Saturday, May 8, 2010

NAVIGATING THE NEW WORLD OF SOCIAL MEDIA - MARKETING AND THE SOCIAL WEB

Thriving in the New Economy - WOMEN PRESIDENTS' ORGANIZATION - Annual Conference
SPEAKER: Jeanette Gibson, Director, Global Social Media, Cisco
SPONSOR: Wells Fargo
DESCRIPTION: Conducting communications in this new Web 2.0 world is a challenge for any company. How, when, why to use video, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and all other forms of social media tactics and strategies can be hard to navigate. Jeanette Gibson, Director of Global Social Media, Cisco will discuss the company’s strategy for Web 2.0 and share best practices on how Cisco transformed its product launch process using web 2.0 technologies and integrates social media into its communications and marketing campaigns.

I am totally sold on the value of social media for business, even in a B2B space like mine. I enjoyed learning more from a seasoned industry professional.



When considering social media remember:

-          Social media creates a 2 way street between you and your customers

-          Your customers are now defining your product in the market

o   When they are upset and post a negative comment

§  Say  “thank you” and “I’m Sorry” – most customers don’t take the time to post a negative comment, so treat it as the opportunity that it is to keep them

-          See it as a “social hub” – a place to aggregate – provide RSS feeds

-          What are your customers' passionate about?

o   That should drive your content

o   See sites like http://www.blendtec.com/willitblend/ this was driven by their customer response

-          You can use sites like Twitter to poll your customers during your meetings and presentations

o   Get real time feedback

o   Create a Twitter address for your event

-          Like it or not – every employee is now a media producer for you

-          Videos should be “snackable” – 90 seconds or less

o   Tie your videos into other technologies

o   People like to see behind the scene views

-          Use Twitter to conduct interviews

o   Answer with a video

-          Tweet Ups provide a way to create off-line events

o   Allows people to meet face to face

o   They get to meet you in person

o   Tools like Eventbrite are great for scheduling

 

It is an important tool in creating engagement with your customers:

-          Look what Starbucks in doing to create engagement with their customers

o   Allow their customers to  - share, vote, discuss, see new products, submit “My Starbuck Idea”

-          Dell has created the Idea Storm  - http://www.ideastorm.com/

-          Check out and learn from the top companies  - http://www.engagementdb.com/

 

Lessons Learned:

-          Remember you can put your meeting audio on iTunes

-          FTC guidelines around disclosure on your blogs  and postings

-          Public and private lines get blurred on social media

-          When filming videos remember your backgrounds and lighting

 

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