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The Marketing Edge, one of the longest running marketing and public relations podcasts.
Host Albert Maruggi weaves his 25 years of marketing and PR experience across business, technology and national public affairs in interviews with newsmakers, authors and business leaders.
Maruggi is a frequent speaker and conducts workshop sessions on new media. For more information or to discuss your business challenges and goals, e-mail him.
During a keynote session at the conference with Robert Scoble, I realized how new social media is for the majority of communication professionals. He asked how many people are familiar with Twitter and about 20 percent of the room of 600 (that might be generous) raised their hand. Then, on the fly he connected to the web, and took the audience on a journey of relationship building and technology that demonstrated how time and distance simply no longer matter in how individuals communicate. He highlighted Twitter, Tweetscan,(if memory serves me right) FriendFeed, Twittervision, and QIK.
After his keynote and panel, Scoble and I spent time talking about information overload and how to avoid that overwhelmed feeling people get when they see Twitter for the first time. His response surprised me because it wasn’t a technology solution. He uses a tactic called attention management with attribution to Linda Stone This is clearly different than time management and Scoble in our interview takes it to a logical conclusion about focusing on what’s important to you.
Test One
I applied this logic to how companies should evaluate Twitter as a communication tool and determined that the first place to undertake that evaluation is not Twitter at all but Tweetscan. This “google-like” search engine for Twitter posts will give a snapshot of whether the keywords important to your company are also important to any of the million plus users of Twitter. My suggestion, do 10 separate searches of keywords that are relevant to you, your company, profession, or industry.
For example, a search for Kimberly Clark revealed several tweets among them a blog post about CIO Ramon Baez, a representative from Mom Central tweeted that she was meeting with Kimberly Clark marketing folks in Appleton Wisconsin, links to a news release about the Boys and Girls clubs of America and Kimberly Clark, a tweet about drug testing for an employee candidate, and last but not least, this post – Llega info del Programa “Comienzos Compartidos” que realizan Kimberly Clark Argentina y la Fundación Leer, en San Luis y Quilmes. Twitter has a million people around the world so the post in Spanish was made by this Twitter user http://twitter.com/rseonline – I don’t speak Spanish so the translation is up to you.
My point is, searching Tweetscan before you going into Twitter allows you to focus on what is important to you before jumping into the raging river of Twitter. Once you know what is in the water, it makes the ride more productive.
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Test Two
I also traveled south from San Francisco to Palo Alto and the home of the social network company Ning. Ning is a web-based platform people, organizations, and companies use to build social networks that can be public (open to anyone on the web) or private (only accessible to those you invite). There I had a delightful conversation with CEO and co-founder Gina Bianchini about the value of a social network. This discussion was enlightening because Gina peeled away the current fashionable lexicon of “social media” and Web 2.0, to describe the core value of people communicating on a network.
In this case, the issue is creating a place, (specifically a Ning based website) where a group of people focused on, and responsible for, an objective can share ideas. It’s just a place to get things done and in most cases improve, which is the result of sharing ideas. Those ideas can come in the form of words, audio, video, images, dialogue, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. All of these formats can be shared on Ning.
As you’ll hear in Gina’s comments in this podcast, Ning found tremendous benefit in a forum called Ning Network Creators which is comprised of many customers using Ning’s platform to create sites that facilitate communication among group members. It’s kind of like communicators talking about how better to communicate, yeah that works for me. To get to these Ning based sites you’ll need to register with Ning in a simple form, well worth the tour of social networks. There are about 250,000 networks on Ning now and growing.
My observation here and in dealing with many company executives is that perhaps the word social, as in social network, throws off corporate executives as to the business value of such networks. I mean social may inadvertently imply to them not business. My suggestion, lose the term social, and build a quick “business communication website” for a focused project, say a sales meeting, product launch or customer feedback forum over a specific time period. Get a small group of team members to buy in to the concept and use the platform.
