Archive for the ‘blog’ Category

Reflections on the Aartrijk Brand Camp 2010

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.

I just have a few minutes this morning as I rush off to a presentation on SocialTech and Compliance at an insurance company.

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….

First, to explain the hashtags in the title, see my comment on last weeks post here – very powerful reason relative to Social Influence.

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!

So many insurance folks are asking, “If I get into Social Media, what do I say?  _____ insurance is so boring.  Plus people don’t really want to have it – it’s like going in for a physical or check-up….”  I don’t know about you, but to me that seems like a cop-out, an attempt to avoid having to learn something new, or just fear of the unknown.  But it’s worse than that, depending on how senior the person is in the organization, because it creates a drag on the SocialTech effectiveness of the organization.  But most of all, it’s untrue.  Here’s a terrific example from this week.

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.

Have you heard this term yet?  If not, I’m honored to be the first to mention it, but I guarantee I won’t be the last.  I consider Crowdsourcing to be one of the most compelling aspects of Web2.0 and Enterprise Social Technologies.  (Btw, if any of this resonates, perhaps use the ShareThis button below and pass it along to your network).

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.