TheSocialCMO

Maintaining Your Garden of Trust

This morning I was getting some seeds started for my garden, and I was reminded of a tweet from a few weeks ago where I said something to the effect of ‘customer service is now more like gardening and less like hunting – nurture relationships.’ Well, the SCRM crowd (social customer relationship management) pushed back. [@wimrampen @grahamhill @ekolsky @myjayliebs @mkrigsman @SameerPatel @pgreenbe @kitson, you know who you are!] They said this wasn’t the case, and that studies had shown that customers don’t really want a relationship with a brand. To me, “relationship” doesn’t have to mean I’m going to have you over for dinner. There are levels. It can just mean that I will recommend you to a friend. I let it go at the time, but I want to go for Round 2.

I think that gardening is as powerful a metaphor as any for the life-cycle of a process, and I do see a correlation between what it takes to grow a garden and what it takes to build trust with a potential customer, client, or future alliance. Here’s how I see it:


seeds

It starts with a seed. Tiny enough to get lost in the crease of your palm, seemingly insignificant on it’s own, it’s value not immediately apparent. This is that new contact, that new Twitter follower, yourself.

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Making Social Media Happen in Your Company

New video from @ChrisBrogan recorded at SAS’s headquarters in Cary, North Carolina in which he lays out some concrete steps people and companies can take to make social media happen.

Notable are the points on the utility of social media in undoing the lobotomy that seperated functions such as marketing and PR to now create a unified development and communications capability.



Looking forward to meeting Chris at #BroganMemphis as it seems he shares some of the unification goals of @TheSocialCMO through C-Level Social and smashing the silos with social media is currently one of our favorite pastimes!

Jeff Ashcroft

Balance between New Technology and Social Etiquette?

What is going on these days? It seems that every place I go— countless people are looking down towards the ground (i.e. their phones, IPODs, mobile devices etc). For example, I have seen couples who are out on “dates” and although they are sitting across from each other—they are not listening or engaged in the conversation to each other- but instead are focused on browsing the web or texting someone else. If we are not careful we going to have a generation of people with strained necks from spending so much time looking down at such devices.

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The Thrill of the Chase vs. the Drudgery of Dialogue

For many, the chase is simply easier than the work associated with building and nurturing lasting relationships. The chase offers variety, an adrenaline rush, and – win or lose – it’s off to the next pursuit. No working through misunderstandings and unrealized expectations.

No – this isn’t a post about personal relationships — parallels notwithstanding. This is about business development. And for some reason, many professional service organizations and B-to-B endeavors invest disproportionate amounts of time and energy chasing irresistible “opportunities.”

In almost every instance, the shortest path to revenue growth lies in meaningful dialogue (the stuff of lasting relationships) with existing clients.

This would seem to be of particular interest in today’s marketplace — where the slightest growth is challenging, and leveraging every investment is a must.

The math is simple. Deepening an existing client relationship is almost always a better investment than the costs — hard and soft — associated with the pursuit of a new target. Deepen an existing relationship, and not only are you on the road to increased revenue; you’ve changed your profitability arithmetic.

Just in case I have to say it — here goes: this is not a suggestion that we should not engage in the pursuit of new clients. It is a reminder to all of us leading business development efforts: when we invest more in the pursuit of new opportunities than in the care and nurture of existing relationships, we may have fallen victim to the thrill of the chase.

Relationships that endure and grow are the result of a calculated investment in the proactive art (and, yes – often drudgery) of dialogue.

Eric Fletcher

Even though the economy is turning this is good selling advice

A fantastic training resource for all of us is Selling Power’s site. They have daily short videos that you can watch to get tips.

I came across this video today about selling during a recession. The key take aways are:

  • First, buyers don’t purchase based on price. This is never the number one reason why people buy even in a recession. Instead, you need to show and prove that buying from your company is extremely low on the risk scale.
  • Second, you cannot come across as afraid that your job is at risk and that you are desperate to make a sale.

So, here’s the way I’d approach this.

  • First, you need to instill confidence in your customers and prospects. You need to establish key pillars that you can use to show that your company will weather this storm. It could be that you’ve weathered two recessions. It could be that you have a diverse customer base etc.
  • Second, ownership/Mgt must instill confidence in their employees. You must show them that you have their backs and that their jobs are not a risk. A wounded animal gets eaten.
  • Third, you must be confident and believe that this recession is an opportunity for you and your clients. Work hard, show them value and that you are the guy/gal that will help them get through this tough time. Drive to survive, drive to thrive.

