Posts Tagged ‘Blog Consulting’

I’m looking for comments from readers on this topic?

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.

***********

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

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

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.

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

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!

8am.

Some recent learnings I wanted to share…

Last spring, after church in the college town of Houghton, NY, I found myself in a discussion about blogging and social media with the president of my son’s college, Houghton College.  (Couple side notes: 1. The pastor of the small church in the middle of the poorest county in NY has a blog and uses Twitter.  2. Houghton (pronounced ho’ ton, or in the local area dialect … ho’ in !!! like Martin is mar’ in or Walton is wal’ in – so funny!)

Dr. Mullen asked me to come for a more formal discussion with her the next time I was up for a soccer game….

While I don’t want to shift my focus away from insurance to HigherEd, I learned a couple of the things about Social Technologies as I prepared and spoke with Dr. Mullen and the leader of Marketing Communications for the college.

In a quick search of competitive schools to Houghton, I found that almost all of the schools have at least some Social Tech on their Web properties.  But two of the schools are definitely out in front and seem to have invested some energy towards a more well-defined Social Tech strategy.

MNVU

Mount Vernon Nazarene University has an interesting strategy.  While it’s below the fold, if you scroll down a tad, you will find the Social Tech call-outs in a unified bar.  The interesting thing is that the bar is really one image that is all hyper-linked to the same subpage.  But the Social Tech subpage is really well-organized and clearly directs the visitor to the appropriate Social areas of interest.  Again, it seems clear that the school is pursuing a Social strategy.  It’s also clear that it’s in its infancy.  As an example, SocialTech buttons are not in view on all pages of the site.  ShareThis is not ubiquitous.  And the links to the Social sites, such as the Facebook and Twitter links, do not open in a new page.  As I mentioned last time in the NYLife post, it’s critical that these links open in a new page or tab – You don’t want to lose the traffic, you want to spread the traffic, grab more mind-share as it were.

Also interesting that they are doing special things for prospective students.  See the link under admissions.  It goes to a separate domain.  Notice the heavy use of Social Tech there.  The links go to the same Social sites as with the main site, just with a little different treatment.

SBU

Another Social Tech leader we looked at in the president’s office is St. Bonaventure University – nice site.  Their Social Tech links are above the fold. Clicking on the www.sbu.edu/social signage brings you to a similar page as Mt. Vernon, but a little different organization.  The Facebook strategy isn’t segmented yet, but they have a live Facebook integration in the box below the fold.  They also have a video (that doesn’t work on a Mac – doh!).  Perhaps the coup-de-gras is the Blog Directory, although that call-out is really easy to skip over.  But clicking through to the blogs and you can quickly see that Blogs have been in-play at SBU since 2004.  Some of the staff and prof’s have very mature blogs today.  Very interesting.  Most have their own domains, some have e-commerce, even Google advertising (wonder who gets the revenue?).  But again, all the links open in the same page.  Do you see why that’s such a disruptive linking situation?  Here’s the thing… I don’t want to have to hit the back button.  I want to check out those blogs, perhaps even bookmark or subscribe to the feeds while I’m there.  But that’s NOT the main reason why I came to the sbu site to begin with.  I don’t want to lose my original purpose, my original train of thought.  The site needs to help me, not hurt me, not distract – serve up more useful content and links – yes.  But help me accomplish my original purpose along the way.  Does that make sense?  Comments?

Anyway, some intersting learning.  Cool how a casual conversation can lead to important insights.  Btw, that’s why I never close off discussions just because they are out of my central focus.  You never know when or where that golden nugget of information will come from.

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

Some favorite pictures from the trip (out of at least 5000 pictures!)  Understand that shooting a soccer game is 1000 pics in itself.  You have to keep shooting to get the good stuff…

Favorite from Lake Waukewan, sister to Lake Winnipesaukee where my cousin has a lake house.  Incredible sunrise on the right, a storm rolling in on the left, and a still lake at dawn in the middle.

Extremely rare photo

Favorite soccer pic of my son at the Houghton College Men’s Soccer 2010 home opener. #19

Soccer pic from Gordon College where four of my son’s teammates from High School play.

Would LOVE your comments, especially with links to other sites that are doing a good job with social, regardless of the industry.

10am (with a couple distractions along the way)

Btw, it’s been 3 weeks since my last post.  Longer than normal by 2 weeks.  Here’s why: The NYLife post saw a lot of action and dialog so I wanted to leave it up for an extra week.  Then last week I decided to tackle a huge trip from CLE up through Postdam, NY, across Vermont to Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, down to Boston, MA, back to Houghton, NY, and back to CLE.  It took a week to cover all that ground, but I accomplished my mission… and stayed productive work-wise thanks to my Droid Incredible (a $99 device from Verizon with a new contract – really useful).  Lot to bite off, but I made it.

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.

*******

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

*******

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???

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

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.