Thank you, thank you, thank you

Posted by Blog Council Staff on October 24, 2008

Here’s a roundup of the great posts people have written about BlogWell.  Thank you, one and all!

TopRank: “Big Brand Social Media Interview: Wells Fargo, Home Depot, UPS & Graco”
http://www.toprankblog.com/2008/10/big-brand-social-media-blogwell/

Sean Cheyney and Hilary Weber: “Blogs, Social Media, and Niche Events”
http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/2008/10/23/Social-Media/Blogs–Social-Media–and-Niche-Events_123.aspx

Amanda, MailChimp: “BlogWell To Be Well”
http://www.mailchimp.com/blog/blogwell-to-be-well/

Blake Cahill: “You Should Plan to Attend BlogWell”
http://www.visinsights.com/you-should-plan-to-attend-blogwell/290/

Mike Moran: “Blogging for Big Companies”
http://www.mikemoran.com/biznology/archives/2008/10/blogging_for_big_companies.html

Jim Turner: “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”
http://www.conventioninsider.com/index.php/2008/10/21/do-you-know-the-way-to-san-jose/

Rohit Bhargava: “BlogWell: A Blog Conference Worth Attending”
http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2008/10/blogwell-a-blog.html

Lee Aase: “BlogWell Next Week in San Jose”
http://social-media-university-global.org/2008/10/20/blogwell-next-week-in-san-jose/

Renee Blodgett: “New Event: BlogWell on How Big Companies Use Social Media”
http://www.downtheavenue.com/2008/10/new-event-blogw.html

Michael Brito: “Event: Learn How Big Companies Use Social Media”
http://www.britopian.com/2008/10/07/event-learn-how-big-companies-use-social-media/
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/50853

Barg, Intridea: “BlogWell: How Big Companies Use Social Media”
http://www.intridea.com/2008/10/17/blogwell

David Alston: “Filling in the Case Study Vacuum”
http://www.radian6.com/blog/90/filling-in-the-case-study-vacuum/

SNCR, New Communications Review: “BlogWell to be Held October 28th in San Jose, CA”
http://www.newcommreview.com/?p=1339

Janelle, Online Success Institute:
“Do Good and learn also (I SO want to go to this – tons of great info!)”
http://onlinesuccessinstitute.com/success-announcements/admin/top-ten-halloween-costumes-on-ebay/

JD Lasica, “Two Worthy Conferences on October 28″
http://www.socialmedia.biz/2008/10/two-worthy-conf.html

John Jantsch, “How Big Companies Use Social Media”
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2008/10/13/how-big-companies-use-social-media/

Marianne Richmond, “BlogWell, DoGood”
http://www.resonancepartnership.com/2008/10/blogwell_dogood.html

Brian Solis: “Get to BlogWell and help out a good cause”
http://briansolis.tumblr.com/post/53078565/get-to-blogwell-and-help-out-a-good-cause

Liz Strauss: “SOB Business Cafe 10-03-08″
http://www.successful-blog.com/1/sob-business-cafe-10-03-08/

John Federico: “Join Us at BlogWell”
http://blog.blogtalkradio.com/2008/10/02/join-us-at-blogwell/

Krishna De: “How Big Companies Use Social Media Workshop (San Jose)”
http://www.krishnade.com/blog/2008/blogwell/

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Business Bloggers

Posted by Blog Council Staff on October 24, 2008

Borrowing from the world of Stephen Covey, Mario Sundar of LinkedIn moderated a panel on the “seven habits of highly effective business bloggers” last month at BlogWorld Expo.  The panel included Blog Council member Lionel Menchaca of Dell, Nicki Dugan of Yahoo!, Carolyn Abram of Facebook, and Tom Hoehn of Kodak.

1. Status: It’s a relationship and it’s complicated
Start a corporate blog only if you’re in it for the long haul. Every panelist described the genesis of their respective blog, it’s origins, and most importantly how the blog impacted the company’s relationship with the users. I also got them talking about some of the challenges and pitfalls associated with it.

