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I Love You…Whoever You Are: Building Online Relationships in a “Sensory-Underloaded” World.

Monday, July 26th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

I’m a judgmental lady (something heartily seconded by my Myers Briggs assessment).

While this may sound like I’m a highly unpleasant person, I should clarify that there is a difference between judging and making a judgment.

I don’t go around barking out personality edicts like some director in front of an inept chorus line (“You? Awesome!” “You? Grumpy!” You? Desperately in need of therapy!”)

For me, “judging” is more of a process of collecting information about a person as quickly as possible and using it to decide how I should communicate with them in return.

Just like you, this is something I do with both my senses and my gut.

Your four relationship-building senses (well, five … if you’re a zombie).

When you think about it, most of the information we collect when we first meet someone is simply a series of sensory cues …

• SIGHT: Does what this person is saying match their body language? Do they look connected to the conversation or are their eyes wandering? Are their arms crossed, making them seem closed-off and unreceptive?

• SOUND: Does this person’s voice sound tight and constricted by stress or anger? Is their tone conveying openness and interest in what you’re saying? Are they being sarcastic or sardonic, and how does that make you feel?

• SMELL: Do they smell like a smoker, hard core coffee drinker or crazy cat lady? How do you feel about those things? Do they wear the same cologne as your high school boyfriend, making you instantly nostalgic and swoony?

• TOUCH: Is their handshake limp or powerful? Does their hand linger a little too long on your back when they are talking to you? Are they a hugger? Do they touch your hand to get your attention when they’re talking?

• TASTE: Um … you probably do not employ this sense in building relationships.

When we meet people, we use all of this sensory information to create our perception of a person and our mind subconsciously helps to fill in any gaps in the picture.

For example, let’s say you’re talking to someone who has their arms crossed, a tight voice and is nervously tapping the table. Your mind might summarize this information and send you a message that says, “This is a tightly-wound person who is either unhappy with me or their environment right now. Tread cautiously.”

The gut reaction we get from our “sensory summaries” informs how we should behave in return. (For instance, you may choose to slow your voice and modulate the tone or lean back to give the person space, etc.)

Even with all of our senses working overtime, this process can still be highly skewed or erroneous.

There have been many times where I’ve meet a person and decided instantly that I adore them. But then, down the road when a more complete portrait of that person is revealed, I’m left wondering, “What in the hell were you thinking?”

Matchmaking in the dark.

In our online relationships however, nearly all of this sensory information is removed from the equation.

All we have are words on a screen next to an unchanging avatar mask (people literally, putting their best face hear-see-speak-no-evil1forward).

The gaps between what we see and what may be reality are huge and we have no cues to help us bridge the divide.

Where, in person, we might have had six or seven sensory clues to help us form our perception of a person, online we have one (at best).

And yet, most of us continue to make same definitive judgments about the people we befriend online and act according to them.

Have you ever stopped and really given thought to why you feel the way you do about the people in your online social circles? What are you basing your feelings on?

What do you, in fact, KNOW versus what you only SEE?

For example …

  • Is a person with a smiling avatar who uses lots of emoticons and exclamation points, in fact, friendlier, or are you just conditioned by the photo to expect them to be and read all of their posts with that preexisting lens?
  • If a person in your digital network talks a lot about themselves, do you interpret that as a sign of self-absorption? Cluelessness? Desperation? What cues have they given in all of that chatter to give you that indication?
  • Does an active conversation stream and large follower base really indicate that someone is a “social” person or could they actually be really lonely and desperate for human connection? If you never meet them in person, would you ever know the difference?

The reality is that, when it comes to relationship-building online, we are all like Gollum in his cave, nearly blind and often lost, but still convinced that the people before us are precious.

Where will this take us?

Social media is not just a cultural phenomenon, but a psychological one as well. It presents us with a radically new way of shaping our sense of self and presenting that self to others.

While we tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the effect this can have for our businesses, I’m even more curious to know what affect it will have on our psyches.

• What kind of fallout will result from constructing relationships with such flimsy materials? If this style of connecting with people becomes the norm, what then will this mean for our more intimate connections with our friends and family? Is a relationship that is less “real” necessarily one that is less satisfying?

• If social media is in fact our “second life,” where we have the option to build relationships that reflect an alternate version of our selves, what kind of schism could that create in our overall sense of identity and what will be the long term affects of having that schism?

• Is social media a trigger that can magnify existing psychological issues (narcissism, addiction, depression) and what might that mean for psychologists who are trying to work with clients on those issues, but who do not understand the role that social media may be playing in undermining their efforts?

There is much that we do not know — and even more that we assume to have already mastered. To find the answers, we’ll need our senses, our gut and perhaps, most importantly, our judgments.

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Posted in Thoughts on the Industry | 2 Comments »

D’Amico takes a troubling seat at the Twitter table.

Friday, July 16th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

The social media campaign of caterer/restaurant conglomerate, D’Amico has been the subject of much on and offline conversations in the Twin Cities the past month or so.

