DISCLAIMER: The following conversation is did not really happen, at least in the form presented. It is an amalgam of conversational snippets I have overheard from people in Corporate America. Many have probably happened somewhere near you.

“Peterson, come here for a moment. We need to have a talk.”

Getting called into the boss’s office is never fun.

“Peterson, I’ve been looking at your proposal. I’m afraid I’m going to have to turn you down.”

We all live with disappointment.

“I’ve been looking into this community you want to join, and it seems a little shady to me. It doesn’t seem to affect our bottom line an any way. It’s not tremendously expensive, to be sure… but you’re only talking with a small number of people. And it’s the same people all the time.”

This will probably not end well.

“We need you focused on larger pool of potential customers. You’re wanting to focus too much time on an activity that the vast majority of people just aren’t into. I’m afraid that you’ll not be able to stay in Rotary.”

It’s the Relationships, Stupid!

The same set of criticisms is often leveled at Social Media tools, and the time it takes to cultivate a meaningful and useful audience. But are those criticisms fair?

Well, they are if you’re willing to employ them to end participation in PRSA, Rotary, Toastmasters or other professional and networking organizations.

Four years ago, there was nobody who had a really good handle on Return on Investment for Social Media.

Three years ago, we tumbled through an era where some people started showing measurable results, even if they were in business models that were too different to translate.

Two years ago, there was enough of a groundswell that advocates could point to specific campaigns that moved the right needles… but again, the examples were scattered and not guaranteed to be directly relevant to your business model.

In the last year, we’ve seen such a disruption of traditional advertising and marketing media, we’re beginning to question the old CPM metrics and the way they relate.

Which brings us to today – where enough examples of ROI exist that we’re expected to show it for all social media implementations. And in that regard, we’ve fallen into a trap. ROI can mean sales, it can mean exposure, it can mean customer retention or recruitment — or it could mean Relationship Management.

Choose Your Currency

Money isn’t everything. In fact, there are many different kinds of “money” on the table. Did you drive sales? Did you save money in marketing? Did you reach people you couldn’t have gotten any other way? Did you avert a costly reputation nightmare?

When your focus is so narrow, you miss out on the ways you can enhance your overall job, department or division.

A person who is ambiently connected to hundreds of acquaintances will not excel in “making the sale” in that venue. I might “like” something you say on Facebook, but that doesn’t mean I will click something on your profile and buy from you right now. However, in those three months since we last saw each other, I might have been exposed to a dozen of your 200 status updates or family photos — and you might have clicked on or commented on a handful of the many things I posted online.

The next time we are together, I may just be more inclined to talk with you because we already have so much more in common. Human nature dictates we do business with people with which we’re comfortable.

The next time someone in your organization belittles the utility of Social Media, put their objections to the test: “Would this also ban the Rotary Club?” Instead of selling Social as a whiz-bang Free free-market ready for the taking, it should have been touted as a way to extend and enrich existing relationships — and that is an activity that every organization immediately grasps.

Ike Pigott is a contributing author at Social Media Explorer. In his previous life, he was an Emmy-winning TV reporter, who turned his insider’s knowledge of the news cycle into a crisis communications consultancy. At the American Red Cross, serving as Communication and Government Relations Director for five southeastern states, Ike pioneered the use of social media in disaster. Now — by day — he is a communications strategist for Alabama Power and a Social Media Apologist; by night, he lurks at Occam’s RazR, where he writes about the overlaps and absurdities in communications, technology, journalism and society. Find out how you can connect with Ike or follow him on Twitter at @ikepigott.

• Posted By Ike Pigott
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Download the DNC Program Schedule (PDF)

Thursday:

• 10:30 – 11:30 – Check in/networking
• 11:30 – 12:45 – Keynote, Drew Buckley, Electus
• 1:00-1:45 – Breakout 1
• 2:00-2:45 – Breakout 2
• 3:00-3:45 – Breakout 3
• 4:00-4:45 – Keynote, Wendy Lea, Get Satisfaction
• 5:00-7:00 – #Dignc Happy Hour
• 7:00-??? – Mid Point Music Festival

Friday:

• 8:30-9:00 – Breakfast
• 9:00-9:45 – Keynote, Gregg Coleman, Huffington Post
• 10:00-10:45 – Breakout 4
• 11:00-11:45 – Breakout 5
• 12:00-1:30 – Keynote, Tim Westergen, Pandora
• 1:45-2:30 – Breakout 6
• 2:45-3:30 – Breakout 7
• 3:45-4:30 – Keynote, Jerry Kathman, LPK
• More Mid Point Music Festival to follow

• Posted By DNC Staff
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My wife and I have been attempting to hit the local farmer’s market every Sunday. Our intention is to eat healthier and support some local businesses. This last Sunday marked our second trip and being quite the “people watcher” I had a few observations that struck me as having similarities to how marketing on the web works. For instance, compare the throngs of people browsing the stands of fresh produce to the eb and flow of the world wide web. Many of the stands sold the same items as their competitors who were only feet (read: clicks) away. Vendors with more easily accessible product layouts, a wider variety of items and better prices were seconds away from any of the patrons.

