Thursday, November 13, 2008

Need Your Advice on Upcoming Webinars

One of my responsbilities as the CMO of Powered is to work with the marketing and sales team to come up with a list of informative and engaging webinars for 2009. Given the fact that I like participating (and sometimes attending) webinars, I'm particularly interested in getting our roster right.

This is where you come in. Can you let me which five most resonate with you? Or if you think they all suck? Or if there are glaring holes? Either way, please add your thoughts in the comments section below. Your help is invaluable to me/us in this process. And if you're willing to help me out, I'm always happy to return the favor (maybe by inviting you to be a guest on one of our webinars)!

Here goes:
  • Content & Conversations: Engaging Your Customers Online - this is an almost real webinar that will involve Forrester Analyst, Jeremiah Owyang and Chief Content Officer at Marketing Profs, Ann Handley. The tentative date is December 16th at 2:00 PM ET. Details/registration link to follow.
  • Building a Business Case for Social Marketing
  • Content your Customers Care About
  • Crossing the Chasm of Consumer Consideration (like the aliteration?)
  • Tapping the Power of Social in a Regulated Environement (hello financial services & pharma)
  • Social Marketing: This ROI Sounds Too Good to Be True!
  • Moving Beyond Pageviews: Measuring Real Customer Engagement
  • Social Marketing: 5 Pitfalls to Avoid
  • 2008 Social Marketing ROI Report (this one's happening whether you like it or not so get over it!)
  • Social Marketing: What's in it for Me? What's in it for my Customers?
  • Integrating Social Into your Traditional Marketing Mix
  • Got Content? If You Do, Is it Driving the Results?
  • 10 Ways to Insure Your Social Marketing Plan Succeeds
  • Top 5 Reasons Your Company Can't Ignore Social Marketing
  • Increasing Customer Retention During a Down Market
  • Social Marketing Explained: The Bottom Line on Your Bottom Line
  • A Brand's "Place" in the World of Social
  • Benefits of "Managed" vs. "Un-managed" Online Community Solutions
There you have it. Let's hear which ones resonate with you and which don't!

20 comments:

  1. Posting on behalf of Kat Mandelstein:

    @astrout - This one tops my list: 2008 Social Marketing ROI Report. Followed by Moving Beyond Pageviews: Measuring Real Customer Engagement

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  2. ALmost all of these sound great, but these are my favorites:

    10 Ways to Insure Your Social Marketing Plan Succeeds
    Social Marketing: 5 Pitfalls to Avoid
    Social Marketing Explained: The Bottom Line on Your Bottom Line
    Building a Business Case for Social Marketing
    Social Marketing: This ROI Sounds Too Good to Be True!
    Integrating Social Into your Traditional Marketing Mix

    The only thing glaring I see missing is mobile. How does mobile fit in with what your customers / readers need to know about?

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  3. Hi Aaron,

    Caught your Twitter note, had to check out what you were up to. Glad I did!

    Here's my vote for the top 5 you have outlined above:
    #1 definitely
    #2 Building a business case. I think this is definitely needed, and it needs to go deeper than I've seen to date. It needs to roll in the ROI topic -"Too Good to be True" -as well as "The Bottom Line on Your Bottom Line" aspect as well. These are the questions many are wrestling with at their company.
    #3 Integrating SM int onto the Marketing Mix - and connecting it to the buy cycle
    #4 Content development - always good -
    #5 Last bullet - managed vs. unmanaged solutions. A good question. Pistachio published a great report comparing the enterprise microsharing tools, that would be helpful and also the technology implications, security. If mktg folks are the ones proposing this technology into the business, we need to understand this end of it too, not just the fun side.

    One not listed but combines some of the others - Best practices for communicating the content in SM that's different than before

    The others - the Top 5s/10 ways would be great podcasts - direct and to the point as opposed to the topics above need more explanation with a webinar.

    Thanks for the opportunity to comment. Looks like you are already diving in at Powered. Looking forward to seeing the final products.

