Wise Road, Pompey, NY - Named after my Great-Great-Grandfather

Following the conversation on family and personal stuff, we turned to work. Knowing my pursuits, my friend shared thoughts about Social networking. After listening to his perspectives on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., I asked him, “I heard you refer to ‘Social’ in the midst of everything you were saying. Let me ask you a question. When you said ‘Social’, describe what you had in mind? What concepts did the word ‘Social’ bring to mind as you were talking about it?”

He said, “The noise, the clutter, non-important things… you know, Social.”

I clarified, “So water-cooler-type talk… weather, sports, family life, community – that kind of thing?”

“Yes, exactly. I just don’t have time for all that. Like I said, when I’m in work mode, I need to stay as focused as possible on work – no distractions. I see my wife and daughter spending a lot of time on Facebook, and frankly that concerns me. Now I know they might say I spend a lot of time watching TV or playing golf. But I can’t see myself spending my precious free time on Social networks. I hear people talking about Linkedin at work, but it doesn’t seem to be productive. I also know I’ll be asked to help people – not that I don’t want to help people, but if they want my help, all they have to do is call me. I see people using Social Networks to relive the past or trying to get the next new job. Since I don’t want to do either of those, I just don’t see a need to do Social networking.”

Does that sound familiar? The conversation went on from there. I explained that unfortunately, while understandable because of the traditional use of the term, thinking of ‘Social’ Technologies as ‘personal’ or ‘non-essential’, non-business related, etc. etc. is perhaps one of the biggest misnomers in the executive ranks.

[Curious: Do you agree? Are many executives under an incorrect assumption about ‘Social’ technologies as being more about personal, non-essential stuff? Especially in the insurance vertical?]

From a business perspective, Social is NOT ‘Social’. Think UGC – User-Generated Content and all the implications therein – “Crowd” solutions (e.g. Crowdsourcing, Crowdvertising, Crowdfunding), Ratings, Online Reputation Management, professional communities, Social CRM, Rivers of Information, Customer Intel, Revenue on Demand, e-Word-of-Mouth to name a few.

I made a case that in his position, at a bare minimum, he wants to consider what’s called Online Reputation Management. What do people find when they search for him?

Going further, he wants to be thinking about what’s next, what’s beyond the brand and title on his business card? No doubt about it – no matter how successful, both brand and title will inevitably change, won’t they? And when they do, perhaps quite suddenly, will he benefit from a steady effort to build a Social network? Will he correctly understand his Social relevancy in business? And will he be in a position for broader long-term business influence, again beyond his immediate circle with the current brand and its client base?

Lastly, like the MBA process he went through a few years back that lifted his IQ substantially in a short time-span, he wants to consider tapping into brilliant content creators, peers of his that are beyond the faceless Wall Street Journal writers, his preferred info-source. Sure, WSJ writers are no doubt great writers creating a steady stream of great stories. But what about peers of his who are sharing insights and creating dialogs via blogs and Social networks? Could these insights and conversations lift his IQ in a very meaningful and practical way – directly relating to his field?

What do you think? Are Social Technologies a ‘waste of time’? Do many executives in your experience feel that Social is purely Social?

Next up:

ICMG in Phoenix. #ICMG2012 (You heard it here first: I’m facilitating a 1.5 hour session on Linkedin on Wednesday morning before the Meeting starts. Yeah, I’d rather be playing golf as well, but I was asked, so what could I say.)

PIMA in Palm Coast, Florida. #PIMAAssn Rolling out the rebranding work Bill, Al, Shannon, Denise, Mona, Ed, me and a bunch of others have done in the past year…

Hope to see some of you there.

Zach and Jenny Engagement Christmas 2011

All the work I’m doing in the Social Tech arena, while good and helpful to many, and while providing an income for me and my family, pales in comparison to my son finding a partner for life. Of course, I know all of this is under the heading “Lord willing”, but it seems ‘meant to be’ and so I’m grateful.

One moment I won’t soon forget: I was taking a picture in the driveway of Zach driving away from the house in his new (used) Yaris with his smiling/laughing fiance, saying something about Dad always documenting things, but resolutely going off. His mission: drop off Jenny and head to Army Ranger School (ala “Surviving the Cut“).

