Increasing Employee & Client Engagement

Application Programming Interface
API – is basically a set of routines, protocols provided by operating system services in order to support the building of applications.  When you open up Adobe Reader on your windows application, that is because Microsoft gave Adobe the API instructions or code to write their programming to open up in Windows. 

Now, I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination.   That is powerful stuff.  Social Media also uses this same process.   Facebook and Twitter both freely give out their API to get programmers to come up with clever things to enhance their programs.  Facebook has tons of games, polls, surveys etc in the application.  Twitter has Tweetdeck, Twellow, Sesimec, and other applications.  New ones are created everyday.

What does this mean to you?  Your company has the ability to use that API and have developers write software for your own application, game, poll or survey to enhance your page. Facebook encourages this.   Non profits have used it to raise money.  Pringles used it to upload videos with your Pringles can.  Zynga has created two social games in Mafia Wars & Texas Hold Em, that are the largest on Facebook.  Visa has created a social network for small businesses to share info.

Do not forget about mobile applications.  That is one of the next big waves.  So make sure you keep these in mind when you are programming.

There are numerous ways to take advantage.  Find one that is interactive and engages your audience.  It could spread like a fire in a desert.

Lets uncover the world of blogging and the power it can have on your personal branding, corporate branding and all of the in between.

The Blog has to be the centerpiece of your strategy. Lets dig down about the world of blogging.

What Is A Blog???  Wikipedia says it is a type of website with regular entries of commentary, videos or event updates. If I were to build upon that, I would say it is like a personal diary that you write for the world to read. It is a way to share your thoughts, ideas, insights, & expertise on anything you are passionate about. It is your microphone, your stage, & your daily pulpit. It is a place to collaborate with friends, suspects, prospects, employees & customers. Blog’s come in hundreds of different flavors, sizes, shapes and colors. The reason is because they are all individualized. It is your world and we get a chance to live in it. Because the content is always updated and changed, it creates a dynamic & engaging web application.

Why Should You Blog???  The main reason you want to Blog is INFLUENCE. That is it in a nutshell. It allows you to provide thought leadership, share your experience, demonstrate your expertise and gain credibility. Everyone has something to say, whether it is unique, intelligent, inspiring, entertaining, funny, creative, or even controversial. With your remarkable content, you will leave your readers wanting more. You will attract an audience & build a community of like minded people. This platform will inform them, allow interaction with them and foster learning with them.

It allows you to be the Media for almost free…  Your Blog is like your own newspaper column. Instead of Dear Abbey it is you calling the shots. You want your own TV show, you can now create your own user generated video content and now your Oprah. If you want your own Radio Show, set up a podcast and you are now Ryan Seacrest On Air. Post & upload to your blog for your fans to see.

What is great, is when people like what you have to say, they will sign up or subscribe to you and give you permission to give them more information. That information could be in the form of ebooks, special reports, enewsletters, white papers, podcasts, emails etc. They reach out to you. They are excited now to receive your information.

Now that you are ready to dive in and take the plunge we will cover more in depth tomorrow.

What is a Blog to you?   Why do you think you should blog?

We have talked tirelessly about the foundation and behind the scenes. Now the fun part.  Lets start shaping your Social Media Strategy…  We talked about three “watering holes” right now in the Social Media World.  1.  The Blogosphere   2.  Search Engine Optimization   3.  Social Media Tools

In my opinion The Blogoshpere is your home…  It is like your website.  It is dynamic, rich in content, engaging and your engine.  Everything you do will be built around your blog.

Let me Illustrate this for you really quick…  Social Media is networking on steroids.  It is a PARTY 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  So you go to all of these parties at LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Social Communities etc.  You meet all of these people.  Some you like.  You carry common interests, ideas, and similarities.

So the ones you like, you invite them over to your home…  In real life it may be to watch a game, cook out etc.  In Social Media you are inviting them to your blog.  They are now your friend, connection or follower.  While they are over, you offer them, chips, dip, drinks etc., in the form of great content, value etc.

