Before coming to Nostrum I worked for 3 years in the B2B sector as a buyer. When I started working there it was the height of Myspace,  most people thought a Facebook involved an actual book, YouTube was just starting to take off, and twitter was a word for birdwatchers. Even in those early social days my industry was already social. There were (are) industry forums, blogs, videos, and even Myspace pages that were in wide use  (albeit often subversive use). The challenge for many was getting around internal site blocking software to get to the information which was so badly needed. Everyone had tips and tricks to get around a system. You might say we had a subversive network of buyers.  This wasn’t the best system (obviously) but management didn’t see the value in having an open (”dangerous”) web. Management also didn’t see the value in using social media…  The statistics in the following video should not be shocking.  Think about that subversive group of buyers, 4 years later many of them are finally getting into the management ranks. They understand the tools and they understand the potential,  and now they have the power to make changes. It stands to reason that B2B will expand the lead over B2C in Social Media over the next 5 years. Lead in part by a subversive group of buyers…

Some Facts and Figures To Consider For B2B Social Media Marketing

1. 81 % of B2B companies have accounts on social media sites compared to 67% of B2C
2. 75% of B2B brands participate in Twitter versus 49% of B2C
3. 54% of Chief Information Officers ban the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter at the workplace
4. 93% of all business buyers believe all companies should be on social media platforms
5. 85% of  of those buyers should use social media to engage and interact with them
6. 9 out of 10 buyers say that when they are ready to buy, they will come looking for you
7. Eight out of Ten  IT decision makers said word of mouth is the most important source when making buying decisions
8. 37% of B2B buyers asked questions on social media sites when looking for suggestions
9. 93% of B2B buyers use a search engine such as Google to begin the buying process
10. 74% of C- Level executives say that the internet is a very valuable source of information
11. Six out of  Ten C-Suite executives conduct more than six online searches a day
12. Managers in information technology are the top ranked users of the Web for information gathering
13. 49% of B2B marketers do not measure return on investment
14. 90% of marketing deliverables not used by sales
15. Sales generate 53% of their own leads and the marketing department provides only 24%

Everybody knows this job market is one of the worst since the Great Depression. I’m not going to harp on about that…it’s freaking depressing. Everybody knows that the current generation of 20-somethings is full of existential angst, has a short attention span, and has no idea where it’s going. All the pundits are saying, “Kids today, blah blah blah, get off my lawn.” The kids themselves are freaking out over the fact that they’re having to live in their parents’ basements while they hunt for a job—any job—and try to pay off some of their student loans. Parents freak out over having to support their kids when they themselves are already stretching every dollar.

I know. I’m one of those kids. Moved home. Having to defer my student loans. Repeatedly. Biting my nails and arguing with my folks about money, jobs, and who does the dishes. And it sucks. It really sucks, not knowing what’s coming next. I’ve always hated uncertainty of any kind and it’s worse this time, because there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. No more “when I go back to school in the fall” or “when I graduate,” because I’m done with school. No more “when I save up some money” because that’s probably not going to happen. For a long time.

It’s really easy to get depressed about…well…everything. But I came across this article on an education blog the other day with a really thought-provoking title: “Dancing Towards Uncertainty.” The author, Josh Barkey, a teacher, describes a confused student:

“I think Brandon is confused because he is living in a confused world. Like most young people, Brandon is searching for a passion equal to the raging tornado of yearnings that perpetually spins inside him. Yet he knows that as a privileged member of a privileged class he is gifted with a lot of potential and wants some meaningful way to live it out, but what he sees with his razor-sharp mind is a collapsing house of cards…Brandon is left wondering why he has bothered to conquer the academic mountain in the first place. He wants his life to matter, and is told that the way to do that is only to keep on climbing.”

Barkey goes on to theorize that perhaps our current obsession with security, with success, with finding that perfect, meaningful, lucrative path as quickly as possible, is what is keeping us in the dark. Perhaps we are too focused on looking for one CERTAIN thing, and as a result, we are missing out on countless wonderful opportunities.

