Last week we announced that our Techrigy family had been adopted (acquired) by Alterian, a company with analytical products for marketers. They intend to bring SM2 into the mainstream. It’s time for SM2 to come of age. Alterian’s three hundred strong has assumed our vision and will take it to the next level!

Before the announcement some of Alterian’s executives joined us at the home office to share their enthusiasm and vision for bringing us into their company. David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian summarized it best by saying that he wants to revolutionize marketing. If you’ve used a social media monitoring tool you know the power of bringing in online conversations and viewing the information in a variety of ways. There’s a learning curve but that’s part of what I enjoy so much about my job! There’s also a sense of unknown being on the leading edge. We’re going down a road that hasn’t been mapped yet!

Friends have asked me a number of questions & it’s easier to answer them here:

1. Will I have to relocate?

No! Alterian is a global company with people living where they live. When I was asked how I felt about travel, I said, “We have airports!”. I didn’t confess to not having iPhone access, but they use Blackberry’s. I am now connected with a global Tour! And I now have lots of motherships to visit.

• Techrigy headquarters will remain in Rochester, NY
• UK offices in Bristol & Newbury (I’m traveling there next week! )
• US office in Chicago – a one flight hop for me (I’ll be there last week of August)
• and they also have other US offices

2. Why did they choose Techrigy?

Alterian researched many companies and chose SM2 for a number of reasons:

• similar corporate culture (I love this one! more coming on this topic)
• similar selling geographies & use of partner channels
• similar approach to software innovation

And I must say I am so excited & pleased about the first & third. I’ve written about our culture at Techrigy & my contributions to that. And in the third case I’ve worked closely with customers to evolve SM2 to their needs. So I’m really proud of Techrigy’s being chosen & believe that it underlines the value of having a community manager. I’m also excited to join Alterian as we continue to evolve SM2!

3. Why did Techrigy choose to be acquired by Alterian?

We have built our brand and reputation on our technology & excellent customer service. We see a lot of potential in joining with Alterian’s sales channels & partners. Together we can do more and continue to offer a leading social media monitoring product as well as integrate it with Alterian’s products.

Mike Talbot, CTO at Alterian summarized it in his tweet last week:

4. What will my role be?

I wore a few hats at Techrigy (and no I can’t say that without smiling). My concern in being adopted by a new company was that I would have to ‘sell’ the use of social media. It’s apparent that I shouldn’t have been concerned at all! Everyone is very enthusiastic about getting involved in utilizing SM2 and social media so I have a new challenge of how to transition a B2B company into online engagement. The VP of Marketing has agreed that I can blog this journey, so you’ll get to learn along with us. How’s that for transparency?! I’m impressed that they not only want to lead the revolution in marketing, but also walk the talk. So we’ll do that! Stay tuned …

5.  How will this affect our customers?

As mentioned previously, our customers are our number one priority. There are going to be so many benefits! We are already offering more resources:

• http://training.techrigy.com Check out the downloadable workbook! It rocks!!
• Webinars on SM2 starting next week – come see what it’s all about
• Faster evolution of the product to meet customer’s needs

So our Techrigy SM2 is growing up! And I’ll be taking the community building strategy that has been working well at Techrigy and applying it at a corporate level. I always enjoy the  challenge of taking things to a new level!

What questions do you have?

Working online has taught me a couple of things. Well really it’s only one: to be succinct! Long ago Jeremiah Owyang said he wouldn’t read my email if it was longer than a few bullet points. So the world has him to thank for my brevity in writing.

My newest skill is that I can call a team meeting and get everything accomplished in a half hour! For this I have my CEO, Aaron Newman, to thank. He’s not into meetings & we appreciate that. But they are a necessity for communication (especially considering my working remotely).

Then I happened up this article by Steve Roesler, Better Meetings, Better Leadership. I like the way he has divided meetings into 5 types based on the amount of participation expected. And he ties it into leadership skills. As a community leader stop & think about how you call meetings and what type are they? I’m putting my comments in parenthesis.

1. the Tell Mode – no participation is expected (umm send an email please)

2. the Sell Mode – in addition to telling, you want buy in (please take some time to make sure that the team is involved in the decision/policy! Then you won’t need to ask for buy in because they were part of creating the solution)

3. the Test Mode – you allow for some input (but this is sometimes met with apathy. Again make sure the team is involved in creating solutions)

4. the Consult Mode – you encourage participation & no decision has been made (note Steve comments that the leader listens. Aren’t these types of meetings more interesting to attend?)