While they are there, you get to know each other better.  You talk about kids, work, what you do, how you can add value to them.  So on and so forth.  You have engaging two way dialogue just like you were in person.  Mutual benefit. 

Tomorrow will dive into Blogging.  What it is and why you should do it.

Do you agree that blogging should be your conrnerstone?  How do you view Social Media?

I will be on a panel of distinguished industry leaders this Thursday May 14th at Maggiano’s in Buckhead from 11:30 to 1 PM.

Discussion Topic PROFITING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA IN B2B MARKETING SUCCESS

Listen to compelling panel discussion from industry leaders! What works, what doesn’t and where to spend your marketing dollars to get the maximum return.

Here was a 2 minute video with one of my answers

Panelists:

Shawn Keith, Senior Manager Web Strategy, Sage Software

Micky Long, VP Strategic Consulting, Arketi Group

Chad Rothschild, Author/Blogger, “Increasing Employee and Client Engagement”

Brandy Nagel, Marketing Catalyst - Case Study: Georgia Tech’s Innovation Institute

Sign Up here

www.bmaatlanta.com

Would love to see you there.

Thank you for all the emails and questions last week about the foundational truths of Social Media.  It sounded like it added value to a lot of people.  Based on a lot of your questions, I wanted to add this post to further illustrate and hopefully provide further explanation to help you create your strategy.

Outbound Marketing vs Inbound Marketing…  How are you hunting these days??? Outbound Marketing is the more traditional way of hunting where you are out searching for suspects, prospects and customers. Inbound Marketing is getting people to hunt you down and find you. 

I believe both are needed in your overall strategy…  Yes, let me say it again.  You need BOTH.  You can not just sit around and wait for people to find you.  You have to be active.  Our activity will be different  though and will talk about later. 

With that said, Outbound is more difficult today and many new rules apply…  It is considered interruption.   Technology helps us in many ways, but it also presents more obstacles & built in walls.  Cold Calling is more difficult due to caller ID.  TV Advertising is more difficult because of DVR/Tivo.  Spam filters deflect email.  Etc. Etc.  So please understand me, outbound marketing is not dead, you just have to incorporate some new thinking though.

Inbound Marketing is permission based…  This concept is based around the new marketing model.  We have talked a lot about this and have tried to explain how this is changing the marketing landscape today.  There are several tools to aid in this.   For example.  Search Engine Optimization is critical to people finding you.  You may have a  Blog or white paper where you publish valued info and they find it and subscribe to it.  There are several ways to market & syndicate this message. 

The exciting news is… if they like your content they may subscribe to more information, like your enewsletter, ebooks or email which are by nature outbound.  The difference is they are giving PERMISSION to give them this outbound info.  What is even better is now they are excited about getting this information.  You don’t force feed it any more.  You are using a magnet to attract people rather than a hammer trying to beat them down for attention.  As my dad always said, it is easier to attract bees with honey.

Let me be clear…  This is not the only strategy you can employ and expect to get growth. It is not an end all be all.    You can not just expect that by people finding you it is enough.  That is what I call a find & hope strategy.   IF they find me, then I hope they do something.  Hope is not a strategy.   So I am saying it needs to be one leg of your strategy, but not your entire strategy.  

The great news is there is so many ways for you to get your message out there…  Ways for people to find out about you, to hear your voice and why they should buy from you.  The bad news is, it is easy to lose a lot of time and money searching for a mix to use on these and get the proper message out.  Companies are revamping & creating a new strategy in every part of marketing trying to wade through all the new marketing shifts & tools.
  
The Current Social Media Tools The tools will come and the tools will go…  The tools will always come and the tools will always go.  What is here today could be different in 6 months. Even though I will cover some of the hot tools in upcoming posts.  Just remember the foundation is what is most important.  Your foundational concept needs to be firmly planted in the new rules.  However, because of the fast pace of emerging technology, you have to be  fluid, flexible and liquid to change and shape with whatever new technology or tools come. 