I saw some interesting parallels to the world of online marketing. Here my tips based on my observations during my visit to the farmer’s market:

Show your wares & give them a taste
It was surprising to see just how many vendors at the market did not have samples to share with customers. Those who did had sliced up fruit and samples of their best baked goods on hand and within reach. Customers who might have been reluctant to snag a bag of peaches two stands down seemed persuaded to finally shell out some dough after tasting a succulent sample available at a more generous vendor.

Circle Back:
How could you do the same to attract potential customers who are riding the thin line between consideration and purchase? Do your competitors display their “wares” or do they hide them behind sign up forms other other “hoops”? Try listing out some of your products that your customers might be able to “taste” and lower (or remove) the barrier to do so.

Display your credentials
While there were quite a few vendors that had big banners hanging from their stands displaying which farm they were from and where it was located seized the opportunity to take it a step further. I’m not sure what it takes to be “certified organic“, but those who had earned the title had their certificates visibly mounted where customers could see it. Same for those who received an award for their cupcakes or fresh flowers. Either printed next to their name or displayed on a sign nearby and in view. It added an extra level of confidence in these folks and I had a feeling that they were serious about their work.

Circle Back:
Does your business have any awards, certifications, or industry recognitions it could put front and center on the homepage of your website? How much added confidence would this give your customers? Try finding a spot on your homepage, above the fold, where you can proudly display at least 3 of your credentials. Social proof is a powerful influencer. Do you have testimonials from customers or trusted experts in your industry that you can add to your website or social media profiles?

Engage with your customers and be remembered
There was one produce stand in particular that stuck in my mind. My wife was nabbing some plums and one of the guys working the stand walked up and asked me “How’s it going there sir?.” I replied “Good. Just grabbing some plums here.” He proceeded to chat with me while he helped other customers bag their items. Although our encounter was very brief, I will remember that friendly vendor each time I revisit the market (and probably grab more plums). Moments later his co-worker approached me and asked about the zombie themed design on my t-shirt. He recommended a movie that he thought I might like based on the Bruce Campbell like motif of  it. I think I might check that movie out and report back to him what I thought next time I’m there.

Circle Back:
Social media provides a variety of ways for businesses to reach out and connect with their customers. Do you engage with your customers before, after, and during the sales process? Do your conversations revolve only around your product/service or do you take the time to discuss things other than “YOU”? How can showing a genuine interest in your customer create an opportunity to be remembered when they are ready to spend money? Besides yourself, do you encourage your staff to be themselves and engage with customers whenever possible? Try to be less reactive and more proactive using your social media channels. When an opportunity arises to be helpful, friendly, and conversational … take it!

Being social takes dedication
Interestingly enough, this experience was directly related to a vendor who was using social media to market their product at the farmer’s market. One of the first things you notice when you get out of your car near my local farmer’s market is the aroma of freshly popped kettle corn. Upon arrival I checked in using the popular location base service Foursquare. I noticed that someone had left a tip at the location. “Look for the Gold Rush Popcorn stand. They sell deliciousssss kettle corn. Also, if you follow @goldrushpopcorn on Twitter, they post a password daily that will get you a free bag of popcorn!” said someone named Lee (read on to learn who Lee is).

I quickly jumped onto Twitter, found @GoldRushPopcorn and followed them only to find that not only had they not posted any secret password that day, but they also did not tweet anything since July 18th. I shot a message their way and still have not heard back from them. Since then I also discovered their somewhat inactive Facebook page and another recommendation by Lee on Yelp regarding the free popcorn password tip.

With a little investigation I was able to find out that the helpful Lee happened to be a tech savvy teen living in the area who happened to have a penchant for Gold Rush popcorn. So much so that he wanted to share it. Unfortunately the crew at Gold Rush Popcorn seemed to have given up updating their social profiles shortly after the word seemed to really start spreading about their insider offer. Even if they didn’t have the offer for free popcorn available it would be nice to see a little engagement spring up with people (like me) who had reached out and asked about the offer.

