Three weeks ago I tore down the bunk beds from my girls bedroom.  The beds were attached to one side of the wall and suspended from the attic.  In order to remove them, I had to crawl through the attic and remove the bolts to loosen the tension.  The attic must have been 130 degrees with 80 percent less oxygen.  Taking them apart was a board by board process.  The girls know what they want; they want a white twin sized bed with a pull out trundle.  I have been looking online and haven’t found the right solution.  My job is to find something that meets their needs and that falls in our family budget.

Talking with business owners, I find this story parallels the current process of finding a Social Media monitoring and measuring tool that can be integrated with current CRM data systems.  The problem is finding a solution that is flexible to accommodate both technologies and that doesn’t break the bank to convert or deploy.

If your business has a CRM system in place and is looking for a free Social Media monitoring and tracking tool, take a look at PeopleBrowsr and HootSuite.  Make sure you create a new lead category in your CRM system for Twitter and for Facebook (assuming you already view those as a lead generation sources).  Both of these tools are free and available online for download.  Using these free tools can give your team a better idea of what is important when engaging the public through Social Media channels.

SocialCRM Tools

PeopleBrowsr will allow you to mark profiles with various tasks and statuses like VIP, To Do, Favorites and manage multiple Twitter accounts.  Scheduling tweets at a later time is also a nice feature from PeopleBrowsr.  HootSuite is also a great tool to use for multiple Twitter accounts and is less complicated than PeopleBrowsr.  HootSuite uses their Owly URL short system for updates to Twitter and Facebook which provides tracking of links by number of times viewed by day, month or by individual tweets.  These tracking tools provide HootSuite an advantage over PeopleBrowsr in that respect.

Free SocialCRM Tools HootSuite

If you are considering a move from your current CRM system to something new, Radian6 just announced their integration with Salesforce.com.  This combination offers the complex functions like PeopleBrowsr and the tracking and monitoring functions like Hootsuite within a 2010 CRM platform.  Salesforce.com clients are Starbucks, Dell and SunTrust.

Premium SocialCRM Tools - Radian6

Another CRM solution that is moving forward in combining CRM and Social Media functionality is SugarCRM.  SugarCRM is an open source scalable and customizable CRM system.  New modules are being added, such as GetSocial, which allows Twitter updates to be integrated within the tool.  SugarCRM clients include Avis, H&R Block and Coca-Cola Enterprise. Sugar CRM and Salesforce.com both have extensive community forums to provide technical support and discussions about future product enhancements.

SocialCRM Tool - SugarCRM

Deconstructing the old methods of communicating with your clients can lead to opening new channels of communication with new prospects and enhance relationships with existing clients.  The painful process of tearing down the rigid and static system can be a healthy process for building a more flexible and fluid CRM system.  Welcome to SocialCRM.

Update on the girls bed:  This weekend I took the boards from the old bunk beds and began to form a new day bed with space for a trundle.  I hope my girls like the new bed.  It’s white and it was custom built to meet their needs.   There’s nothing better for a Dad than to see a smile of surprise and excitement on his daughters’ faces.

Deconstructing the Old to Create a New SocialCRM

“Craigslist, the “free classifieds” site that offers community advertising in 570 markets worldwide but charges only for a tiny percentage of its ads, will generate $100 million in revenue in 2009, the AIM Group / Classified Intelligence estimated today. That’s an increase of more than 23 percent from Craigslist’s estimated revenue of $81 million in 2008, making clear that the company continues to grow significantly while many classified advertising publishers are reporting year-over-year drops of 50 percent or more in certain categories.” by Peter M Zollman of AIMGroup

Despite the controversy surrounding Craigslist sections called “Casual Encounters” and “Erotic Services,” the fact remains that Craigslist is a peer to peer community driven web portal.  Created in 1995 by founder Craig Newmark, Craigslist has more than 20 billion page views per month and projected revenue of $100 million this year.

I think it is ironic that the Business (for sale) category is less than one inch to the right from the Casual Encounters category.  Craigslist defies all the rules of ecommerce when it comes to website design:  no banner ads; no Google Ad Sense; no big banana buttons that scream, click here.  So why is it so successful? I believe one of the central reasons for its success is the constantly updated content created by Craigslist users.

Automotive, Jobs and Real Estate are some of the top categories with large volumes of inventory.  As a Tallahassee small business digital media consultant, I have worked with automotive and real estate companies who have listed inventory and/or properties on Tallahassee Craigslist.  One of my clients who owns several rental properties has leased a property in less than one hour on Craigslist.  Another client lists their automotive inventory priced below $12,000, and receives multiple calls per day.

