Greg Verdino

Three B2B marketers dish out social media tips & tricks

Tomorrow morning, I'm heading to Boston, where I'm slated to moderate a panel at the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum.  This post isn't really about my speaking engagement per se, although I should mention that there's still time to register if you're interested in attending a great, no-nonsense event.

What this post really is about though is no-nonsense.  My session asks the question, "What will social media do for my business?" and we'll offer answers not from the usual gaggle of consultants, agency social media gurus or platform vendors (you've been to that panel a few too many times, I'd suspect) but directly from three client-side marketers who are deploying social programs for their companies today.

Even if you can't be at the event, I thought you might be interested in some of the tips and advice the panelists will share.  Take a gander at a hand-out we prepared, bringing together 15 practical points from three seasoned marketers -- Aneta Hall at Pitney Bowes, Donna Tocci at Ingersoll Rand and Monique Trulson at Hello Direct.

View more presentations from Greg Verdino.

[Feed and email readers may need to click through to see the embedded slide show.  Or you can view it directly on Slideshare.]

Now, I suspect some of you have great tips to share as well.  So chime in (especially if you're a client-side marketer) -- what does social media do for your business?

Book 'em Verdino: announcing microMARKETING

I'm excited to announce that I've inked a deal with McGraw-Hill for the publication of my first business book, microMARKETING: A Breakthrough Approach to Building Brands by Thinking and Acting Small.

If the title alone isn't enough to clue you in, I'd like to give you an idea of the ground I'll cover in the book.  Here's a bit of how I described the book in the proposal itself:

A media revolution is underway, fueled by a micro-content phenomenon that is shifting the balance of power from mass communications to masses of communicators.  This shift plays out daily on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ustream and other social sites.  It’s in the notion that an otherwise normal individual can use social media and low-end technology to become a micro-celebrity with a significant following.  It’s in the viral effect that takes hold when even one online influencer (in essence a one-person media outlet) sparks a conversation that makes or breaks a brand.  It’s in the shift in behavior that is turning the smart phone into the “first screen” for Gen Y and many increasingly-mobile Gen Xers.  It’s in the shift from watching 60 minute television shows interrupted by 30-second advertisements, to watching 30-second pieces of online video content with no advertisements at all.  It’s even in the changing of our expectations of product design and retail sales, giving rise to dozens of successful small businesses and individuals (think Threadless, think Etsy, think Mimobot, think Lemonade) that can create and sell enough high quality, unique or custom merchandise at a premium to shoppers for whom choice and individuality matter more than convenience and price. 

These are exciting times, but they can also be scary times for marketers who have been trained to think that bigger is better, and for whom the excesses and successes of the past 50 or so years – big budgets for major media ad campaigns designed to sell mountains of product through big-box retailers – seem to be the only way to build a big brand.  For better or worse, the new reality is that the old way doesn’t work so well anymore. Simply put, micro-content and macro-marketing don’t mix – and trying to maintain the status quo while consumer behaviors and expectations change amounts to little more than a recipe for failure.

Enter micromarketing – a new approach to building brands, marketing products and services, and growing meaningful long-term customer (and corporate) value.  Micromarketing emphasizes relationships over reach, interactions over interruption, and the network effect over the broadcast network.  It is built upon the premise that the “next big thing” is really lots and lots of small things, and that to survive and thrive, even the biggest marketers must think and act small (make that “micro”), too. 

microMARKETING is not a "Twitter book."  Puh-leeze... In signature Verdino-style, I will aim to help marketers understand the larger trends that are driving the popularity of tools like Twitter and what the real world implications are for businesses (even if Twitter itself -- or Facebook or YouTube, for that matter -- goes away), but my focus will be aimed squarely at the big picture.  I also don't plan to trot out the same ol' tired social media case studies.  In fact, one key piece of my approach is to help large companies understand how to thrive in the era of micro-content and micro-culture by taking lessons from the people and organizations that are involved in the revolution at the grassroots level.  In other words, I'll be looking at what the biggest of big corporations should learn from "whatever experts." 

Again, from the proposal:

Over the past several years, social media has evolved from a trend to watch to an irrefutable fact of life for marketers of all sizes.  Now – before most companies have even gotten social media right – the mainstreaming of micro-content services, the ubiquity of powerful low-cost handheld technology (from Internet-ready phones to consumer-grade HD cameras) and the rise of DIY culture promise to change the rules of consumer engagement yet again.  It is important to understand how these changes impact our ability to build brands, manage customer relationships and drive sales today, and this will only become more important over the coming years as more and more consumers flock to the technologies that are powering the shift.