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  4. Hi, @astrout. @gcmag here. The 5 that resonate with me most as an association communicator and a content entrepreneur are Building a Business Case, 2008 Social Marketing ROI (duh), 10 Ways to Insure (Ensure?) Your Social Marketing Plan Succeeds, and Benefits of "Managed" vs "Un-managed" Online Community Solutions.

    Our association has a robust listserv. Very active. I need advice on how to capitalize on that to create more content for our magazine and other publications.

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  5. Here you go... thanks for the effort here!

    - Building a Business Case for Social Marketing
    - Tapping the Power of Social in a Regulated Environement (hello financial services & pharma)
    - Increasing Customer Retention During a Down Market
    - Social Marketing: This ROI Sounds Too Good to Be True!
    - the "top 5" or "top 10" topics are always attention getters.

    Looking forward to them!

    Charlie Nichols Browning

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Well, your "in stone" webinar, 2008 Social Marketing ROI Report, is the one with the most appeal to me. That said, you can't go wrong with any of these. They all sound valuable. Maybe you might want to bundle a few together as some look like they naturally build upon others? Here are two bundle topic titles: Breaking In and Breaking Through/Open. BTW, good luck in this new venture!

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  8. Posting on behalf of @pprlisa who is apparently "captcha" challenged today ;)

    @astrout how about something on measuring the impact of social media?
    @astrout well, anything with @marketingprofs in it sounds good to me

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  9. Aaron,

    Besides my @marketingprofs shoutout - HEY ANN!!! I also had a real suggestion.

    Social Media Measurement - with real answers, not, "we just dont know how to do it yet"

    And I thank you

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  10. Hey Aaron,

    All are of interest, which means they don't suck. That said, the ones I think will be most valuable in the near term (3-6 months) and retain good "shelf life" are:

    * A Brand's "Place" in the World of Social
    * Social Marketing Explained: The Bottom Line on Your, Your Company's and Your Customer's Bottom Line
    * Top 5 Reasons Your Company Can't Ignore Social Marketing
    * Building a Business Case for Social Marketing - Crossing the Chasm between Awareness and Purchase while Integrating Social Into your Traditional Marketing Mix
    * 10 Ways to Ensure Your Social Marketing Plan Succeeds (i.e. "Managed" vs. "Un-managed", compelling content, strategy & objectives, etc.)

    As you can see I struggle with limited choices, so I combined some. Also, my preference re: webinars is lots of steak and sizzle in as little time as possible (the majority "pack" 10 minutes of content into 50 minutes). Also, offer some sort of clear call-to-engagement whether it be making it super easy to ask questions, talking with you off-line or getting more related stuff elsewhere.

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  11. Agree most sound good. Top five are:

    -Content vs. Conversation
    -Building a Case. . . .
    -Integrating Social Medial into Traditional. . .
    -10 Ways to Insure Success. . .

    That's only four, but it's either four or nine, so I'll go with four.

    Kathy
    @kathyelkins
    www.yarn.com

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  12. Top 5:

    ★ Social Marketing Explained: The Bottom Line on Your Bottom Line [ I've experienced so many situations where managers and executives just fail to respond to anything other than numbers. Putting a practical ROI in front of them with cause and effect scenarios will help make the idea real to them and will help demonstrate that it's *not* just some 'new-fangled fad' like iPods or the Internet. ;) ]

    ★ A Brand's "Place" in the World of Social [ Some companies get it already; one such example is @ComcastCares on Twitter. Most... need help. Companies need guidance to help find which social platforms will be most effective and *appropriate* for their product, brand, service, etc. ]

    ★ Top 5 Reasons Your Company Can't Ignore Social Marketing [ Purely from a consumer's perspective, I feel this is crucial. I will unabashedly judge - and in some cases, dismiss - companies based on their websites, reviews on sites such as Yelp or PlanetFeedback, Facebook entries (points deducted for having one!), etc. As social marketing and media become increasingly mainstream, if a company doesn't exist in those realms, they will effectively cease to exist. ]

