Marketing /Sales / Social Media Archives - Page 114 of 174

Social Networking: Make It Imperfectly Human for Me

June 27, 2008 by Liz

New York City, Seth Godin, Ann Michael, and a Paper Flower

In August 1998, I was wandering the streets in New York City. Later that evening our company sales conference would start. As I turned the corner somewhere near 33rd and Park, I was enjoying the view in a florist window. I walked two stores past. Stopped. Something I’d noticed had taken me. I literally backed up ten paces and went into that flower store. I came out grinning.

What had stopped me were handmade paper flowers — taller than I am. I had found a new friend for my presentation the next day. I left the florist with giant flower with a stem down to my ankles and greeted New York like a giant kid with a huge balloon. The flower has shared my office ever since. On occasion, it even sits in my desk chair.

In 2006, I returned to that same New York neighborhood for a Seth Godin seminar. I met Ann Michael. there for the first time. As we walked around the city, I’m sure I told her the story of that flower and the people who opened doors for me — the strange tall woman with a bag in one hand and unhelpful flower friend in the other.

I keep a white silk flower in a blue glass vase on a shelf in my living room. I bought the vase from a catalog. Then I bought the flower. They look stunning together, but they have no story.

This morning at Seth’s Blog something he said in May made me stop, like I did that day in New York City.

If you want to get noticed, don’t be so polished. . . . When in doubt, ~~scrawl~~ make it human.

White rose in a blue vase by Liz Strauss

I looked around for examples in my life — and I found two flowers . . .

That white rose in the blue vase is elegant, but that that paper flower connects me to people — people who’ve seen it in my office or heard the tale of how it got bought. That paper flower calls up so many stories, it could fuel a blog.

When you make a blog, a social network, or product for me, could you make it imperfectly human? It’s human touch that lingers and connects.

What do you have that’s like my paper flower?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Images: Liz Strauss

Which Option for Publishing the Liz Strauss eBook Would You Choose?

June 16, 2008 by Liz

Content and Context of Relationships

When I got to the final edit of my eBook, I found something that surprised me. What I saw was that the Introduction makes a nice piece with 20 or so pages on blogs and blogging culture, focused on listening to the conversation with about 4-6 pages of how to say “hello.”

What I have could be an ebook on writing a successful blog with a power-packed introduction, or I could break out the introduction into a smaller book for people who are beginning to learn the Internet culture.

My brain is filtering three options. Should I

Make two separate titles. One of 24 pages and one of 40-48 pages?
The Upside: The little book could make a nice sales piece for folks who are looking to leave something with a potential social media customer. Or the little book, could lead folks to read the bigger book right after. Two books always appear to be worth more value than one.
The Downside: Used that way, the two books wouldn’t necessarily serve the same readers. Some readers might see only one as useful.

Offer the introduction as a free report to sell the longer version?
The Upside: a free report can do a lot to promote the entire book.
The Downside: The intro would have to change a bit to feature what else the book offers for folks to make an informed buying decision.

All else being equal, the publishing business decision would definitely be the first one. Offering two books is offering two opportunities to buy. However, publishing decision like this one need the input of people who know more than I do. I asked many folks for their opinions . . .

I’ve named the responses by the experience and clientele of the responders. Each response below represents more than one person’s insight and opinion.

The Social Media Guru Responses : This guy works works on high power social media change initiatives. His response was that the real meat is in the writing — the back end of the entire document. He suggested answer 2 — the intro as a free report.

The Social Media and Tech Scholar / Trainer Responses: She works mostly with organizations who are ready, but just starting to build a social web presence. She said she saw the need for something like it. She said 40+ more pages on how to write would overwhelm her audience. Her answer was option 1.

The Offline Communications Business CEO Responses: She and her staff plan strategies with clients who still think in terms of print. Most don’t have a blog. Her response to the idea of the document was that she could use it because her clients need small steps to get here. She voted for option 1 before she even read them.

To summarize: The guru thinks the intro is lightweight. The Scholar / Trainer thinks the people she works are overwhelmed by too much information. The Offline Business Communications CEO wants a separate document that moves in small steps. It seems the clientele we’re looking at changes the response.

Which option would you choose or do you see another one?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Five Tools Chris Brogan Uses for Listening and 8 Ways We Get the Most From Listening Tools

June 15, 2008 by Liz

Getting to the Heart of the Data

In a beautiful post tonight, Chris Brogan highlighted the value of listening. He pointed out how it’s too easy to

rush right into the â€œspeakingâ€ side of the toolbox without giving much thought to the â€œlisteningâ€ part.

and he offered his favorite tools for a company who wants to be “listening to their audience, their customers, their partners, and their detractors.”

