7 Steps to Building a Social Business
I have been a little too busy over the past 3 months. 20 seminars and training sessions, a half-dozen new clients for our social media agency and of course family time! I have a number of new podcasts in the que for you over the next 60 days but I thought I would re-ignite my blogging efforts by sharing a new video I just posted called “7 Steps to building a Social Business.” Also you can also check out our Socialized! Agency Blog for new and breaking news on the social media space. Enjoy!
Also Consider Gannon University Online MBA Programs as another way to build success in the business world. Before you get social a business foundation really helps.
ERDI Fall Conference: Social Media in Schools
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Today’s podcast and blog post are a result of some great dialogue, ideas and amazing research findings that were unearthed at yesterday’s panel at the ERDI conference here in Calgary, Alberta.
The panel I sat on was on “Technology Implementation over the last 20 years in our schools. The panelists were: Michael Goldberg, Economist, Marty Keast, President of the School Division for Pearson Education, Linda Fabi, Director of Education for the Waterloo District School Board and the panel was kicked off by a very engaging and insightful talk by Thomas Greaves.
Thomas who is the co-author of “America’s Digital Schools” spearheaded an in-depth research project called Project Red, of which he shared key findings with us. They did an in-depth study of 997 schools (K-12) in the USA and looked at 136 different variables in regards to technology and it’s impact on student engagement, drop rates and even the positive economic impacts and savings associated with schools that are digital.
The schools that had some or all of the above 9 factors implemented effectively outperformed comparable schools that had not embraced technology. Very few schools (I believe only 1 if my notes are correct) apply all 9 strategically and comprehensively.
The one thing that really stood out for me is that fact that students that were allowed to regularly use search and social media in the classroom outperformed those that didn’t. One big question from the audience of over 100 school superintendents, directors and technology partners is: “Where a how do we start with social media?”
My thoughts would be to do the following: (which is expanded upon in this podcast):
#1) Start with a social media policy for district staff from senior executives to principles and teachers. Then expand that to a policy for students, volunteers, parents and any other stakeholders.
#2) Have a series on initial buy-in sessions for staff at all level to help see the scope of social media and it’s impact and relevance in education. This is vital as so many people have varied knowledge and assumptions about social communications. The biggest barrier to implementation is often misinformation and/or politics.
#3) Put together a step by step strategy to implement social media at the school board level. (If leadership isn’t using it how can they tell principals and teachers to do it?
#4) Collaboratively work with Principals and Teachers to build an implementation plan at the school level. (Start with a few pilot schools)
#5) Each plan should involve training in both policy, the rules of engagement, online learning best practices, and in the key tools used by today’s digital citizens (including but not limited to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and social search/monitoring) Some of this training can be done by student leaders.
#6) Develop curriculum to help get students social media literate. This educational component must address online etiquette, safety, and the value of collaboration and positive social communications.
#7) Reward collaborators and contributors at all levels.
There is a lot more to this process but the key opportunity and core ingredient for success in using social media for learning is the bi-directional communications and collaborations. It’s no longer about talking at kids in the classroom, it’s about engaging them in two-way dialogue and creating an environment where a network of students (and their teachers) can learn together through networked intelligence.
One statement that was made over and over was that collectively the computing power of smartphones that people bring to school far out-powers what is in the average school computer inventory/labs. The educational environment of the very near future is highly networked, always on, and very mobile. Those organizations that apply all 9 Factors indicated above can prosper in this new environment.
Social Media Department versus a Socialized Business?
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As organizations push into the social media space many will start with a social media position, others will have a social media department within their company. This is a great initial step but there are pitfalls and down-sides to seeing social as separate from other business activities. Today’s podcast (direct download here) talks about the whether or not we should have dedicated social media silos or fully social companies.
In my opinion your end goal must be to fully socialize most of your departments from HR to sales, marketing and even the senior executives in the company. What are your thoughts?