Similar to its cousin Ebay, the success in listing on Craigslist is photos, descriptions and multiple points of contact.  I have seen listing after listing with no pictures, poor descriptions and no phone or email listed.  Putting a link to your business website or blog is another “best practice” and allows for good web traffic tracking through tools like Google Analytics.

Tallahassee businesses posting job listings are reporting over 300 to 500 responses per listing! If you are looking to hire and are looking for a low cost alternative, Craigslist is a great resource.  Taking the time to write a good job listing, including detailed job description, educational requirements and skills needed will help reduce the number of unqualified applicants.

If you haven’t started listing your products or services on Craigslist, your competitor probably has.  One tool for monitoring Craigslist is CL Desktop.  CL Desktop is an application built on Adobe AIR.  This tool is a very well designed tool for searching and tracking listings by topic.  CL Desktop is a free application to download from Adobe AIR Marketplace.

Craigslist Social Media Monitoring Tool

Every year the Chamber recognizes small businesses for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the community at its annual Small Business Excellence Awards program.  This year’s winner of the Small Business of the Year 1-4 Employees is Confidential Shredding & Recycling.

“Confidential Shredding & Recycling, Inc. is the premier mobile document shredding service which values client’s privacy and time.  Our mobile unit is equipped with a hydraulic lift system, which instantly feeds your confidential materials directly into the shredder.  With this state of the art equipment, our bonded professionals are able to shred your sensitive materials, hands free.  The shredding process may be viewed on our security surveillance camera system.  Clients’ are then provided with a Certificate of Destruction.” csrshredding.com

CSR gets it. Do a Google search for Confidential Shredding & Recycling in Tallahassee and you will find many reasons why they are deservedly the winner.  Take one look at their digital footprint and the evidence is clear: Social Media is an essential component of their marketing strategy.

Winner Small Business of the Year 1-4 Employees:

Website: Confidential Shredding & Recycling, Inc.

Facebook Fan Page for Confidential Shredding & Recycling

Twitter: http://twitter.com/CSRShredding

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/confidentialshredding

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/confidentialshredding

Trusteria.com: http://www.trusteria.com/csrshredding/contact

Blogger: http://csrshredding.blogspot.com

What makes CSR a winner in my book is not just the fact that they have tackled Social Media head on, but that they are very involved in the Tallahassee community.  Within the same Google search, one can see CSR’s involvement with the Tallahassee Red Cross, Keep Tallahassee Leon County Beautiful and the Children’s Home Society.

Congratulations Confidential Shredding & Recycling! I am a big fan and a follower.

Best wishes and prosperity to you and your staff!

#1 Tallahassee Small Business Leveraging Social Media

If you haven’t met Biz Stone, you are in for a treat.  He’s a down to earth guy, who happens to be a genius.  Biz is the Co-founder of Twitter and also helped make Xanga, Blogger, Odeo, and Obvious. He has published two books about social media and have a more professional profile on LinkedIn.  Here is a recent interview with Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch.

There is a second part to the interview over at TechCrunch and it is worth checking out too! Visit TechCrunch

How many people contemplate their comprehensive insurance policy or the diversity of their financial portfolio on the way to the bathroom? Why is the community bulletin board still a viable media channel for advertising? As an advertiser, you are gambling that everyone that visits that establishment will visit the restrooms. Is this cutting edge media placement?

Do you really expect someone to grab your card off the cork board on their way into the powder room? Have you ever had someone call you and say, “Yeah, I got your card off the bathroom wall at ______ and I was wondering if…” Does that really work? I guess if you want to take a shotgun blast in the dark that’s one strategy.

I love Sprint’s idea of media placement. You’re sitting in the theater getting ready to watch a movie and the trailers are showing. The next trailer is about a monkey trying to negotiate director credits and theme song input with the movie producers. The punch line is: “It takes many calls to make a movie, but only one to ruin it. Please turn off your cell phone.” Brilliant. The message is creative and the delivery is relevant. Nice job, Sprint.

As a local business, you don’t have to have a Sprint size budget to craft relevant, creative messages. Social media channels are becoming one of the largest growing communication methods. The traditional media placement questions are who, where, and when to send your message.  In social media, the question is how does your message interact with the audience? Unlike the intrusions of traditional advertising, relevant messages can be engaged with people who are already talking about that specific topic or interest.

A couple of things to consider when interacting inside social media channels:

Remember, it’s social – All business and no play is no fun! Social media is a two-way communication channel. Keep that in mind and put away the bullhorn strategy. Social media is like being invited to a global cocktail party; there are plenty of opportunities to connect.

