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?

Discuss social with me: 2009 Mprofs B2B Forum

The MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum was one of my favorite conferences of 2008.  I debuted my r u ready presentation to a roomful of marketers, met lots of great people and had tons of fantastic hallway conversations.  So this year, I'm going back for more -- but with a twist.  Rather than giving a stand-up presentation, I'll be leading a small, interactive discussion designed to give 30 or so marketers practical ideas for how to do social media marketing right and deliver real results.

This year's B2B Forum takes place on June 8th and 9th at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel, with my session happening at 11am on the 9th.  The details are still coming together, but here's what participants can expect:

What Will Social Media Do for My Business?

June 9th, 11:00am - 12:15pm

Have you been asking yourself this question?  Many b2b marketers want to get involved in social media but aren't sure where to start or what the value really is.  Join us for this interactive exchange of ideas between social media experts and attendees.  This session promises to be a lively discussion about how you can use social media to enhance your marketing programs and achieve a higher ROI.  You'll learn not only from the panel experts but from your peers facing similar challenges.

Sound interesting?  Of course it does.

You can learn more and register at the MarketingProfs site.

Raving with David Meerman Scott: Speaking on 3/11

 

Just a quick note to let y'all know that I'll be speaking at the upcoming launch event for David Meerman Scott's new social media marketing book World Wide Rave.   In WWR, Scott looks at how brands can use content creation, word-of-mouth and all sorts of shiny Web 2.0 goodness to build massive audiences that love their products, want to buy them and are eager to do their part in spreading the word.

The event takes place from 1pm to 5pm on March 11th, 2009 on the campus of New York University.  Visit the event's web page to get all the details or to register.  Tickets are just $29 and everyone who registers before March 3rd gets a free copy of World Wide Rave (plus a copy of event organizer David Vinjamuri's Accidental Branding if you're one of the first 40 to sign up.)

I'm participating in a blogger panel, along with Ogilvy's Rohit Bhargava and B&H Photo's social media guy Henry Posner.  There will also be presentations by a handful of client-side marketers, so if you're in NY (or just plan to be there on March 11th) you may want to check it out.

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.]

MarketingProfs webinar: 'Social Graces' on 1/22/09

I'm happy to announce that I'll be taking the MarketingProfs "virtual stage" on January 22nd, presenting a 90 minute online seminar about conversational marketing.  This web event is free for MProfs Premium Plus members and $129 for everyone else.

You can learn more and register at MarketingProfs.  I hope you can join me.

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Social Graces: Strategies to Take Your Social Media Marketing Beyond One-Off Tactics

Where: Online

When: January 22nd, 2009 @ 12 noon EST (90 minutes)

When it comes to social media, you may have tried one of everything — a blog, a Facebook Fan Page, a widget, an App, a Twitter account, the list goes on — without gaining any insight into whether or not any of them delivered real results. Or perhaps you’re so confused by (or frightened of) social media that you haven’t tried anything at all. In either case, now is the time to polish your act and develop some "social graces."

This seminar goes beyond the tried-and-true conversational marketing platitudes (be authentic, be transparent, the consumer is in control — really now?) and looks past the ever-changing menu of today’s "hot" Web 2.0 properties (how many of those will be around come year-end?) to provide a clear vision of how companies can leverage sweeping change and must-know trends to propel their digital marketing plans into the future.

That probably sounds like a tall order, and it is. It may sound too abstract, too conceptual, too hard to put into practice. It isn’t. Each insight, approach and concept will be illustrated with real examples of companies that have succeeded and — just importantly — companies that have failed. At the end of 90 minutes you will leave with a set of innovative approaches, a stack of specific ideas that you can implement right away, and a much better sense of how to make conversational marketing work for your business.

You Will Learn

• New ways to think about the role social media and conversation can, should and will play in your overall marketing mix.
• Key concepts that help simplify this whole social media thing in terms that even your CEO can understand.
• Why the social tools and platforms you choose are less relevant than the people you engage and the way your company "behaves."
• Why you need to ditch "old marketing" approaches when connecting with consumers through social channels.
• How to move beyond just the "what" and truly understand the "why" and "how" that can take your social media activities from me-too tactics to key components of your marketing advantage.

Who Should Attend

• Anyone who is responsible for their company’s social media marketing efforts or would like to learn more about how other companies are using social media and conversational marketing approaches to deliver business results.
• Marketing, PR and customer support professionals; senior executives and any company stakeholder who wants to gain a better understanding of what differentiates social media success and failure.
• This webinar focuses primarily on strategic approaches and next-level concepts. A familiarity with basic social media concepts and common social media tools is helpful, but not necessary – we will start with a basic primer before delving into the heart of the program.

REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT

Talk about uncomfortable...

