1. “Well, I’m on Linkedin and I accept people’s invitations, but I’m not really doing anything with it.”
2. “Why should I Blog? And I definitely don’t get Twitter….”
3. “My company has a policy against Social Media. So I can’t even read blogs, much less write one.”
4. “Most of my interactions with clients are confidential or proprietary. Great content, but I can’t share it on the internet.”
5. “How can blogging, Twitter, and Linkedin advance my career?”
6. “Mike, I’m not keeping up with email as it is. If I get active on Social, won’t that add more email and put me even further behind?”

All legit and common questions and comments. No doubt they all stem from ‘busy-ness’. But the question is, “Can we ignore Social media vis-a-vis our professional presence and online reputation?”

Perhaps TOGETHER we can collaborate on some real-deal answers. Tell you what: I’ll share some of my writings on “How to Become a Recognized Expert”. Please add your Comments to the discussion below.

[TIP: Click the "Subscribe" right next to the Submit button, especially the choice about getting an email for follow-up comments. That way you can see if someone comments on your comment. I know more email. But this is good email, email where you have a stake in the discussion and want to know what others are saying. If you have a couple minutes and really want to do it right, set up a Google profile, add your headshot and points of contact, web site, etc. Be logged-in when you Comment to 1. save time and 2. give people a name with a face.]

Vignette. See if you agree…

To ignore or not to ignore. Let’s use a real-life example. Is this True or False in your experience?

I have a great friend who is a Partner with a Big Four audit firm, we’ll call him Doug. Doug is a relationship manager for a handful of F100 enterprises. He has a team of “supply chain financial management” specialists, again at the F100 level, that know “supply chain financial management”about as well as anyone on the planet, with a great track record of meaningful successes in solving client problems. But if you look up “supply chain financial management”, his firm is invisible, not to mention Doug.

If you were a large enterprise finance professional in “supply chain financial management” looking for a new source of information or a new business partner/advisor/audit firm, wouldn’t you be interested in hearing from a Big Four contact, better yet, a Big Four contact in your network? Or vice-versa – If you were a Big Four sales exec, would you want your company and/or someone on your team to be “found” in the “supply chain financial management” category on Linkedin or Google?

Let’s continue with the vignette.

Here we have Doug, a Big Four “supply chain financial management” expert with no Web properties to his credit, no blog, no or minimal Linkedin, no Twitter presence.

Now let’s say one of Doug’s happy clients, Joe Jones (fictitious name), has a conversation with Chris Mann (fictitious name), a colleague from another F100 company, and a Big Four prospect, at an annual industry conference at a plush resort. Over a beverage and friendly dinner, together they chew on a common challenge relative to “supply chain financial management”.

Is this a common scenario? I think so, but sometimes I’m an idiot, too.

Joe, the happy Big Four client, references a few recent “supply chain financial management” innovations originated and orchestrated by Doug’s Big Four team, with a special emphasis on the wisdom and leadership of Doug, again the “supply chain financial management” relationship manager.

However, unfortunately, due to compliance, regulatory, and intellectual property issues, Joe the happy client can’t go into details or email/share any documentation on the innovation with Chris.

Chris says, “Gee, I’d like to talk to Doug.” Joe writes down Doug’s name on a napkin, digs his cell phone number out of his Droid, and says, “Give Doug a call. You’ll get his voice mail. Tell him I referred you. He’ll call you back within 24 hours. He’s got the answers…”

End of vignette.

First Question: Is this a desirable situation for the Big Four Sales Exec? Sure it is. SO…

Do you think Chris, the Big Four prospect, will do a little searching online, perhaps hit Linkedin, perhaps Google, search on Doug’s name at least? How will Chris start her search? Here’s a likely scenario…
Google – “Doug Smith” “Big Four name”
Chris thinks to herself, “Well, here’s a Linkedin profile, but it’s pretty thin. Wow, zero content on “supply chain financial management” – no blog link, no Twitter feed, no Recommendations… Well, maybe he doesn’t understand Linkedin… Oh well. Let me add “supply chain financial management”
Click the <Back> button a couple times to the search page..
“Doug Smith” “Big Four name” “supply chain financial management”
“Hmmm. Still nothing. Wow. Doug’s not publishing anything; neither is Big Four. Odd. Well, perhaps it’s the compliance department throwing down their gauntlet on Social Media and Web sites, etc. Well, I’ll give Doug a call, but in the meantime, let me see what I can find on ["supply chain financial management" blog]. Hmmmm. This is interesting….” Off Chris goes in other directions, potentially finding other sources.