For those of you who have missed it (and it’d be real hard to miss it if you live here), D’Amico entered the Twittersphere recently with a boom.

Screen shot 2010-07-16 at 11.50.38 AM

They set-up many, many, many Twitter accounts (often with such cozy names as D’Amico_12) for the brand, each of its restaurants, each of its employees and all of its catering arms.(There is a small handful of them listed here.)

Then, they populated these accounts with syndicated content (hashtagged within an inch of its life) that is neither gregarious nor graceful in tone or form.

There is no human voice to the Twitter presence – the feeds are just automated “menu-a-trons” brand blasts that march across people’s screens with the calculated regularity and precision of a North Korean army.

If you’ve made the mistake of following more than one of these accounts, the affect can be akin to watching that Faberge commercial from the 80’s with Heather Locklear, where she says “and so on and so on and so on…” while her photo replicates like a virus.

In this Twitter campaign, there appears to be little talking and, more importantly, little listening. And the general consensus among Twin Cities tweeters is that the whole endeavor is highly unappealing.

The larger question though is….

Is it ineffective?

Nope.

(Oh wait…you wanted me to say “yes” here, didn’t you?)

Screen shot 2010-07-16 at 11.59.39 AMThe reality is that broadcast messaging still works, since that’s what most of us are used to.

While the people YOU know might DVR shows to skip commercials, listen to commercial free satellite radio or engage in authentic, relationship-building conversations on social media, a whole lot of other people out there do not.

Now, I’m sure there are a ton of people who follow back these accounts and are befuddled by what they see. But there are probably just as many that think, “oh hey, a coupon for lemonade!” and click through without thinking twice.

I’m sure D’Amico is seeing payoff with these accounts, especially if their campaign metrics are not concerned with brand sentiment, only the number of hits, follows, retweets, etc. – data that, while mesmerizing in its magnitude, often fails to address the larger question of, “Does anyone really LIKE what we’re saying?”

Is it brand damaging?

In their pursuit of short-term gain, personally, I think that, yes, D’Amico is missing the opportunity for long-term growth.

Whenever I complain about them online, I nearly always receive public or private messages in response from people who say, “thank you for saying something about this.”

In short, I have never seen ANYONE publicly stand up in support on behalf of this brand – not even D’Amico itself.Screen shot 2010-07-16 at 12.01.24 PM

This campaign has given D’Amico a bad reputation, but is it brand damaging? Probably not.

I have many connections in the meetings and events industry, and the vast majority of these people have no idea what D’Amico’s Twitter presence is like (many of them aren’t even on Twitter themselves).

These people will continue to use D’Amico as a vendor and will probably be tickled to be asked to “Follow them on Twitter” with no knowledge that their social media experience could be anything different.

Ironically, not only do I not think their actions will damage their brand, I think it will actually reinforce it.

I’ve had a number of contacts with D’Amico staff where the vibe was, “If you don’t like it — tough. We own all the event facilities in this town, so it doesn’t really matter what you think.”

And they’re right.

So, not being particularly chummy or concerned with people’s opinions on Twitter is actually a pretty “spot on” approach for this company. They are authentic … authentically disinterested in what you think.

Is it spam?

One might say that, if you opt-in to the D’Amico party, then you really can’t call it spam.

Screen shot 2010-07-16 at 12.02.56 PMTrue. But I’m inclined to still label it as such simply due to their gratuitous following/unfollowing/refollowing approach.

One reason why many hard-core Twitter users don’t like this campaign is that it is fairly manipulative. It preys off of newbies’ tendency to just automatically follow back people who follow them.

For example, a person sees “New D’Amico follower” in their email and clicks “follow.” Maybe the next day they get another one and think, “I thought I followed them yesterday…oh well [click]. Maybe the next day they get followed from a D’Amico account for one of their restaurants – the name’s a little different, so they think, “okay,” [click].

These and other Twitter tactics are just part of a numbers game. I understand the game, so I just opt not to play.

But many of my clients, friends and followers don’t have that knowledge. What I hear from them is that these practices leave them feeling used, duped and confused.

That sounds pretty “spamy” in my books.

So, what’s next?

I probably am just preaching to the choir here. But, the whole point of a choir is that voices, when combined, amplify.

My own quiet message to D’Amico is this:  Because I do not support your approach to social media …

  • I will not follow your accounts.
  • I will not retweet your information.
  • I will not click on your links.
  • I will not dine in your restaurants.
  • I will not use you as a caterer for my events.

If you feel strongly about this too, then I invite you to add your voice to the conversation.

While ultimately we may not be listened to, I can promise you that we will be heard.

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Posted in Rants about things that piss us off, Thoughts on the Industry | 27 Comments »

Kinda Engaged: Your Brian Solis Cliff Notes

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

Brian Solis’ presentation in Minneapolis is just two weeks away (July 27), and I hope that you’re planning to attend. We’re excited and honored that he’s making the trip to speak to our community.

