Being the “old lady” amongst the Canyonites, I got a few odd glances when reviewing my headline. Sigh. Then I attempted to explain the adage about the Cobbler’s Children having no shoes which didn’t really help make me appear any younger – or more relevant. 

Whether you know what a cobbler is  or even understand the reference, as a social marketer I am sure you’ve experienced times where you were not as connected or prolific as you ‘should be’. I am having one of those times. Canyon has been moving at an accelerated pace for all the right reasons – new clients, increased scopes, community engagement (BMA and Arizona Technology Council) –  yada, yada (now I am really giving away my age with a Seinfeld reference) – that we’ve neglected our blog.

So what is a digital marketer to do? 

1. Name it and claim it. Do not hide under the covers. Use the communications tools at your disposal. Respond and engage with authenticity and transparency – as you would in any face-to-face interaction when inadvertently putting your foot in your mouth. Affirming concerns, admitting uncertainties and promising to follow are better than deafening social media silence!
2. Rebuild the relationship. It may be appropriate to start with an apology. Then refocus on the values that built the (social media) relationship in the first place.
3. Get back on the horse and back to basics. Pay due attention to quality and consistency to reassure the relationship continues and prospers. 

It is comforting to know that we are not alone in our social media missteps. Kenneth Cole, the Red Cross and Southwest have all recently had some social media growing pains. Even savvy businesses and skilled b2b marketers -armed the best tools and social media playbooks- cannot 100% mitigate our collective humanity. And that’s ok.

The reality is that those embracing social media are going to make mistakes. And while it may be painful at times, the risk is worth the reward.

Since pleading mea culpa publically is our first step, I invite you to confess your social media gaffe –or call out someone else’s if you feel called. Come on…this is a community of peers, you are safe here. Besides, nobody can digitally hear you giggling (at our misstep).

Actionable Steps to Succeed in Today’s Instantaneous Business Cycle

When my recent bout with influenza kept me on the couch, Jay Baer and Amber Naslund managed to keep me useful. That is high praise on day 7 of a fever-induced work sabbatical.

Without energy to move, I devoured The Now Revolution – 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social. I read it cover-to-cover within 24 hours. In fact, I dog-eared a good part of shifts 4-6, asking myself why I waited a whole 7 days to dive in.

A long time follower of Convince and Convert, I was eager to attend Social Media AZ and hear keynotes Jay & Amber. The premise of their book and session recognizes the fundamental cultural shifts facing business today.

Business is now a 24/7 conversation in which every employee serves on the front lines of interacting with clients and prospects. The overwhelming significance for b2b marketers is that marketing and branding can no longer be closely guarded silos. Instead, we have the key role of creating passionate evangelists of the message – both internally and externally.

Excuse me while I go back to seminary to become an evangelical leader. Oh, you don’t want to wait? Hmmm…you are not alone!

Not surprisingly, many companies are struggling to adapt. The documented social media gaffes could fill volumes on their own. So how do you boldly embrace the Now Revolution – even if you don’t have all the (social media) answers?

Get The Now Revolution – now. Really, right now.

The Now Revolution (unlike some other resources) does more than tell the story of said shift. It gives you immediately actionable steps on the “Humanization Highway” to move your social media engagement from “cool” to business critical.

Have faith. It has less to do with financial investment and more to do with the skills we learned as school kids. Stop marketing and start engaging with your customers. Learn to listen at the point of need. Perfection isn’t the objective; being authentic and offering true value is.

Now is the time to be the brand/company/people you’ve always professed to be in your advertisements and press releases. And, as Jay and Amber would say, “harness the power of now” with the maturing tools in your social media toolbox.

How are you answering “the new [social] telephone” today?

Are you new to the twitosphere – aka a newetter - and looking to optimize your Twitter time?  You are not alone.  Thankfully there are a plethora of tools available to help, and my goal is to save you the time and effort in evaluating which are the best for your business-to-business marketing efforts.

And as a bonus, I get to showcase my ever-expanding vocabulary of twerminology and Twitterspeak

Not surprisingly, tweeple need different tools at each of the 5 stages of Twitter acceptance first popularized by Rohit Bhargava. Hopefully you (and I) are reaching stage 4 or 5 where twitter below can be most valuable to our business.