“I…am tired of the coldly constructed educational approach that demands a clear answer to every question. I believe that before growth can happen there has to be a period of doubt and uncertainty. Certainty kills innovation, and while I need a degree of certainty in the surgeon poking around in my brain or the pilot flying my airplane, I also hope that somewhere along the line they have learned how to be creative. When problems develop for which they have been provided no textbook answer, I need them to be able to step back, take a breath, and lose themselves in the dance of the moment.”

By insisting on certainty, we are killing innovation. If we could bring ourselves to calm down and explore the uncertainty for a while, perhaps we can discover something new. Penicillin was the result of moldy bread, and microwave ovens were the result of melted chocolate in a researcher’s pocket. After all, research has shown that the main distinguishing characteristic between lucky people and their less fortunate counterparts is being observant. Yep, just being able to spot an opportunity.

So maybe we should all just relax and enjoy the dance.

The first one of these videos went viral in no time… this second version has some cool new stats. Check it out!

I stumbled across a very interesting social media plan for the United States Air Force. It is a great guideline with clear action steps for any situation someone engaging in Social Media may find themselves in. Take a look!

Its a really brilliant plan from a resource one might not expect! I guess they are masters of strategy though, so maybe we should expect it.

Lesson: Don’t leave engagement up to chance!

Something that a very pertinent scholar showed us very recently.
Take a second and view/digest it. Then let us know what you think…

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Buzz has been alive and kicking for a full 2 weeks!  In my last blog I covered what buzz isn’t. Before I could explain what it was I needed to wait for some statistics to come out. Today the statistics came out and I am very proud to say I was right!

Buzz is a very important response to SEO bate and switches that have been haunting Google for years now. SEO companies have been creating page systems that look like content but are really just meaningless data. The goal of these systems is to create a complex system that pumps a client’s page to the top of Google’s organic search rankings.

Now that you understand the problem that Google is attempting to tackle with buzz lets talk about how it works.

1. The way many of these SEO systems work are through blogs that contain useless information and links.

2. Google reader has had a useless disconnected share feature for years. With buzz Google finally did something with it.
(Look at how much sharing Google has actually encouraged through)…

3. Using the shared reader data Google is able to add one more key matrix to SEO. Buzz allows Google to rank blogs on content.

4. Google is able to pull conversations around posts into its own ecosystem which will further benefit its SEO.

Finally Google is very aware of a huge change that hitwise highlighted a while back. In December for the first time ever Social Media sent more traffic to websites than searches… check it out

Google should be  worried because this is how they make their money. People click on the paid links by the millions and Google gets paid.

Next post: Dont Get Buzz 3… What Buzz means for Business

In case you missed it the Grammys were on CBS last night. I say in case because not many people missed them, the ratings were up 33%… I was part of that 33%.

My wife and I weren’t going to watch the Grammys, neither of us ever have. In general we are not huge fans of award shows and our dial rarely ever goes below Channel 4.  However last night something happened. As we were on twitter and Facebook we took notice of all the post’s talking about how crazy this Gaga person looked. Other posts were highlighting how amazing the Black Eyed Peas did, and still others that poked fun at every opportunity.  It was at that moment we realized we had a choice watch the Grammys or find ourselves irrelevant.

Last night CBS added eyes via Social media are you?

A few days ago it was reported by numerous news outlets that a NJ based PetsMart location had fired an employee for “bringing his dog to work.” The story is a bit convoluted, but it goes something like this. The employee normally worked the day shift and as a favor to a manager, agreed to take on a night shift due to a staffing issue at that specific locale. In doing so, he on his own accord decided that he would bring his dog into PetsMart and leave it in the “Doggie Daycare facility for the evening checking in on it every so often.” A relatively non issue in that it is PetSmart and PetSmart has an open door policy to pets. Plus, remember the store was closed and no customers and very few employees were even there. The night shift seemingly went off with out a hitch, yet a few days later, the employee was called into management’s office and officially terminated under the guise of “theft of services.”

Now the first question that comes to mind is how does “bringing your dog to work” amount to a “theft of services.” That question was immediately posed by the terminated employee. And of course the corporate conglomerate not wanting to cow tow to pressure from a terminated employee’s questioning of their ridiculous actions justified the decision by stating:

“the doggie daycare service is a huge part of PetSmart’s business. Access to the store’s doggie daycare facility is ‘viewed as sale items the same way items on the shelf are. To use the facilities and not pay for it — it falls under the same lines,’” said PetSmart spokeswoman Jessica White.

