I remember the first time I heard about Twitter. It was 2008 and a new colleague had just moved over to the team I was interning for. He was tasked with teaching our team about collaboration technologies and so I humored my boss (because I was an intern and hadn’t started acting out yet) and hopped on the phone with this guy.

“Have you ever heard of Twitter?” We went over to Twitter.com and I thought to myself and said out loud (I’ve never had a good filter:) “So this is a site where you just post Facebook status updates?”

This is the first in a two part blog post. What I want to know first – without any sort of justification about what changed your mind – is what you thought when you learned about Twitter for the first time.

Fill in the blank: When I first heard about Twitter, I thought ______

There are two points of view that matter when it comes to social marketing execution: the vision of the strategist and the execution of the LOB professional. Execution should be based on strategy as well all know but frequently the mindsets of these individuals are so far apart that recognizing mutually agreed upon success becomes near impossible. Without taking anything away from the strategist, I hear way too much focus put on strategy and not nearly enough put on how we’re actually going to bring said strategy to fruition. Saying “Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr” in a project plan does not make it an execution plan. If you’ve never been in the position to execute on a social strategy, this may be French to you (unless you speak French, then think of it as Japanese.)

Execution requires specificity: owned properties, timing, planning, content creation, content curation, permissions, cross-teaming, reporting, etc. It is essentially getting it (or you know what) done.

Strategy requires vision and a greater understanding of how the business makes money or saves money so that they can set up the social strategy in a way that impacts the business in one way or the other. Again, I am not taking anything away from the work put into execution; what I am saying is that these are the dominant thoughts in each party’s brain and that is why we have a gap.

So what’s the point? This is something I even look to do for myself I’ll have you know. I didn’t seek to play the role of the strategist although that is where I am if we want to get philosophical about the analyst’s role. I like to execute, I find it to be challenging, stressful, anxiety-provoking and ultimately rewarding. So what I try to do is find a place to do both: get the experience of someone who executes so that I can take on the role of strategist. I think of it this way: if I never took the time to try and understand the pot holes along the way to social execution on behalf of a business (which is vastly different than having your own Twitter handle) how could I possibly offer any realistic advice on strategy to a company who is going to have a former Jenny Sussin sitting there trying to get it done? Strategists: do it yourself first. Understand why you can’t only have one Twitter handle for a multinational corporation. Understand why I’m not going to make a Facebook page for every marketing campaign we run. Understand why it doesn’t make any sense for us to have a corporate Pinterest account.

My buddies who are over there tweeting and blogging and creating 400 Facebook pages: reel it back in. Listen to what the strategist is saying about how your work impacts the corporate image. Stop rolling your eyes when I ask you to use the same bit.ly every time you post about a new offer on our corporate web site. Understand that your top priorities need to be balanced with everyone else’s.

I recognize even writing this blog post and the nature of my job alone makes me somewhat of a hypocrite for writing this, but the idea struck and I had to.

So today I’m sitting at my desk and a particular group of sales guys walk by. I see them every day and every day they’re just bro-ing out. Totally loving each other, ripping on each other, being a little too loud, lots of movement. They never travel alone and there are a lot of “yeah man”s. It’s amusing to watch.

I realized the same thing is going on in our industry. It’s a social media “bro” fest. We’ve got a ton of bros, that I’ll categorize into two groups: the “it’s all about experience” bros and the “Twitter is too noisy” bros.

This picture just cracked me up.

The “its all about experience” bros are all just “going rogue” maven-ing it up together, spreading the good word about how “the man” is right or wrong for how they approach social within their business or maybe how large firms *cough cough* cover social in the wrong way and how they’re all so right and the rest of the world is wrong and how nobody understands because everyone else is stupid.

STOP putting pictures like this on the internet where they are readily accessible to the public. C'mon!

Enough already. We know, we all know, that there are components to social business which we simply can not measure in numbers or direct profits. WE GET IT. But guess what, it is what executives want to see. And guess what x2, those executives are allotting the money to fit your clients bill. So guess what, sometimes people communicate about a numbers game. And I get that if you are the day to day practitioner, trying to please your execs and your social constituents is an almost winless game, but please recognize bros as bros and just consider checking out some other sources before defining your social media reality.

