Posts Tagged ‘social media’

ICMG, an insurance industry association I’ve been involved in since 2004 (thanks to John Kertis), asked me to write up a little something about Linkedin that might be helpful to the membership, and by extension, the organization. (These Comments also seem to be relevant to any industry association, Linkedin Group, and/or professional.)

Fall 2011 on Clairhaven

Frequently I’ve heard and seen the following Comments about Linkedin and Social Technologies….

“I don’t really know that much about it. I’m accepting connection requests, but that’s about it. Who has the time for all that anyway…”

“I’ve joined a couple industry groups, but to be candid, I’m not really participating. I’m barely keeping up with regular email, let alone social networking…”

“I’ve got a profile in there, but I can’t remember my password…”

“I really don’t get the whole Social Networking thing. When I need to speak with someone, I just pick up the phone and call them. If they’re interested, they’ll call me back…”

“I doubt people ever search for me online. Why would they do that, anyway?”

“Social networking is for people that sell to individuals, not businesses. Insurance AGENTS should be using that stuff, but not me. I sell to company executives and they don’t use Linkedin and all that…”

“It’s impossible to keep up with all that Social stuff. As soon as I’ve got something at least somewhat figured out, they go and change it on me…”

“My company blocks access to Social sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Linkedin is open, but people frown on it when you update your profile or status. People think you’re looking for a new job…”

“Look Mike, I can see why YOU want everyone to use all these Social things because you’re in that business. But… I’m a deal-maker… OR I run an insurance agency… OR I’m selling services to insurance marketing executives… OR I work in the Senior market… OR I recruit, train, and support 1000s of agents…. I don’t have time for Social Networking. Plus the people I work with aren’t using it or even asking about it. So it’s a waste of time for me. I’ve got a job to do and numbers to hit…”

On the surface, these are all legit Comments, no doubt about it. However, we all know the common euphemisms that apply to Comments such as these. I won’t take the time to restate the common and standard responses, such as “Well, if ‘everyone else’ is jumping off a cliff, does that make it right?” Instead, let me point out some statistics and other data-points that might lead the reader to decide to take a different path, more forward-looking and though-leader’ish.

A few data-points about Social Networks in general:

65% of Adult Americans that use the Internet use Social Networks
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites.aspx

93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites and 85 percent believe that these companies should use these services to interact with consumers.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/study_social_media_presence.php

The top age group, by volume, that uses Social, is 35-44; second is 45-54.
http://derekshowerman.com/2011/07/07/age-demographics-for-social-media-usage/

Retirees age 65 and older are the fastest-growing group of social networking site users.
http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/planning-to-retire/2011/08/30/retirees-fastest-growing-users-of-social-networks

Social network use among Internet users 50 years old and older has nearly doubled to 42% over the past year.
http://mashable.com/2011/04/06/baby-boomers-digital-media/

A few data-points about Linkedin in general:

In June 2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique visitors, up 63 percent from a year earlier. (1)
As of March 2011 the service had 44 million users in the US and 56 million outside. (1)
LinkedIn members are on pace to do more than four billion searches on LinkedIn in 2011. (2)
The average American has 634 ties in their overall network and technology users have bigger overall networks. (3)
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkedin
(2) http://blog.linkedin.com/
(3) http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Technology-and-social-networks/Part-3/SNS-users.aspx

Lastly, a few data-points about the ICMG Group on Linkedin specifically:

Just like the Annual Meeting itself, it’s a big network and growing, but also includes non-members who are participants in the industry.

ICMG Linkedin Group has 450+ Members and growing daily.

Going further, many of the Group Members have over 500 Connections on Linkedin themselves. Most have at least 150+ Connections. If a study were done, it would not be surprising to find that the average ICMG’er on Linkedin is connected to over 100 insurance industry professionals and colleagues – and all these numbers are in growth mode right now.

The Group activity is meaningful.

Up significantly in 2011, Group Discussions have been used for announcements like new insurance products and distribution partners/channels, links to relevant articles on topics like health insurance and PPACA, and Q&A on different challenges and solutions native to our business and industry.

So as an industry participant, “What’s in it for me?” you may ask.