Now this is where brands need to understand how the social space works. The social world does not stop and continue to go about one’s day just because a corporate “edict” goes out from the C-Suite. No one really cares if this was said by the CEO and treated as the 11th commandment within the confines of the company compound or even only happened in an isolated store in the bowels of NJ. The point is that consumer expectations around the brand have been breached and people have the power and means to voice their displeasure via social technologies like no tomorrow. And this is exactly what happened in this case.

On PetSmart Official Face book page over the course of the last 24 hours, their core fan base of 15,000+ have really stepped up and made their feelings heard. Sentiments of disappointment to outright treason are running rampant across the social sphere, so much so that it has forced PetSmart to issue an official statement and apologize for their lack of judgment. Too little too late IMO, but to date this is the only saving grace in this entire situation:

“We feel badly this happened and has upset so many people. We simply messed up. We didn’t handle it the way we should have, and we’re very sorry about it. Unfortunately, before we made things right with this associate, the damage was done. We’ve certainly learned from it. We still think PetSmart’s a great place to work …and we’re using this experience to make us better. We hope you’ll understand. -Jessica”

What this means is that brands need to rapidly understand that the experience they share with the consumer does not stop at 5pm; people could care less about who or what level made a specific decision and only care that it was a “Branded Decision” and see it accordingly.

And lastly, if people are only thinking that us social media freaks aren’t seeing this as what it is - business - period - think again! While I don’t subscribe to that type of business thinking I do honor it, and I’ll bring up one last business point. If I were a competitor working in their marketing department and saw what was happening, I’d be seeing dollar signs. I’d be all over the competitor’s FaceBook wall speaking directly to all the PetSmart fans who were let down by this lapse in judgment. i’d be literally taking market share from them one by one. In fact, I noticed that a few people were already saying how much better their company’s dog policies are compared to PetSmart. So this isn’t just about social media do’s and dont’s, it’s about business in the 21st Century!

I just ran across this video and it made me very excited and not in a typical advertising manner.  I didn’t think about potential donation capabilities that could rain in from a viral hit or massive success attributed to the marketing team because they nailed the strategic objectives of the campaign; I  got happy because someone on their Executive Team had the forethought to know that this was a positive move for their company and had enough trust in the staff  to believe that this could work and went with it. I could only imagine the back and forth that went on between legal and each department around what they couldn’t do because of X,Y and Z.  But kudos to the Executive and his/her team who green lit this for it truly shows how when passion and company’s culture are on the same page good things can emerge.  And only when every level of a company is engaged and participates in a manner that they are comfortable with does something like this take off.  From the Facilities Department to the Rehabilitation Team to the Executive Suite at Providence Health Services in Oregon, nostrum salutes you and your 2Million viewed (and counting) viral smash….

Nostrum loves the videos that Socialnomics are putting out.

These short bursts of facts and social stats are great for users to understand the potential of the social web. However, everyone must know - as socialnomics points out in each video they showcase - that with all of these success stories there is a substantial amount of TIME put forth by each brand’s marketing team. None of these cases were done on the “build it and they will come manifesto” that for some reason the C-Suite always seem to think will happen when starting a new social initiative. Most, if not all cases are of one key employee rolling up his or her sleeves and burning the midnite oil for the betterment of their brand for little to no compensation other than his/her pure passion for the product of service ( i.e. Gary Vaynerchuk, Scott Monty, The BlendTec Dude).

While we love this video, please remember social media may not require a lot of dollars to start - it still requires alot of capital - TIME!

For all you corporate denizens who have “issues” with social media and all of it’s iterations here is something from one of the biggest corporate behemoths in the world: McDonald’s.

Below is a presentation from Heather Olandi, the Director of PR for McDonald’s regarding how the brand utilizes social media and community building to leverage their message. There are some very interesting ideas and strategic insights included. Love to hear what you think…

We’ve all heard the case studies (mostly done in-house) touting @comcastcares as the future of customer service. How it would change the negative image of cable companies…how Comcast customers wouldn’t be so cranky.