2. Tell Honest, Current Stories
As Jack Welch described the one rule of corporate blogging: “Just be Authentic“. The only way to build credibility with your users is by toning down the PR speak and amping up the straight talk. We also went over some of the privacy issues that one has to deal with while running a company blog.

3. Know your limits
Another area that you must keep in mind (this is relevant more for Fortune 500 than Inc 500 companies) are the legal landmines you have to navigate. But remember, your legal team is there to help you. So, having them support you a 100% right from the start and drafting best practices is key to ensure success.

4. Make lemonade
Social Media jujitsu is what we called it (thanks to Groundswell for the inspiration). How do you take a seemingly negative situation - irate users; and turn that over to a positive. Nicki, Carolyn and Lionel shared some pretty inspirational stories that ranged from the Facebook News feed to Yahoo! TV. Key here is putting your users first and listening to them.

5. One size doesn’t fit all
As I’ve often said before; do not start a corporate blog unless you have a goal in mind. Given that different companies start a corporate blog for different purposes - some may use it to educate their users while some others for recruitment. Thus best practices are also going to vary from one example to the other.

The panelists got into a spirited discussion of whether comments are necessary for a blog and under what conditions. Does your company have a corporate blog? And, if so, do you allow comments? Feel free to share.

6. Learn as you go
On short notice, I threw out a question to the panel on the biggest lesson learned during their stewardship of their respective company blogs. Of course, they were all able to effortlessly answer the questions with many of their answers highlighting the improvisational nature of the job.

7. It’s not just words
And, finally a glimpse into the future. Ideas shared focused on the multimedia nature of the future. As you may notice many corporate blogs are increasingly stepping into social media (which by definition includes pictures - Flickr, video - YouTube, and the likes). What do you think does the future of corporate blogging hold?

TopRank Interviews Big Brand Social Media Execs

Posted by Blog Council Staff on October 23, 2008

TopRank has posted a fantastic interview with several big brand social media executives — Wells Fargo, The Home Depot, UPS, and Graco.  All of them are members of the Blog Council and speaking at BlogWell next week.

Here’s an excerpt:

TopRank: How do you decide whether to blog vs setup social networking profiles vs Twitter vs image and video sharing or other social media tactics? What’s your decision making process when it comes to testing and implementing social media engagement efforts with specific tactics?

Tim Collins: It all starts and ends with the business objective and the audience we’re trying to reach.  That’s what drives the tactics, as well as measurement of success.

Lindsay Lebresco: Most people using social media will tell you that the first thing you need to do when making decisions regarding the use of these tactics is to listen.  Listening to what your consumers have to say will inform your business strategy in this space and your strategy can then be achieved through the use of specific tactics. So listen first then create a strategy and then apply tactics that can help achieve your business goals.  Because social media is so new and much of what our brand is doing is, in a sense, experimental, we have to be prepared to be flexible.  Although a strategy is always put in place when trying something new, we are always prepared to adjust, dig in or pull out whenever necessary. It’s important to [be willing] to recognize when adjustments are needed and take action accordingly - if you don’t do it yourself, then your consumers will be happy to do that for you.

Debbie Curtis-Magley: For all tactics – whether social media or traditional communications - we look at its ability to support our communications and business objectives. One of the advantages of social media is that it offers new ways to connect with the media, customers and employees. It also broadens your ability to measure the effectiveness of your efforts, such as the volume and tonality of discussions that your communications attract.

Nick Ayres: It sounds a bit like strategy and marketing 101, but you really have to start with who your customers are and what their expectations and desires are from you in the space. Based on what you learn, you can much more easily lay out your objectives, strategies and tactics to meet those wants and needs. If you aren’t already doing so, one of the first things you need to do before even thinking about a tactic is to just start listening to what’s already being said about you. Whether it’s on blogs or on Twitter or in existing online communities – wherever your customers are already talking about your brand – you can learn a lot by just paying attention to what’s already being said. I’m a big fan of approaches like Forrester’s POST methodology, or frankly any method that starts with customers and their expectations, and works towards technology, versus the other way around.