5. the Join Mode – everyone arrives at a decision together (there’s nothing better than attending a meeting, participating, and feeling as if you’ve been heard & your input has been taken into account)

I see meetings as a place where we need to shift our organizations into being transparent and aspiring for the new culture that supports everyone being involved in social media and working with customers. The power shift is going to be away from the top down so will our meeting style need to reflect that?

If you’re leading meetings what type of message are you sending? And when you attend the various types of meetings, which type do you prefer?

It’s an interesting question & I knew my opinion so I asked my Twitterverse. It was exciting to see the conversation go on into the next day. And it stimulated a blog post along with the need for more twitter crowdsourcing.

Here are the responses:

barbchamberlain: @cbensen Not sure I can distinguish (quickly) between thought leader & influencer. Somehow 1st feels–more clean? Not as goal-oriented?

ariherzog: @cbensen Answering your question, @kenburbary considers me a thought leader but @adrielhampton considers me an influencer. Beats me, though.

jnswanson: @cbensen thought leaders? out front. Influencers? along side. Both are necessary.

conniecrosby: @cbensen A thought leader pulls together disparate ideas to find new thinking & directions, communicates it out to others (influencers) 1/2

conniecrosby: @cbensen Influencers are those who help to spread the new ideas, whether from the thought leaders or others. Could be same person, tho. 2/2

heatherrast: @cbensen An influencer can draw a crowd to hear his opinion. A thought leader inspires a crowd to listen, follow, adopt, discuss his work.

SocialMtgExpert: @cbensen …a thought leader be comfortable with their own way (even alone) whereas an influencer is desiring to bring others to their POV?

KTMacOnline: @cbensen a thought leader’s influence may be delayed until people get up to speed that she is on to something. Influencers’ power is now.

juliadalton: @cbensen Thought leader moves things forward and pushes innovation. An influencer, in my opinion, helps make innovations mainstream.

hyermish: @cbensen difference is thought leader has new ideas, influencer spreads ideas. Influencers can be thought leaders, but not always.

lucasclements: @cbensen Thought leaders are not dependent on crowds, influencers require them

missysisk: @cbensen to me, the distinction of an influencer is one that ignites discussion amongst a niche community.

JonBurg: @cbensen thought leaders guide/inform perception. Influencers inspire action. One person can be both, or one or the other.

skyhawke: @cbensen That’s easy. Influencers are akin to secondary research. Thought leaders are akin to primary research

JonBurg: @cbensen you can be a thought leader with readership but no social echo. Influencers generate echo.

This caused us to decide that we should categorize the types of influencers. But I agree that we should let the Twitterverse do it.

JonBurg was inspired to write a blog post on the topic & offers some categories to get us started.

Let us know your thoughts. We will continue to gather the results in a Twitter-tifically method. @AriHerzog & @RyanStephens have offered to help.

Sometimes the conversation provides topics for me to blog on. Cristina is asking for help with her research for her Master’s studies. She asked:

If in a community the activity is high, the awareness and recognition of a tourism product will win good position on the net. How exactly? Which kind of activities are in your opinion the best for Destination Brand Placement?

Community activity creates content. That content is noticed by search engines. So an activity community contributes greatly to Search Engine Optimization. Activities in general can range from contests, polls, and interactive types of things. The more creative you are the better! Ultimately you want to encourage the community to get involved & draw out the lurkers.

On what do you put the focus regarding consumer opinions and participation: quantity of quality?

My answer is quality for user generated content. But there is also a goal to get everyone participating.

Which are your objectives as a community manager?

This varies greatly depending on the purpose of the community. In general, the role is to encourage participation, provide metrics, ensure growth & advocate for the customer.

Which variables do I have to take in consideration when analyzing results of the strategy? (for example in Tourism: number of visits on a touristic website, bookings etc.)
This depends on what your goals are? Once you identify the goals, then you’ll know what you should measure.

Can you give me examples for a specific touristic message focusing on a community?

A note of caution here – a community prefers to have the brand talking with them, rather than broadcasting messages. So I would prefer this question restated.

Nowadays, “group-software systems” (e.g. facebook) are the main tools for raising awareness towards a certain brand. Which social network are in your opinion the most important ones?

