I am often struck by the way people circle around social media in business. They read case studies, write strategies, spend loads of money on tools – but when you ask them if they blog you get a blank look.

Part of me knows you don’t have to have done something yourself to manage it. I took on the management of fifty film and VT editors many moons ago having come from radio and don’t believe I was the worst manager they had ever had. I also have clients who are helping their organisations adopt social tools very successfully but ….. part of me still has a nagging doubt about why people don’t get their hands dirty and use the tools themselves.

I recently tweeted “Social Media 101 – put your own hands on the bloody keyboard and write something!” and I reckon until you have done so you can’t fully grasp the magic of what these tools make possible.

What do you think?

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Several years ago I predicted that one of the biggest threats to the use of disruptive web tools in the workplace would be assimilation. The adoption of the language and platforms of social media by those responsible for maintaining the status quo as a way of taking the power out of it and assimilating it into business as usual.

At the launch of Tibbr (a really useful looking tool and this post is not a reflection on Tibco who have developed it) I had several people in suits tell me that business is business and talk of revolution and disruption is likely to fall on deaf ears amongst the grown ups.

On the same day I get an email from a senior official in a government job saying “I’m beginning to think that the inherently democratic nature of social media tools is the very reason why they are being restricted or marginalised in some organisations. After all, the traditional notion of command and control is still very much alive in the dark heart of many business places – symptomatic of a deeply entrenched need for power….? I wonder what Nietzsche would have said about the new media?”

As I have said before this isn’t bottom up. It is not some workers revolution. It can make as much of a difference to middle and senior managers as it will to the folks on the shop floor. But it won’t make a difference to anyone if we just replicate the dysfunctional, inefficient mess we have now. If it isn’t disruptive why are you doing it?

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I am currently romping my way through my preview copy of Hugh Macleod’s new book Evil Plans. As with his previous book. Ignore Everybody it is a collection of stimulating and thought provoking short items. I find this format much more rewarding to read than your standard “good idea padded out with case studies” business book of which there are too many these days.

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Goodness – a usenet search just stumbled upon my first ever experience, in 1995, of the power of the internet to make things easier.

My wife and I were planning a trip to Vancouver and wanted to get the ferry over to Vancouver Island. I asked a question about the ferries in rec.travel.usa-canada. I so clearly remember being blown away by the fact that people who I had never met, and never will, would go out of their way to help someone with no obvious hope of reward.

This was formative to say the least. In fact it changed my life. I would not have had the confidence in the internet’s potential to help people help each other, which allowed me to do what I did at the BBC, without this first step. I find it fascinating that I had the luck to experience this nearly sixteen years ago and so many are only now getting the opportunity to experience the same power through Facebook.

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Zero integration with iTunes – I want to share or favourite tracks as I am listening to them.

The pre-selected favourite tracks don’t represent my tastes.

Hard to see what the favourites are as they use album art rather than track titles.

When I choose to add favourites manually I can’t browse my library and have to abort the profile update to look at my lists!

The recommended artists bear even less relationship to my tastes.

No way to import contacts.

Talk about connecting to Facebook but no way to do it.

No way to create or share lists

No integration with Twitter

Photo upload still not working!

[I originally called this post Ten things I don't like about iTunes 10 but realised it was Ping I was ranting about. That then made me question the version number change for iTunes as bugger all else has changed except Ping!]

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I am often asked by clients how to deal with people who block their attempts to bring the social web into organisations. I still have the emotional scars from dealing with the same sort of people myself, so I remember the feelings of frustration well.

I didn’t understand it fast enough but the most important lesson I learned about dealing with these people was that they suck energy. By even dealing with them you give them power. Instead of focussing on moving things forward you get dragged into dealing with their resistance.

But remember you are not going to “convert” everyone and nor should you try!

The way to deal with this is to find ways to route around them. Isn’t this the way the internet was meant to deal with obstacles? Instead of clashing antlers find a way, or more often than not many little ways, to allow them to keep thinking what they think but do what you have to do anyway. I always have the image in mind of nature re-populating concrete industrial landscapes. Roots and shoots emerging through cracks and weaknesses in the apparently solid structures and gradually weakening them until they crumble.

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Joshua-Michele Ross has just published an, as usual, insightful post about the oil disaster in the gulf, BP and social media.