Second Question: How is this scenario going to impact Chris’s first encounter and first impression of Doug when Doug returns the phone call?

Remember what’s at stake here. Think about the potential collateral damage to the relationship between Joe Jones, the Happy Client and Chris…and by extension the relationship between Joe and Doug.

Part 2 will be the flip side of the story. What do you think of the vignette? True or False and Why?

A recurring question I’ve been asked this past week since this video launched, “Was that hard to do?”

Thought it might be useful to write about it. But in return, I’d like to ask readers to give their opinion on a question. I’ll ask the question first so you can be thinking about it.

In watching this video, how would you characterize the “commercial use” nature of it?

Yes, no doubt the intended purpose is to drive brand loyalty and attendance at future ICMG meetings. But the video is not ‘for sale’, not driving direct revenue, noone’s going to buy it, etc. In my mind, that would be a commercial use worthy of paying royalties. So if we used, for example, a U2 song as the music bed rather than the royalty free one, shouldn’t that be fine without jumping through all the IP hoops? No money is changing hands because of the song. Regardless of whether you are a legal expert or not, what do you think? What’s your gut feeling? Just curious… Plus it’s free publicity for the musical artist, too?

350+ bit.ly clicks in a week. Mission accomplished. A few tips without going into an exhaustive essay:

1. Find a theme for the video. Funny, Short, True. If these are the three keys to a viral video, how can you follow a theme through the vid that accomplishes all three? In this case, the idea came to me based on a true story of what Mark Hill I believe once said about me taking pictures at insurance conferences. “Mike, it’s like you’re on a safari! You’re taking pictures of insurance people in their native habitats!” So funny. The coup-de-gras this time around though…? I must give credit to Craig Blake who encouraged me to get a safari hat on the way to the conference – brilliant because it reinforced the theme as I got pictures and sound-bites from people.
2. Get some good media elements that support the theme – again Funny, Short, True. Good quality pictures and lots of them; sound bites and other audio elements. Of course we have to serve the ROI expectations of the vid, right? So you can’t lose focus on the economics of the thing – it’s got to serve the goal of the organization. So notice in the vid the opening question is, “What did you get out of the conference?” That serves the business purpose – simple enough. Don’t need a lot, just a representative sampling. Note that I probably got twice the number of comments that I ended up using. That’s cool. I set the expectations with the folks I interviewed. But the key to making it funny was to get them to do something funny – no small trick in a business setting – while still keeping things professional and not embarrassing, right? Thus the animal sounds. Had no idea that that would be as funny as it came out. IMHO, the really funny part is the laughter after.

What really generates “virality?”

1. Of course humor. Be careful here though. Humor’s a fine line. Get a lot of eyes and ears on the thing before you ‘Go Live.’ Funny
2. Lot’s of faces so people can say, “Hey, that’s me! I remember that! Hey Chris, look at this!” Share-able. Common sense – if you’re using public events and real people, places, and times, make sure your content positions the people in the video in a positive light. And again, get their approval all along the way. Critical.
3. Makes or proves a point so that people can use the vid to reinforce or support their efforts. “Dude, I told you you shuda come. Check out this vid of the event. Make sure you plan to come next year…” Useful.
4. Speed is everything with something like this. It’s either got to be released right away or wait until the selling season for the next event. Proximity to Event.
5. Short and sweet – Nuf said … even at 3:45 this is a tad long, but the intro and outro are key ingredients and added a minute.

Do you have anything to add? What have you seen that works? What’s your favorite B2B viral video? Key word: B2B (as opposed to B2C – tons of those..)

Thanks for reading and Sharing. Appreciate any Shares on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin. Spread the word. The world needs more stuff like this happening – very powerful communication tool for all sorts of messages.