159 Social Media Tips From 2009 in 140 Characters or Less by @shanegibson
If you follow me on Twitter you know that I like to tweet social media tips. This is a collection of social media tips under 140 characters that I tweeted out in 2009. It’s not all of them, just the ones I personally archived. They are chronologically organized from most recent to oldest. You will notice a consistent theme but also somewhat of a change in thought process as well. The reality is social media and our attitude toward it has changed a lot in 12 months. Here’s my 159 Social Media Tips in Under 140 Characters for 2009:
- Improve the way you use 5 tools 10% each. Cumulatively it will have a big effect.
- Easy access to tools like blogging raises the bar for those who want to lead, lots of competition.
- Take massive action when you see a trend that may have large growth potential. You won’t win them all… but one will do.
- The best medium is the one your customer likes, use multiple media.
- There will be platforms you visit and platforms you call home. Make sure you own your home.
- Be open to feedback, be open to being wrong. Defensiveness isn’t all that social.
- Hone in on and focus on engaging people. Help multiply each other’s vision.
- When teaching people talk in variable rules and principles not universal ones. Nothing is forever…things move fast.
- Many people will quit, shun and criticize social media marketing when they realize it’s actually about leadership.
- Dear Agency/Marketer/Sales Guy, if we wanted marketing and pitching we’d watch TV.
- If you keep changing your message you will keep starting over. Experimenting with your strategic brand is not good.
- Social media works better when it’s incorporated holistically with your entire set of marketing tools.
- Before listening to someone’s social media tips or advice use social search to verify their credibility.
- Leadership is influence (John Maxwell) and influence is measured based upon the change and action we create.
- Use Twitter lists to let people know you’re listening.
- Consistency, conviction, passion and focus are needed to see a social media plan succeed.
- Best short-cut for results: focus on people, relationships, & psychology not gimmicks and clicks.
- Not listening to your customer = Brandicide (Brand Homicide) do you have a social media listening strategy?
- Once you find a conversation about your brand encourage it to spread by creating and hosting places for dialogue.
- Social listening strategy comes before social media content strategy.
- Most social media efforts are abandoned long before their results can be measured.
- Integrate your tools in your marketing but also measure the effectiveness of each tool individually.
- Social Media Trend: More people realizing that social media success is about leadership not technology.
- Social Media Trend: Simultaneous translation in mirco-blogging and collaboration platforms.
- Social Media Trend: Mobile social apps aggregating multiple social networks and media into one place.
- Aggregate your client and prospect list and develop nano-casts for each nano-segment.
- Social media can be used for retaining, developing and prospecting clients, all aspects of the sales cycle.
- Get out of your industry vacuum when building strategy. Look for SMM concepts that can be adapted.
- Want to make good connections? Make value added, thoughtful comments on their blog.
- Teach your clients about social media, help them get online. It creates more dialogue opportunities.
- Make it real at least twice a week. Meet offline in person with contacts.
- Research and test the latest platforms but don’t go down the rabbit hole.
- Teach people the principles of leadership before teaching them how to use Twitter or blogs.
- Meetup.com is best used for community events. Using it just to promote your product or company will have minimal results.
- Your great idea or blog post, is being written in 10 different languages by other people right now.
- Any system or company bent on being exclusive versus inclusive will fail.
- nstead of writing headlines write engagement lines.
- As a leader, make the journey look fun & share your joy. People will want to follow the path.
- “Nothing happens until someone tweets something.”
- Being a thought leader is just as much about selfless contribution as it is about unique dialogue.
- You don’t have to like or use every tool to be successful.
- Social Media Trend: Brands now need to think global social etiquette when planning their social media strategy.
- Unique, brief sound bytes produced consistently can yield great results.
- Once in a while ask your FB and Twitter friends for help. See who steps up. This will tell you a lot.
- Make a list of people who support you online. Develop a strategy to reciprocate.
- Use your experience in social media to predict areas of growth in new regions and niches. Then pay it forward.