This post however, isn’t about that event. It’s about Brian’s book, Engage!

Engage is a great book. I read every last stinkin word in it … I underlined stuff (with a straight edge!), made notes in the margins, emailed passages to clients and tweeted my favorite quotes.

Problem is, I am totally not normal.

I am a reader. Hard core. I don’t watch TV. I don’t play video games. I have no hobbies or social life.

(Wow … that sounds really pathetic, doesn’t it?)

All I do is read … books, blogs, magazines, newspapers, backs of cereal boxes, you name it.

What’s more, I also read business books. (I run a business book club – thanks to all who’ve dropped by – and I know that this is an even more rare breed of people.)

So, when I see people tweeting that they’re anxious to tackle Brian’s book before or after the event, I get a little nervous.

You see, Brian’s book is really good, but it’s also really … well, epic. (At our book salon, some people said there were sections that “made their brains want to explode.”)

It’s summer in Minnesota, and I’m worried that even you serious readers out there might not be in the mood to have your brain exploding. Your brain probably wants more to lie in the sunshine with a gin and tonic.

Never fear though, I figured out a way that you can get your “Engage” fix and that gin and tonic too …

The “Engage” Cliff Notes.

Let me start by saying this:  I really think you should read Brain’s book in its entirety.

You should try to drink eight glasses of water a day, floss and “live your best life,” too.

The reality is that many of you won’t.

However, I’m willing to bet that you’ll read parts of this book, and some is better than none. If your time and attention is limited, hopefully these Cliff Notes can help you determine which parts those should be.

So, (with many, many, apologies to Brian) pick your profile and let’s get started …

1. “I’m clueless about social media, but I want to find out how to get started.”

  • I’d suggest you start at the beginning of the book with Part I: The New Reality of Marketing and ConfusedCustomer Service.

  • In Part II: Forever Students of New Media, read the Social Media 101 section and all the 201’s (201, 202, 203).
  • You may be in over your head with some of the 301 information and totally floundering in the 401’s and the “MBA” sections, so I’d suggest you instead skip ahead and read Part III: Brand Representative Versus the Brand You and Part IV: We are the Champions.
  • You might just want to stop after Chapter 19 and revisit the book later after you’ve had some time to go use what you’ve learned in the social space and get more comfortable with the tools/technology/tactics.

2. “I use social media, and kinda know what I’m doing, but I still have a lot to learn.”

  • Start at the beginning of the book with Part I: The New Reality of Marketing and LearningCustomer Service.

  • In Part II: Forever Students of New Media, read the Social Media 101 section, as well as all the Social Media 201’s (201, 202, 203) and Social Media 301’s (301, 302, 303.) If that information isn’t freaking you out, go ahead and tackle the Social Media 401’s (401, 402, 403). Your brain will likely be hurting after you’re done, so if you decide not to read the MBA information right now, that’s totally okay. I’m sure Brian will still love you.
  • Read all of Part III: Brand Representative Versus the Brand You and Part IV: We are the Champions.
  • If you’re up to it, tackle Part V: The Social Architect: Developing a Blueprint for New Marketing and maybe stop after Chapter 22 and revisit the book later after you’ve had a chance to process and apply what you’ve learned.

3. “Social media is part of my job at my company/agency/consultancy and people are looking to me to show them how it’s done. I need to make sure I know my stuff.”

  • You should really read this whole book, you know that right?SM

  • Obviously, read Part I: The New Reality of Marketing and Customer Service.
  • Then, since you’re working with these tools on a daily basis, you may want to skip ahead to Part III: Brand Representative Versus the Brand You, Part IV: We are the Champions and Part V: The Social Architect: Developing a Blueprint for New Marketing. There is good information in these sections and you don’t want to be fried from reading all the New Media University stuff when you tackle it.

  • You should read Part VI: A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action: Rising Above the Noise, but I’ll admit that the Social CRM/VRM info can be a little overwhelming. You may want to just skim Chapters 23 and 24 for now. Chapter 25 though (Measuring Investment Returns) is an essential read, though. Do not skip this.
  • After you’ve had a chance to digest what you’ve learned, don’t forget to revisit the book later and read the New Media University section. I guarantee you there will be some tools and tactics in there that you haven’t used or thought of yet.

4. “As a business person, I get that we need to get on board with social media, but I just want to know what I’ll be hiring people to do and to how to fit this into our operations.”

  • Start with Part I: The New Reality of Marketing and Customer Service. Business
  • If you’re not going to be doing any of this, just managing it, you might want to just jump to all the business stuff in the back of the book and revisit all of the details about what social media is and why it works at a later time. This, (for obvious reasons) is not the best way to read the book, but it might be the most realistic way to tackle it for your situation.
  • If you are particularly strapped for time and just want to get down to business, you should definitely read Chapter 17 on establishing policies, Chapter 22 on building teams, and all of Part VI: A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action: Rising Above the Noise.
  • For a more informed approach though, instead of reading chapters out of context, start at Part III: Brand Representative Versus the Brand You and read from there until the end of the book.
  • It would be good for you to know that stuff in Part II: Forever Students of New Media, so don’t forget to revisit the book down the road and review when you’ve had some time to process or before you start sending our RFP’s for people to help you with your social media plans.