The recurring thought in my brain since then: What a man Zach became out at Ft. Sill. Decisive, brave, strong, courageous, discerning, resolute, and committed. That’s the kind of man we want leading our troops into battle against an equally committed enemy, don’t you think?

Blessings for 2012. It’s going to be one heck of a year.

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Speaking on eWOM at World Usability Day - funny image!

You can look at this enterprise topic from multiple angles. Two angles for sure are:

1. How do we as Clients, Partners, and Fans engage WITH the Brands we do business with?
2. How do we as Brands earn, foster, and build engagement FROM our Clients, Partners, and Fans?

I’d like to shine the light on the latter. Restated, what specific activities can we as the enterprise do to earn engagement and interaction from our Clients, Partners, and Fans, specifically within the Linkedin environment. And how will these efforts payoff in measurable ROI.

A note to readers. If I may be quite direct, as I’ve been saying for the last three years, “Lurking is Lame”. I’ll go further than that now – it’s quite unacceptable to consume only, never Comment, never Share, never add value. Here’s the thing: If you’re going to take the time to absorb content, and if you find it helpful, don’t you see how just walking away without contributing is a bit off? It would be like attending in person a session that someone put effort in to develop, and that you paid for in either time or money, finding value in it, and then simply walking out without even taking the time to acknowledge, stop and thank the speaker, perhaps grab a business card for follow-up, or asking a question or making a comment during the session. So please consider some sort of action – do something with the content you consume. At a bare minimum, if you like the post, Share it. It only takes a few minutes to add value. Make a habit of it. (Btw, that adds to YOUR ORM and OV, right???)

First, what does it mean to “earn” engagement FROM our Clients, Partners, and Fans? I’ll use the analogy of the conference again. Suppose you are a new member of an association and you go to the first couple association meetings. At those meetings, you (and probably your boss) are so excited to be in the presence of all these new, targeted prospects, and driving so hard to justify the expense, that you go up to everyone you meet, introduce yourself, and immediately launch into a pitch about your products and services. So for two meetings in a row, you done nothing but “sell”. No listening to what others do, no volunteering to help the association in some way through your talents, no fostering conversations at the breakfast tables, instead “just sell baby”. Obviously an extreme example (though not really, I’ve seen this recently as I’m sure you have as well), but you get the point. If this were the case, would you reasonably expect anyone in the association to give you any positive props or mentions at any point at all? Probably not.

Now contrast that with the flip side. All you do is listen and volunteer and never mention exactly what you do. So everyone ‘Likes’ you but no one has any idea why you’re there or what you do. Also an extreme example on the other end of the spectrum. Also not appropriate.

Relative to the concept of ‘earned media’, the holy grail lies somewhere in between. That’s the goal, that’s the target. How do we do enough selling/marketing so that people know what we do and we stay top-of-mind for that function (and rank high in search along the way), but we also listen, help, and add value along the way? And what is that balance? I’ve heard it said that you can think of it in terms of a 10:1 ratio – 10 acts of added value for every 1 act of selling.

It’s critically important to understand this point. Earned media is/will be an essential element in the near future of sales and marketing.

What does “Earned Media” look like inside of Linkedin? Here are the spots to look for earned media and mentions. Once you understand the locations, and then combine that with the a for-mentioned concept of sales-versus-valueadd, you’ll quickly get the point. Again these are all Linkedin spots:

1. Company Page Recommendations
2. Company Page Status Updates
3. Individual Recommendations
4. Individual Status Updates
5. Group Mentions
6. Answers Mentions
7. Company Buzz Mentions
8. Twitter-integration Mentions
9. Of course, Employee Mentions
10. Employee Activities

These are a few of the hot spots. If you know any others, please Comment.

So what to you do with these and where does earned media come into play?

Company Page Recommendations:

Obvious caveat: The brand must do a great job in adding value and servicing its clients. “Astroturfing”, or getting your brother-in-law to say something nice about you in spite of poor service, inflated prices, etc., will be discovered and exposed, and will further exacerbate the original problems. Trust that.

