Hey Execs: It’s Time to Embrace Social

I had the pleasure of contributing content to an excellent report released yesterday by email/direct marketing company, ExactTarget. The report is called Letters to the C-Suite: Getting Serious About Social Media. Here is the breakdown:

You know social media is a big deal and that you brand should be engaged. But you still find yourself questioning how to monetize social media and where it fits with your other marketing activities. Sound familiar? Here is what is covered:

1. The importance of planning and implementing a social media strategy

2. How to build stronger customer relationships using social media outlets
3. Operationalization of social media marketing and how it directly impacts your bottom line
4. The value of social media testing and optimization efforts

I was joined by eleven other consultants in the report. Please check out their sites and join in the conversation:

Jay Baer – Convince and Convert

David Baker – Razorfish

Sergio Balegno - MarketingSherpa

Olivier Blanchard – The Brand Builder

Jason Falls – Social Media Explorer

Ann Handley – MarketingProfs

Joseph Jaffe - Powered/Flip the Funnel

Valeria Maltoni – Conversation Agent

Shelly Palmer - Advanced Media Ventures Group

Trey Pennington – Spitball Marketing

Jeffrey K. Rohrs – ExactTarget

It is all about navigating through the wonderful world of social media. If you would like to download the report please click the follow link and enjoy > Letters to the C-Suite: Getting Serious About Social Media.

ExactTarget Acquires CoTweet. What Does It Mean?

For most of my readers, you heard it here first.

I have had the privilege to meet, chat, and work with the brilliant team at ExactTarget over the past month. It is always fascinating to meet people that want to change the way corporate culture uses social media. It has been said that the future of social media is in enterprise expansion and we are officially witnessing the push into one virtual platform (thanks to ExactTarget).

As of 11 am (EST) ExactTarget officially announced that they will be acquiring CoTweet, a Web-based collaboration platform that allows companies to manage multiple Twitter accounts from a single dashboard, support multiple editors, track conversations, assign roles, and create follow-up tasks. Social tools have been random and sometimes carelessly developed because the developers did not have the financial means to build a top quality product.

I don’t know about you… but I am overly excited with this step into an enterprise system social media platform. I am overly excited because ExactTarget is an Indianapolis, Indiana based company… and… I am overly excited because Jesse Engle (co-founder of CoTweet) is an awesome guy.

This deal will result in (finally) the expansion of social platforms into a unique collaboration system for one-to-one marketing. I love it. See press release below.

———————————

ExactTarget Acquires Twitter Pioneer CoTweet, Creates Social Media Lab in San Francisco

Businesses Now Have Complete Solution to Manage Social Media, Email and Mobile Communications

SAN FRANCISCO (March 2, 2010) – Global on-demand email marketing and one-to-one marketing provider ExactTarget announced today it has acquired San Francisco-based CoTweet, creating the industry’s first complete solution for managing communications across all interactive marketing channels including social media, email and mobile.

CoTweet will operate in San Francisco as a business unit of ExactTarget and will lead the company’s social media product development.  CoTweet co-founder and chief executive Jesse Engle will lead the San Francisco operation and spearhead the creation and expansion of the company’s social media lab.

“What we’re seeing in the market is organizations are moving quickly to try to capture the potential of social, but are discovering that it’s siloed and not integrated effectively with other forms of digital communications,” said Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget co-founder and chief executive officer.  “By combining the power of ExactTarget and CoTweet, we can provide businesses a complete solution to tie together all forms of interactive communications and drive deeper customer engagement online.”

Founded in 2008 and based in San Francisco, CoTweet is a Web-based collaboration platform that allows companies to manage multiple Twitter accounts from a single dashboard, support multiple editors, track conversations, assign roles and create follow-up tasks.  The company has a growing client list, including Whole Foods, Oracle, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Ford, Dell, Pepsi, Sprint, Target, Intuit, Salesforce.com, USA Today and Coca-Cola.

“We see a huge opportunity to build on ExactTarget’s incredible business and customer relationships to help companies drive more measurable value from social media,” said Engle.  “As part of ExactTarget, we’ll have the global resources to cement our early lead, rapidly expand our platform and develop the next generation of social media communication tools.”

Forrester Research predicts social media marketing will grow faster than any other form of interactive marketing.  In its 2009 U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast Report, the independent research firm estimated social media marketing will grow at compound annual rate of 34 percent, reaching $3.1 billion by 2014.

“This acquisition is strong validation that valuable, sustainable businesses are emerging from the Twitter ecosystem,” said Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief operating officer. “An ExactTarget and CoTweet combination should lead to even further digital marketing innovation through use of the Twitter platform.”