Think about it. If you post something in the ICMG Linkedin Group, 450 people in your industry have the chance of seeing it. If you post something INTERESTING in the ICMG Linkedin Group and 10 people make a Comment, add 10×100 or 1000 MORE potential industry views of your Announcement, Comment or Question. And what is the cost? Time.

What about research? Need a warm introduction to a potential strategic partner? Need to do some research on someone before starting a relationship? Looking for a service provider in your network? By connecting with industry colleagues and participating within industry discussions, can you see how both sides of this coin can be satisfied?

Others:

1. Never make a cold call again.
2. Never start a strategic relationship without great information about the prospect or the company.
3. Always go into meetings prepared with current information on the topic and the people.
4. Communicate with your target audience in a relevant manner for free.
5. Constantly increase your IQ on a variety of topics.
6. Shorten your sales cycles.
7. Draw your clients into your information stream, increase exit barriers and competitive advantage, and cross-sell new products and solutions.
8. Understand the inherent accountability to peak performance and trust that Social Networks build and reinforce.
9. The list goes on and on and on…

Are these helpful pieces of information that might change your mind about the environment? If so, you might then ask, “OK, Mike. I see what you’re saying here. What should I do to take advantage of all this opportunity?”

First, get in there and update your profile – completely. Manage your property. If you want to see a good example of all the parts and pieces, arrangement, keywords, applications, and so forth, feel free to browse my profile. I’ve done a LOT of research – every single element is done for a specific reason. Use me. Pay attention to the details – they each have a purpose. Above all, make sure your profile is connected to your professional email address. The general concept in play is “Online Reputation Management.” Nuf said.

Daily Activities
5 Minutes: Update your status with something useful. Reply to any Comments as quickly as possible.
10 Minutes: Scan your network’s status updates. (Here’s the thing: Build the Shares newsfeed section into a powerful part of your river of information.)
As you scan, by all means, Like and Comment on other Shares, as appropriate, remembering that your network will then see the updates that you Comment on and Like. Try not to read-only, instead add value with insights and promotion of content.
5-10 Minutes: Open and scan the Group email blasts as they come in. At least look at the subject and author.

No time to add 20-30 minutes a day to your schedule? Look for something to cut.

Weekly
5 minutes: Look at the network Recommendations on the Home page Network updates. Float your mouse over unfamiliar names that have recommended influential people in your network or vice-versa. Are these potential business partners?
10-30 minutes: Try to make a few Comments in a few Groups to add value and build influence.
If you haven’t already, look at the member list and send Connection requests to people you know. Send warm introduction requests to people you want to know.

No time to add 15-30 minutes, perhaps an hour a week to your schedule? Use down time in between things – JUST NOT WHEN YOU ARE DRIVING, PLEASE.

Monthly
10 Minutes: Update your profile with any material changes to your job, interests, awards, etc.
30-60 minutes: Make/Ask for 3-4 Recommendations for/from current clients wrt projects, etc.

No time to add a half-hour to an hour a month to your schedule? Make time – get up earlier or do it while eating breakfast. (Do you really need to watch one more game/show/movie with undivided attention?)

Two final comments:

All boat rise with the tide.
Don’t get left behind.

Good luck. Happy to help. Please Comment and Share. I wanna know. Thanks.

Hey, I just found another use for Blogging! It’s a productive use of time at 6am during a windstorm power failure when the only thing you have is battery power on the laptop – no internet, no lights, no coffee – can’t decide which is worse?!?!

So I read and shared this article this week. My guess is many of my colleagues in the insurance space will read it, gently cross their arms, lean back in their chairs, and think, “Yep, this is what I’ve been saying all along…and exactly why I haven’t gotten into all that Facebook, Blogs and Social Media stuff. It’s all a fad.”

Yes, we ARE in a bubble. But here’s the thing (and I’ll ask the crowd of readers to Comment their take below):

The article makes a sound analogy with e-Commerce during the ’98-2000 era. There certainly was a bubble and a burst. Dot-com’s were getting huge amounts of money with no revenue model, etc. etc. The crash hit, many of those companies faded out, etc. Don’t need to rehash all that.