Josh says that BP “as a corporation is structured to be profitable at all costs.” While I might agree with him on this I have also worked with BP and spent time with some if its most senior engineers who were responsible for standards and safety (this was a few years ago ago and they are not the guys dealing with the current situation). They were smart, concerned, experienced people with a high degree of integrity who were talking to me about the possibility of using social media to improve their ways of dealing with the unpredictable better. They were trying to balance the needs of regulation, documentation and the slow wheels of organisational life, with the real and unpredictable world that they had to work in.

This seems to me be to be exactly where the media in social media is so misleading. Josh is right that much of the buzz around this disaster from social media folks is about the story and who wins or loses the PR war. Even the things that Dachis are saying sounds like spin and management bollocks rather than any radical way of changing the way big orgs work.

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There is usually a hype-cycle that occurs during the early adoption phase of anything new. And in the Social Media Marketing (SMM) space, you will find a broad range of vendors, consultants and suppliers who have rushed in to take advantage of the “next big thing”. While most are honorable in their intentions, there is a subset of vendors who will:

• Make it sound so much more difficult than it is
• Promise unrealistic and over inflated results

This occurred during the early years of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and this hype is now occurring with social media. Do not be fooled by the “rainmakers”. There is a lot of snake oil being sold today. If you are going to use an outside agency or vendor to help you please make sure you vet their qualifications fully. The best way to not get taken advantage of by the Social Media Rainmakers is to do your homework first, develop a plan and even consider taking a marketing benchmark to see what your competition is doing. You may still get hounded, but the power of knowledge can help keep you from wasting your time.

Web 2.0 Marketing: For the last five to ten years, the Web was largely an informational channel. However in the past few years, the Internet has become increasingly interactive and social in nature. New forms of community-based channels, driven by a change in customer behavior, are starting to evolve the landscape of the Internet. Social Media Marketing (SMM) has now been added to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and other marketing practices that comprise Web 2.0 Marketing

5 Helpful Social Media Tips: As with any form of communications, if you follow sound marketing fundamentals, use good judgment and take the time to learn best practices, the use of Web 2.0 and Social Media Marketing does not take a rocket scientist to implement. Experienced marketing and corporate communications professionals can easily obtain the skills and knowledge to effectively take advantage of the benefits. There are a lot of free tools and sites available that you can use and learn from. But keep in mind, that while there is significant upside to this new media if done right, there are also documented case studies of companies doing it wrong that has hurt their brand reputation. It is important to approach this new media in the right way. Here are 5 helpful tips:

1. Not all Social Media Sites Are Created Equally
   Creating connections with your target audience is important. However, are you making contact with the right ones that will provide you value? Each social media site has a slightly different brand, member make-up and topics they are interested in. Spend time to understand the sites that are out there and select the ones that attract the audiences you want to interact and build a relationship with.
2. Focus on Giving Value First
   Social media is all about giving to the community. Before you get accepted you need to first give value. If you are seen as only there to sell or for your own self-interest, people will not respond to you. It is a great place to showcase to them your thought leadership. Look for ways to differentiate yourself by providing valuable content and they will seek you out.
3. People Do Business with People They Like
   Customers want to buy from people they like and respect. Once they have an affinity for your expertise and what your company/product stands for they will reward you. It is ok to open up and show your personality. Social media is based on trust and making connections that create a mutual benefit. Like-minded contacts will follow you.
4. Create a Fan Base
   Social media communities are becoming an important way where people trade stories and provide critiques on products, companies, people, etc. The people in your community can represent the best way to advertise – by word of mouth. Create a reason for your contacts to be a fan and to become a referral for you.
5. You Can’t Evaluate What You Don’t Measure
   There are a variety of free tools that allow you to monitor the conversations that are taking place on various social media and blog sites. You need to monitor, evaluate and judge the dialog that is taking place regarding your company and products. When keeping a close watch on the dialog you can make corrections or change to the way you interact with your communities to create the greatest value.

