CMO's Guide to Social Media by Dane Theus of Magus Consulting.

I thoroughly enjoyed this post and thought I would "Share" it through my blog. I found it to be a great examination of marketing and social media through the eyes of the Chief Marketing Officer.

CMO's Guide to Social Media

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Frontier Communities

Back in July I wrote "New Construction and Building Community" a story about how Facebook helped our neighborhood come together, build friendships, and facilitate important news. It was also a story about how our online communities are fast becoming similar to the traditional ones we have become so familiar with.


Not much has changed since that post except that more families have joined our community and many of us continue to grow closer. The evolvement of these relationships and the maturation of our neighborhood over the past three months got me thinking about the two communities I participate in and how a Thanksgiving Day event brought some clarity to the importance of both.

On Thanksgiving a few of the guys in the neighborhood decided we should host our first annual Turkey Bowl. These games are played all of the U.S. and in our case consisted of a bunch of men in their 30's who wanted to relive their glory days by participating in a touch football game. We posted the event on our community Facebook page and simply waited to see who would show up.



The game was scheduled for 8:30 and a few of us committed to arrive early to set up for before kickoff. Two tents, a stand for the kiddos, and a cooler and we were ready to go. Sixteen men showed up for the event with many wives and children in tow to watch. It lasted two hours and everyone had a wonderful time. A short time later over 216 photos were posted on Facebook and contestants were sharing war stories on the group page. It was truly a community event, one that reinforced old relationships and introduced opportunities for new ones.


Once home I posted "I survived my first Turkey Bowl" to Twitter, provided a recap on Facebook, and uploaded a few of my own photos to Slideshare. Why? Because I wanted my other neighbors, those I rarely see but communicate with daily, to see how I kicked off my Thanksgiving. Having read Thanksgiving updates from @sonnygill, @SteveDrake, @knealemann, (and many others) I was eager to share how my day was going. I, like many others, participate in the nexus between two communities and enjoy bridging news from both at every opportunity.

These two spheres now make up my collective understanding of community and I enjoy participating in them equally. Through the use of social media and a healthy blend of interpersonal events, I've come to grow as a person, meet an array of interesting people, and broaden my access to knowledge tenfold.

We all have our immediate communities, those we physically interact with on a daily basis. However, our other communities play a new role in our lives and are shaping the way we see and interact with the world around us. I will likely see my friends from the "online world" at an upcoming conference, Tweet (insert holiday here) cocktail party, or random intersection and when I do we'll be able to comment on these and other pictures, postings, and windows into my life.


We are on the frontier of building communities through virtual and physical relationships and we will continue to build and shape them as long as we remain committed to participating in them.

Social Media Flower for Volunteer Leaders

In my role at Association Headquarters I often assist our client partners in developing strategies that implement social media into their communication plans. Shortly after seeing David Nour map out a communication plan at ASAE 2009, and after several conversations with Maddie Grant from Social Fish, (who I am eternally grateful) I got to work.

With the help of two of my colleagues, Elizabeth Cies and Mark Denato, I came up with the following illustration.

Please feel free to distribute this to your groups and a special thanks to Steve Drake ,whose constant efforts in the world of SM continue to focus on moving forward.

The Six Primary Components of the Social Media Flower

The Seed - Content Leaders: These are the experts of an organization and typically consist of members of the board, but can also include general members who are willing to submit original content on behalf of the organization. They are the seed and are responsible for the cultivation of the social media flower.

The Soil - Your Association: The association or professional society serves as the soil and field for the seed and provides the environment for the content, and future content leaders, to flourish.

The Stem – The Content: When original content is created it serves as the support system (the stem) for the flower. It flows from the content leaders, through the association, and directly to the Web site or blog (the stigma).

The Stigma – The Website or Blog: The website serves as the center of the flower whereby all things emanate. It hosts the original content and serves as the hub or home base for the petals.

The Petals – Social Media Tools: The petals represent the various social media tools that can be used to drive interested parties (members & nonmembers) to the Web site. These tools serve as:
• Communicators – relaying messages to the public
• Directors – pointing your audience to original content
• Marketers – raising awareness for the organization. The main purpose of the petals are to attract raindrops (members) and bumble bees (messengers).

The Bumblebee – Additional Messengers: The ultimate goal is to reach new individuals and new audiences, and social media tools make it easy to have someone else carry and convey your message for you. By creating original content, posting it to the web site, and employing social media tools to attract and direct members to the site, more and more individuals will learn about the organization.