But what came out of all that? Solid e-commerce platforms by solid companies. Not sure what the latest numbers are, but billions of dollars are running through the internet as companies put their products on Web sites and buyers buy them. Again, no need to justify and explain all that anymore – common sense and acceptable.

Why did e-commerce outlive the Bubble? I’ll argue the following. What do you think?

Individually – I’ll list three. Please add yours.

IMHO, it really boils down to Fundamental Human Behaviors

e-Commerce efficiencies with time and money – Didn’t people see pretty quickly that they could browse for books and music on Amazon.com faster than they could in the store? Didn’t Google make it incredibly easy to find pretty much anything you want and compare prices, vendors, choices, user ratings, etc.? [And now we have all of that on our smart-phones? And now we have things like Groupon, Web specials, discounts for Fans, check-in savings on FourSquare?]

Sharing – Didn’t people love to tell stories about what happened to them after they bought the products? Give advice to others in similar circumstances? Make recommendations? Comment from the peanut gallery? Be the arm-chair quarterback? Share uses? Rant about injustices? Solve problems? [Back then it was mass emails and Fwd Fwd Fwd, right? Now it’s Facebook and YouTube, etc.]

Helping – Didn’t e-Commerce make it easier for people to help each other? A fundamental behavior? Why do drivers flash their lights at cars approaching a speed trap?

Corporately – I’ll list five. Please add yours.

1. Industry leadership – Did the early adopters of e-Commerce realize long-term benefits as their systems matured through trial and error before the rest of the pack? When they figured out ways to do things better, faster, cheaper; to become known as an innovator in the industry; to develop ecosystems that snow-plowed the road for the industry, was there value in that?
2. Competitive advantage – Did companies with better e-Commerce platforms do better in the 2000s than the competition? And how are they positioned today in 2011? What were the difference makers? How about those that did things in-house versus outsourcing to specialists? Pro’s and con’s on that to be sure, but if we limit the thoughts to the legit, real-deal outsourcing companies…
3. Cost savings – Netnet, now that we’re 10 years down the road and e-Commerce platforms are in place, are cost structure differences yielding gains compared to the 80s and 90? Shopping? Distribution? Inventory management? etc?
4. Mass marketing – Did e-Commerce realize the potential for companies to immediately get new products out to wide bases of constituents? How about selling overstocks? What else? And now, what about this concept called “Revenue on Demand”?
5. Personalization – How about letting the consumer design their own product? Colors, features, accessories, timelines, etc.? Of course often for either a fee or for competitive advantage, right?

What are some other advantages of mature e-Commerce platforms?

Interesting side note: As I mentioned previously, I heard an insurance executive last summer say from a podium, “When will e-Commerce realize its potential?” I wanted to stand up and shout, “When you start doin’ it right, buddy.” Funny how that exec about 3 months later was canned. Oh, and 6 months later his Linkedin profile still lists him in the CEO role. Doh! I swear……. (I’ll save him the embarrassment of linking to it.)

So are we in a Social Media bubble? Absolutely. Will it burst? Yep. Then what? To answer the question in the original E-Consultancy blog…

“We’ll get back to reality and figuring out how to do Social Tech right like we shoulda’ been doing in the first place.”

My take? Social Tech is a specialization like anything else? It’s a discipline that must be mastered and kept up with? As to marketing? There’s a host of things that need to be done urgently today? If we don’t keep up, we WILL be left behind – just common sense. How costly will falling behind be? Again, my opinion, that seems to depend on customer switching costs and your competitors. Don’t underestimate the power of consumer ratings and recommendations, the viral nature of the social Web. Don’t be complacent. Change never stops.

What do you think? Good use of an hour to write this post? Any of this make sense? Please comment. Certainly link back to your site, your blog, or other writings. Please share with your network, ask them to comment, and see if we can get some of your thought-leader friends to pipe in.

Bubble or not, the critically important questions seem to be: Are there long-term utilities in Social Technologies? Does Social Tech align with core human behavior? And will early corporate adopters (caveat: who do it Social RIGHT) have long-term competitive advantage?