Listen before you speak – Before you jump into a conversation, it’s always good to make sure you’re on topic. (ex: Tweetdeck, Google Alerts, BlogPulse, and Trendrr) Take at least 30 days to monitor the tone and volume of your topic of conversation.

Give good directions – If you are expecting for people to follow you, make sure you know where you are going. If your updates are about business and money, don’t have them click on a blog site about rubber chickens. Just because you don’t carry it or offer it, doesn’t mean you can’t help point someone in the right direction. Pay it forward is socially correct.

Be creative –Many companies are using blogs/micro-sites as landing pages rather than linking to boring institutional corporate sites. This web strategy allows for flexibility and niche specific content within a large or small scale product line or service industry.

Talking with the right people at the right time with the right message is possible. Listening to the conversation is the best way to stumble into your biggest fans. The alternative is to place your business card on the cork board on the way to the bathroom. Let me know how that works for you.

Branding Social Media in Tallahassee?

As I meet with local Tallahassee businesses, I find companies are still trying to figure out what to do with social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace.

The debate is whether these sites are just a trend or are they new channels of communicating in a modern digital era.  Regardless where a business stands on the social media platform, the answer is that millions of new users are exploring these sites every month.  Social media users are not just teens, college students or businesses either.  It’s everyone from every demographic.

With the growing number of newcomers to the digital communities, the world has become a more connected planet.  The once essential long distance phone plan barrier has been removed and replaced with open lines of communication.

With keyword search capabilities built within Twitter, it is very easy to jump into the specific conversation topic you are most interested in.  Rather than having to search Google page after page looking for websites for information, keywords are now delivered straight to your desktop: Getting in on the latest trends and updates has never been easier.

If it is so easy to gain access to this information, why are some business locking the doors to these social media channels?  Just because people spend personal time on the phone, do you take the company phones off the hook?  Just because employees send personal emails from work, do you turn off the email servers?  Just because staff members often hang out in employee offices for long periods of time, does that mean you lock all the doors until 5pm everyday?

No.  In each given situation, a progressive company views each channel of communication as a way for people to connect with the business or organization.  A proactive company will develop a strategy of how to best use each channel and provide training for maximizing each channel.  Whether it is direct policy or an outline of best practices, the best use of communication tools should be developed and optimized.

If you have locked Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace out, who else have you locked out of being able to interact with your company or products?  One huge benefit of social media sites is the fact that they are open 24/7.  Leveraging social media can allow your clients and/or prospects to weave in and out of the purchase or service life cycle.  Just because the front doors are closed after 5pm, doesn’t mean the customer has to come back later.  In fact, they might just go down the street, or in the digital world just click to the next tweet if you keep them out!

What is your Social Media Strategy?

This week I was enjoying a cup of coffee when I noticed four people on the other side of the café huddled over their laptops.  One of the four was showing the other how to navigate through various areas on a website.  Just as I was about to leave, I asked the young lady being tutored what she was learning.  She explained that her company, Catch Your Limit Consulting, had a very strong belief in mentoring.  It was quite obvious that she was excited and passionate about the opportunity to learn in this mentoring business philosophy.

Mentoring traces its roots back to Greek mythology.

“Mentor (Greek: Μέντωρ / Méntōr; gen.: Μέντορος)^[1] was the son of Alcumus and, in his old age, a friend of Odysseus. When Odysseus left for the Trojan War he placed Mentor in charge of his son, Telemachus, and of his palace. When Athena visited Telemachus she took the disguise of Mentor to hide herself from the suitors of Telemachus’ mother Penelope.^[2] As Mentor, the goddess encourages Telemachus to stand up against the suitors and to go abroad in order to find out what happened to his father.  When Odysseus returns to Ithaca, Athena (in the form of Mentor) takes the form of a swallow and the suitors’ arrows have no effect on him.” Wikipedia

Regardless of Athena’s intentions in taking form of the elderly man “Mentor,” something noble happens when someone assumes the role of teacher.  As a mentor, Athena empowered Telemachus to move forward with self confidence and determination.  Telemachus benefited greatly by the advice and wisdom passed on by his mentor.

Throughout my life, in every area, I have had a mentor to show me the way.  There is no better time than the present to partner and collaborate with someone who has already walked the path you are traveling.  I am inspired as I look into the future that I might once again find myself walking step by step with someone I admire.

