Marketing and Social Media That Matters..the B2B perspective: November 2009

Had an interesting spontaneous discussion with a few folks tonight using Scribble Live a live blogging service recently featured on Dragons Den where they raised $250K in VC funding.

It started with @tamera asking when would we get past social media 101. I don't want to put words in her mouth but essentially her point was that the chatter on twitter is being rehashed and there is no fresh thinking and tweets coming across her tweetstreams.

So, with that challenge in mind we headed over to ScribbleLive to discuss this further and below is the transcript of what was covered. We had a few others join us and the conversation was interesting. I don't think it lasted an hour and the the conversation started at 8:30 not 9:30pm.

Nevertheless, this was interesting to me on two levels. First, I engaged with four people I'd never met before. Cool! Second, we used a tool to have water cooler discussion on a topic of mutual interest.

9:28 PM: b2bspecialist This is a realtime twitter stream meant to engage folks in realtime.
9:29 PM: tamera Interesting - I like this concept... and I like that it's easily archived.
9:29 PM: b2bspecialist Social Media 101 is dominating the twitter streams and there is rehashing of stuff
9:29 PM: b2bspecialist A canadian company developed this and just got $250K
9:30 PM: b2bspecialist Twubs is an application that's interesting as well
9:30 PM: tamera Exactly, there is nothing wrong with education, in fact it's crucial, but to evolve the space we, who have been around and involved through trial and error need to move the convo forward.
9:31 PM: tamera So, when talking about pitching journalists for e.g. should we be saying "read what they write" or should we be talking about why storytelling matters?
9:32 PM: b2bspecialist agreed, i think some of us are scratching our heads. The business case for social media could be at risk if we don't start sharing real world examples of success, frameworks to use. Will answer your post next.
9:33 PM: b2bspecialist I think ppl will have more choices where they can consume information. What's changed is the ability to have a conversation with someone you would never have met before. Like you!
9:33 PM: tamera Bingo. I wonder if it has to do with being hesitant to share our failures and our successes with a large audience so we resort to the same old same old.
9:33 PM: tamera :) absolutely!
9:35 PM: tamera So for example, in terms of failure, if you are a brand in a small market, like Canada, and you don't get the kind of coverage you want in mainstream media or via a FB page, how do you then know what to do to evolve? It cld be you should rethink what your story/ value is, or perhaps your approach.
9:35 PM: b2bspecialist I think sharing failure and success has to be shared. Ppl will make their own conclusions. There are more questions then answers regarding social media and expressing our selves in this medium.
9:36 PM: b2bspecialist You ask ppl.
9:37 PM: b2bspecialist There is always someone that is willing to help in my experience.
9:37 PM: tamera Yes, and typically ppl seem to be more willing (myself included) to jump on the negative when someone does something we perceive to be wrong vs. "sharing our trade secrets", whatever that means in this space.
9:38 PM: tamera @b2bspecialist I think that's true, but I also think you have to be aware of what the person brings to the table. Some advice may not make sense in your context.
9:38 PM: b2bspecialist That's a really tough one. Honestly I think it boils down to your personal values. I for example will share what I know and expect nothing in return. But, I'm not living in a multi-millaion dollar house...so...!!
9:39 PM: tamera @b2bspecialist Agreed. I know Miss Rouge has talked about that as well in terms of how much time/ energy you can spend helping and end up getting burned. It's happened to me, but I'll keep doing it.
9:40 PM: b2bspecialist This is an example of how we are learning a new tool together to have a conversation. We may learn from it and from each other. But, not sure.
9:40 PM: mcorsano hey there
9:40 PM: b2bspecialist Well we have a third watcher.
9:41 PM: tamera I think it's a good start. I don't expect to change the world tonight ;-)
9:41 PM: b2bspecialist Hey @mcorsano
9:41 PM: tamera Hey there :)
9:41 PM: mcorsano another peep! am catching up on the threads
9:41 PM: b2bspecialist Coolio
9:43 PM: b2bspecialist I sent out a tweet asking if ppl would like to develope a social marketing framework and pricing model with me. A collaborative if you will.
9:43 PM: tamera I'm going to have to pop out for a bit, have dinner cooking, but I'll check back in and perhaps we can try and keep this going over time.
9:43 PM: b2bspecialist Ok, great to chat in greater depth.
9:44 PM: mcorsano have a good one :)
9:44 PM: b2bspecialist @mcorsano do you want to continue with this thread? No worries if you don't.
9:44 PM: tamera @b2bspecialist absolutely, I like this, kinda mailing list meets real-time w/o the character limit.
9:45 PM: mcorsano well am not sure what the topic/theme is other than B2B?
9:45 PM: b2bspecialist lol
9:46 PM: mcorsano Now I see you are a B2B marketing agency head? interesting all my experience is B2B