Reflections on the Aartrijk Brand Camp 2010

As was mentioned in a previous post, ABC2010 was indeed an idea vortex.  10 things I learned or had reinforced:

1. A new and improved Comment moderation tool for this Blog
2. How an Agency is using FourSquare
3. A lot about branding and the value of a brand
4. That Social was a strong theme running through-out the Camp
5. That a smaller and less structured meeting worked well with this group and drives a lot of value
6. Insurance professionals of all shapes and sizes, backgrounds, etc. can work together quickly to achieve an objective (my team won the competition!)
7. Power-strips at tables, free use of tech, WiFi and Twitter hashtags all improve the meeting experience
8. Agencies and Companies are open to and need massive help with Web sites and Social Tech
9. The job of Webmaster, and to some extent, CIO, is waning
10. When making important, strategic purchases, a very high percentage (80-90%) of buyers run various searches for the brand or person they are doing business with

While Social Media Marketing is growing extremely fast, and to some extent at the expense of traditional advertising, the concept of Channel of Choice seems to be the recurring theme.  And these Channels of Choice cannot be type-cast by gender, race, age, location or really any demographic.  Thus, in order to maximize marketing potential, all channels must be used.  To not use any one, say Facebook, is to cut off a certain percentage of the market.  Common sense… but needs to be said.

Content Curation is a tangible solution for our business, especially since we have so many restrictions on what we can say.  We also don’t seem to want to talk about insurance per se all the time.  So the question then becomes, “What do we talk about inside these Social Media’s and Networks?” Content Curation – a fancy term for pointing to other people’s content and Commenting, Aggregating, Rating, Fact-checking, Sharing and so forth.  Do-able.  But remember, when you link to content, your have to make sure it is valid content.  I believe (perhaps legal-eagle readers could elaborate in the Comments under this post) that under the “entanglement theory”, posts you link to would be considered part of your content and thus fall under compliance and legal jurisdiction. The other thing is personal stuff.  Indeed, contrary to conventional wisdom, customers and prospects DO care about the personal side of the people they do business with – it IS appropriate to talk about your trips, your hobbies, and your community, to mention a few.

Where you there?  What were your thoughts of ABC2010?  Any big take-aways you’d like to share?

What’s next?  Aartrijk is crowdsourcing the location, date, and theme of ABC2011.  Join the conversation.  There’s room for more voices.  Music video due out in December.

Pictures here.

Every now and then the perfect opportunity comes around, usually when you least expect it.  Of course we’re always on the lookout for the next great idea that will take us to higher ground relative to sales and marketing.  We all know it when we see it.  So we try to put ourselves in The Idea Vortex, hoping to catch something that comes out.  We kind of have an idea about where we might find that vortex, where the creative types, the visionaries, will be.  We definitely sense it when we’re in the middle of it.  And we tell everyone (except our competitors) about it afterwards.  And then we remember and keep an eye out for signs of a vortex that we might want to jump into.  But it’s always hard to know.

I think I might be onto one here and so wanted to share it.  I know my readers are some of the savviest people in the insurance biz (and not to toot my own horn, but to acknowledge THEM).  And so I’m hopeful that a few of them can break away and be there (or at a minimum, share this post with their networks on Linkedin or Twitter).

The Aartrijk Brand Camp 2010 at The Driskill (smokin’ rate) in Austin, TX starts 3 weeks from today.  I know it’s short notice relative to trip planning and calendars, but that’s another thing about some of the best moments in life, right?  They are usually last minute, kind of out of the blue, definitely worth shifting the schedule for.  Well, this might be one of those times.  I just got an update from the folks at Aartrijk.  (Btw, Aartrijk has been helping ICMG the last couple years and ICMG has broken registration records both times).  Brandcamp 2010 is “shaping up to be a dynamite conference, an intimate learning experience.”  Know this: It’s not a mega conference.  In fact, less is more.  Think small, but productive.

