Can you imagine waking up one day to discover that your capacity to take in new knowledge has ended?  That everything you are going to learn has already happened and that your brain, now filled to capacity, was blinking “hard drive full”?  It can happen.  I have experienced it.

One thing that occurs when you are the custodian of a marketing budget is that everyone wants to meet with you.  If you allowed every new vendor to come in for a pitch, you could literally spend every day watching Power Point slides.  To better manage your time you set up protocols and processes–your staff and agencies screen new opportunities and vendors and only highlight those that they feel are right and likely to interest you.  This frees you up to focus on running your marketing programs, driving your business, and managing your time.

But all those protocols and layers are traps.  They isolate you from the marketplace and insulate you from innovation.  Your ability to compare and make decisions on new opportunities based on your firsthand knowledge/exposure diminishes… you are going stale.  So what can you do to stay current and in-touch with new options and changing landscapes without being capsized by solicitation?  Here are some fuel for thought suggestions:

• Trends/Data/Marketing News
• Brands on Twitter
• Marketing & Advertising

Interruption-based mass marketing that simply shouts messages one way to customers is not only one of the most ineffective strategies for today’s landscape, it’s also a red flag when it comes to building your brand’s image, reputation and value. To us, the smartest brands are now listening to the conversations their customers are having, watching where they are taking place and engaging with them on an individual level to add value in real time. Even better, an increasing number of marketers are not only deploying programs specifically created for the social platforms, they’re strategically harnessing insights from the data and using them to help plan and develop stronger brand positioning and marketing programs in the future.

From a marketer’s standpoint (especially those that fall into the challenger brand status), last year was about how to make your business run harder and faster in a bid to stay competitive in a downturn. In 2010, we at Sigma believe it’s going to be about proving value through both your consumer conversation quotient and the product experience. Brand value will be influenced more and more by the consumer, making it more important than ever for brands to deploy programs that are authentic and conversation-worthy. For challenger brands, this is going to aid in brand differentiation and consumer engagement. Differentiation needs to be bigger than just a brand name. True differentiation will come from consumer engagement strategies and a brand’s willingness to involve customers. Visibility and opportunity await the brand that is best at engaging their customer as well as making the product experience richer and better than the rest.

Last year, we worked with clients in footwear, burn care, technology and professional services, helping them embrace new marketing approaches fueled by the changing landscape. Fostering brand advocates and evangelists is not just for brands in the consumer space. It’s everywhere, and it applies to both consumer and B2B brands alike. As the new year kicks off and while writing your marketing game plan, ask yourself: Are you equipped in 2010 for true differentiation?

Related posts:
All Media Is Social. Now What? by Fuel for Thought

John Battelle & The Conversation Economy by C. B. Whittemore

We’ll kick-off the first conference recap with John Battelle’s (CEO/Founder, Federated Media) keynote on “All Media is Social.  Now What?”  John’s keynote was brilliantly right-on-topic to get us all kindling new ideas.  Here are four key areas he covered:

1.  The Rise of Conversational Marketing: First we declared our intentions (what we want) through search.  Then we declared our relations (social graph — who we are as defined by how we are connected to other people) on sites like Facebook.  Finally, during the past year we declared our utterances (what we are doing, what we are interested in, etc.) on sites like Twitter.  When you put all these declarations together — intention, relations and utterances, you have an economy of conversations.

2.  Conversation Economy: Every marketer is a publisher and every publisher is a marketer.  And every consumer is both.  What was once a one-way conversation has now become a two-way conversation. To succeed as marketers, we must leverage appropriate digital media and have conversations with customers at scale.  If you believe conversational marketing is real, we have to contemplate how we can best market in that native environment.  It’s a new form of exchange between numerous participants, and we as marketers are one of those participants representing the brand.  We are still in an early stage and we have to learn new skills by trying and relentlessly testing.

3.  What Brands Need to Succeed in Conversational Marketing: Marketing must become everyone’s job and it must become a horizontal practice rather than a vertical specialty.  This means rethinking from the top down and the bottom up.  To succeed in the Social Media, brands need the same things that are required in a Packaged Goods environment.