Role of Volunteer Leadership
As outlined above, volunteer leadership plays a vital role in the success of online social media initiatives. It is our recommendation that a key group of individuals are appointed to play a highly involved part in the implementation of the associations social media strategy. This could be comprised of:
• One or two Board or Committee members
• Key enthusiasts from the organization’s Facebook page
• Technologically-savvy members responding to a “call for volunteers”

By having several members initiate and participate, the organization can experience increased success in grassroots awareness of its’ online presence.

Social media to replace first line of tech support?

Over the past few months social media saved me from two computer-related disasters that normally would have sent me to the repair shop or placed me at the will of a tech call center. By employing a variety of social media tools I was able to resolve both issues without a considerable investment in either time or money, something I've come to really appreciate and something that got me thinking about the value of tech support and call centers.

A few months back my wife's cousin spilled an entire glass of wine on her laptop and I thought for sure it was fried. After draining the excess into the sink and wiping up what was still visible, I decided to hop on Google and search for "spilled wine on a laptop." Much to my surprise my cousin-in-law wasn't the only one to carelessly waste an entire glass of good red wine (Boxhead). In a few short minutes I was watching a video on how to save the laptop without a huge investment. Two days and $29 later I replaced my keyboard on my own and my wife was back in business. Thank you techeblog.com.

A few weeks later I received the dreaded "Unmountable Boot Error" message. After several unsuccessful attempts to reboot in "Safe Mode" I called tech support to see what was up. The initial quote was $295 so I hung up the phone and hopped back on the internet. In a few short moments I found the following post on Twitter "@huabs How to Resolve Unmountable Boot Volume Error in Windows XP http://bit.ly/SttaF" and was on my way to recovery. Fortunately, I was able to repair my computer without any issue and was up and running within the hour.

These two examples got me thinking of how valuable social media has become to saving both time and money and how, on certain occassions, it can replace the first line of basic tech support offered by most companies.

Reposting - 11 Top Tips To Build Your Twitter Following : Ink Foundry

This is a terrific article I found by way of David Armano. Hope I'm reposting this correctly.
11 Top Tips To Build Your Twitter Following : Ink Foundry

Hashtags for the association world

Here is a list of hashtags for association exec's who enjoy Twitter. Please feel free to add to this list or recommend to me and the rest of the world where to locate a larger, more robust collection. Cheers!

#eventprofs
#assnchat
#asae09
#MPI
#meetings
#nonprofit
#amgtco
#sponsorship
#nimble
#associations

Camaraderie & Humility at AMCi & ASAE 2009

Here are my three takeaways from two terrific meetings.

1. Camaraderie - As I approach my second anniversary with Association Headquarters I am still amazed at the level of camaraderie, respect, and consideration members of the AMC industry have for eachother. Not only does it make for a terrific meeting where members, who are often competitors, let there gaurd down and share with eachother but it also provides an opportunity for everyone to contribute to a positive culture throughout the industry. It was wonderful to reconnect with those I met in San Diego, have run into throughout the year, and have chatted with over industry-related issues.

2. Humility - I will be the first to say that even after working at a museum for several years and having spent the last two years with association management (AM) professionals, I am still humbled by the amount of energy, creativity, and dedication it takes to run an association or professional society. In my role at Association Headquarters, I often straddle the for-profit and non-profit world, never spending too long in either to fully appreciate the role AM professionals play in their respective organizations, in ensuring their own society (ASAE) moves forward, and in building relationships among their peers. As hard as I think I work I am humbled by what goes into running an AMC, and running a volunteer run organization.

3. AMCi & ASAE 2009 were full of terrific examples of camaraderie, professionalism, and for me, humility.

Team Chemistry Beyond Sports

As baseball inches closer to "October ball," and the NFL gears up for its season, ESPN is screaming about an interesting and often unmeasurable asset to any team, CHEMISTRY.

As an avid hockey fan I live by the notion that chemistry means everything, especially around playoff time. I wholeheartedly endorse the belief that locker room relationships can be the X factor and secret weapon for any organization.

But how does this impact the rest of us nine-to-fiver's who don't earn the big bucks but are often part of a team. In an article on this topic, Tom LaForce explores how building trust with coworkers can often lead to building chemistry and ultimately lead to successful projects.

(coffee break)

So how do you make sure there's chemistry on your team? I'm not entirely sure. My team is made up of anywhere from five to ten members depending on the individual project. When appropriate I try to focus on each of my team members' individual strengths, letting my colleagues shine in front of others which, I hope, allows everyone to develop their own levels of trust within the team.

This approach requires a unique understanding of the personalities that make up my team but that's what I'm good at so it works for me. I'm a people person and have come to terms with how to leverage that crazy talent beyond the "oh you should be in sales" gig. I build my team by making everyone feel so comfortable that they don't even know they're shining, they just see themselves as contributing.

How do you build your team?

