Successful Blog

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

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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.

Beam Global Logo

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. “The Stuff Inside” 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 “The Stuff Inside” 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 – 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 “The Stuff Inside,” which allows people to be authentic, genuine and engage with one another and the brand, was almost easy.

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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.

Thanks, Jason and Thanks, Beam!

–ME “Liz”Strauss

In Search of the Elusive Non-blogging Customer

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Last week, in a conversation called Traffic, Readers, and Colleagues — Are They Customers? I asked how you might help a new blogging business connect to customers in the offline world. A comment by SpaceAgeSage was so packed with ideas, that I asked if she might package them up, elaborate a bit, and offer them to you in the form of a guest post. I’m delighted to share this with you.

In Search of the Elusive Non-blogging Customer
by SpaceAgeSage

Liz is on a quest to bring blogging enlightenment to non-bloggers who are a vast and mainly untapped population of potential readers and customers. She recently asked in a post, “How would you help a new blogging business connect to customers in the offline world?” With a small and humble background in the brick-and-mortar world of public relations and journalism, I offer the following ideas:

Contact local organizations in your niche
Talk face-to-face with local groups and organizations associated with your niche and ask politely for a blurb in their online or hard copy newsletter. Offer to be a guest speaker for one of their meetings if applicable. One time, as a martial artist teaching self defense classes, I went to the biggest real estate organization in my area and asked them to send out my flyer in their monthly packet to members.

You can find contact information by looking for the meetings section in the newspaper, finding a national website for an organization and then asking for local contacts, talking to your local librarians (they know a lot), and calling up buildings or facilities where such groups might rent space for meetings.

I come from small town, America, but one of the most productive resources I have used is the “Welcome Wagon” lady. She takes packets of information, flyers, and coupons to every new home buyer or new rental she can find. If no one is home, she hangs the plastic bag full of promotional materials on the door.

Look beside you
As Liz says, “Look to the customers standing right beside you.” Family, friends, bowling buddies, classmates, colleagues at work, and members of organization you belong to, including your local church, could be a rich source of customers or people who can network you to customers.

When you do this, realize that not everyone understands blogging. I just recently spent a weekend changing one friend’s mind who avoided any internet connections because she had relatives endangered by some online activities. Remember, you get to be an ambassador for the blogging world and a business person!

Find non-blogging experts to interview
Write or email top non-blogging experts (authors, professors, business leaders) in your niche area and politely ask to interview them. They will tell everyone where to find the interview.

As a journalist, I was told never to let anyone read my story before it went into the newspaper. Trust me, though, any potential interviewee would love to be able to edit your work before your post goes live. You may want to offer this to the expert to make them more likely to give you the interview. Also, when querying them, let them know what you want to ask them, who will be reading your blog, and how the interview will be conducted (live, phone, or answers returned via email). After you post, send them the link so they can forward it easily to others, and please remember to thank them! They may be able to steer other interviews your way (or my way!)

Utilize press coverage
Write a press release to get coverage in your local paper. Focus your press release on either your blog or blogging. If you write about blogging in general, just make sure to use your site as a highly profiled example. Tell your local press that blogging is a “lifestyle,” and they will perk up their ears.

Online sites exist with free information on how to write a press release, but just remember the “who, what, when, where, why and how.” Also here are three tips:

  • Sending a press release may get noticed, but not as much as having a face-to-face with a reporter or editor
  • Journalists like to eat and may listen better over a meal that you offer to buy
  • During slow news days, reporters fight for news – that’s when you want to talk to them, not when a tornado has leveled a subdivision.

Online forums
Find online Web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion groups, bulletin board, etc., in your niche subject outside the blog world and jump in. Be nice, be real, and give as much as you can when promoting yourself. You can find forums often attached to magazines, to newspapers, to activities, to organizations, and to web sites of companies that complement your niche and product.

Become a “YouTuber”
Make a YouTube video about yourself, your blog, or your product. Make it fun, funny, or interesting. I know of a company that sells equipment for autopsying lab rats for scientific study, and even it has “how-to videos.” (No, I did not watch them.) Just one video that “goes viral” can rocket anyone into stardom for a day or month. Be ready to utilize any generated traffic in ways that maintain these new readers to your blog.

Team up with complementary non-blogging businesses
Let’s say your blog is about astronomy, and your product helps people find or see the stars during different seasons. The RV online and offline community is huge. You might be able to team up with them in a mutually beneficial way. Think outside the box. Maybe schools, or home schooling groups, or the local hiking club would find your product interesting, too. It never hurts to ask politely. As my husband says, until you ask, the answer is always, “No.”
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Best wishes with your quest to find the non-blogging reader and customer!
—SpaceAgeSage

Thanks, Sage! You’ve got me busy with an entire list of things we can do.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Revising Your LinkedIn Profile: Who's Looking at YOU?