Watch the video, it’s well worth the 4:30 minutes.

Chris Herbert

Confessions of a world traveler

magritte

Eric Fletcher posted a tweet saying, “World traveller @treypennington…” At first, I was a tad embarrassed, then I embraced his reference. This IS an incredible time and I am grateful for the amazing adventure life is. I’m even more thankful for the fuel powering this adventure.

tweet

No doubt most of us think of places when we hear “world traveler,” as in Big Ben or the London Eye in London or the Eiffel Tower, River Senn, or Notre Dame in Paris. All are fantastic places and places I’ve been able to see this year. Still, there’s something else that makes those places so memorable…

London is a romantic, history-rich place with ample venues for catching up with Gemma, Caroline, Luke, Dickie, Eric, Drew, Gabrielle and many other friends. Paris is home to Loic, Thibault, Maxim, and Michelle. Devon is home territory for Scott, Andrew, John, and a whole host of people who are friends.

My journeys abroad take me face-to-face with friends—friends I met and got to know first on social media (primarily Twitter). The fuel for my “world travels” is the people of social media.

magritte-golconde

Social media opens doors to new friends all over the place. To experience the true hidden treasure in social media, it’s vital to take advantage of opportunities to get face-to-face. Social media can fuel the initial connections and the ongoing connections; face-to-face adds immeasurable richness to the experience.

Social media not only opens the doors to new friends, it also paves the road to opportunities usually limited to folks called celebrities. For instance, because of connections and interactions facilitated by social media, I’ll spend time with Seth Godin in New York and with Zig Ziglar in Orlando…all this month and then again with Chris Brogan in Memphis next month.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because I’m a celebrity or an important person? Hardly. The point is, I’m an average person who’s having an extraordinary experience because of new friends all around the world. The tools that connected me with those friends are readily available to you. That means you have what you need to discover the open doors to whatever adventure you want.

Those of us who enjoy what can be accomplished through social media often spend a lot of time actually talking about the media. The media is fascinating. The adventure begins, though, not with the media, but with people it connects you with.

My adventure, and joy in life, is finding new friends, being with them long enough to catch a vision of their hidden treasure, help them see it and then encourage them and help them grasp it to do something.

Your adventure is probably something entirely different. You, for instance, may want to get people to consume resources with minimal impact on the environment: there are brilliant people doing unbelievably cool things around your adventure…they just probably aren’t hanging out at your local coffee shop or pub. They probably are hanging out online…and sharing what they’re learning (check out what Norway is doing about storing the CO2 deep under the sea, for instance).

Whatever your dream adventure is, there are probably whole communities of people already gathering online to talk about it. Why not jump in online and watch for your opportunity to get face-to-face with them?

Trey Pennington

Conversations, Relationships & Renaming Social Media

There are, no doubt, a few good reasons for some business endeavors — in particular, professional service enterprises — to have concerns over the use of social media. For example, lawyers, doctors and accountants cannot be perceived to be offering legal, medical or tax advice in any media marketing context — social or otherwise.

I believe every concern I’ve heard can be addressed; but I’ll also cop to believing the benefits of conversations with clients and targets far outweigh concerns — provided, of course, ethical and regulatory issues are appropriately addressed.

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Humanize Your Marketing With Buyer Personas

Buyer Persona development may just be the most important element in a content marketing strategy. Having a deeper, more personal understanding of your customers leads to content creation that not only builds trust, but also demonstrates your willingness to spend the necessary time to learn the actual circumstances that affect your customers.

With well-defined buyer personas, your content suddenly becomes for *someone* versus *everyone*. And that makes all the difference when trying to build a relationship with your customers through your content marketing strategy.

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How to make sure your stuff POPS!

“Help! I’m drowning!”

You probably felt that way about information overload BEFORE you added social media to your daily routine. Now you, me and everyone else are drowning in a swirling sea of data, appeals, ads, options, opt-ins, opt-outs and so many pop-up screens we’re all pooped-out. The problem is, as business owners and leaders, we still have to communicate and connect.