It hasn’t worked so far. A few individuals got good service, but were still annoyed. Not ever having been a Comcast customer, I can’t judge too much.

But other cable companies have jumped on the bandwagon as well. And that’s what I do have experience with–I recently canceled my account with Charter Cable. And they didn’t like it, not one little bit.

Here’s the back story–I was moving out of my apartment and didn’t want to transfer my account to my new place. I called May 17th and arranged to have my account stopped on June 10th. All good. I moved out of my apartment at the very end of June, all paid up and good to go. I returned my equipment. Good. I thought I was all done with Charter. Peachy.

So imagine my surprise when I got a call in November. From a collection agency. Saying I owed Charter $130. BIG SURPRISE. So I called Charter customer service and got no help. They were very polite and looked up my account. And they saw that I had paid out and closed the account (I had actually overpaid) but they couldn’t do anything. I was going to have to drive forty miles to the local office and beg them to call off the credit agency and fix my credit score. I was NOT HAPPY.

Naturally, in order to relieve my feelings, I took to the web and made some very angry Tweets and went off to bed. After which, cue Surprise Number Two: when I woke up, I found an @reply from @Umatter2ChrtrG asking if he could help. I explained my situation to him in both tweet and email form, and he connected me with @Umatter2Chtr2. A couple hours later, I got a phone call from @Umatter2Chtr2 (aka Josh). He listened, asked me to wait while he called the billing department, and called me back shortly with the news that the bill had been reversed, the money I overpaid was on its way, and the problem hadn’t even been put on my credit record.

Score. The problem got fixed. After a lot of freaking out on my part.
So, many thanks to Josh at Charter for his help. But that doesn’t negate the months of screw-ups while I was a Charter customer. If all the customer service I received had been that good, I’d still be one.

Conclusion: having a social media VIP line won’t keep your customers from hating you if all the rest of your customer service is terrible. Customer service and product quality should be the priorities, not afterthoughts and Band-Aids.

People may or may not know that we here at nostrum are extremely big fans of Gary Vaynerchuk and all the people over at VaynerMedia. Gary leads an amazingly eclectic conglomerate of social branding campaigns outside his core business of Wine Library TV.  From the launch of Corkd (@Ronga) to the NFL’s NY Jets’ Social Initiatives to a few packaged goods brands to the flipping NHL, Gary is leading the behind the scenes charge on so many levels, it astonishes me.

I recently attended his Pasadena book signing for his new book Crush It. At the event, an animated and intensely passionate Gary reared his dominate, yet endearing head telling all the Vayner-aics how toil, sweat and hustling got him where he is today. He had over 200 people salivating on his every word and trust me Vromans’ made some bank that night on Gary’s back. In fact, I overheard the manger say how floored he was at how many people showed up and continued to say that to his recollection only Bill Clinton and Howard Stern had more people for a signing than Gary.

Throughout the entire 2 hour session, Gary ranted and raved about the book, but what struck me as so amazing was that when it was time to sign books, he spent on average 3+ minutes with every single person autographing books, posing for pictures or just advising them based on a question or 2 they had prepared for him. He took the time and the energy to do it all with a straight face and a smile.

Post signing, I was lucky enough to spend an un-interrupted half hour with the man, the myth, and the legend. During our conversation his passion and charisma bubbled to the top (which I expected), but it was his listening skills that impressed me the most. As we chatted while driving the 110, I thought he would lead the conversation with overt references to his insights and lifestyle but that was not the case at all. He focused on what my concerns were (in relation to my business dilemmas) and addressed each individually based on how he felt he could assist. We talked business, ideation and passion and to each aspect he had his own take, yet never did I feel like I was being preached at; it was more like hanging out with a friend discussing the day over a beer (or sorry a glass a wine).

One response that rings ever so true is what he said when I asked if it is ever hard to continue to be “nice” for an event, even when you’re not mentally there. He responded with a wink and smile saying something to the effect that “these people came out to say hello to me and to purchase my book, the least i can do is honor them with a few words and/or an autograph.” He went on to say it all goes back to the early days of adding his personal posts to every single wine article he came across in order to obtain greater influence within the wine community. Trust me he still does this; if you don’t believe me check out how he wins over a negative reviewer of Crush it.