Social Media is Different: While social media can be viewed as an extension or a component of Search Engine Marketing, it really is quite different. In many respects, it fits under the broader category of word-of-mouth marketing – which can either be online or offline driven. The key difference is that it relies on the collective nature of social groups that have similar interests, like to share information and who want to establish relationships. When integrated into your overall Web 2.0 marketing plans, it can be a powerful new strategy. There are many objectives achievable through Web 2.0 marketing and social media:

• Drive increased Web traffic
• Create relevant links to your Website
• Increase brand awareness
• Improve conversions
• Stimulate conversations
• Establish relationships and create brand affinity

Focus on Strategic Planning: While outside agencies can be a big help, do your homework first to learn what makes social media tick. Spend time visiting and participating in online communities and doing a little reading. It really is not that difficult to implement correctly. Before deciding on the social media path that best fits your business model, you need to gain a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs, wants, issues, passions, concerns, and the communities in which they participate in, and so on…

Benchmark Your Current Position: As part of your strategic development process you should also benchmark your current execution level, gain a better understanding of what your competition is doing and develop a road map focused on what you want to accomplish through social media channels.

Social Media Marketing is not as hard as it seems or in some cases portrayed by social media rainmakers. If you plan to use an outside resource, the more you know about social media yourself the better you can manage the value you gain from using agencies that focus on building your network/community/following. Social media is a new channel you can take advantage of. Do your homework first by developing a plan and you can achieve success.

Jim Arnold is a results-oriented marketing professional who has held leadership roles with IBM, EDS, Sabre/Travelocity and other notable companies. He is a forward-thinking strategist who has a passion for testing innovative ideas, developing new go-to-market strategies and leveraging the latest Web 2.0 marketing technologies to drive increased levels of business value. He recently co-founded MetricsBoard, a new Web 3.0 performance benchmarking company that is crowd-verified and crowd-generated.

Metricsboard.com provides FREE automated benchmark assessments covering a broad range of business topics. The benchmarks take less than 10 minutes online to complete. In return, you receive a full results report with free comparison data on best practices, a maturity rating against your competition (peer group) and strategic recommendations. There is a benchmark for Web 2.0 Marketing, B2B Sales and IT Infrastructure – with more subjects to come. Your privacy is protected and you will not receive any sales follow-up calls.

Find out how you compare against your competitors? Learn the latest Web 2.0 Marketing and Social Media best practices and performance tips. Download complimentary ePapers. Visit: http://www.metricsboard.com

Author: Jim W Arnold
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Whether you are the rain-maker in a small firm, a sales representative, or responsible for a national sales force, it’s in your best interest to branch out and create alternative ways to reach perspective customers. Having multiple marketing streams is the life-blood of any lead generation and lead nurturing program. But don’t count on your company’s marketing department to do it for you, it’s not their job to promote you the sales person- they’re supposed to promote the company.

Many rain-makers that I know earn well into the 6 and 7 figures. They know what they are good at and they keep to it. It makes sense but the problem is that by focusing on only one or two ways of generating business, it limits their ability to make even more money for their company and themselves.

So how do you turn today’s salesperson into tomorrow’s rain-maker? I think companies need to reevaluate how they look at their sales team and how they should be deployed in their sales process. They need to go beyond the limiting aspects of established territories, industry verticals, or product focus and begin to allow the sales person to become special ambassadors – mini CEO’s if you will, with their own sales, marketing and promotional strategies and systems.

Here are the critical areas for becoming a well-rounded rain-maker that will boost your ability to earn more income for the company and for yourself:

o Self-Branding. You need to become known for something. Go out and create a platform from which you can tie your views into the product or service that you are offering. Most people don’t know this, but no matter what suit Gary Cooper wore in public, he always wore green socks. I’m noticing today that the bow-tie is making a come back for guests on national news networks. These gimmicks may get you noticed but they won’t give you shelf-life. I’m thinking more in line with my friend Manny Sanchez, Managing Partner of Sanchez & Daniels, the second largest minority-owned law firm in America. He considers himself the Latino Ambassador for issues and trends that he knows are important to his Fortune 100 clients. The CEO’s of these companies rely on him to give them insight into this growing lucrative market. He has created a platform that gets him, and his firm, noticed.

o Corporate Branding. A rain-maker want-to-be should focus their branding efforts for their specific sales area. They will take out ads themselves if their company doesn’t do it.

