Nancy Truitt Pierce does it again...

Clay and I just had a great experience.  Nancy Truitt Pierce, owner of WoodsCreek Consulting, asked us to speak to her executive group of CIOs and CTOs today.  While we can't share the names of those in her super, private, top secret, locked down secure group, we can tell you it includes some of the key businesses in the Seattle area.  If I told you any more I would probably be shot.


But that's not what's important.  What was great about this opportunity for us to speak (we see all our speaking gigs as great opportunities because we get to meet such great people) was that it was to a group we haven't normally focused on in our 75+ speeches.  We always speak to CEOs, Business Owners, and other Top Executives, but never have we spoken to a group of only CIOs and CTOs.  This was great!

What made it great were their questions.  They were focused on how to use social media internal to their company to create more synergy, collaboration, etc.  Here are some of their questions - we wanted to share them with you since they were so interesting...

• Where is the line in regard to policies around social media use inside the organization?
• How do you avoid the huge "time suck" that comes with social media when employees use it?
• Is Yammer an effective tool internally?
• How important is this to your brand?
• How do you capture the "real time" advantage social media has to offer?
• How can this be used for collaboration internally?
• How do you tell the "winners" from the "losers" in regard to the tools?
• How can it help drive innovation?
• How do we embrace without losing control?

All excellent questions.  We will provide answers to these in future posts.  For now, thanks to Nancy for giving us the opportunity to meet and speak to such a great group of people.  Thanks Nancy...

Book is getting closer...

OK, I know we are teasing our readers a bit, but stay tuned - it is getting REALLY close to launch - maybe within the next week.  Actually, we are putting on the finishing touches, adding some more slides from our speeches and dressing it up a bit more.

I hope you continue to follow us on this - there will be some SPECIAL OFFERS available as well to those that read our blog so stay tuned.  This is going to be great...

Jack Zduriencik of Seattle Mariners speaks to CEOs...

What a great morning I just had listening to Jack "Z" Zduriencik the GM of the Seattle Mariners.  He was an inspiration and an incredibly great speaker.  What made him great?  It wasn't that he was the most polished and poised speaker I have ever seen.  No, he was genuine, authentic, passionate, knowledgeable and he told GREAT STORIES.

He also left me with a lot of great quotes and thoughts - too many to describe in just one posting.  He started his speech with some humor and then told everyone "you should be a person with integrity."  His system is "people" because at the end of the day it is because of the people you surround yourself with and their support for you that matters.  The Seattle Mariners are a group of "quality people."

He also made a great statement that everyone can incorporate into their businesses.  He said, "at the end of the day, bring credibility to your organization.  Look at your assets, have a plan but at the end of the day you need good people.  And you have to treat people like you want them to treat you."

This was a sold-out audience at the CEOtoCEO event that is run and put on by John Hartman.  What a great group of business leaders.  I had the opportunity to talk to many of them, including George Bartell from Bartell Drugs, Shelley Rotondo from NW Harvest and many others.  I'm in the picture Steve Camp from the Seattle Mariners - great guy, can get you into their suites.  It is a great place to have an informal chat with many of the key business leaders in Seattle.  If you haven't checked this event out, go to John Hartman's blog and get more details - it is well worth your time.

No wonder it doesn't work...

This past week I had the opportunity to meet with a friend of mine in the real estate business.  I won't share his/her name because this isn't going to be a favorable story - except for you the reader.

We met for coffee to find out what he/she was doing with social media in their real estate business.  Supposedly they have been doing quite a few things so I was anxious to meet and see what it was and how well it was working - possibly get another "social media success story" as well.  That wasn't the case...

As it turns out, I was correct in that they were using a variety of social media "tools" and "doing" social media.  Unfortunately, they were not getting any results from their efforts and were not amassing the "followers" they were looking for.  Upon further interrogation and investigation it became quite evident why this was happening.  It is such a common problem I decided it would be worthy of a posting.

In a nutshell, he/she was using social media tools to deliver traditional media messages.  This meant they were "broadcasting" and "pushing" more information out to their audience only using the social media tools to execute this process.  That NEVER WORKS.  And they were trying to have the latest market information and were having a tough time competing with bigger players in getting the latest and greatest.  This is NOT what social media is all about.