Using this space created at no cost on Ning will allow you to test the waters of social networking. If that is a bit too ambitious, then here’s the next best thing, explore this type of forum in the Provident Partners Sandbox. It is a private network, private meaning I have to invite you to join so that only listeners of the Marketing Edge podcast or readers of this blog are in the Sandbox. We created it as a place to ask any questions you like, upload videos, images, post blogs, just come on in and experiment. It will give you a first hand look at a business communication platform with little effort. Then your imagination will lead you to the ways this type of communication platform can be applied in your own world of business or “social” objectives. Just email me at marketingedge@providentpartners.net with Sandbox in the subject line.
Upcoming Events
Take a look at the NewComm Forum conference agenda. It’s a comprehensive three days where you can get detailed answers to our questions about all types of social media, as well as integrating into a mix of other marketing tactics. This conference covers a spectrum of uses in the corporate, profit, and government arenas.
A major change for a company marketing today is the transformation from “messaging to the masses” to “valuing the individual.” This value can be shown by first understanding lifestyles, priorities and associations of a company’s buyers, rather than their age and income, then tailoring a personal approach that is relevant to their needs.
We discussed this issue with David Meerman Scott, author of the New Rules of Marketing and PR. In the podcast, we highlight the following:
–The need to move away from messaging to return to a more personal style of communicating. I would term it a function of transforming from the industrial age to the service age. Service is about the individual, and industrial is more about the masses.
–How companies can take advantage of the value web search engines place on relevant and fresh content. That means companies need to put greater emphasis on being a provider of valued content. For example, our client Technomic Asia doing the China Business Podcast to discuss issues related to – you guessed it – China business. Or Whirlpool, an example of a company that uses its podcast as a vehicle to discuss issues of concern to its audience, rather than discussing Whirlpool’s products. That podcast covers topics like juvenile diabetes, toddler safe play, and how to get organized — nothing to do with appliances but everything to do with what their audience values.
Scott has a bit of different perspective on the issue of “conversations as marketing.” He does make a distinction from these new marketing and PR rules and the conversation that is usually reflected in social media. He contends social media is a subset of the new rules of marketing. Some situations are more about being relevant for your buyer’s persona and they may not be looking for a dialogue. Companies that are unsure of whether they should blog can still implement tactics hat allow them to benefit from the new rules of marketing.
According to Scott, the new rules of marketing do not necessarily equal conversations. The first steps are about achieving a greater understanding of the individuals in the communities a company is attempting to serve and creating content that they value.
The Marketing Edge book drawing for April will be Scott’s book. Send an e-mail to marketingedge@providentpartners.net with the words “New Rules” in the subject line.
Also the NewComm Forum www.newcommforum.com is coming. As a listener and reader of the Marketing Edge podcast and blog, if you are interested in attending this conference, shoot me an email for a discount code you can use when registering. It has an excellent line up of speakers with focused conversations on strategies for business communications. I will be there and look forward to seeing you.
The Kellogg Foundation describes itself with these words: Where Everyone with Ideas and Dreams for Helping Vulnerable Children is Welcome. Last year it distributed its largest amount of program dollars, $357 million. Communications were much different when it was founded by WK Kellogg in 1930. Today, Director of Public Affairs, Dianne Price realizes the need for an organization committed to helping communities, needs to become part of those communities online.
I was curious about her rationale for dedicating a full-time position, New Media Manager, for social media and looking to someone that is fairly experienced as you can see from the New Media Manager job qualifications and salary. (note this link will expire when Kellogg closes the selection process) In many cases, social media is something that gets dumped on the youngest member of a team and there it can smolder. The fact is social media not reserved for the young or even the techno-savvy. I believe the following qualities are necessary for successfully participating in social media;
Patience to learn about community participants
Thoughtfulness in respecting differing ideas in the community
Persistence in giving of yourself, ideas, and time to the social network
Creativity in using the right media, – print, video, and audio
Innovation in trying a variety of technologies that allow for sharing ideas and dynamic commentary
The Kellogg Foundation also wants your ideas on how children become vulnerable and what can be done to help them. Visit and contribute your ideas to the Kellogg Online Forum on Vulnerable Children.