And on the other side of the equation are the “Twitter is too noisy” group of bros, the people who only care about numbers and have never tweeted about a mysterious stain on their shirt or the madness happening in the cafeteria, at the bar, or while walking through a park, you’re a bro in your own right. You’re in the group of bros that is too cool for social media, the “frivolous” part anyway. The part where we do things aside from talking about our jobs and what we’re trying to sell. The part where we leave embarrassing comments for our friends on their Facebook walls. The part where we’ve posted frameworks to Pinterest.

The message I’m trying to get across is this: strike a balance and recognize that just because someone doesn’t use a social network specifically for what you’re using it for doesn’t make them wrong, or stupid, or frivolous. You’re not smarter than everyone else because you’re trying to sell or really, prove how smart you are on a public social network. In fact, I would almost call this bro-type of behavior, on either end, obnoxious – just as bros are in real life.

I don’t have thousands of followers on Twitter. I have more friends on Facebook then most other “social media experts” (I’m cringing right now.) I only check LinkedIn sporadically. I am probably on YouTube every day. I share what I want and I have a bunch of different constituencies who I am confident are all smart enough to read through the noise they don’t want. But guess what, these people know me. Strangers I’ve interacted with on Twitter know more about me than those sales guys probably know about each other. Engaging on social and preaching the good word of social media is more than being loud and giving one another pats on the back. It’s about day to day interaction and connection with people who you never would have connected with before that makes social channels special.

Resist the urge to pop your collar, that is all I ask.

(Criticize my grammar, I can handle it.)

This morning I was talking to my colleague Gene Alvarez about embarrassing things that have happened in work environments. Stains on shirts, mismatching socks and as I explained to Gene, a run in my pantyhose.

Men will never quite understand a run in the pantyhose. As women, we go through tens of pairs of pantyhose a year as they constantly rip but are the only acceptable garment for pairing with a dress or skirt. We know when we buy the ‘hose that they’re going to rip. Every morning you put on a pair of pantyhose it’s a gamble. “Will they rip today?” You come to close to some velcro, sit on a seat the wrong way, and they’re gone.

But the reason it’s so embarrassing, the run in the pantyhose, is because you never notice right away. You’ve been walking around with the run for an hour, talking to other people, when all of the sudden you look and see. No one told you, they all noticed but they all figured you knew and were trying to be polite.

Where is this going, Sussin?

Burger King had a run in their pantyhose on Monday and now something is up with Jeep. I feel for the social media managers. I mean, MTV faked a run in their pantyhose (the trashy girl Halloween costume) and ostensibly had fun at BK’s expense. Well listen up MTV, no one wants to walk around with a run in their ‘hose!

All social media managers and all business leaders know there is some sort of risk to having all of their communications be so public, real-time and accessible. They also know there is a reward. They want to cover up their legs while wearing a dress. They have to! But they also recognize their is the risk of an unnoticed run. So ladies, social media managers, does the risk of a run outweigh the reward of proper dress versus bare legs and no social media presence?

Personally, I’d rather have the run in my ‘hose. It has happened to me before. Jumping analogies let me be clear, I have had a run in my ‘hose, I have never had my Twitter account hacked. But let’s talk damages now. What actually happened as a result of the BK account being taken over and singing the praises of McDonalds?

1. Publicity happened.  Sure BK had a little egg on their face because it took them over an hour to do anything about the hacked account, but did they lose any business? No. Are people talking about Burger King? Absolutely. Has it impacted BK sales favorably? I’d bet not, but the bottom line is it didn’t hurt them and now more people are bothering to tlak about BK than they did before.
2. Competitors showed their humanity. Did McDonald’s jump on the opportunity to say, “hey look, even Burger King likes us?” No. They did the opposite actually and expressed their sympathies for the situation. In a political and competitive world, to me that was a refreshing sentiment.
3. We more publicly entered into the risk versus reward conversation. Clients ask us all of the time if the data privacy and security risk is worth it when contemplating a social for CRM strategy. So I ask, is the potential for a run in your pantyhose, worth the reward of cost savings on marketing campaign impressions? The increased revenue from coupon-holders entering your establishment after opting in to a Facebook deal? Do you know what the reward even is?

I’m sorry for Burger King’s social media manager, and Jeep’s, but I’m sort of happy this happened because now I want to challenge everyone reading this post. Do you know what you’re trying to accomplish with social? If it’s CRM, what are your marketing, sales and service objectives? How are you determining if you’ve been successful? And hey, what are the risks associated with what you’re doing OR not doing? If Burger King didn’t have an official Twitter handle, you can bet someone else would have created a mock one for them.

