Shane Gibson's Sales Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence

Marketing events using social media and amplifying events using social media are two powerful ways to maximize our online and off-line marketing results. In our book Sociable! Stephen Jagger and I talk about the importance of using social media to get off of the internet and build relationships. At Socialized Communications we have developed an entire system and process to do this effectively. We have mapped out the key steps in this social media infographic and podcast to help you succeed at event marketing using social media. If you have some success in applying the steps and principles please let me know! You can download the PDF version of the Infographic here. Please note: LinkedIn events have been discontinued BUT remember to post your event to relevant groups, business pages and the profiles of key people in your organization.

 

This week I had the great opportunity to interview Danny Brown on his new book co-authored with Sam Fiorella called Influence Marketing. Danny in my opinion is a Thought Leaders’ Though Leader – an awesome no BS resource for what really works in social media marketing.

The book launched yesterday globally and you can get it on Amazon in hardcover or Kindle format. According to HubSpot Danny Brown’s blog (DannyBrown.me) is the #1 Marketing Blog on the planet. Danny and I have been Tweeting and emailing each other for almost four years and we finally got to connect and do this podcast together

Here were some of the key take-aways from the podcast interview with Danny Brown:

* Most concepts of influencer marketing (especially through social media) are incomplete or focused on the wrong audience

* Good influencer marketing doesn’t start with social media gurus or big influencer, it starts with mapping out what your customer persona is and then identifying who impacts your customer buying decisions

* Klout and the many apps like it are great for identifying macro influencers but in many cases aren’t helpful identifying the actual micro influencers that directly impact your customer’s buying decisions

* 5 steps to to start doing your influence marketing right

We covered so much in this podcast that you’re just going to have to listen to it to get all the information.

Here’s a great InfoGraphic on Influence Marketing Sam and Danny just released that really demonstrates how many organizations are struggling with or don’t understand the importance of Influence Marketing  (Click here For the High Res Version):

 

 

Community in social media is still number one. I posted the following tweet a couple days ago on Twitter and it received quite a bit of feedback and a few retweets:

Social Media Tip: social media scales through community, community grows by relationship building. Focus on people.

I then realized that I needed to expand on the topic. Here’s the basic outline of what I cover in todays podcast:

* Why community is vital if you want to leverage your social media marketing efforts and get your content and marketing to expand well beyond your own sphere of influence.

* Relationships build community, numbers alone don’t make a community. People who have an emotional connection with you and your brand are more likely to share your content and interact with you.

* Focus on people, even PR has changed. Bloggers and community influencers have now become gatekeepers of communities and your content won’t flow into those communities until you connect with those gatekeepers.

 

 

Most social media failures aren’t big public train-wrecks on the internet. They’re silent failures, people and brands that never rise above the noise and get noticed. Today’s podcast focuses on 6 reasons you may be silently failing and what you can do to turn things around.

The 6 Reasons You’re Silently Failing in Social Media:

1)  Your content strategy is too safe

2)  Your reach is minimal

3)  Your conversation strategy is weak

4)  The right people don’t know who you are or they don’t care

5)  You have no social media plan

6)  You’re not integrating social media

At Socialized! our Social Media Agency we have had some incredible opportunities over the past year to work with brands such as the Ford Dealers Association of BC and Alberta, the Certified Management Accounts, CGA BC, CGA Canada and the Make-a-Wish Foundation. However…even producing the week long event “Social Media Week Vancouver” did not prepare us for the passionate, loyal and often opinionated fans at Wizard World Comic Cons. This is a relatively new adventure for us but this podcast reviews 5 social media lessons I have learned (or re-learned) so far:

5 Lessons (Listen to the podcast for a full explanation):

* Tapping into a Tribe is much better than building one

* When people know you’re listening they talk, share, tweet, like and follow

* Amplify the moment

* Run contests to find influencers

* Partner to expand influence

Here are some of the links and resources mentioned in the podcast:

* Tribes By Seth Godin

Wizard World Comic Con Sites and Resources

* Wizard World Event and News Site

* Wizard World Comic Con Blog

* Wizard World Facebook Page

* Wizard World on Twitter

Social Media Monitoring:

* Viral Heat

* Tweet Reach

Socialized! Social Media Agency

* Socialized! Blog

* Socialized! Team on Twitter

* Shane Gibson – Chief Social Officer on Twitter

* Tris Hussey – Chief Geek and Pixel Washer on Twitter

* Anthony Caridi – President on Twitter

 

Social Media Podcast: Ford dealers across North America are executing some amazing social media strategies. While catching up on my reading and best-practices I stumbled across a great case study on how Lebanon Ford (Ohio) has had some incredible success. They don’t just have a great social media team, they have built a truly social culture in their dealership that has resulted in a 260% year-on-year increase in Internet sales of vehicles and a significant increase in walk-ins and revenues overall.

