Don’t think we don’t hear you because we do. It might frighten you to know that social media folks listen even more than they talk. The next guy that says your company needs to be on Twitter? Be nice to him, don’t kick him repeatedly in the neck because he means well.
The hype is out there in full force, and it is natural for people to push back. That is alright because I can take it. I will sit and listen to all the reasons you think social media is a fad. I will smile patiently while you talk about all the train wreck scenarios that could come about from the freedom you are giving to the people in the trenches representing your company.
After you have had a chance to lay out your justifiable concerns I will ask you about the goals of your company. Then I will try and understand your current marketing practices. Here is one of the tough things for me in this situation; I am not the smartest guy in the room. I will never be as knowledgeable about your business as you are, that is why I am working so hard to understand your current practices.
After I compile all the information you had enough trust in me to give I am going to get with my business partner Chris and we are going to map out a strategy. Maybe I should apologize right now because the way some people are talking up social media you may think this strategy will be made of gold or comes with a serving of cracked lobster with drawn butter. The strategy is actually a list of actionable items that we create to work with your business. The plan will be simple and effective, taking as much time as you are comfortable with spending per day and per week. You will also get a guide of “best practices” to be sure everyone involved is consistant and empowerwed to act within the best interests of the company. The whole deal is custom tailored to the goals you already have as an organization.
Going forward you are set. I think you will be a little better equipped to cut through the noise of all the “experts” that just talk about social media. “Get a blog” or “get on Twitter” is not the answer to every question. You are about showing your expertise and creating trust. You are about relationship selling. We really appreciate you allowing us to listen in on the inner workings of your company. If there is anything I can do to be of assistance going forward my contact information is below.
Zachary Cobb
816.876.1870
zach@zcphotography.com
P.S. Maybe we can follow up with a BBQ lunch in a few weeks?
Nice to see exposure of the hard work friends of i+a like Zena, Derek, and Justin. On a related note we had 50 or so people at this mornings SMCKC event. Wow, love seeing all the new faces.
“Businesses learn lessons in Twitter technology” (via KCStar.com)
By DIANE STAFFORD
When the Enterprise Center of Johnson County announced a “Twitter Bootcamp,” the seminar room capacity of two dozen was reached immediately.
The waiting list filled a second seminar set for later this month. And that waiting list precipitated a third seminar for May.
Representatives from large and small area businesses, eager to figure out how the social networking phenomenon can help their businesses, got an intro-to-tweeting lesson Thursday in the first of the three bootcamps.
Derek Gathright, Steven Chau and Darby Frey, three Web developers and software engineers, explained the Twittersphere, in which users are sending concise messages to each other’s cell phones, PDAs and desktops.
Twitter.com started out three years ago with some techies and other “early adopters” sending quick updates to one another — in answer to the signature question “What are you doing?”
Now, it has morphed into an advertising, marketing and public relations tool with perhaps 8 million users (though precise numbers aren’t known).
Southwest Airlines and JetBlue use Twitter. “It’s especially good at quieting angry customers,” Frey said. And Gathright described how Twitter helped him connect with lost luggage in Las Vegas.
Zicam, maker of a cold remedy, uses Twitter. Let someone send a message to a friend that says, “I’m sick,” and she may get a tweet in response that says, “Have you heard of Zicam?” along with an offer to download a coupon.
The seminar presenters said a couple of Kansas City companies have skilled Twitter users. They singled out Justin Gardner at AMC Theatres and Zena Weist at Embarq. They are among a relatively new class of worker known as the social media manager or interactive brand strategy manager.
Sprint Nextel also uses Twitter to scout out and help squash consumer complaints, the presenters said.
As a still-young medium for business, Twitter is being shaped by the preferences of its early adopters. For example, Chau said, the chief executive of Zappos, an online shoe vendor, tweets to share his views of the world, a technique that humanizes the company and builds a fan base.
Dell, the computer company, has a variety of Twitter accounts to reach users and prospective buyers. Gathright said the company had sales of more than $1 million in 2007-2008 generated through sale alerts sent on Twitter.
The three presenters said one of the clearest values of Twitter — as opposed to Facebook.com — is that a sender doesn’t have to be invited in or approved as a “friend” to receive a message.
That broader access has allowed CNN, for example, to account for comparatively high-volume Twitter traffic in news bulletin tweets.
But using Twitter isn’t a no-brainer, they said. They cited an effort by Skittles, the candy, to do a Twitter marketing push. Tweet traffic, presumably among young users, quickly became dotted with profanity and other less desirable stuff.
“With Twitter, you get instant feedback from users,” Gathright said, noting that can be good or bad. “You reach a much broader, random audience than using the more private e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms or blogging.”
Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader you noticed it. Our web presence has gone through a whole lot of change. I+A started as an idea in the sandbox, fueled by the curiosity of entrepreneurship and a hunch that the way people do business was about to change.
We are no longer in the sandbox and I+A built a web presence that better represents who we are as a company. Moving forward here are some of the things we are focusing on…
Improving the “noise to signal” ratio for our clients - You can’t go very far without hearing someone talk about social media. We would like to assist in showing people the value that the power of social media can bring to your company in the real world using tactics that are actionable and effective.
Education - There has been an overwhelming push for people to join social networks. Twitter gets more mainstream with each passing hour but more needs to be done to show the value of these resources, especially for businesses. Blog posts, seminars, videos, one on one teaching…we are developing effective ways to show the average technology user the intricacies of the social space.
More rich media - We are looking forward to creating more original video content. Rich media allows to people to connect with you on another level, it is also a great way to show off creativity.
