Capture the Conversation Internet Marketing Tag Feed for 'jason cormier'

2010 SXSW Notes from a Newbie

Jason Cormier — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:25:26 -0400

After flying into Austin and checking into the Hampton last Thursday night, I looked over downtown from the 8th floor, then pathetically tweeted about how lonely and hungry I was.

Within seconds, Emily tweeted back to me recommending Iron Works BBQ - and Kit Seeborg called laughing. She said, "Listen carefully. You now must leave the hotel. Walk out, take a left, then a right to the convention center. Get your badge tonight to avoid lines tomorrow. Leave the convention center, taking a right until you hit 6th street. Then, fly and be free little south-by birdie."

I followed these instructions carefully, and soon found myself with a juicy Texas steak and glass of cab at the Iron Cactus. When I checked in with Foursquare and Gowalla I realized that I was not alone in this. I caught a quick tweet which I cross-referenced with Foursquare to learn that Jeremiah Owyang was two blocks from me. Seconds later, Brian Solis tweeted that he was in the same location. Seriously? If this wasn't an open invite, I was going to make it one.

I walked into the Driskill like a groupie, and Jeremiah greeted me with a cold glass of Guiness. Within 15 minutes I was introduced to Charlene Li, (happily reporting to her that Groundswell is mandatory reading for our employees). Brian Solis poured me a glass of champagne, and we discussed his new book release, Engage.

Later that night, I talked with JR, founder of lunch.com, met the Altimeter team, Steve Hall of Adrants - then spread into other conversations with a contingent of Amsterdam fans (@Marlooz) and smart LA women including Melissa Rowley and Sherry.

Growing weary of my name dropping? Hopefully the point of it all is coming through: SXSW offers unparralled accessibility to the thought leaders, founders, speakers, researchers, colleagues and best-selling authors in the social media space.

From little known to well known, these are the people who are shaping and transforming our space everyday. I was blown away.

Additional Highlights
The best speakers and panelists were amazingly transparent and unselfish in their advice giving. My favorite sessions were those that lead me to the next best thing. Here are a few examples:

I asked Chris Brogan and Julien Smith during their insightful panel "I Don't Trust You One Stinking Bit" what their best advice was (how ironic) for writing a book. They referred me to two people who helped them, Tim Sanders and Nick Morgan who I quickly met and spent an hour with the same day. Wow.

Peter Shankman's presentation on self-promotion (tip: the key is NOT to self promote, but help others so they promote for you)
Charlene Li's discussion of her new book, Open Leadership, available to the public May 24th (thanks Charlene and Ellen for getting me an early copy)
Social Search Panel, featuring one of the smartest researcher on the topic I've ever had the pleasure to meet, Brynn Evans (More on her in my next post)
Meeting Gary Vaynerchuk and David Meerman Scott - with whom I actually had the pleasure of doing a podcast on this blog for his most recent book, World Wide Rave.
Robert Scoble's late night check-ins on Gowalla

South by Southwest is a must attend if you have never been. If you aren't into geeking out with the interactive part, go for the movies, music, food, parties and good Austin atmosphere.

I'll close this out with a quick note about Gary Vaynerchuk, since he left such a lasting impression. This guy is the real deal, having built a $50 Million wine business using social media - long before he ever started making money talking or writing about social media. Rare.

Peter Shankman and Gary both shared a similar, simple message. Caring is under-rated. "Companies mostly suck at showing they care." Each of us in this industry must accept that we are in the customer service business… and this is the thank-you economy.

Thanks to you all who took the time to meet with me over the last several days, answer questions and care. Thanks also to the Room 214 crew for working hard (and also caring) so I could take the time to enjoy SXSW as I did. We are all blessed.

sxswi south by southwest kit seeborg jeremiah owyang charlene li brian solis chris brogan julien smith tim sanders nick morgan gary vaynerchuk david meerman scott mellisa rowley jason cormier

Social Search Optimization

Jason Cormier — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:34:45 -0500

I had the pleasure of talking with Charlene Li from the Altimeter Group last night - and she brought up the point of how search engine optimization is completely changing.

At the risk of paraphrasing, she basically indicated the importance of optimizing web pages is going away. If you consider how referral traffic is migrating from search engines to social networks, I'd say it's easy to agree.

Of course, what we are seeing is search engines staying relevant by indexing social content. Case and point: I do a quick search on Google for "iPad" - and what do you know: My friend and business partner, James Clark, shows up on the first page of the search results.