1.       Following members of your professional network and twitterati:

The majority of business people have a LinkedIn profile and a Twitter account. Check out the LinkedIn Tweets application from the ‘More’ tab of your profile.  Here you can quickly view tweets of people you’re following on your LinkedIn home page. LinkedIn allows you to see the tweets of all your connections or filtered lists of those you follow and those you do not follow.

2.       Categorizing your tweets and leveraging existing Twitter hashtag strategy:

Hashtags can be a means to categorize your twitterness when you tweet on multiple topics and or markets. Rather than starting from scratch, reference Wefollow to identify existing hashtag topical groupings for your industry. Developing categories for your posts can increase your visibility in the marketplace and minimize potential follower attrition (due to posts seemingly off topic).

3.        Keeping up with your twaffic by DM and vetting followers:

As you are assembling a twittercal mass you hopefully are engaging in social media best practices of direct messaging followers.  Beyond being gracious, capitalize on their interest with another engaging offer. Consider inviting your tweeps to subscribe to your blog, or download a complementary white paper related to your business and brand.  Social Oomph boosts your social media productivity by allowing you to automate DMs and either vet or reciprocate new followers.

4.       Measure & Predict:

Demonstrating ROI requires measurement and twitter is no exception.  TwitterCounter allows you to report and graph your statistics of followers and tweets.  Identifying trends and predictive modeling allows you set goals and document your progress. The ability to compare results with similar or competitive organizations often impacts strategic marketing investments.

5.        Social Media Efficiency

Nothing beats hands-on, real-time data in managing your business.  I use HootSuite as a comprehensive communications platform capable of aggregating numerous social media profiles.  You can track interactions across Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, facebook and Foursquare from a single dashboard. (Quora has to be coming soon!)

HootSuite also allows you to be social on the go with mobile apps.  Although the mobile aspect may cross the line and classify you (me) as a twitterholic prone to twittcrastination.

Having peeked in my Twitter toolbox, what tools or tips would your add for a Twitter newbie adopting social media for business value?

Getting your executives on board with social media is one thing, but getting them to actively participate is entirely another. But take heart – it can be done (it’s easier than it sounds), and it doesn’t even require a slide deck! 

I can’t even remember how long this LinkedIn feature has existed.  Does anyone else find it hard to remember pre-Twitter days? Regardless, the secret of CXO social media adoption is introducing the LinkedIn status update Twitter integration.

For psychographic fiends, it may be helpful to appeal to the inherent narcissism of C-level executives by approaching the effort as “gaining recognition for the impressive volume of industry-specific, relevant content they voraciously consume in running your successful business and/or serving your clients”.

From the default LinkedIn Overview screen visible upon sign-in, the steps are simple.

1. Enter brief comments – or perhaps even better – a provoking question related to the content.
2. Utilize the “Attach a link” text link to display the field in which to paste the business article link and “Attach”
3. Share

A more advanced method would take the LinkedIn Social Share process above and add simple enhancements such as: 

• Optimize your introductory comments in the 140 characters – which are all that will display in the Twitter feed
• Include any Twitter hash tag references (or @references) as valuable in optimizing search value of post
• Use a trackable URL shortener such as bit.ly
• Select the image you feel most engaging from the options auto-pulled when linking asset.  In my example there were 8 choices!

• Choose where the update is displayed by selecting from “Visible to” options of anyone, connections or specific groups. This makes great sense for professionals who engage in numerous vertical markets and seek to maximize value to their connections by preserving relevance of posts.

Demonstrating success is where the fun begins.  First, literally show them proof that their post populated their Twitter feed (which you – or your digital friend in the agency probably established on their behalf). 

Ta-da!  It worked…even capturing my capitalization error as proof of automation (I couldn’t miss that 2xs – really).

Next, show them real proof.  I know you are using metrics to track your social media engagements, so use this as an opportunity to show the lifecycle of their own LinkedIn Status Update and tie it to dollars and cents wherever feasible.

At a minimum:

• Track Comments and Likes on the CXO’s LinkedIn Profile
• Track RTs of pass through tweet
• Track Replies to tweet  and/or DMs
• Review link analytics from URL shortener used

Do your company executives participate in Social Media?  LinkedIn membership among Fortune 500 is 100% so Twitter can’t be far behind now, right?