During a meeting today, we were discussing the different strategies that companies use in working with their sales and marketing teams.  More often than not, companies provide sales staff with a roadmap for selling and a menu of solutions to sell, and then charge the team to go out there and produce.  That got me thinking that there is a new way of selling that is forming.

After training them on thinking outside of the norm and using new tools and techniques to reach customers that previously were hard to reach and hard to communicate with, challenge those sales people to be innovators for the company.  It used to be that people would talk about "solution selling" as a technique to teach sales people to sell solutions that speak to customer issues and customer returns.  But "innovative selling" is different.  The task is to have the sales staff work with customers and potential customers to identify advances in the current products and/or solutions that are being offered, and to come back with information that will lead the company to the next generation offerings. 

The sales staff, when they truly understand the concept, react in an amazing way because they feel, often for the first time, that their mission it to really lead the direction of the company and to chart the course for the future.  But even more important, from this, the innovations and feedback received directly from the prospects or customers provide an amazing set of insight to company leadership and the product teams that will be charged with development. 

As the digital marketplace continues to grow, the connection between customer and product grows closer as the "middleman" continues to disappear.  This level of innovation-based sales will become a driving force for the next generation of business.

What are your thoughts on this?  Agree?  Disagree?  Let's chat about it.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Brooks

Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6, has a philosophy for businesses, organizations, causes and even individuals - "Listen and Engage At the Point of Need."  And the immediate need facing the people of Haiti is being heard.   Since the earthquake tragedy that has devastated the country - people across the globe have rallied and coordinated efforts to engage and support where they can.
 
From international relief efforts led by the Red Cross to last Friday's "Hope for Haiti Now" live telethon - coordinated and shown simultaneously by leading broadcast and cable stations along with CNN's Anderson Cooper live from Haiti - support for the People of Haiti and families across the world is emerging.

Also, as part of the Haiti relief efforts, a host of initiatives in digital fundraising have emerged. This 60-second podcast showcases examples of mobile giving, social network philanthropy, online gaming for charity, and canvassing through text messaging.


These new trends are solidifying their role onto the world stage to aid those in need.  Microgiving through mobile devices and harnessing the talent and passion of technologists to help address fundamental communications needs for supporters to reach and help family members affected by the earthquake tragedy.
    
In response to the tragedy in Haiti, microgiving via texting has resulted in more than $30 million in donations for Haiti relief efforts.  Microgiving has emerged as the most immediate form of personal giving during this tragedy because it is easy for many people to donate a small amount, such as $5 or $10 at a time.  Last week, American Red Cross spokeswoman Abi Weaver noted that Americans have tapped out rapid-fire donation messages to the relief agency at the rate of about $100,000 an hour.

However, its important to remember, monetary transactions via mobile were originally developed as a way of paying for content and downloads.  Short code payments were never designed as a means for immediate donations.  Typically operators bill their customers for the transaction at the end of the month, and once bills are paid, the funds are then paid out to the recipient, whether charity or developer.  There is an encouraging movement to help address this delay issue.

Due to the immediate need for the relief dollars though, Verizon Wireless and other operators have begun advancing the funds directly to the Red Cross.  There is also a movement among Wireless carriers Verizon, ATT, Sprint and T-Mobile to waive any fees for earthquake relief donations.

I believe Jim Manis, CEO with Mobile Giving Foundation, summed the mobile movement up best: "Consumers know they have a new channel available to them to help immediately after a disaster occurs, one that allows to them to act on their immediate emotion."  

Mobile-based Haiti relief efforts may have become a tipping point where the repercussions and applications will be felt long afterwards.  The same heart felt draw that led the millions to immediately pledge their support to Haiti support could be tapped in non-disaster situations.  Other pubic service announcements and even advertisements may start to point people directly to short codes rather than have them call hotlines or enter a URL in a web browser for the simplicity, immediacy and ease of the transaction could promote a huge spike in charitable giving.

Photo Credit: International Federation of Red Cross

For years our family saved to visit the Magic Kingdom and last year we finally got a chance to visit.  It was a wonderful experience for all of us.  In addition to being a wonderful place to visit, Disney provides social media marketers powerful lessons:

Sometimes, I tell people we do digital marketing. Other times, I tell them we do social media marketing. Still other times, I talk about digital channel development. In the end, when I think of marketing, it's all about one or two things: engagement and sales. If we get the first, we hope that translates into the second. If we bypass the first, then the second is still a nice outcome.