For us, if you look at what we’ve done with Twitter or with our video syndication efforts (posting our how-to videos on YouTube and other video sites) we’ve had the most success when we’ve approached the spaces from that direction rather than a “hey this is cool so let’s do it” mindset.

Run (do not walk) to read the interview in its entirety.

Disclosure: TopRank is an official sponsor of BlogWell.

The Birth of a Blog, Part 2: Guest Blogger - Lindsay Lebresco, Graco

Posted by Blog Council Staff on October 23, 2008

(Continued from Part 1)

We wanted to understand the needs of our consumers even better. That is the fundamental shift we took on from “doing public relations” to quite simply “having a relationship with the public.”

We accomplished our goals in 3 ways:

1. Listening to the online conversation
2. Engaging with the online conversation
3. Participating in the online conversation

We would continue to monitor the online conversation about the brand as well as listen to what parents were talking about – to see what was going on in their lives and take stock in what was really important to them. We also heard that consumers were ready to have a relationship with the Graco brand (because of the high level of positive sentiment for the brand we found in our conversation mining in the online space).

That understanding helped us to put together a plan where we could engage in conversations with our consumers - whether it was providing some information about a newly launched product, correcting some misinformation about the brand, or most importantly, chiming in with nuggets of parenting wisdom about soothing an infant or potty-training a toddler (all via Graco employees personal experience- no expert advice here).

We also knew that online relationships can be made that much stronger by personal meet-ups so we started a series of Graco Get-Togethers where we would host a group of regional parenting bloggers at a venue (which ranged from swanky hotels, to nice restaurants to a bloggers’ living room) thus enabling conversation about the brand (and hopeful advocacy) and building relationships.

After that it was quite simple. Social media is all about relationships and that’s what we wanted to continue to build on.

The third part of our entrée into social media was the launching of the Graco corporate blog. We wanted to participate in the online conversation. It was important for Graco to have a voice and have an opportunity to introduce ourselves and highlight the fact that we (the employees of Graco and the contributors to the blog) are parents too. “We get you, we’re in this parenthood journey together” and that voice (the one of a parent’s) is the voice you’ll hear most frequently at the blog.

Of course, we’ll throw in an occasional post about a new product or program launch and we’ll talk about what it’s like behind the scenes at Graco, but what you’ll hear most about is tales of toddlerhood from our Commercialization Manager, Melissa Parlaman, or what happens when toddlers turn teen from Jon DeHart of the Car Seat Product Marketing team or Parent’s Dirty Little Secrets from Kim Lefko, Vice President of the Global Brand team – I’m even willing to share the fact that my potty-training 3 year old son has very poor aim which is evident in close inspection of the shower curtain, bath mat or wallpaper.

And that’s how we’re connecting with bloggers and online influencers, our readers, our consumers, our friends and even our fellow employees.

So when people ask about our strategy and perhaps hope to take away some pointers on how they might get started, I almost feel guilty telling them to simply: “Keep it real, be authentic and be fully engaged.”

• Employment: Public Relations and Social Media Manager at Graco
• Blog: Graco Blog
• Twitter: LindsayLebresco

The Birth of a Blog, Part 1: Guest Blogger - Lindsay Lebresco, Graco

Posted by Blog Council Staff on October 22, 2008

Nine months sure feels like an eternity to a 38-week pregnant woman a swollen belly and swollen ankles to match, but to the public relations, marketing and legal teams at Graco, nine months seem to fly by in a wink.

Funny enough, 9 months is how long it took the Graco corporate blog, and greater social media strategy, to come to life.