On my radio show, Social Media Professor, I spoke with someone who can help: Sam Horn. Sam is someone who knows how to make product names, taglines and headlines POP! She assures us we “don’t have to have an MBA or a multimillion-dollar budget to create one-of-a-kind ideas, products, and messages. All you need is the POP! Process: a fun, fascinating, and strategic approach for making your message purposeful, original, and pithy—to generate instant intrigue and word-of-mouth buzz.”

POP book cover
POP book cover

Hear the Social Media Professor interview with Sam Horn on BlogTalkRadio.

Subscribe to the Social Media Professor Podcast on iTunes.

Sam Horn: Twitter | Web

Jumpstart your naming brainstorm with a prefix, suffix and root chart.

Brogan: Why he’s Worth It

OK: All the hype about Brogan making money off the social media world: First of all, I am glad to know that we are all in social media to ultimately develop revenue (OK, not everybody but I admit most). Of course it’s mostly about meeting people and establishing relationships that lead to engagement. Bottom line is this—tweeting is a waste of time if you can’t show your company or boss how you are helping to contribute results. It’s not what’s on your virtual resume or “footprint” that counts—it is what you contribute to your team. REVENUE rules. You would think in this economy people would “get it” and it continues to amaze me that some people feel entitled to their jobs! >> FAIL. If you are not generating revenue, adding monetary value to your organization, you should re-think things. Gone are the days of cushy corporate 9-5 jobs. The re-set button has been pushed and we are never returning to what was. The new world is tough and getting tougher. Cheers to those who can add value, be helpful and monetize—fairly—their work. Chris Brogan is one of them. I know recently he’s been criticized about this but I can tell you, he is –to me—an innovative businessman. He’s awesome, geeky, smart, fun and accessible—but remember, he’s in it to build a business and I respect him for it. As a small business owner, I get it, support it and have been around long enough to know that change is the ONE thing we count on. Just because someone starts out in one place doesn’t mean they stay there. Today’s businesses that succeed are flexible, dynamic and open to new. Chris Brogan is evolving as we all are and that’s the fun part about any business.

Social Media 101: Chris Brogan’s new book: I love it. It boils down great ideas, Chris’ own experiences, tools he likes, tools he’s not sure about, his opinions on things, examples of folks he respects, the list goes on. Businesses can learn tons from this new book. Some good points: Twitter is a great way to promote your business blog and links; Photo Share rocks; Clients and how to involve them on your blog; The importance of Strategy (one of my favorite words); Specific uses of social media for industries like real estate, banking, etc.; Blogging tips including good examples for titles (the importance of brevity). GET THE BOOK. You’ll love it if you get what I meanJ

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree: I have had the pleasure of contacting Chris to invite him to Memphis May 6th to speak to Memphis businesses on how social media gives everyone a big voice. In planning our event (check my website for registration/info) I have had the great pleasure of working with Diane Brogan—his booking agent and Mom. All I can say is that she is a wonderful person, a joy to work with. We have had phone conversations and some e-mail exchanges. I haven’t even had to talk to Chris yet (although I look forward to it). It is evident to me that family is most important to the Brogan crew and I think that’s the coolest thing of all. I have tweeted recently that #DianeRocks and she does. If every other speaker I’ve booked had been so easy/fun. Thanks Diane! Maybe Chris will get to be the honorary Peabody Hotel Duckmaster while he’s here in our River City!

Cool People coming to #BroganMemphis: We have 14 (and counting) cool Tweeps flying to Memphis for the May 6th event. Soon I will list them all as we’re still compiling the list!!! From Canada to PA to NYC to MO…the CMO crew is coming in. What a huge tribute to Chris and to the Power of Twitter. This idea came to me while talking with Twitter friends Glen Gilmore (aka @TrendTracker) and Anne Gallaher (aka @AnneDGallaher) and with their encouragement, my being on Twitter and Chris Brogan talking back to me (imagine that)…here we are! Thanks to all our sponsors: FedEx, Peabody, Pinnacle Airlines, JudyMac Team, The Memphis Daily News…we’re going to “trend on Twitter with the Power Tweeters” in May! Join us if you can. My website has all details at www.howell-marketing.com

Thanks for reading this! I look forward to your comments and any questions you may have. Rock on!

Amy Howell