The acquisition of CoTweet follows ExactTarget’s record-breaking 2009 that welcomed the company’s 36^th consecutive quarter of growth in the fourth quarter 2009 and saw annual contracted revenue soar to $114 million and total GAAP revenue exceed $95 million.  In 2009, ExactTarget also secured $145 million in venture capital investment, opened its first international office in London, earned the title of a “leader” in email marketing in the “The Forrester Wave: Email Marketing Service Providers Q4 2009” (December 2009) report and added NIKE Inc., Best Buy and Universal Music Group to its client list.  Headquartered in Indianapolis, ExactTarget now employs more than 600 associates worldwide.

About CoTweet, Inc.

CoTweet is the real-time business collaboration platform for Twitter. Working with companies such as Whole Foods, Starbucks, JetBlue, Ford, Pepsi, Sprint, Coca-Cola, the City of San Francisco/311 and Twitter, CoTweet has established itself as the tool of choice to brands to connect and engage with customers and stakeholders. Founded in 2008, CoTweet is based in San Francisco, Calif.  For more information, visit www.CoTweet.com

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and one-to-one marketing solutions. The company’s software as a service technology provides organizations a single platform to connect with customers via triggered and transactional email, integrated text messaging, voice messaging, landing pages and social media.  Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget’s software powers permission-based multi-channel communications for thousands of organizations around the world including Expedia.com, Aurora Fashions, Papa John’s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co., Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.

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Media Contacts:

Cybele Diamandopoulos (FOLIO Communications for CoTweet) – 512.431.5759 or cybele@foliocommunications.com

Lindsay Tishgart (FOLIO Communications for CoTweet) – 512.327.1818 or lindsey@foliocommunications.com

Mitch Frazier (ExactTarget) – 317.670.9611 or mfrazier@ExactTarget.com

Carol Sacks (Tenor Communications for ExactTarget) – 650.520.8261 or carol@tenorcom.com

Lauren Sanders (Dittoe PR for ExactTarget) – 317.202.2280 X 10 or lauren@dittoepr.com

Social Media: The Haven for New Ideas

Ali is a 2009 graduate of Hanover College. She works at an Indianapolis SEO company, Slingshot SEO, Inc., where she integrates the importance of SEO and social media in the blogosphere. She is an avid Tweeter and blogger. Ali is an upbeat person who loves working and communicating (in any form!) with everyone.

As I caught up with my daily blog feeds this week, I stumbled across a very interesting blog post by Copyblogger’s Jonathan Morrow entitled “The Alexander Graham Bell Guide to Changing the World.” Turns out, this post (and a swift kick to my backside to keep up with blogging) helped to sort through the mess in my brain and I was finally snapped out of my case of writer’s block. Halleluiah! So what DOES Alexander Graham Bell have to do with changing the internet marketing world?

Of course we all know that Bell changed the world with his invention of the telephone. Right? Actually, it’s safe to say that we were lied to as elementary school students (GASP!). Yep, according to the research, two men created the first two models of the telephone BEFORE Bell. Who knew?!  More importantly, how did Bell jump ahead of these fellow inventors and gain the credibility for the telephone?

Bell was a smart cookie. Instead of hording his communicating device idea in his bedroom, he spent years fighting to get his idea out in the world. He fought for the right to get HIS idea patented. Through his journey of changing the way people communicated, it was evident that Bell understood the most important aspect of getting information to the people. Morrow explains, “He [Bell] understood that what matters isn’t who thinks of an idea first. It’s not even who takes action first. It’s who spreads the idea the farthest.” Smart, huh?

This phenomenon is still alive today, possibly more than ever. We ALL have ideas upon ideas upon ideas (IDEAS, get the drift?) that we would love to ONE day share with the world…and then someone else finally DOES and then “my idea” becomes “his/her idea” and then you are back to square one. Is this you? I know I am definitely an idea pack rat (as Morrow describes). I’m sure I’m not alone.

So, what now? GET THAT INFORMATION OUT THERE! If you take the time to come up with a new, brilliant idea, why wouldn’t you want to share it? Fight like Bell did and your passion behind your ideas will be revealed and people will notice. Be that person who shares information and ideas with the rest of the world. Heck, isn’t that what the internet is for anyway?

My hope is that you see that I’m not saying that you need to create immensely creative and amazing inventions or come up with the ‘next big trend’ (although, face it, that’d be pretty sweet), but the internet allows us to take information that we learn from others and add our own understanding and thoughts (of course giving credit where credit is due!). We all have thoughts, right? Well, use social media to get those thoughts out instead of becoming an idea pack rat!