I applaud “Catch Your Limit.” You can be sure that they are not just another consulting business that will come and go with the tide.  Their core business commitment to mentoring will surely prove to be a solid foundation.  Visiting their website, you can believe it when they say they can help your company build leaders.  It’s not just a fish tail.

Thank you Catch Your Limit Consulting for continuing the ancient tradition of mentorship!

ecommerce tools on the social web Tallahassee

Last week I went out to dinner with a business colleague.  We had a fabulous meal solving all of the economic issues of today.  Our waiter was also top notch providing us with excellent table service.  At the end of the dinner, my colleague picked up the check and the tip.  I wanted to do something a little extra for the above and beyond service we received, but I was short on the Benjamins that particular day.

During our conversation at the table, I mentioned to the waiter that I loved the fact that his business used social media to connect with its customers.  He said that they had a tremendous response during the grand opening, and ever since then they viewed Twitter and Facebook as an essential component of their advertising plan.

When I got back in my car, I sent a quick tweet to the twitter account of the restaurant giving highest marks to our server.  Now, I don’t know if he received any specific reward from the owner or manager.   One thing is for sure; all my followers saw the tweet about the first class service at their establishment.

I came across a little Twitter tool today that would have been perfect to slip an extra five bucks to our server after the fact.  It’s called TipJoy. It’s a micro-payment processing concept, the latest extension of e-commerce solutions. TipJoy is a way to raise money and to pay friends via Twitter in essence “social payments.”   Click here to learn more about TipJoy.

If you are a non-profit looking for a new ways to find support for your cause, TipJoy might be worth looking into.  If you are a band looking to sell mp3s, this might be an alternative or supplement to iTunes.  If I could just figure out a way to get a George Washington for everyone who retweets this article, that would be brilliant.  Just kidding, but that’s a good idea.  Aren’t we all just looking for tips?

If you’re looking for a great place for lunch, here’s where we went: 101Mint.  Follow them on Twitter- http://twitter.com/101Mint

If you visit your local newspaper, TV station, or radio station, I think it’s safe to say that you will find someone tuned into a police radio scanner.  Why would these media outlets engage in such an activity?  I think it’s obvious,

for starters they are looking for stories.  Why are stories so important?  Because stories are the platform by which they interact with their readers/viewers.

I have to believe that the really good media outlets scan the radio waves and have designated staff trained to listen for specific words, phrases, or codes.  Maybe part of their training is reading over a list of code numbers like 10-78 (Send ambulance), 10-79 (Send wrecker), 11-80 (Traffic Accident – Serious Injury), or 11-82 (Traffic Accident – No Injury). Knowing the law enforcement language is essential to understanding what’s being communicated.  Otherwise, it may sound like random numbers being shouted out.

Now, take that analogy and think of it in ways to leverage social media.  On the surface what may seem like random status updates, can be categorized into useful information.  Knowing how to categorize and isolate keywords is the combination to unlocking the social media vault.

One of the emerging tools for analyzing social media content is Tweetdeck.  Tweetdeck can be downloaded for free using your Twitter user name and password.  It runs in the background, while you work on other assignments or projects.  You can have up to five keyword searches being performed at any given time.  Anytime a tweet or status update that contains your specific keyword is entered, it is categorized by subject, date, and time and displayed in its designated search results column.

Let’s apply this to your specific area of service or product line.  If I were a local Customer Service Manager for Best Buy, I would have a search for Best Buy Tallahassee, HH Gregg Tallahassee, and Wal-Mart Tallahassee.   Analyzing the search results for people who had a good or bad experience at any of those retail stores, I would then use that information to train my customer service representatives on how to handle a given scenario.  If the status or tweet was directly about my store, I would contact that individual directly and thank them for their business and ask for the opportunity to learn how to provide better service for their next visit.

Click Here to read another real world example of a large hotel chain that went over the top to provide a WOW experience for one of their guests by using Twitter. This is not a fad.  Social Media will not go away.  If anything, it will evolve into something more social and more interactive.  Look at EBay and Amazon; the reason why they are so successful is because at the core they are driven by user created content (information and reviews about the products).

There are many benefits and insights to be gained by reading and analyzing the content on all social media platforms.  Zappos.com, a clothing retailer, has over 300 customer service reps utilizing Twitter in addition to the traditional lines of communication in order to exceed their customer’s expectation.  If your Tallahassee business isn’t embracing emerging technology to move your business forward right now, you are missing out.  If you listen carefully, you can hear the sirens.

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Want to learn more about leveraging Social Media for your Business?  Visit Social850.com for a free “Lunch and Learn” seminar coming up May 19th!