Scale + Safety + Quality + Engagement

4.  Conversational Marketing Guidelines:  Fuel for Thought tips and suggestions include:
-  Find conversations you want to join or start
-  Find the natural leaders of those conversations
-  Listen first, then join
-  Add value to the conversations
-  Make media annuities

To hear more great nuggets from John, be sure to follow him on Twitter at @JohnBattelle. To get an electronic copy of his presentation, please email me at jkim (at) sigmagroup.com.  The next post will recap Radian6’s workshop on “Why Listen to Social Media?”

Our first event last year focused on finding the optimum digital marketing solutions.  Geoff Ramsey, CEO/Founder of eMarketer shared his Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn and it sure got our attendees engaged in various discussions to help them jump-start planning in the right direction for the coming year.  Today, we’re thrilled to see that many of the attendees have implemented steps built from those insights/conversations into their marketing programs.  We as an agency also applied those insights and it helped us innovate and grow during the downturn.

The second Fuel for Thought conference will take place on Thursday, November 5th at the Hilton Parsippany Hotel.  This year, we’ll be focusing on Social Media Marketing — not on lofty, intangible theories and concepts, but on actionable smart practices, case studies, resources and tools that will help our attendees properly consider, test and incorporate them into their upcoming marketing programs.

We are thrilled to have John Battelle, CEO/Founder of Federated Media as our keynote presenter to fully profile Why All Media is Social and how it’s impacting the relationship between brands and consumers.  He will share how marketers can embrace new strategies and best practices to ensure their brands are positioned properly in conversational marketing.

We are also delighted to have our partners Radian6, Visual Goodness and Federated Media on-board with us at Fuel for Thought.  To equip our attendees with the right strategies and practical steps, each of our partners will lead an interactive workshop session customized for the conference. Attendees can join the session most suited to their needs:

* Maximizing the User Experience
* Why Listen to Social Media?
* Conversation at Scale
* Twitter for Business

The conference is complimentary to our clients and marketing executives seeking growth and innovation.  To request for your seat, visit http://www.fuelforthoughtseries.com.  We hope to see you on November 5th.

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]]> http://www.sigmagroup.com/blog/archives/1382/feed 0 http://www.sigmagroup.com/blog/archives/1323 http://www.sigmagroup.com/blog/archives/1323#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:30:57 +0000 pparis http://www.sigmagroup.com/wordpress/?p=1323 Why should I?  What does it matter?  How can one person change the world?  We’ve all heard the phrase, “Think globally, act locally,” but how often do we actually heed the meaning of that phrase?

The needs of the world just seem so overwhelming, right?  We find ourselves saying, “Why bother? We can’t fix everything!” and then doing nothing.  I think that’s probably a very logical solution according to our selfish, perfectionist, overachieving natures –  “If it can’t be done right, why do it at all?“  Sound familiar?

While it is true that one person can’t solve all the troubles of the world, we at Sigma have realized that everyone holds great power to make a big difference.  The power that one person has to improve the quality of life for a few, or the ability that one person has to lend a helping hand, is tremendous.

We recently created a community outreach program called Team Hercules (we have a tradition that lends itself to all things Greek).  There were two reasons we created Team Hercules.  Reason #1: It’s a program that empowers all of our employees to reach out beyond themselves and beyond the confines of these office walls to give back and better our community.  And Reason #2: I’ll get into that in a minute, at the end of this post.

So why should I — an HR manager challenged to come up with ways to build teams and increase productivity — think it is important to enact the whole “Think globally, act locally” mantra?

Empowering our employees to serve their community and help those in need has given Sigma the opportunity to build and strengthen core relationships that are built on more than doing good work.  This program helps employees find factors that motivate them beyond the mighty dollar or pat on the back.  These community outreach programs sometimes force our employees to reach beyond their comfort zones and dig deeper into themselves, and maybe their pockets, while getting a glimpse into the lives of others.

Whether it be a team going out to deliver and stock the shelves of a local food pantry, or collecting school supplies for children in need, or simply reaching out to the community to lend a helping hand — everyone wins.  There is something for everyone — for the company, for our employees and for the recipients of our good will.  We all win!