As writers in the internet-driven world, we know there is more of a focus on getting the information OUT to the masses, rather than being the first one to do so. This directly relates to Bell’s advice—spread it the FARTHEST. How do we do this? Social media. We tweet, post, blog, Flick new information 24-7. The new age of information and idea exchange is at our fingertips, only a keystroke away, how much more cliché can I get?

Have a case of writer’s block? Winter blues got you down? Dig through those ideas you have packed away and start typing. Fight for your ideas and be the passionate one who gets the word out, just as Alexander Graham Bell did, and who knows where you’ll end up!

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What Is Social Media? I Mean Really.

Jonathan is a 2008 graduate of the Farmer School at Miami University. He works at a small web development firm in Cincinnati where he brings a fresh interdisciplinary approach to project management and business operations. He’s always either checking in or tweeting his iPhone and he’s passionate about people and bringing digital connections into reality. He’s an active blogger for continuous web and a founder of the group’s Cincinnati meet-up. Got questions, shoot him an e-mail

What (the hell) is social media? I hate that question. I even hate the term. It’s truly just the Internet. It’s so many things and it’s expanding every day and, quite honestly, I don’t care how it’s defined. What’s great about everything that’s happening in the digital space right now is that it can mean something different to every single one of us. Let me explain:

In game theory, utility is defined as “a measure of that which is sought to be maximized in any situation involving a choice” Another definition says “the state of being useful, profitable, or beneficial.”

Here are the important words that I see in those definitions: choice, maximized, useful, beneficial. What’s so great about those words? They can mean entirely different things to you than they do to me. They’re all tied to intrinsic value, REAL value…not market value — and “real” means whatever I decide that it means. It’s what is essential to me.

What does utility have to do with social media? In short: everything. In our country, we seem to have a fixation on ROI. In a social space, it’s difficult impossible to put a measurable ROI on interaction…on being involved. ROI in this space is, by definition, unquantifiable. How many dollars will I make? How many customers will I gain? Traditionally, that’s how a business might measure its return on investment when investing its time, people, research, and dollars into a new venture. When investing in social media there needs to be a paradigm shift.

Someday soon, it won’t be about the ROI some business gets for investing in social media — it will be about the ROI that a consumer person gets for investing in a brand. (aside: i’m not talking about a financial investment, I’m talking time and energy. The important question will be “What do I get for interacting with your brand”) That ROI will be measured in utility.

I believe that we’ll see a shift toward a consumer-centric economy where extrinsic value is replaced by intrinsic value. @nickseguin and I have had many discussions about the importance of intrinsic value and how the success or failure of a brand will correlate directly with its ability to engage its audience. Rather than brands and organizations asking about ROI, they’ll be asking how they can improve the consumer experience. The consumers will be the ones making decisions based on ROI.

As a rational (economically) consumer of goods and services, I will be choosing to engage with brands (products, services, organizations, etc.) that provide me with utility.  The paradigm shift that I mention earlier relates directly to this — brands are losing control of not only the content, but the medium on which that content is exchanged. Social media The Internet will be how i digest this content. At my convenience. AT. MY. CONVENIENCE.

As consumers, we will become the center of the universe for brands. And damn it, I can’t wait!

Social Media Creates TRUE Networking

I have talked at length about the value of combining your offline and online networking. I have been believer in the absolute value of social networking sites being the pinnacle of true networking… the pinnacle of creating a valuable relationship between two people.

I was reading a post at the Winnepeg Sun called The Re-Wired Generation. Although this article was written about the Internet driven Generation Y it had an excerpt from University of Toronto sociology professor, Berry Wellman:

“Far from replacing face to face time and breeding a generation of reclusives, Facebook and Twitter are actually enhancing interpersonal relationships offline…

The Internet is complementing, continuing and maintains relationships,” he said. “It’s letting weaker relationships stay in contact.”

There was a time in the business world where you would meet individuals at networking events and forget them the next day. The faces and names would be categorized into a business card pile and shoved into a dark desk drawer. This “networking for forgetting” has been all but erased if the two people are connected on a social media platform  like LinkedIn. The personal development between an individual and their client is based on touch-points. The more touch-points you have with a person the greater the relationship (we would like to think so). The essence of social media is built around the touch-points on the Internet. Can you connect to prospect using LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook? The wealth of information given to you in a single sitting is exponential!

