Beyond the Basics

Beyond the Basics: Corporate Microblogging

1 Comment » Written on March 1st, 2011 by
Categories: Beyond the Basics, Productivity, Social Media, Strategy, Video

This edition of Beyond the Basics looks at corporate microblogging and how it is impacting today’s business communication. Dan Connolly (@DConnolly17) of Blogtronix spoke with me about how microblogging can help reduce email clutter and increase productivity. Dan had some interesting statistics Blogtronix has customers have experienced.

Employee Engagement Benefits

  • 39% increase in employee connectedness
  • 32% more ideas generated and captured
  • 30%  in employee satisfaction
  • 27% less email
  • 32% reduction in time to find answers
  • 37% increase in project collaboration and productivity

Top Customer Engagement Benefits

  • 42% more communication with customers
  • 31% increase in customer retention
  • 34% higher brand awareness
  • 28% decrease in support call volume
  • 34% more feedback and ideas from customers
  • 27% increase in new customer sales

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Posted in Beyond the Basics, Productivity, Social Media, Strategy, Video

Beyond the Basics: Enterprise Social Media Strategy

1 Comment » Written on February 14th, 2011 by
Categories: Beyond the Basics, Social Media, Strategy
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David B. Thomas (@davidbthomas) executive director at New Marketing Labs is releasing his new book today, The Executive’s Guide to Enterprise Social Media Strategy, co-authored with Mike Barlow.

David and I discussed some great strategies and tactics from his findings including:

  • Creating a cross-functional, enterprise-wide team as a starting point for creating social media policy and practices.
  • How to manage large international teams creating social media presence for your corporation.
  • Creating a strategy that allows management to understand how to implement, manage and measure social media.

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Posted in Beyond the Basics, Social Media, Strategy

Beyond The Basics: Creating Great Short Online Video

8 comments Written on December 20th, 2010 by
Categories: Beyond the Basics, Digital Media, Marketing, Portfolio, Social Media, Strategy, Video
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For my third episode I travelled to Chapel Hill and met with David Rose (@dbrose67) COO of Magent Video (@magnetvideo) to talk about how to shoot short corporate video.  David and I talked about the challenges of producing a great 30-60 second video for your website that keeps your audience’s attention.  Some of the interesting tactics I learned were:

  • Keeping your script down to 150 words and clearly communicating your core message.
  • How to use analytics to see how your customers are looking at videos and then interacting with your company.
  • How and where online to manage your video library.

David’s office had some great places to shoot.  His partner has several motorcycles on display and we chose the sweet BMW in the front lobby to use as our shoot background.  Thanks again to David and Magnet for participating!

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Posted in Beyond the Basics, Digital Media, Marketing, Portfolio, Social Media, Strategy, Video

Beyond the Basics: Creating Your Online Community

3 comments Written on November 30th, 2010 by
Categories: Beyond the Basics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
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In the second episode of Beyond the Basics, I met with Jason Peck (@jasonpeck) of eWayDirect. Jason is the Product Manager, Social Media for eWayDirect, a full service interactive marketing agency. One area I’ve seen Jason and eWayDirect really perform is in the area of creating online communities for their customers. Some of the key points I learned from Jason during our discussion:

  • Determine if an online community is best for your business. Research your customers and see if it’s applicable.
  • Have a plan in place before you start your online community. Don’t just get caught up in launch activities, know where you are going after Day 1.
  • Have a resource in place to own the community management function, otherwise it can fail.

I want to thank Jason for his time and great insight. Stay tuned for the next episode to air in early December.

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Posted in Beyond the Basics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy

Beyond the Basics: Managing Multiple Twitter Accounts

13 comments Written on November 16th, 2010 by
Categories: Beyond the Basics, Marketing, Portfolio, Social Media, Strategy, Video
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Beyond the Basics is a new video series where I am interviewing leading marketing and communication professionals to discuss advanced social media and interactive marketing strategies and tactics.  Over the past few months I’ve attended many social media and interactive marketing presentations and I find myself and my peers saying, “getting tired of hearing the same basic presentation.”

For my first interview I chose Greg Ng (@gregoryng) Chief Experience Officer at Brooks Bell Interactive.  I asked Greg about how he manages multiple Twitter accounts and personalities, both personal and corporate.  Some of the interesting findings include:

  • Taking time to ensure you have the right account
  • Timing between sending out tweets and retweets
  • Identifying individual personalities on corporate accounts

Thanks to Greg for agreeing to be my first guest.  Look for more interviews over the next several months as I explore SEO/SEM, conversion strategies, other social networks including Facebook and LinkedIn as well as writing tips, content strategies and design.

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Posted in Beyond the Basics, Marketing, Portfolio, Social Media, Strategy, Video