Association Paralysis

Today I heard a very interesting term used to describe a very large association that had basically become so comfortable that it was suffering from association paralysis.

This apparently occurs when an association, non-profit, or professional society is engaged in an industry that is insulated from the cruelties of the world and begins to become so comfortable with itself that it no longer becomes innovative. How unique? I never imagined this was even possible but the more I thought about it the more it made sense to me. So after several hours of pondering this phenomenon I began to think of ways for an organization to break free from this stifling state of being.

Five ways to avoid association paralysis:

1. Hold an impromptu conference call with your board and have each member submit one issue that they are dealing with today. Write them down, circulate them among staff and leadership and have a down and dirty strategy session to see if any are worth exploring.

2. An easy one but it has to be on the list - explore the social ocean and make sure you're not missing your audience as the Tweet, join a group on Facebook, or find another way to obtain the information you're not providing. If you are, check out http://www.socialfish.org/ and take some time to learn how to make social media work for you. Please tell Maddie and Lindy I said hello.

3. Host a brainstorming session with your staff, leadership, or whoever you can find to provide you with some insight as to what you are and aren't doing. As in life, we often neglect to self analyze and overlook what we should be paying close attention to.

4. Dig up the last 3 years worth of strategic plans or marketing plans. Guaranteed there's something there that could be worked on.

5. Take an hour or two to explore an entirely different industry and see what you can learn and what can be applied to your own group.

And all while driving home from work.

Experience and Technology Create Opportunity

I'm a 38 yr old professional who is having a great deal of fun learning about how to incorporate social media/technologies into my personal and professional life. The two biggest challenges for me have been learning the nuances of the tools (Twitter, Hootsuite, Seesmic, etc.) and considering the whole personal/professional brand approach.

Fortunately, and largely because I've been working longer than some of my coworkers have been alive, I feel I understand my company's culture and brand to the point where I can work through these challenges. But it got me thinking about the other side of this equation. Do younger professionals who possess the technological skills struggle with grasping the culture and/or brand of their respective organizations? Do they have enough "worldly" experience to understand the long term implications of their actions, posts, comments, or approaches? Or, is their interpretation of the organization a true (or truer) reflection of the organization's personality or brand?

Perhaps by posing these questions we can introduce a new solution to closing the generational gap. By finding value in both generations we begin to introduce new pathways for meaningful dialogue about the value in combining technology with experience and insight.
For the time being I'll continue to sit down with my younger colleagues to explore their interpretation of our organization and, when possible, steal a tip or two about how to manage multiple Twitter accounts.

Bridging the "Bookends" and Creating Dialogue

I'm a 38 yr old professional who is having a great deal of fun learning about how to incorporate social media & and rapidly changing technologies into my personal and professional life. The biggest challenges for me have been learning the nuances of the tools (Twitter, Hootsuite, Seesmic, etc.), considering the whole personal/professional brand approach, and integrating what I've learned over the course of my professional career.


Fortunately for me, and largely because I've been working longer than some of my coworkers have been alive, I feel I understand my company's culture and brand to the point where I can work through these challenges. But it got me thinking about the other side of this equation and the recent online chatter over "bookend" generations.

Do younger professionals who possess the technological skills struggle with grasping the culture and/or brand of their respective organizations? Do they have enough "worldly" experience to understand the long term implications of their actions, posts, comments, or approaches? Or is their interpretation of the organization a true (or truer) reflection of the organization's personality or brand?

Perhaps by posing these questions we can introduce a new solution to closing the generational gap and filling the space between the "bookend" generations. By finding value in, and utilizing the stregnths of both (all) generations, we can begin to introduce new pathways for meaningful dialogue about the value in combining technology with experience and insight.

For the time being I'll continue to sit down with my younger colleagues to explore their interpretation of our organization and, when possible, steal a tip or two about how to manage multiple Twitter accounts. I will also work hard to help them understand the culture of our company, the importance of seeing the world through an old, wise man's eyes (not that old) and the value of engaging in a dialogue with those who may not know about Flickr, but know about the importance of teamwork, developing meaningful relationships, and the nuances of interpersonal communications.

Examples of Two Smart Marketing Approaches

Twice this weekend I was struck by events that I thought were so cool that I just had to write about them. Oh, and both can be applied to non-profits and outreach strategies and neither, sadly, came to me through SM.

The first is the "Do You Bleed Eagles Green" blood drive sponsored by the American Red Cross. Obviously the AMR has some pull so it probably wasn't too hard for them to partner with the Philadelphia Eagles, but it was the approach that I like most. The AMR is setting up a blood drive at Lehigh University where the Eagles hold their training camp. There are a few incentives for those who donate including a fan pack, chances to win VIP field passes, and additional chances to win tickets to a home game. However, this is a good idea because of what the AMR did for its organization, not for who they partnered with.