Good luck to those candidates for the Kellogg New Media Manager position. Dianne we wish you and the Kellogg Foundation well in your wonderful work.
Another great site for social media jobs is Jobs in Social Media, produced by Chris Russell and his assistant Hannah Hershey.
Spend time understanding the details of social media and getting great ideas from practitioners at the NewComm Forum sponsored by the Society for New Communications Research, April 22-25 in Sonoma CA.
Twitter is a social networking combination blogging site. It is where people can follow the quick thoughts of others throughout the day. Many people share ideas in a sentence or two then link to a long piece, video or audio file. You can even identify people that might be interesting to follow by using a search engine specifically designed for twitter, one of them is called www.tweetscan.com
My twitter follower @pchaney today tweeted (meaning wrote a message for others to see) Love to see a Top 10 Benefits to Using Social Networking with Your Business. You are my inspiration @pchaney, at least for this blog post.
For the purposes of answering @pchaney the definition of social networking I’ll use is, a group of like-minded individuals gathered digitally, in some cases you already know these people, in others they may not know anyone prior to meeting on the network. This may not be the Top 10, but they are ten and I’m sure readers will add more.
Expand knowledge of a topic – benefit: product improvement, market research
Extend your knowledge to others – benefit: increased web traffic or exposure to network
Efficient communications – benefit: speed to knowledge
Test ideas – benefit: reduce market research costs and time
Exponential reach – benefit: you’ll increase the chances of knowing what you don’t know and you never know the potential of that
Get new ideas – benefit: learning from others makes you innovative
Promote your stuff – benefit: drive traffic to your web or physical destinations
Create member style community, example employees – benefit: greater candid communications to improve organizational process, products, working environment yada yada yada.
Training and formalized learning – benefit: speed ways to fix problems or create more proficient customer reps, tech support, etc.
Monetize eyeballs – benefit: yes where there are people there is the potential for revenue
Oh yes, and there is the added benefit of using a social network for business of asking a question and getting a direct answer. Hope this helps? Probably the best place to learn about the variety and possibilities of social networking is to visit Ning. www.ning.com It’s the social network of social networks with thousands of communities using the technology platform.
Tiki Bar TV is one of the most popular vidcasts. This wonderful comedy short-form with colorful characters and a winning drink recipe at the end of every show is an excellent example of great work in this new genre — one in which marketers can access a community of fans. The show, available wherever podcasts are distributed, also has a delightful Web site with excellent tie-ins to merchandise, drink recipes and plenty social media uses, including MySpace badges, a forum and live chat elements.
Tosca Musk of Musk Entertainment is the producer of Tiki Bar TV. Tosca says as a business, this form of art, vidcasting, is still finding its way. Tiki Bar is creative from the business side as well by having excellent main characters and adding other interchangeable characters to keep the show fresh.
As a marketer I look at the show and Web site as a package, with plenty of places to support the art form (as a sponsor/underwriter), contribute valued information (drink recipes, good combos and bad, Tiki Bar food recipes), co-branded merchandise…well, you get it: There’s plenty for a creative mind to play with.
We didn’t discuss this in the podcast, but could there be product character appearances, such as a cameo from Captain Morgan? We do touch on how this kind of package will allow innovative advertisers and businesses to create information (I purposefully did not use the word advertising) that is less disruptive and more constructive.
In the podcast we chat with Jeff Macpherson, the director of Tiki Bar. He believes this genre is also outstanding for actors to create unprecedented relationships with their audience members. Because of the Web platform, these characters seem so much more approachable, and as Jeff says, “We are more approachable!” They even invited me over for a drink.
And yes, as a special treat we even get a couple of questions in with the good Dr. Tiki himself. So sit back, get a drink and enjoy this episode of the Marketing Edge.
Here are some ways to get people to participate in a wiki. Quick definition of a wiki, for purists the Wikipedia definition is what you should fall back on. For those that just want to keep reading here, a wiki is a web-based place for individuals to contribute knowledge so that others may benefit.