- You may be awesome blogger but does the world know? SEO, social networks, offline promotions are needed.
- Make your events that you promote about the community. Education and collaboration trump pitches.
- “Think what’s in it for me?” from your target market’s perspective.
- Using more than one channel / stream shortens your brand engagement curve.
- Defining your target market and goals is easy, engaging them is the challenge.
- The numbers are exciting but they’re just numbers until you make it real and build good relationships.
- Engagement is not just about listening; it’s about empathy, rapport, and making people feel heard.
- Engagement is the goal, social media are the tools.
- Thank people who comment on your blog via e-mail or twitter. Let them know you’re listening.
- Search engine optimization can help you rapidly grow your network and connections. Get good at it.
- Develop a list of your top connections/influencers and make sure you’re connected on multiple networks.
- There is a Trend: Condensed writing, short videos all getting shorter.
- Blogging tip. Pick a theme or topic for the month. Plan 7-10 blog entries that build up to 1 core message, event, or action.
- Have a series of steps planned and measured to track and develop relationships.
- One of your final steps in the social media sales process is to connect offline, on the phone, or at least one on one virtually.
- Use http://www.backtype.com/ to search blog comments about you, your blog or a topic.
- Social media is too new for Gurus. We’re all amateurs! That’s what makes it fun and open.
- Social Media Phases: Adoption, Population, Pollination, Aggregation, Splintering, Commercializing, and Globalizing.
- Social media is here to stay and has more relevance and power everyday.
- Embracing and understanding how to use social media is a core life skill, leadership skill and career building skill.
- Social media is social. It’s about helping people connect to people using technology, it embodies truly what the internet was intended for.
- Social media is not just about technology, it’s a new way of leading, thinking, and connecting with other people.
- Social media belongs to all of us. An ordinary consumer, a front line employee, a political activist in Iran all have access and a voice.
- You need different messaging for client retention than you do for attraction.
- Statistics tend to be a history lesson. Growth and human behavior are rarely linear. Listen to customers and staff.
- Use social listening tools: http://www.collecta.com/ http://www.twitority.com/ http://socialmention.com/ http://www.twazzup.com/
- Develop a social media policy and set of guidelines to keep your team on track and on message.
- You can force someone to be social, you can only give them the tools and training.
- Worry less about selling and more about connecting and rapport.
- Read Free the Future of a Radical Price before launching your next marketing campaign.
- Read “Ignore Everybody” by Hugh Macleod if you want to tap into your social media creativity.
- Spend time each day promoting and contributing to another blogger’s success.
- What works for you now will only keep working until it is no longer unique. Keep innovating.
- Polish your work too long and someone will move first with a less perfect work but they’ll get the credit. Publish first.
- One day we will look back at “social media” as a buzz word. But the best practices will still be in use.
- Seeing someone as a competitor is old economy, seeing them as a peer and a fusion partner is key.
- Talk and listen to small nodes or groups of people in your larger niche network. Niche broadcasting is not enough.
- Contribution, help and kindness are your social currencies which can get you access to great people and great networks.
- Want to implement your social media plan fast? Think collaboration not committee
- All the details, plans and tools don’t mean much unless you understand people.
- A sense of curiosity and willingness to experiment can lead to some positive serendipitous discoveries.
- Stop focusing on being a social media rock star, focus on building a community and a list.
- Develop an understanding of the Long Tail http://longtail.com Think variable not universal when building strategy. Nano-casting and the “Long Tail” are key.”
- Types of social media ROI include: improved staff engagement, quicker response to business challenges, increased frequency contact with clients.
- Social Media results could also be: increased revenue, more customer data, increased store (real world) traffic, press, improved customer service.
- Looking to hire a social media expert? Look for proof that they have done more than just build traffic and followers.
- Words to use in a social media job posting: track record, business experience, well networked, project management experience.
- There is a lot of hype. Look for truth, verify information and execute with dependable tools and strategies.
- Use give away’s that have real value with a variety of paid options to upgrade to. Think customization and options.
