Will The Business People Please Stand Up?

I don’t care about social media gurus or experts or mavens or whatever. That whole thing is going to settle itself out eventually, when the good work starts getting more concrete, and the people actually doing the work continue demonstrating and illustrating their learnings and results.

apesara

What concerns me far more than some nerd slinging his Facebook skillz around the fishbowl is the fact that in so many disciplines – social media included – we’ve got legions of people out there that are missing fundamental business acumen.

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4 Reasons For Brands to Tweet ~ @TrendTracker

Newest member of The Social CMO group is Glen Gilmore the @TrendTracker and he shares with us 4 Reasons For Brands to Tweet.

1. Twitter is knocking out the competition.

While Twitter is still more than a bit confounding to those not tweeting, its exponential growth is knocking out the competition in the world of messaging. What was previously viewed as a fad for the techie fringe, is now the darling to daytime talk shows, sports figures, newscasters, and nearly anyone hoping to have their message heard.

More importantly, moms and dads are tweeting, teachers are tweeting, and a whole lot of other mainstream people are in the process of signing up to enter the conversation.

The question of “What are you are you having for lunch?” has been replaced by, “Where are you going for lunch?” “What specials are they offering the Twitterverse?” Ditto for computers, shoes, vacations, and much, much more.

2. Twitter creates the opportunity for brands to find and connect with new customers.

A great example of this is United Airline’s (@UnitedAirlines) Twitter campaign offering special incentives to the first 10,000 twitterers who follow their account. @TrendTracker was one twitterer who took the bait. The result? To participate in the special offer, one had to have or open a frequent flyer account with United….And @TrendTracker did just that then. So Twitter can not only provide a forum for creating new connections to potential new customers, but it can even create the buzz to make it happen.

Want another example? Visit one of the many Dell computer Twitter accounts, such as @DellHomeOffers, to discover how they sold $3 million of additional wares thanks to their Twitter presence.

3. Twitter creates a critical listening post and damage-response base that brands ignore at their own peril.

You live and learn. Without belaboring it, one of the most glaring examples of the dangers of ignoring the Twitterverse was the failure of Domino’s Pizza to quickly pick up on and respond to the buzz in the Twitterverse of a terrible brand attack by a couple despicable, now former, employees. Domino’s ultimately succeeded in putting out the firestorm, but it would have had a better response if it had been listening to the social media buzz and sharing a home within the social media community. It is now doing both and doing both well. (Visit @dpzinfo)

4. Twitter is a community that shares.

Twitter is a community that shares — just about everything and at lightening speeds. This can be good or bad: good if you’re listening, have established credibility, and earned a tribe; bad if you are ignorning what is being said, have no presence and no tribe that will share your message when you need it most.

Brands that understand Twitter, get to be treated like an equal member of the community: they’ll get important tips, they’ll get to share their own message (yes, even when it’s commercial in nature!), and they’ll develop relationships that someone, somewhere will be able to quantify as an important return on the investment of listening and sharing in this incredible forum.

And if they listen and share in somewhat equal portions, there is no doubt that they will discover that their brand has gotten just a little bit better than the one they brought to the conversation….

For more thoughts on Social Media, follow @TrendTracker on Twitter.

Lighting the social media fire @TheSocialCMO

When I was a boyscout I learned how to best set and build a fire. First you needed the right place, then some kindling, small wood and finally to lay on the logs. Then comes the most important element required to bring a roaring fire to life and that is when you strike the match or scratch out a spark.

Over the last several weeks we have been learning to build a new kind of fire by combining people, ideas, technology and community to build something called The Social CMO. This upstart social media fire began with the construction and linking of two simple WordPress blogs in combination with the @TheSocialCMO Twitter account.

The kindling for this fire was collected imperceptibly through participation in a growing network of likeminded tweeters, great people like Amy @HowellMarketing, @TedRubin, @KentHuffman and @EricFletcher to begin with. And of course every team needs some cheerleaders and one of our most fervent from the start has been Cheryl Burgess @ckburgess!

Shortly thereafter we were joined by @SamDecker, Ryan @sauerscomm, @AnneDGallaher and of course the one and only @b2bspecialist Chris Herbert!

The small glow already emanating from this modest group led us to believe that something more was happening here but clearly some really large logs were now needed. However, it turned out that not elongated chunks of wood, but social media and community pros @Ambercadabra, @TreyPennington and @TrendTracker Glen Gilmore were all that was required to fuel the spontaneous combustion that is now taking place.