Instead of dismissing social media and using the old forms of communication. Try developing your weaker business or personal relationships using an online model. You may be pleasantly surprised.

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Marketing Through Social Media is Not Easy. Plan Accordingly.

If you haven’t figured this out already… running a small business is not easy… managing a network of 100 sales professionals is not easy… running a marketing department with a budget of $100 million is not easy. Accordingly

Marketing your products and services is not easy.

Nothing in this world… that is worth anything of value is EASY to obtain. Well…unless you grow money on trees or you are just THAT good (Ben Affleck in Boiler Room)… The majority of us have not found the seed to grow a tree that sheds Mr. Benjamin Franklin ($100 bill for the layman) twice a year.

It is hard to get to where you WANT to go in life. It shouldn’t be easy.

I am amazed that people want the easy way out. How do we make this tool easier to use? How can we spend the LEAST amount of time possible to get a project completed? Why do we have to spend money on marketing? How can I get to the 4-hour work week? No thank you.

Integrating social media into your marketing is not easy and it is not cheap. If you want the intangible (branding) and tangible (product sales) benefits of social media you have to agree to work hard or pay someone to work hard for you.

Don’t confuse or try to convince yourself that social media is the answer to all your problems and concerns. It works when you combine the new with the old, the traditional with the web 2.0/3.0.

If it was an easy thing to accomplish wouldn’t everyone be doing it? Wouldn’t everyone be successful at it?

What is the first step to tackling the monster? We use an acronym to explain the process of marketing through social media.

MOST: Monitoring. Objectives. Strategy. Technology.

Listen. Build. Plan. Interact.

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Social Media Changed My Life!

This weeks guest blog post is by Becky Robinson, a social media consultant and blogger for Mountain State University.   (Do you want more than that?) If so: She is also the mother of three daughters and currently lives in Chicago, IL.

This week marks the one year anniversary of my entry into the social media world.

I am going to say something bold (and risk sounding corny, too):

SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGED MY LIFE.

I am still the same person at my core: my values, my beliefs, and my purpose, but becoming involved in social media has changed my habits, my activities, and my aspirations. I have a new career path and every day brings new relationships and opportunities.

My social media involvement started with Facebook, last New Year’s Day. Less than a month into my Facebook experiment, I reconnected with lots of old friends. Then one day, a high school classmate I hadn’t talked to or seen in more than twenty years posted a status update looking for freelance writers.

I have always wanted to write. At age 8, my friends and I created newspapers and went door to door trying to sell them. As a preteen, I filled a series of flannel covered journals with lines of poetry and stories.

I majored in creative writing in college but after graduation I got married, went to grad school, and got a job (not writing). After several years of 9 to 5, and 12 weeks of maternity leave, I wanted nothing more than to stay home with my daughter, so that’s what I did. Three daughters and 8 years later, I had a store of creative energy waiting to be unleashed.

Being involved in social media has given me an outlet for creativity and means for connecting in relationships with people all over the world. On a personal level, blogging, Facebook, and Twitter are just plain fun.

Professionally, though, social media has provides an amazing platform for building not only my personal brand, but also the brand of the university that I represent.

My old friend John, who got me started with freelancing, works for the marketing department at Mountain State University. When I became a part of the team there, we started to explore the impact we could make with social media.

We started with a blog. To the blog, we added a Twitter presence. Then we started to experiment with expanding the university’s Facebook presence.

The whole point of social media for Mountain State – for anyone – is relationships. We are finding new approaches to connect with current students, new ways to make our brand known to potential students. We are finding new methods to delight and engage our students, and new avenues to involve them in community with each other.

And you know the best part? It’s really just plain fun.

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10 Ways To Build Trust with Social Media

In the new economy there is one major truth that stands above the rest… trust equals revenue. If you are a small to mid-sized business it is the amount of trust you can build between clients that strengthens your brand. With trust comes happy clients and with happy clients come referrals. Trust is a fundamental building block to all businesses.

With that in mind… marketing is built under the assumption that stories can create an emotional bond between a consumer and a brand… a client and a service. Can you tell a story… create a service and en experience that builds trust?

Social media can help you build that trust.

1. Content

Content is the number one way you can build trust with potential clients. By creating meaningful and thought provoking content you are building a bridge to later sell that person on your services. Talk about what you do on a daily basis. When I say you.. it means you are writing and communicating stories that happen to YOU and not your industry. Create a blog on WordPress and get started. Want a paid system? Try Compendium.