On the flipside, it is also important that marketers not get swept up in the hype surrounding a single tool or tactic, losing sight of the bigger implications for their businesses.  As has happened with core social media tools like blogging, podcasting and social networking (and short-lived fads like Second Life), marketers now run the risk of not seeing the forest for the trees – of jumping on the “Twitter bandwagon” with short-lived, ill-advised tactics that do little to impact their businesses.   

On the one hand, microMARKETING educates decision makers about larger trends and what they mean for companies who are looking to more effectively engage consumers through new digital channels.  On the other hand, it delivers tangible and practical case studies, stories, tips and tricks from familiar competitors (other large corporations) and unlikely sources of inspiration (micro-businesses and individual creators.)

microMARKETING is slated for a May/June 2010 release.  I need to hand in the final manuscript by mid-October.  Needless to say, I've got my work cut out for me over the next few months.

That may mean less blogging for the next few months, although I'll still try to post here at least once/week.  And you should stay tuned for periodic updates on the book, my progress and the process.  Hell, I may even ask you for some input along the way.

Finally, I'd like to thank the good folks at McGraw-Hill -- especially Donya Dickerson -- and my agent Ethan Friedman at LevelFive Media.

Good times, ahead...

GyPSii: all-in-one social networking for the iPhone

As 2008 came to a close, my blogger-buddy Peter Kim asked a batch of social media folks to think about what 2009 would have in store for our industry.  I included location awareness and mobile social networking among my predictions:

Geo-location, location, location. Location awareness will be the mobile utility of the year as more and more consumers use their GPS-enabled phones and mobile social software (mososo) to find great stuff to see, do and buy wherever they may be at any given time, and foster real world face-to-face connections with the people in their social networks.

A few months later, crayon began working with a mobile social network provider called GyPSii.  GyPSii allows people to use their mobile phones to instantly capture and share what they are actually doing, building a multi-media virtual diary on their world – the places they've been, the things they've done, the cool things they've seen -- and share their experiences with their network of friends.  It's an all-in-one mobile social application that lets you connect with friends, document your life and share experiences, all in real time.  And of course it seamlessly integrates with Facebook and Twitter - making it easy to update once and share everywhere.

GyPSii already has a nice global footprint, and it works on most carrier networks and on dozens of different handsets.  But the reason I'm blogging about them now is that -- as of today -- GyPSii has launched its iPhone App.  And crayon and our good buddies at SHIFT Communications are helping to spread the word and get some traction.

So if you're an iPhone or iPod Touch user -- and especially if you're a social media geek who has dabbled with mobile social software and likes to bang on new services -- it would be great to see you on GyPSii.  You can get started by downloading the free App from the iTunes right now.

If you'd like a guided tour of GyPSii's iPhone features, you can watch this short video demo:

[Feed and email readers, click through for the video.]

Once you've downloaded the App, be sure to friend me on GyPSii, follow them on Twitter and become a Facebook Fan.  But most of all, be sure to spread the word, because the more friends you have on GyPSii, the better it gets.

Looking forward to connecting.

30 ways to Live in HD (and get free Panasonic gear)

At crayon, we've been doing lots of great work for our client Panasonic, all to support their Living In HD initiative.  I first wrote about LiHD in January, immediately after returning from the Consumer Electronics Show.  Here's some of what I wrote:

Over the course of the past year and a half, Panasonic has been driving a key initiative called Living in High Definition.  They have been selecting real families from across the United States and equipping them with a full suite of HD products.  Why?  To demonstrate just how much impact new Panasonic technologies really do have on how families spend their time and make memories, but also (and perhaps more importantly) to gain better insights into what real people want and how they use it once they have it.  We've been working with Panasonic to evolve the Living in HD program and the families involved with it into the seeds of an online community focused around digital consumer lifestyles.

