As I wrote last week’s post on the MarketingProfs’ B2B Forum, one particular session stood out to me – it was insanely interesting, interactive and valuable. Hosted by Jason Baer (of Convince and Convert fame), the session entailed three actual attendees letting the audience evaluate, analyze and critique their B2B social media efforts – whether it be a corporate blog, a community forum, Twitter, etc. or a combination.

Jason started the session off with an incredibly brief appeal to all B2B marketers to  define what success is, and know your strategy on social media. As he explained, too often the tactics are executed before a company knows what their objective is because someone wants to try Twitter, another wants to add a LinkedIn Group, etc. Even if you’ve been using various social media technologies, he suggested taking a step back to regroup and define the ultimate goal – which then lends itself to measurement and metrics (a major theme of the event).

He also emphasized that social media is not for features and benefits content. It’s to TELL A STORY and add personality (however relaxed or professional) to a brand. The companies most successful with social media have an end goal in mind and aren’t trying to feed data sheets into social networks and on blogs. That’s true for B2B and B2C companies.

I loved this session for many reasons. Mostly, I loved that it took three of my peers – who admittedly did not have the marketing resources (staff or budget) that a Fortune 500 company had – and provided them (and us) with specific, and realistic, suggestions to improve. The majority of them centered around the idea that regardless of whether you “own” all the properties, you need to connect the dots (between your company’s LinkedIn, Twitter, blog, website, etc). When done properly, that can extend each other’s audience and create a cumulative effect. When done poorly, they create an annoying echo chamber that is perceived as corporate spam.

Below are the very tactical, but incredibly valuable, tips/suggestions that I left the session with:

• Every presentation (or podcast or webinar or whitepaper) your company produces can potentially fuel 5-6 blog posts. Make heavy use of content already being created, but keep in mind that the features/function language needs to be pulled out.
• If you have a group contributed blog, include pictures of the authors by each post.
• On your corporate blog, add links to each exec’s LinkedIn profile. Also be sure to add their profiles in your company’s LinkedIn Group page. (Check out this great article by Jason, “22 Ways to Dominate LinkedIn,” for more tips.)
• Use tools to extend your audience beyond the “people in the room” (beyond your blog subscribers, LinkedIn Group members, webinar/tradeshow attendees, etc.):

1. Use slideshare.net to share presentation-based content and then embed in your corporate blog. LinkedIn also has a slideshare app to pull the slides into profiles of execs and the group page. This is a perfect way to extend the reach of tradeshow and webinar presentations.
2. Check out Scribd.com, which is like a “slideshare for documents.” It allows you to embed the cover page of each whitepaper to be downloaded into your blog, and again extends the audience.
3. Make use of tools to incorporate your blog content into LinkedIn profiles (LinkedIn has a blog app that can automate this, too).
4. If you use need to use the whitepapers and webinars as lead generators, just wait a few months before sharing them – and then extend their life and reach.

• Don’t use your corporate Twitter feed as a “link dump.” And if you’re using an automated tool to feed your Twitter, FriendFeed, etc., make sure you’re not spamming the same updates multiple times. Also, recognize that people may be following your brand and multiple employees on Twitter, so be careful that you’re not creating your own “retweeting” echo chamber.
• If you manage a corporate Twitter account, take 15 minutes to brand the background with links to the company’s website.
• If multiple people are involved in the corporate Twitter account, take a look at Cotweet and Hootsuite. They both allow multiple contributors to a single account, and allows staged tweets (here’s a CNET comparison of both).
• Sign up for a bit.ly account to provide shortened URLs across all platforms. It allows you to track/measure how many people followed the link.

The event was great, but this session really made it worthwhile for me. I hope you find the suggestions as helpful as I did.

Wondering how to identify which analysts you should focus the most efforts on? Ideally, the best path to a decision is to survey your company’s customers. Find out which analyst firms – if any – they consult before making purchasing decisions. You may be surprised by their answers.

Next, take a look at your competitors’ sites and inventory the analysts referenced. Make sure you look at any industry recognition pages, quotes spread across the website, webinars and sponsored whitepapers. And finally, take a look at the industry events and coverage you’re undoubtedly monitoring to identify which analysts are moderating sessions and frequently quoted in the media.

Unfortunately, sometimes you won’t have access to customers (or they may not exist yet). Then what do you do? Enter a great website that I’ve been using for the last few months: www.alltheanalysts.com. Think of it as a meta-search engine for all the large and small IT firms. You can search by specific analyst, firm or even topic area. I use the site to keep an eye out on competitive coverage. It also seems like an easy way to identify those smaller, niche firms that can very often prove to be the strongest evangelists.

Another perk of ATR’s site – they recently released an in-depth research paper called “Understanding the IT Analyst Landscape.” A line in the executive summary caught my attention because it echoed my opinion that end users don’t necessarily turn to the larger analyst firms when purchasing emerging technologies.