Two things to think about and comment on if you would:

• If you were Burger King’s social media manager, what would you have done differently?
• Have you (honestly) bothered to draw up a risk vs. reward scenario for your social presence?

The grammatical and spelling errors in this post…I know.

First, I know I haven’t been blogging as much as I “should.” I’m not the first person to have trouble finding time to blog. I am not the best at balancing my personal and professional life and time. I am not the only person who has ever made the “I’ve been too busy” excuse. I am not one of a kind, nor am I best in class.

(Huh?)

Alright, I came clean: social application vendors, it is time that you do the same.

Gartner follows over 150 vendors in the social for CRM space. I alone have 152 files on vendors I have been briefed by, many of them multiple times over the past 2 years…and there are multiple products under each of those vendors, mind you. And the point is: the likelihood that the product I am being demo-ed is the first, the only or the best is very, very minimal.

Jennifer Lawrence's impression of any analyst who hears the words "first," "only" or "best."

And so now, the constructive part of this post.

Vendors: it is okay. You don’t need to be the first, only or best to be different. When you talk to an analyst and when you pitch potential clients, be cool. TELL ME WHAT YOU DO. Don’t give me marketing lingo. Tell me what you do and hopefully you know what you’re doing well and can hone in on it. If you don’t know what you do well, because you couldn’t possibly have an eye on an entire marketplace because that isn’t your day job, guess whose day job it is?

That's right...

End users: I can only imagine how confused you are. I hear it every day from our clients. The irrational short lists. The pure confusion in people’s voices. If you look at any social application vendor’s web page, it’ll look like they all do the same thing. Sure there are some exceptions, but for the most part 80% of vendors are out there saying, “we’re a social media management system! We do it all. Marketing? Yes. Customer service? Sure. Sales? Of course, you can make millions in new revenue through social! Branding! Engagement! Analytics! Buzzzzzzzz” Here is the simplest advice I can give: know what you want and what you need. Shop around. If you’re a client, you can just call us. We’ve sat through a lot of briefings and talked to a lot of customer references (both happy and unhappy) so that we can let you know, what we know.

A message to all: know who you are as a vendor or an end user. Know what makes you unique. Understand that not everything is always going to be perfect and stay humble but emphasize your best features and where you are looking to grow.

Gartner clients, look at our vendor guides and top use cases research to gain a better understanding of what the differences between social use cases and the vendor’s that serve them. If you have some more questions, just set up an inquiry and we can talk through them.

Clients and non-clients: is there anything else that is confusing you that needs further definition? Tell me about it in the Comments section below.  And now, because we all miss this…

Sheen is winning.

Some of what you can expect from this week’s Customer 360 event courtesy of yours truly and Don Scheibenreif (did I spell that right?)

#gartnercrm

Let’s press play and turn on the speakers for this one because it’s nearly summer time and while our interns come to join us, we should listen to some relaxing music. Plus, your intern might look like Chad or Jeremy in ’64.

If you give an intern control of your Facebook page, one or two or three of many things could happen. He/she might…

Feel empowered…

Feel confused…

Establish the customer-facing social media strategy you lack…

Get angry with you and post something inappropriate…

Build a foundation on which you can express your brand’s brand on social media…

Build a foundation for your brand that is not really your brand’s brand…

Flourish under your leadership and become a change agent and leader in your organization…

Go work for a competitor, while still having admin access to your Facebook page…

As intern season springs upon us and the doe-eyed young’ns enter our white-walled dwellings, let’s keep in mind that the tasks we assign them are tasks that have an impact on both the intern and the organization. When I was a wee intern, some of the folks at my former employer gave some of us a camera, they gave others the equipment to podcast, and others the opportunity to blog. That one day where someone believed in us and entrusted us to go out and express how we felt about the company we were working for changed our understanding of “career” and what we could do to impact a “stiff” organization.

But also keep in mind that these interns don’t know the history behind your brand. They don’t necessarily understand your industry and your competitors. They might not even understand your product. And worse, they will be gone at the end of the summer. Don’t have them start something you can’t carry on.

And with those few words of wisdom, everyone enjoy your summer

Let the music play out…

Every marketer makes the mistake of equating activity to value at some point in their career. You know what, it’s not just marketers: it’s everyone. “You left at 5:30? I work until 10 pm every night.”

