6 Minutes on Wednesday: Social Focus
Take 6 minutes today to plan your social approach!
Minute 1: I am known for (two to four things) today. By this time next year, I want to be known for (two to four more things)
Minute 2: My public visibility program includes: x, y, and z . Examples: Buy Google URL, Jump into LinkedIn:, Blog - Be Brave and start one! , Tweet!
Minute 3: Grow a core community of enthusiasts to: Build a loyal brand army that makes your success their cause, Harness their goodwill to generate insight, Increase your engagement in important conversations
Minute 4: Examination: Is social media right for your business? Is your community online? Find out which platforms they prefer and what they need from you.
Minute 5: Engagement: How can you bring value to the conversation? What can you add that will engage your target audience & influencers?
Minute 6: Execution & Experimentation: You need a plan. Start small, but have a roadmap for engagement and experimentation short/long term. Remember that even experimentation is a process - you must have anticipated outcomes and be systematic.
In the Future, CMO buys more than the CIO. 2017 right around the corner. Per Gartner.
One of the major reasons is that CMOs will be leveraging big data, mobile and social. Social Media becomes a word of mouth channel.
This new channel drives understanding of customer behavior and allows you to determine if you want to approach them and how you should approach them, respecting their privacy throughout the process. Through real time social media techniques, like blogging or online chat, you can determine if someone needs assistance, or if they are really focused on a particular topic. It offers an opportunity to interact with a person in a nonthreatening manner.
During the process, there is an opportunity for a transformation to occur with the person -- from information gatherer, shopper, potential prospect and then ideally into a customer. In addition, real time chat enriches the customer experience. At IBM, for example, its online chat capability increased its leads, improved customer satisfaction, and drove up sales productivity In the first 3 months of operation on the IBM SOA site, there were over 2,845 chats, resulting in 182 validated leads! Online chatting provides assistance “just in time” not waiting in a reactive mode where someone has to click on a button to ask for someone to contact them at a later time. It gives you the ability to have a conversation with your prospects when they're most receptive -- while they are on your website or on your Twitter Channel actively gathering information. For example, a manufacturing company has been using conversations on Twitter to drive sales. In the first year since utilizing Twitter as a promotional tool, the company generated over $500,000 in revenue in sales of refurbished systems.
Guiding principles:
- Skills matter. The presence you put out there in front of prospects is very important, so you want your best and brightest reps doing the real time chats. They need to be very knowledgeable about the products and services not simply communicating at a high level.
- You need to understand the etiquette for inviting people to chats and for chatting with them once they accept. For example, don't immediately pop up an invitation within the first 30 seconds that a person is on your site -- it's pushy.
- New Customers. Social media is a way to reach new customers. For Dell, Twitter represented a new way to reach customers and they claim that per their latest surveys, a significant portion of people who bought through Twitter were not aware of the Dell Outlet before Twitter.
Portico is a Social Business!
Have a coffee and sit down and listen to how Portico became a social business and what they do to help others in this quest!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Z-rPHQNic&feature=youtu.be]
I am a Serial Social Addict. Harness your social network!
OK. I admit it. I tweet multiple times a day, I have 2 blogs, and I love social. My passion is reaching customers and having them connect with my company in new and smart ways. As such, I experiment, learn from my peers, and measure these new tools for marketing. As an executive at IBM, I have found that these Social 2.0 techniques drive down costs and increase revenue.
IBM's 2012 CEO Survey revealed that 57% of CEO's identified social business as a top priority and more than 73% are making significant investments to draw insights into data. And more than 1,700 chief marketing officers reveal 82% plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years.
This shift of consumer to business networking, known as "Social Business" has become the next big challenge for organizations which are quickly learning that social networks are no longer the new water cooler but rather their new production line, a place where employees, partners and clients connect to share vast amounts of knowledge. The big winners will go those who harness the ability to capture and analyze the knowledge their social network creates and share it throughout the business to accelerate innovation, out-market competitors and remove boundaries internally and externally.
Consider the Social Graph. A Social graph is a graph that depicts personal relations of internet users Understanding the connections of your clients helps you see the networks, where clients are isolated and where connections can drive revenue.