Well, the LiHD community is now up and in full swing, with new members joining, connecting and sharing content every day.  You should check it out and join.  Once you're there, you'll not only meet plenty of interesting people; you'll also find lots of useful video content -- from a bi-monthly podcast to dozens of how-to tips to an ongoing series of clips from the LiHD Answerman, Panasonic's own HD expert who answers real questions from the community about everything from how to buy the right gear to how to get the most out of the gear you own.  It's a pretty rich program with lots to offer everyone from HD novices to prosumer content creators.  I hope you'll take a few minutes to check it out. While you're at it, why not follow our community leader on Twitter, become an LiHD fan on Facebook and subscribe to the LiHD and Answerman YouTube channels.

But as excited as I am about all the work we've done (and are doing) to bring Living In HD to life, the real purpose of this post is to tell you about a cool new sweepstakes we're running to drive community participation.

We call it the 30x30 Product Giveaway because Panasonic is giving away one camera per day for each of the 30 days in May.  That's 30 cameras over 30 days to 30 lucky members of the LiHD community. 

It's a fantastic incentive to get involved with Living In HD plus a great chance to win a new digital still camera or HD camcorder.  No purchase is necessary of course, but you do need to be a member of the community to win.

Here's all you need to do:

• Become a member of the Living In HD community
• Register for the 30x30 sweepstakes (you only need to register once to be eligible for all 30 chances, and you get to choose which of three great cameras you'd like to receive if you win)
• Check back every day to see who's taking home a new cam

So what are you waiting for?  Go register to win.  The month is already underway so the sooner you register, the more chances you'll have to win.

And of course I'd love to hear your feedback on the program.  Thanks. :-)

Quigley, Havens & Verdino get social (podcast)

Yesterday, Jane Quigley and I spent some time chatting with John C. Havens about everything from mobile social software and charitable causes to SXSW coolness and Adam Broitman (it was mostly John talking about Broitman, but still...)  That conversation aired live on Blog Talk Radio, courtesy of PepsiCo, and you can listen to it on-demand whenever you have the time.

[I've removed the BTR embedded player because it auto-plays but the show is at your fingers with just one click.]

Announcing: the Diggnation Lives in HD Contest

Last night, crayon client Panasonic helped the Diggnation boys rock South by Southwest at a killer throw-down that packed two thousand or so Kevin Rose fans into Austin BBQ joint Stubb's.  The highlight of the night was a live taping of Diggnation episode #194, during which Kevin and Alex announced the Diggnation Lives in HD contest.

But you didn't need to be at the party to join in the fun.  If you like taking pictures or shooting video -- or just want to take a look at our latest social marketing tactic to promote the Living in HD community site -- visit the promo page to find out how you can qualify for the competition.  Don't forget to join LiHD and be sure to friend the Diggnation crew (and me, while you're at it.)  You might win a sweet Panasonic digital still camera or HD camcorder.

If you're interested in seeing my photos from last night's Diggnation event, you can check my Flickr stream.

Social Graces: coming to a laptop near you

Stunning images, pithy headlines, my trademark rapier-sharp wit and copious amounts of full frontal nudity.

The new, expanded version of my "Social Graces" presentation offers all of that and more.  But if you want to know what the purty pictures really mean, you've gotta hear the talk track that goes with the slides.  And if you want to hear the talk track, then you need to register for my MarketingProfs seminar, going down this Thursday (January 22nd, 2009) at noon eastern.

Just in case you can't attend -- or if you have an uncontrollable jones for instant gratification -- here are the slides I'll be speaking to.  Ooh, I'm such a tease...

Social Graces (January 2009)

[Feed and email readers, click through for the embedded slides.]

Panasonic CES influencer program in Adweek

Adweek's Brian Morrissey gave Panasonic, crayon, our CES guests and me some nice press today, in an article that looks at brands tapping web influencers as brand ambassadors and content creators. 

From the piece:

Among the hundreds of journalists at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week there are five people producing reams of copy, photos and video about the show, new product demos and press conferences. Unlike the reporters, though, they are popular bloggers in Las Vegas courtesy of Panasonic.

The Panasonic program is one of several undertaken by brands carving out a new take on the old notion of advertorial. Rather than relying on magazines, they are contracting with influential bloggers who bring with them their own powerful distribution networks. Rather than a long-form narrative, content is fit for the Web via blog posts, Twitter updates and  YouTube videos. And the key differentiator: instead of dictating the content to lead to a sale, brands typically keep their distance to maintain credibility.