The fifty thousand foot view is its about engagement, relationships and value.  Keep your finger on the pulse of the emerging tools and technologies.  Understand how they can help you and also the risks of how they can expose you.  You need to have four or five areas to your overall marketing strategy.

Hopefully this helps bring it more together for you.  Look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments.

Keep It Dynamic & Current… Keep the content relevant and fresh.  You want users to be excited to come back to get more.  You don’t want to be a one hit wonder.  Most sites look like brochures…  BORING.   Needs to be interactive… ENGAGING.  Have users create their own content.  Have polls to get instant feedback.

In addition, moniter the web… Use as a way to monitor what is being said about you and your product.  Set up Google Alerts so you can see everytime you are mentioned.  This can be used for instant feedback.  An opportunity to thank a customer or try to repair damage control on a not so happy customer so the proper corrective action can be taken.  It can also be used for Lead Generation.

Social Media Measurement Principles… One of the most talked about areas of Social Media.  How do we know what we are doing is working…    Measuring ROI is critical in these economic times.  Unfortunately, Social Media measurement of ROI has very few teeth.  I think the main reason is because it is not meant to be the entire strategy.

Is Social Media a Hype or the Real Hope… With the low cost to enter, people are expecting it to be their savior.  It still is only one leg of your marketing plan.  It should be an enhancer of all your other marketing. It is a way to engage your customers.

Will it create the sale? If you are trying to obtain conversions online, it may be easier to track than if you are trying to track a sale or conversion offline.(retail location).  There are very few things you buy directly online.  You may research a car online, but the chance of buying it online without test driving etc would be very small.  So you do want calls to action and places to get users to do specific things.  A conversion may not necessarily be a sale either.  It might be to sign up for a newsletter, more info, white paper or email.  If they print out directions, then there is a good chance they are coming to visit.

There is a site that I get a ton of information from.  I have done their webinars and really like the company.  Unfortunately, I have no say at my company if we would or could ever use their services.  I wouldn’t be in any phase of that process.  That doesn’t mean I haven’t been a marketing ally of theirs.  I have sent several contacts webinar info, their blog, and tweeted their events.   So even though I may never be a direct customer, possibly by the spreading of their info I will send them customers.  That is why they give so much away for free.  They get it.

A Final Note… Whatever you want to measure, you need to set them up at the beginning. Don’t make the classic mistake and take the ”wait and see” approach & wait until you get into it and determine what your goals are. Set your measurement goals upfront and you can always manuever your tracking.  More detailed in other areas.  I would measure deeper than wider.  Pick a couple of important points and drill down rather than try to measure 100 different categories or areas.  Get at least enough information to make sure you are fishing in the right pond.

• How did they find you?  Inbound or outbound?  Google Key Words/SEO or  Social Media etc.
• Look beyond the number or visitors.   How long did they stay, where did they go, where did they stay? Were they engaged and participating.  Did they make any comments or upload any of their own content?
• Have different conversions set up on every page to track.  If certain pages have higher conversions, determine why and make other pages as engaging.
• Try to determine if different days, times, or season affects behavior.  For instance someone may not convert during work hours but may wait until they get home etc.>

What creative and dynamic ways are you engaging customers?  How are you measuring success of your Social Media?

Does Size Matter… It is one of the biggest errors someone can make.  Bigger is not always better.  That goes against everything in American thinking.  We want big.  Big cars, big houses, big portions, big diamonds, big, big, big.  It is the American way.  However, in this arena, I feel it is important to go against our natural urges.  Because our ego will want everyone to read, hear or watch what we have to say.  This will not make it more successful though.  In my opinion, I would rather have a thousand raving fans than ten thousand luke warm admirers.  An admirer may respect you, but not necessary loyal.  The first sign something perceived better comes along… they are gone.  It could be lower price, a different or new attribute or something more trivial.  So size is very subjective to me.

