TheSocialCMO

Blogging Is Dead

It’s almost like a rite of spring. Every year, pundits proclaim the death of blogging.

As far back as 2007 ReadWriteWeb was asking the question. In 2008, it was Wired, wondering if the rise of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and the like would be more en vogue for individuals, who were getting pushed aside as the conglomerate professional blogs were beginning to take prominence. In 2009, Copyblogger declared blogging dead (again) but noted that it would continue to live on. Just last year, Problogger debated the role that email played in all of this, and concluded that it’s not an either/or decision.

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Make Your Customers Feel at Home

In the physical world, when our trusted and valued friends come to visit our house, we often welcome them by saying, “Come in…make yourselves at home!”   In the virtual world, do you do the same thing?  When customers and prospects visit your online site, do they feel at home there?

Think about retailers that offer snacks, coffee, samples, valuable information, and sometimes even entertainment in their shops.  They create a welcoming atmosphere for their customers because they know it will encourage them to stay around the shop, browsing the products and learning more about the brand…and greatly increasing the chances of a sale.

Your online site needs to do the same thing.  What do you do to make your current and prospective customers feel comfortable?   What are you doing to add value to their day?  What experience are you giving them? In other words, how are you inspiring them to stick around now and return later…with their friends?

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How We Curated the Oscars

Real-time social content is a perfect mate for live television programming because it greatly enhances the overall experience for viewers. Through the integration of real-time social content and live programming, people can watch reactions and commentary from a global live audience while they’re watching and hearing a show on TV. Chloe Sladden, Twitter and Beverly Macy, author of The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing have recently written about how real-time social content will create more engaging experiences for TV audiences.

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How SXSW Inspired Me

As I am flying home from my first SXSW, my mind is reeling. Spinning really. Having worked in digital development and communications for 15 years, I’ve been to dozens if not a hundred conferences. But never has one affected me so profoundly. To be immersed in a creative, collaborative and hyper-connected environment was amazing.

In many ways, it was like I walked out of Plato’s cave for the first time only to wonder that despite all of my experience and exptertise, have I spent 1.5 decades merely looking at the shadows on the walls. There are too many experiences and ideas rattling around in my head than I could really convey and share at this point. But one feeling that I have to share is a bit of sadness. I feel supremely inspired, but with that comes a bit of depression.

I have dozens of learnings and lessons to apply at McDonalds. Dozens of news tools and techniques that I master, both personally and professionally. I am awestruck by the possibilities of online learning to fix so many maladies of both our educational system and the flaled local funding systems that support them. I want to join more boards. Volunteer at charities. There are three startups that I want to start up. Which is exactly where the depression comes in. I have but one life to live. I am bound by that infinite and infernal curse of having a mere 24 hours in a day. I miss my sons terribly and already feel like they are growing up without me.

I want to jump and learn and discover and build. I also want to cry when I think of the many thousands of miles that both currently and in the future will separate me from my family. This is far from a lament. This is an opportunity. If my experience in Austin taught me anything, it is that we are living on the precipice of a new age where any problem is solvable. It is up to me to define the problem and find the solution.

SXSW 2012 is a year away. That is 365 days to see if I can solve both problems I see and ones that I have yet to fully define and comprehend. Both personally and professionally. So expect a new focus on my blog. I don’t necessarily want to write more (because forced blogging could be yet another burden to shoulder) but I want to write better. I want to develop a focus that applies the lessons of the last four days into methodical and focused journey to fixing these problems. I welcome thoughts, tips and general sharing as I count down the 365 days until the next Austin moment.

Rick Wion

Advocacy Drives “Social Sampling”

Kleenex made waves with its recent “Softness Worth Sharing campaign,” which encouraged people to have FREE Kleenex sample packs sent to friends and family.  Earlier this month, a reported 1 million Kleenex packs had been sent on behalf of Kleenex consumers!

What made this innovative campaign so successful?  Kleenex gave consumers the chance to not only interact with their product, but to also easily give their friends/family the same experience. In other words, Kleenex identified Advocates, who in turn sent more samples and encouraged their networks to do the same… they were energized and mobilized.  Social sampling at its best!

One important part of this campaign was providing a way for people to track the campaign online – including their own “chain of sharing,”  where a consumer can see if their sample-sending inspired someone else to send sample(s).  When consumers can see the impact of their action, it can easily inspire them to act again and spread the word to their friends about this “cool thing you have to check out!”  Again, it energizes and mobilizes Advocates.

We know how important it is to give our Brand Advocates the tools to market our products for us, and now Kleenex has taken this concept one step further by giving consumers the tools AND THE PRODUCT (samples) to share with their networks.  They have made it easy and fun for Advocates to create a buzz around a specific product and to share theexperience of the product.

Successful social sampling campaigns rely on consumer-to-consumer connection, and your Advocates are the most powerful way to create those ties.