Sample Linkedin Product Recommendation on a Company Page (click to enlarge)

Once you have the Company profile in place on Linkedin, be sure to add the tabs that allow you to feature your products and/or services. At that point, in these early days of Linkedin, it’s a simple matter of asking some of your Clients, Partners, and Fans to hit the page and make a Comment. Here’s a great example from HubSpot. Notice the inherent Linkedin functionality associated with the Recommendation and how it reinforces the relevance and influence of the Recommendation. Notice also that there is a Share button on the page. Did you know that brand advocates are 83% more likely to Share a page, all the more so when they’ve engaged with the content in some way, put their personal virtual fingerprints on the page? Do you see how these things work together to create earned media and viral marketing? (see more stories on this here)

Company Page Status Updates:

We all know that personal Status Updates (aka Shares on your Linkedin Homepage newsfeed) have the potential of being seen by your network. Going further, most know that if your network Likes or Comments on something YOU shared, THEIR network has the potential of seeing it and sharing it – and so on. (I saw one guy who posted a bet he made with his boss that his boss would give him $1 for every Like and Comment he got on a post about the utility of Linkedin. At that point, the guy had the usual couple hundred Connections. Well, his update went viral inside Linkedin. I’m not sure I remember exactly what I last saw or where it sits today, but after a few weeks the guy’s boss owed him SEVERAL THOUSAND bucks.)

As with personal, the same functionality applies to Company Status Updates. The Status Updates are obviously not earned media, but Likes, Comments, and Shares of those updates are. When the Status Updates appear in Followers Newsfeeds, if people are fans of the brand and appreciate the content of the item, there’s a good chance they will Likes, Comments, and/or Shares, especially if they’ve advanced in their Social maturity beyond the previously mentioned lurking stage. Those actions then become the earned media, the holy grail of Social Media Marketing. Nuf said.

Well, that’s all I have time for at this point. I’ll continue the dialog on the finer points of the other seven items next time.

Meantime, I’m greatly looking forward to ICMG first week of February, PIMA the next week, perhaps the ACT Conference, perhaps SWSX in March, and a VERY exclusive Enterprise Social Tech day-long Boot Camp for C-level insurance executives, also in March in Charlotte – a busy Q1.

Again, please Like, Comment, and Share. Let’s see if I can earn some media myself! Thanks in advance. Merry Christmas!!! Emmanuel.

And that from a guy that’s been in “the business” of life insurance sales since the late 70′s. Wow! Strong language? Yep, it is. Oh, and this is during a “down economy”.

WebWiseom Podcast #35 – Life Insurance Sales and Social Tech (also on iTunes)

Mike Wise Podcasting w Mike Sheehan at Starbucks

Got 30 minutes to see why you might need to change your course wrt sales and marketing? In prep for an ICMG panel discussion I’m leading in February, I received a question in the ICMG Linkedin Group. “Mike, I’d love to hear about case studies about how social media has been used to increase sales of individual life insurance…i.e. practical examples from life insurance agents in the field where social media [is] contributing to increasing sales, commissions, etc.”

So I thought, “Let me get it straight from an agent.”

Here it is, recorded on my Android at Starbucks in Hudson, OH in about 60 minutes.

So my question for you, the reader:

Are you an independent insurance producer? (any industry really) Are you having your best year ever?

Are you an MGA, IMO, Agency, etc? Is your team having its best year ever, totally crushing it?

Are you an insurance company sales and marketing leader? Are your 2011 sales off the charts? Oh, and you did you do the “lease amount of work” to get there?

If the answer is “No.” to any of the above, listen and learn from a career life insurance agent from Chicago now in Cleveland. Mike Sheehan totally lays out the real deal on what it takes.

(Oh, and if you want a short cut so that it doesn’t take you two and a half years to get there, let me know. I can definitely save you a tremendous amount of $$, time, and brain damage, not to mention possible loss of reputation caused by Social Tech missteps.)

Mike Sheehan's Droid - Spot-on use of Tech

So grab a blank doc for notes and click on the top link in the podcast widget below. Listen in as we talk with Mike.

