remarkable elements
3) Take the time to understand the interests of the bloggers that write about your space
4) Include was to invite comparison between the status quo and life with your product or service

Some readers might say, well this works for a web-based software product, but how can it apply to other areas. Ok, let me take that one on.

A business consultancy can create an assessment tool in their area of expertise. Technomic Asia a consultant group has an China Readiness assessment tool to measure a company’s ability to compete in the China market.

A winery can have a dinner selection with multiple choice of wines to select, your choice will be compared against what a famous Sommelier recommend with that same meal.

A furniture store, design, or organization consultant can allow users to help themselves using your website. For example Ikea has done a great job with their space planner portion of their website. They depict your space and you manipulate their furniture in it. This is slick and it worked for me two years ago when we redesigned the Provident Partners office space.

If you have other tips on getting good search rankings, we invite you to share them here with other readers.

January 2008 Book Drawing Giveaway

This month we are holding a drawing to win the book The New Influencers by Paul Gillin. Here’s my review of the book posted on Media Bulleye . To be in the drawing, email me at marketingedge@providentpartners.net Good luck. For every entry, comment, and completed survey Provident Partners will donate a food item to a St. Paul, MN food shelter.

Time 16:00

Jeremiah Owyang, senior analyst for Forrester and author of the well-read Web Strategist blog, is our guest on the Marketing Edge. You know, as of this posting, he is at the top of the Tweeterboard, a ranking of influencers using the microblogging platform Twitter.

In this podcast, we touch upon his big three trends to look for in 2008 and the following items:

-Social media is like jazz: don’t ask, just listen. He explains it better than I can write about it.

-The corporate structure needs to become more flexible if social media is to gain greater status. Owyang believes 2008 will see a rise in the job function of community manager in large companies.

With more than 3,000 followers and friends on Twitter and Facebook, do you wonder how he juggles his day? First rule: Get up early.

We also get into one of my key themes about social media: It’s making companies incorporate some of the best practices of political and grassroots organizations. Listen, be responsive, be sensitive, seek consensus, build your base — those are just a few. Platforms like Twitter help facilitate the movement of people and opinions that give life to ideas. This is the essence of the political democratic process.

As corporations seek a greater understanding of social media, the social graph will play an important role. This is another Owyang prediction for 2008.

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to invite all your friends to join you on some other social network? Owyang predicts the expansion of widget networks and with it the expansion of the use of social media in 2008.

Lastly, I promised Jeremiah I’d post a link to one of my favorite places in San Francisco, the Buena Vista, home of the Irish Coffee.

Share your comments on this post. For each comment posted, Provident Partners gives a food item to a St. Paul food shelter.

Last call for the drawing of the book “Join the Conversation” by Joseph Jaffe. Send an e-mail to marketingedge@providentpartners.net and we will include you in the drawing. The winner gets a copy of the book with my comments in the margins; it’s our way of continuing the conversation. Get your e-mail in by midnight on Dec. 19.

The following is a conversation between Al Social and Darrin Marketer, their names have been changed to protect the innocent; they are both avid Twitter users with two very different perspectives on the platform. We invite you to interrupt them with your comments.

Al Social – Twitter has done so much to enrich my life.

Darrin Marketer – yeah me too

Al Social – This summer I kept in touch with the family while kayaking the Fjords of Norway, imagine that texting from my phone to post to a blog, website and mobile while in the water.

Darrin Marketer – Yeah, I saved 20% off a computer on Dell outlet

Al Social – New ideas about global warming from Tris Hussey, social media insights from Jeremiah Owyang and Todd Defren. Santa Cause gives twitterers great places to contribute to social change.

Darrin Marketer – it’s the greatest freakin’ opt-in Ad server on the planet, these people are agreeing to follow companies just to get essentially ads pushed at them. I’ve got plenty of clients using twitter to hawk their stuff and getting people to agree to get it.

Al Social – no dude, it’s not about ads it’s about idea exchange. You are just gaming the system. It’s all about the collective of people to advance change.

Darrin Marketer – yeah right, ok I got an idea, let’s get people to follow some company that pushes the latest super bargains for that week, what’s wrong with that? It’s all about me baby, all about me.

Al Social – No no, it’s a snapshot at people’s life is not a bazaar.

Darrin Marketer – that’s where you are wrong my friend, life is a bazaar, and everyone is trying to scrap a piece of turf, a piece of attention. Twitter is just another way to pull the spotlight over to you and there is nothing wrong with that. Oh and your boy Santa Cause, he’s helping promote business, so my friend you just proved my point.

Al Social – Well you are surely not being creative, you’re slapping an old model over a new way of connecting. That’s going to ruin it.

What do you think? Is twitter an opt-in ad server, a social hang out, or both?

Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester, Seth Godin author of Meatball Sundae, and Steve Mann head of social media for SAP doing a webcast at noon central today. http://tinyurl.com/yutq4b I’ll live blog it here. Just the highlights please, OK

Owyang outline to consider and approach social media POST = People, Objective, Strategy, and Technology. Bottom line point – think it through for the long term. Jeremiah’s blog is http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/

Mann – excellent point about the correllation between those who engage in the community or your discussion early will be more likely to convert as the sales cycle moves forward.

Godin – Classic Godin line, you can’t be like that brother-in-law life insurance salesman at parties who only goes to hit you up for insurance. Remember that this holiday season.

Owyang refers to Lego community to embrace customers to help build new products http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/community/default.asp – He is very clear that this is not about giving away product ideas, no it’s about getting product ideas. And the pay off for them is to be a part of an inside group that then become advocates. Passion is the result of asking for opinions (that last one is my line, so if you don’t like it don’t blame Jeremiah)

Mann makes excellent point again – not every conversation is going to be positive or rosey. However, there can be positive that comes from that, whether its improvement to the product or customer service. It is so refreshing to here someone like Steve who answers to a corporate structure speak like this. It is both a reflection on him as a leader and on the management of SAP.

Godin – Social media is not for every company. I have said this for awhile (listen to Great Blog Debate November 2006) The issue for me is that some companies need to evolve into social media as opposed to “Using Social Media to Grow Your Business” which is the title of this webcast.

You gotta love this one from Owyang – An eye opener ready?

So it used to be that sales managers would take a win/loss report and marketers would pull out the wins to put in their communications. Enter social media, and buyers are taking about the every same things that are in your win/loss reports in the open. Agh! imagine that. Now what?

Companies using social media correctly

http://www.ideastorm.com/

http://www.threadless.com/

Lastly the panel was asked in a couple of words what advice would you give to companies about considering social media (I paraphrasing here on the question) And they said

Owyang – Let Go

Mann – Evolution not revolution

Godin – Be remarkable

Anyone commenting on this post we’ll have a drawing for Seth’s new book Meatball Sundae, Those of you who don’t feel lucky can get it here http://www.squidoo.com/meatballsundae