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I’m on a quest to approach social networking and reputation management in a saner, more organized way. Now I’m checking and revising what I’ve already got out there.

Your LinkedIn Profile: Who’s Looking at YOU?

LinkedIn is an important bridge between the online and offline business communities. Both groups use this tool to connect and share their professional expertise. This cross-cultural nature makes LinkedIn more than a social media resume file and management tool. Because of it’s far-reaching membership, LinkedIn can serve as a research tool that shows whether our professional profile is working for us.

Have you noticed the box on your LinkedIn home page called Profile Views? You’ll find it in the right column under the flash ad — I’ve circled it in the screenshot below. (UPDATE: THIS APPEARS ONLY ON PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTS.)

LinkedIn Profile Views

Profile Views is a statement of and a link to who’s been looking at your profile or looking for someone like you. If you click the link, you’ll see something that looks like this.

LinkedIn Who’s Been Looking

This list is compiled based on the visibility settings of the people who came to look. The options are three and offered this way:

What will be shown to other LinkedIn users when you view their profiles?

  • Show my name and headline
  • Only show my anonymous profile characteristics, such as industry and title
  • Don’t show users that I’ve viewed their profile

[To check or change your settings use the “Change your settings” link below the box.]

Click through on one of those links, and you’ll see the folks in your network who fit the same description as the person who stopped by to check your profile. NOTE: The person who actually came may not be in this list.

Looking Back and Saying Hello

At first it seemed silly to look at list of people who hadn’t looked at me. Then I realized this list was representative of someone who had been a visitor. I got curious about who they were. Now I look back regularly and sometimes I reach out to meet them as well.

  • I check the list of “who’s been looking” for a possible match in our goals or a connection to people close to me. For example, right now I’m working on a training program called “Models and Masterminds.” So, “Someone in the Executive Leadership function in the Internet industry from Savannah, Georgia Area” might have similar goals to my own. I also might find a connection to my colleague Chris Cree.
  • I click through on the match I find and concentrate on the Level 2 connections. I read down the list for many things.
    • The words that people use to name their jobs
    • The companies they work for currently
    • The companies they’ve worked for in the past
    • Their current location
    • The number of recommendations and connections they have

    I only click through on those that look like a possible fit.

  • When I click through on a possible fit, I read that person’s profile and see who connects me to him or her.
  • If there really is a place where our goals could meet, I write a brief (6-8 sentence email) that explains what I’d like to learn and invites a conversation. I use that to ask a friend to introduce us or send a direct in-mail message on my own. The key is to be specific and guarantee a limited need for commitment on the receiver’s end.

I had a wonderful conversation yesterday with someone I met in this fashion. I expect that we’ll be doing business soon.

On the other hand, I sometimes look to find that something in my profile has attracted a list of folks with whom I might never have the right skill set to form a partnership. If people from the same group keep showing up, I look to my profile for the words that need editing.

Do you pay attention to the folks who are viewing your profile? The more you know about who finds you, the more easily you can adjust your profile to bring the partners who are right for you.

UPDATE: I WAS UNAWARE THAT THIS FEATURE WHICH CAME WITH THE NEW DESIGN IS ONLY ON PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTS.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Check out Models and Masterminds too

Traffic, Readers, Colleagues — Are They Customers?

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Reaching Customers in the Offline World

The Living Web

As I put together the SOBCon materials for Models and Masterminds course, I’m thinking about the folks we call visitors and whether they’re really customers.

When I first started my writing blog, I had one reader, a friend who likes to read. Then I joined a “click traffic group” and as long as I clicked other blogs I got a related number of pageviews. Those clickers became the first visitors to my blog. I’m fairly sure few actually read anything.

At day 21, a comment appeared. Shortly after that a few folks started coming back. I had regular readers. Then I had 10 subscribers. I even knew who some of them were. When page views reached 1000/day and comments were plenty and regular, I put up some ads. I thought I’d make some holiday money.

I was confused.

I hadn’t really been looking at who was visiting my blog.

Traffic, Readers, Colleagues — Are They Customers?

When you look at the people who visit your blog, what do they do and how long do they stay?

  • Traffic – If they come in swarms following a link or bookmark and leave in a few seconds flat, it’s traffic. If someone stumbles a page and thousands come only to go away, isn’t that the same as people visiting a store because they were downtown to watch a parade? Traffic is noise unless convert it to readers or customers.
  • Readers – If each visitor reads 1.5 pages or more, you’re building a community of readers. If an audience is your goal, you’ll well on your way. If selling is what you’re about, you’ll need to convert readers into customers. Readers ignore ad that sit in the sidebar. To sell to readers, talk about what they want. Be helpful in solving their problems with products and services that naturally draw from the content you discuss.
  • Colleagues – Being helpful and solving problems can convert readers into customers. But look closely at your audience. Are they potential customers? If you run a “trade” blog — one that discusses the ideas, trends, and people in your industry — your discussions might be with an audience of colleagues not potential customers. Colleagues are unlikely to buy your products and services, at least not long enough for your business to thrive.

