Online Marketing Summit does a great job of covering all these topics in one place. Last fall I sat on a panel at the event and it was the most comprehensive marketing event that I’ve attended.  It offers a broad array of expertise on digital marketing, content marketing, demand gen, SEO or web analytics The best part was that it featured local speakers which allowed for networking that extends beyond the event. I wrote an overview on a web analytics session from last year’s summit.

I’m really looking forward to the great speaker lineup at Online Marketing Summit in Minneapolis on June 7th! I always learn something new about SEO from Lee Odden. Last year, Kim Albee’s presentation on lead gen was excellent. And I look forward to Steve Woods, CTO of Eloqua, lunch keynote. I recently reread his book, Digital Body Language, and noted the many insights on database & email marketing.

If you’re just getting started in digital marketing, there are also two bootcamps available:

• Online Marketing Boot Camp June 6th
• Social Media Workshops June 8th

And what if you don’t live in the Minneapolis area? Online Marketing Summit is holding similar events around the world! Find a date and location near you.

Update: Here’s a 15% off code for my readers: MINN15

See you on June 7th!

Over time I heard myself repeating key concepts. Combine this with my habit of providing mentorship sessions and I happened upon the solution to more effective presentation of ideas. It requires the creation of charts and diagrams to structure the presentation of your material. Executives and managers want to see the ideas presented in a simple straightforward manner. This affords the highest probability that your proposal will be understood, well-received and adopted.

I came to this realization during the sessions when I provide mentorship. I sit with paper and pen and talk through my methodologies and philosophy. It allows an interactive approach as well as pushes me to structure the conversation. The result is a much more compelling story for the listener and has greatly improved my presentations.

The following show two concepts that I have expressed in charts to show how marketing has changed:

My role is the convergence of Corporate, Field marketing (lead gen) and product marketing. I work to span these three areas and interconnect them.

This chart shows a concept that has been expressed in a number of ways:

old (push marketing, outbound marketing) and new (pull marketing, inbound marketing)

But what does that mean? How has it changed and how does it affect the marketing organization overall?

Here are some tips on how you can do this:

1. Make an outline of the concept

2. Talk through the steps and jot them down using scratch paper

3. Explain them to someone else and start with the first point and work through to the last (this is where it falls into place in a more graphic manner)

4. Over time the refinement will become apparent

5. Remember that less is more!

That is the objective of my present day job. I just published my tenth white paper in a series on the ROI of Social Media on the topic of ‘Creating A Social Business Through Listening’. It is a culmination of over two years of direct focus in the social media monitoring industry. My work with Alterian SM2 (formerly Techrigy) has contributed to evolving online listening based on customer needs and industry requirements along with the measurement of value and ROI. So this was indeed a momentous occasion for all I evangelize and represent!

My vision is that every company needs a community strategist to guide the culture shift in a company so that the organization can embrace and leverage social channels in order to meet it’s business objectives. It is only through building community internally that the company can realize the full potential of the social web and build an external community along with realizing all the benefits.

Dell gets this! and they are executing on a massive community building project internally. They have trained 5,000 staff of their 100 k strong. And they are listening to their community (both internally & externally). I see the new listening control center as a statement to their commitment to not only listen to their customers, but to make sure that change happens. As we all know, Listening is the first step and the most imperative!

It was amazing to hear the passion that these people have for socializing Dell and making their brand strong. I was touched to see Michelle Brigman, Social Media Listening & Engagement Operations Sr. Manager, get emotional when talking about what they’re trying to accomplish. I watched her express how they want to provide their customers with the best service in the upcoming seasonal rush when everyone gets harried. They are working as fast as they can to empower their teams company wide to provide the best customer experience possible. Imagine the scope of this project.

In the near future I will be sharing some videos that imparts the efforts and passion of this amazing project that Dell has taken on. Manish Mehta, VP Social Media & Communities, asked me if I thought other companies would be doing this and my response was, “Absolutely! This is the future!”

Thank you to the Social Media team for inviting me to join your celebration of Community Building and Listening. Special thanks to Lisa Grimes for coordinating it. I appreciated the opportunity to be introduced to Michael Dell and shake the hand of a man that is leading such a huge change in the profession and industry that I’ve been pioneering. Congratulations to Dell on making great strides in setting a new organizational standard.