The Driskill, as well as Austin in general, is a very cool place – which inspires creative thinking.  The Aartrijk folks and the people they invite are among the savviest in the branding and marketing business.  And the format is specifically designed to be interactive, conversational, fostering ideation – and FUN (but not a boondoggle).  And like the name says, it IS a camp – you DO stuff.  As an example, I’m going to be helping folks understand and create blogs, twitter profiles, etc.  Rest assured, I’ll be sharing ‘the good stuff’.

So check it out.  Join me.  Join the group.  Bring your wisdom – AND SHARE.  It WILL come back to you.

Were you at Brand Camp 2009 at Hotel Sax in Chicago?  Heard it was terrific.  I tracked it on Twitter.  Share a Comment below.

Share this post with a few savvy peeps in your network.  Post to your Twitter or Linkedin profile using the ShareThis button below.

Register here.  See you there.

Yes, I will be taking pics and collecting sound bites for a viral vid after.  Should add to the buzz.  Very very cool.

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Yes, the rumors are true – I did have purple hair on Saturday!  I was supporting my son’s Homecoming @ Houghton College and my wife talked me into it.  The students loved it! See the pics here.  And Zach’s team won the soccer game in dramatic fashion!  Great fun.

Yep…Twitter really does rank highest. So contrary to something I heard 2 weeks ago from an insurance industry CEO who said Twitter was dying, it looks like it’s quite alive and well. (Btw, the a fore-mentioned executive has no experience with Twitter.  Ummm…. the things people say…)

See page 20 of the report, 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report – ton of fascinating data-points in here.  Take a few minutes to scan.  Might change your mind about a few things, or reinforce some of your ideas.

My own experience with Twitter is thriving.  In the last 4 weeks or so, I’ve seen a noticeable increase in my followers, both in quantity and quality.

• Going back to August 23rd – 82 new Followers
• Insurance or e-business/SocialTech-related – 39
• SO… ~15% surge, with ~50% of the new = targeted

Useful? Big time.  I’m meeting new people I never would have met otherwise, people on my topic, people smarter than me, people doing the things I’m writing and talking about with my clients, etc. etc.  Some of them are adding significantly to my River of Information, as Scott Klososky coined the phrase. More followers is inherently important and useful.  Why?  A number of reasons.  Here’s one: Social Relevancy.

Social Relevancy is the little known third leg of the Social Tech stool, the first being Social Media, 2nd Social Networks, and 3rd Social Relevancy.  Social Relevancy is all about the Influence a person or an entity has in the social scape relative to a subject matter.  Take me as a quick example.  I’m obviously trying to impact my Social Relevancy with respect to Insurance and Technology, Social Media Marketing, Socially Facilitated Selling, and so forth.  So maintaining a Blog, a Twitter feed, a Linkedin presence, and authoring a Book is all part of building Social Relevancy.  And the number of people that are paying attention to what I’m doing matters.  Numbers matter. Whenever someone introduces an author, they recount how many books they’ve sold.  An athlete – how many championships.  A veteran – how many combat awards.

It’s no different with Social.  How many Subscribers to the Blog?  How many Followers on Twitter?  How many Linkedin Connections?  How many Friends or Fans on Facebook?  The numbers indicate how many people someone or an entity can reach with their posts or updates, and of those people that they can reach, how much influence do they have over them.  Will their followers Retweet or post back-links to the content? In other words, is there a viral marketing potential there.  Relevance = Influence = Importance

For example, I just looked at my Linkedin Network.  Under “Network Statistics”, it says I’m connected to 909 people who are connected to about 300,000 people who are connected to about 9.5 million people.  So doing the math I guess my average Connection has about 300 Connections.  I’d be interested to know what the median is – probably more like 50-100 since I connected to about 50 of the TopLinked people, or LION’s (Linkedin Open Networkers, those with thousands of Connections).  But either way, that’s a lot – clearly useful if I want to communicate and share.  There’s 75 million total in Linkedin, so I’m connected to over 10% of them.  Wow!  That’s useful.

But here’s the REALLY useful thing with Twitter – RESEARCH.  As I’ve mentioned before, I use Tweetdeck and twitter search almost every day.  I’ve got active searches running all the time on keywords I’m tracking for special clients or purposes.  I’ll pop in and out of searches using columns in Tweetdeck.  Very very useful.  Twitter Search is kind of the exact opposite of Google Search.