- Permission to connect has put the power in the consumers’ hands. Seek and then treat that permission like gold.
- When I join your facebook page, give you my e-mail or follow you on twitter those are examples of “permission to connect”
- Some people like lengthy whitepapers, others learn best through video, audio or text updates. Use variety.
- Measure engagement levels, revenues, value added interactions. Big numbers in views and traffic can lie.
- Bad customer feedback is a branding opportunity if you handle it right.
- If you can’t be relevant, at least be entertaining!
- Visit sites outside of your industry and interest areas for new ideas.
- Constantly look for ways to contribute and you will never run out of marketing leverage.
- Social Media should be integrated or synced with other marketing activities.
- Social media is not rocket science. Forget the big words and focus on listening and connecting intimately.
- It’s kind of like dating. Don’t ask someone to marry you on the first date.
- Your goal is to become referable; to become credible, and to build a following through value added interactions.
- It is not about getting referrals; it is about becoming referable.
- There are many ways to get followers. A good question to ask is: “How do I create quality connections on Twitter?”
- Ning.com is a great social networking tool. What it enables you to do is create your own private network for anything.
- Pay it forward. Teach people about social media and they’ll tell other people about you.
- Resist the temptation to fill your Facebook friends inboxes with daily marketing. They will tune you out.
- Break long blog posts into a series of short-posts, it will increase your page views and be more engaging (except this one of course)
- It’s personal reputation and brand building that makes us approachable, people want the real deal.
- When you’re reaching out to thought leaders in the social space you need to tap into their motivations.
- Pre-scheduled tweets and blog posts can help you reach audiences in different time zones.
- Use http://www.tubemogul.com to distribute video to Youtube, Viddler, Vimeo etc. all at once.
- Use http://hootsuite.com to manage multiple twitter accounts and schedule tweets into the future.
- It feels great to know people are listening to us and that they care. Let your customers know you’re listening.
- If done right social media will become a part of your business process not a separate addition.
- Spend at least as much time listening as you do broadcasting.
- It’s called “social media” for a reason. Be prepared to interact consistently.
- You can’t win the game focusing on the scoreboard. Focus on the game of engagement and the traffic will come.
- Losing followers is okay, measure the engagement level of who is still here to see how you are doing.
- Have a goal, measure results, measurement provides feedback and improvement.
- The internet has always been about helping people connect to people (@nickusborne)
- Pay it forward. Help, teach. guide and be patient with people new to the scene. [Tweet This Tip]
- Study people who are credible with the type of clients you want to attract. Model their strategy.
- Marketers aren’t always synonymous with community builders, traffic and followers isn’t always equal to credibility.
- If you’re an old school e-mail marketer or pitch artist, there’s some habits you will need to unlearn.
- Before you start your campaign define your market and their pains.
- Everyone and every company gets off message once in a while. Refocus and learn from it.
- Leaders of large “Tribes” need to have thick skin and a tolerance for noise.
- Continually tweak and update your Linkedin profile, your network will be notified.
- Social media is changing so quickly that if you stop too long to smell the roses you’ll be out of touch.
- Try a new platform each month, video blogging, FaceBook, tumblr etc. Curiosity can lead to great discoveries.
- You can’t make a robot network for you at a party, why do you think they can do it for you on the web?
- Some un-follows are strategic. People want to know if you’re really listening.
- You can’t please everyone. But know who you are trying to connect with. Get in sync with your audience.
- http://www.ping.fm updates FaceBook, Brightkite, Twitter, tumblr and Linkedin statuses all at once
- Focus on a specific theme in your social media for extended periods of time
- Your blog is your home base, all social media should feed your home base
- Social media is 90 % contribution and connection 10 % marketing and sales
- Social media belongs to the people, they get to make the rules not the marketer
- Have a social media policy for your company. Help your people be effective and on message
- Promote other people’s dreams. It builds community, loyalty and brand for you
- “Marketing is a process not an event”- @jaylevinson Blog, tweet and talk about solutions to people’s pains and challenges
- Social media tools like twitter are listening tools more than they are broadcasting tools.