The bottom line for the 10 pm people: if I can get similar or better quality work done by 5:30, I’m not working until 10.

When I was an entry level marketer focusing on social media, I had some really strong mentors who taught me how to create content that wasn’t boring. They helped me see that even though I was marketing B2B software, I could make the content interesting versus just having the ‘talking head’ videos that we’re all too familiar with. I was proud of myself. I was getting content created with little to no-budget that was garnering an audience of hundreds, or if I was lucky it’d get thousands, and for one product line of a non-consumer brand, that level of activity around content is not something to be scoffed at.

I also had a higher-level, executive mentor. He was this really well-respected, smart, hilarious man in the company who scared the ____ out of me and everyone who worked for him or around him. (Side note: being able to make people laugh until they cry, and at the same time have them genuinely fear you, is a legitimate skill. I’m still in awe of this person as you can see.)

So one day I was working from my former company’s headquarters and he calls me over the catch up. I was so proud of the work I’d done and as I told him about the content I’d created and the low-budget with high viewership, I was sure I was impressing him. I wasn’t. Instead he hit me with some business knowledge and took me down a peg. He asked, “so how many prospects were you able to pin point?” And I said, “well, none but…” And so he asked, “were you able to close any deals as a result of this?” And I said, “No but this cost us next to nothing and has thousands of views!” And he said, “we made a video the other day for $40,000. It has 30 views, but we closed a $3 million deal as a result of it. The ‘talking head’ helped us close a deal with his company.”

Duh. Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. When you work in the social space, you end up getting so consumed with being creative and getting ‘hits’ that you often lose track of your true business purpose: make us money or save us money, either directly or indirectly. You can literally pay for ‘activity.’ $39 will get you 5,000 views on your YouTube video thanks to Socialkik.

When you’re building your social media strategy, including your social content strategy, consider your end game and act accordingly versus 2009 Jenny.

There’s nothing I love more than a good pop culture reference and it’s time we take our tweets and turn them into bows and arrows. (If you’re unfamiliar with The Hunger Games, you’re going to have a really hard time with this blog post.)

I have spent the last four days at Gartner’s US Symposium and in that time, I’ve taken 40+ 1:1 meetings where I’ve spoken with clients about social media and its application to their business. Coupled with around 300 clients inquiries I’ve taken on the topic thus far this year, that makes almost about 400 social media problems that just I, myself, have worked with businesses to troubleshoot. Keep in mind, I’m not the only person at Gartner who covers social business so if we extrapolate a bit I’d venture to guess that Gartner has taken between 2,000 and 3,000 inquiries on social business topics this year.

Yet market pundits try to say it’s become less important, having the staying power of District 11 in the Games. CIOs look for reasons why social media is irrelevant to their company in an attempt to prioritize Districts 1 and 2. So why does the underfunded, undernourished District 12, Katniss Everdeen, continue to be a force of such impact that the Capitol is forced to pay attention?

You have to consider what the Capitol wants. They’re comfortable with what they know, what they can control, traditional strategy, traditional approaches, and traditional technologies. Katniss/Social represents all that the Capitol has neglected: essentially customer and employee feedback…for years.

And once we empower Katniss, give her the bows and arrows she needs to thrive, allow her to tweet or blog or post to the Web and be seen by all of Panem, she becomes dangerous. She becomes something we can no longer control because we’ve never spent the time to nurture her strengths and teach her where to aim the arrows.

This is where the enterprise still has a chance. The enterprise needs to stop ignoring social, stop trying to repress it, and instead embrace it and give it a target. If the Capitol can channel Katniss and get her fighting for their cause, a real business impact, then it gets its power back. But as those who’ve read the books know the fate of the Capitol, they can only hope enterprises see a better fate.

*The grammatical errors in this blog post are gratuitous.

There are so many things about social media engagement that are deemed to simple to write about anymore. Well ladies and gentlemen, let’s get tacky!

Tacky, or weird?

I know people are struggling with developing their individual social networks and their organization’s social networks and so in my first blog post of 2014, let’s talk about one of those things that everyone is afraid to ask about: how to organically build out your social network. What do I mean by organic? I mean not buying followers, not following people in hopes that they’ll follow you back in a move of courtesy.

I mean gaining followers by genuinely being intriguing in the sense that Carnegie wanted to help us win friends and influence people.