Let me know if you want to do one for your business. I’m working on couple others as we speak. Don’t want to be the “viral video guy”, but want to help insurance folks get started.

“Thrive with Social”

Additional resources:

3 Examples of Awesome B2B Marketing Viral Videos

Live Search on Twitter

(results will vary depending on when you click through)

Perfect segway. This week, in the flow of an off-line conversation someone characterized me as “…a digital person living in an analog world.” The reference was spiritual in context, but the second thing that popped into my head was how well that comment translated into my professional life as well. I’m curious if you, those of you that know me well, see this to be a true statement and why? Further, if true, I’m curious if this is a good thing or a bad thing? Does this bode well for me in business, enhancing my value-prop and increasing my chance to successfully add value and thereby generate revenue, or am I in the wrong space doing the wrong thing, eventually destined to fail. Perhaps you would be kind enough to lend your perspective.  I’ve got two focus points:

1. Social Tech and Insurance – teaching the insurance-related enterprise about Social & e-Commerce
2. Socially Facilitated Selling, or my new term: Amplified Influence – teaching B2B sales people how to leverage SocialTech

What’s your comment? Please share. I’d be extremely grateful for either encouragement to press on or a reality check. Really.

*******************A few other quick Shares*******************

Check out these forecasts from World Future Society.  LOT of Social Tech stuff in here. Especially noted the comments on the classroom and customers having the power of CEO’s.  So much more… Maybe this is the year I finally go to a WFS meeting. Anyone care to join me and share costs? It’d be a hoot I’m confident.

I’m signed up for the 2011 PIMA (yes those are my pics on the site) & ICMG (check out the viral video I made for them) Annual Meetings later this month.  Those of you tracking with me in the insurance space, hope to see you at either or both of these events. They both look like they will be well attended and should offer great chances at getting something for the money. And how great that they are back to back in the same city – and a warm, fun one at that. In between I will be running around the area meeting clients and working on the Amplified Influence book (I know, I still have to finish last year’s book. Maybe I’ll integrate all that content.)

I got this from my daughter who’s also into Social Tech, smartly starting to build her own River of Information. Interesting data on Millenials and their habits and preferences. Gee wiz, if you’re selling to these folks, shouldn’t Social be a big part of your sales and marketing strategy? “Tech is in their DNA and IT ENHANCES THEIR LIVES” (emphasis added). Do you get that, Babyboomer marketers and decision makers? Facebook, Smartphones, etc. is ENHANCING, not diminishing, their lives as boomers so often say. If you don’t get it, how many stories like this do you need to read before you get a smartphone, a Macbook, a blog, a Twitter, and start understanding what Social Tech is and why Millenials in particular, and now other generations, are using it so heavily. It’s not then, it’s you. (OK enough of my rant – sorry, I get passionate sometimes.)

You gotta love Shoutlet. As I said a lot in 2010, they are doing some really great work in the SocialTech space with respect to content distribution, control, and reporting. Here’s their prognostication for 2011. Take it to heart. Call them and get started with their tool. Ask for Jenny. (No, I’m not on their payroll.)

Favorite tweet from this week:

@barbaragiamanco: It is ag8 example of how a group should be run! RT @paulcastain: Thanks for the #salesplaybook shout out Barb.  #sales #newhandshake

I just joined this Sales Paybook group on Linkedin. Already picked up a few powerful tips. Now I need to add some. Follow Barb Giamanco. Had an off-line phonecon with her this week. Looking forward to reading her book. Very sharp and savvy Social & Sales Consultant.

From Lewis Howes, Linkedin looks to going public. Darn! I could be wrong, hope I am, but I think a Linkedin IPO is NOT a good thing for Linkedin. It will be interesting to watch. One thing’s for sure – it will be a very Social event, one way or the other!

Lastly, how are you coming on the Mobile version of your site? Do you understand that needs to be a priority project for 2011? NOW? I’ve got a fantastic resource I’d like to connect you with.  Contact me.

Favorite picture from the Christmas break. Me and the fam decorating the Christmas Tree.

It was a great Christmas.

Appreciate hearing from you in the Comments below next to the tags. Thanks for engaging.