- Nano-cast to many small niches instead of broadcasting to everyone.
- Learn to break up large blog entries into many smaller entries. It’s more user friendly
- Take time each month to update your major social media profiles, use key words that your prospects would search for
- Use social search like http://search.twitter.com and http://blogsearch.google.com to listen to your customers
- Each social network has it’s own etiquette FaceBook type behavior doesn’t work on LinkedIn
- Answer people’s comments on your blog, or @ replies in Twitter. Social media leadership is about bi-directional communication.
- Think twice, click once.
- Take it off-line, book in person meetings or hold events for your online social media contacts
- Use an assortment of tools, it geometrically multiplies efforts
- Always be asking where are we going? What is the next Twitter or FaceBook going to be?
- Use a mixture of content on your blogs, top 10 lists, photos, video, audio, guest bloggers, and polls…
I’m excited about what this year has to hold. While the big talk and focus is on Social Media ROI the real trend in my opinion is the realization that social media is a leadership tool. I’m looking forward to seeing many leaders amplify the good things they are doing in 2010 using social media. Happy New Year!
Download a free Chapter of Shane’s new book in PDF or MP3 Format.
Social Media Tips, Thoughts and Trends Under 140 Characters
Every few weeks I take a collection of my most popular social media Tweets (Twitter updates) and archive them on my blog for people who missed them or are not yet on Twitter. Here’s a collection of 25 tips, thoughts, and trends from the past 10 days. Enjoy!
- Social Media Thought: Not listening to your customer = Brandicide (Brand Homicide) do you have a social media listening strategy?
- Social Media Tip: Once you find a conversation about your brand encourage it to spread by creating and hosting places for dialogue.
- Social Media Tip: Social listening strategy comes before social media content strategy.
- Social Media Tip: Most social media efforts are abandoned long before their results can be measured.
- Social Media Tip: Integrate your tools in your marketing but also measure the effectiveness of each tool individually.
- Social Media Trend: More people realizing that social media success is about leadership not technology.
- Social Media Trend: simultaneous translation in mirco-blogging and collaboration platforms.
- Social Media Trend: Mobile social apps aggregating multiple social networks and media into one place.
- Social Media Tip: Aggregate your client and prospect list and develop nano-casts for each nano-segment.
- Social Media Tip: Social media can be used for retaining, developing and prospecting clients, all aspects of the sales cycle.
- Social Media Tip: Get out of your industry vacuum when building strategy. Look for SMM concepts that can be adapted.
- Social Media Tip: Want to make good connections? Make value added, thoughtful comments on their blog.
- Social Media Tip: teach your clients about social media, help them get online. It creates more dialogue opportunities.
- Social Media Tip: Make it real at least twice a week. Meet offline in person with contacts.
- Social Media Tip: Research and test the latest platforms but don’t go down the rabbit hole.
- Social Media Tip: Teach people the principles of leadership before teaching them how to use Twitter or blogs.
- Social Media Tip: Meetup.com is best used for community events. Using it just to promote your product or company will have minimal results.
- Social Media Tip: Your great idea or blog post, is being written in 10 different languages by other people right now.
- Social Media Tip: Any system or company bent on being exclusive versus inclusive will fail.
- Social Media Tip: Instead of writing headlines write engagement lines.
- Social Media Tip: As a leader, make the journey look fun & share your joy. People will want to follow the path.
- Social Media saying: “Nothing happens until someone tweets something.”
- Social Media Tip: Being a thought leader is just as much about selfless contribution as it is about unique dialogue.
- Social Media Tip: You don’t have to like or use every tool to be successful.
- Social Media Trend: Brands now need to think global social etiquette when planning their social media strategy.