Yesterday, fellow crayonista Adam Broitman and I participated in a mock new business pitch "shoot out" at the iMedia Financial Marketing Summit.  In a nutshell, we were provided with a fake (but plausible) RFP from a hypothetical banking giant, and charged with crafting and presenting our response to a panel of three marketers/judges (the Simon, Paula and Randy of financial marketing), in front of a roomful of conference attendees.  One other agency -- Geary Interactive -- would do the same and, at the end, the judges would choose a winner.

Adam and I lost (I suppose people still find it difficult to take a chance on the future of marketing.) 

In truth, I expected us to lose.  After all, we're a six person company slammed with pressing client deliverables and lots of real new business activity -- the mock pitch was a fun diversion but I can't say that we had the time or energy necessary to knock this one out of the park.  But more importantly, everything about the mock pitch process put us (or me, at least - I don't want to put words in Adam's mouth) well outside our comfort zone. 

Here's the rundown:

For starters, crayon doesn't pitch.  I don't mean that we don't write proposals, or stand in front of prospective clients and put on a dog and pony show (for anyone wondering -- Adam was the dog, I was the pony.)  Of course we do.  But we tend not to get involved with the traditional agency pitch process of formal RFPs, cattle call shortlisting and final stand-up presentations evaluated head-to-head against the comparable work product of a batch of other agencies.

Which leads me to point two -- the reason we generally don't do this is that we're not an agency.  We're a strategic consultancy.  Now, some of you would probably question whether I might be splitting hairs but, trust me, I'm not.  We quite simply don't exhibit many of the hallmarks of the "traditional digital" shop -- no creative team, no designers, no developers, no media department, etc.  We're strategy guys through and through and, while we absolutely bring programs to life on behalf of our clients, we aren't the company you hire for straight-ahead tactical execution.  We don't do most of the things agencies do, but on the other hand we believe that we do the one thing we focus on (conversational marketing) better than anyone else on the block.  We know that putting crayon head-to-head against more traditional agencies is somewhat akin to putting apples up against armadillos.  Neither is inherently better than the other (although I wouldn't suggest baking an armadillo pie); but they are indisputably different things. 

By this point you shouldn't be surprised to learn that the RFP itself was a losing proposition for us from the outset.  Without getting into the details of the faux marketing challenge, the requested response should have included a redesigned website, banner comps, new taglines, an online media plan, even revamped ATM screens.  While we did address some of those things (albeit with a uniquely crayon spin), we mostly focused on a strategic approach to conversation and a series of social media programs that would allow this hypothetical bank to engage their customers in open dialogue about providing the best possible banking experience.  We're smart enough to know that our recommended approach wouldn't/couldn't/shouldn't replace the more traditional digital marketing efforts outlined in the RFP, but we did (and do) believe that the challenge presented in that same RFP called for a concerted new marketing push.  And besides, conversational marketing is what we do.  We wouldn't pitch Flash work or banner buys to a real client; why would we pitch them here?  Of course we knew that we were an odd fit for this "assignment" but we certainly wouldn't shy away from something just because it's outside our comfort zone -- even if that means tweaking the input and approaching the challenge in our own way.

And this brings us at long last to the matter of a suit and tie.  The event was at NYC's fancy schmancy Metropolitan Club and, thus, had a business formal dress code.  And I'm just not a suit and tie kind of guy.  In fact, it is a rare occassion when I wear a suit even without a tie.  I work from home, my clients are generally business casual.  I'm all about the t-shirt and jeans -- collared shirt and jeans for most client meetings.  In the grand scheme, the dress code probably seems like a minor thing -- and it is; but it's yet one more thing that put me outside my personal comfort zone.  Sure I looked devastatingly handsome (that's a joke) but I felt slightly foolish and more than a little like I was a kid dressed up in daddy's clothes (trust me, when you're almost 40 you don't want to ever feel that way.)

So, yup, we lost.  Did we lose because we were operating so far outside our comfort zone?  Did we lose because our recommended solutions forced the panel of judges (senior financial marketers who -- let's face facts -- are probably used to more traditional approaches) outside theirs?

Or did we lose because, although we were outside our zone, maybe we didn't stray far enough from the outer edges.  After all, we presented a recommendation that was quintissentially crayon.  We were true to who we are and we presented work that falls right inside our core competency, even though it was mostly outside the scope of the RFP. Sure, we probably lost because Geary, being a proper interactive agency, was better suited to the job or simply did better work (the two competitors didn't get to see each other's presentations.)  We probably lost because we didn't address the brief head on. 

So what if Adam and I had taken off our comfy colorful crayon hats for a few minutes and put together a presentation that tapped into our pre-crayon experience (we're both reformed media planners, ex-agency guys and know a thing or two about building sites) to give the (hypothetical) client exactly what they were asking for -- even if, in our hearts, we believed that what they wanted wasn't what they really needed?  Maybe, in that event, we would have kicked Geary's butt.

In the end, that may have been the right decision.  On the other hand, it would have made me really uncomfortable to take that route.  Then again, what's one more thing?  Compared to the necktie, it might have been pretty easy to handle...