An example of this could be a website.  Number of visits and click through rates have always been key measures.  They really don’t tell you anything.  It doesn’t tell you if the attitude of the user was happy or not.  If they like the brand or why they were there.  Were they engaged?  Were they researching or participating?  Did they convert to a customer or lead?  So determining the most important part still needs work… User Attitude & Behavior.  A lot of drilling down needs to take place.  Quality is more important than quantity.

Do Not Bite More Than You Can Chew… It is so easy to get swept up in the excitement that Social Media brings and builds. Social Media can be very daunting though.    Who wants to just dip a finger in and get a nibble.  Again the American way pokes its head out.  We want to be master of all.  We dive head first into every Social Media tool out there and become master of none.

Lets try taking small bites and grow organically.  Lets list out all the different Social Media tools.  Do research on each of them.  Then prioritize each tool, set goals and determine the order in which you want to take on and tackle.  We will discuss a few of the specific tools soon, but let me illustrate this point with an example.

I am a man of big ambitions.  My wife is always having to reign me back in.  This year, I decided I was going to tackle organizing the basement…  In my “Tim The Tool Man Taylor” (from show Home Improvement), I went to Home Depot and bought every known organizing piece available.  I had shelving systems, big clear containers with lids.  You get the picture.  Then I moved everything out of the basement and into the backyard.  It looked more like a grave yard for stuff.  Sanford & Sons theme song would of been playing at this funeral.

My wife came downstairs, and I wish you could of seen the look on her face.  It was priceless.  It was a look of disbelief, and SHOCK.  She looked over at me.  I was sitting in a chair, elbows on my knees and my hands pressed against my forehead.  She knew my heart was in the right place, but my stomach was bigger than my mouth…   She could tell I was overwhelmed and no clue how to start.  In a soft & gentle voice, and a shaking of her head… her advice was to just take it room by room and she would help me get started.  It turned into a team project.  We got the first room done.  We started getting momentum.  We picked up pace and speed… Clean & organized basement.

So when you feel overwhelmed.  Compartmentalize.  Create buckets.  Step by step.  Dont take the next rung until you completed the one before it.  Easier to fight a bunch of smaller battles than one big one.

What size is the perfect size?  How big or how much is to much?

Markets Are Communites… Your goal in Social Media is to create a community… a following.  Continually create remarkable & valuable content first.  People will hold that information dear and close.  Remember, all that is needed for the basis of community is common interest, connection to it and passion for it.

After a while, because of the common interest, the community will take over.  Info will go from Leader to Community and then spread horizontally.  So it is important to create tools for the community to be able to communicate with the community.   The Grateful Dead did this better than anyone I can think of.  The Dead Heads.

When Developing a Community:

• Determine the Reason People Are Gathering - Information Gathering, Networking etc.
• Again… Deliver Value and then Deliver More.
• Engage Them… Get People to Participate.  Empower Them.  Determine Ways For the Community to Share Thoughts, Information, Ideas and Insights.
• Get Permission to Opt Into Further Communication.  This Will Help People Remain Connected. -Newsletter etc.

Communities Are Conversations… Conversations are going on with or without you.  So join in.  Participate. Determine what the “bigger piece of pie”, that your company, product or service encompass.  The solution that keeps your target audience awake.  Then base all of your conversations around that.

Here a few things to keep in mind in developing those conversations.

• Understand what is driving the conversations?
• What influences the conversations?
• What is keeping your suspects, prospects and customers up at night?
• What is the mutually interesting connection taking place and common topic of interest shared.

Even More Important Is To Keep In Mind All the Conversations Going On Vertically, Horizontally & Diagonally…

• Management to Employee
• Management to Customer
• Employee to Employee
• Employee to Customer
• Employee to Supplier
• Customer to Customer
• Management to … ; Employee to …;  Customer to …  & on

Create conversations and a community and you can create a MOVEMENT…

How are you going to create a community???   How do you develop conversations that spread???

Social Media Is A Lot of Things To A Lot of Different People… I have not heard a consensus on one right type of approach.  That is because it depends on your unique situation and what you are trying to accomplish. You need to really drill down and take a deep look at where you are and where you want to be.