Wow, over 48 million results, and his mug comes up on the first page? Yes, because Google is now recognizing and leveraging the relevance of social connections.

And although the optimization of web pages may be bearing less weight, I'm not throwing out the baby with the bath water (ugh, I used that phrase). Keywords, for example, remain foundational to online visibility from both a topical search, and monitoring perspective.

There is a great deal more to the social search discussion recently written by Brian Solis. One of our (Room 214's) responses has been to create a formal Social Search Optimization program for our customers.

What are you doing to optimize for social search?

social search optimization social search charlene li james clark jason cormier

Social Media: Joining the Conversation Is Not Good Enough

Jason Cormier — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:40:46 -0500

Social media experts are commonly asked where the market is going, or, "what do you believe the future of social media is?"

I notice most offering answers are quick to disclaim "we are all learning, and nobody is really an expert" - then reasonably expound upon topics such as the integration of customer relationship management (CRM) within social media, online monitoring tools, Facebook, ROI models, etc.

All worthy topics of discussion, but as one who will be humbly referring to himself as an expert among many, the topic I'm bringing to your attention now is that of brands starting conversations. "That's it," you say? "What's so meaningful about that? Isn't that what they are already doing?"

Well, I'd say most are not. There is certainly a lot of listening going on - but many companies engaging in conversations about their brand are predominantly reacting, or at best, joining conversations (not starting them).

Cluetrain Revisited
10 years ago, when the Cluetrain Manifesto book was written, marketing and communications pros were introduced to what is now a core principal of social media: Markets are conversations.

To many in our industry, "markets are conversations" has become cliché - a standard phrase used in every presentation describing or introducing social media. And over the years, additional catchy phrases, theories and practices have sprung from this principal. Even the name of this blog was inspired from it in 2006… as was the bolded statement below...

It's Easier to Join a Conversation than to Start One
Most of us recognize how and why this statement is true - but in the context of social media strategy, I say it enables companies to rest on their laurels.

I'm not devaluing the importance of contributing to existing and often well-established conversations about your world. Your 2-cents (or at least your presence) is a required variable in the credibility equation. But let's face it, if you want to be a leader, just joining conversations won't cut it. At some point, you must also start them.

What's Next
Tomorrow, I'll be posting an introduction to what we at Room 214 refer to as the Conversation Maturity Model - a simple point of reference illustrating the path from listening to leading. I'll also offer some top line consideration on the value of starting a conversation.

social media joining the conversation cluetrain manifesto social media expertise conversation maturity model room 214 jason cormier

Choosing the Right Agency for Your Social Media - Notes from Day 1 at WOMMA

Jason Cormier — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:07:29 -0500

As WOMMA 2009 kicked off today, I wanted to share some notes from the last session I found extremely interesting. As one who runs a social media agency, I am of course completely captivated by a session dedicated to giving insight as to what big brands are thinking when choosing to work with agencies in this space.

The panel discussion included three individuals with an incredible amount of online and offline marketing experience. Each is a recognized leader within their own organization, and was kind enough to share some candid thoughts regarding their opinions on working with agencies. The background and highlights from each participant's discussion is as follows:

Steve Knox, CEO, Procter & Gamble Tremor: When I first met members from the Tremor team last year at WOMMA, I was surprised to hear that Procter & Gamble was already aggressively working with an agency to engage in WOM and social initiatives. I then learned Tremor was actually P&G's internal agency, working exclusively to support the brand(s).

Over time, Tremor has developed a community of about half a million moms through its Vocalpoint platform, and now successfully leverages the data, learnings and continued engagement to help brands outside of its own. Pretty impressive. The following are some of the things Steve had to say in consideration of working with potential partner agencies:

If there is zero unique IP that a potential partner agency brings to the table, then anything they can provide is essentially a commodity.
A successful agency is able to demonstrate that they care about the brand, and have a real understanding of its core equity.
I don't want to talk to agencies overly focused on digital and tactics. Agencies need to demonstrate they get how offline conversations are going to be activated.

David Witt, Manager, Brand Public Relations, General Mills: David brought a different angle to the conversation, along with a level of humility and humor I think most in the audience recognized quickly. Here are some of the items I noted from his participation:

From an agency, David is looking primarily for the emergence of creativity and execution
The first focus should be on customer loyalty, then word of mouth and brand advocacy
Ideas are power, and are of greatest value when they sustain engagement over the long haul.
For brands to be social, they must realize it is about giving (example: General Mills just launched tablespoon.com, featuring over 25,000 recipes for consumers to engage with, ratings, coupons, etc.)