Every few days, a blog post comes along to define the space, to explain the terms, to tell people how to look at it all. In some ways, these translations are useful. We're all learning a new language that doesn't yet exist, and yet, is as old as people shaking hands. But while others want to make definitions, I want to make our client partners happy. I want to help them see results for their money. I want their leadership to say, "Wow. This is amazing. Why didn't we do this before?"

Marketing is defined as selling goods or services. Once abstracted, it's defined as making products or services desirable for purchase. Abstract it a bit more than that, add a few digital terms in there, and we fall away from the basics: we're here to sell something.

What's different with how we use social media? Depending on WHO uses it, what's different is that we care about engagement, and we care about relationships that yield more than we care about raw numbers. In old marketing, we asked how big your database was. In new marketing, we talk about how many "very active" people are in your database. We work from that angle, that aspect, and we shine up the opportunity to promote and develop even more "very active" people.

Is it PR? Is it Marketing? Is it sales support? Is it customer service? Yes. Move on.

It's okay to explain, but at the end of the day, I'm getting paid to deliver more customers, more active participants, more rings of that register, and that's what I spend my time thinking about.

You?

Photo Credit: Giant Ginko

With the ever-increasing popularity of social networking sites, there are many companies working fervently to get a social media campaign in place before the trend has passed. Unfortunately, many companies rush out to create a Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace accounts without a clear understanding of the tools, not to mention any sort of strategy or plan. This practice does not lead to a successful social media campaign, and can hurt a company more than it can help.

In order to truly succeed with social media, companies need to focus more on the wants and needs of their audience, and less on the individual tools. Here is a strategy to help determine what social media can do for you:

Forget the Tools

The first step to figuring out what to do with social media is to forget everything you know about social media. Stop thinking about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Delicious, Digg, and start thinking about WHY people are using these tools. People use Twitter to communicate ideas and share links, Facebook for connecting with Friends and sharing media, etc....

Understanding the concepts behind the tools will help guide you in the right direction.

Start Listening

Next, take a look around the web and see where your audience is living online, by listening, searching through blogs, community sites, and other places where you may find people interested in your product. Pay special attention when you find people complaining about your website or lack of social interaction, and use these criticisms to enhance your overall visitor experience. In a sense, we can think of the social web as the world's largest (and least expensive) focus group.
 

Set Goals

At this point you should have a general sense of what your audience is looking for in the social media space, and you can start to build out some simple goals for your efforts. Goals should clearly state what you hope to gain from social media interactions:

•    Increase conversations within community
•    Increase traffic to landing pages
•    Increase in blog subscribers
•    Decrease custom service complaints
•    (You get the idea)

Then you must decide on how you're going to measure your social media efforts.

Select Tools

Now that we have talked through the audience needs and your goals, we can finally begin to think about the tools again. However, before you start planning the color scheme for your Twitter page, you still need to think about how to get the most out of these tools. One company may find value in an internal community platform, while another may utilize YouTube and Twitter -- it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish, and who you are trying to reach.

So, before you embark on your next social media campaign I would urge you to toss out the tools, and start thinking about how and why your audience will engage with your brand online.

Thoughts?

Photo Credit: Eric Gjerde
 

When it came to sports, I grew up with Jim McKay and ABC's Wide World of Sports.   The stories, the action, different cultures and the world it brought into my living room through our small color Zenith TV.   

When not picking up a game of street hockey, neighborhood football down at the old park or summer little league, sports came into my life through the television.   I was never drawn into listening to classic announcer Johnny Most calling a Celtics game on the radio - or reading the Sports section of the Boston Globe or even read one article in Sports Illustrated.  To me, sports was hands on and a visual media to be experienced - not via print or radio.

Traditional print content producers are starting to realize this as well.  Some are a little too late to the game, not evolving quickly enough, but others are embracing development of different digital channels and content formats to reach a wider audience.   Providing different choices for choice audiences to experience and immerse themselves in great content through different media options.

This is why I love the recent Time Inc. vision of the future magazine using a tablet device.  If you can't view the video below, you can also check it out on YouTube. 



It seems that every major magazine publisher has an idea of how their magazines should look on the upcoming tablet of newspaper salvation.  The demo showcases interactivity, video, and several different ways of browsing through the content.   