You might say, “hey lady, you only have 1,800 followers.” And I might say, “I’m cool with that,” because for me, it’s okay to only have 1,800 followers. If 1,800 people are interested in what I have to say, that is enough pressure for an individual person. I’m not trying to sell anything via social media. I’m trying to meet and bond with cool people and for such an objective, a pot of 1,800 people ensures I am always amused.

But if your objective is a business objective – how do you even get to 1,800? Here is my rule of 3 for individuals and organizations looking to build out their social networks: for everyone one original post you create, you must retweet/share something someone else said, and comment on something someone else said. And here is why:

• Create an original post because you want to show you have a mind – and that mind can come up with something unique. Maybe something unique is something about your business, maybe it is something you’re thinking of, the bottom line is this is your post to do what you want with.

• Retweet or share to show you’re the kind of person who is willing to proliferate someone else’s message, if you think that message is a good one. This is the whole “you scratch my back, I scratch yours,” concept. We’re all a littler narcissistic folks. Pet an ego.

• Comment on someone else’s post to engage with them. Building a real, meaningful network means you need to have a reciprocal feeling of relationship. So talk to the person! Start up a dialogue. Ask a question, make an observation. Encourage people to communicate with you, not at you. Set expectations that when someone enters into a relationship with you, you engage.

It’s quick, it’s easy, and now you don’t need to be embarrassed about asking. The truth is, we talk to clients about this a couple of times a week.

You don’t need to comment here if you don’t want to admit you looked at this – afterall, we are being tacky. But do, do me a favor: come find me at an upcoming event I’ll be at and let me know if you found this valuable. I promise not to rat you out Here is where I’ll be:

Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit, March 31 – April 2 in Las Vegas

Customer Strategies and Technologies Summit, April 28 – 29 in London

Portals, Content &  Collaboration Summit, May 5-7 in Los Angeles

Customer 360 Summit, May 19 – 21 in Orlando

Someone asked me about Twitter’s stock price the other day to which I replied: I know nothing of stocks, but I’ll happily tell you who I think is ruining it for all of us. Let’s have some straight talk about who is ruining Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook

Embarrassing parents ruined Facebook. Sorry, but they did.

Years back when people outside of colleges were granted access to Facebook, us college folk were more concerned about high school kids getting access to our “privilege.” I remember there being a Facebook group that was actually entitled, “Facebook is a college privilege, not a high school right,” or something of the sort.

I don’t know that any of us thought our parents might actually join Facebook, nor did we think they’d post our baby pictures on our birthday, or write novels on our pages singing our praises for the world to see…

Now, as a self-proclaimed adult, I think that all of that is actually adorable. Imagine the pride someone would need to have in knowing they helped raise a somewhat well-balanced human! However, when you’re somewhat between 14 and 20 you really don’t need the extra social anxiety that comes with people knowing that you took ballroom dance classes in middle school or dressed in matching outfits with your siblings.

This picture is so adorable, I think I may have posted this to show how adorable I was.

Twitter

Marketers ruined Twitter. Just for kicks, I pulled up my Twitter home feed as I write this and removing companies I follow from this count, 5 of the 10 PEOPLE I am following are self-promoting + another 1 of the 10 is an advertisement.

*I can’t put a screenshot in here.*

Perhaps it’s a reflection of who I follow, but I don’t think I am alone in seeing this type of continuous self-promotion in my Twitter home feed. Now mind you that as I say this I will undoubtedly post a link to this blog post on Twitter and LinkedIn…but it’s not the only thing I post. Some of the “marketers” out there have told me I am not using Twitter appropriately because I don’t solely post about work. GOOD RIDDANCE!

You’re telling me that *this* is not on par with my persona as a social media analyst?

And now for the educational portion of this blog post…why does this matter? Well, ever wonder why “the kids” are moving toward applications like Snapchat or WhatsApp or any other mobile messenger? It’s to get away from their parents and companies and people who make Twitter the new Times Square with the amount of advertising being spewed. Luckily for Facebook, kids tend to grow out of the embarrassment of being praised and adored by their parents.

This morning I was talking to my colleague Gene Alvarez about embarrassing things that have happened in work environments. Stains on shirts, mismatching socks and as I explained to Gene, a run in my pantyhose.

Men will never quite understand a run in the pantyhose. As women, we go through tens of pairs of pantyhose a year as they constantly rip but are the only acceptable garment for pairing with a dress or skirt. We know when we buy the ‘hose that they’re going to rip. Every morning you put on a pair of pantyhose it’s a gamble. “Will they rip today?” You come to close to some velcro, sit on a seat the wrong way, and they’re gone.

