Social Media Strategies For June 2007

I give away 95% of all my knowledge away on this blog
I’m so happy to share my knowledge with folks at corporations that are getting wind of social media. I’ve had a few calls with some of our clients, social media is impacting just about every company.

In the last month, I’ve been approached by at least a dozen Managers, Directors, or VPs at Fortune 1000 companies for assistance, the word is spreading that I give all my knowledge out for free.

Is it crazy I give all my knowledge away for free? No, not really, as I believe that if I help them, I will gain their trust, build a relationship and when they need the services of PodTech, they’ll turn to me as a trusted partner. Believe me, it’s working, build trust by being a resource, I’m practicing what I preach.

Posts I’m frequently referring to:
Here’s a few recommended posts that I keep referring back to on these training sessions, I’ll elevate them with this post so folks don’t have to dig around and find them.

How to be a corporate blog evangelist
So you see the value of connecting and conversing with customers but your management or culture doesn’t? Take it from me, I had to do this with a 100 year old Japanese company.

How to get started with Business Blogging, over 70 tips
Over 70 tips on business blogging, I wrote this when I was going through it at my previous company, it may be a bit dated, but I’m sure you’ll find some good nuggets.

How to find the right Corporate blogger
Employees can start a blog anytime they want, however most marketing departments isn’t going to let anyone post on the corporate blog, here’s some suggestions on finding the right one (hint: they often self-select)

How to measure your social media program
This is key to setup as your program gets started, measuring and listening are should come before talking and answering.

Hard to coordinate employee bloggers? Consider the Air Traffic Tower Notice I didn’t use the word “control”? That’s intentional. This strategy will help you stay more organized internally and hopefully create an interesting dialogue between employees that care about customers.

Advanced: List of companies that measure social media
As your social media program grows, you get budget, headcount and a raise, you will want to find a serious mesauring and benchmarking company. Warning, a lot of these companies don’t do a great job at alerting in real-time, so don’t rely on them for what you should be doing (reading blogs in your industry with your trusted feedreader)

Getting by giving, how to be a customer and market resouce
You know about the Data Storage Industry wiki I created right? I was a resource to the whole community, thought of customers first, and vendors last. This was great, as I built trust with the community, and was able to identify the influencers in the blogosphere.

Advanced Topics

Social Media Strategies for Corporations in 2007
I wrote this in the earlier part of the year, most of my predictions have been accurate.

Web Marketing is not on two domains only (your website and Google results)
Time to evolve, the battles have shifted, and the scope is large and distributed.

Edgeworks Concept: How communications have shifted to the edges of the company
Employees that are interfacing with customers may be the main way of future communications, corporate communications, while still having a purpose will need to evolve

Your corporate website is irrelevant
Shocking? Yes, be sure to send to your webteam. It’s a battle of trust, not marketing.

Meet your peers or get trained
I recommend you join a Social Media Club User group in your area, also, there’s a workshop this Monday in Palo Alto if you can make it. Also check out the blog business summit, that’s where I got my first learn on.

As I get new problems from clients or prospects, I often address them on this blog and build a library, it saves me time, as I don’t have to keep on repeating myself.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 11:52 am and is filed under Reading Sampler, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.