Circle Back:
Leaving your social media channels dormant for extended periods of time is akin to not being present at all on the social web. Don’t spread yourself thin by engaging in more social channels than your staff can handle at once. Better to be active in one place than to have dormant profiles in 3. Identify and reach out to people like Lee who are helping you spread the word without compensation. Especially those who seem to understand the medium. One or two of these folks might be willing to dedicate a little time posting and engaging with others on your behalf as community managers. Have you shown your special channels and company advocates some love lately?

That about wraps it up. Which tip resonated most with you? Anything you might go try today? I’d like to hear what you think.

• Posted By Adam Helweh
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“Every new beginning comes with some other beginning’s end”

For the first time in over seven years, I am starting a work week where I am no longer an employee of Procter & Gamble.  In fact, instead of working for a company that employees 140,000 people, I now work for one that employees just under 140.

Needless to say, it feels a bit surreal.

On Friday, it was announced that I will be leaving P&G to become the Chief Marketing Officer of Rockfish Interactive.  With the move, I will help to open Rockfish’s first Midwest presence with a new office here in Cincinnati.  Joining me in the move will be Bryan Radtke – fellow P&G marketer, The Brandery co-founder and one of my best friends in the world.

The move is an opportunity that I couldn’t be more excited for.  In just a few short years, Rockfish has been on an incredible growth path.  They won AdAge’s inaugural Small Agency of the Year award in 2009, landed at #3 on AdAge’s Agency A-List this year and just last week were named to the Inc 500.

What really excites me is that Rockfish combines leading agency digital strategy with an entrepreneurial spirit that is truly unique in the industry.    As AdAge called in the A-List Awards:

Even more impressive than its client list is its intellectual-property incubator, formalized with the creation last summer of an internal unit called Rockfish Labs, which has already turned out a collection of web tools. Agency employees are rotated in and out of the Labs unit to foster their entrepreneurial spirits and help keep Labs resources fresh and relevant to projects at hand.

I will be starting at Rockfish towards the end of September.  In the meantime, my days are going to be filled with time at The Brandery, looking for new office space and getting back to regular writing here at Hard Knox Life.

It was a great ride at P&G and I’m looking forward to starting this new professional journey at Rockfish.  I hope to work with many of you in this next phase of my career so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have ideas on how we can do just that.

• Posted By Dave Knox
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To steal a line from one of the more famous songs by the Grateful Dead: “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”

I never would have imagined while enjoying those eight or nine Dead shows back in the day that I would learn a lot about marketing while reading a book about the band in 2010.

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan helped me walk a few steps further in my journey into the marketing world. Among lessons shared are:

(1) Rethink traditional industry assumptions
(2) Turn your customers into evangelists
(3) Bypass accepted channels and go direct
(4) Build a huge, loyal following

Meerman Scott and Halligan draw from practices that made the Dead the top touring band of all time  in 19 chapters with titles such as “Create a Unique Business Model,” “Cut Out the Middleman” and “Upgrade to Premium.” They tell how more than a dozen companies such as Rue La La, Google and Amazon have successfully employed those practices.

I learned a great deal about marketing while reading Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing & PR a couple of years back. After devouring Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, I ordered Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs by Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. I’m really enjoying it, too.

As basketball legend and Deadhead Bill Walton states in a cover quote: “Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead is like a powerful, hard-charging anthem that fills in so many blanks while closing the circle of life. Like the Grateful Dead, Brian and David are transformational visionaries with a keen eye for the second set.”

Reading their latest book will help get you Truckin’ into the new world of marketing and PR!

• Posted By Mike Boehmer
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Two weeks ago, I posted a call to arms for anyone who wanted to be a regular blogger here at Social Media Explorer. It was a call-to-arms for, “smart thinkers, status-quo challengers, tool reviewers and people who understand social media marketing better be about business or you’ll be flipping burgers soon.” I put an exclamation point on the post by saying, “I want to share this platform with thought fire-starters.”

Today, I have my fire-starters. Twelve new authors join Social Media Explorer now, each with a unique perspective, experiences, insights and attitude. (Yeah, I dig attitude.) I’ve asked them to challenge themselves, me and each of you, too. It’s a challenge to raise the level of conversation and discourse here, to make Social Media Explorer an intellectual stimulus for conversations around social media marketing, public relations, digital marketing, online communications, advertising and branding and more.

My challenge to you is to hold us accountable. Sure, there will be posts or topics that don’t stir the pot or challenge our thinking as well as the day before, but what I think we all want is content that doesn’t follow the crowd a chow time but still delivers smart insights to running your business or serving your clients or organization. We want to be helpful, but thought-provoking. Insightful but pot-stirrers. I think that’s what I’ve delivered in the last three years and what you expect of me. My new colleagues will have to be held to that standard.