In that time, there were [sometimes painful] meetings with legal, deep, introspective meetings with my boss, the Global Vice President of Brand Marketing, meetings with the larger brand team, meetings with our social media agency, Converseon, meetings with would-be blog contributors, and even a thousand “meetings” with myself (those were really just reminders on my Outlook calendar to take my head out of the blogosphere). Believe it or not, while we were doing all that meeting, planning, debating, strategizing and talking, we were also listening. And that listening, coupled with a shift in the way we would approach “PR,” was the catalyst that helped Graco to dive headfirst into the world of social media and corporate blogging.

Before we started, we needed to identify what we hoped to accomplish for the brand through social media. We knew that first-time expectant moms often turn to other experienced moms or parents for advice so we knew that we wanted to enable advocacy of the brand to happen from parent to parent. We also knew that within the baby product industry, trust in a brand is paramount. The Graco brand is over 50 years old and we are fortunate that our brand has a very high level of trust with parents but we wanted to make sure we maintain that level of trust as well as build on it.

Lastly, we wanted to understand the needs of our consumers even better.  That is the fundamental shift we took on from “doing public relations” to quite simply “having a relationship with the public.”

(To be continued with details on how Graco accomplished their goals in Part 2)

• Employment: Public Relations and Social Media Manager at Graco
• Blog: Graco Blog
• Twitter: LindsayLebresco

Measuring ROI for Twitter

Posted by Blog Council Staff on October 21, 2008

Twitter has increasingly become more important tool in the corporate social media toolbox.  The Blog Council’s internal Twitter directory has 36 listings.  The Home Depot recently demonstrated how a brand can connect with its customers during a natural disaster like a hurricane.  And so on and so forth.

As a tool matures as a viable option, the inevitable question comes up - what’s the ROI?  Here are two potential answers:

1. Angela Maiers of Maiers Educational Services recently wrote about what she calls the Twitter Engagement Formula.  Rightly so, she demphasizes the importance of sheer number of tweets in favor of stronger engagement in conversations.  Here is how Angela describes the Formula:

Share Resources (70) - Successful learning in the 21st Century is not what you know, but what you can share, so 70 % of my Twittertime is spent sharing others voices, opinions, and tools.

Collaborations (20) - 20% of my Tweets are directly responding, connecting, collaboration, and co-creating with like-minded Twitter colleagues. From these important tweets, lifelong professional and personal relationships have been forged.

Chit-Chat (10) 10% of my Twittertalk is “chit-chat-how’s-your-hat” stuff. It is in these “trivial” details shared about working out, favorite movies, politics, and life in general that I connect with others as a human being. These simple chit chats are what have allowed me to know that I am never alone, and there is support whenever, wherever, and however I need it!

While Angela describes the Twitter Engagement Formula for an individual, there is no question that it can be adapted for use in a corporate setting as a guideline for engagement.

2. New tools for measuring Twitter influence are also starting to mature as well.  Some of them include:

Twitter Search

Monitter

Twitter Grader

Twinfluence

(Tip of the hat to Glen, who suggested these)

Anyone have other tools to share?

Corporate Blogger: Angel or Demon? Guest Blogger - Valeria Maltoni, SunGard

Posted by Valeria Maltoni on October 21, 2008

(Members of the Blog Council lead corporate blogging and social media at large corporations. We are delighted to share their thoughts on blogging from the corporate perspective. This post is the guest author’s personal opinion.)

I recently presented to the 2008 MIMA Summit on the topic of corporate blogging. Of the many thoughts I presented, which you can view here, I am most interested in your reaction to the following:

• How can you be humanly authentic? (as corporate blogger) - It’s useful when the company knows itself and you can use that as a guideline as to the personality of the business. There needs to be internal/external alignment so that there will be less dissonance between internal and external conversations. The company’s culture is the platform for passion about your business, products and services to shine through. Remember that honesty is the basis for truth.