But the reason it’s so embarrassing, the run in the pantyhose, is because you never notice right away. You’ve been walking around with the run for an hour, talking to other people, when all of the sudden you look and see. No one told you, they all noticed but they all figured you knew and were trying to be polite.

Where is this going, Sussin?

Burger King had a run in their pantyhose on Monday and now something is up with Jeep. I feel for the social media managers. I mean, MTV faked a run in their pantyhose (the trashy girl Halloween costume) and ostensibly had fun at BK’s expense. Well listen up MTV, no one wants to walk around with a run in their ‘hose!

All social media managers and all business leaders know there is some sort of risk to having all of their communications be so public, real-time and accessible. They also know there is a reward. They want to cover up their legs while wearing a dress. They have to! But they also recognize their is the risk of an unnoticed run. So ladies, social media managers, does the risk of a run outweigh the reward of proper dress versus bare legs and no social media presence?

Personally, I’d rather have the run in my ‘hose. It has happened to me before. Jumping analogies let me be clear, I have had a run in my ‘hose, I have never had my Twitter account hacked. But let’s talk damages now. What actually happened as a result of the BK account being taken over and singing the praises of McDonalds?

1. Publicity happened.  Sure BK had a little egg on their face because it took them over an hour to do anything about the hacked account, but did they lose any business? No. Are people talking about Burger King? Absolutely. Has it impacted BK sales favorably? I’d bet not, but the bottom line is it didn’t hurt them and now more people are bothering to tlak about BK than they did before.
2. Competitors showed their humanity. Did McDonald’s jump on the opportunity to say, “hey look, even Burger King likes us?” No. They did the opposite actually and expressed their sympathies for the situation. In a political and competitive world, to me that was a refreshing sentiment.
3. We more publicly entered into the risk versus reward conversation. Clients ask us all of the time if the data privacy and security risk is worth it when contemplating a social for CRM strategy. So I ask, is the potential for a run in your pantyhose, worth the reward of cost savings on marketing campaign impressions? The increased revenue from coupon-holders entering your establishment after opting in to a Facebook deal? Do you know what the reward even is?

I’m sorry for Burger King’s social media manager, and Jeep’s, but I’m sort of happy this happened because now I want to challenge everyone reading this post. Do you know what you’re trying to accomplish with social? If it’s CRM, what are your marketing, sales and service objectives? How are you determining if you’ve been successful? And hey, what are the risks associated with what you’re doing OR not doing? If Burger King didn’t have an official Twitter handle, you can bet someone else would have created a mock one for them.

Two things to think about and comment on if you would:

• If you were Burger King’s social media manager, what would you have done differently?
• Have you (honestly) bothered to draw up a risk vs. reward scenario for your social presence?

The grammatical and spelling errors in this post…I know.

First, I know I haven’t been blogging as much as I “should.” I’m not the first person to have trouble finding time to blog. I am not the best at balancing my personal and professional life and time. I am not the only person who has ever made the “I’ve been too busy” excuse. I am not one of a kind, nor am I best in class.

(Huh?)

Alright, I came clean: social application vendors, it is time that you do the same.

Gartner follows over 150 vendors in the social for CRM space. I alone have 152 files on vendors I have been briefed by, many of them multiple times over the past 2 years…and there are multiple products under each of those vendors, mind you. And the point is: the likelihood that the product I am being demo-ed is the first, the only or the best is very, very minimal.

Jennifer Lawrence's impression of any analyst who hears the words "first," "only" or "best."

And so now, the constructive part of this post.

Vendors: it is okay. You don’t need to be the first, only or best to be different. When you talk to an analyst and when you pitch potential clients, be cool. TELL ME WHAT YOU DO. Don’t give me marketing lingo. Tell me what you do and hopefully you know what you’re doing well and can hone in on it. If you don’t know what you do well, because you couldn’t possibly have an eye on an entire marketplace because that isn’t your day job, guess whose day job it is?

That's right...

End users: I can only imagine how confused you are. I hear it every day from our clients. The irrational short lists. The pure confusion in people’s voices. If you look at any social application vendor’s web page, it’ll look like they all do the same thing. Sure there are some exceptions, but for the most part 80% of vendors are out there saying, “we’re a social media management system! We do it all. Marketing? Yes. Customer service? Sure. Sales? Of course, you can make millions in new revenue through social! Branding! Engagement! Analytics! Buzzzzzzzz” Here is the simplest advice I can give: know what you want and what you need. Shop around. If you’re a client, you can just call us. We’ve sat through a lot of briefings and talked to a lot of customer references (both happy and unhappy) so that we can let you know, what we know.