5. “I got this under control, already. I’m a social media rock star/guru.”

One of my favorite quotes from Brian Solis is that he considers himself to be “forever a student of social media.”Guru

… and he is one smart dude.

Point here is we all have stuff to learn.

If you consider yourself to be a guru, then I guess my recommendations for you are …

  • Read the book.
  • Then, go write one of your own.

Who knows? Maybe if you play your cards right, someday you’ll get your very own Cliff Notes too.

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Posted in Education Opportunities, Kane Co Events, New Media Marketing, Thoughts on the Industry | 14 Comments »

5 Tips for Avoiding Social Media “Engagement Overload.”

Thursday, July 8th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

My social network is kind of a monster.

Like the giant Venus Fly Trap in Little Shop of Horrors, it’s grown into a Hydra-like beast that requires constant feeding and attention.

Feed me, Jennifer...Feed me!

Feed me, Jennifer...Feed me!

I have no one to blame for this but myself.

I’ve created oodles of social profiles for myself and my company and syndicate content among them.

This has created an elaborate conversational web that makes it appear that I am in many places at one time, when, in fact, I am not.

As a consequence, any one post of mine can initiate a domino fall of comments that funnel in from multiple social sources: Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress, LinkedIn, Ning, Buzz.

Add to this a host of parallel conversations via text messages, emails and chat programs, and I’ve got a serious traffic control problem on my hands.

So, how do you tame the social beast when it starts to exponentially grow like this?

Start by trying these five things:

1. Get yourself a dashboard.

You’re a busy person and you probably don’t have time to log into each of your social media accounts throughout the day. (Nor should you have to.) Focus instead on aggregating that information into one central portal.

If you have multiple social channels to manage, set up some sort of central dashboard where you can monitor your conversational traffic. There are a number of free ones out there to choose from, such as Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Seesmic, PeopleBrowsr, etc.

I use Tweetdeck as the “command central” for my personal communications and populate it with feeds from not just my Twitter account, but also Facebook and Google Buzz (You can add LinkedIn too, I just choose not to). Additionally, I use this tool to monitor search terms and accounts for our KaneCo clients.

No matter what dashboard you pick, just try to get all your stuff in one place. You’ll miss less and be able to engage more.

2. Hang up some of your social “phone lines.”

You don’t need to be everywhere on the social web. (In fact, you’ll probably be more effective if you start in just a few places).

The important thing is to be transparent about where you do and don’t “hang out” online, so if people can’t find you, they’ll know why.

Go ahead and set up accounts on secondary channels that you intend to check less frequently. Just make sure to manage people’s expectations in those spaces by doing things like including a message says, “Hey…I’m not on [Name of App] much. The best place to reach me is [Twitter/Facebook/etc.]”

Or, for instance, if someone is continually trying to chat with you via Facebook, let them know that you only check that account once a day. Then, make sure you’re not leaving a browser window with that account open in the background throughout the day so it appears that you’re available to chat when you’re really not.

3. Get over yourself.

Not everything you say in social media will get a response. That’s the nature of the beast, and it’s a hard thing to get used to. If you say, “Wow, today is a beautiful day,” and it’s met with the sound of crickets, that’s perfectly appropriate.

Let go of the notion that every conversation has to have both a sender and a receiver to be viable. And, don’t assume that, if you say something to a person and they don’t reply, that they didn’t read it or didn’t care.

Each person’s experience with social media is unique to their communication style, workplace, logistics, technical set-up, availability, and a host of other factors.

In other words, you’re not always driving the conversation bus in social media … so, focus instead on making the most of your ride.

If you find it imperative that all of your social media conversations get wrapped up nice and tidy (and good luck to you with that), employ the backchannel. Send direct messages, emails, or (gasp!) call people on the phone to thank them for reading your post, schedule a date for your coffee meeting or hash out your differences.

4. Keep an eye on your peeps.

While not responding to every social media comment is a new reality, not responding to multiple comment attempts is still just plain rude.

The social web is fundamentally a giant game of  “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine.” If you’ve been the beneficiary of many scratches lately, you might want to stop and take a look around to see if your community of supporters are starting to get a little itchy.

If you can’t reply to someone in the moment, look for another point of engagement down the road. This might take the form of promoting something they’ve written, doubling back and asking for their advice on a topic or just giving them a compliment out of the blue.

Another way to reconnect with your community is to pick someone out of your feed each day that you don’t really know and respond to something they say. A lot of times when I do this, I get no response. And that’s okay. This exercise is more about planting conversation seeds for the future than harvesting relationships.