I asked Zack Bello, Marketing and Communications Manager at Lebanon Ford to share with me how they have built such a great social enterprise that drives real business results using social media.

Quick Links:

* Case Study

* Lebanon Ford on Twitter

* Lebanon Ford Facebook Page

* Lebanon Ford Blog

 

Today’s podcast is about 10 social media myths that are commonplace in the companies and organizations that we work with at Socialized! Agency. Many of these misconceptions stop organizations from truly realizing the potential of social media (or even starting). Below I have listed the myths. Have a listen to the podcast and let me know what you think.

Today’s podcast is on 11 Social Media Trends for 2012. Here’s the outline for my podcast – I would love your feedback and thoughts:

 Key trends

* How not if

* TV on everything and social on everything (Major adjustments for broadband providers will need to be made to keep pace with this multi-screen universe)

* Location based marketing will continue to grow

* Social cultures will evolve out of social use

* Social CRM will move mainstream

* India is rising

* A return to engagement

* Rewards versus contests

* Filters will dampen the noise

* Social networks will become more fluid and mobile

* Corporate social intranets

Potential pitfalls

* App overload

* Lack of conversation management

* No policy, training or identity management

* Lack of true internal social culture

* Domestic focus and culture

* Competitors get better at local, mobile and intimacy

* No follow-up after the contests (see engagement)

* Hard push back for no engagement

Hiring a social media manager, social media coordinator, chief tweeter or whatever you might call it is a challenging endeavor. There are many brands which have experienced great success and many who have also shot the foot off of their brand on the internet. Social media is not a department or a cubicle, it represents the most powerful word of mouth (or word of mouse) channels that have ever existed. Too many organizations aren’t strategic about who they hire internally or how they intend on implementing social media and integrating it into their business processes. Today’s podcast covers four major areas you need to look at (there are many more) before hiring.

Today’s podcast and blog post are a result of some great dialogue, ideas and amazing research findings that were unearthed at yesterday’s panel at the ERDI conference here in Calgary, Alberta.

The panel I sat on was on “Technology Implementation over the last 20 years in our schools. The panelists were: Michael Goldberg, Economist, Marty Keast, President of the School Division for Pearson Education, Linda Fabi, Director of Education for the Waterloo District School Board and the panel was kicked off by a very engaging and insightful talk by Thomas Greaves.

Thomas who is the co-author of “America’s Digital Schools” spearheaded an in-depth research project called Project Red, of which he shared key findings with us. They did an in-depth study of 997 schools (K-12) in the USA and looked at 136 different variables in regards to technology and it’s impact on student engagement, drop rates and even the positive economic impacts and savings associated with schools that are digital.

The schools that had some or all of the above 9 factors implemented effectively outperformed comparable schools that had not embraced technology. Very few schools (I believe only 1 if my notes are correct) apply all 9 strategically and comprehensively.

The one thing that really stood out for me is that fact that students that were allowed to regularly use search and social media in the classroom outperformed those that didn’t. One big question from the audience of over 100 school superintendents, directors and technology partners is: “Where a how do we start with social media?”

My thoughts would be to do the following: (which is expanded upon in this podcast):

#1) Start with a social media policy for district staff from senior executives to principles and teachers. Then expand that to a policy for students, volunteers, parents and any other stakeholders.

#2) Have a series on initial buy-in sessions for staff at all level to help see the scope of social media and it’s impact and relevance in education. This is vital as so many people have varied knowledge and assumptions about social communications. The biggest barrier to implementation is often misinformation and/or politics.

#3) Put together a step by step strategy to implement social media at the school board level. (If leadership isn’t using it how can they tell principals and teachers to do it?

#4) Collaboratively work with Principals and Teachers to build an implementation plan at the school level. (Start with a few pilot schools)

#5) Each plan should involve training in both policy, the rules of engagement, online learning best practices, and in the key tools used by today’s digital citizens (including but not limited to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and social search/monitoring) Some of this training can be done by student leaders.

#6) Develop curriculum to help get students social media literate. This educational component must address online etiquette, safety, and the value of collaboration and positive social communications.

#7) Reward collaborators and contributors at all levels.

There is a lot more to this process but the key opportunity and core ingredient for success in using social media for learning is the bi-directional communications and collaborations. It’s no longer about talking at kids in the classroom, it’s about engaging them in two-way dialogue and creating an environment where a network of students (and their teachers) can...