I’m so with him. You can find the five tools Chris uses most for listening here.

What to Listen for and How to Get the Most from Listening Tools

Just as when we write we have to know what we want to say. We have to know what we’re listening for . . . we’re listening for what people aren’t saying, but want to.

Listen for quantity of response. Lots of folks saying the same thing is worth taking note of. Are they a crowd or a mob following each other? Are they a trend of individuals who have discovered something worth pointing out?

Listen for the odd response that is way out of line. Someone on the edges of the responses could be offering am Einstein-like response.

Listen for the spaces between the words. Ask some question about what’s not being said and listen again and again.

Listen for the source of the speaker and the bias the speaker might have. Listen for who’s trying to get attention, who wants favor with the listeners.

Listen for the things that you don’t want to hear. They’re the most important information you’ll gather on any listening trek.

Listen to find the people who have more to offer than opinions, but innovative ideas and product plans. If you can, find a way to make a relationship with them.

Listen to find the evangelists who love your company, who defend you when you’re attacked. Let them know they’re appreciated.

Listen for ways that you might bring back what folks said to show the people who work hard on your products that people are paying attention to them..

Listening isn’t all data, all quantity and remarks. Listening is not a science, but an art that brings in human thought. Listening is the most important part of a conversation. Conversations are how communities begin.

Don’t let the tools draw lines around the way you hear.

I don’t. Brogan doesn’t either. Listen every way you know how.

What other ways do you use tools to listen to what people aren’t saying.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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The Beam Global Interview with Jason Falls Continues

June 11, 2008 by Liz

A SERIES in the quest to know more about the offline world

Part 2 in A 2-Part Interview with Jason Falls

Recently, I asked Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer. if he’d check in with with Beam Global. to see whether we might share the story of their cultural switch to a social media relationship with their customers — as it started and as it goes through it’s life cycle. I’m delighted to say that everyone thought the idea was great way to let folks see how things are working — this is part two of the first of those interviews.

Hi Jason! Can you share some of the growth of the social media ideas from conception to final version, you’re calling “The Stuff Inside”?

The great thing about â€œThe Stuff Insideâ€ is that the concept about who we are and what we stand for was already in place before we fully developed the social media strategy. And, as you can tell, the concept is tailor made for the social media audience. Our research told us that the adult, male consumer of legal drinking age is tired of a fake world â€“ he is looking for something genuine and authentic to hold on to. This parallels the same quest many social media users are on and why they’ve flocked to the web to get away from the mainstream media experience. So drafting some tactical compliments to â€œThe Stuff Inside,â€ which allows people to be authentic, genuine and engage with one another and the brand, was almost easy.

I can’t say how impressed I am that you offered to have your work critiqued in an focus group of social media pros at SOBCon. Were you anxious to hear what they had to say? Did they say what you thought they would?

I was not only anxious, but nervous. The folks in that focus group are my peers. They do many of the same things I do and even one in particular (Chris Brogan) is a friend and professional hero of mine. To have them look at the campaign with constructive criticism was nerve racking. To make it worse, I couldn’t be there to hear the feedback first hand since my daughter was born the week before. Needless to say, I was a wreck that weekend down in Kentucky wondering what they had to say.

The good thing is that they said what I thought they would. They had positive feedback, a few minor criticisms here and there, but generally embraced it as well thought out. Perhaps an even better result of the weekend was that, by not being able to attend, J.J. Betts and Scott Kolbe from the Beam Team went in my stead and got to hear that feedback about our social media efforts from third party folks and not just me. It allowed them to verify that my ideas weren’t crazy and know that we were on the right track from a strategic standpoint. Shashi Bellamkonda’s video with J.J. bounced around the web a few days later and literally helped the Beam Team see that just participating in the conversation is a powerful act.

Is there more that you think we should know about the story of this social media endeavor and the Beam Global sponsorship at SOBCon?

We don’t think of â€œThe Stuff Insideâ€ as a campaign. This really is a change in how we behave as a brand and how we market our product. Instead of pushing bourbon, we’re helping people identify the qualities of our brand in themselves and others. Instigating and facilitating a greater conversation about character, integrity is our ultimate goal. This is a journey, not so much a destination. The community that participates at www.theTheStuffInside.com will have a lot of say in where we go next.

That, and we think Liz is fabulous. Thanks for welcoming us both at SOBCon and here.

—-
More to come as we report what happened when we shared the Beam Global social media plans with a few select folks at SOBCon08.

Thanks, Jason and Thanks, Beam!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Get your voice into the conversation!