• Do brands suffer? (when they go from one interaction many times like advertising to many interactions one time like social media) - my thinking is that community conversations strengthen the relationships we form with brands. By being available to many interactions, brand are not locked into one rigid expression or experience - they can become nuanced and personal.

• What is the worst that could happen? (when you open your company to social interaction) - if anyone here has ever tried to map the answers to this question with a full representation of their company, including legal, you have probably a better idea of how you’d moderate a conversation now. What are your thoughts on this one?

• How do you empower your community? - to me this is about enabling comments and staying on top f them, even when you moderate them. Allowing trackbacks and links. The other consideration is one of attitude. Would you leave customer reviews on your site? Even negative ones?

Community is a balancing act. It’s about navigating the fine line between active listening. On one hand it’s advocating for the community, while on the other you become an ambassador for the company.

• Employment: Director, Marketing Communications at SunGard Availability Services
• Blog: Conversation Agent
• Twitter: ConversationAge
• Presentation: View Valeria’s presentation from the Mima Summit

Q&A with a Corporate Blogger: John Andrews and Suraya Bliss, Walmart

Posted by Blog Council Staff on October 20, 2008

Have you ever wondered about the real people who run the biggest corporate blogs? This week, we’re sitting down with them to get their thoughts about the broader issues and landscape of social media at the corporate level.

John Andrews, Senior Marketing Manager for Emerging Media for Walmart
Suraya Bliss, Senior Director of Associate Communications for Walmart

Describe the key social media efforts at Walmart
At Walmart, our goal for social media is simple. Engage consumers around their passion points using saving money, easy shopping and quality products as a filter. With more than 140 million people coming through our doors each week, this extends far beyond the internet to mobile, the Smart Network our in-store interactive platform and virtually anywhere that our customer would like to interact with us.  Along with our customers, we are also finding new ways to connect with our more than 1.4 million associates about the issues they care about through the channels they want to use.

How would you summarize your roles?
To connect and serve as interface between customers and our marketing, PR, information systems, walmart.com, samsclub.com, the corporate intranet, and operations communities to help provide customers and associates better experiences at every touchpoint.

What do you love most about your jobs?
Working with teams across the company that believe in the power of new media and who are willing to do what it takes to bring ideas to life.

What is the biggest challenge you face with social media?
With 1.4 million associates and 200 million million customers in the US alone, it can be difficult to align goals and projects.

What advice do you have for marketers just beginning to utilize social media?
1. Hurry up.

2. Be willing to take risks and be willing to make mistakes.

3. Don’t think you can control the medium; your job is to leverage it.

What are your three favorite blogs?
From John:
Occam’s Razor (Avinash Kaushik)

Groundswell (Josh Bernoff)

Web-Strategist (Jeremiah Owyang)

Get practical, how-to advice, a lesson in disclosure and corporate social media responsibility, and loads of ideas and examples – all for $200.

BlogWell is presented by GasPedal and the Blog Council.

Look Who is Coming to BlogWell

Posted by Blog Council Staff on October 20, 2008

BlogWell is coming up next week, and look who is attending.  The following list is just a small portion of the companies that will be represented:

Alcatel-Lucent

BART

Charles Schwab

FedEx

Google

HP

IBM

Intuit

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Mayo Clinic

Meritage Homes

Molson

Oracle

Orange Business Services

Palm

Petro-Canada

SanDisk

Sony

Symantec

Tyson Foods

Weyerhaeuser Company

Windsor Mill

Yahoo!

And of course, the senior social media executives speaking represent some of the largest companies in the world:

Cisco Systems

Graco Children’s Products (part of Newell Rubbermaid)

The Home Depot

Intel

Kaiser Permanente

UPS

Walmart

Wells Fargo

200 Ideas for Corporate Blog Posts

Posted by Blog Council Staff on October 20, 2008

Doug Kerr of Compendium Blogware has compiled an impressively large list of ideas for corporate blog posts.  We can’t print the whole thing here, but here’s about 10% of the list.

Nice work, Doug.