Today our guest is Gregarious Narain! Greg is a serial entrepreneur and product strategist, co-founder of the innovation firm Before Alpha, and previously the CTO and founder of Chute. Prior to Chute, Greg was the first employee and vice-president of product at Klout, where he established the Klout store we know and love as the standard for online influence. We discuss the common misconceptions of influence marketing, how Greg works with different companies to show ROI, the traditional vs.current ways of message distribution, the challenge of a brand portraying the right personality, and how brands can create great experiences for their customers.

Gregarious “Greg” Narain has been at the forefront of social media marketing, influencer marketing, and product marketing for more than 20 years. In his illustrious career, Greg has helped drive marketing verticals — such as content management, email and customer relationship systems, and marketing research — with a focus on product development and launches.

Greg has been the founder of numerous startups in the influencer marketing space, as well as being the founder of his own agency that worked with startups and Fortune 500 companies on product development and business strategies. Greg brings his product experience to marketing by leveraging his experience and problem-solving skills to dissect industries, define problems and create innovative product solutions.

Gregarious has spoken internationally at many leading industry events, including Cannes Lions Innovation, DreamForce, NAB, SXSW, AWS Re:Invent and is involved with numerous nonprofits and organizations.

The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Our guest today is Doc Searls: journalist, writer, and speaker. 

We started off this informative conversation talking with Doc about his background, the emergence of the Internet, and the conceptual flaw that could have avoided a lot of today’s problems — overlaying the concepts of the client-server world and centralized control over what is inherently a peer-to-peer network based on TCP/IP. We went on to talk about privacy, VRM, and CustomerTech; what the consumer world could learn from B2B; implications of GDPR and globalization, and how people can protect their privacy. Doc also dispelled 

This is the first episode of Season 2 of the Influence Marketing Podcast. This podcast was recorded in September, 2017. Recently, we’ve seen a lot more public discussion about Facebook and privacy, but as Doc insightfully points out in this recent article, it’s not just Facebook and Cambridge Onalytica: the same problems are inherent in the entire online advertising industry (and thus all companies that advertise online).

Doc is co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and author of The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge, by Doc Searls, a fellow at the Center for Information Technology & Society (CITS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an alumnus fellow (2006–2010) of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. 

The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Today we are talking with Amy Lewis and Matt Broberg, who along with John were the co-hosts of The Geek Whisperers podcast that came to a close at Episode 140 in October 2017. It was great to reconnect on the mic and have a laugh with Amy and Matt, but we also wanted to talk about their roles in influence marketing and what they are up to now.

We talked about building a community at a startup, creating great content with a low budget, how their roles fit in across departments within their company, some highlights of the now retired Geek Whisperer podcast, and what projects we can look forward to from them both in the coming months!

About our Guests:

Amy is an energetic, effective marketing professional specializing in marketing strategy, communications, and customer engagement. She is a diplomatic collaborator with a passion for improvement. Amy is results-oriented with a knack for extracting business intelligence from marketing programs.

Matthew (Brender) Broberg is the VP of Community at Sensu. Matt is a technologist with skills in marketing and a focus on product development. His role in a team is most powerful when cross-organizational and driven by the pressing needs of the company. He has the most fun when he’s empowered to lead a team to a collective goal.

Today we are talking about user groups — programs that gather local communities in the real world. Our guests are Victor Bohnert and Brad Tompkins. Victor is a Principal at the Innovatis Group and has worked with associations and user groups for nearly 20 years. Brad is the current CEO of the VMware User Group and his career background spans a number of operations and management roles in the tech area. We discuss the value of a user group program, how you start one, why a company would want one, who should be running the program, the different kinds of user groups, and what makes them different from other professional associations.

About Our Guests

Victor Bohnert. Victor has worked with various associations for nearly 20 years. He has extensive experience in building and managing customer communities in the all sectors and has led several organizational turn-arounds and mergers.

Brad Tompkins. Brad is a 20-year industry executive with a broad and diverse leadership background in corporate technology operations. He currently serves as CEO of VMware User Group (VMUG) and is responsible for building and leading top-performing teams, increasing profitability and managing costs.

The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Today our guest is Marshall Kirkpatrick, Product Director in Influencer Discovery & Research at Sprinklr. Previously, Marshall was Co-founder and CEO of Little Bird. Prior to that, Marshall was Co-editor and Lead Writer at ReadWriteWeb, and the first hired writer at TechCrunch. 

We talk with Marshall about his experiences with the early days of Twitter, and how using a tool like Little Bird to identify people influential in a given space can be used both to get new insights for your business as well as to change the world.

Marshall Kirkpatrick works as a Product Director in influencer discovery & research at Sprinklr. He was previously co-founder of Little Bird. Prior to that, he was Co-Editor at ReadWriteWeb, the first hired writer at TechCrunch, and a consultant to companies large and small.

