Marketing Automation Services, Demand Generation, and Lead Management | Allinio
Sung to the tune of the carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
O little town of Twitterville,
Thy Tweeps are far and wide,
And with their sweet and endless tweets,
The hashtags all go by.
Yet though the Fail Whale cometh,
When they want news the most,
Thy conversations keep them warm,
And happy coast to coast.
The Marketing Consigliere likes to take examples from our nation’s honored warriors and apply them to business and marketing problems. He also wants to recognize things which can be publicized from the impressive United States Intelligence Community that are relevant to Network-Centric Marketers.
Yesterday, the Adobe Intelligence Community Executive Forum, sponsored by Adobe and Carahsoft Technology Corporation, a Washington, DC based government IT solutions provider, was held with a gathering of over one hundred professionals from Federal agencies and contractors. Bob Gourley, CTO of Crucial Point LLC, a well-respected security technology consulting and program management firm, served as a panel moderator for some very good talks on what Federal agencies were doing with regard to collaboration, information sharing, and Web 2.0.
The Keynote Speaker, John E. Hale of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Intelligence Community Enterprise Services (ICES), enlightened the audience with ODNI’s embracing of technologies that help his internal customers accomplish their missions. He and his team help enable the Intelligence Community by giving them many of the capabilities that the private sector is trying to give its people, albeit in an extremely secure computing environment.
They have a wiki for user generated content known as Intellipedia, which in less than three years has grown into “the” repository of information that allows authorized intelligence employeess to create, edit, and have dialogue on content in a way that was previously impossible due to physical and logical silos of data. Datawarehousing and security remain top priorities, but within the confines of their closed networks. They allow IMs, del.icio.us type bookmarking, self-service hosting, and blogging, using WordPress MU. There is also the capabilities for mashups, tagging, and user profiles stating interests. Of course, there is document sharing including terabytes worth of documents, images, and video.
All this and more to be better able to “connect the dots” for the safety of all Americans. Let’s hope more leaders in the private sector take a cue from the Intelligence Community and empower their employees to internally use social network technologies to better gather, store, analyze, share, and act upon data.
Yesterday the Marketing Consigliere sent an email to someone he hopes to blog about in the near future, and he realized what he wrote about to this person would be good for many in his audience today.
Since Twitter adoption is gaining momentum, it makes sense to share some lessons to keep your microblogging learning curve shorter.
If you wish, you can go to the Twitter Fan Wiki and overwhelm yourself with its comprehensive list of apps, or simply cut to the chase and heed the Marketing Consigliere’s following advice.
To find out who is providing the most popular Marketing content, check out:
The Twitter Power 150 – A great list of leading Twitterers in the marketing space compiled by the A Source for Inspiration Blog; and
The B2B Twitterati – A solid list of B2B Marketing & Lead Generation Twitterers courtesy of the Ready Contacts Blog.
Other good apps for you to check out that work with Twitter:
Brightkite – Show people where you’re tweeting from – it’s plotted out on a map.
Does Follow – tells if a 3rd party follows another 3rd party.
Ping.fm – Simultaneously post to other social networking accounts you have.
Retweetrank – Check out how many times your “tweet” is being repeated by your followers and their followers.
Tweetstats – Analytics on your Twitter behavior.
Tweetdeck – like Twhirl, but can be a little overwhelming.
Twhirl – a great client to help organize your Twittering.
TwitterGrader – “grade” your Twitter presence relative to others in your geographic area – controversial in how it arrives at its rankings, but worth a try.
Twitter Search – track topics in the Twittersphere.
It can be time consuming but these tips should help. Take your time, you’re busy helping run a company, after all! Some people are definitely in “La-La Land” in the Twittersphere, but it can be a useful tool for businesses. There is indeed a place for it in the B2B world – Check out the Marketing Consigliere’s blog entry for 2008′s “B2B Twitterer of the Year”
Get tweeting and learn all the way!
Prediction 1: Robert Scoble will become marginalized as a new “Twitterer to follow” emerges that is less condescending and opinionated.
The Marketing Consigliere actually likes Scoble, has met him twice, but understands that like all “celebrities,” a new one will probably come along that the huddled marketing masses will want to anoint as their new savior. He will never be relegated as the “Lindsay Lohan” of the social network scene, but rather more as a William Shatner-like figure.