What do you think, insurance peeps? Still think Social is nuts and a waste of time? The Comment section below is beckoning.

Subscribe to the WebWisedom podcast RSS feed here. I try to do one every couple months or so.

Thanks to Shoutlet for the podcast and RSS tech. Shoutlet rocks!

Morning – Baseline understanding on Social Technologies

• 90 minutes: What it means and how to leverage it
• 90 minutes: Web sites, Blogs and Twitter

Afternoon – Tactical How-to’s on Primary Business Social Tech

• Measuring Results
• Linkedin
• Facebook
• FourSquare
• Mobile
• Viral Media and Video

Bonus, time-permitting: RSS, Alerts, Analytics

This group is focused on the Property & Casualty side of the insurance space. The Association members are regional and local agencies selling both commercial and personal lines products. Several niche insurance companies provide the products. And of course several business partners support the environment with various business operation and marketing services. Good people working hard to provide valuable risk-management services to the business community. An example: insurance products specifically designed for the coastal environment – flood, hurricane, that kind of thing. Always fun meeting new people, learning about new applications and products, and seeing how Social fits in.

**********************

A few learnings to share from a recent all-day Social Media Marketing strategy session with an insurance company and two pilot participants:

1. Doing a Social Media Marketing pilot is always a great way to “test before you INvest”.
2. Extremely helpful on several levels for the insurance company marketing folks to invite the compliance folks into the session. Why? That’s a subject for another post.
3. Insurance marketing partners are chomping at the bit to start using Social.
4. Our “Ideation Session” turned up several really solid Social Media Marketing opportunities to chose from.
5. Good decision for the company to use marketing dollars already in the budget to fund the pilot. Takes the issue of money right off the table. Pretty small investment in the grand scheme of things.
6. A lot of the technologies needed for the pilots are already in place and can be reused, for example on Facebook pages, with minor variations.
7. Many others but confidentiality prevails.

**********************

Next week: Another all-day Social Media Marketing strategy session with a large insurance agency.

**********************

I’m also attending Scott Klososky’s Social Tech Bootcamp in Chicago. Can’t wait to see all the new Social Tech stuff he’s been working on.

Btw, if you’d like to collaborate on a Social Tech Bootcamp for your company or for your clients or prospects, reach out to me. I can guarantee it to be an extremely effective use of time any way you skin it.

A few recent pics:

Sunrise at the Gifford Pinchot State Park after visiting Gettysburg

A coiled-up Delaware Black Snake glaring back from the marsh

My golfing partner grabbed the thing – amazing to see.

Coming right at the camera! Yikes!

Wanted to give a quick shout-out about a Webinar I was asked to help with.

Background: Distribion, a new member of the association I’m involved in, PIMA, caught my attention at the last conference. So I decided to check out their system in an effort to better understand their value prop , especially in the context of PIMA members. After a quick, high-level demo, I could see that the tech definitely has great utility for organizations that are leveraging multi-channel marketing. Of course my expertise is about e-Commerce, Web sites, Web marketing, and Social Technologies. So it was interesting to see how Direct Mail, Call Center Marketing, and other channels can be integrated into a common dashboard.

In talking about the insurance industry, they asked me what I felt were some of the biggest challenges in the insurance space relative to Social Media Marketing. Short answer… legal and compliance issues have kept many insurance marketing organizations on the Social Tech sidelines. I shared a recent project I’m working on where I’m helping an insurance company with a pilot marketing project. I’m orchestrating a process with the carrier, a couple of their agencies, and compliance folks. Interesting.

Of course that started with a research project sponsored by the company’s marketing department where I was tasked with an assessment of the Social Media Marketing and Compliance landscape. That ended up being very helpful in bringing the legal and compliance folks up to speed on Social Technologies, breaking down some functional myths about Social, illustrating what other carriers are doing with Social, researching and describing current guidelines by the NAIC, etc.

At the time, Distribion folks reached back to me and suggested perhaps we do a joint White Paper, perhaps a joint Webinar, that brings together these Social Media Marketing and Compliance concepts together with Marketing Technology concepts. So fast forward several months and here we are.