Christine Morrison, Social Media Marketing Manager, Intuit: I have followed Christine on Twitter almost since she began her most recent marketing position at Intuit. She has lead award winning efforts (including a Gold WOMMY Award today) for Intuit, and continues to demonstrate what success with social media looks like. Here are the highlights I outlined around her input:

We look at the hows and whats of social media - and are interested in social marketing assets that are user generated and can be used in conjunction with advertising assets.
We like agencies that are ahead, out in front, trying new things and have thought through why they are trying them.
I like to ask, "do you know something I don't know?"

The main theme I pulled from each of the panelists viewpoints is the value they place in people who get the big picture. Social media and word of mouth marketing are a component of a larger marketing mix. These kinds of professionals (and brands) are past the point of "buy in" when it comes to social media. The more relevant questions pertain to how it social media most effectively fits and benefits their customers and business goals.

womma intuit tremor procter and gamble general mills steve knox david witt christine morrison jason cormier social media agency

Job of The (Near) Future: Social Media Administrator

Jason Cormier — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:07:22 -0400

David Meerman Scott had a great extension to Jim Stewart's post on the role of a Social Media Administrator today, actually offering a first cut of a Social Media Admin's job description. My abbreviated version of his more detailed job description is as follows:

Knowledgeable of social media tools, techniques and philosophies
Maintenance and consistency for company accounts on social media sites
Evaluation, guidance and implementation of social media analysis and monitoring tools
Maintenance and distribution of social media guidelines
List maintenance and applicable display of work related personal blogs of employees

I'm sure this description will be updated as comments continue streaming in on David's blog. As I commented to this post, Jeremiah Owyang began talking quite a bit about the need for a Social Media Strategist in early 08' - as well as the need for a Community Manager to be the online face of the company.

I think the SM Admin role David defines bleeds into both of those roles - but one of the greatest values in my mind relates to the ongoing research and evaluation ultimately required to stay "fully knowledgeable on the tools."

One of the sustained demands on Room214 (our social media agency), is staying on top of the tools - and monitoring tools are only a subset of social media related applications we must pay attention to.

When you consider other emerging technologies like social CRM solutions, it is easy to conclude the evaluation and implementation of those kinds of items will likely be far more demanding than monitoring tools. I'd say the area of evaluation alone could justify the hiring of a Social Media Administrator. Obviously, there are other highly relevant duties, as listed, that further build the case.

social media administrator roles in social media social media jobs social media agency david meerman scott jim stewart jason cormier

The PPLE Social Media Framework

Jason Cormier — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:45:58 -0400

How do you make social media systematic? One way is by utilizing a comprehensive framework as part of your planning and execution. At Room 214, we are often asked about our methodology for social media, so the following post is dedicated to just that.

First, I would like to state that we are big fans of Forrester's POST (People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology) approach to social strategy. The components represent a linear model that I'd argue holds true for any online marketing efforts. You can dig deeper into this by reading Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

The Figure below illustrates Forrester's POST approach.

How the POST approach is actually integrated from a social media planning and execution perspective is where our own PPLE (Plan, Pilot, Launch, Extend - pronounced "people") framework becomes relevant (see figure below).

The practices behind PPLE are outlined as follows:

Plan: Addresses six core program elements (Workflow, Marketing Strategy, Content, People, Technology and Data) in the context of research and Forrester's POST methodology. This typically includes technology evaluations, social media monitoring, creative ideation, and development of strategies and tactics.

Pilot: Leverages a limited number of platforms with which to engage the market. Reduces risk, uncovers problems and provides data and feedback - flying "under the radar" to validate efforts prior to launch. This typically includes technology integration and development.

Launch: Uses additional marketing tactics to extend awareness and participation within chosen social networks. Re-aligns with business objectives and earns multidisciplinary team and public support.

Extend: Extends efficiencies and insights to other social networking models, technologies, and customer-specific initiatives.

The PPLE framework offers a proven structure to follow while providing a unique and holistic client preview for social media campaign development and strategy. It is complimentary to Forrester's approach, and helps to facilitate the communications and execution of work, ultimately enabling the value of our company.