We can build a thriving blog that knocks everyone’s socks off, but it can be an investment of love and time that has no customers.

In a world where mostly bloggers read blogs, it’s a good habit to watch our audience. Unless we’re selling specifically to bloggers, our businesses will grow faster if we connect to customers outside the blogosphere.

How would you help a new blogging business connect to customers in the offline world?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Models and Masterminds begins with offline connections to customers.

Hunters, Gatherers, and Stars of Networking

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Networking on the Ground

relationships button

I’ve been networking on the ground in Chicago. in the last two weeks, I went to a class, a seminar, a presentation, and a huge networking event. My goal was find a few folks who might help me figure out how to talk about an idea that’s shaping up and to learn how to connect with the people who might be interested in exploring it.

I sure found some incredible people, who told me about their work and helped me focus my thinking. I listened them as long as I might and thanked them for their counsel. I found some great folks that I could easily connect to information they needed or a friend who could help them. Sadly, I also found people who seemed hyper-focused on reciting on a script. Conversation with them was almost impossible.

At the large event, I met Mike, who works in relationship management. We talked about this scripted phenomena. He called the hyper-focused people, “hunters.” He said they came to find someone — anyone — to give them work or to work for them. He said he knew because he used to be one of them.

The Hunters, Gatherers, and Stars of Networking

That conversation with Mike left me thinking about the roles we use when we network in a room of strangers. I see distinct types.

  • The hunters — Hunters come to find people of a certain kind. They’re hungry for a boss or an employee who will solve the problem. Hunters are out to satisfy their appetite. The conversations and connections are only important when they move toward that goal.
  • The gatherers — Gatherers have a goal of collecting people. They “work the room” efficiently and with a smile. The most practiced gatherer will trade business cards with every person in the room and be done in record time. Quantity is their quest. Gatherers are about numbers not relationships.
  • The stars — Stars go to learn and help folks when they can. The stars know that one person can only make and maintain relationships with a limited number of people at one time. They use conversation to find where connections offer both people a benefit if they form a relationship.
  • And of course, there are the nonparticipants who watch from the sidelines. Their name is the only description that we need.

As I write this I realize that we play the same roles when we network online. Each of these folks is on our social networking sites.

What do you think? Are there others that I’ve left out? Do you find that online networking is easier than networking on the ground?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

Drafting – Do Your Social Media Profiles Raise Your Net Worth?

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Introductions in Person and in Text

The Living Web

I’m on a quest to organize my social networking. I don’t want a model — one that balances relationship and connection to ensure high return on the time I invest — not a dashboard that tracks everywhere I’ve been. To that end, a modified version of the writing process is working well.

In a recent discussion about networking, we talked about how to introduce ourselves. We agreed that it helps to know about the person or the situation that brought us to the introduction. It seems obvious I would introduce myself in one way to a client and in another way to my son’s newest friend. Introductions are relational and situational.

We know to adapt our personal introductions when we’re face to face, but forget online. Text looks like text.

Do Your Social Media Profiles Raise Your Net Worth?

What’s the first thing we do when someone we don’t know asks us to connect? It makes sense to go to their page to find out who they are. Unfortunately, most of us wrote our profiles before we knew anything about the people on the site. Have your read your profile the day you signed up? Have you thought about the people who have?

The second step in the writing process is Drafting. I’m using this stage to define settting up our presence on a social site. Possibly the most important thing we do in developing a successful presence is define who we are on our profile page. The profile pages serves as an introduction for anyone who wants to know who they’re about to meet or who they’ve just met. Does your profile raise your profile

Use these tips to get more mileage from your social media profile pages.

  1. Research the culture of site.
    • Form a description of the primary group and secondary groups who use the site.
    • Make note of the groups they form and the kind of activities and information they share.
    • Most importantly, read their profile pages to learn the customs and language of the site. Read how your heroes and friends describe themselves and decide whether what they’re doing works.
  2. Write an authentic, but targeted profile for that social group. Think about how you would introduce yourself if you were in the same room.
    • Choose a picture that reflects the spirit of the social group. Including a picture makes your profile more memorable. Including the right picture makes that memory good.
    • Write formally or informally to match the culture and your goals. If you could only say one thing to this group, what would it be? Underscore that idea in the information you choose. Limit the extraneous details that might distract someone from seeing your most important thought.
    • Check the amount and type of information you share against the profiles that impressed you most. It naturally follows that the folks you want to connect with will find the same things important.
  3. Check back often to review your profile to be sure it’s still relevant and up-to-date.

A great social media profile can open doors and make connections that we might have missed had we done less. Like the about page on a blog, it represents us when we’re not there. Time spent to communicate with the audience who visits is a high-return investment.

Have you checked whether your social media profiles add to your net worth?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need help with your profile? Ask Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!