Panasonic wanted to build cachet among Internet influencers for its array of tech products. As part of its "Living in High Definition" push, Panasonic new media consultancy crayon recruited five bloggers to travel to CES on Panasonic's dime. Panasonic footed the bill for their travel and passes to the event while also loaning them digital video and still cameras. The bloggers, which include popular Internet figures Chris Brogan and Steve Garfield, will also meet with Panasonic executives and preview products. The catch: Panasonic has no say on what their guests post, according to Greg Verdino, chief strategy officer at crayon.

"There's not a direct quid pro quo," said Verdino, who also blogged and Twittered about CES for Panasonic. "When you give people equipment and they love it, just like any other consumer they'll evangelize it. We're not looking for them to hit message points and in effect shill."

Brian also writes about recent outreach programs managed by Izea, and a small business blogger initiative from American Express and Digitas.  It's good to see blogger relations get some good coverage, although Brian does clump all of these initiatives under the banner "Advertorial 2.0." 

I don't know that Brian intends the term to be negative and, for me, well done influencer junkets bear more resemblance to the traditional press junkets that are sometimes planned to spark mainstream media coverage, than they do to paid advertorials (which are simply ads designed to be viewed as legitimate third party content.)  UK blogger Robin Grant sees a similar distinction and has an interesting conversation taking place on his company's blog about this very topic.

But hey, it was my program so I'd love to hear what you think. 

How do you feel about blogger programs like the ones in the Adweek piece?  What works for you and what doesn't?  What would you do differently?

Panasonic, plasmas and people

Unless you're new 'round these parts, you know that I've been working the CES beat on behalf of Panasonic (a crayon client.)  I had intended to do lots of blogging and share lots of multimedia, but I was so busy over the past few days that -- other than a post on my first day in Vegas -- I haven't had a chance to write anything except tweets.  I did upload a bunch of photos and a few videos -- so check those out.  But moving along...

Tomorrow, I head back to New York, so I thought I'd at least take some time now to give you a sense of how I spent my time and reflect on some of my experiences at and around the show.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that it's a long post.  Bear with me.

Panasonic showed off plenty of shiny, new gear -- from the world's thinnest television, a sweet portable Blu-Ray player, and a 150-inch HD flat panel to (arguably the booth's biggest draw) 3D HD televisions that could hit American homes as early as 2010.  They also announced some great services designed to help Panasonic consumers make the most of a fully integrated, digital home -- services like a new Amazon partnership that will allow people to download on-demand video content directly to Viera Cast-enabled televisions.

But, truth be told, all of the latest gear (no matter how impressive) pales in comparison to the human side of CES -- and the human side of Panasonic's CES experience was the thing that kept me so busy. 

As anyone who has attended CES (or any conference for that matter) knows, so much of the value lies in connecting with interesting people.  Historically, CES has always about buyers connecting with sellers, and mainstream media reporters connecting with their manufacturer-side counterparts.  All of that still goes on but, moreso than any previous year, the people to meet, greet and get to know were the social media movers and shakers.  If you were a blogger, vlogger, podcaster, Twitterer or virtually any other type of prosumer ccontent creator, you were never more than a tweet away from getting together with other members of your community.  Social media makers were everywhere, and you had your pick of parties on any given night.

OK.  So what does this have to do with the price of sleaze in Nevada?

I was at CES as a marketer, but also as a blogger and -- more importantly -- as the host of six awesome social media content creators that joined us in Las Vegas as guests of Panasonic.  My main role was to help our guests connect with one another, the Panasonic executive team and some other very special guests of our client.

Steve Garfield, Chris Brogan, Stacy DeBroff, Melissa Pierce, Ponzi Pirillo and Vicki Rellas hit the show floor each day armed with Panasonic cameras and just did their thing.  They documented their experiences and told their stories -- some of their content has already hit the web, but there will be plenty more to come.  I can't wait to see what they've created.

We also gave them (we hope) compelling Panasonic stories to tell.  Of course, we made sure that they got a first hand look at all of Panasonic's latest innovations.  But more importantly, we gave them a look at the human side of Panasonic -- an electronics company that prides itself on having a distinctly human heart.  Listen to the Panasonic team and you'll hear, time and time again, that it isn't enough to make technologically superior products; it's vital that the technology improves people's lives, helps them live better, gives them new ways to spend their time, new means to create, save and share memories, and (increasingly) provides smarter, easier ways to create their own content.