Ok, that got the blogosphere’s attention. Now for the Marketing Consigliere’s real predictions:
Prediction 2: More brands will use Twitter and some people will tolerate push communication.
Just as the original commercial Internet “pioneers” were eclipsed by corporate suits in regard to the continued development and exploitation of the Internet, brands will become a more dominant player in this tool. While the Innovators and Early Adopters who embraced Twitter may feel their “find” has been violated, this is just another stage in the product life cycle as the Early Majority and Late Majority get on board. Many of these later adopters will be complacent with one-way messaging, just as they have been while using other media.
Prediction 3: More B2B companies will embrace microblogging for their direct customers.
Like in Prediction 2, see more corporate activity in social networking, specifically in communicating by B2B in addtion to B2C. As B2B buyers become less reluctant to use “consumer” apps in their daily work routine, they will accept this relatively new form of blogging as the primary means of communication with their vendors.
Prediction 4: More local and state legislatures will pass “anti-sms and cell phone use while driving” bills.
The Marketing Consigliere has personally been at risk due to the muttonheads out there who refuse to use headsets or keep both hands on the wheel of their 2 ton gas-guzzling SUVs. He sincerely hopes that this safety issue will be recognized by government leaders. Currently only a handful of states have enacted laws. We can still communicate on the go without endangering the life and property of others, but it will take the law to influence this foolish behavior.
Prediction 5: Broadband companies will increase competition by offering more local marketing services for small businesses.
As print newspapers and yellow pages hemorrage money, broadband companies will recognize that to keep SMBs hooked up to their copper, cable or fiber, they will have to provide assistance to drive traffic to the customer. Just like a shopping mall markets itself to drive traffic to its doors and helps its tenants, telecommunications service providers will have to assist its “tenants” by driving visitors to the small and medium size businesses that use their connectivity or hosting services. This especially will affect the local search (SEO/SEM) and campaign management of SMBs.
Prediction 6: Businesses will continue to gravitate towards opensource CMS.
With more stakeholders involved in collaborative use of internal and external enterprise content, there will have to be easier ways to administer and control the use of the content. Companies will be looking at solutions such as Acquia supported Drupal that allow them to quickly get up sites for relevant users.
Prediction 7: The Federal Government will take more of a leadership role in developing web based technologies.
Yes, the Feds have always been behind some of the greatest technologies enjoyed by the private sector. Look forward to seeing more emphasis by the Obama Administration on the development of applications that bring more efficiency to the organization, including the tech transfer of C4ISR tools from the military/intelligence sphere into the commercial sphere.
Prediction 8: There will be a major IT security breach of a Fortune 500 company and/or a significant cyber attack on a major social network.
The Marketing Consigliere risks being a Cassandra and makes the above prediction. We are accustomed to hearing about laptops gone missing, customer lists being compromised and other events that make the news. However, there are negative, malicious forces which will eventually find a vulnerability in a significant corporate place or social network that takes us all by surprise – remember, corporate resources are thin and that includes in the IT department, so redundancy will count. So will the ability of net-centric marketers, especially public relations professionals, to communicate the truth to mitigate distrust and damage to their brand.
Prediction 9: Net-Centric Innovation will increase despite the macroeconomic situation.
Most VCs and investment bankers aren’t any smarter than the rest of us. For the most part they have to manage their risk the way they can to minimize the wrath of their investors. So while many people decry the lack of investment out there, entrepreneurship will play a tremendous role in keeping innovation going. A confident entrepreneur who can exhibit the leadership to get people to help execute his or her visoin will make a huge difference. Luckily, across the globe, there will be a critical number of these hearty individuals to help keep enthusiasm at a high level.
Prediction 10: Despite controversy, marketers will try more forms of analytics – behavioral, video, voice, text, etc.
As more people depend on mobile computing for their daily lives, it will behoove marketers to test tools that help them better gather, store, analyze, share, and act upon data to drive revenue. Despite the cry from civil libertarians, the Marketing Consigliere is certain that the data derived from a person’s online actions, their physical behavior in a retail surveillance environment, what they type, event their tone and speed of speech, can and will be used in positive ways that can benefit them by marketers. It will take a lot of time and investment to execute this effectively, however.