The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Today we are talking with Matthew (Brender) Broberg , VP of Community at Sensu, Inc. Previously Matt was at Intel working on Developer Advocacy for cloud automation; he was also the founder of the program now known as the Dell EMC Elect. Matt was also one of the three co-hosts of the Geek Whisperers podcast along with John. It was really fun to hear about the things Matt has pulled from his past endeavors into making Sensu the best it can be. We take a look back and hear how Matt got into advocacy marketing, and how his love for connecting with community and pure curiosity are two things that never stand still. Matt helps develop the balance of business and community at Sensu, and we finish with a fun lightning round to hear who inspires him!

About Matt Broberg 

Matt is a technologist with skills in marketing and a focus on product development. His role in a team is most powerful when cross-organizational and driven by the pressing needs of the company. He has the most fun when he’s empowered to lead a team to a collective goal.

The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Today we are talking with Eric Nielsen, Senior Director of Social Media and Communities for VMware. Eric and his team run the VMware vExpert program, one of the most successful advocacy programs in the enterprise technology area. John created and managed the program with Eric, and the vExperts make up a community that John and Kat are both still engaged with. 

Eric reinforces throughout our conversation how the program is first built for its participants — to help make them successful. We also discuss creating programs and process, scaling the program to be global, demonstrating value to the rest of the organization, and how to keep innovation going as the program matures.

Eric Nielsen is the Senior Director, Social Media and Community at VMware. At VMware, Eric’s team is been responsible for community, blogging, social media, and advocacy programs. Prior to VMware, Eric was a Director, Enginering Systems Management for Sun Microsystems. Earlier in his career at Sun, Eric created BigAdmin, one of the web’s early technical communities. Eric lives with his family in Palo Alto, CA.

The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

In today’s episode, we have the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with the great and fantastically unique Eric Wright. Eric is the Technology Evangelist at Turbonomic, and he shares with us his passion of building a community and engaging with them. Giving with no expectations while having faith that this generosity will be returned in the long run are two main themes that come up for Eric, both in his personal and professional life. This mindset has helped him develop a strong gut instinct and ability to show the impact of intangible efforts to Turbonomic’s internal team. And wait — there’s a twist! Turbonomic does not have a traditional advocacy program, and it’s on purpose. Eric shares what the Green Circle Program is, and finally gives us his forecast on the upcoming future for influence marketing. We appreciate and admire the energy, generosity and thoughtfulness he brings to everything he does!

Before joining Turbonomic, Eric Wright served as a systems architect at Raymond James in Toronto. As a result of his work, Eric was named a VMware vExpert and Cisco Champion with a background in virtualization, OpenStack, business continuity, PowerShell scripting and systems automation. He’s worked in many industries, including financial services, health services and engineering firms. As the author behind DiscoPosse.com, a technology and virtualization blog, Eric is also a regular contributor to community-driven technology groups such as the vBrownBag community and leading the VMUG organization in Toronto, Canada. He is a Pluralsight Author, the leading provider of online training for tech and creative professionals. Eric’s latest course is “Introduction to OpenStack” you can check it out at pluralsight.com.

The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Today we are talking with Perrine Crampton. Perrine is the Influencer Relations Community Manager at Citrix. Created in 2006, the Citrix Technology Professional program is currently made up of 50 dedicated members. From sending meeting notes and feedback to holding an unconference, Perrine is thorough in her dedication to having the CTP program give back a rewarding experience and win/win for the members and the internal Citrix team. She takes what does work at webinars and in-person events, such as Synergy, and molds it into the future path to best connect Citrix and CTP’s. Both sides have to understand and respect each other, and Perrine does a great job of fostering that environment.

Perrine is the Influencer Relations Community Programs Manager at Citrix. She has been a technology geek for more years than she cares to admit. Her experience has been in customer-focused roles at AT&T, Colgate-Palmolive, Symantec, PayPal and Citrix. Her first experience with social media was in 1997 when she created a mailing list for owners of Pembroke Welsh Corgi dog owners (Corgi-L.) Her current exposure is through Twitter, LinkedIn and a wide variety of other social channels. Her motto: Pay it forward wherever / whenever possible. @pcrampton

Perrine is engaging the community on an ongoing and frequent basis, acting as a conduit between our external community of experts and internal Citrix experts and stakeholders. She is part event emcee, part content developer, part cat-herder, part geek, and part cheerleader and community champion.

The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Today we are joined by Francine Hardaway, friend and advisor to the IMC. We cover a lot of ground on the current state of marketing, new vs. old marketing methods, the important roles of influencer marketing, and her personal experience as an early adopter of most leading marketing trends. Francine does an amazing job of getting products to market and helping startups, and we appreciate her sharing her expertise and advice!

Francine is a marketing strategist who leads Stealthmode Partners, where she focuses on helping startups grow. Prior to Stealthmode, Francine held several executive marketing roles at Intel, where she worked on digital imaging, in-car computing, USB, and home networking. As an entrepreneur, Francine built the largest marketing and public relations firm in Phoenix, Arizona before leaving it to join Intel.

Mentioned In This Episode:

John’s Twitter: @jtroyer

Kathleen’s Twitter: @dailykat

To Join the IMC or for more information: [email protected]

Francine’s email: [email protected]

Twitter: @hardaway

Stealthmode Partners

The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.