5. Find moments of silence.

I’m an introvert, and although the people on social media aren’t actually physically surrounding me, steeping myself in a never-ending stream of their chatter can make it feel as if they are.

When this happens, I just need to close the dashboard, step away from the desk and go listen to something that demands no attention … like the hum of the air conditioner, or rainfall or childrens’ voices down the street.

By doing this, I’ve learned that sometimes the best way to feed the beast is to let it go hungry for awhile.

Go back and audit your stream. If you were following yourself, would YOU need a break from you?

  • Are you chattering incessantly?
  • Are you badgering people with your attentiveness?
  • Are you bludgeoning people with information they haven’t asked for?

As in our offline lives, what can seem like devotion and engagement on your part can come off as sucking all of the air out of the room to someone else.

Set aside a moment of silence and look at the world through your community’s eyes. The view might surprise you.

Open up and say “Ahhhh …”

At the end of the day, it’s not about the number of people who talk to me or listen to me on the social web.

Actually it’s not really about ME at all.

It’s about having the ability to hear what’s in people’s heads and the opportunity to choose how I’m going to respond to that information. (Comment? File it away for a rainy day? Pass it along to my network?)

This is a valuable, revenue-generating, soul-supporting activity when it’s done right.

Ultimately my social media beast is one that I’m never going to be able to fully tame. But that’s okay. Its wildness is what makes it work.

It’s monster, but it’s MY monster.

Now excuse me … I gotta get back to it. It’s feeding time again.

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Posted in New Media Marketing, Thoughts on the Industry | Comments Off

Fishing for a Deeper Understanding in the Social Web.

Thursday, June 24th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

It’s summer in Minnesota, which means countless anglers are hauling their fishing gear to the shores of our 10,000 lakes, our many streams and the mighty Mississippi.

As a child, this meant many boat-bound hours, watching my Dad perfect his technique in his quest for “a lunker Walleye.”

From my vantage point, this task always seemed pretty straightforward. I could clearly see fish darting just under the surface in schools. Surely all a person had to do was drop a line and you’d be good to go.

Yours truly, back in the day ...

Yours truly, back in the day ...

But, as with most things in life, I learned that there is both an art and a science to landing “the big one.”

Sure, you can catch a fish by just plopping in a line. But to catch a GREAT fish, you have to learn to think like a fish.

Here, Fishy Fishy …

These days, I spend my time watching far different streams – waves of social web conversations and connections that mingle, re-circulate and flow in nearly endless configurations. In some ways though, it’s just like being back on the boat as a kid.

During the course of the day, conversations bubble up from these streams, offering organic and effective points of engagement for a host of business purposes (marketing, sales, customer service, etc.).

Smart “social anglers” have learned to watch for these bubbles. They study the conversations and the needs that drive them. They note patterns of behavior, nuance and tone. They observe how people respond to the various lures dangled in front of them.

In some circles, this is referred to as “Digital Ethnography.”

Don’t let the fancy terminology here scare you. Most of us are, instinctively, digital ethnographers – often learning as a child that sometimes the best way to talk to people is to shut up and listen, first.

(I guess, by extension, fishermen* are “Aquatic Ethnographers,” and have been for centuries – watching their depth finders, sniffing for the scent of rain on the breeze and studying hundreds of carefully baited lines.)

Seriously, Fishy. Get Into the Damn Boat Already.

But, just as there are people who subscribe to this thoughtful approach to fishing the socialized web, there are just as many that resemble a squirming kid on a boat whose only wish is for solid land and a working toliet.

Becoming invested in people – really listening to what they need, and then finding the least intrusive way to deliver it to them – can be an awful lot of work.

It’s far easier to just dive for those fish with a big hunk of bait in your fists and a cloud of chum in your wake.

Chances are, after the waves have subsided, there will always be some little guy hungry enough to swim by and have a look.

Truth is, lazy marketers make money. They always have.

But in the end, they can only ever catch the short sale, never the long tail.

I don’t believe in quick fixes, so I’m sticking with the fishing philosophy that I learned from my Dad – where it was always more about the day, the water and the time together, than anything we actually caught in a net.

You can learn a lot by watching schools of little fish pass by. But, if you’re patient, you’ll wait to drop your line and go for the lunker Walleye that’s following right behind them.

*I’m all for inclusive language, but I just couldn’t bring myself to use the word “fisherpersons.”

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Posted in New Media Marketing, Thoughts on the Industry | 2 Comments »

Twin Cities Social Media Pros: Can We Engage Your Help?

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

One of the most common questions I hear about our Evening With Brian Solis event on July 27 is, “Why are you producing a social media education event that could end up educating your competition?”

The answer is simple … if your job is in social media, this event isn’t for you.

It’s for your clients.

Brian’s BOOK is for you. (And, if you are indeed an enterprising, social media superstar, you’ll probably read Engage whether I tell you about it or not.)

So, why educate your clients?

That answer is simple, too …. educated clients benefit us all.

Lead the camels to water.

