As I come out of the Social Media Closet and talk with some of the more well-known folks who are Social and Community Strategists, I often get asked the question, “why haven’t I heard about you before” or “I never knew you were doing that”.

So… I figured it was my time to let you know what I actually do – Social & Community Strategy for major brands in the states and abroad. What does this actually mean, really? So many claim to be experts (I do not) however, in my most recent conversations with some of the top people in the business of Social, it is apparent to me that I am surrounding myself with some great people (and very happy about it).

To give you a glance into what a day looks like for me (not that you really care) I thought it would be helpful to see some of the players I speak with about the business of Social. Lets start with Corvida Raven, a young Social Media Maven, who I reached out to just to connect and see if I could write a blog post for her (5000+) readers at SheGeeks.net. Watch out world, because when Corvida gets her career in high speed, she is going to really make waves. She and I had a conversation about the overall uses of Social for Business and the struggles this fluid medium finds itself for marketers. We also discussed the ways in which we may work together (can’t wait).

The next call was with Bill Boorman, a British Recruiting Consulting Powerhouse, of 27 years who uses Social to get HR and Recruiting on rails. We met through Twitter as Bill and I have been following each other since the early numbers on Twitter. Bill is a well spoken, bright and well liked individual, with a upcoming show in London that one of our own here in Roanoke is attending.

As the morning progressed, it was calls with the Webby Award winning CEO at Maverick Digital, Todd Tilley on a Community for a client on Social Strategy. Talk about a call, this one is short but robust and packed with ideas on engagement, brand monitoring, analytics and crm. Maverick is one of those hidden jewels, mostly known to the spirits world as the thought leader in the space, and the work they create is something to behold.

Next up (and it’s only 10am) is a call with Jason Falls, ranked #8 on AdAge’s Top Blogger List, and a great guy to boot discussing some of the ways that a Community could be built out and possible strategies. If you haven’t seen Jason’s blog (stop what you are doing now and go see it) it’s a must read for opinions and straight answers on issues facing Social.

Ok… time to work on Social Strategies to pay the bills.

The early afternoon brought me to a call that I have been looking forward to all week, Simon Mainwaring, of Mainwaring Creative. I met Simon through Bo Eason, former Houston Oilers Star (and a client) and one smart guy, no scratch that-really smart guy. This guy not only looks like a movie star, he has been one. Law Degree. Former Nike Creative. Is there anything he hasn’t done-Yes, but he is working on that one as well… We discussed Simon’s accomplishments (that took some time), which made me understand that I have so much more to learn. What he can do in a short period of time for any major brand is unbelievable. He shared some of the recent work he did – which was nothing short of genius in Communities and Social Media.

More work to pay the bills-cranking away in between calls.

The previous conversation led me to a need to talk with JD Rucker, one of the top guys. We discussed many ways in which we can get a few gazillion views of a video for a client, for which this one was not an easy one to go viral. We also talked about SEO and some of the ingenious ways we tie together discussions, search and insights to come up with a very powerful way for clients to get more bang for their buck.

Back to work, oops another call (Stop the Billing clock)

Next up was an old friend and colleague, Bob Soljacich, to discuss CRM strategies and Short Code Marketing for a project we plan to work on soon. So many great ideas come from a man who has been responsible for the best Loyalty Marketing Programs in the business (Harrah’s, Saks, Valvoline). It’s never short of great dialogue either, as we both operate so clearly in a both brain role.

Finishing off the day with expectations of another call, this time from my beautiful bride of 15 years – (favorite call of the day)

So, I hope this helps those who have asked or may be wondering or even care, what it is that a guy who has been a Direct Marketer for 19 years turned Social Media guy (4 years ago) does during any given day. Chris Brogan just released a video of a day in the life that I saw on his Facebook Page, which inspired me to write this note.

It’s 11:20pm while I write this note – just another typical day here.

Tell me about some of the special people in Social you have talked to recently…

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If you hit the “Accept” button on LinkedIn – Stop immediately.

OK…too much drama so far? Sorry, but I have seen a recent trend to quickly hit the “Accept” Invitation button with little or no research after you accepted the invitation. If you were given the chance to talk to a number of the 7,700 1st degree invitations I have accepted, you would understand how I have built a brand on LinkedIn.

I look at every Invitation, given segment rules (see “Hidden Revenue” post – Dean Link) and if there is a match, I then research their Profile, determine who their connections are, their position within the company and how we may benefit by getting in touch with each other by sending a message that is  highly personalized, relevant and timely, requesting a brief conversation via phone to uncover the possibilities we share.

Given human personality traits to respond in kind when asked a like question, most respond positively to the request and the process can begin. One caution, be sure you can “Connect The Dots” and determine a specific fit between you, the invitee and the opportunity for both parties to benefit from the next conversation. Do not attempt to send a “canned” message and expect to build a positive, long-term brand for you or your employer with this type of activity – it will not work.

Tips:

- Review every Invitation

- Look at each Profile that match your Client Trait Profile

- Write a warm, relevant message to the person that invited you

- Remember to follow through

Looking for comments and suggestions

As many of us begin to understand how LinkedIn and Twitter work in harmony together, many companies have yet to understand the dynamics of these two very different mediums from a ROI perspective.