2. Be Transparent

Being transparent is extremely important when writing content and when participating in the social networks. Be human. Customers are people too. The people who are interested in your thoughts and suggestions want to know about you as a person.  They want to know how you helped LARRY the plumber or Susan the accountant.

3. Picture of Your Day

When you are using social networks make sure you put up pictures of your daily life. If you have a cell phone with a camera take some pictures  and share them with your connections. Just don’t over do it. We can only look at so many professional business or glamor shots in a day and no pictures from the shower!

4. Picture of You

Use your real picture.  Don’t use your logo. There is only one exception to this rule. If you are using Twitter for your business and personal (see my company @Brandswag for an business example and @kyleplacy for a personal example).

5. Saying Thank You

If somebody helps you share information or decideds to retweet a post.. make sure you thank that person. They are helping you spread the word… they are your online evangelists.. If you miss a thank you.. don’t let it kill you.. but try to make the most of the people that help you out.

6. Do Not Auto-DM on Twitter

See my post… I hate Twitter Auto-DM

7. No Hard Selling

I don’t care about your enewsletter or the new lotion you are selling. Also, just because I reply to a tweet or a message does not mean you can message me back and sell your wares. Social media is a long sell process. You are developing content in order to gain an order of trust with people in your area of influence. We are now experiencing a relationship driven economy… get on the train.

8. Time is Important

Remember that you are building relationships.. do not trust the people that tell you to add 1023920 friends and make $10,000 a month. It is a load of crap. Build your following slowly… create relationships in an online environment that can be transferred offline.

9. Criticism is Important

You will be criticized. It is a truth of open communication. Take it with stride and respond. If you are debated… make sure you debate back. Stand up for what you believe and you will gain trust with the people who are listening…. and watching.

10. Have fun

Good Lord… is it that hard? You have the ability to connect with thousands… and thousands… and thousands of people from every nationality… and life experience. Just imagine your ability to expand your knowledge base and learn?!

One thought: If you are not enjoying and having fun with what you do… quit… go find something else.

2 Steps to Starting Social Media

We all have to start somewhere right?

1. Start A Blog About Something You Love and Be Authentic

I know the concept of authentic content has been thrown around here and there between social media experts. It is a common practice to write about the concept of authentic content and communication. Many people ask the same question when debating on starting a blog: “What should I write about?” Write about something you enjoy! Write about something you do on a daily routine. Do you enjoy collecting stamps? Do you enjoy watching soccer and following sports?

I write about social media because I love it. It is easier for me to write because of the joy I find in learning about all things social media.

Write about something you love and find other people who are writing about the same thing. Utilize google alerts to find the people who share the same interest.

2. Start Small. Join a Regional Social Network and Dive In.

We have talked about regional (geographically based) social networks before in earlier posts. I am a member of a regional social media community called Smaller Indiana. I have found that my visibility as a business owner and social advocate has greatly increased because of my use of Smaller Indiana. If you are trying to build a personal brand identity through using social media a local social network will give you amazing exposure to local people.

It is getting harder and harder to make a name for yourself on the Internet when you are competing on a global scale with millions of individuals. If you focus on a niche geographic community you will find that it is slightly easier to be recognized. In order to get the most out of a geographic community don’t leave your relationships on the web, go out and meet the individuals you are collaborating with. A cup of coffee will go a long way at facilitating the building of a personal brand between two individuals.

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Diamond Marketing and Selling the Experience

This morning I was listening to a local radio station when a diamond store’s advertisement played across the speakers… I sat there at the stoplight listening to the words…

“We are the ONLY diamond store that buys direct from the manufacturer… cutting out middleman pricing… best quality diamonds… friendly service…”

Truthfully… the ad was lame. There was no story telling… there was no emotional buy. There was nothing that invited me to continue the conversation. I decided to look into the other diamond sellers and manufacturers in the city. You guessed it… they were all the same. They all said the exact same thing.

Frankly, I do not care that you had to fly to Hong Kong to buy your diamonds. I don’t care that you are cutting out the middleman pricing. I care that you treat me the right way when I walk in the door. I care about the experience of the purchase not the purchase itself.

When we are selling a professional product or service it is important to DIFFERENTIATE. It is a lost art. How do you differentiate in a world where everything is starting to sound similar… sound bland?   It is essential that you gain the trust of the individual before they buy. It is essential to encourage your customers to tell the story.

You can buy as many radio, yellow pages, or newspaper ads as your budget allows… it only breaks the surface. The experience sells the product. How are you using your website, social media, traditional marketing, and networking to tell your story.

Do not bore the world with details… tell them the story!

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