Social Media Strategy and Resources List
I’m doing a webinar for the Association of Professional Design Firms this morning and while I was compiling a resource list for them I thought I might as well blog it instead. I’ve put up a lot of video, podcasts and blog entries up in the past month on Social Media Strategy and tools so I thought I would build a topic map. Most of this content is inspired by the book “Sociable! How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down.”
Resources by Topic:
Why Blogging is An Important Part of Social Media Strategy [Video]
Integrating Social Media Into Your Sales and Marketing Process [Podcast/Blog]
Making Social Media Part of What You Do [Video]
Developing a Social Media Calendar and Implementation Plan [Podcast/Blog]
Sample Social Media Policy [Blog]
What is Social Media Etiquette [Video]
5 Ways to Build a Twitter Following Organically [Blog]
Twitter for Sales and Marketing [Video] Part 1 and Part 2
Social Media ROI [Podcast]
The Future of Sales and Marketing Social CRM [Podcast]
Slides from Today’s Presentation:
Video – Make Social Media Part of What You Do
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
Get Real About Social Media It’s Not a Video Game
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
This podcast is a cautionary one for those of us that dove in blind and head first into Social Media. We were right. It’s the future of marketing and it’s changing the way we work, lead, and sell. With that said, we can still go broke wasting our time with Twitter, blogging, Facebook and Linkedin if we don’t have a plan to GET REAL.
Integrating Social Media Into Your Sales and Marketing Process
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Today’s social media podcast is on Integrating Social Media into Your Sales and Marketing Process. I will discuss the Social Media Matrix that Stephen Jagger and I developed for Sociable! as well as the 7 Steps to Strategic Engagement and Integration which are:
- Identify Your Goal
- Identify Your Target Audience
- Pick the Right Platforms
- Map out Social Etiquette
- Implement Listening and Engagement Strategy
- Know Core Pains
- Uniquely Communicate Pills Mixing Marketing and Community
Related posts:
22 Social Media Tips Under 140 Characters
Twitter for sales tutorial video Part 1 & Part 2
The Future of Sales and Marketing Social CRM
Jay Levinson Guerrilla Marketing Video Interview With Shane Gibson
I had the fantastic opportunity to spend several days with Jay Levinson (twitter) and his wife Jeannie while I was in Santiago Chile this week. Jay and I both spoke at the Annual Sales and Marketing conference put together by Seminarium, the leading provider of executive business education in South America.
Jay Levinson has sold over 20 million books on Guerrilla Marketing making him one of the top selling marketing authors in history. Following is a brief video interview I did with Jay on Guerrilla Marketing.
Why writing a book in more than 90 days is not an option
Mack dropped by this blog today and made a comment about Stephen Jagger and I writing our book in 90 days. We felt is was critical that we published this new book on how social media and social networking as soon as possible.
Number one Sociable! and it’s principles are needed right now by most of our collective clients. If we waited a year to release it, and went the traditional book publisher route we would be hypocrites for saying “the rules of business have changed but we are going to write, distribute, market and roll-out our book basically the same it has been done for years.” So we broke a bunch of rules, and we also set some big aggressive goals that are going to create some real momentum.
Here’s what Mack had to say:
Undoubtebdly you guys are both experts, but a book in 90 days? As a consumer I am a lot less interested in the book as it seems like something rushed. For you to write three books in a year is a great achievement but as a reader I would prefer one Excellent book in a year instead of three that were quickly banged out. Maybe my assessment is wrong, I’d love to hear why. (Original comment here)
I would side with Seth Godin on this when he said:
Blogs have eliminated the reason for most business books to exist. If you can say it in three blog posts and reach more people, then waiting a year and putting in all that effort seems sort of pointless. The chances that your effort will be rewarded with income in proportion to the time you put in are pretty low. (See the full post at Seth Godin’s Blog)
In order to create ROI for the writer and be relevant to the reader the way books are written, marketed and revised must change. Here’s my full response via video (please weigh in and add comments, I really want to know what my readers feel about this subject):
Speaking and Training
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