Outside of the disturbingly inhuman looking, slow moving hand that flips through the pages - I find myself for the first time wanting to immerse myself within Sports Illustrated content.  In time, I may find myself loving the style of writing that they've been recognized for and get to know some of the sub-brands within SI which would encourage me to spend more time with their journalists and reporters and pick up an issue (read: more money for Sports Illustrated).  

When the content is great, it lives to be freed.   And with the variety of creative ways content can be developed, engaged and distributed through digital and social channels, the future of great publishing could be and should bright.    The new generation of eBook readers showcased at CES earlier this month is another step in the right direction - creating a virtual newsstand in your hand.  

The Future of Publishing Should Localize, Specialize and Socialize

Consumer and B2B magazines may have been on the ropes this year, but custom content had a record-setting 2009.

According to a Custom Publishing Council study, more than $1.8 million was spent on branded content this year per company surveyed. Of that budget, print still ruled, garnering 51% of the spend, with Internet content accounting for 27%.  Another 22% went to developing audio and video assets on a company's behalf.  The share of marketing budgets going to custom media was at 32% in 2009, the highest share ever, beating the previous bar set at 27% in 2007.

Customize your voice, promote your niche, and engage more personally with great content while adding local relevancy.   And of course - provide multiple choice, creative, rich content and multiple media formats for a growing customer base to rejuvenate brands and grow an audience, revenues and business.

What are your thoughts?

Chris Brogan has been talking about the human element of B2B for some time - as he says, there is another person on the end of that line regardless of whether your customer is a SMB, a large corporation or an individual consumer.

At New Marketing Labs, our partner base is comprised approximately a third each to B2B, B2C and those that are hybrids.  We are asked, however, disproportionately often by potential B2B partners how digital media can be useful for them.  Fortunately, we have demonstrated long term success with our B2B partners, so describing case study details makes this a relatively short conversation.  That said, the more we work with both B2B and B2C partners, the more it occurs to me that our approach doesn't differ according to whether a partner falls into either camp.  Instead once we do our deep dive, the approach is based on the objectives of the partner, and many of the methodologies are the same.  In fact, across social networks and the digital channel, I am not sure there needs to be a distinction along the lines of consumer or business customer focus.  The social network might change, but there will still be a social network, and knowledge of how to engage in that network's community is key.

Given this, it seems we really are focused more on a business to peer model, rather than one which differentiates between consumer and business facing brands.  What differentiates a digital initiative is not whether you are B2B or B2C, it is what you are looking to achieve, e.g. thought leadership, sales, traffic, branding, and so on.

Once you clearly identify your business objectives, it is up to partners like us (shameless NML plug) to put together and implement the plan for you.  We basically do this by finding where your target audience is on the web, and engaging them.  The type and nature of the engagement will depend on the audience, platform and the objective.

For a traditional B2C partner, we seek and find the target audience, focusing on the peer leaders.  It is more effective to engage peer leaders, as there is a ripple or multiplier effect when this is done well.  We have had 100% success in our outreach programs to these peer leaders.  That success is not a given, as there are protocols that have evolved already across the digital channel, and they are different than traditional media outreach protocols.  Hence, across digital, B2C has become a business to peer or B2P model.

For a traditional B2B company, we similarly seek and find the target audience through what amounts to an extensive platform analysis and listening effort.  We find where the CTO, CIT, CSO or other relevant company representatives are 'living' on line, and we engage them.  Ultimately, we find - shock - that said representative is a real, live person, who just happens to share our partner's interest in a specialized product or service.  If there is no such environment - which can happen given the specialized niche nature of some products or services - we just create the environment which allows them to talk about issues relevant to an industry.  Most times, this environment is a very lightly branded one, where direct sales attempts are not made, but where the community members make an association.  The environment is driven by continually fresh content, and the topics ultimately drive enough traffic and interest that leads are inevitably generated and the sales funnel starts to fill.  Many times, this is a bonus, as most branding and marketing folks are happy with the eye balls and the mantle of thought leadership.  In these communities and networks, our partners are engaging their business peers who share very specific expertise and interest.  Because business representatives are finding their peers, in the digital channel, B2B has also become a B2P play.

How to find, create and engage within communities is one of our secret sauces, but across the digital channel we are seeing a fundamental blurring of the line which has separated B2B and B2C business models - yet another demonstrable way that digital media has stimulated real peer to peer conversations and humanized businesses.

Do you see a relationship between B2P and digital media?