Why is Social Media, Social Networking, Social Relevancy – heck, all of Social Technologies – so “HARD”?  I guess I’d further refine that question and point the discussion at the C-Level or the senior management of the enterprise.  I know there are exceptions, but IN GENERAL, why is senior management within business so often struggling with Social Tech???  So we don’t waste a lot of time on definitions, let me define ‘struggling’ with a few examples:

1. Not doing ANYTHING – No blog, No Linkedin, No Twitter, No Facebook, No Crowdsourcing, No Comments, No Social CRM, No Social Sales & Marketing – just totally off the radar from a C-Level standpoint.  Just heads down doing email, making phone calls, leading/attending meetings – that’s it.
2. Making organizational decisions that either try to suffocate Social (e.g. You can’t use Facebook or Twitter on company time – to make sure, we’ll block it on the Web servers), or decisions that don’t include Social components (e.g. This week, I saw an insurance e-commerce RFP from a large insurance company based in the northeast US that has NO MENTION of Social Media Marketing.)
3. Or lastly, doing Social poorly – No strategy, no game plan, no Social Policy for the org, no Social Marketing Strategy for the enterprise… just sort of herky-jerky winging it?

Obviously the follow-on question will be, “Is this an issue and if so, what can be done about it?”  But before we go there, perhaps if we can chew on this a bit first, some interesting patterns will emerge that will lead us to solutions based on more information than otherwise.

Suggestion: Before you read the Comments below, pause and get clarity on your first thought or two.  Then read the other Comments.  If you have similar thoughts, please say so, as that will be important as well.  I REALLY WANT TO KNOW.  And so do other readers, by the way.  Links would be great.

Please be candid.  If you need to be anonymous, do it.  Straight to the heart of the matter.  Speak.  Lurking is Lame.

Thanks in advance.

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Favorite pics from Thanksgiving – love the laughter :-) Click the pic to see the rest.

Johnny Kimani, my son’s Kenyan roommate from college & Catchphrase

Wanted to share and hear from you on the following graphic from the Webinar I ran last week for PIMA.  (Btw, if you want to view the full Webinar, it will be available for one more week to the general audience before PIMA moves it to the Member’s-only portal.)  What’s your take on these stats?  I’ve got my own opinion, but curious to hear from you and chew on this.  Please Comment below.  Subscribe to the Comments RSS as well so you get an email with subsequent Comments.

I attended two meetings this week that I think relate to the subject of SocialTech & Social Media Marketing and Insurance.  The first was out in Wichita, KS.  Without disclosing confidential stuff, the salient point is that while farmers seem to be below average in adoption of Twitter, Linkedin, etc., they have the tools in their hands (and Combines as it were) to take advantage of Social.  They just need a good reason to engage.  (And that’s what we’re going to give ‘em.)

The second was a meeting of senior executives with insurance affinity marketing organizations associated with PIMA.  Again, without going into confidential stuff, I think we’re really making progress on the applying Social tools to accomplish organizational goals. For that, I’m very encouraged.  (Of course, these data-points are a small subset of many other things… )  Good things on the horizon for PIMA.  I think it will be the place to be.  Affinity distribution of insurance products lines up nicely with Socially Directed Buying (B2B) and Socially Facilitated Selling (B2B) – IF you do it right. Apparently with the above graphic, that exactly what the members are trying to do.  Encouraging.  Please Comment below.

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Another event coming up, one I’d recommend for independent agents or agencies.  Should be a really good use of time.

- from IIABA and the Agent’s Council on Technology:

As was mentioned in a previous post, ABC2010 was indeed an idea vortex.  10 things I learned or had reinforced:

1. A new and improved Comment moderation tool for this Blog
2. How an Agency is using FourSquare
3. A lot about branding and the value of a brand
4. That Social was a strong theme running through-out the Camp
5. That a smaller and less structured meeting worked well with this group and drives a lot of value
6. Insurance professionals of all shapes and sizes, backgrounds, etc. can work together quickly to achieve an objective (my team won the competition!)
7. Power-strips at tables, free use of tech, WiFi and Twitter hashtags all improve the meeting experience
8. Agencies and Companies are open to and need massive help with Web sites and Social Tech
9. The job of Webmaster, and to some extent, CIO, is waning
10. When making important, strategic purchases, a very high percentage (80-90%) of buyers run various searches for the brand or person they are doing business with

While Social Media Marketing is growing extremely fast, and to some extent at the expense of traditional advertising, the concept of Channel of Choice seems to be the recurring theme.  And these Channels of Choice cannot be type-cast by gender, race, age, location or really any demographic.  Thus, in order to maximize marketing potential, all channels must be used.  To not use any one, say Facebook, is to cut off a certain percentage of the market.  Common sense… but needs to be said.

