Tech Breakfast Club

Has social media among Millennials peaked?

I am a regular subscriber to the Iconoculture newsletter, a weekly missive that charts trends based on both statistics and observations. They usually have some interesting factoids. Most are useless in my daily life but they're still fun to read.

This week, though, they had an interesting article about Millennials -- those born in the '80s and later -- starting to ditch social media altogether and go back to face-to-face interactions. According to the article, the reason is they feel those social sites (such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter) are ruining their social interactions with real people. Some are even going to the point of using an online service to completely obliterate their social network presence, which doesn't make the owners of those sites too happy.

It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. On the one hand, this could just be a blip -- the typical backlash you get from a small group of people anytime a trend takes off. On the other hand...

Marketers are continually being told they have to get onto/into/around social media if they want to reach the highly-prized Millennial audience. If this turns out to be a growing trend, it could have a huge impact on how marketing dollars are spent within the next few years. Who knows? Maybe print media or network TV will make a comeback.

It's definitely worth thinking about, though. If Millennials abandon social media in favor of face-to-face contact, how will you reach them? Maybe digital signage at bars, restaurants and other gathering places is the answer. Stay tuned.

B2B companies have success with social media

I'm regularly asked for examples of B2B social media successes, so wanted to share a few...

- Radian6 tallies a 45% sales conversion rate on queries that come from surfers who learn of its services via online conversations and then register for a demo at the corporation's Web site,

- Network Solutions responds to customer concerns online, demonstrating its care, and reduced customer dissatisfaction by nearly 30% points, and

- MyFax's NetPromoter Score, a reflection of its online customer service, has made it the fastest growing electronic fax service.

Some doubt the impact of social media.  History has shown that there is tremendous upside for those who choose to listen and respond to customer needs, so these results via social media should come as no surprise.  

Is social media right for you?

Social media isn't for everyone, Kipp Bodnar writes on Social Media B2B. Some thoughts to consider:

• How many customers do you have?
• What kind of security issues do you have to think about?
• Who's your champion upstairs?
• What's the sales cycle?
• What's it really cost? (Hint, social media isn't free.)

What challenges have your organizations faced getting started with Social Media? I would be interested to hear your feedback.

Nine scientifically proven ways to get Retweeted on Twitter

Saw this article this morning and thought it was worth passing along.

The hopes and dreams of most marketers using social media rest on having something they post go viral. Yet for the most part it's been a crapshoot -- you post something then see if it spreads out beyond your own little universe of followers.

The article talks about research that shows things to do (and not to do) to increase your chances of getting Retweeted on Twitter. This is not the case of another pundit pontificating on his/her thoughts or experience. The article is the result of a scientific, statistical analysis of what gets Retweeted and what gets lost.

Given what you often see on Twitter, the results may be somewhat suprising. One in particular struck me. The more intelligent your Tweets are, using proper English language writing rules, the more likely you are to be Retweeted. I guess no one wants to pass along the musings of a possible idiot. So leave the cutesy "RU 4 this" type of abbreviations to the kiddies.

Even the kind of punctuation you use matters. Apparently, semi-colons just scream "Don't Retweet me" while colons and periods (in that order) are found in the highest number of Retweets. Time of day and day of the week seem to matter too. If you Tweet at 4:00 PM on a Friday you stand the highest likelihood of being Retweeted. Apparently the "Bored at Work" network kicks into full gear at that time.

The article is definitely worth a look. You may just pick up a few tricks to help your next Twitter campaign actually get beyond your own circle of friends/followers.

B2B Twitter Community Process

Excellent article by the CMO of BearComm Wireless on how to set up a B2B community through Twitter.

Do More With Less... By Tapping Partner and Client Volunteers

Thanks to Tricia Lott, Optimized Systems and Solutions, for this recap!

Christine Banning, Vice President Marketing & Communications at SCORE Association, facilitated an informative and inspiring discussion today that illustrated how reciprocal exchanges of blog content can pay dividends in web traffic, product exposure, reputation enhancement, and more. As part of her role, Christine oversees SCORE Association's Women’s Success Blog, which was ranked by traffic in the top one percent worldwide.