Verdino Live: fall & winter 2008/2009

Even though the RSS Calendar widget in my sidebar always displays my upcoming speaking engagements, I like to let my readers know where I'll be presenting.  As always, I hope that some of you can find the time (and money) to attend an event or two.  With that said, my Fall and Winter speaking schedule is already pretty busy with conference appearances in New York, Florida and India, and a couple of webcast presentations on the interwebz.

Here are the details for five upcoming gigs.

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iMedia Financial Marketing Summit
October 21st, 2008
New York, NY

Fellow crayonista Adam Broitman and I will be spinning heads and cracking skulls (bald and otherwise) when we take on Geary Interactive in an 'agency shoot out' mock pitch competition at iMedia's day-long financial marketing conference.
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Marketing 2.0
Digital Transformation: Niche to Mainstream
November 14th, 2008
Mumbai, India

I'll deliver the opening keynote at this CMO summit designed to help global marketers understand how to make digital and emerging channels a core part of their communications mix.  This will be my first trip to India and I'm looking forward to speaking with 100 or so senior marketers about how the world is changing and what digital marketing trends they need to understand and tap into.  No website for this one yet, but you can download the agenda: Download 9dot9_DigitalTransformation.pdf
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Beyond Analog: Today's Digital Marketing World
December 3rd, 008
December 10th, 2008
AMA Members Only Webinars

Two identical live online events featuring Diva Marketing's Toby Bloomberg, Digitas' Julie Fleischer and me, talking about the future of digital advertising and the importance of a wide variety of new channels.  These webinars are being held in conjunction with the American Marketing Association's upcoming MPlanet conference and I'll be speaking specifically about gaming and virtual worlds.  The events aren't promoted on the AMA site yet, but if you join the association before October 31st you'll get comped the webinar registration fee as an added bonus.
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MPlanet: Navigating the New Marketsphere
January 26th, 2008
Orlando, FL

My 2009 speaking calendar kicks-off with the American Marketing Association's MPlanet conference, where I'll be running four workshops on "Gaming, Virtual Worlds, and Life After Second Life" during the pre-conference Digital Marketing Lab.  The lab looks to be a bootcamp for senior marketing execs, designed to prep them for the heady stuff that will follow during the main conference program.  The AMA wins an award for Most Bad-Ass Speaker Bio Page.

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That's all for now but stay tuned -- or keep your eye on my RSS Calendar -- for updates.

Watch me on Lucky Startups: 10/10 @ 4pm EST

On Friday, October 10th at 4pm EST, I will be a guest on the live web show Lucky Startups.  That's either today or tomorrow depending on when you catch this post and what time zone you're in, so mark your calendars and be sure to check it out. 

You can catch me in all my online video glory by tuning into the Lucky Startups Ustream channel.

I'll be chatting with my Twitter-bud Aronado Placencia about what it takes for a start-up to catch my attention, how new companies can go to market and generate interest among marketers, and lots more.  I know Aronado usually features a cool start-up or two on each episode, so maybe I'll get to listen to some pitches and wow some suitably impressed founders with my sage advice.  If nothing else, I will prove exactly why I don't like doing video (hint: I'm hideously ugly and awkward in front of the camera.)

If you've never heard of Lucky Startups, their elevator pitch goes something like this: 

Lucky Startups is a live-streamed web video show that allows any startup to get exposure, a captive audience, and valuable feedback from potential business partners, customers, members, and investors.

Tune in Friday, October 10th at 4pm EST.

My IMS08 session: r u ready? (new video)

Inbound Marketing Summit has just released a fully produced video of my r u ready? presentation.  Aside from making it painfully clear that I blinked and said 'ummmm' way too many times -- and convincing me that I really need to do something about my double chin -- it does a good job of capturing how the voice and the slides work together.

[Feed and email readers can click through to watch in the embedded player or visit the Inbound Marketing's blip.tv channel to watch it there.]

If you like my session and check out all of the conference presentations, you can find them in IMS08's blip.tv archive.  Enjoy.

Mobile ftw (my mobile marketing presentation)

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was putting together a presentation about mobile, and got lots of great input from some of you.  Well, tomorrow (or today, depending on when you catch this post) is the day I'll deliver that presentation to an auditorium full of marketers. 

My storyline? 2009 may not be the year of mobile but that doesn't mean marketers can't find smart, effective ways to innovate in the mobile channel.  But don't think that mobile advertising models that mirror traditional ad models will cut it.  Instead, focus on five key ways your brand can add value for mobile consumers.

What are the five key ways? Well, you'll have to check out the slides.  As regular readers know, my slides typically require voiceover -- but I think you'll still get the gist.  Besides, they sure are purty.

Mobile FTW

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: mobile gregverdino)

[Feed and email readers will need to click through to view the embedded slides.]

Feel free to comment or contact me directly if you have any specific questions.