From the report’s executive summary:

“Successful implementation of analyst research requires a balanced understanding of the industry as a whole. ATA surveyed end-users of analyst research about their job function and the technology segments they specialized in to build a model of ‘mind share’ as opposed to simple revenue or market share for each topic. The findings indicate that end-users working in emerging technologies are less likely to use analyst research from larger firms. Gartner, Forrester and IDC all had below average ratios of users working in emerging trends and consumer technologies. This key data for 8 leading firms is examined in the context of current industry drivers of change.”

The report identifies the top technology segments by analyst firm. For example, Yankee Group’s top technology is listed as mobile and wireless while Forrester Research is associated with application development. Below is a chart mapping the Yankee Group’s strengths and weaknesses (click to enlarge).

The report also has charts for Aberdeen, AMR Research, Forrester, Gartner, IDC, Jupiter and Ovum.

I traded emails with Malcolm Ramsay about the methodology used for the report. He said:

“The charts are based on end user survey data. By analyzing end users specializations and the firms they used, we were able to compare this against the sample average to build up a picture for each firm. This was important as it shows the people that actually use the research. We then examine it within the context of the trends and themes in the industry in a more qualitative way and this is underpinned by data we have gathered from users on All-the-analysts.com as well as other available sources.”

Of note, while all-the-analysts.com is free, the report costs $595. Particularly for PR agencies that can share this information across numerous clients, I think it’s worth the cost.

However, I don’t think this “Social Media 2.0″ is going to be the press release’s salvation, because it’s still plagued by bad, buzzword-laden writing. For example, take the second sentence of the release, where I think Marketwire is trying to say something about distribution:

Social Media 2.0 advances today’s press release format, offers public relations professionals a multitude of content options, and distributes news in a variety of mediums to distribution channels beyond traditional media distribution networks.

I also think there’s some subtle irony to a social media release — designed to reach online users who frequently embed links in their text and know to click on a hyperlink — using the phrase “click here” so many times (Perhaps last night’s Patriots loss has me a little extra snarky).

If you can get beyond the actual release, I do think this is good news for the PR world (assuming they aren’t charging an arm and a leg for it). I’m particularly interested in the assortment of tagging and tracking capabilities. But, as a profession, we still need to work on the quality of our release writing. Otherwise, we’re just putting lipstick — and new distribution — on a very ugly pig.

I was planning to digest the content and then write a few smart posts, but figured I’d share what I took away from the event (my notes might jump a bit).

Panel: New Media, New Influencers & Implications for the PR Profession

This panel had several prominent bloggers – including Paul Gillin and John Cass – presenting case studies from companies they’ve interviewed in the last year about corporate blogging.

Pulling from their examples and the discussion, here’s the list of what seemed to work well for corporate and CEO blogs:

• Allow the blog to reflect the company’s/CEO’s personality
• Focus on building an audience by mixing thought leadership topics with more personal topics (not updates on your children, but rather iTune playlists, the Red Sox vs. Yankees, etc.)
• Interview other industry experts – even competitors if it’s relevant
• Feature an ongoing quiz or survey to maintain traffic
• Update three times a week to improve SEO
• Comment on OTHER blogs to truly engage the audience
• And finally, measure success across several dynamics (traffic, comments, etc.)

That said, in order to measure success, you need to have an early consensus on the blog’s goal. Then, make sure you’re measuring the relevant factors. For example:

• If the goal is career advancement, measure levels of recognition
• If the goal is to build a community, track the level of engagement with comments, guest posts and feedback sections
• If the goal is to drive sales, track leads and $$$
• If the goal is thought leadership, track the increase in press interviews, speaking invitations, etc.

Presentation: The Blogging Power Continuum (Joseph Carrabis)

This presentation fascinated me because it was based on a project that took super smart brain scientists (my terminology for them), threw in some quantum physics (or something equally technical) and then applied that science to analyze a subset of the blogosphere. In all seriousness, Joseph talked about a research project he’s conducting that takes a very scientific approach to measuring conversation across multiple aspects in the blogosphere (he even claims that they called the last presidential election). As an experiment, his team looked at the current presidential candidates’ blogs, including comment strings, and then mapped which ones were driving conversations and which ones were following conversations.

Out of that research, Joseph shared the following advice (some we already knew – but now it’s backed by fact):

• What is power about in the blogosphere? Respect.
• The most flexible communicators have the most “power” in the blogosphere because they can explain ideas to the masses and therefore have broader reach.
• How do you gain power in the blogosphere? You gamble:
  • Give credit where it is due
  • Admit your mistakes
  • Manage your discussion (think of your audience as clients)
  • Be honest
  • Lead the discussion
  • Explain everything
• How do you share power (and you must share power to maintain it … “give a little to keep a lot”)
  • Recognize other’s authority and experience
  • Accept chastisement graciously
  • Never argue (not to be confused with discussion. As Joseph said, “Inquiry, discussion and explanation come from differences.”)
  • Be willing to learn
  • Encourage the discussion
  • Never cover

Panels: Award Winning Case Studies

Several panelists shared case studies of social media in action, including a first hand account of the Coke/Mentos video. A lot of this was consumer-focused and interesting, but one comment really caught my attention (I don’t remember who said it): “Embracing social media and traditional outreach together creates a ‘PR Loop Effect’ that ultimately compounds the effect/result.”