Social Media’s landscape can seem daunting… It is growing further and faster than kudzu in Georgia.  Everday there are new applications to explore and more to try to master.   The good news is, that most applications make the current social media tools easier to use.

We all have different needs and uses for Social Media… So there will be a learning curve as you learn the different Social Media Tools.  It will require research.  Since you developed your strategy & message, it is important to make sure you know what tools your customers and prospects are using.  By exploring & uncovering this vital information, it will help you determine where to hunt and even more important where to be HUNTED.

I believe there are some foundational truths we can all incorporate… I will be covering them the next couple of days.  Even though there are many different needs and uses, keep these as a baseline for your strategy no matter what tools you use.   Here is the first and probably most important.

Content is KING… The pace today is faster.  It gains speed everyday.  This means peoples attention span is shorter.  Time is valuable, so therefore your content must exceedingly valuable.  So you must only give information that is remarkable.  You have to EARN people’s attention and time.  If it is worthy, it will not only be read, it will be SPREAD.  Passed from person to person & community to community.  If it is not worthy, it will be INVISIBLE

I heard a great quote from Chris Brogan, that illustrates this point so well.  “Make Sure You Bring Wine to the Picnic”   Which I interpret as bring value before you bring business.  Let me finish by illustrating this point with an analogy.

I like to think of an Analogy of a Bank… If you walked into a bank where you did not have an account and asked for them to withdrawl money.  They would either think you were trying to rob them or they would say, but you have not made any deposits to withdrawl against…  You have to make deposits before you can make withdrawls.  That goes for anything from your marriage, friendships, business, employees and customers.

The deposits are value… However, in relationships you shouldn’t keep score.  Think of the relationships like an investment.  Just keep giving…   I too believe like Earl, in Karma.  If you throw good out, you will get good back. And like all things worth doing, it always pays back ten fold.     However, if it is not genuine and your intention is perceived to be doing it only for selfish returns, it will be garbage in, garbage out. Do not misconstrue, the payback may not always mean monetarily either…

If you love what you do and are passionate about it…you will never work another day in your life anyway…

What are you finding to be successful in Social Media?  Who in your opinion has remarkable content we can all utilize and learn from?

After reading my thoughts on this subject for this past month, you may not agree.  That is why I brought with me the hammer to nail down the final nail.   If you have spoken to me in the past few months, then there is a really good chance you have heard me talk about him already.  I am not sure he ever uses the word “engagement”, but everything he talks about might as well be.

I want to introduce you to the Godfather of this (& My) Revolution…

He talks about being “remarkable” and “permission marketing” which is really the “new marketing”.    The only thing I wish is that I had heard him TEN years ago when he started talking about this.  He is my inspiration and has sent me on this journey.  In the reinevention of myself in 2009, he will have one of the greatest impacts of my thinking..  He has written 10 books or so and I have read more than half of them THIS YEAR.  I am a memeber of  his online communities.  He has written Purple Cow, Meatball Sundae, Permission Marketing, Tribes and many others.  I read his blog everyday.  I cant wait to see what he has to say.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend & Man of The Hour…

His name is Seth Godin.  Check him out at www.sethgodin.com If you have not heard of him or read any of his books… THEN GET STARTED NOW!!!!   You will be better off for it.  That will give you a great foundation, and he will get you started in the right direction and he will literally get you more than half way there by himself.  If you get nothing else from me…then I hope this introduction makes it worth it for you.     Listen to this.

However, he is only one of many that helped shape my new thinking.  I will be sharing and talking about many more. Now we have the foundation of engagement, I want to talk about other topic areas; Strategic Tactics of New Marketing, Social Media, Leadership, Branding, Communication, Innovation, and any suggestions of topics you would like to include.  My goal is to continue to add value,  inspire & challenge you.

Tell me your thoughts about Seth?  Did it challenge you to open your mind?  Will you buy one of his books?  Will you join me on this journey?