Have you seen similar frameworks or methodologies? What does your experience tell you about this kind of asset?

social media strategy social media methodology best practices pple post forrester research charlene li josh bernoff groundswell room 214 jason cormier

Social Media Monitoring Tools Podcast - A Discussion with Brian Chappell

Jason Cormier — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:30:00 -0400

Room 214 Co-Founder, Jason Cormier, discusses social media monitoring tools with Brian Chappell, Senior Social Search Strategist at Ignite Social Media.

In this podcast, we discuss:

1. The most valuable aspects of social media monitoring tools: Keeping tabs on conversations and customers for the purpose of crisis communications and reputation management.

2. Sentiment analysis in social media monitoring tools: Is automatic sentiment analysis developed enough?

3. What are clients looking for in these tools? Engaging in new markets through listening to customers, opportunities to include intelligence in product development cycles.

4. "Social media isn't a salt shaker": You have to work it into the base of your marketing.

5. What's next with social media monitoring: Greater levels of CRM integration, and more consistent pricing models.

Notes: I appreciated Brian's participation in the discussion, even as some have cited our agencies as competitors. It was affirming that Ignite is working through many of the same issues we are with respect to the tools. Hopefully, there is a nugget or two of insight here for others considering how they should evaluate the options. As one of our partners once put it to me, "it's always preferable to combine our powers for good instead of evil."

social media monitoring social media tools capture the conversation radian6 room 214 podcast brian chappell ignite social media sentiment analysis reputation management brand management jason cormier

The Top Value Propositions of a Social Media Agency

Jason Cormier — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:34:04 -0400

"Of people who identify themselves as social media marketers, 65.5% have never posted an update on Twitter" ~ Source: Sysomos Blog, June 2009.

I've been witnessing a dichotomy: Many marketing professionals are unaware social media agencies even exist, while at the same time, emerging hordes are on their way to creating them. Whether you're a social media "expert" looking to build an agency, or part of a company trying to understand why you might need one - this post should offer some insight.

At Room 214 we consider three areas of focus as seen in the diagram above: Analysts, Engineers and Creatives. Competency with respect to communications and the actual execution of work takes place in and across each of the three, ultimately enabling our value as a social media agency.

Each of the three focus areas have their own value propositions, and like a tri-pod, the whole operation is ineffective if one of the legs is too weak to support its part of the load.

1. Being Analysts: One of the beauties of Internet-based campaigns is the ability to track and measure what people do. With traditional web analytics meeting with new conversational analytics, the data can be overwhelming. Social media agencies have the expertise in sifting through the data to interpret insights leading to actions.

Due to the explosion of social media, there has been an emergence of social media monitoring and business intelligence tools for benchmarking, competitive analysis and gaining insights around certain topics that can be tracked in blogs, forums, Twitter posts and mainstream media.

The question becomes: Are the tools and data valuable? Yes. Do busy marketing or service support professionals have time to stay on top of them to the extent of actually impacting their business? Often not.

Top 5 Value Propositions from Social Media Analysts:

Identification of trends, and insights into thought leadership
Objective evaluations of tools, strategies and tactics
Understanding and establishing best practices
Research, benchmarking and measurement
Filtering out the unwanted noise and capturing actionable data

2. Being Engineers: This is a key differentiator for our agency, in particular - even to the extent of adopting "social media engineers" as our tagline. Why? Because in our experience, a high level of expertise around technical platforms and infrastructure is a leading contributor to quickly making and keeping companies competitive.

Consider Facebook as a case and point: In the context of "engineering," there are three technology environments in Facebook that need consideration: Application development, Facebook Connect, and the functionality of general pages. Each of these areas has its own set of rules. The documentation is arguably limited, and as @DominicDiMarco put it - "the target seems to be constantly moving."

You may have great ideas - but the ability to execute and leverage relevant assets is often delayed and overly expensive due to a lack of technical (engineering) expertise.

Top 5 Value Propositions from Social Media Engineers:

Knowledge of when to build vs. when to buy
Ability to uniquely integrate, build and implement technology
Insight to how solutions scale or how they are limited
Innovation needed to improve upon accepted functionalities
Customization of tools, applications and social platforms

3. Being Creatives: One thing I've noticed about "agency" vs. "contractor" status is the expectation around coming up with great ideas. Effectively implementing and supporting social media campaigns is critical to the success of any agency in this industry, but conceptualizing and communicating (internally or externally) great ideas requires a combination of skill and inspiration.