For example, chief marketing officers (CMO) are looking to gain insights from both internal and external data from sources like Facebook, Twitter and public forums to react more swiftly to customer trends and build their brands. HR Leaders are looking to build communities to improve recruiting and talent management services.
By interacting with the video game, students can make real-life business situation decisions. They can see the results of their decisions right away, and if they make a mistake, it’s much more private than “failing” in front of a classroom of their colleagues. Because a love of gaming is shared around the world, professors have told us the game can help to bridge cultural barriers While it’s too soon to measure the full implications, there’s a new business environment emerging.
We cannot ignore the changing group dynamics and social implications. In fact, we should tap into the most innovative ideas to redefine the fundamental nature of educating the market. Just as games present us with situations that invite players to make choices, consider the advantage of using graphics and decision-making steps of games in business. Using Social Media, we could allow decision makers to immerse themselves in the real-world simulations, judging cause and effect before making decisions.
The arrival of Social Business has created an emerging battleground for IT vendors. For example, financial analyst firm CLSA recently cited enterprise social software as one of the top tech trends in 2013 and Forrester Research reports that the market opportunity for social software will exceed $6 billion by 2016.
Learn from a Social Goddess -- Clarissa from Lowe's!
Happy Monday!
Here is our Monday Social Business Coffee Break and I am thrilled to host Clarisa Felts, the fearless HR & Collaboration leader at Lowes! Her famous quote is: "Social didn't transform our culture; it revealed it."
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4IQYIQg67Y&feature=youtu.be]
The City of Dubuque is a Social Business/Government!
Happy Monday! Today's Social Business Coffee Break is focused on a City that has done some amazing things!
The City of Dubuque is a social government! Take a watch and tell me what you think!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/Fak0Hp4SDyQ]
Social Selling -- Why is it important?
Social media is used everywhere and is crucial to think through as a sales avenue:
- 1 of 5 minutes is spent online
- 3 in 5 IT decision makers learn about new products
- 57% of decision made before Sales contact
- 30% more team attainment of sales quota
- 21% more reps achieve quota
- 15% increase in customer renewal rate
Who is a Social Seller? The social seller doesn't just use social tools -- they have a different approach. They are:
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A Trust-builder
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An Idea challenger
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A Customer Advocate
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A Conversation Partner
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THE Go-to Person
A (Social) Business in Motion - What does this mean?!
I was just at the IMPACT conference, and a new term came up --- A business in motion! I loved it. It is dynamic and a living organization! A business in motion is ready to meet customers on their terms, with a complete understanding of each customer, used to create deeper, more meaningful engagements.
Here's what I learned about in terms of the imperatives for a Business in Motion!
5 key imperatives:
- Put mobile first, because this is the first point of engagement for your customers, partners and employees.
- Social Everywhere. Reinvent the way you work in the market -- this is the new norm.
- Reinvent your design and business processes to meet new expectations for instant, seamless and insightful interactions
- Adopt a flexible and secure integration model so that back-office systems can keep pace with rapid change
- Be Insight and Data Driven to uncover opportunities, build efficiencies and make informed decisions
What do you think?
Social is Personal. My story. It is powerful.
The power of social is everywhere.
But no where as relevant than in personal life.
My dad was placed in the hospital for emergency brain surgery. I got the news while in Vegas, and booked the first flight out. I had to wait for the plane for over 6 hours -- hoping to get home in time.
I was going crazy in the wait -- and really needed to talk to someone.
So I did something I usually don't do -- I posted something very personal on Facebook about my dad. Much to my surprise, within minutes I had response from friends all over the world. The outpouring was overwhelming --- over 500 comments plus dozens of calls.
- I had calls from friends that I had not heard from since High School.
- Prayers poured in
- Comments of encouragement came in texts, comments, tweets
- And I didn't feel alone
No one gave up either --- days and weeks went by ..... and the love flowed in through twitter, facebook and beyond.
I talk about the power of social in business -- and the power there is very strong and real. But this personal impact -- priceless.