how to

How to Become a B2B Social Sales Machine

Social adoption rates are rocketing and the impact of social networking within society continues to grow. But surprisingly enough, there are many in the business to business marketing sphere who still don’t “get” it. With this in mind I recently put together a fast moving and to the point keynote presentation to open the eyes of B2B salesforces and socially energize them!

“Becoming a B2B Social Sales Machine” in simple, sales oriented terms explains what the B2B social networking sales opportunity means. Sharing how both individuals and ultimately the combined organization can leverage content, connections, context, collaboration and community to drive real results!

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Creating Expert Communities with Tweetchats

In June #MMchat aka #MarketerMonday chat will be held for the 100th time!

Established July 26th, 2010 #MMchat has become a weekly tradition for an ever expanding number of CMOs, marketers and others working in and around the digital social networking space. And all of us at @TheSocialCMO were recently very pleased when #MMchat was named one of the 15 Essential Social Marketing Twitter Chats by Mashable.

One of the most elusive goals of transient social networks remains the creation of sustainable ongoing communities of interest. Tweetchats are an excellent way to not only establish such an expert community, but to also keep it engaged and growing on an ongoing basis.

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Everything you Need to Know about Twitter

If only Mark W. Schaefer and his excellent book, The Tao of Twitter, had been around when I first took up with Twitter a year and a half ago! I’d have saved a whole lot of time, frustration and energy and done a far better job on Twitter right from the get go!

A short and sweet, handy-dandy, how-to guide that’s chock full of friendly, easy to understand tips and advice, The Tao of Twitter is an absolute MUST read for anyone and everyone getting ready to dive into the social network’s rapidly flowing stream of news, information and salutations.

An internationally respected marketer, university prof and behavioral scientist, Mark Schaefer’s book humbly and humorously recounts his deep dive into the Twitter fire hose and how he lived to thrive and tell his story.

The Tao of Twitter focuses on business benefits derived from providing the Twitterverse with three key elements — targeted connections, meaningful content and authentic helpfulness. The book carefully explains how to meet and befriend like-minded tweeps; build and maintain a Twitter community through providing useful, authentic, meaningful news and information based on P2P – person to person connections; and the importance of human interaction that leads to valuable relationships, awareness and spread.

A joy to read and loaded with simple, actionable lessons on how to start, build and maintain a Twitter community, The Tao of Twitter should be required reading for PR and Social Media college students as well as shared with every CMO and Marketing VP you know! HIGHLY recommended!

Deborah Weinstein

@DebWeinstein

President, Strategic Objectives

Design Thinking 101 Revisited

If you’ve visited a bookstore recently, you probably noticed there’s been a lot written lately on the subject of design thinking. Whether or not you think it’s just another trendy buzzword, the topic has been gaining momentum in the last 5 years and is beginning to spark genuine interest from both designers and business executives alike. Big brand names like GE, Proctor & Gamble and Harley Davidson  have elevated design thinking to their management ranks and Stanford University has even created an Institute of Design lead by IDEO cofounder David Kelley that believes “great innovators and leaders need to be great design thinkers.”

Could design thinking really be a management paradigm shift or is it just a bunch of hype? Could it have an impact on businesses and help to solve the world’s most wicked problems? The following is a roundup on design thinking’s tools, methodology and why you should care.

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How to be a media maven

Want to accumulate influence? Here’s the really, really cool thing about it: all you have to do is really pay a lot of attention to others. Boom. There you go. That’s it. When that attention comes from a heart overflowing with a genuine interest and care for others, you’re well on your way to becoming a media maven. To give you a solid role model to watch/study, here’s an interview with the Boston Media Maven, CC Chapman.

It’s a long interview and it showcases my still-developing audio-editing skills (or lack thereof), so there are a couple of times where I cut out stuff I didn’t mean to. Still, there’s plenty of gold in CC’s conversation. Love his philosophy, “Now there are no boundaries on who you can help.”

The Boston Media Maven, CC Chapman. He tells you how easy it is to be a media maven, too.
In the interview, Professor Chapman (he’s an adjunct prof), gives us some predictions about the future (“location-based everything is going to gangbusters,” and “tablet computing might just come of age, and not just because of Apple”), and shares stories of others who shine the spotlight on others (sadly, neither one of us could come up with a politician who was good at using social media, or ANY media, to shine the spotlight on others; maybe there’s one out there).

He also gave some beautiful advice for developing an effective online presence: “say ‘hi’ to everyone.”

Trey Pennington

[direct link to podcast with CC Chapman MP3 file in case the player gives you trouble]