Now I’m going to call on my network to also respond. My friend Nando Llorando from Spain works in this field & is also located in Europe. Anyone else with ideas also please feel free to answer Christine’s questions either here or in Facebook.

Here are the steps that I go through:

1. You need to read the Submission Guidelines carefully & follow them to the letter. They will provide the answers to the who, what, where, when & why. Here’s the Call for Participation at Web 2.0 Expo for next spring.
2. Review additional hints:
• Read about the conference, who hosts it & who usually attends it
• Take a look at the sessions that were presented at the previous one.
• Decide on the tone for your proposal
3. Decide on what your topic will be. You don’t need a title quite yet.
4. Create an outline of your idea for your topic
5. Start to craft the short description by brainstorming. Then create sentences & put them in logical order. Once you get this fairly close then the longer abstract will evolve.
6. Go through your outline & trade out the beginning of each sentence with action verbs. Make your presentation proposal engaging.

This is the short description of a panel proposal that I recently wrote:

This panel offers practical ways & case studies of how to use social media and it’s tools to have conversations in the online space like those on the sales floor. Traditional marketing & advertising efforts are less effective than ever before. By engaging with your community online you can realize: increased brand presence, shorter product development cycle, customer loyalty & satisfaction as well as create positive word of mouth.

For the longer abstract I used the above paragraph, then I asked questions. The goal is to entice potential attendees to start thinking about your topic. Your presentation will be answering those questions.

Customers are discussing your brand online. Are you listening? How are you interacting? It’s a huge opportunity to provide the same personalized service online that you encourage on the sales floor.

I used the following action words to start sentences in the panel description. Be creative!

• enable
• join
• provide
• create
• engage
• celebrate
• participate

Have someone read your proposal & provide constructive criticism. And make sure that you submit it on time!

What suggestions do you have for writing proposals for conferences?

Andy Carvin set up a ning & started coordinating the volunteer efforts. His ning became the Gustav Information Center. There was a discussion as to whether the Katrina wiki should be used. That information would be three years old & it would be lost. So a decision was made to create a new one using the same wiki software to make it easy to port over the structure.

Yesterday I wasn’t connected with Andy Carvin, but ChocoNancy follows both of us put this up on Flickr.

Hosting needs for the wiki were generously provided by Network Solutions (whom I work for). Deanna Zandt is handling the technical aspects of the Hurricane Gustav Wiki. Once the wiki was installed, volunteers went to work copying over the info from the Katrina wiki. Today, less than 24 hours when this initiative started volunteers are checking links & updating them. At this rate, the effort will probably be done before the hurricane makes landfall.

The wiki will serve as an incredible resource for those affected. It’s amazing to watch people using & aggregating information from Twitter, online sources, Craigslist, mainstream news & then offering it to be read in a number of formats.

If you don’t have computer access

I’m wondering if the national emergency organizations should take note & have templates set up ready to use for various natural disasters. What about having their staff trained to utilize the various social media tools & engage the power of volunteers? There have to be lessons that can be learned here. What are your thoughts?

• There’s a ning for hurricane info – join & share information
• On Twitter they’re using the hash tag #gustav
• Live Twitter tracking by @jazzychad
• And a ref librarian at Jefferson Parrish put up Yahoo pipes tracking tweets.
• And Wayne is using his FriendFeed account to post all links.
• *Update – Margaret Saizan is blogging updates at
  • www.hurricane-katrina.org
  • & has a community at http://beyondkatrina.ning.com/

People are commenting on Twitter that @RedCross is giving out more up-to-date info than the mainstream media. (My question is it really the Red Cross – after the Janet @Exxon deal. But we can worry about that after the hurricane!).

I hope that helps connect people in some small way. It’s great to see these tools utilized quickly to hopefully save lives.

I’m in Minnesota so quite a ways from the storm. I did see a request on Twitter asking for help & to email her at beyondkatrina@gmail.com

It’s great to have my writing recognized & shared. And the members of Social Media Today are amongst the best in Social Media & Web 2.0!

Social Media Today is a great resource that you should definitely check out!

People around me realize pretty quickly that I’m high energy & that I’m always planning, doing & evaluating. But I do have reflective moments too. Yesterday morning our lake was starting to freeze over & I wanted to share this photo. It is a reminder that Minnesota is heading into winter. (But we really don’t slow down – we just move faster!)

So what was I thinking about?

