Time 22:27

This podcast is part of the Marketing Edge series of conversations with speakers at the NewComm Forum, April 20-23. This comprehensive conference produced by the Society for New Communications Research is one of the best events of the year covering social media, networks, and policies. It is a packed agenda and if you register use the promo code NCFPPP to save money off the registration price. In this podcast we feature Eric Schwartzman, who helps corporations and large government agencies establish social media policies.

Many a social media speaker will suggest that the rules regarding employee’s public discussions about the affairs of an employer are covered in most HR personnel documents. Whether those discussions take place over the telephone, been around since the late 1800s, or on social networks – I heard Andy Sernovitz talk about creating a policy that simply adds social media to the list of communications devices in public disclosure documents email, fax, telephone, social media. And yes in general that is quite true, we need not make this more complicated than necessary. When it comes to the issue of individual employees and their public disclosure about company information, a whisper at a trade show booth is no different than a Tweet ahead of the quarterly earnings report.

Great, now that we’ve established social media from the context of distribution channels, let’s examine the potential details of a policy across an organization with tens of thousands of employees with sensitive information, a visible brand, involved in controversial issues and now essentially conducting customer service in public. Yes, this requires a little bit more thought. Should there be official blogs or should everyone be allowed to blog? should there be a corporate blogging platform? Should there be a corporate workflow process to handle customer service type social comments? What are the enforcement, monitoring and punitive policies?

In this podcast with Eric Schwartzman and I highlight Eric’s presentation to the NewComm Forum. His presentation entitled Building a Social Media Policy covers the ups and downs of securing consensus and how social media involves a bit of change management to create a successful policy.

Does your company have a separate policy for social media or is social media included as another distribution channel for corporate information?

We donate a food item to a St. Paul, MN food shelf for every comment we get on this blog.

Cathy Dunham a Marketing Edge podcast listener from Lannan, WI. She listens to the podcast with her colleagues at KKom Marketing. We’ll send out the book World Wide Rave by David Meerman Scott to you this week. Cathy thanks as well for your email compliments on this piece about generating leads with social media. If lead generation is a a topic of interest give a listen to Swartzman’s interview with the CEO of Slideshare about using that presentation community platform as a forum for thought leadership. His podcast is called On The Record Online.

The Marketing Edge podcast will also have more with David Meerman Scott. we’ll have him on a upcoming episode of the Marketing Edge podcast about the second edition of his book New Rules of Marketing and PR. The New Rules of Marketing and PR is available now.

As I watched the Super Bowl the talk online was about the commercials and brands. The online chatter focused on the medium and interruptive ads. Although I’d be hard pressed to say that these ads were an interruption, at least during the Super Bowl, ads are eagerly awaited, a rarity surely in the world of advertising.

I learned more about social media by watching the game. The game was a reflection of the crossroads at which corporate communications and marketing stand today. The choice to go by the book, stick to what’s been done, surely it worked in the past, but it’s been done; or the choice to be different, to be daring in the face of predictability. The choice to go against “conventional wisdom,” the choice to do something that will make people talk.

That’s right talk

What Da? he’s not going for the field goal? Did you see that,?! The Saints didn’t kick the sure 3 points in the second quarter. What Da, off sides kick to start the half? Who Dat? They must have believed in their product eh?

Second guessers, the world is full of ‘em in every profession, on every topic. Detractors, every company and every product has them, even if it’s because the product is perfect. Some people don’t think Michael Jordan is all that, they are not Jordan fans. I am not one of them, but I have run into a few.

So now that we’ve accepted the fact that we can’t please everyone and there will be critics. What are we going to do to make people talk? There is an old expression people would use to convey that the product or experience they had was mediocre, it goes, “It was nothing to write home about.” Isn’t that the antithesis of social media, I must give you something to write home about.

Well the Saints gave us something to write home about and on blogs, on Twitter, on forums, on YouTube etc etc etc. And if they lost, their decisions would still be the ingredients of our content. Why? Because they dared to be different, they dared to have confidence in their skills, their preparation, and each other. Aren’t those the attributes you want a company to have? Those attributes bring freedom.

Freedom to accept the results of your decision, freedom to try something new, freedom to believe your fans (Superdome fans or Facebook fans) will understand you.

This is the essence of being a social company, not just implementing social tactics, but truly being a social company. Why, because social media is everywhere and growing. Companies that get high marks for the social strategies are usually not those that play it safe, it’s those that play it straight. Of course mistakes will happen, own them. Of course your customer may have a better idea than the creative employee making six figures, embrace it. Of course you have hundreds of people that like what you do, give them a forum.