I explained that his followers don't want more market information - there are tons of websites out there happy to provide such content.  What they wanted from him were his "stories" about living in the area for his/her entire life and all the interesting things they have seen that no one else has - now I was making my point.  If he/she wanted to get followers, give them something no one else could give them - their stories.  Not more facts.  Not more data.  Just more interesting stories about growing up in the area, what has changed, who were/are the players, etc. etc. etc.  He/she got the point.  I can't wait to see if they can make the leap from "PUSH" to "PULL" marketing.  Stay tuned...

Hey, the book is almost here...

As many of you know if you have followed us or caught one of our speeches in the past several months, we promised we would start writing some books.  After countless requests that we share what we talk about in our speeches, we succumbed to the pressure and are just about finished with our first e-book.

This first book is going to be a great "primer" for all CEOs, Business Owners and Top Executives of just about any size company.  A slight detour.  This reminds me of something Jeff Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer for Kodak said when he was being interviewed about taking over this top position in marketing.  The reporters were talking about how he had never managed anything of the size of Kodak and if he felt qualified coming from much smaller companies.  His response was perfect.  He said, "It's just more zeroes."  Doesn't matter the size of the company any longer, social media has brought everyone to the same place - relationships and word-of-mouth.

Anyway, back to the book.  The book is going to be all about what tools of social media really right for business - because they all aren't "business friendly."  One thing we have learned over the past few years, it is NOT about the tools, it is about the message.  Too many people (in fact most) are all hung up on the tools - that will be their downfall.  The tools will change, come and go, and morph - but the right messaging will last throughout all of them.  Get the messages right and the tools will find the message.  So stay tuned - launch date is coming soon...

ROI for Social Media - The Holy Grail?

In the past year, in over 70 speeches we have given, there hasn't been one where someone doesn't ask the question about "what's the ROI on Social Media?"  Since our audience is primarily CEOs, Business Owners, Top executives and other Business Leaders, would you expect anything less?

In the beginning, this used to make us nervous.  Today, there are some good answers.  Not necessarily the ones everyone was expecting or wanting, but some good answers.  There was a good article, "Why doesn't Social Media Pay Off?", where Jay Deragon shares his views - a different but relevant perspective.  We agree.

Social Media is NOT about the tools, even though many out there pushing this notion.  Instead, it is about taking what we know works best and using these tools to create massive leverage of these tried and true principles.  Take Word-of-Mouth for example.  When we ask CEOs the best way to attract new customers the answer is always the same - word-of-mouth from their current customers, suppliers, partners and ultimately their advocates.  This world hasn't changed.

We encourage you to think beyond the hype - measure what is important to growing your business - more customers and more revenue per customer.  If you can increase these two and decrease your cost of sale to obtain these results, who is going to care about the specific ROI of a "tool".  The best companies, as Jay puts it are "craftsmen" - the ones that take the tools and turn them into money.  Social media is no different.

Focus on building solid advocates that continually spread the word about you and you won't have to worry much about the "ROI hype" surrounding social media - you can laugh all the way to the bank!

All Word-of-Mouth isn't positive...

In the “old world” (before social media) loyal customers were also your biggest advocates. They told people about you based on some type of experience they had with your company. It wasn’t easy to do this and it happened one-on-one in most cases. It would be rare that a non-customer would go out of their way to tell someone else about you.

The world has changed. Since the adoption and revolution in social media, people are talking about you all the time – whether they are a customer or not. We have talked before about the reason “ComcastCares” is in existence. Because now everyone has a megaphone and can blast them easily and quickly. Are the only people talking their customers? Nope. Some of their conversations are from people that don’t even use their service – just had an experience with them.

Today, you can build relationships with people so fast and so deep, based on your compelling content, that they are happy to share with others – and not even be your customers. Social media gives them the tools to simply “talk about you” to others in their networks. What do they talk about? Sometimes your product, but almost always your service or their experience.

Think of this in business terms. With all this talk, NOW you have the opportunity to not just rally your best customers to say good things about you, you can now tap into “non-customers” and get them saying good things about you as well. How powerful is that in growing your business? Think about it – everyone has the same megaphone. Just because they didn’t buy from you doesn’t mean they won’t talk.