My new job as Community Manager with ACDSee

• 7 weeks in & I’m really enjoying the challenges that I create
  • that sounds odd, but I am creating my own work!
• the ACDSee team is supportive across all levels & I’m learning a lot!
• working remotely has tech challenges, but I’m enjoying it
  • (now that I have Outlook in my own timezone, it really helps! *grin*)
  • being self-motivated makes it easy to get things done
  • have a routine now for working projects, email & phone calls
• lots of phone conference calls isn’t ideal, but I’m adjusting
  • they do allow me to multitask which would be difficult in-house

Networking & blogging

• This blog has only been up 2 months & it seems like ages!
  • thank you to all of my readers! you totally make my day!!
  • 62 posts with 133 comments
  • I’m addicted to blogging & writing to 3

Loving Twitter & Facebook – invaluable!

• • my network continues to grow
    • follow me on Twitter & I’ll follow you back
    • add me in Facebook
  • it’s incredibly stimulating to exchange ideas & learn
  • interviewed by 3 people writing books – cool, huh?

Speaking at the Facebook conference in less than a month!

• • yikes! I need to plan what I’m going to wear – soon!
  • but excited to meet people in real life

Have a weekly routine now

• Because my husband works weekends, we needed a plan
• Monday nights we go out for dinner, groceries & 99 cent movies
• This allows us to have food in the house
  • Who needs to eat when I’m loving my work?
  • I do like to cook, so the hurdle is just to buy it

Anticipating travel – which is my dream

• Upcoming trip to ACDSee home offices in Victoria, BC
  • We’ll be taking a roadtrip this time exploring the island
• Conference in Seattle – I’m looking forward to the great food!
• Phoenix, AZ in January – Grand Canyon & a hot air balloon ride
• CHA in Anaheim in February – the BIG trade show!
  • ACDSee will be networking with digiscrappers & magaziene editors
• Europe in late spring – should it be London/Paris or Norway/Sweden?

This is an incredible adventure. I can’t use past tense because I don’t view it as over yet – in fact I feel like it’s just beginning which is very exciting. I am SO thankful for all of you who have supported me, encouraged & inspired me! Please let me know what I can do for you?

That sounds odd because why would anyone purposefully ineffectively network?! That’s the main criticism of social networking sites though – people add friends & then say, nothing’s happening. Well, there’s more to it than just clicking ‘approved’ for a friend request.

What needs to happen next if you’re going to effectively network:

1. Get Involved – if you don’t nothing will happen – no matter the platform, you need to participate!

• on blogs – comment
• Facebook – if they added you, write on their wall or send a message, a nice little note of thanks. I do it immediately & have it correspond to their reason for the invitation to add
• Twitter – I publicly welcome @them

2. Check in periodically – connect for whatever reason is applicable

• usually my connection happens immediately (that happened today); it’s a result of browsing their Facebook profile or commenting on their Twitter bio info.
• Drop a note to ask how things are going? not only when you need something (it’s not all about you)
• Provide value to your network – consider what you can do for them?
• Participate in groups – you’ll be surprised when you start seeing the same people

3. Participate on their blogs, networks, etc – oh! this was #1

My philosophy is that participation & showing interest is key. How do you feel when others enquire about things that interest you? An excellent example is the meme that Jeremiah started on Social Media Snacking. When I saw that I was tagged, it was late, but I took a few minutes to post my response. Who would’ve known that the meme would become so viral? The names kept being added to it. People from all over the world have responded (I tagged two in Singapore) & I saw a post by a friend from Greece.

Brian Solis writes about snacking, but it summarized my thoughts here too.

There’s a shift taking place in how certain groups of people discover and share information, and if you’re in the world of publishing, marketing, or sales, you should probably pay attention. With every new channel that gains momentum, a new bridge can also be built between you, peers, and your customers to foster healthy and dynamic communities based on conversations and relationships.

And you’re saying to yourself, that takes time. Yes, I agree it does. But isn’t that the point? To get to know people, you need to interact in a genuine way. The result is huge though. Having a network (community if you will) of people who trust your opinion & know that you’ll help them is invaluable.

If you are a friend first, then it will come back. My UK Twitter friend, Nik Butler, posted a Social Startup Pack for Twitter & I was humbled to see my name on the list. That’s a good place to start if you’re interested in Twitter.

Feel free to add me on Facebook too. And if you’re hesitant about networking, I posted awhile ago about Overcoming Social Network Shyness. Start there & ease yourself in.