Thanks Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints for breaking another barrier in this new century. A century that is shedding light on the illusions of the last century. The Illusion that we can’t really control or predict the future, but that we can only prepare for the present and react to what it gives us. Dreams can be more powerful than plans.

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 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.

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 9:30

Taking pictures on film has sure changed. Good thing Kodak is in the capturing memories and sharing in them business. You would be hard pressed to find an industry that has been impacted more than photography business. This disruption would set the average marketer on their heals. Not Jeffery Hayzlett, CMO and Vice President of Kodak, he has Kodak giving social media a big bear hug, dozens, maybe hundreds of Kodak employees are participating in social media, here is a short list thanks to Tweepz.

Hayzlett has what he calls the 4 Es of social media,

Engaging – Simply put you have to be an active participant, standing on the sidelines doesn’t get you much.

Educating – This would be mutually beneficial; it’s the exchange of information that creates the learning. You’ll hear in this Marketing Edge interview with Hayzlett, he listens really well.

Exciting – Just listen to the guy, life is a blast, share it.

Evangelizing – When you are passionate about something it’s difficult not to be an evangelist. When you get the kind of feedback that Kodak social participants have received, it’s easy to be an evangelist for the medium and for your own efforts.

Hayzlett is not a proponent of any certain tool, but certainly an advocate of a medium that engages him and Kodak with customers. That I believe is his most important driver in social media, he says anything that allows you to talk with customers is good.

Marketing Edge on Stitcher Radio

We are delighted the Marketing Edge podcast is now available on Stitcher Radio. Stitcher is a neat application available on mobile platforms for iPhone, Blackberry Curve, Storm, and Bold among others. With Stitcher can stream podcasts over your phone. View all of the compatible devices and programming at www.Stitcher.com

Integrating Social Tactics Seminar

I mentioned in the podcast I’d have this link. I’m doing a breakfast seminar with Mark Palony of SoftBrands @MarkPalony. He and I have been doing things social for a few years now, we incorporate video, audio, blogging, Twitter among other tactics in various functions pointed at specific objectives. We will share the journey, scars and successes on Wednesday August 12, from 8 AM – 10 AM at the St. Paul Pool and Yacht Club. Integrating Social Tactics Seminar details and register here.

Trust Agents – Trust me, someone will win this book, I guarantee. Email me MarketingEdge@providentpartners.Net – use the word Trust in the subject line and you’ll be included in the book drawing. We’ll have Chris on an upcoming marketing edge podcast, that should be fun.

Time 23:42

It’s nutty, plenty of companies are running around trying to figure out social media. The answer and examples are right under your nose. It dawned on me while watching Jeff Pulver go through his networking techniques at a recent social media breakfast in Minneapolis.

This conversation shows companies how to approach social media from a perspective that many sales people have practiced in their professional communities for decades, one relationship at a time. I use sales only to get the attention here of many marketers, sales people and decision makers because these days there is a premium on getting sales, but as my colleagues know, social media goes well beyond a sale.

Pulver, employs interesting networking techniques during his sessions that would do any Rotary member proud. I use the Rotary example because this is an organization tied to both a business networking group that also has a history of giving back to its local community, a critical concept of social media.

Using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and others to promote his events, and tapping that group to invite others who are not using social media. Pulver creates a meeting of the digital and physical worlds.


Jeff Pulver @ SMBMSP from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

Years ago Pulver wrote “the more digital we become the more need for face-to-face meetings.” His perspective is grounded in good old fashion interpersonal communications and you may say borrow from the work of sociologist Henri Tajfel who is noted for his work in social identity and minimal groups experiments.

It is the kind activity that is at the heart of every good salesperson, every productive chamber of commerce, and every professional association worth their salt to their members. It is about people and their willingness to participate with each other.

People who are neck deep in social media tend to get a little over the top about technology, and new applications, mashups etc, etc, etc, and can loose the essence of what all these tools are supposed to do, make it easier to meet other people, period. It is a foundation to share stories, pass on interesting information that will help people do something, like find the right product, get better healthcare, enjoy a new restaurant, improve their job performance, and the list is endless.

Pulver’s sessions are a must for both social media geek and the person that still carries around a Day Runner paper planner. Both have more in common than you might think.

Time 9:14

Here’s a new way to look at your marketing department, as a newsroom. Why? Because it is a powerful way to tell a story, a way to insert your company into news cycles, a way to be a part of the action, a way to be a thought leader, and a way to create dynamic valued information that works with a sales cycle.

Companies are not limited to brochures, more importantly; their audiences are accustomed to getting all kinds of formats, when and where they want it.

Here is a list to help determine if your company can tap into a newsroom.