We gain appreciation.  There is nothing that feels better or can put more pep in you step then true appreciation.  Knowing and feeling it from head to toe.  An employee that feels appreciated is more likely to show appreciation, and so on and so on…

We get great experience.  Every new experience is an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to feel, and an opportunity to use our knowledge to make a positive change.  With every new experience we fill up the creative banks within our brain and we see the world a little differently.  Experiencing new things is never boring.

We get fulfillment. I don’t normally like this word because in suggesting that we need fulfillment can suggest we might feel empty.  However, let’s be realistic and admit that at times we all can feel a little empty.  I have never walked away from a volunteer event that didn’t leave me feeling like I got back so much more than I gave.  Bye-bye empty feeling.

So in a business that is fueled by wins — new clients, new accounts, new assignments, great press — that drive our bottom line, can Team Hercules really be counted as a business “win” for Sigma?  I certainly believe so.

My final thought — a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson and my Reason #2 for creating Team Hercules:  “Every great achievement is the victory of a flaming heart.”

The reality is that things never go as planned. But when you think about it, is that a bad thing? Those shaping the world make a difference by going beyond the expected. They figure out ways to capitalize on the unexpected twists and turns that come their way. They relish in the opportunities that are presented when unexpected things happen and as a result make great strides in the economy, environment, society, etc.

Business owners and entrepreneurs…the best bubble up when they expect the unexpected. They plan for the unexpected. They know that nothing should be taken at face value. And even further, it’s their ability to capitalize on unexpected opportunities that really makes them superstars. Even world-class athletes qualify here. Think about the NFL player who intercepts a pass in midfield–do you think he wasn’t already prepared for what to do should he unexpectedly catch that pass? Maybe the sports analogy isn’t the best when it comes to thoroughly modern intellect, but at least it says the same thing: moving forward by leaps and bounds is about seizing unexpected opportunities and doing something with them.

But beyond expecting the unexpected, what about doing the unexpected? There is real power there. From a very positive and uplifting point of view, you can make someone’s day by doing something unexpected. You can get someone to laugh by telling an unexpected story. You can surprise someone by giving them something they didn’t know they were getting. You have the power to make someone’s day by unexpectedly telling them you “like that dress” or “you have a nice smile” or “you did a great job.”

Why all this deep thought around the unexpected? We recently launched a fun consumer campaign for our partners at Famous Footwear called Make Today Unexpected. And while the punchline for the campaign is really about elation and how women feel about shoes, it’s the twist and the unexpected way we tell that story that I think makes it sing.

The power of the unexpected.

Find an unexpected way to make someone’s day. Expect the unexpected or you won’t find it.

[Never forget to safeguard your Twitter password and only use it on sites you trust.]

Twitter Search, Trends & News

Search.Twitter – Twitter’s own search engine (formerly Summize).  Type in any search term and see what’s happening on Twitter for that keyword.  You can subscribe to a search via RSS.

Twazzup – An alternative Twitter search engine.  It has the basic functionality of search.twitter.com, but is faster, has a better UI and offers additional useful resources.

Spy - Tracks real-time keyword mentions in Twitter, FriendFeed, Flickr, Blog Comments, Yahoo News, Blogs and Google Reader.  You can subscribe to a search via RSS.

Twendz - A real-time Twitter search application that also measures sentiment.

TwettMeme, Twit(url)y, MicroBlogBuzz – Tracks and features the most popular links on Twitter.  MicroBlogBuzz aggregates links from Jaiku and Identica along with Twitter.

ReTweetist – Tracks the most popular retweets (RT).

RetweetRadar – Allows you to see popular retweets.  Also archives top trending terms and Twitter users by day.

WhatTheHashag - A wiki that tracks hashtags on Twitter.

TwitScoop – A real-time tag cloud of Twitter buzz.

Tinker – A simple way to discover events people are chattering about on Twitter and across the social web.

Favrd- This site lists interesting things that show up on Twitter based on the number of times an item/tweet has been declared as a “favorite.”

TweetNews – Ranks top stories based on the amount of related tweets.

StockTwits - Shares the investment discussions on Twitter in real time.