Next week we’ll be jumping on a call to discuss these subjects. Edgar Rodriguez, Sales Exec with Distribion will be facilitating a session with myself and Deb McAlister-Holland. Deb recently joined Distribion to lead their marketing efforts – very interesting background that brings a rich perspective I’ve appreciated getting to know in preparation for this Webinar. Check out here new ecosystem at www.distributedmarketing.org

Here’s what the Agenda looks like:

• How Google Changed Marketing Forever
  
• The Empowered Customer & the Echo Chamber
  
• 21st Century Marketing in a Regulated Environment
  
• Social Media Guidelines & Compliance
  
• Empowering Producers & Local Marketing
  
• 7 Things Marketers MUST Know About Online Marketing

Again, “It’s a lot to bite off” in 60 minutes. But it seems like it should be a worthwhile effort. The ensuing White Paper should be good as well. If you have anything you really want to know, feel free to use the Comment below, Linkindin, Twitter, email, call me, etc. Happy to help in any way…

Btw, not sure how many of the attendees will be on Twitter during and after the event, but I’d like to suggest the Twitter hashtag: #MCRE for Marketing & Compliance in a Regulated Environment. In fact, I’ll make a note to stay on Twitter for a half-hour after the Webinar to kick around thoughts and ideas. Ala HubSpot, we’ll call it the “Twitter After-party!” I love it.

Links:

Register here

Linkedin Event (Click “Attending” for an easy way to Share with your Linkedin network)

Perhaps Share this post as well. The more insurance folks that assimilate some of these concepts, the better. Definitely encourage you to send it to legal and compliance folks.

Thanks!

Question: Have you ever been driving down the interstate… in the right lane… at a normal speed of 65mph… just cruising along enjoying the drive… when all of the sudden you come upon someone driving 45, or worse yet, someone stopped in your lane??? What’s your first gut feeling?

Or maybe you’re in a hurry rushing between meetings.. perhaps returning an urgent phone call to your spouse… so you’re pushing it at 75/80mph. Again, all of the sudden you come upon someone driving really slow? What’s your gut feeling then, especially given that you’re in a time of stress?

At the far extreme, have you ever seen someone, usually from Illinois or Michigan :-0, BLOW BY at  85/90/95? Imagine the difference THEN with the guy going 45. Even if you’re going 65, that differential is big – not mention the guy going 45… or the guy why is broken down and stopped.

The interesting paradox: The people driving slow may think they are ‘safe’ but in reality, they are actually in harm’s way.

What’s the point? Does the same concept apply to Social Technologies and companies or industries moving too slow? Is there a correlation there? I think so, but like I always say, sometimes I’m out in left field. I’ve had my share of close-calls with slow or stopped traffic, close enough to know that a crash on the highway is really dangerous. We’ve all driven by them, too. Not only is that kind of accident a high-speed impact, but what happens after the main accident is often even more lethal. Consider the secondary crashes, the side impacts, spinning and crossing the median. Then there’s the rubber-neckers on the other side. Then there’s the bad feelings, anger, long-term back problems, etc. etc. Even if they DON’T wreck, it’s disruptive, isn’t it?

Please Comment below: Isn’t it critically important to, at a bare minimum, keep up with traffic? Well, Social Media Marketing for B2B AND B2C is moving at a fairly good clip right now….

Again, I’m nuts sometimes. Straighten me out.

A few of my friends leading worship at church

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?

Highly recommend Insurance Ecosystem, not only as an info source, but also as a concept. Pat Alexander is one of the savviest insurance vets I know relative to insurance technology…. definitely has her finger on the pulse.

If you have Comments or questions about Twitter, click through and throw them into the post over on Insurance Ecosystem and we’ll dialog over there. Above all, don’t settle for the trite Twitter brush off, “I don’t get Twitter.” It’s already extremely influential on many levels. Highly recommend it. Read why.

Heading to the prison ministry for 72 hours. Gotta’ leave the tech in the car. JFYI.

**********

Picture from the recent ice and snow storm…

Sunrise coming over the roof caught my attention

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)