Who better to deliver this vision to our social media dream team than the Chairman of Panasonic Corporation of North America.  Think about it -- that's a pretty cool thing (if I don't say so myself.)  The Chairman of one of the world's largest consumer electronics companies made the time to not only meet our influencers, but to engage each and every one of them in a meaningful dialogue.  Yoshi Yamada described his vision for the company, answered questions, and spend some of our session getting to know the bloggers better.

And of course the entire thing was on the record.  Some of the influencers' photos are already on Flickr and everyone in the room shot video.  Here are just a couple of my own shots.  The first shows the entire team flanking Mr. Yamada.

And how about this?  Mr. Yamada watching one of Steve's videos -- a clip shot with a Panasonic HD camcorder that was yesterday's most watched vdeo on CNN iReport. 

But wait, there's more. :-)

The human story behind Panasonic runs much deeper than corporate executives talking to content creators in the hope of garnering some good will and positive buzz.  Those were key objectives of this initiative, but Panasonic is committed to engaging directly with consumers in a more profound way.

Over the course of the past year and a half, Panasonic has been driving a key initiative called Living in High Definition.  They have been selecting real families from across the United States and equipping them with a full suite of HD products.  Why?  To demonstrate just how much impact new Panasonic technologies really do have on how families spend their time and make memories, but also (and perhaps more importantly) to gain better insights into what real people want and how they use it once they have it.  We've been working with Panasonic to evolve the Living in HD program and the families involved with it into the seeds of an online community focused around digital consumer lifestyles, but that's another blog post for another time.  For now, it's enough to say that Living in HD is important to Panasonic; even moreso in 2009.

Given the strategic importance of Living in HD, CES also provided a fantastic opportunity to celebrate a couple of real HD families, let them experience CES and let them tell attendees just how their lives have changed because of their involvement with Panasonic.  We marketing geeks wring our hands over how to best convince social media insiders to spread word of mouth online.  Panasonic is taking it one giant step further and tapping into passionate (but at the end of the day, normal) consumers to tell the Panasonic story to buyers and reporters at the country's largest consumer electronics conference.  I love this approach (and while Panasonic is a crayon client, involving real families in the CES booth presence was the client's idea.)

And so, finally, we used CES as an opportunity to take this another step further by creating opportunities for the families and the influencers to meet, connect and forge new (hopefully) lasting friendships, like the one that is burgeoning between the Calandros of San Luis Obispo and MomCentral CEO (and newly minted Calandro fan) Stacy DeBroff.

CES day zero

Today is the first day of CES, but yesterday was a solid twenty four hours of travel, check-in, prep work and Panasonic.  I've captured it all with my Lumix G1 (courtesy of Panasonic) and the photos are on Flickr.

For our first official task, Jaffe and I joined two of our guest content creators -- Chris Brogan and Steve Garfield -- at the Panasonic press conference, where our client talked about their latest initiatives and products.

I'll blog about some of their shinier objects over the next couple of days, as I get a chance to take a closer look at them in the booth.  But if the press conference presentations are any indicator, the folks at Panasonic have a lot of really cool stuff hitting the market in the next year or two.  (Yeah yeah yeah - I know Panasonic's a crayon client so what else would I say?  But really, this stuff looks very cool.)

Here's a taste... Steve G. captured the unveiling of Panasonic's thinnest Viera HDTV flat screen.  How thin is it?  One third of an inch.  That's about as thin as iPhone or (as you'll see in the video) Jaffe's index finger.

[Feedies and emailies, click through to watch.]

After the press event, we headed back to the Planet Hollywood Resort and joined the rest of our guest content creators, some Panasonic executives and one of Panasonic's Living in HD Families for a private dinner (including a six year old's birthday party - you probably don't see that too often at tech conferences.) 

We talked, learned, laughed, shot lots of video (I'll upload the best clips once I've had a chance to edit them into something watchable) and topped off the night by equipping our guests with a stack of cameras that they can use to document their own CES experiences.

As I've blogged before, this is all part of a program we've coordinated to help Panasonic engage with social media influencers, provide them with a great way to experience Panasonic and their products first hand, and to let them share what they've learned with their own communities.

Stay tuned for more CES coverage over the next couple of days.  And for those of you who are attending CES, please be sure to join us in the Panasonic booth tonight at 6:30 for a sponsored cocktail party.  Get the details and let us know if you're coming.