Content Curation is a tangible solution for our business, especially since we have so many restrictions on what we can say.  We also don’t seem to want to talk about insurance per se all the time.  So the question then becomes, “What do we talk about inside these Social Media’s and Networks?” Content Curation – a fancy term for pointing to other people’s content and Commenting, Aggregating, Rating, Fact-checking, Sharing and so forth.  Do-able.  But remember, when you link to content, your have to make sure it is valid content.  I believe (perhaps legal-eagle readers could elaborate in the Comments under this post) that under the “entanglement theory”, posts you link to would be considered part of your content and thus fall under compliance and legal jurisdiction. The other thing is personal stuff.  Indeed, contrary to conventional wisdom, customers and prospects DO care about the personal side of the people they do business with – it IS appropriate to talk about your trips, your hobbies, and your community, to mention a few.

Where you there?  What were your thoughts of ABC2010?  Any big take-aways you’d like to share?

What’s next?  Aartrijk is crowdsourcing the location, date, and theme of ABC2011.  Join the conversation.  There’s room for more voices.  Music video due out in December.

Pictures here.

It’s an honor to be asked to lead a Webinar on Social for PIMA, a 30-year old association I’ve been involved in.  Without going into too much detail, I hope it suffices to say that I deeply appreciate the opportunity to snowplow the road a bit for the group.  But I know that the group will quickly catch up to me once they see the potential of all this.  It’s a group of VERY bright people that I am very pleased to associate with.  And much of what I will be discussing I’ve chewed on with some of the members over the past couple year at meetings and on phone calls.  So I definitely can’t lay claim to much original thought.  I guess that make me a Content Curator!

A word on logistics:

Learn and Register here.

Pre and Post Webinar dialog here.

Twitter Hashtag for the group – #PIMAAssn

It’s impossible to cover everything on Social in about 60-70 minutes – of course.  So my goal is share some of the things I’ve learned about the magnitude of Social as well as a few practical examples of how sales and marketing organizations are using SocialTech.  Understandably, and IMHO unfortunately, the nature of the health and life insurance business means there are not a lot of examples on the insurance side.  The business is highly regulated with the threat of losing your license always looming over you.  It’s also a conservative business by nature, so wary of hype and new stuff.  And in general, compensation up and down the org chart is tied to sales results – and rightfully so.  More industries should be that way (especially education, but that’s another story).

That said, I’ve been calling around and started a discussion (and Poll – please take it) on Linkedin.  I’m trying to get a sense about where people are with SocialTech and what people would most like to hear.  I definitely want to debunk some myths about SocialTech as well as the scope and scale of Social.  But I’m hearing that people would really like to get information on two big issues.

1. How do we do Social in the context of Compliance and Regulations?
2. What about ROI?  How quickly can we show sales results?

What would you like to know?  What do you know you’d like to share?  Please Comment here or on the Linkedin thread.

I would most like people to take away the concept of using SocialTech to build a powerful river of information.  In my mind, this is the biggest secret right now.  I’m personally using SocialTech to feed my brain in a way unlike ever before.  And that’s something that we can all do regardless of Compliance because it’s all inbound consumption.  To be sure, they all already know this – in general.  The difference now is how to use SocialTech to make the stream even more powerful – and efficient given all our time constraints.

Looking forward to it.  Please Comment on the Linkedin Group if you are a PIMA Member.

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Meantime, next week is also the Aartrijk Brand Camp in Austin.  Really looking forward to that.  Some of the smartest people in Social in insurance.  Can’t wait.  Doing a viral video after!

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A couple poignant pictures from my son’s last year as a soccer player before he graduates as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army.