I find that organizations, even those with many salespeople, can’t seem to determine why they should be on either platform, from a sales strategy perspective. Some  companies even discourage the use of LinkedIn and Twitter due to the misunderstanding of the possibilities. As we look to sell this strategy into the leadership of the companies we sell for, Marketing and Sales need to understand how to position the strategy from a revenue facing standpoint. By looking into each platform, there are distinct differences in how you drive interest in your company and traffic to your site.

From a Marketers perspective, using LinkedIn as the medium, allows you to determine with the advanced search tool to understand who your current customers are connected to unlike never before. Really, how often do you get to see who your customer actually knows in their personal lives and professional positions? Using parenthetical searches, you can easily see within your current customers, who else may be a potential opportunity that previously did not exist.

Twitter offers both Marketers and Sales many complimentary methods for finding and driving interest among current clients and prospects. Let’s look at how you also find other affinity audiences using tools like Tweet Deck, again using advanced Quotation searches, to see who else may be discussing similar products or services. This is similar to a Google advanced search, in a very tight group with the ability to reach out to others and determine if you share mutual business interests.

If all of this is a bit daunting, don’t fret, you are in good company. As a Marketer, there are many strategies that can co-exist into your current programs. Think of it this way, as a Marketer, LinkedIn and Twitter allow you to reduce sales cycles by 50% or more – not a guess but actual results that I have realized through my own experience.

Understand, you can drive revenue using LinkedIn and Twitter, however, selling it internally is more difficult than the actual process.

I look forward to your comments.

This is not for the weak of  hearts, however, you can cut through maddening amounts of time by using LinkedIn’s Advanced Search tool and some “Code Guy” type techniques.

Let’s look at how this works and then the operators that can help drive very interesting searches in far less time.

Tough? Let’s look at how we can make this simple:

If you would like to do a complex search (for instance, finding vice presidents or directors of divisions) you can combine terms like this: VP OR (director AND division). This will find people who have VP in their profiles, or have director AND division in their profiles.

Example: school:Harvard company:LinkedIn title:(founder OR ceo)

Now let’s look at a more complex search which can dial in on exactly who you may need to find:

Example: school:Oxford company:LinkedIn fname:reid lname:hoffman

As you will see, time and relevance will prove useful in understanding how to search for opportunity with complex operators, even for people with limited knowledge of advanced search techniques. Try it out to reduce your speed-to-revenue while spending quality time cutting down on time spent looking through pages of search results verses a few pages of highly qualitative results.

Looking forward to your comments or questions.

Thought that most LinkedIn Users would find this article I wote helpful:

For all the people with Outlook, here is a real simple solution to get the LinkedIn Badge on your email signature:

1. After you login to LinkedIn, look to your left bar and click “Edit My Profile” link
2. Just under the 2nd Blue box, look for “Promote your profile with customized buttons” and click “customized buttons”
3. Drag and Drop any of the Button Images (Badges) you like to your desktop – this should save a copy and easy to find
4. In Outlook (I am using Outlook 2007) go to “tools” and then “options” from the menu bar
5. From the dialogue box, select the tab “Mail Format”
6. Toward the bottom, select the button “Signatures”
7. Select your Signature (or create a new one)
8. Place your mouse wherever you want the LinkedIn button (Badge) to appear in the edit window below
9. Look for the icon just above the window you are in for “picture” and click on that
10. Go to your desktop where you saved the LinkedIn button (Badge) and select that
11. You should see the LinkedIn button (Badge) in your signature window now
12. Select the LinkedIn button (Badge) and click the icon just to the right of the “Picture” icon called “insert hyperlink”
13. In this window look on the left and select the “Existing File or Webpage” icon
14. Go back to your page you copied the LinkedIn button from, your LinkedIn Profile, and select on the left the “View My Profile”
15. In the URL Address Bar of your browser, highlight and copy this url
16. Go back to Outlook and past this url in the window and white box labeled as: “Address”
17. Save the Signature and hit ok until you are back in the main Outlook window
18. Test your email signature before using by sending yourself an email and click the LinkedIn button (Badge) AFTER the email arrives to see if your profile is accurate
NOTE: If you test only with an email that you start as “New Message” in Outlook, you will need to hold the control key down and select the LinkedIn button (Badge)
Good Luck!

Ok. It’s 2009 and you are wondering how in the world are you going to hit your Sales and Revenue Goals.

Don’t worry, your in good company. There is a new shift in how revenue is attained in today’s sales environment. To survive in today’s environment, you have to take the lead on the development of a strategy that allows you to prospect for customers you want and stop leaving this in the hands of your salespeople.

Without direction and guidance to salespeople of who you want to do business with that is low risk, high reward and guarantees lessened Risks of write-off’s and long-term sustainability of your business model.

Fear not, for there is a way – Decision Analytic’s guides your current portfolio of client’s and determines the highest at Risk accounts while providing balance for future prospecting and lead generation assuring growth and revenue goals are met.