Although many of us work in a world where we can watch watercooler debates via social feeds all day and hang with other people who whip out their phones and tweet the funny jokes they just heard, the reality is … um …. that’s not reality.

While social media is a business tool (and a powerful one at that), many businesses are still just circling it like hungry sharks nudging a surfboard to determine if it’s a seal.Engage by BrianSolis

This is still largely uncharted terrain. And the parts we have charted continue to shift overnight, as if someone passed a magnet over our collective strategic compass.

Each day there are new concepts to understand, new tools to explore and new resources to review.

Companies are intrigued, but they’re also seriously freaked out.

And, if you’re working in this field like we are, you’re likely seeing that, too — in the form of RFPs that get abandoned, social strategies that don’t get implemented and community managers who are jettisoned for failing to tweet their way to increased profits.

Help them take a drink.

If we’re going to be grown-up professionals and make social media a grown-up industry, it’s going to take more than 140 character oaths and Foursquare mayorships.

We’re going to need to work together to pave the way for insight and acceptance in companies of all shapes and sizes.

The more that companies “get it,” the more they’re going to realize that it takes special skills and special people to capitalize on that “it.”

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be one of those people.

Be the ambassador.

If you’re sitting on the front lines of this industry, you’ll find much “food for thought” in Brian’s book – much of it far too deep or technical to cover in one evening talk.

Instead, our July 27 event is your chance to have someone who essentially just wrote the “how to” manual for social success make the case to your clients (and potential clients). You get to be the lucky ambassador sitting next to them who can capitalize on that excitement.

(Register using our special “bring your client” rate and you’ll be a fiscally-responsible ambassador, too.)

So, is that, “helping my competition?”

Perhaps.

Being a “social ambassador” at Brian’s presentation could mean that someday you’ll win a gig that my company is also vying for.

But, if we don’t first work together to educate companies, in the end, we all wind up losing.

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Posted in Kane Co Events, New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 3 Comments »

Marketing Personas: The “Non Grata” Guest on the Social Web

Friday, May 7th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

I just returned home from Boston, where I attended my third conference produced by Marketing Profs.

I came away recharged by the event’s two outstanding keynotes, David Weinberger and Mitch Joel, and, as always, enjoyed networking with some fabulously smart people from around the country.

As a marketer who works most heavily in the social space, it was through that lens which I viewed the breakout sessions I attended at the conference.

What I saw often surprised me.

The Marketing Profs conferences attract some pretty traditional marketing types (lots of suits at this event).

While there seemed to be much more acceptance of social media among these attendees than in the past (last year, participants seemed far more wary), there wasn’t much indication that marketers were making fundamental changes in their business practices when it came to working in that space.

Social seemed to be just other marketing channel – the assumption being that you take the tried and true schema of push marketing, move it to this new environment and, “presto!” – “viral” magic will abound.

In this scenario, the marketer is still comfortably driving the bus – setting editorial calendars, directing traffic and counting clicks.

The marketing power of reality.

The most striking illustration of this “same practice; new channel” thinking was the continual reference in sessions to “marketing personas.”

Marketing personas are an integral part of the marketing process at most companies, born from in-depth client and customer research, but also including some insights from “the land of make believe.”

Understandably, marketing personas are enormously comforting to businesses:

  • They give your customers/clients a face you can relate to.
  • They help you get a fix on a moving demographic target.
  • They don’t argue with your ideas when they’re still in their embryonic form.

But, the problem is that personas don’t exist in social media … people do.

Each one of these people offers the world a very public profile of who they are and what they want and need.

Hi! I'm Carol, a generically attractive stock photo selected to serve as the focus of your marketing daydreams.

Hi! I'm Carol, a generically attractive stock photo selected to serve as the focus of your marketing daydreams.

With all that information at our fingertips, why put so much faith in fantasy debates about whether “Carol” likes television or is “fashion-forward?”

If you’ve strategically built and cultivated social networks for your company, you have access to a think tank of thousands of “Carols,” whom you can poll any time and use to crowdsource a host of new ideas.

What’s more, those interactions can give the real “Carols” an opportunity to develop a relationship with your company. As a result, not only will they be acting as sources of customer intelligence, they’re likely to double back and be your actual customers, too.

Real people are mean and scary.

One session at the conference provided a fascinating example of the enduring power (and pitfalls) of marketing personas.

The presenter was describing her B2B company and put up a slide with a picture of a young man in a snarky T-shirt (which incidentally, is the official dress code of SXSWi). Next to this photo was an equally snarky quote from this man’s blog.

The quote (and the blog) was written by a man named Todd.

Todd, the presenter explained, was their target client and one of their key marketing personas. His snarkiness and sarcasm represented all of the potential hurdles this company might have to overcome in their marketing efforts. “This guy HATED us,” the presenter confided.

So at the end of the session, I asked the $100,000 social media question … “Did you ever talk to Todd?”

The answer was … “no.”