And those colleagues are stellar. Each was chosen carefully. There are no social media gurus here. They’re all experienced and proven in business, not just blogging. They’ve served their companies, clients or passions with great thinking, smart doing and even smarter questioning over the years. We have category expertise in everything from strategic planning to humor writing, from design to coding. But more importantly, we have 13 people with a passion for learning as well as teaching. More on how they were identified in a moment.

First, and in no particular order other than ladies first (because that’s how my mother raised me) and without me, here are your new contributing authors for Social Media Explorer:

Angela Maiers @AngelaMaiers Angela Maiers	Heather Rast @heatherrast Insights and Ingenuity	Stephanie Schwab @socialologist Socialologist	Eric Brown @Eric_Urbane The Urbane Way	Jordan Cooper @notaproblog Not A Pro Blog	Mark Dykeman @MarkDykeman Thought Wrestling Broadcasting Brain
Andrew Hanelly @hanelly Engage (TMG Custom Media) Really Bad Parenting Advice	Adam Helweh @secretsushi Secret Sushi	Jeff Larche @TheLarch Digital Solid	Ike Pigott @ikepigott Occam’s Razr	Mark Smiciklas @intersection1 Intersection Consulting	Tom Webster @webby2001 Brand Savant

And Helweh has already compiled an SME Author Twitter list for those interested: http://twitter.com/secretsushi/socialmediaexplorer-team

The authors were chosen carefully. I published the call-for-authors because I wanted people who read SME and authors who wanted to write for me. I didn’t want to go begging people to contribute. I established some expectations in the post and reviewed each applicant (I wound up with over 50) for those qualities. Some of the ones I chose I was familiar with (and thrilled they raised their hands). A couple of them I didn’t know well but quickly discovered they had the qualities and experience I was hoping for. I would humbly submit that I will push them to be better than they are. They, in turn, will push me. Each of you, however, will push all of us.

And as an aside, I am not going to stop blogging. No, I won’t write every day in addition to these fine folks. My blogging will be more sporadic, but I’m not going to stop or even slow down. Having more authors means I can focus on diving deeper into some subjects and not worry that missing 2-3 days of posting will affect your expectations. What I’m doing is finding a way to provide you with more excellent content from smart people.

Thank you for continuing to count on Social Media Explorer. Hopefully these new colleagues will further your confidence in us and help you continue to learn and grow as a communicator.

• Posted By Jason Falls
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Solid presentation on mobile courtesy of Jim Cuene of General Mills.

• Posted By Dave Knox
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Fear.  Does it paralyze you or push you forward?

For the last few months I have been preparing to run my first marathon.  Two weeks ago, I had terrible training run.  I was at mile 10 of 16, and I felt just plain bad.  I was hot, tired, thirsty, and just plain spent.  In my head, I was asking myself “Why not just quit for today?”  ”Why not just stop running, walk home, and try again another day?”  I wasn’t injured.  I was just in a funk – lacking energy and looking for excuses.

I kept running.  I was afraid…

In my head the marathon itself is just the culmination of all of these training runs.  If I can complete them, I should be fully prepared to run 26.2 miles come October.  The race won’t be easy, but if I persist in my preparation, it will be attainable.  However, if I start quitting now – if I give in to the fear now –  I make that an option on race day.  Fear can’t win now and it can’t win on race day.  I am finishing that race.  The joy of finishing is going to be great, but it is the fear of not finishing keeps left foot following right and vice verse day after day and run after run.

I beat my fear that day, and I will beat it on race day.  I know it will be right there with me on every step between now and then, whispering in my ear, tapping me on my shoulder, wrenching through my muscles, aching in my joints… I will not let fear win.

Do I always beat my fear? Sadly, no.

I have plenty of 1/2 written songs, unfinished blog posts, unexplored ideas, and other casualties of my lifelong battle with fear.  At times in my life my fear has kept me from quitting some really wasteful, stupid things.  On other occasions fear kept me from starting or staying with some of great things.  Fear is ruthless.

The good news is, over time, I am learning more about my fear.  If I let it, it can be my worst enemy.  If I own it, it will push me to succeed.

What role is fear playing in your life?  Is it pushing you forward or holding you back? What will you do about it?

 

 

Share and Enjoy:

• Posted By David E. Bowman
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Rule #1 of Twitter use – be helpful – right?  Does that make sense to you?  Absolutely.  Can you screw up your implementation of Rule #1 and ruin your Twitter presence?  Absolutely.    By the way, this rule applies to all forms of social media.