A message to all: know who you are as a vendor or an end user. Know what makes you unique. Understand that not everything is always going to be perfect and stay humble but emphasize your best features and where you are looking to grow.

Gartner clients, look at our vendor guides and top use cases research to gain a better understanding of what the differences between social use cases and the vendor’s that serve them. If you have some more questions, just set up an inquiry and we can talk through them.

Clients and non-clients: is there anything else that is confusing you that needs further definition? Tell me about it in the Comments section below.  And now, because we all miss this…

Sheen is winning.

Some of what you can expect from this week’s Customer 360 event courtesy of yours truly and Don Scheibenreif (did I spell that right?)

#gartnercrm

Let’s press play and turn on the speakers for this one because it’s nearly summer time and while our interns come to join us, we should listen to some relaxing music. Plus, your intern might look like Chad or Jeremy in ’64.

If you give an intern control of your Facebook page, one or two or three of many things could happen. He/she might…

Feel empowered…

Feel confused…

Establish the customer-facing social media strategy you lack…

Get angry with you and post something inappropriate…

Build a foundation on which you can express your brand’s brand on social media…

Build a foundation for your brand that is not really your brand’s brand…

Flourish under your leadership and become a change agent and leader in your organization…

Go work for a competitor, while still having admin access to your Facebook page…

As intern season springs upon us and the doe-eyed young’ns enter our white-walled dwellings, let’s keep in mind that the tasks we assign them are tasks that have an impact on both the intern and the organization. When I was a wee intern, some of the folks at my former employer gave some of us a camera, they gave others the equipment to podcast, and others the opportunity to blog. That one day where someone believed in us and entrusted us to go out and express how we felt about the company we were working for changed our understanding of “career” and what we could do to impact a “stiff” organization.

But also keep in mind that these interns don’t know the history behind your brand. They don’t necessarily understand your industry and your competitors. They might not even understand your product. And worse, they will be gone at the end of the summer. Don’t have them start something you can’t carry on.

And with those few words of wisdom, everyone enjoy your summer

Let the music play out…

Every marketer makes the mistake of equating activity to value at some point in their career. You know what, it’s not just marketers: it’s everyone. “You left at 5:30? I work until 10 pm every night.”

The bottom line for the 10 pm people: if I can get similar or better quality work done by 5:30, I’m not working until 10.

When I was an entry level marketer focusing on social media, I had some really strong mentors who taught me how to create content that wasn’t boring. They helped me see that even though I was marketing B2B software, I could make the content interesting versus just having the ‘talking head’ videos that we’re all too familiar with. I was proud of myself. I was getting content created with little to no-budget that was garnering an audience of hundreds, or if I was lucky it’d get thousands, and for one product line of a non-consumer brand, that level of activity around content is not something to be scoffed at.

I also had a higher-level, executive mentor. He was this really well-respected, smart, hilarious man in the company who scared the ____ out of me and everyone who worked for him or around him. (Side note: being able to make people laugh until they cry, and at the same time have them genuinely fear you, is a legitimate skill. I’m still in awe of this person as you can see.)

So one day I was working from my former company’s headquarters and he calls me over the catch up. I was so proud of the work I’d done and as I told him about the content I’d created and the low-budget with high viewership, I was sure I was impressing him. I wasn’t. Instead he hit me with some business knowledge and took me down a peg. He asked, “so how many prospects were you able to pin point?” And I said, “well, none but…” And so he asked, “were you able to close any deals as a result of this?” And I said, “No but this cost us next to nothing and has thousands of views!” And he said, “we made a video the other day for $40,000. It has 30 views, but we closed a $3 million deal as a result of it. The ‘talking head’ helped us close a deal with his company.”

Duh. Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. When you work in the social space, you end up getting so consumed with being creative and getting ‘hits’ that you often lose track of your true business purpose: make us money or save us money, either directly or indirectly. You can literally pay for ‘activity.’ $39 will get you 5,000 views on your YouTube video thanks to Socialkik.

When you’re building your social media strategy, including your social content strategy, consider your end game and act accordingly versus 2009 Jenny.