Creating new relationships - If I+A went DOA as I wrote this and we never made a cent from it going forward I would still feel nothing but joy to have been a part of it. The relationships built from being involved in this industry and community have been great experiences. Amazingly smart people from so many industries and walks of life taught me a lot about life and business. We as a company want to keep making those connections in the area.
Social media is maturing. This is a great thing! You see Twitter showing up on TV and in conversations of people who are not very tech savvy. Everywhere you turn people and companies are connecting and conversing.
Ideas and Angles has been involved in countless events and projects in Kansas City promoting, using, or discussing the merits of social media for business use. Through the Kansas City Social Media Club we have met a lot of great people who share our vision of companies communicating in new ways to their customers. People that are drawn to this kind of thing come from very different backgrounds and career fields but all share a passion for learning. The social media community is filled with people who enjoy sharing the knowledge they come to the table with to help others. When all the boats get raised everyone benefits.
What is going to happen when there are more sharks in the water? Right now the social media universe (especially Twitter) is a lot like the town in the movie Pleasantville. Everyone gets along and is encouraging. Most the people involved share the same passions of technology, innovation, ideas, and sharing knowledge. Sure there are some troubles here and there but not enough to effect the average discourse in most Twitter communities.
We are in this quaint gated community right now but what happens when the masses bring a different kind of mentality?
Agents of social media will be tested and attacked. We are creating a world where the integrity of a company is being represented by people working in a fashion that can be risky and involves a lot of trust. For social media to work a brand’s representative needs to be able to communicate and react instantly. This means no time for for double checking and approval by the head honchos. One single slip up can be a big deal. It only has to happen once. I think social media practitioners need to prepare to be targeted. If you can get a single person representing a company to “flip out” in the social web it can be seen by all and a company could look very foolish very fast. Even things that seem simple and harmless can be blown out of proportion and drug out for the whole internet community as we saw with the recent FedEx\Memphis debacle. People that test social media agents have nothing to lose.
The biggest challenge the social media community will face is their ability to reach out and provide quality engagement to users who are seeking it while understanding their involvement in certain conversations or communities will not suit any of their goals.
If the social media community doesn’t go out and show its worth the leashes will be pulled and the effectiveness of customer engaging strategies will die.
Here are some things to remember for the people in the trenches representing yourself or your company.
- Know what you are talking about because your users will.
- Everything you say will be out there forever in some form. There is no delete button in the social web.
- Being right is not always the most important thing. If you get into a discussion or argument with someone who has no idea what they are talking about and finally prove them wrong after a long back and forth? You were still wrong. No matter how right you were. Nobody wants to see a company lowering themselves to pissing matches online.
- Help the people who want to be helped. Some people are dedicated to being unhappy and nothing you can do will ever change that. Try and help people who need it while filtering out people who only like to hear themselves complain.
We don’t want to scare anyone away from the great things new media has to offer but as time goes on our big goal of appealing to the masses is going to bring new obstacles. Go forth and do wonderful things with the trust your companies have in you.
What obstacles do you see looking ahead for the social media community?
What advice do you have?
Marketing plans can take many shapes. Depending on the company, targeted consumer, goals, and many other variables a plan takes on its own life and has its own set of actionable needs.
The beauty of social media has always been its flexability. You don’t have to burn down your old marketing plan to incorpoate social media successfully.
Things like relationship selling, media buying, and good person to person customer service can all be boosted and made more effective by the use of social media. They could also be the most effective outposts you have for reaching engaged customers to your new media points of focus.
Contests/giveaways, meet n’ greets, direct mail. All of these things can be helped and help a social media campaign.
We trust the expertise of business owners and entrapanuers. Going in and telling you to throw out everything you have been doing is counter productive and foolish. We love all the chances we have had to show businesses new ways to communicate with their customers and build their brand. New ways will be made and the old ways can be enhanced.
Chris and I have been working hard to find creative ways to bring our message of genuine communication and brand building using emerging technology to businesses in the area.
We look forward to releasing a new website that will be a good resource for social media gurus and casual technology users alike. Moving ahead our focus will be on content that is more engaging, encouraging people to explore and understand the potential social media has.
Through growth and partnership I+A is excited to see its message and impact expanding in the Kansas City area.
Talking to clients and fellow social media enthusiasts has forced us to think harder about the nature of communication. What goes into encouraging discourse amongst people with very different relationships? From business <-> customer to collegaue <-> colleague. My brain wandered to internet communication at its base and how it all started for me.
What were some of your first experiences communicating over a computer?
My story starts a lot later than some being in my mid twenties. There was a Hewlett Packard 386 sitting on my family’s kitchen table. The 2400 baud modem connected to the Prodigy online service. It was a frustrating experience, a lot of dialing and busy signals. When it worked it really drew me in. There were message boards where I learned a lot about music. It is interesting to think about now because in the early days people were just figuring it all out before everyone was fully concious of the reletive anonyminity things like chat rooms and messages boards gave you. Everything was very friendly. I would play checkers against people one winter during snow days and thought that was the most amazing thing.
One of my good friends who would grow up to start JCHost (the fantastic web host of Ideas and Angles) ran a small BBS that you dialed into through telnet. Call back verifiers, door games, and everything. The whole process was fascinating to me but not everyone shared the feeling. I got on the phone and called my friend asking him if he wanted to chat online, he laughed at me for calling him to chat. Some of those early experiences were the start of a life spent online.
What is your story? Any Gopher or Telnet stories? How did it all start for you?