• First of all, the results display in order of recency, so you get the newest content first.  Usually G returns older, more ‘popular’ results at the top, right?
• Second, the results often have links to the main story, and the story often has links to even more related content.  So within a few clicks from Tweetdeck, I’m inside some really useful content that was published TODAY or yesterday or this week.
• Third, I can also quickly see how many times the content has been shared socially, how many comments there are, what the comments say, and so forth – all useful data-points relative to the veracity and utility of the content.
• Last, absolutely, I can quickly and easily Comment and Share what I found myself, giving my network the benefit of my time and research.

Do you see how that’s just a lot more useful netnet than Google?  Plus Google doesn’t include Social content like Tweets.

Do you see why it’s so imperative to be publishing content in a way that is easily shared?

Do you see why Viral Marketing can be EXTREMELY effective, not only from eyeballs but also from cost?

Think e-business circa 1999.  Social is 2010.  E-business generated BIG revenue in 10 years, really changed the landscape.  Social will make e-business look small.

And Oh Yeah, I haven’t even mentioned the SEO impact of Twitter on what I’m doing.  Read about Twitter and SEO here.

So 4 useful data-points on Twitter – recent Growth, Social Relevance, Research, and SEO.  Still think it’s ‘dying’???

What questions or comments to you have?  Others likely have the same or similar.  Share how it helps you?  Happy to dialog below.

One last thing on Twitter.  A few of you have said, “Dude, I don’t understand what you are saying with your Linkedin Status updates..” (i.e. Tweets, since I use Tweetdeck to interact with Linkedin (oops, that’s a secret)).  Here are a few.  Let me decode them.  It’s pretty simply once you understand the syntax or format – or language – of Twitter.  Remember, with Twitter, you have to be short, concise, and useful – on several levels.

RT @earnestagency: The ‘nature of phones’ makes mobile important part of your #social strategy http://ht.ly/2ICE5 #B2B #B2C #Marketing

Tweets are

1. a PHRASE,
2. a LINK,
3. and some KEYWORDS.

In this case, it also has the original author up front.  RT means Retweet, which means I saw the original tweet, clicked through, found it useful, and decided to share it.  The # is called a hashtag.  Notice that on Linkedin or Twitter, you can click on the word if it’s preceded by a hashtag.  That makes it easy for the reader to click into that thread on Twitter.  So in the above Tweet, if you click on #social or #B2B, notice what comes up – a whole conversation on that topic.

That’s it.  Let’s try one more of my tweets from this week…

An #insurance CMO yesterday “absolutely NO WAY 2 track #ROI of #SMM” He’s not on any #Social Ntwrk http://bit.ly/cVjJ5Q caseinpoint

See how it works? Every character in a Tweet is important.  So lots of abbreviations, left out participles, etc.  Not all words are useful in a Tweets.  Tweets are typically scanned.  Only the keywords matter, and they need to be searchable.  If you want to be Retweeted (Viral), the Tweet needs to be useful and worthy, and have room at the end for the retweeter’s comment, too.  So really it’s NOT 140 characters – general rule of thumb is 120.

That’s it for now.  I’ve spilled my guts on Twitter.  Please – you share as well.  Hey, Retweet or Share this blog post if you think your network will learn something!  But Comment and drop a back-link to your URL (or your company, or your client site – remember… SEO!)  THANK YOU.

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Upcoming events

KAIA – sharing ‘the good stuff’ in K.C. Can’t wait.

PIMA Webinar end of October – will be running a survey before

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But first – NCAA DIVISION 1 MEN’S SOCCER Friday night 8pm #1 Akron v. #2 Tulsa – HUGE!!!.  Tune into FOX Soccer Channel and maybe see me hustling the sidelines with my camera (I keep a low profile, though)!  It’s gonna be CRAZY!!!!!  PICTURES WILL BE POSTED HERE.

And Oh Yeah, my son Zach just had the best game of his career last night.  I missed it, but read about it here and here.  Zach Wise is THE MAN with the “long throw”!

Picture I made of the mighty warriors that upset St. Bonaventure 4-0.  Huge