Getting ready to launch on of his trademark throw-ins. Special pic because Mom is in the background.

Lifting his fellow defender Mitch carefully into the truck after he got a concussion.  Somehow I think of the Army and the future….

For those of you that listened to Part 1 of the terrific podcast with Nibby Preist and Chris Jordan (click here for that), you will be pleased with Part 2.  For those that missed it, perhaps download both.  In Part 1, we covered Linkedin and Twitter – how insurance agents are using the tools for business.  This one picks up where we left off and talks about Facebook and Blogging.  Chris & Nibby share great insights about what they are doing to drive ROI with Social Media.  (I like that I’ve waited since April to publish Part 2.  There have been some interesting new developments since then which add a bit of a retrospective to the conversation.)

Click here to listen in.

A couple notes to reinforce:

From Nibby – Lots of Facebook ROI, but you have to stick with it.  Which leads me to give myself a shameless plug – Hire me to do the strategy.  I can save you a lot of time and brain damage, and connect you into some powerful information streams along the way.  Call me.

Nibby and Chris both talk about redeeming wasted time to make room for Social.  I speak to this point often with people who ask, “How do you make time for your Social stuff?  I’m swamped as it is….”  Listen to what they say and come back with a Comment below.  What do YOU think?

The comment about the use of mobile and the blur of work happening outside of traditional 9-5 is spot on.  Those of you that are doing this, what do you think about it?  Those that aren’t, you might say, “You see??? That’s EXACTLY why I DON’T want to get into social stuff.  When I go home, the LAST thing I want to do is get on the computer or check email on my mobile….”  After listening, what are your comments about the blur?

Chris – spot on about learning more about prospects and business partners and pull-marketing.

Nibby referenced these two sites: http://www.rescuetime.com/ http://gist.com/

Fantastic that both commented about the ROI of their blogs, especially about the unified voice, about SEO, and about newspaper and media outlets.  I’ve been sayin’ it for a while now…

Listen in and please Comment below.

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Favorite recent picture…. I shot a nationally televised college soccer game – absolutely thrilling to get that chance.  The Photo Gallery has been simply POUNDED.  This is one of my favorites.  Mattocks from Jamaica scored the third goal and came running right at me – and the “Fear the Roo” image is in view on the building behind him.  Love that shot.

My 2nd favorite you’ll have to click through on – my wife sitting with the girlfriend of Anthony Ampaipitakwong (Ampai), the #1 college player in America! What a cool coincidence!

Yesterday, New York Life hit the Social Media nail on the head with a combo Facebook fan page update/blog post.  I’m tracking New York Life on my Facebook profile, not because I’m a customer, but because they got my attention somehow (I think through email), showed me a Facebook button, I clickedin on it, and hit the “Like” button.  I’m more interested in their social strategies than their insurance products right now, but you never know, right?  So now a few times a week I see what they are doing in my Facebook Newsfeed.

The Facebook feed said this, (in case you’re not on Facebook yet I’ll copy/paste)

As sad as I am to say it, summer is almost over and you know what that means… School is about to start and for some, college is vastly approaching, which brings us to the question: Are you ready to pay for it? Starting a college fund has been the solution for some families; however, what do you suggest? What have you done to save?

The link then said this,

Start a College Fund: 8 Strategies

www.newyorklife.com

Hmmm. Nice little segway from a reference to time-of-year to educational info without a sales pitch.  There were a few “Likes”, a few “Comments” – some action.  So I clicked through to see what the landing page looked like.  (By the way, New York Life has 2,700 Facebook Fans – not a whole lot for a company of it’s size, but enough to start a viral marketing process.  By this time next year, if they play their cards right, it could be 27,000… perhaps 270,000 in two years – FOR FREE and reaching fans who prefer Facebook for their news and information – AHA!.)

IMHO, the landing page is terrific.