More information from Dell’s perspective can be found on Mashable. And you can read about my experience with Dell’s Customer Advisory Panel:

Dell Takes Listening to a New Level with #DellCAP

What companies do you think are doing a good job in operationalizing social media?

Ken Burbary moderated the panel. David Alston and Don Bartholomew joined me in sharing their ideas on how organizations can measure and realize ROI from social media engagements.

David pointed out that there is no magic button that calculates ROI. Measurement for every organization will be different. We agreed that a social media strategy needs to be meeting business objectives and be measurable. It’s important to speak in the language of the C-suite in order to sell social.

Don also talked about utilizing social data for market research creating models to anticipate behavior.

Here’s the deck that I put together.

How are you measuring your efforts?

In March Jeremiah and Ray Wang of Altimeter published their report on Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management.

Altimeter has partnered with Web Analytics Demystified to provide frameworks for social media analytics.

Measurement is one of the biggest challenges facing community managers and social media specialists. How can you quantify the progress of your efforts?

Jeremiah & John have created a report that outlines the main areas and also have provided a simple equation to calculate each one.

Make sure that you benchmark and choose the ones that make sense in your case. Then track your metrics from month to month against those.

Here’s the complete report and you can pop on over to Slideshare & download a copy there.

Yesterday, Jeremiah Owyang & Ray Wang of the consulting group, Altimeter, released a report on the use cases for Social Customer Relationship Management (social CRM). As Community Managers we all know that the customer is our first priority.Yesterday I presented a five hour workshop on the same topic in the UK. I have been sharing these use cases for quite awhile. I’m in the process of writing white papers on the ROI of social media monitoring. The first is available.

At Alterian we are also starting to quantify the value that advertisers are realizing on the social web. We used Alterian SM2 to measure the conversations around the Super Bowl advertisers and defined a Social Engagement Index that shows the reach and influence of the ads. And we also calculated the Social Sentiment Engagement Index which takes into account how people felt about the ads.

Jeremiah & Ray have put together an awesome report that consolidates interviews with vendors and experts. It’s a must read. They underline that the customers are leading the conversation.

Here’s the whole report. I totally appreciate their sharing their findings in the true spirit of social media. We are fortunate that such talented people (both were at Forrester) are willing to openly share their work! Where is your organization at in this scheme? Are you listening to your customers?

The report highlights:

1. Identifies 18 use cases for Social CRM
2. Captures the best practices of 100 customers in 18 use cases.  More to be added over time.

1. Companies will expect ROI from their Social Media efforts.

Social Media will shift from being experimental to mainstream. Larger organizations can’t justify embracing it without having it meeting their business objectives. It has to increase their bottom line. I have been working on an ROI series and that will kick off in January. It is possible to establish metrics around your efforts and measure progress! Can you afford not to? How will you grow your program and justify the resources if you’re not showing the progress & return? Olivier Blanchard has a great slide deck on Social Media ROI!

2. The Social Media Specialist (Community Manager) position will become mainstream.

Companies are going to quickly find that they need someone to guide their efforts externally and internally. Social efforts should be extended across the board.Jeremiah Owyang had a great post on how companies should plan a holistic approach and use social beyond marketing. My series will address that and it’s the foundation for my work at Alterian. My list of Responsibilities and Goals for a Community Manager continues to be my most read post.   

3. Cultural shift inside of companies.

This is going to be a challenge for many companies. In order to be successful in connecting with customers, organizations are going to have to have communications channels in place and the openness to utilize the information. I shared a diagram of how a community manager can increase sales & the many departments affected. Management is going to need to have a level of trust for their employees interacting online and understand that the risk can be mitigated by education & training.

4. Social Media Monitoring will be a necessary component

My colleague, John Tonini, made the prediction earlier this year that the market would shift from brands wondering if they should be monitoring social media to ‘What tool should we be using?’. 2010 will see a huge shift in the adoption rate of social media monitoring. January of 2009 kicked off a wave and I foresee that growth in the industry continuing. The tools are going to evolve quickly too. Our customers are driving that process.

5. Agencies and companies will hire data analysts

A new position is emerging. My favorite title is Social Media Metrician. Social Media monitoring tools don’t drive themselves. They need more than a human touch. They require people who enjoy digging into the analytics aspect, looking for patterns and trends. Web analytics people will be able to expand on their roles. Brands and agencies are going to need this new specialized position to drive their marketing intelligence. Marshall Sponder lists many predictions in regard to the role of the data analyst in 2010.