1. Do you have internal or access to expertise in your field
2. Are you impacted by external events such as regulations, markets, safety
3. Does your company improve the human condition such as healthcare, adoption, and poverty

Author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR David Meerman Scott gives his take on the newsroom angle in a wonderful post about how the real estate industry can benefit from it.

Scott and I get into the topic in this interview on the Marketing Edge podcast. It was recorded on October 13, the day his popular book came out in paperback. Scott will be appearing at the Minneapols/St. Paul Social Media Breakfast on October, 31

(Disclosure:A client of Provident Partners) Softbrands manufacturing is a good example of treating their company as a newsroom. Under their brand Fourth Shift Edition http://www.fourthshiftedition.com/ website, they use video, podcasts, a blog, and twitter, they tap the right format and network to engage in a conversation, get ideas, insert their ideas into news cycles and other objectives.

Do you have what it takes to be a news organization inside your company? Leave a comment here or call the comment line 206-600-6887

Time 19:32

Social media continues to work its way around the innovative companies in the Fortune 500. It pays when you have products that can inspire an emotional commitment, oh say like a ‘65 Mustang.

Ford is laying out a great social media plan for the introduction of the 2010 Mustang model. The Marketing Edge guest in this episode is Scott Monty, the Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager for Ford Motor Company. Monty also authors the Social Media Marketing blog. The added bonus of this podcast is Monty in search of an experienced social media practitioner to join his team at Ford. He describes the high level job of Global Digital Communications Manager within the communications team at Ford and where you can apply.

Monty is a thoughtful person with a flair for the creative. In this interview he highlights how an older company is quickly wrapping its arms and heads around social media. When you listen to the scope of where social media plays in a large corporation, you realize how, over time, it can help shape a corporate culture.
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PARENT BLOGGERS

This month we’d like to give parent bloggers of young childern a first look at a new social network. Two qualities that make this parenting social network different is the long-term goal, to help improve America’s education system, and the ability to track a child’s development using new research and charts from one of the leading pediatric centers in the country. If you are a parent blogger, and would like to review the beta site, send me an email at Marketing Edge at ProvidentPartners dot Net with the word Parent in the subject line.

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Marketing Edge Contest

This month’s contest is a membership to Minnpost.com, the new online journal with outstanding writers, editors, and columnists. If you’d like to support journalism at its highest levels that provide local and national coverage, send me an email at MarketingEdge at ProvidentPartners dot Net with MinnPost in the subject line. We will draw a winner in mid November.

Photo Credit: Flickr twincitycustoms20s

Early this morning www.twitter.com/newsgang shared this article from CNN.com about how Wall Street arrived at its financial crisis and how to avoid it in the future. It highlights how short-sightedness and incentive compensation plans contributed to taking on higher risk. Another aspect of the crisis is how financially connected we are globally.

It is a long held belief of mine that some aspects of our corporate culture, finance, and legal to name two, need to change if social media is to become integrated into America’s regular business environment. Today social media is discounted by corporate executives at worst and politely accepted as a pilot project by most others. Yes there certainly are corporate leaders like Sun, Coca-Cola, GM, Ford and others, but I don’t think I’d get an argument with the statement “social media is still in an early adopter phase in corporate America.”

The connection between the Federal bailout of international financial services firms and social media is captured in some of the elements that I believe will be part of the response to this mess. Those elements are:

1) Greater transparency and disclosure – social media loves and rewards both
2) Institutional incentives that are longer term in nature – this will allow more discussion about imperfections in a company without as much hysteria of how it will impact this quarter’s investor call.
3) Accommodations for the interconnected nature of economies – social media connects individuals from different cultures all the time, perhaps we can take this from a micro level to a broader understanding without it becoming an issue of national pride, but instead one of social growth (Robert Scoble told me this is more a wish than a reality, but I’m an optimist)

Last year at the Society of New Communications Research symposium we had several excellent group conversations about the limitations placed by the finance and legal departments on social media implementation in a corporate environment. Finance is clearly concerned about monthly and quarterly impact to stock price and other metrics within its jurisdiction. Legal is concerned with that any admission on the web, direct or indirect, of imperfection would be seized upon by a zealous trial lawyer in our litigious society.

We surely have a long way to go in addressing these cultural obstacles. As the dust settles around Wall Street, the blame assessed and the remedies constructed to prevent a reoccurrence, watch for these elements of longer-term corporate perspective incentives and greater disclosure. These characteristics will help social media advocates change a corporate culture in ways that will allow the organization to see greater benefit from social media.

By the way, the next Society for New Communications Research symposium is being held in Boston, November 14, I’m sure we’ll pick up this topic and many others, here’s the social media and PR agenda.