Thank you for being part of the Marketing Consigliere’s far-flung audience; he plans to continue blogging about network-centric marketing and will endeavor to post relevant, thought-provoking content for marketing professionals and business executives. May you and your organization have successful, net-centric marketing in 2009!
The Marketing Consigliere saw that there was too much ado about Robert Scoble asking people to suggest a “Twitterer of the Year,” and came up with his own idea. He Googled “B2B Twitterer of the Year” and nothing came up, so he felt obliged to take the initiative to honor a business-to-business company that had shown leadership in use of Twitter.
Earlier this month, Paul Dunay did a great job today assembling a list of brands that tweet in his Buzz Marketing blog, but he missed the one that the Marketing Consigliere has selected. So have many of the “leaders” of the social networking, blogging, and micro-blogging world. Have they been interviewed by Scoble? No. Covered by TechCrunch? Of course not. Blogged about by Jeremiah Owyang? No. Mentioned by Guy Kawasaki? No.
Why did so many people miss out on this company. Is it “sexy?” No. Do they have a silly name consisting of a color and a noun (i.e., OrangeMagnet) or an “invented” 2.0 name (i.e., Kwibango)? No. A Web-based product or service? No. They don’t tweet every day. They don’t follow many Twitterers, and they don’t have many followers. So who could this company be and who is the Marketing Consigliere that he can pronounce this? Well, first the honoree.
United Linen & Uniform Services of Bartlesville, Oklahoma is a 72-year old family run business with 120 employees and 20 more across Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. The company cleans 15 million pounds of laundry every year, from uniforms to napkins and welcome mats. You can follow them @UnitedLinen. They also have a blog and a Facebook fan page.
They were chosen as “B2B Twitterer of the Year” because it is not a popularity contest. It’s a recognition of a company that has seized a concept and applied it to their world. It’s not about being the “bon vivant” of the digital crowd, it’s about trying new things to grow a business and foster dialog with customers.
The technologies that the Marketing Consigliere passionately blogs about are not only for those firms in Boston, Austin, New York, Washington, DC, Seattle, and the Bay Area with a young employee base; they are for anyone that wants to better gather, store, analyze, share, and act upon marketing data. That includes companies that do what others consider to be mundane. Like cleaning laundry.
So who does the Marketing Consigliere think he is that he can proclaim a B2B Twitterer of the Year and steal some of the thunder from the popular boys? This award has nothing to do with the number of followers or the “coolness” of your product or facility. He just thinks he’s a nice Italian boy who happens to like to sit in Italian restaurants with clean tablecloths and napkins, for one thing. And he likes to see net-centric marketing technology used by all, including SMBs in the heartland, not just those who live in the “bleeding edge” space. Giving an award like this to a tech company is like letting someone hit a home run from third base…. And besides, no one else took the initative, so the “die is cast.”
Congratulations to United Linen & Uniform Services of Bartlesville, Oklahoma for being the 2008 B2B Twitterer of the Year! And thanks to Scott Townsend, United Linen’s Marketing Director, for helping his company become more network-centric!
Poor Betty Draper. A “desperate housewife” with nothing better to do. She mysteriously appeared as a “follower” on The Marketing Consigliere’s Twitter account. He didn’t know who she was, but her picture sure was glam. Used to the advances of WASPish women seeking more than what their husbands offer, he checked out her profile…
Actually, someone at AMC or one of their agencies somehow found him on Twitter, decided he was less Machiavellian than they were, and got on his map. Betty Draper is a character on the AMC show MadMen and doesn’t exist. This is obviously part of some publicity stunt – which seems to have worked since she is now being blogged about. Luckily he will benefit from this as people conduct searches on “Betty Draper” and stumble upon his humble blog.
The Marketing Consigliere is glad that the show is using net-centric marketing tools like social networking to do their B2C advertising and public relations. But to have a strange blonde stalk him on the Internet perpetuates bad stereotypes of women. Where are the histrionic Motrin Twitter protestors to protect him from the evil media conglomerate? Why not a “keep Betty Draper in the home where she belongs and not try to be a homewrecker” campaign? Oh, we guess keeping Betty complacent in her kitchen perpetuates another stereotype…
Anyway Betty, and all you other women who think “made men” are more exciting than their “mad men,” The Marketing Consigliere belives in monogamy so keep your girdle and cross-your-heart bra on… and besides, just because he’s a Marketer doesn’t mean he even watches your show…