o Sponsorships – Strategic hand-outs that provide money for events, underwriting newsletters, other corporate outings, or even associations can go a long way. While helping USWeb/CKS grow their revenues, we gave out golf umbrellas that had their logo on it at an industry golf outing. It was a hot sunny day. Many people invited to golf outings aren’t really golfers – we became heroes to those prospects that really needed the shade. Nobody talked about any of the other trinket’s that other companies gave out.

o Advertising – Advertise where your prospects lurk. Online: buy banners on association and exposition sites before the big event, or at industry magazine sites. Look into broadcast advertising and print advertising. I know a real estate rain-maker here in Chicago. He worked out a deal with a billboard company. Instead of buying just one billboard for 12 months, he worked with them to place his advertisement when they had contracts expire. The result netted him staggered one-month exposures on 12 different billboards all throughout the city of Chicago – his market. He paid for it himself. The ads created a huge buzz and a 5:1 return on investment.

o Networking/Referral. This is where most rain-makers spend the majority of their time. It’s extremely effective, but it’s also the major reason so many of them are missing other potential prospects. You can’t reach everyone by networking. Focus on networking with:

o Clients – Your clients are the most influential salespeople for your company. They can lead you into wonderful new accounts simply by making the introduction. I recommend that your client, your prospect, and you, meet together at the first meeting. Your clients are also the first people you should sell/network with when you launch a new product. My friend Bill Rancic did that when he was on his way to winning the first Trump Apprentice. After his team created a client base for one of their tasks he went back to those same relationships to sell to or get referrals from those clients. His team won both tasks and he went on to win the game.

o Alliances – Take a good look at how else you can leverage contacts into revenue generating relationships. Look into current partners, vendors, opinion molders, authors, and experts.

o Channel Partners – When I was growing a software services company, one of the rain-maker areas included establishing relationships with hardware sales reps. I bought them lunch at their team meetings and showed how I could help present business solutions to their prospects (ultimately my prospects too) that would help sell their hardware and made sure my reps went with them at any part of the sales cycle. It was truly win-win-win.

o Friends/Groups – I network with people but my outlook is not quid-pro-quo. Recently I helped the COO of a software company help his business associate help his son try to get an internship (did you follow that?). I put the college student in touch with an extremely influential person in my network. I’ve made the introduction and I’m not sure what will come of the internship – that’s out of my hands now. But as a result the COO wants to do business with me and my company, unsolicited. This happens time and time again. By the way, I even took the time to coach the student. We discussed what to say, how to say it, and how to follow up with calls and thank you cards.

o Phone Calls. Phone calls are very important. I believe everyone should do about 30 – 45 minutes a day of pure cold calling just to keep sharp. Any more and you’ll be headed for burnout. Most of my calls I try to turn into warm calls in some way. Usually it’s through using every one of the tips in this newsletter, and more, to gain a warmer reception to my calls. For the rest of the day, phone work should be used to develop relationships once you’ve met your prospect in some other way. Calling can be used to confirm contact information and to do cross-marketing.

o Email. No I don’t support SPAM. Make sure you understand the wording of the law. For the most part as long as the message in your email serves your prospect, has a viable street address, contact name and phone number, and provides a link for the prospect to get removed from the list, you should be okay.

o One-to-Many – Create an electronic newsletter such as this to communicate with prospects and clients. Send out announcements with a link to take anonymous polls located at your web site or by using sites like http://www.zoomerang.com. It’s a great way to share content quickly.

o One-to-One – Create templates for yourself and your sales team. This is a great way to brand yourself. I make sure that my picture goes out whenever it makes sense. It gets me recognized at conferences and expositions. People see me coming before I even see them and they make it a point to say hello.

o Events. Yes you should make it out to the biggest events for your industry. Even if you don’t have a booth, you should reserve a table for 20 at a restaurant and invite clients and prospects to join you.

o Seminars – Create your own. You’re supposed to have the gift of gab – your listening skills should be even better and exercised more than talking however – but what better way to make your pitch than one to many? It doesn’t have to be elaborate. If you sell to industrial park CEO’s reserve a room at the local restaurant and buy your prospects lunch. Establish the menu up front so that it fits your budget but allows prospects a small selection. Make your presentation to them at the luncheon. I know ran-makers that also do this at the Union League Club.

o Workshops – Get the rest of your company involved in delivering information to your clients and prospects.

