Tag Archives: social media
Quote

Tom Bennett, Consultant at Dachis Group | XPLANE

7 Dec

The only way to address a connected customer base is with a connected company, because connected customers move and change too fast for traditional companies to keep up. A traditional hierarchical company can’t operate at the pace of conversation.

From Rugby with Love – Social Media for preservation tourism

12 Oct

Over the weekend I had pleasure of speaking at the East Tennessee Preservation conference in historic Rugby, TN.  I’ve posted a recap of panel on using social media for historic and preservation tourism with slides and video over on the New Streak, where I blog for Moxley Carmichael.  Check it out.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Thoughts for MBA Students

24 Mar

Flicker Credit: Phi1317

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak on a panel with my friends Chad Parizman and Lynsay Caylor to a class of very bright full-time MBA students at the University of Tennessee. Our topic was social media monetization, although we certainly talked more broadly then that in our time with the class. I enjoyed hearing their questions, and learning more about the challenges that Chad faces at Scripps and Lynsay at Pilot.

The most striking thing to me about the class were their answers to a few questions Chad asked about their social involvement.

How many of you have updated your Facebook status in the last week? 80%

How many of you have updated Twitter in the last few hours? 45%

How many of you only have a Twitter account to study it? 60%

How many of you use LinkedIn? 65%

(The room was also about 75% PC and 25% Apple)

I found these answers very interesting, particularly the (more…)

How should brands engage online?

31 Dec

I caught a piece on eMarketer by Clark Fredricksen today about the dilemma of customer engagement companies face when moving into social media. The basis of the post is found in the video embedded below.  Tension ramps up between the desire to have a presence and the need to participate.  To quote the post:
Most businesses have realized that when it comes to social networks like Twitter or Facebook, simply broadcasting content isn’t quite enough. Consumers want companies to engage with them on social networks — not because they want to have a relationship, per say, with a brand of soap or shampoo, but because they appreciate the opportunity to give feedback on products, receive meaningful information from brands, and catch the occasional bargain, among other things.

What he says is entirely true, launching a presence on a social channel (i.e.. facebook, twitter, yelp, flickr, blogging) is a great thing for many companies and their customers, allowing them to mutually share and receive information.  The dilemma comes when a brand has to decide how, when, and who should engage.  In my opinion, if a brand is opening an account they are already in the game so there is not the option to not participate so the question becomes how and who.  This should adhere to some basic rules of responding to most mentions, answering questions, etc. and every company will have secondary rules they will need to explore that will work best for them.  Two great examples of this choice on engagement are Best Buy’s @twelpforce or Comcast’s @ComcastCares –  where they are defining their intent because while the CEO of Best Buy is on twitter – having the expectation that he’ll respond personally to every question/whim isn’t only crazy its incredibly of base.  Along that path, deciding to do customer service is a common tactic for those companies who use twitter.  This brings up the great point that Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group makes “As companies accelerate their social support efforts, responding to customers in public reinforces the behavior of complaining to everyone they know.”  I’m certainly not saying that responding to customers on twitter is a bad idea, but it’s an interesting idea to consider.
Something else to consider is that with the growth of web technology the last few years, the barriers to entry have dropped to a level for where for all intents and purposes it’s 0.  It requires very little technical skill to open an account on any of the pieces named above which presents the dichotomy that marketers face – the ease of use can quickly translate to accounts that amount to “hello world” but often get forgotten in the hustle and bustle of day to day work.  Without a focus on any account, those customers  (guests in Ruby Tuesday’s world) who were very excited at the entry of a company they cared about in a digital space – will quickly move from excitement to vocal anger as their tweets and comments go unanswered and seemingly uncared for.
Which means that brands must ask, and then quickly answer the question, “what type of social media engagement is right for our brand?”

The Social Media Bubble Part 2 of 3 from Hive Awards on Vimeo.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Come to Nashvegas with me

29 Dec

Social Fresh Nashville

In a two weeks I’m going to be joining a few friends on the stage at Social Fresh Nashville.  It will be great to see @jasonfalls @djwaldow @genochurch @katadhin @waynesutton @GregCangialosi and meet some new friends from Home Depot, Radian6, Newell Rubbermaid and Southwest Airlines at Social Fresh aka @sofresh conference in Nashville, TN on January 11, 2010.

After being an attendee at the original Social Fresh in Charlotte, I’m excited to be able to speak at round two.  I found the first conference an action packed few days – while the conference is actually one day, the pre-party and post-party are things I wouldn’t miss – and when you show up, come find me and say hello.

Here’s a bit on what’ s being presented:

  • The ROI Of Community
  • Social Media In The Music Industry
  • Corporate Blogging Is Your Social Media Home Base
  • B2B Innovation In Social Media
  • Real Twitter Results
  • Word of Mouth Marketing form the Bottom Up
  • Moving The Needle: Social Media For Your Bottom Line

That’s all I’ll say as Jason Falls has already written up a great post about the conference on his site.  If you’re an organization that is looking to learn more, this is a great opportunity to dip your feet into the social media and at $315 a ticket, it’s quite reasonable.  There will be great minds covering almost all the bases you’ll need from start to finish.  You can register for the event using this link to the Social Fresh registration site. (Disclosure: As a speaker, I am an affiliate of the conference and get a commission on any sales made from the link. Non-affiliate link register here.)

PS if you can’t make Nashville and you’re in the Tampa, FL area then you’ll want to be on board for the next Social Fresh on Feb. 8.

So register, show up in Nashville and I’ll see you there.

← Previous Entries