The most impressive part of this program is the AMR's decision to go to their constituency, to not sit back and hope that people show up at one of their preplanned blood drives. I love it, a group that says "yup, we're a non-profit but we're aggressive and we're gonna get what we need."

The message - if your members aren't coming to you, then go to them literally; and don't limit your search to those areas that you think potential members will be. Spread out, have fun, and take a leap of faith. Then came Dan Deacon, a pool at an airport, and some pre-kid flashbacks of what life was like before serious responsibility smacked me in the face.

Today, the family I were invited to join some friends at an outdoor pool at, of all places, an airport. In fact, the pool was in the shape of an airplane. It sounded fun and differenct so we went and what an experience we had. As it turns out, the airport has not only figured out how to stay relevant and unique (pool, resturant, lounge, and hotel), it has also figured out how to secure its longevity by hosting a three-band summer jam with one of the hottest alternative artists in the Northeast.

Of course, we had no idea what was happening as flocks of young hipsters rolled into the pool area and parked themselves in front of a stage that largely went unnoticed for the better part of the day. After a brief inquiry I learned that Dan Deacon was playing later that evening. WHO?

Now, his music isn't really my style but what we hear was good. More importantly, by the time we left there were more than 600 people around the pool and more were being bused in.

The plan was brilliant. A tiny little airport in Southern NJ just introduced its uniqueness to more than a 1,000 FUTURE customers. It figured out how to tap into a market that in all likelihood would have never considered visiting the Flying W airport in Medford, NJ. On most Saturdays, families can be found poolside while small planes and helicopters buzz down the runway to the amazement of little kids. But on this Saturday, a funky indie artist out of Balitmore brought with him a non-traditional crowd and it was a huge success. Most of the people I spoke to remarked how cool the venue was, bet they'll remember it in ten years when they're looking for a spot to bring the kids on a hot summer day. By the way, admission was $10 a head.

The message: think ahead, go outside of your comfort zone, and don't be afraid to introduce a new set of demographics to your organization.

BJR

New construction and building community

A little over two years ago my wife and I realized we had outgrown our small rancher and needed to find something bigger to accomadate our growing family. Our second daughter had joined us rather unexpectedly and we needed more space.

We decided we would build a home in a growing but mostly rural community about 30 miles outside of Philadelphia. Our home was number twelve or so of seventy six, five of which are still under construction.

For the first year my wife struggled to find comfort in the new community. We moved in during winter and none of the neighbors spent much time outside. As winter gave way to spring we began to develop a network of friends and then, as if it happened overnight, our entire neighborhood discovered Facebook and the ability to create groups and engage in discussion after hours and beyond our front lawns.

Rather quickly our site was secure and our neighbors began discussing everything from defects in our homes to who needed a sitter. Social media revolutionized the way developments are developed, neighborhoods interact, and how communities are formed.

I've marvled at how these relationships that began online have grown stronger during our early evening walks and how quick those conversations on the front lawns of the neighborhood carry back over to group dicussions.

To this end I began to think about how this same concept, the concept of newness, experimentation, community solidification through social media, and the core value of trust and sharing could apply to non-profits and associations.

Let's imagine for a minute that an association is a suburban community and each house represents a member of the organization. Each homeowner, or member, has a vested interest in the success of the community, each member (for the most part) wants to be heard, and most importantly each member is truly interested in building relationships that are built on trust, friendship, and a common interest.

Organizations, like neighborhoods, will evolve by interacting, trusting, and experimenting. There is value in participating in online communities, particularly with those who you will see at an upcoming event, conference, or professional development opportunity. Social platforms help to fill in the gaps, build trust, and develop relationships between those front yard meetings.

Social Overload - tips for dipping in the Social Ocean

Is it possible that the mere influx of so many "social" options is actually doing more to drive people away from participating than it is enticing them to "tweet."

If you're like me it took me a while to dip my toe into the social ocean because I simply didn't know where to begin, what venue was best suited for my personality (very important), and what harm I would do by dabbling in any given space. So what did I do? I took it very slow and experimented for several weeks before deciding on where I liked to play.

I started with LinkedIn by joining few groups that appealed to me. I then created a Facebook account and spent several days WATCHING before doing anything. In both cases, I did nothing, meaning I did not write anything on either site, for the first two weeks. These platforms aren't going anywhere so there was no need to rush.

After watching for several days I was finally comfortable enough to engage and submit a few posts. Much to my surprise others began to comment on what I had to say, however uappealing I may have thought my posts were, and I found myself involved in several conversations.

Finally, I joined Twitter but I'm still struggling to find and create a voice for that particular platform so I'll keep you posted.