6. Integration of platforms and processes will be critical.

My job as Community Strategist at Alterian has me cognizant that marketing is going to be radically changing. My CEO listed our top 10 predictions at Alterian. One of them is:

There is a proliferation of things to monitor, measure and manage, making it very difficult and time consuming for marketers to pull together the overall picture for integrated campaigns. There will therefore be a move towards single integrated software platforms so that campaign planning and management are integrated with web and email.

Forrester is also looking towards the integration of platfroms too.

7. I will be meeting more of YOU in the new year!

The first six were very serious so I needed to lighten this up! The amount I traveled in the second half of 2009 made me quite aware that I no longer work with a startup! One of the exciting things about 2010 is that my calendar has me on the move! I love the TripIt feature in LinkedIn. It reminds me of who in my network live near my destination. And even more amazing, it shows the trips that coincide. I came close to meeting a friend from Spain when we were both in NYC! So if you use TripIt connect with me and I look forward to meeting you next year!

What would you add to my list?

I shared that information last week in a webinar that covers best practices for social media monitoring & reporting.  I included:

• Common Applications of Social Media Monitoring
• Search Design
• Dealing with Noise and Spam
• Reports and Analysis
• Actions Based on Insights that Result in ROI

Here’s the slide deck and the recorded version of the webinar is available.

And you may also be interested in the webinar that Surresh Vital of Forrester presented on how social media monitoring is impacting marketing.

I have a growing library on SlideShare on the topics that I speak about (building community, monitoring, measurement, etc). Check out the widget on the right side of my blog.

Please ask if you have questions.

I covered the following:

• Which objectives to consider when defining your social media monitoring (SMM) strategy
• What types of tools are available
• How to make sense of the data that is gathered
• The ROI and benefits of social media monitoring

During the webinar it was interesting the exchange of Twitter usernames transition to  requesting to continue the conversation in a community. It underlined how people with a similar affinity will want to gather! Everyone is welcome to join our Community .

One of the challenges that I have in presenting webinars is that I feel like I’m talking to an empty space. But that wasn’t the case in this one. There was a lot of conversation happening in the chat box. I had 5 poll questions and that generated more conversation on the side as well making much more interactive. Here are the results:

Many of those that chose ‘Other’ posted their background in the chat.

I found this to be very interesting that the majority were B2B’s!

This explains why we’re so busy. Social Media monitoring isn’t mainstream yet. People are still learning.

Attendees were primarily from Europe, and there were a lot of questions about language capabilities.

It’s really important to know what your objective is for listening.

I will post a link to the recording of the webinar when it is available.

Here’s some additional commentary to go with the slides:

One year ago I was contracted for a few hours a week. Two months later I went full time. As a community manager, I relied on social media marketing. We had an ambitious team of 5 and no marketing budget. (I learned new words like ‘boot strapping’).

When I started demo’ing SM2 there was a huge learning curve if the attendee didn’t know about wikis, twitter, etc. So, after doing some ‘listening’ I realized that people on Twitter were early adopters and had achieved a certain level. In addition many were asking, ‘What should we be using for social media monitoring?’, How do you do it?, and the pro’s and con’s are debated.

Twitter was ideal because users are:

• early adopters & understand the basics of social media
• actively seeking information and options
• specifically interested in our service
• happy to share information with others which builds word of mouth
• very happy to see a listening tool actively engaged

To use Twitter for lead generation, listen for people expressing a need for your product or service. In our case I monitor for the phrase “social media monitoring”. If you’re a financial institution, then you may want to monitor for “mortgage calculator”. And a photography software company may monitor for “taking photos” and join the conversation.

After the presentation I hung out on Twitter and chatted. I saw my colleague, Jim Reynolds, confirm that we quit cold calling. He joined Techrigy two weeks after I did and is avidly involved in the conversation on Twitter.

And I caught this testimonial by @GavinThomas. Our goal is to provide value and we’ve made a lot of friends there. This underlines the idea that people don’t mind the connection on Twitter.

The whole Marketing Prof’s conference is available for 90 days. Enjoy!

At the end of the presentation I listed a number of business objectives that can be realized using Twitter. What have you found effective?