Sadly, no one in the room seemed shocked by this answer. But, I certainly was.

Todd is not an archetype or a fictional persona. He is real person, accessible through social channels.

So what would be the harm in following Todd on Twitter? Posting a comment on his blog, thanking him for sharing his insights? Wooing him in some small social way?

Well, of course, the harm is that Todd is scary. He’s real and complex and could be a handful to control. Todd also may not welcome this company’s overtures with open arms. (Actually, he most definitely won’t if they start the conversation by sending some “push marketing” his way).

On the other hand, Todd could also be the linchpin brand advocate that could take this company’s marketing to the next level. Not only is he vocal, he’s a publisher, who, if won over, could share his testimonial with THOUSANDS of potential clients.

At the very least, he might ultimately decide that he’s still not wild about the presenter’s company, but will refrain from bad-mouthing them (a show of respect, in return for the respect the company had shown in reaching out to him).

Ultimately, this is a hypothetical scenario. (I don’t know Todd and I don’t know this company.)

But, I do know that this case study is not an anomaly.

Take the new road.

I am not suggesting that the practice of establishing marketing personas be abolished. They serve a purpose, and in most marketing practices, they make a lot of sense.

But social media (although it is a marketing channel like any other) has its own unique needs.

Marketing personas are not one of them.

Assigning imaginary qualities to real people to better understand them makes about as much sense as anthropomorphizing a grizzly bear and determining that he’s lonely and needs a hug.

(You may be right … but more often than not, you’re going to get eaten alive.)

To be successful in the social space, marketers need to evolve and modify their approach:

  • Listen first; market second.
  • Crowdsource editorial ideas and THEN publish.
  • Direct traffic intuitively, without manufacturing social corrals.
  • Measure clicks, but also the value of your human connections.

As Robert Frost so eloquently put it:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

If you want to market using social media, you need to take that new road.

This less traveled one may be bumpier, but the journey will be no less productive. And, if you can loosen up on your reins, indeed, it will make all the difference.

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Content Catering for Social Media

Monday, May 3rd, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

Last summer, in an effort to teach our daughter the wonders of science, my husband and I helped her make her own ice cream.

It was a pretty slick process that involved pouring a bunch of ingredients into a plastic bag, shaking it for about five minutes and, voila – instant dessert.

I was reminded of this experiment last week when I was doing a webinar for Vocus on integrated communications.

During the Q&A portion of the webinar, a few people asked specific questions about content for social media …

  • How do you come up with it?
  • How do you establish a consistent tone?
  • Should it be different in each channel?

Social media content, for me, is like the list of ingredients we placed into that bag when we made ice cream.

Each one was strategically selected for its scientific properties and pleasantness to the palette. But none of them were, in and of themselves, “ice cream.”

Strategic Groceries.

I think a lot of companies approach their social content as they would any other web content. They menu out a list of “dishes” that they hope people will consume, cook them up and then parcel them out to audiences in snackable bites.

The fatal flaw of this approach is that it overlooks the first step in engaging in any successful social interaction – listening to your audience.

You can serve me the most beautiful, bamboo-plated array of sushi the world has ever seen, but if you neglected to ask me if I like the stuff first, (I don’t), then you just wasted an enormous amount of your time and annoyed me in the process, (particularly if I had clearly indicated to you multiple times that I was craving something else.)

Like any good cook, before you make your content “menu,” you should think about the people to whom you’ll be serving that content.

  • Who is going to eat it?
  • What are they hungry for?
  • Do they have any special requests or requirements?
  • What’s appropriate for the “occasion?”

From this intelligence, you can prepare a “grocery list” of content “ingredients.”

Just as you would with real ingredients, it’s O.K. to make some judgment calls when it comes to actually selecting your ingredients off the shelf. For instance, you can narrow your selection to words that are brand-appropriate, search-friendly and conversation engaging.

Catering, Social-Media Style.

Again, our natural inclination is to then take our ingredients and start cooking.

Try to resist that urge.

Remember, you are a creative content caterer, not a short-order cook.

Like the ice cream experiment; your goal should be to divide the ingredients into collections that will enable your audience to create their own unique dishes.

Whether they ultimately combine their eggs, flour and milk to make a cake or a soufflé is beside the point. Your primary concern is that they, ultimately, end up satiated and happy.

Order Up!

I believe that each social media channel has its own distinct vibe, which necessitates some customization when it comes to content “ingredients.”

