The Network Solutions sponsored Solutions Stars Video Conference (Oct. 29 at 1, don’t miss it!) features nine content themes:

This is the fourth of nine posts in nine days, offering thoughts on each section.

Strategy Drives Outreach

Here were my thoughts after viewing this series of videos:

The most common errors in social media and marketing in general come from lack of strategy (beware the self-touted social media expert). Without a plan, without knowing what you need to achieve, or with whom you need to communicate, and what value have to offer them, marketing becomes a vain exercise in the futile. You need a plan.

Otherwise you are just another silly social media expert bragging about the number of friends and page impressions you made. Or even better, claiming that throwing the eff word down on a blog is a great way to be authentic and generate real relationships. Yeah, I’ve heard that one recently (I’ve been guilty of it, too).

Look, cursing and or adding personality in less controversial ways have brought people down from the corporate control tower. But that desire to be “authentic” can be a distraction. There’s too much focus on being the uncontrolled social media friendly personality — and not enough on understanding what drives corporate social media: The ability to have two-way conversations with the community and build real relationships vis a vis giving back through information, commentary insights, or geez, just being generous.

In a recession, acting with precision and building great value for your stakeholders — giving to your community — is what drives relationships. It’s all about them, not your corporate ability to demonstrate personal flair. Most small business owners and entrepreneurial types have plenty of personality. That will ring through, believe me.

Instead focus on what you can do to make people’s professional or personal lives better. That’s the heart of the strategy. In classic marketing terms, it’s called the value proposition.

Without an intrinsic understanding of your stakeholders drivers, you may make friends, but you won’t get results. Instead, build a strategy with a value proposition for your community clearly defined AND then participate and communicate conversationally. Common sense and well chosen tactics can deliver results.

Marketers who appear in Strategy Drives Outreach:

In addition to the main site, please visit the Solutions Stars Video Conference event pages on Facebook and Upcoming:

• www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=33854706886
• upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1200021

The Network Solutions sponsored Solutions Stars Video Conference (Oct. 29 at 1, don’t miss it!) features nine content themes:

This is the third of nine posts in nine days, offering thoughts on each section.

Start with Listening

One thing was a common theme amongst our Solutions Stars interviewees: The importance of listening as a fundamental pre-cursor to social media success cannot be underestimated. Of course, listening makes sense because it allows you to understand your business community’s preferences and needs. In many ways, this represents market research.

Many businesses are not used to listening. In a mass communications world, they’ve done most of the talking.

Yet new media presents a different set of rules. In social worlds, two-way communication is inherent allowing stakeholders to have equal footing with businesses and organizations. Failure to listen creates situations where stakeholders either act with anger, or simply turn deaf ears on the company.

Listening is not hard. It simply requires a biological sense of proportions: We all have two ears and one mouth. Something to consider.

Naked Conversations Author Shel Israel took time at last Sprind’s SNCR to discuss this important aspect of social media, including Dell’s example. Here is what he had to say:

Marketers who appear in Start with Listening:

In addition to the main site, please visit the Solutions Stars Video Conference event pages on Facebook and Upcoming:

• www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=33854706886
• upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1200021

This was post was modified from an original post that appeared on Now Is Gone last Spring.

We’ve grown quite a bit as of late, and you’ve seen several new voices added to the blog over the past months.  Well, we’ve also got more clients and a new structure with Andrea Weckerle running our account services. We’ve decided that given how busy we are, it’s best if the account team leads are freed from their eight hour a month Buzz Bin blogging requirement.

Larissa Fair, Qui Diaz and Andrea will no longer be blogging during their week.  At the same time, I’m focusing more on the outward face of the company. In their wake, I will blog on the Buzz Bin 3-4 times a week, like I used to back before Now Is Gone was getting set for release in September of 2007. I guess you can say we’re returning to the original Buzz Bin flavor.

Mike Nelson will continue writing Blogs of Fire on Tuesdays, and Marinel Mones will write Buzz Meter on Thursdays.  Every business day we will publish a new post.

Larissa Fair can be found on Twitter. You can continue to read Qui Diaz at the Evange.List. And Andrea Weckerle’s personal site can be found here. If you feel so inclined, please join me in thanking them for their contributions to this blog.