At the Social Media Breakfast in Phoenix on March 14, 2008, I had a conversation with a colleague named Miles who provides tech support for computers at the retail stores of a major wireless company. Working with a team of developers, Miles is trying to increase participation in the company’s wiki, which will be used for tech support issues, essentially a knowledge base to expedite troubleshooting.
Here are some ideas for launching an internal wiki focused on, but not limited to
tech support.
Create dedicated contributors
Build an inventory of information that the site will have upon launch
Provide incentives for contributions in the first phase of the launch
Assemble targeted users and contributors to build Alpha version
Assemble different set of users for Beta site & bring groups together
Promote alpha and beta programs in anticipation of larger interest for the launch
Create recognition program for creative tech support solutions posted
Adopt wiki participation in the corporate or at least the departmental culture
Now for those of you that really like the details, here’s a thesis paper on Social Rewarding in Wiki Systems that will make you drool. After you go to this link paste in the following
I’ll be in Phoenix visiting clients and family, and I thought it would be good to have a Social Media Breakfast. It will be at:
Cafe Carumba
7303 E Indian School Rd
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
It’s a casual gathering of marketers, PR and corporate communication professionals sharing ideas about social media. I am also looking for examples that I may feature in presentations I’m giving to the NewComm Forum (sponsored by Society for New Communications Research) and the Media Relations Summit, or here on the Marketing Edge podcast.
If you are planning on attending, please RSVP on our Upcoming event site. I just need to make sure we have enough seats at the table.
Thank you to Valeria Maltoni, the Conversation Agent, for interviewing me on social media and journalism last week for her blog. The profession of journalism has changed considerably since my days in front of the camera and the mic. (early & mid 80s if you must know) Now, the web makes every medium – multimedia. One of the most compelling and brilliant video news packages was produced by the New York Times, with writer Manny Fernandez and videographer Brent McDonald . The piece was called Johnny’s Cave.
Even in these changing times, the venerable newspaper of the country’s largest city still carries these words on its masthead “All the news that’s fit to print.” The fact is, as the multimedia desk as grown from a small pilot to a full fledged news desk under the direction of Martin Nisenholtz, the Sr. V.P. of Digital Operations, the more appropriate maxim is all the stories that can be told.
The New York Times with its multimedia capability and blogs, are becoming the real-time diary of a city and a nation. They are giving life to video stories that are suffocated by the time constraints of television. Take a moment here to realize that a newspaper may now be in a better position to tell video stories, than standard television. On the other side of this medium divide, television stations are asserting their multimedia assets and driving traffic to their websites.
The financial prize is tapping into dollars non-existent prior to video the web, the Star-Tribune newspaper is taking ad dollars from television stations for video ads. More on this from radio and broadcast consultant Mel Taylor.
The application for companies in these changing times is to evaluate your stories for their strongest appeal. If you have a visual story, you can tell it to a monthly magazine and give them access to the visual elements. You can enhance a printed news release with audio or video components tied back to a website or if you are that daring, consider a full fledged social media release, but that is a topic for another post
Tomorrow I’ll address the issue of social media as more a movement and less a market, which was another theme the Conversation Agent got me going on and was commented on the Jump in the Pool
Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall of a corporate meeting on social media? Many of the readers of this blog and listeners of the Marketing Edge podcast have been in those sessions where ideas are evaluated about whether to have a company blog, launch a podcast series or include bloggers in the media relations strategy.
Christopher Barger is a social media strategist and has been in the largest of corporations, IBM and GM, where those conversations and decisions take place. The beauty of Barger is his ability to see and articulate a legitimate objection from a personal management fear. Both are essential to understand and address in a corporate environment in order to make progress. It is part of the mutual respect in a team that allows that team to try new tactics, be innovative and, most importantly, learn.
In this podcast, Barger and I discuss his experience inside marketing and management groups deciding on social media tactics. He explains the difference and growth social media has had in General Motors product launches.
