Last week I spent some time at the MarketingProfs B2B show in Boston and it was a very solid event, filled with some great learning experiences. Specifically, I focused much of my time on what some folks, including myself, would call “old school marketing”. I learned some great techniques for white paper writing and promotion, talked about proper webinar strategies and tips & tricks for email campaigns. The show was filled with interesting conversation, salesy vendors and a chance to catch up with old colleagues and clients.
But as Chris Brogan tells us to do, I listened, and listening was when I learned the most. I heard the frustration in people’s voices as they tried to understand Twitter, Facebook, blogging and more. I saw their eyes gloss over as people talked about how important MySpace and LinkedIn could be, but never stopping to explain what RSS stands for or how to use Google to manage your online reputation. To be fair, this conference did not have a place for this rudimentary education, but it was obviously needed. I’m as guilty as anyone else when it comes to this topic, I try to get someone else to run beside me when I should be showing them how to walk. It would be great if we could truly have a conversation about using social media for B2B leads, but right now we have to continue to push the social media bootcamp.
This past weekend I went through my Google Reader and looked at the posts that I had starred from other folks, which are all educational. Rereading many of these over the weekend I realized that many of these are essential “Social Media 101″ classes for the folks who are striving to understand all of these crazy terms (I mean come on…Utterz, Plunk…). I chose the best posts and have placed the links below, I’ve also included the slides from my original Social Media Bootcamp. If you are serious about learning about social media, click the links and subscribe to these blogs. Appropriately the first link will quickly teach you how to make that happen. And remember, assume nothing when presenting social media, we still need to build the foundation.
Common Craft’s RSS in Plain English
PR 2.0’s Essential Guide to Social Media
Chris Brogan’s Five Starter Moves for Introducing Social Media within your Organization
SMC’s A Framework for Measuring Blog Success
PR Squared’s Social Media Tactics Series: PR and “Edgework” via Facebook
PR Squared’s Social Media Tactic Series: Making an Entrance in Social Media
2 Responses
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Do you ever get frustrated by assuming nothing and doing “social media 101″ presentations over and over?
I know we will all be better off once everyone (at least the vast majority) is on board, but I’m not quite sure when that tipping point is going to come. If you had asked me two years ago, I’d have bet a good chunk of change that we would have hit that point by now. I’m glad no one took me up on it.
While it is going pretty slowly, at least we are headed in the right direction.
Hi Jamie. Frustrated, yes. But I’ll say my frustration is more with folks giving these presentations than with the folks trying to learn. I agree that I thought we would be further along at this point, but we are not, for various reasons. But I’m always surprised that people who talk about ‘engaging’, ‘communicating’ and ‘listening to your community’ don’t practice that themselves.
Ultimately though, you are right, we are headed in the right direction and these conversations help all of us to push forward.
/kff