By choosing and parceling your ingredients to play to each channel’s strengths, you’ll ensure that your content performs effectively. For instance:

  • Twitter: To me, Twitter content seems like the “assemble your own” fast food you’d pick up at a convenience store. (Like a container with yogurt and a pouch of granola to sprinkle on top, if you’re so inclined.) The choices for customization are limited and the whole thing is designed so it can be both prepared and eaten in a few gulps in your car.
  • Facebook: Content for Facebook feels more like a picnic basket of morsels that you can leisurely combine when the mood strikes. It’s content that has the potential to be traded, savored and enjoyed with good company. It can’t sit there in the basket all day, but it has a longer shelf life than your Twitter ingredients.
  • LinkedIn: To me, LinkedIn content feels like the kind of ingredients you’d find in a corporate cafeteria. Nothing risky or unexpected here … just solid choices you can customize into palatable, made-to-order dishes that stand the test of time and appeal to a wide common-denominator. (In my imagination, there is lots of “chicken” content in LinkedIn-land.)
  • Blogs: Blog content feels like the ingredients you’d find in a restaurant kitchen – each one hand-selected, at the peak of freshness and prepared to-order to please the discerning tastes of a diner who intends to linger and savor each bite.

I could go on (and officially beat this metaphor to death), but I think you get the gist here – one “ingredient” can be served in all of these environments, but how you prepare, serve and combine that ingredient with others can (and should) change based on the context and conversation.

Next time you’re producing content for social media, I challenge you to put on your chef’s hat and see how creative you can be with your content catering.

Just don’t forget the second part of that ice cream experiment: no matter what you decide to toss into your Ziploc bag, it’s not going to do you much good unless you hang around and shake things up.

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Marketing and PR: Can Social Media Bring them Together?

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

In a recent blog post, Beth Harte commented that social media gives us “a window into what our customers are really thinking, where they interact, how to engage with them, etc.”

The question I’ve been absorbed with this week is … who owns that window?

Social media is a tool we can use for marketing, public relations, customer service, sales, networking, conversation and a host of other functions.

For some companies, finding a common ground on strategy, tone and approach between all of these areas is simply a matter of compromise and consolidation.

In most cases though, this isn’t the case.

Survey Says …

My colleague, Kary Delaria, and I are currently working with Vocus on a white paper reviewing the results of a recent survey they administered to nearly 1,000 marketing and PR professionals on the topic of integrated communications. (We’ll be presenting the results in a free webinar next week.)

Social media was a common theme running through the survey data.

It was often cited as the impetus for companies to revisit integration strategies. But, just as equally, it was also cited as the source of some of the biggest turf battles that are preventing integration from being fully possible.

While I imagine these battles are playing out among many departments, this particular study focused on one that may be perhaps the most gnarly: the struggle for ownership between marketing and PR.

Not surprisingly, one of the key findings in this study is that social media is blurring the lines between marketing and PR.

Personally, I think this is a great thing. I love that social media can serve as a “common denominator” for both marketing and PR objectives.

But, apparently not everyone is such a fan of this idea.

Now play nice, you two.

While the big picture data in the Vocus survey was pretty straightforward, it was in the responses to the open-ended questions in the survey where some of those turf battle claws started coming out.

The big surprise to me? How much sharper they were on the PR side than the marketing side.

When it came to their views on marketing, there was an underlying tone of exasperation, frustration and even condescension in many of the PR responses. For instance,

  • “Marketing thinks everything a company does is ‘newsworthy’ when it’s not.”
  • “Whereas I believe PR people understand how marketing works, for the most part, I have found the opposite to be true.”
  • “PR is often used when marketing is unable or unwilling to support either due to resources or timelines.”
  • “Integration shouldn’t be allowed to reshape how PR functions based on others limited understanding of what it is/can do; but should allow it to enhance marketing efforts in its own way.”
  • I believe they should ultimately role up to the same executive, however you need a senior PR person to help refine messages. Otherwise you end up sending messages to the press that are too ’salesy’ or marketing.”
  • “PR and Marketing should work together, but PR should report to the top person of the organization so it is not encumbered with other corporate agendas, which might make it counterproductive.”
  • “PR does more than marketing – it should be integrated as needed with one reporting line for specific programs/projects dependent on the objective.”
  • “Companies that place their Public Relations functions under the Marketing department are missing the boat in terms of building a relationship with customers and potential customers.”

Whoa.

I mean, seriously … whoa.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of the respondents were in support of better integrating marketing and PR functions. Also, there were undeniably a few snarky marketers in the mix that had their own, “over my dead body,” spin on the topic.

However, the number and flavor of these PR responses is of note … and I think, of concern.

Social media is quickly becoming the lifeblood that runs through the veins of both of marketing and PR, whether we want it to or not.

As one respondent said, marketing and PR “Are two peas in a pod … both are an important part of any communications program.”

While two peas they may be, apparently we’ve still got some work to do before everyone is willing to jump into the same pod.

For more on this topic, register for the Vocus webinar on April 29 and receive the complete research report and analysis.


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Client Disclosure on Twitter – When do you do it? How do you do it?

Thursday, April 8th, 2010 by Kary Delaria

“I’ve developed an acute awareness of (and questions around) how PR professionals talk about their clients on Twitter … There’s no steadfast rule to when or how PR professionals disclose client connections in social media. It’s a choice, up to you, as to how you will proceed in this very gray area.”

Read my guest post on the Minnesota Public Relations Blog.

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