You can read the first Beam Global Cultural Shift Interview here:
The Beam Global Cultural Switch to Social Media: How It Began

The Beam Global Cultural Switch to Social Media: How It Began

June 9, 2008 by Liz

A SERIES in the quest to know more about the offline world

A 2-Part Interview with Jason Falls

It was at SxSW that I finally metJason Falls, Social Media Explorer. It wasn’t hard to see that our ideas about business and relationships were of the same vintage. Not a surprise, I suppose that a saloonkeeper’s daughter would get along well with the guy who manages social media for the most prestigious international spirits distiller — Beam Global.

Conversation turned to video — a video about SOBCon08, Biz School for Bloggers. Soon enough we were talking the places that SOBCon and Beam Global had mutual interests and goals — our conference on social media and business; their business and their new social media campaign. Jason proposed the idea to his clients, JJ Betts and Scott Kolbe. Beam Global became a SOBCon a fully participating sponsor/partner, just weeks before the soft launch of their first social media campaign.

I asked Jason Falls to check in with Beam last week to see whether we might tell the story of the campaign, both as it started and as it goes through it’s launch and life cycle. I’m delighted to say that Jason and JJ Betts both thought the idea was great way to open the curtain a bit and let folks see how things are working — with that I begin this series of interviews.

Hi Jason! How did your relationship with Beam Global begin? What sort of advertising and promotion were they doing? Why did they come to you and Doe Anderson?

I was a public relations account manager at Doe-Anderson for a while, but one who was constantly jumping up and down, yelling that more needed to be done in terms of social media strategy for our clients – blogging included. We offered social media programming from a PR perspective, but like a lot of agencies at the time, we didn’t have a great deal of takers.

Beam Global, which is the parent company for two of Doe’s signature clients — Maker’s Mark and Knob Creek (& Small Batch) bourbons — came to Todd Spencer, our CEO, and asked him to help them find what they were calling at the time an, “Internet Trends Analyst.” After a couple months of not really knowing who they were looking for, Todd finally put two and two together and realized that what I was yelling about was what Beam Global was asking for. After a quick meeting with Sam Seiller, the director of whiskeys for Beam, I had a new role.

Prior to my counsel on a number of the brands in the Beam Global portfolio, there were some small steps Beam needed to take in order to dive into the social media space. The brands were all playing in traditional advertising, both above and below the line, fostering a sense of community around their customer relationship management programs. My job was, and still is, to see to it that each brand gathers a group of brand enthusiasts through their social media efforts as well as open the lines of communications between the brands and their consumers.

I’ve always said that spirits companies are the most social, which would make the move into the social media space seem relatively easy. However, there are the always important legal restrictions for alcohol, wine and spirits advertising that make social media more of a challenge than one would expect. The good news is that the company is completely committed to new ways of thinking, particularly with this new Jim Beam effort.

How long had you worked together before you started to talk about the opportunities of social media? What was Beam Global’s initial reaction?

Since they came looking for them, right away. The folks at Beam knew they needed to play in the social media space in order to continue their 200-plus year heritage of being leaders in the spirits industry. â€œThe Stuff Insideâ€ effort is one of the first major social media efforts for the spirits industry

Were there long lists of ROI questions? What was the tipping point that made social media a positive direction?

ROI was, is and will forever be a huge question for brands in everything they do. However, Tom Flocco (Beam Global’s CEO) and Rory Finlay (Beam Global’s CMO) changed the way of thinking within Beam Global a little over a year ago when they launched the Beam Global Vision – To build brands people want to talk about. That opened the door for what we’re doing now with social media. While Beam Global is a big company and is used to many of the traditional measures and reporting that determine success, this new way of acting is from the top down. We want people talking about our brands, we want to listen to what they’re saying and respond and we want that activity to positively effect sales.

Jason, can you share some of the growth of the social media campaign from conception to final version?

The great thing about â€œThe Stuff Insideâ€ is that the concept about who we are and what we stand for was already in place before we fully developed the social media strategy. And, as you can tell, the concept is tailor made for the social media audience. Our research told us that the adult, male consumer of legal drinking age is tired of a fake world â€“ he is looking for something genuine and authentic to hold on to. This parallels the same quest many social media users are on and why they’ve flocked to the web to get away from the mainstream media experience. So drafting some tactical compliments to â€œThe Stuff Inside,â€ which allows people to be authentic, genuine and engage with one another and the brand, was almost easy.

—-
More from Jason on Wednesday, as we report what happened when we shared the Beam Global social media plans with a few select folks at SOBCon08.