Twitter Alerts

TweetScan - Schedule Twitter searches to be sent to your email.

TweetBeep- The Google Alerts for Twitter, allows you to monitor conversations that mention you, your brand and related products.  When an assigned keywords are tweeted, an email alert will be sent to you.

Twitter Analytics & Graphs

Twitalyzer – A complete analytics and visualization tool for Twitter users.  The site evaluates the activity of any Twitter user and/or brand and report on relative influence, signal-to-noise raitio, generosity, velocity, clout, and other measures of success.  Twitalyzer also allows you to combine Twitter data with your Google Analytics.  Sign up for Twitalzyer Pro to gain access to additional measurements (e.g., Your Top Influencers, ROI, Clouds reports).

TwitterCounter - Graphs your twitter usage – followers, friends and updates.

Trendrr – Tracks trends and statistics on multiple social media platforms.

Twist – A Twitter trends tool that graphs your queried terms into a format similar to Google Trends.

TweetVolume – Graphs how often words and phrases are mentioned on Twitter and then indexed on Google.

TwitterGrader – Learn your Twitter grade, your local Twitter Elite, and find new people to follow.

Twitterholic - Lists top 100 Twitter users based on followers.

TweetStats – Offers a graphical analysis of your Twitter usage.

Twinfluence – Measures your Twitter influence based on reach, velocity, and social captial.

RetweetRank - Measures how many retweets you have received.

Find and Manage Twitter Follower, Friends and Tweets

WeFollow - User generated directory of Twitterers categorized by their industry, interest and hobby.  Include yourself to the list by clicking on “Add Yourself to WeFollow” button.

Twellow - Yellow Pages of Twitter.  Breaks out tweople by industry category and location.

TwitDir - Offers a variety of ways to search for people on Twittr (user name, location, description).

Mr. Tweet - Follow @mrtweet and he will send you a DM with a suggested good people to follower based on folks that are in your Twitter network and recommendations they received.

Twubble , WhoShouldIFollow - Type in your Twitter username and this program recommends people you should follow based on popularity and location.

LocalTweeps , NearByTweets – Enter your zip code or location and find who is near you.

GeoFollow – Location based Twitter directory.

Tweetizen - A web-based tool designed to help you filter tweets by categorizing your followers and their tweets by assigning Twitter groups.

FriendOrFollow - This tool compares your list of friends with your followers and shows you who does not follow you back.

SocialToo – Summarizes your new followers and those who unfollowed you via email.  Also offers autofollow and opt out of auto DM’s services.

Twitterholic – Find out who has the most followers and who can be an influential asset to your campaign.

Twitoria – Finds who haven’t tweeted in a long time that are part of your Twitter network.

Qwitter – Helps you manage your network by sending an alert when someone unfollows you.

Twalala – Put a mute button on certain people or topcis for a set amount of time if you are receiving way too many unwanted updates.

SocialMojo – Cute application that reveal what kind of “social mojo” you possess.  Just enter your user name and find out your mojo trait.

Twitter List (Brands, Government Officials, Retailers)

TweetBuzzer – Tracks the top 100 tweeted brands. We especially like the “Track Your Favorite Brand” feature, which summarizes the number of tweets and impressions during the past 24 hours, 7 days and 30 days.

Retail Twitter – Aggregates selected retailers (Brick & Mortar and E-Commerce) who are using Twitter to connect with their customers.

ExecTweets – Launched by Federated Media and sponsored by Microsoft, the site aggregates and groups Tweets from business executives by verticals and offers additional features to easily keep track of brands/executives on Twitter.

USGovernment - A full list of government officials, agencies, departments and staffs on Twitter.

JobMob – A global directory of Twitter accounts that post job openings.

Sharing Image, Videos, Links, Files, URL Shortners on Twitter, Twitter Polls

TwitPic – The most popular photo posting and sharing service.

Filetwt - A convenient utility for quickly sharing any files, upt to 20MB, with your entire Twitter network or just a single user.

TwitVid - Twitter video sharing site that supports upload via Web, email to u@twitvid.io.

Twiddeo – A service that allows you to upload video from the Web, camera phone and webcam.