Photo Credit: enriqueburgosgarcia

Miriam Kutcher, VP of Marketing at IDC Insights was kind enough to sit down with me earlier this week to discuss the IDC Insights community.  Our discussion covered the community's goals, process, milestones, as well as success metrics for the community.  Miriam does of a fantastic job of talking about how she is linking the community to real sales at IDC! A video of our conversation is below:

To see the IDC Insights community in action, just visit: http://idc-insights-community.com or follow them on Twitter at: @IDCInsights.  You can find the blogging tips presentation that Miriam refers in an earlier post of mine: 10 Tips for Better Business Blogging.

I love the way Miriam measures her community's ROI through the SalesForce integration.  I would love for others to comment on how they are measuring their community ROI (if they are measuring it)?  

Earlier this week I had an interesting meeting with a partner (remember, we prefer partnering) who was being approached by a "web site and social media consultancy" about how he should be marketing his organization via social media.  The client organization focuses on selling specialized services to a high end B2B market.  The consultancy suggested to him that his organization needed a Facebook Page and a YouTube channel along with a Twitter strategy and blogging strategy.  The client said to me "It did not feel right to me, but each time I asked a question they seemed to have an answer and response."

I wish this was the first time I had heard of a partner being sold like this.  There is no question - NOT EVERY SOLUTION WORKS FOR EVERY COMPANY.  Moreover, trust your instincts as only YOU know your business.  You know your clients.  You know your prospective clients.  You may not know or may be learning the world of social media and digital marketing, but this learning should not overshadow your knowledge and instincts.

For this partner, not only were these solutions the wrong solutions, but in fact a Facebook Page and a YouTube channel might have actually hurt the brand that was created.  In the end, we agreed that he needed to position the organization as thought leaders and initiate a newsletter with them as curator (a newsletter that is an aggregation of interesting industry articles with commentary and observations from the organization) and ultimately look at creating a coinciding blog.  Once the momentum from that has been created, a Twitter strategy would follow suit immediately and from there other social and digital marketing techniques could be implemented. 

The point of this story - there is no magic bullet, no panacea.  There are solutions and opportunities out there to do things differently, smartly, and intelligently using the latest tools and techniques.  But, if you think it does not make sense - it probably does not.  If you think it is interesting, it probably is.  Open your mind.  Listen to ideas.  And then implement the solutions that will work.

Photo Credit: Matthew Burpee

In 2009, many companies began to integrate cloud computing into their daily operations (whether they know it or not). The main concept behind cloud computing is the delivery of computing resources over the Internet, as opposed to a physical machine.

Several aspects of the cloud are extremely appealing to the enterprise, especially smaller companies who can be more adaptable in their choice of technology.

We Don't Need No Stinking Hardware

Software as a Service (SaaS) is the use of a system (generally a web application) within a managed environment, rather than installed on local servers. This allows you to get up and running immediately without having to worry about the underlying technology.

Last year, while working for CrossTech Partners, we developed a SaaS-based content management system called ExgenexCMS. Using the SaaS approach, we were able to get the client database provisioned and the basic website up and running within hours.

For clients that do not have a server environment or internal IT resources, this is an ideal situation.

The Way of the Google



Over the last few years Google Apps has evolved to mimic the functionality of the Microsoft Office suite. We use several of their tools for collaboration, including the Docs and Spreadsheets. (If you haven't edited a Google Spreadsheet at the same time as someone else and seen their changes in real time, it is pretty cool). Since we are often traveling, it is important that we have tools that all users can interact with, regardless of location or platform.

Interestingly enough, this week Google made an announcement this week that they will working with several partners to straddle the desktop-cloud divide. While I'm sure Google developed these applications to compete with (read "replace") Microsoft Office, they are smart enough to realize that large companies aren't going to ditch their legacy systems...unless they bridge the gap.

It will be interesting to see which how long it takes for companies to stop straddling and to dive headfirst into the cloud.

Let's Get Virtual



For me, one of the best parts of the entire cloud movement has been virtual machines. A virtual machine is exactly like a normal computer (with processor, memory, storage, and operating system), but is doesn't live in a physical box. Several virtual machines can live within a single box, or could spread across a server farm.

We have been using virtual machines in our server room for a few years now, and I cannot praise it enough. Before virtualization, it would take us hours to get a new server ready for production. Now, we can simply clone one of our existing machines and have a fully functional web or database server up and running within minutes.

Whether it is building a web-based application or virtualizing your server room, there are many ways in which you can use cloud computing to improve and supplement your existing technology environment.

Photo Credit: ancawonka