9:47 PM: b2bspecialist Well, the conversation was started by @tamera in twitter. She was saying that the tweets were rehashed tweets from us folks who have been "around" the twitter world. Long in tooth so to speak. She was wondering what's next or will it be the same old, same old. And yes, B2B too! Coolio.
9:47 PM: mcorsano oh yes I saw her tweets on that
9:47 PM: mcorsano good first trial on Scribble live for me..so I hopped in here
9:48 PM: b2bspecialist Ok, want to chat about Scribble instead? Ways to use it for b2b companies maybe?
9:50 PM: mcorsano yes, sure would be good
9:50 PM: mcorsano can you put it behind a firewall for internal collaboration?
9:51 PM: b2bspecialist I would imagine so. Yammer is another option.
9:51 PM: DoctorJones Hey folks. I like the use of ScribbleLive for something like this.
9:52 PM: mcorsano Are similar functionality being built into Enterprise 2.0 platforms, say like Microsoft Unified Communications Server?
9:52 PM: b2bspecialist Hey Doc, glad to have you in this.
9:52 PM: b2bspecialist Beyond 101 is very interesting. What would 102 be is the question?
9:53 PM: DoctorJones @mcorsano @b2bspecialist We're big yammer users at our agency. Has really opened up international sharing.
9:54 PM: mcorsano 102 may include the application for intended purpose - case studies, user experiences....
9:54 PM: mcorsano 102 may include the integration -- break down the silos
9:54 PM: DoctorJones @mcorsano There is some neat capabilities in Microsoft OCS. IM, video conferencing. It's pretty cool.
9:55 PM: mcorsano Molson uses Yammer as well I understand
9:55 PM: b2bspecialist @doctorjones seems to have a good case study to share via Yammer. But yes, real world use cases are great examples. Forrester has some on their site and Josh Bernoff covers some in Groundswell.
9:56 PM: mcorsano I think these siloed one-off Web 2.0 platforms will not be useful on their own
9:56 PM: b2bspecialist I've seen Msft OCS and I agree it is amazing. What's funny is IM has been covertly in place in companies for years.
9:57 PM: mcorsano 102 may be bridging them or mashing them up
9:57 PM: b2bspecialist Cisco Community Central is an interesting use case as well.
9:58 PM: mcorsano I sold Lotus Notes in 1993 and the collaboration stuff peeps had little idea how to apply
9:59 PM: mcorsano But they caught on pretty fast -- it was advantage to have the function bundled with other utilities such as Email and document management, version control...
9:59 PM: b2bspecialist The technology is one thing but it's about the willingness to communicate. I find as I encounter older folks (not all, I'm older!) they are reluctant to share and/or are afraid of the technology.
10:00 PM: mcorsano Yes you right -- it is cultural
10:01 PM: b2bspecialist What's difficult, for some, is justifying the time investment since the condition is don't expect something in return. Quite honestly if I were to sell a social marketing program to a CEO she would ask what's the ROI. This is a fair question to ask.
10:01 PM: mcorsano I started my career at IBM mid-'80s and had to use Host based Email as part of the job ; was fortunate to grow up professionally with it - many do not have same exposure so it is a major paradigm shift
10:02 PM: b2bspecialist But, if you look at what @DoctorJones said they use Yammer and it has opened up international sharing....
10:02 PM: ShaneMS following along while making dinner and baby wrangling. re: yammer. it's a good idea... but in my experience, more of an echo sphere with about 1/2 the company using (50) and 3-6 people actually posting. however, I know people (that never yammer) do follow and have found value in what's shared.
10:02 PM: mcorsano Fact is you are a pioneer; your clients likely are not.
10:03 PM: b2bspecialist Hey ShaneMS.c Just a matter of time, I hope, before the young ones get into the enterprise and demand interaction through things like Yammer. Problem right now is the reluctance of some folks to even consider an alternative way to communicate and connect.
10:03 PM: mcorsano Clients have some serious degrees of pressure to figure this all out
10:04 PM: b2bspecialist I keep getting back to @tamera's succinct observation about Social Media 101. Can't we get past it?
10:06 PM: mcorsano Most are catching up, perhaps a factor?
10:06 PM: b2bspecialist Conversation is winding down!
10:06 PM: mcorsano But I agree...observed as much at Mesh09 found that surprising
10:07 PM: b2bspecialist Possibly or moved on! =) I've got a short attention span...so I wouldn't blame others.
10:07 PM: b2bspecialist Although we're up to five watchers.
10:08 PM: b2bspecialist Hey Tamera, that dinner starting to smell pretty good!
10:09 PM: mcorsano I'm going to exit at this time; appreciate the test run here
10:10 PM: mcorsano Q: how is this different than live chat with the feed to Twitter?
10:10 PM: b2bspecialist @ShaneMS made an interesting comment re: adoption/use of Yammer. Forrester has a profile that's interesting: www.forrester.com
10:11 PM: b2bspecialist A: you'd need to use a hashtag wouldn't you?
10:12 PM: b2bspecialist A: you can set it up so comments are moderated as well.
10:12 PM: b2bspecialist K gang, I'm going to shut this down.
10:23 PM: b2bspecialist I've reopened this live blog to experiment with Scribble a bit more.