BubbleTweet - Create a short video that pops up as a “bubble” over your Twitter profile page.  You can also embed a pop-up video message into your website with BubbleGuru, and BubbleComment allows you to include a video message on blogs.

URL Shortners that Tracks Clicks:  Bit.ly, Twitclicks, Tweetburner are few that we use often (we said our good byes to Tr.im in Aug-09)

StrawPoll – Poll your Twitter friends.

Glue – Post links to books, movies, restaurants and more on Twitter through Glue.

Twitter Handel, Plug-Ins, Clients

TweetDeck - A popular Adobe Air desktop client for Twitter offering variety of ways to organize your Twitter dashboard through preferences you set up (e.g., groups, key-word).

Twhirl – Adobe AIR desktop application connecting users to their Twitter, FriendFeed, Seesmic and laconi.ca accounts.

PowerTwitter – Firefox add-on that offers additional features to your Twitter Web interface (e.g., inline pictures and video to Twitter stream, URL expansion, Facebook status updates, etc.).

Hootsuite – Allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts and pre-schedule tweets.  Also allows you to send links with banner ads by  linking your Hootsuite account with Google Adsense.

TweetLater and CoTweet – Allow you to schedule when your Tweets get published.  Also help you to manage multiple accounts.

TwitterBerry - A popular BlackBerry Twitter application.

Ping.fm – A free service that allows you to update all of your social networks at once.

TwinBox – Lets you use Twitter inside of Outlook.

Organization & Productivity

Twittercal - Links your Twitter account and Google Calendar to easily keep up with your events and appointments.

@Timer , @RTM- Follow one of these Twitter accounts and direct message an upcoming task to receive reminder tweet.


TrackThis - Send TrackThis your tracking number and it will send you a message (via Twitter, Email, SMS, RSS, Facebook) when a package has arrived.  Tracks UPS, Fedex, USPS, DHL and several other carriers.

Jott – Voice-to-Text mobile messaging service that will transcribe your voice message to Twitter.

TwtVite - A simple event manager that helps you organize TweetUp.

TwtTrip - A travel organizer tool that helps you share your travel plans and find other Twitter travelers going to your destination.

Fund Raising, Petition, Promotion, Coupons

ChipIn , TipJoy – Helps you raise funds on Twitter for your cause.  Both service tracks the progress of your fund raising program.

TwtQpon - Allows you to create a simple Twitter coupon for your business.

Act.ly , TinyPetition -  A Twitter petition sites where user created petitions are tweeted out to their followers for them to join in.

Twibbon – Helps supporters of a cause overlay their Twitter avatars with an icon that shows of support and solidarity around an issue (e.g., pink ribbon)

Blogging

Add To Any – A WordPress plug-in that gets your blog posts shared on Twitter.

Tweet This - Allows your blog readers to tweet your post directly from your blog/site.
MyTwitter - Allows users to display their recent Twitter status updates on their WordPress site.


TwitterCounter - With this plug-in, you can display the number of follower you have on Twitter.

Twitter Visualization

VisibleTweets.com - Aggragates and animates Twitter search results.  Great for presentation.

TwitterSheep – Creates a tag cloud  based on the gios of the Twitter user’s followers.

Twistori - Features tweets containing love, hate, think, believe, feel or wish.

Social Collider – Tracks conversations based on users or topics and graphs if connected to another conversation or not.

Miscellaneous Simple Single Function Sites

WhenDidYouJoinTwitter – Tells you when the Twitter account was opened. IsTwitterDown - Tells you if Twitter is down or not.

DoesFollow – Tells you if a user is following another user.

For additional Twitter Tools, Apps and more, check out the following:

• 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Twitter Research

Diego Stocco – Music From A Tree from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

Discovering new and unique ways to create something different from a common object or idea is a challenge for all creatives. We often set our own boundaries and expectations of what something “should” be, defined either by the project parameters or personal preferences. Overcoming these limitations opens up a world of new experiences and fresh inspiration for our work.

Let’s consider the words of A.A. Milne, best known for his books about Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children’s poems:

“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”

What can YOU do with your tree?