    ★ Integrating Social Into your Traditional Marketing Mix [ This one would bve especially useful and relevant to those who 'mean well' but who may just not knpow where to begin. It also offers a chance to nip the 'pitfalls' in the bud. Perhaps those two topics could be combined into one? ]

    ★ Moving Beyond Pageviews: Measuring Real Customer Engagement [ THIS one is the winner. Marketing isn't just about clicks and impressions; it's about attribution. Advertisers want to know what compelled the visitor to click here or there, where they came from, what they looked at before, what they're seeing on the site, what will bring them back, and so on. Yes, conversion data is crucial, but if you have no idea what is bringing the customer to your door, how will you ever get them to return? I think one major blind spot for companies is determining what makes a site 'sticky'. What makes a gadget/widget/web app awesome vs. lame? What will the viewer remember and more importantly, how will they associate it with your brand? A site can get a million pageviews, but if those million visitors don't care about what they see, they won't return. If they don't return, they probably won't buy, whether online or offline. They probably won't even give your company another thought. Pageviews/impressions is one tiny piece of the puzzle and by no means provides a comprehensive understanding of the customer experience. It means nothing without other supplemental information, and businesses need guidance to figure out *what* supplemental information is needed, how to get it, and how to use the data to make changes to help them reach future goals. ]

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  13. I think you have a great list, so I would say do it by "stage" of customer
    1. Start with the what is social marketing
    2. Then why do it?
    3. Then how to justify it
    4. Followed by how have others done it
    5. Finally by what to expect.

    Welcome to the new role Aaron.

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  14. Not giving any particular order, these all sound very interesting (the rest sound interesting too, but wonder if duplicative)
    * Building a business case for social marketing
    * Content your customers care about
    * Social Markting: This ROI Sounds Too Good to be True!
    * Moving Beyond Pageviews: Measuring Real Customer Engagement (but would prefer if the seminar is led by someone who isn't trying to sell their own metrics software)
    *Content & Conversations webinar - yes
    *Integrating Social Into your Traditional Marketing Mix

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  15. All great topics Aaron. As I said on the phone last night, this is a great list for any company in the sm space... don't be surprised if I borrow some of the topics for Mzinga. ;-)

    Jim | @jstorerj

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  16. Aaron,
    I'm guessing you mean "social media marketing" instead of "social marketing." "Social marketing" is the practice of using traditional marketing methods to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good: http://tinyurl.com/5ctulr

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  17. Folks, this is absolutely fantastic feedback. Thank you so much for weighing in. I may ping some of you individually as we firm up our roster.

    @Anonymous, thanks for keeping me honest. Given the fact that I'm feeling a little "maverick-esque" I think I'm going to buck the norm and abbreviate "social media marketing" to "social marketing." While it may hold a duel meaning, I'm all about trying to be a trend setter vs. follower. ;)

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  18. Great list! I think you could group the topics into two main audiences. The first is those who are seeking to explore social marketing initially - either as brand marketer or 3rd party provider (with the eventual real world goal of carving out a budget). The second is those who have carved budget and are launching an initiative, but need insight into how to build a strategy and how to avoid tactical pitfalls, fulfill that ROI story they already built.

    I think you have great topics here that serve both audiences, but I feel like most of the people I talk to in marketing would benefit slightly more from the first category. Even those who seem to have carved budget are still challenged to expand that budget/effort into something more strategic and to hold the line on ROI.

    To that end, the central issue is understanding ROI. But let's be honest, the more familiar mechanisms in marketing aren't nearly as tightly observed as social marketing (or online in general!) is. So the other piece is increasing that familiarity in marketing teams with how the mechanisms behind social marketing work, why they work, and why they drive such great ROI.

    To that end I love "A Brand's Place in Social," "Integrating social into your traditional marketing mix," and "Social Marketing: What's in it for me?" - along with all of the ROI-centric topics. Again, though, this whole list would be valuable!

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  19. Doug - fantastic advice. I will strongly take your recommendations under advisement!

    Best,
    Aaron | @astrout

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