Comments for Tina I. Stewart: Brand Development in a Digital World http://www.socialtis.net Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:12:29 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 Comment on Five Sites to Watch in 2010 – Pt. 2 – CDW by KeithR http://www.socialtis.net/2010/02/five-sites-to-watch-in-2010-pt-2-cdw/comment-page-1/#comment-328 KeithR Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:12:29 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=406#comment-328 I _almost_ agree...but when you get into the meat of trying to buy something from their site, they come up lacking. For example, you can search on "firewall" and then filter to "Brand:Juniper" - but there it stops. You now have 331 products to search through - all firewall related, but almost none of them actual firewalls. This of course is not limited to Juniper. If you do the same thing with Cisco, you get 256 products - but still now way to distinguish the actual box from stuff that might go with it - like a license. You can try search-within-a-search - for example adding "appliance" - but that leaves a lot of guesswork to the user. They need a more comprehensive, meta-data driven catalog. Here's one that truly rocks (on a very boring subject): http://search.tycoelectronics.com/electronics/?ui_mode=question&charset=UTF-8&language=en-US&questionsource=electronics&search_type=Text&question_box=relay (Tyco Electronics; sample query "relay") I _almost_ agree…but when you get into the meat of trying to buy something from their site, they come up lacking. For example, you can search on “firewall” and then filter to “Brand:Juniper” – but there it stops. You now have 331 products to search through – all firewall related, but almost none of them actual firewalls. This of course is not limited to Juniper. If you do the same thing with Cisco, you get 256 products – but still now way to distinguish the actual box from stuff that might go with it – like a license. You can try search-within-a-search – for example adding “appliance” – but that leaves a lot of guesswork to the user.

They need a more comprehensive, meta-data driven catalog. Here’s one that truly rocks (on a very boring subject): http://search.tycoelectronics.com/electronics/?ui_mode=question&charset=UTF-8&language=en-US&questionsource=electronics&search_type=Text&question_box=relay (Tyco Electronics; sample query “relay”)

]]> Comment on The myths of social media and what it takes to be successful by admin http://www.socialtis.net/2009/11/the-myths-of-social-media-and-what-it-takes-to-be-successful/comment-page-1/#comment-217 admin Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:40:22 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=256#comment-217 I couldn't agree with you more, Aaron. Many B2B organizations still use social media only as a broadcast tool. Although this can be helpful for levels of awareness, it can also easily become a level of white noise. The key is to understanding how to leverage Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, as tools of engagement - yes, just another set of tools as part of the integrated marketing mix. The really key is how do you "listen" to the customer to move the buying process forward. I think you'll find <a href="http://garyvaynerchuk.com/tagged/keynotes" rel="nofollow">garyvaynerchuk's keynote at Mediabistro </a>has the very same sentiment, but with far more color and few more explicatives than I am willing to provide. What are your thoughts on target usages like event tweet ups or product promotions? I couldn’t agree with you more, Aaron. Many B2B organizations still use social media only as a broadcast tool. Although this can be helpful for levels of awareness, it can also easily become a level of white noise. The key is to understanding how to leverage Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, as tools of engagement – yes, just another set of tools as part of the integrated marketing mix. The really key is how do you “listen” to the customer to move the buying process forward.

I think you’ll find garyvaynerchuk’s keynote at Mediabistro has the very same sentiment, but with far more color and few more explicatives than I am willing to provide.

What are your thoughts on target usages like event tweet ups or product promotions?

]]> Comment on The myths of social media and what it takes to be successful by Aaron Savage http://www.socialtis.net/2009/11/the-myths-of-social-media-and-what-it-takes-to-be-successful/comment-page-1/#comment-216 Aaron Savage Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:48:35 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=256#comment-216 I think that the biggest myth of social media is the same for most digital and offline media when you look at them as tactical solutions rather than in the context of an overall <a href="http://www.interactive-mix.com/imix.html" rel="nofollow">digital marketing strategy</a>. If you have a Facebook page to write up your achievements and handle discussions and a Twitter page to broadcast where your thoughts can be found you may very well build up an audience and spend a lot of time interacting with them in exactly the right ways but are you making sales? I always say that running an online business is fundamentally no different to running a little corner shop. You need it to be open, and for people passing by to see that it is open, you need to be helpful and honest, you need to be busy as that persuades everyone else that the wisdom of crowds is right and you are the place to shop, but you also need to be focused. A shopkeeper in my grannies village knew that if he spent all day just chatting the world away with a few people who come into the shop but buy nothing was not as important as spotting a customer and leading them through to a sale. The danger with social media is that you end up doing the equivalent of this and spend a lot of time discussing things whilst missing out on the customer in the corner who is desperate to buy something, but needs a little help. Recognise buying signals and remember that 20% of your customers will purchase 80% of your products. I think that the biggest myth of social media is the same for most digital and offline media when you look at them as tactical solutions rather than in the context of an overall digital marketing strategy.

If you have a Facebook page to write up your achievements and handle discussions and a Twitter page to broadcast where your thoughts can be found you may very well build up an audience and spend a lot of time interacting with them in exactly the right ways but are you making sales? I always say that running an online business is fundamentally no different to running a little corner shop. You need it to be open, and for people passing by to see that it is open, you need to be helpful and honest, you need to be busy as that persuades everyone else that the wisdom of crowds is right and you are the place to shop, but you also need to be focused.

A shopkeeper in my grannies village knew that if he spent all day just chatting the world away with a few people who come into the shop but buy nothing was not as important as spotting a customer and leading them through to a sale. The danger with social media is that you end up doing the equivalent of this and spend a lot of time discussing things whilst missing out on the customer in the corner who is desperate to buy something, but needs a little help. Recognise buying signals and remember that 20% of your customers will purchase 80% of your products.