Expecting clients to conceptualize along with you without effective presentation aids, creative samples and proofs of concept can be an uphill battle. The ability to articulate, justify and demonstrate an idea from inception - then efficiently create the spaces by which it may grow and materialize is a practice in and of itself.

Top 5 Value Propositions from Social Media Creatives:

Frameworks for brainstorming and conceptualization
Development of visual samples or proofs of concept
Collaborative processes to improve upon original concepts
Holistic approaches to leveraging existing assets, advertising and PR
Relevance around usability and effective models of engagement

It's easy to conclude that leading social media agencies must wear many hats - analysts, engineers and creatives. And being successful while maintaining a competitive edge requires a constant fitting of all three hats.

Where do you believe most agencies are strong or lacking? Are there aspects of the stated value propositions you would like to elaborate on from your own experience?

social media agency social media campaigns value propositions of social media room 214 jason cormier

The Relationship Between Social Media and Search

Jason Cormier — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:46:29 -0400

Kudos to Peter Hershberg regarding his insight on what social media means to search, along with his explanation on the three evolutionary waves of search.

It seems not that long ago (middle of this decade), I was writing quite a bit about how relevant search results had evolved through Google's PageRank concept - what Peter refers to as Search 2.0.

And now here we are talking about Search 3.0 - relevance based on personal networks and the filtering of data through online social graphs, ultimately strengthened as more people connect with each other via the web.

When you consider the technology (RSS) supporting the distribution of information or updates within online social networks like Facebook and Twitter - I think we actually began seeing the infancy of Search 3.0 nearly two years ago through Google's Universal Search algorithm update (see basics of how Google's indexing changed in image below).

Another glimpse of Search 3.0 could be recognized with Stanford's 2008 Study on (Delicious) social bookmarking. Three highlights from the study included the following:

25% of posts through Deicious are pages that have yet to be indexed by search engines.
35% of URLs submitted are first-time submissions (roughly 120,00 URLs submitted per day).
Tags are considered 93% relative to associated content.

What does it all mean? People, not search engines, are assigning relevance to content. Whether they know it or not, it's their keywords, their descriptions and their opinions that are making the impact.

Now consider how your opinion is shaped to people you are actually connected (networked) to online. Granted, some connections are stronger than others (Peter refers to three kinds of online connections in his Ad Age post) - but all are still highly relevant because they are ultimately chosen by you.

Bottom line: Marketing and PR folks need to get what this is about - and if you are a "social media expert", then you really need to be on it.

social media search social bookmarking search 3.0 google peter hershberg jason cormier

WSJ Says Twitter Goes Mainstream

Jason Cormier — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:57:30 -0400

"What are you doing?" If the answer has anything to do with attempting to improve your online marketing or customer service, then Twitter better be a part of it.

Ok, I can almost hear it now. "This again? Please Jason, not more fanfare about this geeky tool. Why must I broadcast my thoughts in 140 characters or less? Are companies really using this? Really?"

Yes. Still don't believe me? Then wake up and smell today's Wall Street Journal article, Twitter Goes Mainstream. Companies called out specifically in the article include Dell, Zappos and Comcast.

I'll be the first to admit that using Twitter has a set of issues that deserves mentioning in a separate post. From a business perspective, we at Room 214 approach it like any other social media tool. We start by listening (see Brogan's How to Listen for Opportunities on Twitter).

When considering most of my colleagues, I'm a newborn baby on Twitter (find me at JasonCormier). Still, I find the rate at which I'm adding followers to be ever increasing. I'd love to believe it's because I'm becoming more well known, but the reality is it's just more people getting on board.

Oh, just saw Brogan's latest tweet on the Brian Solis post on Twitter tools. How are you using Twitter for your business?

twitter wsj opportunities on twitter jason cormier

Connect with Us

Stepan Mazurov — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:20:10 -0400

Following the philosphy of being as open as possible and as accessible as possible we want to help you guys find us out there on the web. While we try to keep Capture the Conversation the central place about talking online we of course connect and intereact as much as possible with everyone. Now here are our social profiles.

Look us up, we love to talk to all our readers. We will keep this post updated until we get our own little profiles here at CTC.

UPDATE 7/25/08 - We grew! Added new family members and added a few services for others.

james clark jason cormier jennifer eubanks ben castelli ingrid getzan emma sefton wendy ricci stepan mazurov