Customer Loyalty and Word-of-Mouth

When my brother and I wrote our book, “Creating and Delivering Totally Awesome Customer Experiences,” we shared both the process and the research results addressing the type of experiences that caused customers to be fanatically loyal. The core of this was making and keeping “Promises,” building a “relationship” and then creating “Trust” with the person (more on these in other posts). Without these ingredients, Loyalty was impossible to achieve. And without loyalty, customers were not inclined to create positive Word-of-Mouth about you.

Think about it, most companies strive to have 20% of their customer base as loyal customers. That might sound great, but that leaves 80% who are NOT. Given that Loyal customers are the primary “spreaders” of positive Word-of-Mouth, that means 80% are either doing you no good or are saying something less than positive, and possibly even flaming you. And non-loyal customers are what we called in our book, “Customers simply looking for the Next Best Deal.” Not good odds for a growing customer base – Vegas gives you better odds than that.

Social Media gives you the chance to improve your odds significantly. It allows you to build “ADVOCATES” that are out there promoting you because of not just the way you may have treated them as a customer but because of the way you write, share stories and demonstrate your authenticity and transparency. This is like “Dog Years”. You can do this face-to-face, and it might take you 7 years, or you could do it in 1 year using social media. And remember, Advocates don’t even have to be customers.

Bottom line: Customer Loyalty is more valuable today than any time in our history of business. Why? Because now we have the tools of social media to create “Word-of-Mouth on STEROIDS”, which is true “Viral Marketing.” Viral Marketing is “exponential” growth – any other type of marketing is linear growth. Don’t know about you, but my math teachers in college always taught me exponential was way better than linear – same is true in the business world. Got Loyalty? If not, better start getting it – and in a big way. Your competitors are probably already thinking about it.

Passion vs. Facts

People talk about the world of social media as just another vehicle to get more information out to your customers, prospects, partners, and employees. And if you think about it in this way, you are missing the true value of social media.

The “brass ring” in social media is getting your audience, whoever they may be, to talk PASSIONATELY about you, your products, your people, and/or your service. Social media simply gives your audience the “microphone” so they can tell the people they have a relationship with about you. You can’t control what they say but you can control how you interact and treat them.  Nobody exemplifies "passion" about what they do and what they talk about than Cathi Hatch, CEO of Zino Society.

Give them something to be passionate about. Give them an “experience” that warrants telling others. Make their life easier when they come to your blog and need both information and perspective. Simply help them out in whatever way you can. When you impact their life in one of these ways, people feel passionate about telling others.

People don’t go out of their way to tell others facts. Boring. They might use some facts to support a story they are interested in telling but they don’t just show up and say, “Did you know that a billion people have poor drinking water?” No. But what they will say, “Johnny visited a village where most the kids die before 10 because of the drinking water quality – this is sad. I can’t believe that there are over a billion people in the world without clean drinking water. I want to do something about this.” This is the passion -- a captivating story being shared to support a cause. Passion vs. Facts…think about it.

Out with the old...in with the NEW

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I can't believe all the blogs I have been reading that are so focused on silly issues - maybe it's just that they are glad to be done with 2009.  Such things as do we call it "twenty 10" or "two thousand and ten" - who cares.  And do we all make New Years Resolutions that fit into the standard bucket every year - lose weight, get our finances under control, read more, be nicer to the world, blah, blah, blah.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE starting a New Year - it is exciting and full of hopes and dreams.  What I don't support is all the "media rhetoric" trying to tell me what resolutions I should have based on the ads that they are carrying by their sponsors.  Don't appreciate the manipulation, thank you.

Why not make some serious resolutions - or better yet, some strategic plans to really make a difference - either personally or professionally.  Pick 3 things to focus on - if you get them done, find 3 more.  It's not that difficult.  Having done a lot of strategic planning in my days, it is much easier than most people make it out to be.

Here is a "resolution" for you.  Commit your company to a social media program that builds Word-of-Mouth by 3 times what you have now and do it at 1/2 the cost you spent this past year.  Now that is a resolution most CEOs would support and put their shoulder behind.  In 2010, it is not only possible, but Word-of-Mouth can be stepped up TODAY.  Gotta love those kind of resolutions.

Happy New Year - Peace and Safety above all...