What works well:

1. Good branding, but not overwhelming.  I clicked through from a branded Facebook link, so I expect to see a brand reinforcement image. The new tab also has the brand thumbnail.  And the URL is newyorklife.  So I’m comfortable in seconds.
2. It’s got a Facebook Like button right away, so I know I’m going to be able to Like it and Share it with my friends – useful.  By the way, I’m coming from Facebook, so if there WASN’T a Facebook Like, it would be counterintuitive.
3. The orange “Get a Quote” buttons are good but not overwhelming.  OK, I know the company is trying to sell insurance.  But they are clearly trying to offer useful and timely advice along the way.  So I don’t mind being given the opportunity to take action if the article underscores a gap I have in my financial situation.  In fact, that’s why I clicked-through, right?  Let me check out these 8 Tips and see how my situation stacks up…
4. They also have a phone icon on the left if you want to speak to someone right now.  Absolutely.  Channel of Choice.
5. Love the Mom kissing the baby on the right.  Links to another page dealing with parents and that particular life event.  Good.  (Boy, what a great chance for a viral video right there about new parents and babies and life insurance.)
6. Most of all, the content is good.  OK, it’s a little long, but that because of the compliance text.  And it’s 8 Tips, so that’s a lot of info.  But you need a lot of info on this particular subject, right?  Surely this content was scrubbed by NYLife compliance – but it’s still good, not too heavy with industry lingo, uses a lot of keywords, good stuff.

What do you like about it?  Thoughts on my Comments?  Please Comment below.

Issues: Mostly minor things.  The list is longer, but the issues don’t outweigh the good.

1. I think they forgot to turn off the italicized font, perhaps right after the ‘compliance’ text in item #1, so right after the “Keep in mind…” paragraph.
2. Not SmartPhone-friendly – same exact Web page…. should use a browser-sniffer and optimize the page for the tech environment.
3. Not Search Engine Optimized – could do a lot more with title tags, alt tags, tag cloud, and page source.
4. Links to resources do not open in a new Tab or Window – critically important and such a common mistake.  So if I click on a link, that doesn’t mean I’m done with the original page, I just want to follow that trail for a sec.  But if I’m done with that trail or get distracted, I might close that tab or window . Then I’ve lost the original page I was reading – and the brand has lost the sales op.  Make sense?
5. Not enough linking to external resources on keywords like Section 529 – great resource on wikipedia for that.
6. “Share this Article” on the right should just be a ShareThis button next to the Facebook Like at the top (similar to what I have below)
7. The Comment box should already be open at the bottom.  You want to encourage Comments.  Remember that someone who engages with your content is far more likely to Share and return to the page – and THAT’S the Holy Grail.
8. The “Consult an Agent” form is too heavy-handed on the page.  Perhaps they could have been satisfied with the repeat of the orange box from the top,  Btw, that’s a nice little widget (which should also open up in a new tab, right?) with a decent viral marketing and data collection Thank You page (could do a LOT more with that page).

That’s is for now – my hour’s up.  GTG.  Hope this was helpful.  Please Comment and Share.  Would be eternally grateful for the viral help.

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Awesome SocialTech Strategy by State Farm.  Also a form of Crowdsourcing – internal.  Brilliant.  I’m going to use the app.

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Picture from my recent family camping trip to the Adirondacks.  See all the pics here.  Olympic stuff, cliff jumping, YT cooking, scenic shots.  Epic trip.

What is Crowdsourcing?  Hear’s the deal… There’s 1.6 billion people on the Internet.  Each one has a talent or capability.  Crowdsourcing is putting all that intellectual property and talent at your disposal, if you know how to tap into it.  Crowdsourcing combines the concepts of bidding, rating, outsourcing, user-generated content, free-lancing, and viral sharing.  Crowdsourcing can be used to accomplish virtually any business function, but circa 2010 Crowdsourcing is especially useful for professional services.

Here’s a simple example: Logo development.  Today, if you need a logo for a new product, a campaign, a new business or unit, an event, what does your process look like?  Use the Comment section below to briefly describe your last logo development process.  In general, it likely took at least a couple weeks, generated 5 or so logo’s that were ‘decent’ but not brilliant, and cost several thousand dollars.