Ted Rubin

Originally posted at Zuberance

Salesforce.com Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Radian6, the Industry’s Leading Social Media Monitoring Platform

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing (http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/) company, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Radian6, the industry-leading social media monitoring platform, for approximately $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, net of cash acquired. The transaction is expected to be completed in salesforce.com’s fiscal second quarter ending July 31, 2011, subject to customary closing conditions.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050216/SFW105LOGO)

Comments on the News

  • “With Radian6, salesforce.com is gaining the technology and market leader in social media monitoring,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. “We see this as a huge opportunity. Not only will this acquisition accelerate our growth, it will extend the value of all of our offerings.”
  • “Social media has made every business recognize the value of paying attention to the voice of the customer. Radian6’s technology is built for the new norm of customer engagement – real time, two way conversations that includes social channels,” said Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6. “Joining the salesforce.com team will allow Radian6 to grow faster to meet the demands of our rapidly expanding customer base.”

Radian6 is the Market and Technology Leader in Social Media Monitoring and Engagement

Founded in 2006, Radian6 was created with the idea that companies need to monitor the social web in order to effectively join conversations with customers and prospects. Radian6’s unique technology captures hundreds of millions of conversations every day across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and online communities, and provides actionable insights in real-time.

Radian6’s products include a monitoring platform designed to help companies track and analyze their social media efforts, as well as an engagement platform to help companies connect with individuals and communities online. The intelligence gained from these conversations has become critical in helping companies better market and sell to prospects, service customers and understand what’s being said about their brand, products, competitors and services.

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10 Projects Moving Us Towards a Superfluid Economy

Over the upcoming months leading up to the Contact Summit in October, I’ll be highlighting various projects and initiatives working to construct a globally networked society. As humanity and technology co-evolve into higher orders of complexity, it can be said that social media is now facilitating the emergence of new forms of culture, commerce, and governance. We want to bring attention to the great and liberating stuff that’s happening, and encourage connections, conversation, and collaboration.

The past few weeks have been focused on technology infrastructure, starting with the Towards A Distributed Internet post and the resource list of mesh networks, and continuing on with the formation of a Next Net google group that’s thriving with over 90 members already!

We’ll continue to circle back and revisit conversations and progress, but for now I’ll move on to another hot topic: money and value exchange.

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We need to ask the Moms!

The recent Yahoo study suggesting that Dads rule the grocery shopping cart is causing a stir in the marketing community with article headlines like “Time to Rethink Your Message: Now the Cart Belongs to Daddy.”

The study shows that out of 2,400 US men (ages 18-64), 51% of them report they are the primary grocery shoppers in their households.  For Dads in particular, that number is slightly higher as 6 in 10 call themselves the primary decision makers on purchases of packaged goods, health, pet and clothing purchases.

We need to take this information with a grain of salt because, in my view, they asked the wrong people.  Instead of Dads, they should be asking the Moms the questions about who has the primary grocery shopping role. Dads, recently a bit jealous of the attention Marketers are paying to Moms and not to them, are making inflated claims about their decision making power and influence on household purchases… sorry Dad. Many a Mom will jump in and make it clear that although more Dads are doing the shopping, it is the Moms who are making the list… at least in the majority of cases.

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Why You Should Break Out of Your Social Media Shell

Don’t get me wrong – social media is great. You can make wonderful connections that way. I know I have.

But, it’s only part of the equation.

The real magic happens when you step away from the computer and transform those online connections to in-person relationships.

I’ve done business with people I’ve met online and have developed a cadre of colleagues and friends through social media connections. But, none of that would have been possible if I hadn’t stepped away from my computer to meet folks in person.

I know this isn’t always easy for folks, especially if you’re new to social media. Trying to determine when it’s appropriate to ask someone for coffee can be scary if you’ve never done it before.

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McDonald’s scales to meet social media demands

In a recent #MMchat session, I referred to McDonald’s as a social media best practice and said they should give me some free fries for the reference. In a tribute to the way McDonald’s is “tuned in” to its audience, Rick Wion, the company’s director of social media, responded to one of my tweets and said that he would indeed buy me some fries.

What resulted was even better … a lengthy discussion and a short video interview when I got to meet him live at SXSW. Talk about the business benefits of Twitter!

How does a global icon like McDonald’s — one of the world’s most important brands — engage with millions of customers? Well here’s the answer in this video. I think you’re going to love this interview. We touch on some very significant topics about the research that went into their effort, humanizing a brand, staffing up for an initiative like this, and where it will lead.

Would love to hear your comments about this. We may even be able to get Rick to answer a few questions.

Mark Schaefer

Here’s a link to the #MMchat with @MarkWSchaefer The True Business Benefits of Twitter

And a link to all of Rick Wion’s posts here @TheSocialCMO