It took man thousands of years to fully understand and harness the power of fire to form tools and sharpen weapons, melt sand into glass and launch ourselves into space. But there seems little doubt this new fire will have the strength to not only improve us all as individuals, but also to create and deliver grand new discoveries through this collective entity The Social CMO.

@JeffAshcroft

Tough Love: We Have Work To Do

I say “we”, because I include myself in what I’m about to say.

whip

Yesterday, I posted that what we really need is more people with solid business skills. And Justin commented, rightly so, that many of the people shouting AMEN might just be part of the problem. He’s not wrong.

It’s not likely that each of you reading this post have all of your business skills down pat, even as you agree with me about the need for them. I know I certainly don’t. But I’m working on it.

For example, financial operations is something I know at a basic budget management and profit-and-loss level, but I don’t always understand financial management strategy and revenue modeling. So I’m learning from people that do, so I can be less ignorant in that regard, and more useful to my business and projects. That’s just one thing on my list.

Go back to the second to last point on yesterday’s rundown:

People who can admit what they don’t know, and seek knowledge or help.

That means you, too. US.

Each of you undoubtedly has a solid set of things you do well. Meg Fowler is an outstanding writer and wordsmith. Bill Sledzik is an experienced educator. Kellye Crane is a solid PR professional.

But each of us could do with a gut check about the things we need to improve. And we can help hold each other accountable.

I’m thrilled beyond measure that you guys come here and comment and like what I write. It makes me feel good to know you’re out there, and that you want to spend time to connect with me. I love that people shared yesterday’s post on Twitter and Facebook and said how much they agree with the premise. But here’s the thing.

Don’t you dare come here and say “great post” or “Amen”, write a few words of endorsement, and walk away. That’s lip service, and I’m challenging you to something better than that. Something bigger.

Don’t comment here that you agree with me. Don’t tell me this post was awesome. I’m here to change the way things are done, and that means mobilizing people to action, not talk.

What I need is for you to know what you don’t know. Have the stones to face it down. Think about and communicate what will help you be a better business person, and then do something about it. Share it here if putting it out publicly motivates you. If it doesn’t, leave here and go do whatever compels you to move. I would much rather your silence than your inaction. Please.

If you share this post, please do it because you’re encouraging others to get real, too. My having a voice out here does very little good if all I can ever get people to do is read, tap out a few words, think briefly, and go back to doing things as they always have. There’s work to be done, is there not?

Are you with me?

It’s NOT about the money!

What is the goal of business? As one classically trained in American business, I can confidently quote to you the textbook answer:

The goal of business is to increase shareholder wealth.

While one might think “shareholder wealth” would be open to interpretation, I’ll put your mind at rest by letting you know the almost universal understanding of the term is MONEY.

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Marketing on a Shoestring: 10 Ideas to Gain Visibility and Market Presence

It is said that money is the great inhibitor of innovation. When businesses have to trim budgets and increase market share—the scenario most of the business world found itself in these last eighteen months—it presents an opportunity.

Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch seems almost prescient with his 2008 statement: “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small, anymore, it will be the fast beating the slow, the nimble beating the bureaucrat, the aware beating the asleep, the world is flat and opportunities are for the taking.”

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Empathy: The first step in creating value

The first step in creating something valuable for your audience is to think and feel what your audience is feeling. Tom Asacker in A Little Less Conversation, p. 61

Empathy: getting really close to folks so you can almost see it from their eyes and feel it as they do

empathy

There’s never been a better time for small businesses and independents to leverage technology and excel! Asacker says you’ll need to “go deep” in your relationship with your marketplace. Deep enough, in fact, to be close enough to them during those precise times when they’re exposed to your types of products and services, evaluating options, receptive to messages, and making decisions, so that you can make informed predictions about how to stimulate their desire, have them care about and relate to you and your offering and, subsequently, make them happy (p. 61).

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Social Networks: the new “black book” and more

A research study conducted by Don Bulmer and Vanessa DiMauro concludes that Social Networks are becoming more important in the day to day lives of business professionals. The big three networks are Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.

Over 350 senior level business professionals took part in this survey. Here are some of the interesting findings that b2b marketers and business development professionals would be interested in knowing:

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Be different, but not THAT different!

“Differentiate or Die!” Great title for a book. Sound objective in practice, too. Here’s the big question: what’s your referent? What exactly do you want to be different from and where are you looking for your benchmark?

On purpose, I ask small business owners this specific question, “How are you different?” I say, on purpose, because I purposely keep the question short, leaving it wide open for their own interpretation. You probably already know how every single answer begins. (Want me to give you a minute to think about it? Okay…ready?)

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