Crowdsourcing site - LOGOTOURNAMENT

Compare that with LOGOTOURNAMENT, a Crowdsourcing site just for logo development.  What you do is put up your specs and a ‘bounty’.  The specs describe what you’re looking for and the bounty is what you will pay the ‘winner’ of the Crowdsourcing ‘contest’.  Depending on how well you communicate and dollars involved, THE NEXT DAY you will start to see 10′s of logo’s, REALLY GOOD LOGO’S.  Pick one and pay the bounty, perhaps only in the 100′s of dollars.

So everyone’s always asking about the ROI of Social Tech.  Do the math on Crowdsourcing.  Again, you can use it for almost any business purpose, but especially professional services.  In general, I’m finding the following metrics: 1/10th the cost, 10 times as fast, and high quality.  And yes, the work is likely being done, today anyway, in another country like India, China, Russia, South Africa.  But you don’t pay unless you are satisfied, the ‘vendors’ are rated so there is accountability, and oh yeah, there’s no ‘politics’.  :-) Doesn’t that sound good?  I’ve heard it said, and I’m starting to believe it, that Crowdsourcing will dwarf Outsourcing.

If you need help with Crowdsourcing, let me know.  Meantime, here are a few resources.  And remember my first point: Crowdsourcing is a part of Social Tech that EVERYONE can do.  No need to be held back by legal and compliance departments, government regulators, etc.

My take: Enterprises are missing SO MUCH opportunity because they don’t want to publish.  That’s fine, but what about research, inbound flow of information, Crowdsourcing, and so much else?  Don’t throw Social out because of a few barriers.

How Much Is a Facebook Fan Really Worth?

“A company’s fans spend more, are more likely to be loyal and will recommend the brand to their friends, according to the firm’s research.”

Doesn’t this say that creating Fans is the first step toward referrals, traffic, e-word of mouth, etc.?  Seems like a no-brainer to me.  So you’re in insurance and you don’t think anyone will be a “Fan” of insurance?  How would you like to be in Batteries???  Take a look at what Rayovac is doing on Facebook – they’ve got 17,000 fans!  My guess is they’re probably making money with this.

25 Digital Media Questions Marketers Need to Answer

Really good article that validates a lot of my content.

Social Tech and the C-suite – “Our case studies outlined below show that having your CEO visible on social media can bring tangible results to your bottom line.”  I had this very conversation yesterday with a CEO.  (Yes, I sent this article).  If you are a C-Suite Exec and this is the first you saw this, now you know.  And this is why my presentation in KeynoteTM on Enterprise Social Technologies is SO appropriate for an intimate session with Executives.  [I always appreciate referrals (click ShareThis below and pass it along).]

From control to conversation: Corporations and social media

I’m helping a company re-engineer their corporate Web properties to adapt to Web 2.0 and Social Tech.  The Web property is the “Destination”.  The Social Tech architecture fosters the “Conversation”.  Your constituents want CONVERSATION. Think of it this way – Lecture or Lab? Would you rather sit through a Lecture from a didactic, seemingly out of touch prof, droning about sanitized, philosophical concepts?  Or would you prefer a Lab with a teacher that you can ask questions of, with fellow students you can share and dialog with, and with interactive ‘stuff’ you can learn from?  Do you see the difference between a static Web 1.0 site and a dynamic Web2.0 Conversation?

Are You Really Committed to Social Media?

Read the 2nd para if you read nothing else.

AGAIN – ALL FROM TWITTER! USEFUL???

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Favorite thing from the last week?  Of course Soccer and the World Cup.  Unfortunately, the U.S. Men’s National Team lost ignominiously to Ghana in the next game (seriously, those were the best defenders we have in our entire country?!?!? Ridiculous ‘system’ we have…) But BEFORE THAT, we has a moment of tremendous glory that I will forever treasure.  I hope these links stay active for a long time, but here are my two favorites following Donovan’s stoppage-time goal.

Really love the Speed Matches: USA Vs. Algeria ESPN video – extremely exciting!

And then this companion link – the reaction video from a bar in Seattle, fans who had suffered through 90 minutes of frustration, and then watched the game-winner. Just phenomenal! Watch especially the guy on the right side of the video in the first 5 seconds.  I laughed until I cried when I first saw this.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid73315185001?bctid=101507741001

Any thoughts???

(Btw, this post took an hour to create.)

Favorite recent picture… see more here.