Few people have that ability to connect on so many levels with so many different types of people and still stay true to everything that they believe in: Gary is one of the chosen few.

Thanks for the ride Gary and see you on the other coast…robert

Great slide share presentation from Oliver Blanchard of the Brand Building blog.
His slides tell it like it is and show some nice and easy steps to developing the right metrics to help the C-suite understand what we are all building.

This is just a short post to say:

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! You can now report spammers on Twitter with just a click–in the actions tab on any profile you can report the profile as spam! YAAAAAY!!

The details are available on the official Twitter blog. On the one hand, ABOUT FREAKING TIME! On the other hand,

YAAAAAAAAAAY!!

Now Graham Spam Spam Spam Chapman can finally have his breakfast without spam.

Major League sports have failed again.

The NBA has followed in the footsteps of the NFL and the SEC and banned athletes from using social media during events. From 45 minutes before the event until they’ve finished their team responsibilities, team-related personnel are not allowed to use ANY KIND OF SOCIAL MEDIA.

I’ve been harping on what a bad idea this is for AGES, so I won’t rant about it again today…all I have to say is:

SHAQ AIN’T GONNA LIKE THIS.

Check out the clip from XPLANE - The Visual Thinking Company out of Portland. Kudos

Great insights into social media from the NYU professor who speaks to the digital divide, Gov 2.0 and scaling social media…

Earlier this year Ford launched what could be considered a social media experiment. The goal was to produce sales with younger drivers via authentic social media buzz. Ford went after 100influencers and gave them Ford Fiesta’s (releasing 2011). These influncers were already fans who were then converted to agents. Agents had to (in order to keep their status) post reviews, videos, tweets, Facebook updates and photos over several months. They basically created a buzz. It is a very cool novel idea that required Ford produce a quality product and trust their Agents. Although Ford did not control the message they didn’t need to because they had ambassadors. The result was wildly successful witha lot of positive chatter heading Fords way. Before I explain how successful they have been check out this video.

The video is agent made, even though Ford and Blendtec posted it to their feeds on you tube. The agent not only highlighted the strength of the car, he naturally states and hypes the benefit of that feature. This positive brand exposure has had a very impressive and surprising halo effect on the Ford Fusion. The campaign paired with another social push titled “we speak car” has resulted in a substantial brand favorably spike for the Fusion (a brand which was near death in 07). The consumer is more in touch with the quality of the product. As a result the Ford Fusion is now in direct competition with the Toyota Camry, a feat which was unrealistic 2 years ago. Many of the sales in 2009 have been to people buying their first American car after years of driving imports. When the Fiesta arrives in 2011 Ford is going to have a huge stock of video for advertisements, all produced at a very low cost and all authentic.

In terms of reach it looks like more then 6 million people have had a touch point with the Ford messages (mind you only 100 cars). Many of these people have become avid educated fans in the process some even counting down for the Fiesta to arrive. If you are asking “Can social media actually produce an ROI?” I’d suggest asking one of the people that bought a Fusion instead of a Camry.

Is it possible for a sports team in a non-traditional market to have one of the worst records in their league for almost 10 years running and continue to have great fan support? The Los Angeles Kings certainly seem to think so.

I realize I am talking about Hockey in LA in September but I think the Kings are on to something that other leagues and teams should learn from.

Fans+ Social Media =Power… Power = tickets sales

Things the kings have done several note worthy things with social media

1. The L.A. Kings list fan sites on their official site official web page (the Kings don’t control these sites but they are send people there anyway)
2. The L.A. Kings engage random fans on Twitter regularly
3. The L.A. Kings/NHL allow their players to have blogs and twitter accounts. This provides a great inside look which is what fans really want anyway.
4. The L.A. Kings have posted a link to an unofficial fan pages on Facebook and Myspace
5. The L.A. Kings even have a blog they link to that is written in Spanish

With an average attendance of 89.1% the Staples Center was often filled in 2008-2009. Kings fans still went to games despite seeing a team that has missed the playoffs since 2002 and missed it again in 2008-2009.

Could it be that Kings fans are just better because they are empowered?

Where are your Fans?

Do you give them a seat at the table?