o Webseminar or Webinar – Video record one of your seminars and post it to your web site. Studies show that if you can deliver content when it’s convenient to your client or prospect, you’ll have a better hit rate than making them all register and go to their computers at a specific time.

o Teleseminar – Technology is such that you can record a sales presentation and make it available to your prospects and clients via the phone. There are companies that will let you set up a conference call that your prospects can dial in to. Record it and re market it on your web site or offer it as a giveaway on CD.

o Conferences/Tradeshows – Show up when you can. Work with industry reporters that will be there and see if there is some way you can help them with newsworthy articles. Make sure you have a plan for getting names, pre-qualifying them and make sure you have a system for following up with prospects. Marketing statistics prove that nearly 90% of all leads do not get a follow up call.

o Create your own web site or start a weblog “blog”. Even if you work for a large company you should have your own web page. Get your company to add a few pages for you. If they won’t do it then they are not working in your best interest. Go online and get your own web domain setup. Create a few pages that will help to establish your expertise and credibility. Post your articles, post podcasts or webcasts so that your prospects can view them at their convenience – that’s key. Give them the kind of content that they are looking for such as helpful links. Promote it to your prospects, industry experts, customers, reporters, etc. as a place to get up to date information.

o Site design – Make it simple and easy to navigate. Let them download information from the site. You can build a prospect database if they give you a name and email address. Test to see if more prospects download without having to give you an email. Latest tests show that requiring a visitor to give up information dramatically reduces downloads.

o SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Make everything easy to find. Use pay-per-click techniques. Make sure you make all copy on the site and in your download information searchable by key words from your prospects.

o Lead Nurturing. There are two approaches in this area:

o Execution Vehicles – these are talked about in other sections of this newsletter such as events, direct mail, email, phone, etc.

o Content Creating – Creating content that establishes you, the rain-maker, as an expert is where you will leave your competition behind. This is where you make your intelligence shine. Newsletters, press releases, articles with links to your site, case studies, white papers, and special reports are just some of the ways that set you a part and build your credibility. These are the ways the rain-maker promotes him or her self. This information can then be easily repurposed into other promotional efforts.

o Public Relations.

o Write editorials for your local paper or trade magazines.

o Public speaking – industry and association events.

o Create your own speaking engagements whenever possible.

o Strive to become a keynote speaker.

o Article placement – write articles and get them published in newspapers, magazines, or online.

o Press releases – make an effort to get at least one release out per month. Find ways to make what you do newsworthy.

o Promote yourself as an industry expert to the TV, cable, and radio media. Try to be the local angle to national news stories.

o Make friends with reporters and the media in your area of expertise. It takes time but those that keep at it are the ones that get articles written about them and their companies.

o Direct Mail. Yes direct mail works. Create a campaign that will turn cold calls into warm calls.

o Dimensional Mail – 3-D mailings work very well. Who doesn’t want to open something they got in the mail that looks like a present? Make sure your list is clean and accurate or you will waste money. And have a phone, email, and fax follow up program to increase your response rates.

o Self Mailer – Have your prospect mail something in to show they are interested in your product or service.

o Postcards – Use them to remind reporters about your expertise. Keep the message the same – repetition breeds success. Prospects will see your message. Most people at least look at the post card compared to never opening junk mail envelopes.

Even if you are a sales rep for a fortune 500 company, I know your marketing department is not creating this kind of credibility for you specifically – that’s not their job. By employing these ideas you will create the momentum of future sales and everyone in the company will be asking you how you do it.

David Wells, Founder of http://www.emdco.com, a provider of business-to-business lead creation, data confirmation and integrated marketing solutions. Subscribe to “The Business-to-Business Sales Strategist’s Tips of the Week” ezine at http://www.emdco.com/registernow.html.

Author: Dave Wells
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty

I know I go on about how wonderful the web is but having just had a really, really nice evening with AKMA, having known him for nearly nine years but never having “met” I am yet again blown away by its power to connect people. The way we immediately felt at ease and the warmth in our friendship makes a mockery of those who say online is somehow secondary to face to face as a way of establishing relationships.

We covered everything from politics, to religion to, yes, sex and in a way that I just didn’t want to stop. As I said to the two young ladies sitting at the table next to us who we asked to take this photo – they had been witness to what, certainly for me, was a magic moment.

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