Content distribution is the centerpiece of SCORE’s successful model, which incorporates the use of a written agreement (or LOA) with partners to ensure their blog content is provided up front - before SCORE provides the partner with homepage placement and promotional tools.

Do More With Less…By Mobilizing and Distributing Content

Thanks to Jennifer Balios, of Balios Communications, for recapping this session. 

 

Participating in this Aug. 14 discussion:  

• Facilitator Gregg Smith, CEO, Acuity Mobile
• Ram Prasad, VP of Solutions Marketing and Strategy, Assyst Inc.
• Jennifer Balios, Principal, Balios Communications
• Art Swift, former Director of Communications and PR, NVTC
• Mary Conley Eggert, Director of Business Development, Tech Image

Gregg Smith kicked-off a discussion about how B2C companies are leveraging mobile marketing more than ever because of the push to digital versus print. He said companies are able to see a significant return on investment. For example, one of his hotel clients used mobile texting as a way to entice customers to book hotels rooms that would have otherwise sat vacant.

Marketers Share Ideas for Priming the Channel in 2009

Thanks to Ken List of Syntellect for recapping ideas shared in Friday's discussion.

The Chicago "Channels" table had a good mix of different sales and marketing individuals supporting channel marketing activities. Participants included:

• Facilitators:  John Panek, Arrow ECS-MOCA Group and Sharon Coughlin, Cisco Channel Marketing
• Claire Weingarden, Allscripts
• Julie Diehl, Cisco Channel Marketing
• Jim Maguire, Experian Automotive
• Michael Zloza, Scientel Wireless
• Ken List, Syntellect
• Mary Conley Eggert, Tech Image

John Panek started by commenting that technology resellers are the hidden gems found in tollway technology parks. These resellers thrive by adding value to a manufacturer's products.

Getting VAR sales representatives on board is key to being successful with the Channel. This means helping them thoroughly understand the product, making it easy to get custom pricing, and other sales related matters. VAR reps won't sell what they don't understand or feel comfortable selling.

Leveraging Online Content to Boost SEO/Sales

Many thanks to Cynthia Slotten of OpenText for summarizing the Chicago TBC discussion on content. 

Participating in the discussion:

• Facilitator Karen Breen Vogel, President, ClearGauge
• Kevin Petschow, Global Technology Strategy Public Relations, Cisco
• Larry Kaul, VP of Sales and Marketing, Cognitor
• Maria Diecidue, Director of Corporate Communications, Initiate Systems, Inc.
• Cynthia Slotten, Director Global Corporate Employee Communications, Open Text
• Helen Gray, Content Manager, Symmetry Corporation
• Janine Warell, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, SPSS Inc.,
• Dennis Collins, COO, Tech Image

Karen opened the discussion by asking participants, "What are you doing with content today to boost SEO/sales?"
"Cisco embraced this big time," says Kevin Petschow. At Cisco, SEO and sales metrics are part of performance reviews. They have a tool to make sure they are measured on SEO and, where possible, sales. Kevin also implements a key word strategy, scrutinizing words and terms regularly for powerful SEO.

Karen mentioned the importance of focusing efforts on your most important solutions, and then implementing a key word strategy.  Her organization recently pulled together a key word library for a large organization by following three steps:
Step #1: Analze. Determine - What are the focus key words?  A focused key word strategy will help you get the lift in SEO rank. 
Step #2. Identify opportunities. If you are not aware of the key words or not using these words in blog posts, press releases, etc., you are missing out. 
Step #3. Implement. Let every communicator (internal, external) in your company know the importance of using the key words in their communications.

Social Media is an inversion of traditional corporate communications. We are learning how customers see things, how they go to blogs, how they search, etc. Instead of pushing communication out to customers, we need to listen, and then provide communication in a way that aligns with how they want to receive it. Customers are now doing the driving.

20 business lessons learned from Monty Python

As a long-time Python fan, I have to admit I found the headline very intriguing. Almost irresistable you might say. Nice that there was a payoff when I read the blog post from Todd Mintz on the Focus Web site. He does a nice job of quoting memorable lines from various Monty Python sketches and movies and tying them in to real business situations. Definitely worth a look, whether you're a Python fan yourself or not.