We highlight how marketing is changing from a predictable process to a participatory sport in which everyone becomes smarter. Yes, we even tackle the dreaded ROI of social media. Hmmmm, what’s the ROI of this blog post? Gee, will someone click on “Contact Us” and hire us and therefore I can say that the 2 hours I spent thinking through the conversation with Barger, recording it, editing it, and posting it will generate a dollar return?
Silly isn’t it? Right, it is, because as you’ll hear, the conversation was an enjoyable learning experience. It continues to build relationships, one with Barger and the other with Marketing Edge listeners, so the ROI is part of a much larger element of relationship and brand management.
To translate that to your company, it goes something like this: Who is this company? What type of people do they wish to associate with and how can the company, and its employees, add value to the lives of those with whom they associate?
As you hear in Barger’s description of working with specific communities in social media, such as parents and car enthusiasts, it’s all about being part of their passion and very little about selling them a car. The rewards to the company, however, are tangible. The value to the individual employees in GM that are participating is gratifying.
I’ll continue to say it, and the more I have conversations like this one with Barger, the more I believe it: Social media is a movement, not a market. This does not mean commerce is not supported by social media; it means that commerce is a result of adding value to the group, not meeting a quota tied to a logic that has no connection to that community.
We thank Chris for his insight and invite you to share your own thoughts below.
There is a new medium to report about in this podcast, I’ll call the integrated channel. As the consumers of information fragment their consumption across a variety of media, so too has sophisticated media properties built new outlets for focused topics.
In this podcast we feature a website that illustrates an Integrated Channel, it is www.UnderstandingCancer.tv It is a production of Supportive Oncology Services and Multiplicity Media . What makes this different is it has a clear single focus (in this case cancer), it incorporates expert advice about a complex topic, it has multimedia formats of text, audio, and video, it includes a television channel for greater mainstream distribution (ION television network), and aspects of social media.
Understanding Cancer, the television show will debut on March 9th at 5:30 pm Eastern on the ION television network The website provides a holistic approach for the patient and their families who are facing cancer treatment. That spectrum of coverage also leads to more opportunities for marketers to embrace, not advertise to, but embrace those turning to this website for information and comfort.
In this podcast you’ll hear Liz Conway of Supportive Oncology Services the research entity which reviews the medical information on Understanding Cancer TV and Terry Merrill Wilcox, the producer whose outstanding video packages deliver the information and emotion about a subject many will agree is difficult to discuss.
Social media is coming to healthcare. Many hospitals and other healthcare providers have ducked the notion of social media, blogs or otherwise, while the rest of the healthcare system is pushing for consumer choice. This has lead to websites like www.healthcarescoop.com and www.carol.com which look more like people commenting on a hotel stay or buying a big screen TV.
A site like Understanding Cancer TV is a way to participate in social media in a non-invasive way. There is no doubt a number of events are making healthcare a more social purchase and experience. The issue for many providers will be how they handle their social presence on the web.
Social Media Conference Deep Dive
NewComm Forum – Society for New Communications Research conference, www.newcommforum.com/2008/ This is an excellent conference to get to the details of how social media and new communications will impact your profession and company or organization. Set in Sonoma County, CA April 22-25 at the The Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa, there will be lively panel exchanges, provocative presentations, and most importantly plenty of 1-on-1 opportunities to bring home concrete information upon which to make decisions on how to interpret social media.
Podcast Timeline
0:00 – 2:00 – Book giveaway with Paul Gillin The New Influencers and preview of Society for New Communications Research conference.
3:00 – 6:00 Set up about Integrated Channel concept and a frame of reference for this podcast, while it covers Understanding Cancer, the concepts of the Integrated Channel can apply to many other topics beyond healthcare.
6:00 – 17:00 Interviews with Liz Conway and Terry Merrill Wilcox
If you are interested in attending and would like to save $100 send me an email at marketingedge@providentpartners.net for a listeners’ code.
And yes, as a special treat we even get a couple of questions in with the good Dr. Tiki himself. So sit back, get a drink and enjoy this episode of the Marketing Edge.
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