]]> Comment on Seven steps for building a thriving corporate Facebook community by The myths of social media and what it takes to be successful « Tina I. Stewart: Brand Development in a Digital World http://www.socialtis.net/2009/07/seven-steps-for-building-a-thriving-corporate-facebook-community/comment-page-1/#comment-215 The myths of social media and what it takes to be successful « Tina I. Stewart: Brand Development in a Digital World Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:27:50 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=90#comment-215 [...] missing. If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that one of my mantras has been “Participate!” And though I’m simplifying a bit, this is the crux of the issue: social media keeps up-front [...] [...] missing. If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that one of my mantras has been “Participate!” And though I’m simplifying a bit, this is the crux of the issue: social media keeps up-front [...]

]]> Comment on To tweet or not to tweet? Some best practices for B2B Twittering. by admin http://www.socialtis.net/2009/09/to-tweet-or-not-to-tweet-some-best-practices-for-b2b-twittering/comment-page-1/#comment-143 admin Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:44:50 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=221#comment-143 Thx, Bala. I made changes to the post! Thx, Bala. I made changes to the post!

]]> Comment on To tweet or not to tweet? Some best practices for B2B Twittering. by Anonymous http://www.socialtis.net/2009/09/to-tweet-or-not-to-tweet-some-best-practices-for-b2b-twittering/comment-page-1/#comment-141 Anonymous Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:25:23 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=221#comment-141 Comment on To tweet or not to tweet? Some best practices for B2B Twittering. by Bala Gopalan http://www.socialtis.net/2009/09/to-tweet-or-not-to-tweet-some-best-practices-for-b2b-twittering/comment-page-1/#comment-129 Bala Gopalan Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:11:38 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=221#comment-129 Crowdsourcing priority on product idea/feature(s) is something I have seen. Perhaps, this is covered under "Use it as a conversational tool for gathering market intelligence." Also, realtime feedback/voting during live physical events such as conferences, tradeshows. Pre- and post- event as well On a different note, the last four twitter URLs in this post are all incorrectly pointing to junosjeff. Thought I 'd let you know. Crowdsourcing priority on product idea/feature(s) is something I have seen. Perhaps, this is covered under “Use it as a conversational tool for gathering market intelligence.” Also, realtime feedback/voting during live physical events such as conferences, tradeshows. Pre- and post- event as well

On a different note, the last four twitter URLs in this post are all incorrectly pointing to junosjeff. Thought I ‘d let you know.

]]> Comment on Seven steps for building a thriving corporate Facebook community by How will iPhone adoption affect enterprise mobility and the spread of social media? « Tina I. Stewart: Brand Development in a Digital World http://www.socialtis.net/2009/07/seven-steps-for-building-a-thriving-corporate-facebook-community/comment-page-1/#comment-125 How will iPhone adoption affect enterprise mobility and the spread of social media? « Tina I. Stewart: Brand Development in a Digital World Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:51:34 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=90#comment-125 [...] clear that it’s a two-way street. Earlier we found this to be the case with social media such as Facebook  and Twitter—both technologies whose adoption by B2B continues to be driven first by employee [...] [...] clear that it’s a two-way street. Earlier we found this to be the case with social media such as Facebook  and Twitter—both technologies whose adoption by B2B continues to be driven first by employee [...]

]]> Comment on Fast, friendly and fun: What rich media brings to B2B marketing by admin http://www.socialtis.net/2009/08/fast-friendly-and-fun-what-rich-media-brings-to-b2b-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-42 admin Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:12:16 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=118#comment-42 A truly seasoned in-house film/production "guy" is a great way to keep costs down and stay on message/brand. However, if you have regional needs there is always a way to get consistency by creating usable in/outs base on the video taxonomy a company chooses to follow. For example, customer videos ins and outs can have one look and music background track, while partner videos as something slightly different: all aligned, all professional. Of course, there is the great man on the street approach with (with guidelines, of course). With <a href="http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=833&subcategory=834&product=18991" rel="nofollow">Creative's Vado HD (2nd Gen) Pocket Video Cam </a>you can shoot it in high-definition and edit in the on brand ins and outs. Thanks for the reply! A truly seasoned in-house film/production “guy” is a great way to keep costs down and stay on message/brand. However, if you have regional needs there is always a way to get consistency by creating usable in/outs base on the video taxonomy a company chooses to follow. For example, customer videos ins and outs can have one look and music background track, while partner videos as something slightly different: all aligned, all professional. Of course, there is the great man on the street approach with (with guidelines, of course). With Creative’s Vado HD (2nd Gen) Pocket Video Cam you can shoot it in high-definition and edit in the on brand ins and outs. Thanks for the reply!

]]> Comment on Fast, friendly and fun: What rich media brings to B2B marketing by Casey Hibbard http://www.socialtis.net/2009/08/fast-friendly-and-fun-what-rich-media-brings-to-b2b-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Casey Hibbard Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:07:57 +0000 http://www.socialtis.net/?p=118#comment-39 Tina, Great post! Every company I interact with is trying to figure out what and where in regards to rich media right now. This is a well-thought-out guide. For most, the challenge seems to be how to do it professionally on a budget - without a big video production firm. I'd love your ideas for how to do this well and cost effectively. Best, Casey Tina,

Great post! Every company I interact with is trying to figure out what and where in regards to rich media right now. This is a well-thought-out guide.

For most, the challenge seems to be how to do it professionally on a budget – without a big video production firm. I’d love your ideas for how to do this well and cost effectively.

Best,
Casey

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