Let’s look at the idea of sharing in the context of two questions:

• What to share
• How to share

Automated social media – efficiency versus effectiveness

You can automate parts of your social media presence.  ReTweet buttons are a simple example:  two clicks and you’ve Tweeted a useful link instead of typing it all out.  You can even set up automated Tweets, similar to E-Mail autoresponders.  Similar examples apply to other social media tools.

But here’s the important question:  Why automate?

There’s two ways to answer this question. One answer would address the methods used (efficiency).  The other answer delves into the more important question:  what’s your objective?  What do you hope to achieve?  What do you want your audience to do?  This reply delves into effectiveness:  Will automation help you achieve your goals?

When being helpful looks like spamming

Recently, Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz (http://ittybiz.com/what-should-i-tweet-about/) seemed to declare war on “useful” Tweets and called for a return (or resurgence) of informal Twitter chat, even designating a hashtag for this purpose.  A closer read of the post reveals the following key idea:  You’re not being helpful if you’re just presenting a guise of being helpful and creating a continual barrage of links.

Worse still, if all you’re doing is generating “helpful” output, you’re losing a big opportunity.

We’ve all seen these accounts, the ones that just post titles and links.  The worst offenders only link to themselves.  Actually, the worst offenders lie about what they’re linking to, but we don’t need to go there.

Since your blog posts and articles really should be helpful, pumping them out in an automated stream helps your followers by extension.  But when it looks obvious that it’s a machine at work, not a human being, it cheapens the gift by excluding the humanity.

Too much of this and it’s indistinguishable from spam.

When being conversational looks like spamming

On the other hand, if your social media output is purely social, you’ve need to be mindful of how this activity builds your business.  A number of celebrities or successful entrepreneurs churn out “personal” and “social” content with a minimum of links. Some look like they are just musing out loud or talking to themselves.

Granted, they may have less free time than working stiffs like you and me.  But they don’t look like they’re doing one of the most important things:  listening.  They’re just broadcasting, which is darn close to spamming.

The automation mindset obscures the need to listen

Automation is great.  It allows you to focus your time and attention on other things.  However, when information is being sprayed from the proverbial firehose, listening becomes even more critical.  People used to come directly to you with letters, phone calls and formal meetings and you had the ability to respond or deflect.  Now they talk to each other instead or they just complain to audiences, not to you.

If you delegate one thing, sometimes it’s easy to delegate a related activity.

I know that’s the MBA way, but you really need to think about delegating this activity.  You are the best listener and engager. You’re the one who should care.

The solution:  balance the automation with the personal touch

But you’re still limited by the same number of hours per day.  Automation may be a key component of the way that you communicate with the world.  It may be delivering valuable results to you.  If you want to automate Tweets to your blog posts, that’s fine.  But mix it up.  Respond to feedback, both on your blog and in Twitter.  Carve out some time to look for relevant conversations.

If you feel comfortable doing so, try:

• using your Twitter accounts to just “hang out” and being social
• acknowledge people (customers, suppliers, potential customers, remarkable people)
• strike up a new conversation
• experiment

Just don’t be the guy or gal who gets a machine to talk into the wind.  After awhile, too much “helpful” and too little listening just makes your voice blend into the cacophony we all live in today.  And that’s when you surrender the permission you earned to be listened to.

As Jason says, the comments section is yours.

Editor’s Note: Mark Dykeman of ThoughtWrestling and Broadcasting Brain is one of 12 new authors coming to Social Media Explorer. We’ll explain more on Monday.

IMAGE: Megaphone by Kimba Howard on Flickr.

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• Posted By Mark Dykeman
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The following is a summery of Jerry Kathman’s Keynote Presentation to be given at the 2010 Digital Non-Conference.

Implications of the Digital Environment on Brand Design

With technological acceleration and constant connectivity, digital environments are rapidly changing the success criteria for brand design. Why are some brands more relevant than others? Why have some brands extended themselves into the digital environment successfully, while others have failed?  Are brands’ life cycles inevitable or do brand builders make choices that determine their destiny? After 30 years of consulting, Jerry Kathman has observed commonalities among leadership brands. Kathman has identified four principles that brands need to embrace in order to achieve and maintain leadership status.

These principles have served a spectrum of brands in the LPK caseload. A leadership brand works against a well-articulated and inculcated brand strategy. That strategy fully leverages the power of design. Further, a leadership brand establishes a culture of innovation and, most importantly, connects empathetically with end users.

By understanding these principles, brands can thrive in parallel with the accelerated pace of this digital age.

• Posted By DNC Staff
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