Presentation: Social Media Global Trends

Shel Israel gave the closing presentation which shared highlights from a global survey on social media he conducted with SAP. It was a great presentation and he posted the report in a few sections on his blog, which is definitely worth the read. Below are the seven lessons Shel shared with us.

1. Social media is kids’ stuff
2. Social networks is the killer app
3. Culture matters. Language matters.
4. Measurement is improving, but it’s still unclear what to measure.
5. The geek-to-suit gap is shortening. Kids overtaking geeks.
6. Lose control to gain influence.
7. The world is not yet flat, but it is getting hillier.

Shel’s closed the presentation by sharing his thoughts on the study and his predictions. The most notable for me was his advice to “watch the kids – they’ll lead you in the right direction.”

Read Rohit’s piece for more details, but his seven key pieces of advice are:

1. Provide clear direction
2. Invite us to the table early
3. Be honest about success factors
4. Take the advice you are paying for
5. Know what you don’t know
6. Understand that changes affect timelines
7. Ask our advice

Have any others you’d like to add?

This doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t expect a lot from your team. My top three favorite clients are also the most demanding clients I ever worked for. They respected me and I respected them … I’d go out of my way to help them and my team made sure they looked good internally.

2. Your 18 I-know-this-isn’t-PR-related-but-can-you-deal-with-it-anyway requests ate the budget. Especially with startups, agencies are often asked to fill in on projects, write webinar media alerts, track down reprint costs, etc. when the internal staff is overworked or non-existent. Unless you’re in a super hot company in a very popular industry, not focusing on media relations will always result in less coverage. Asking a team to jump on these minor tasks is understandable (if temporary), but if this is your situation, you need to accept there will tradeoffs and these “easy” projects can tend to be time consuming. If your priority is coverage and results, make sure you’re not the agency’s biggest obstacle.

3. That’s a dumb idea. I’m sorry, but sometimes it just is.

4. You’re not the only client. And 10 p.m. isn’t business hours. Oh, and my private cell phone … is private (okay, that might be three things). Think that contradicts client service? I don’t. I believe if a client/agency relationship is mutually respectful, the client needs to understand that parameters exist. I think I was a rare bird in the agency because I actually told my clients that one, I turned my cell phone off as soon as I entered the office building (my mom didn’t like that rule either); two, I couldn’t promise I’d answer a call or email in the evening unless I was expecting it; and three, if I didn’t pick up a page, I was probably on the phone with another client. Having a client email me, IM me, call my cell and call my office all in a matter of 30 seconds was too much for me, and ended up distracting me and creating an unnecessary level of anxiety. So at one point, I finally stopped it. I was always diplomatic in how I explained it to my clients, but I was honest and upfront about where my work/personal boundaries were.

I get that the core of agency service is client service. But unless you’re Microsoft, your agency most likely has more than one client. Especially when you’re working on more than one client, and with all the distractions that technology provides, agency people need to be able to focus when they can. That’s why your agency provides a team … if one person is unreachable, chances are you’ll find someone else (And I guarantee if your panic attack is related to a syringe being found in your product, even the most junior person on the team will know enough to find a senior person pronto).

Side note to all you agency readers and minor rant coming: To me, there is nothing more annoying and disrespectful than scheduling a team meeting only to make the junior staff wait while you talk on your cell phone, thinking your time is more valuable than theirs. Likewise, your clients are people, too, and if you work with them to meet all the deadlines during the day (which means sending that release at 4, not 8), then there’s no need for evening calls. You’ll never convince me it’s necessary for a client to call you at 9 p.m. to talk about a pitch going out two weeks later, or for you to call your client on Friday night to talk about an award due the following Wednesday. If I send my agency an email at 10 at night, it’s because I’m catching up. I don’t expect a reply until the next day :)

5. All that coverage doesn’t just happen. There always comes a point when a client starts thinking they’re all that, makes an agency switch for some random reason (less money, they can do more for less, etc.), and then the coverage disappears. I actually had a client that we took from 60 pieces of coverage to 500 and then almost 1,000 in two years (and they were high quality, on message) … then hubris kicked in, they made a switch, and went down to about 12 pieces of coverage the following six months. Yes, it happens that quickly. No, reporters don’t just “call” PR people to talk to you. When you start thinking that securing those massive amounts of coverage is like shooting fish in a barrel, it’s time for a reality check. It has more to do with your PR team kicking ass and maintaining key relationships than you think.

Wow. I feel better now … some of those have been bottled up for a few years.

A few news sites confirmed the rumor with “un-named” sources, but did anyone see ValleyWag’s confirmation post? They happened to notice that key PR contacts at both companies had friended each other on Facebook. Clearly, ValleyWag made a (not so) huge leap of faith, but as we embrace more social technologies, this is something for us all to keep in mind: the scoop oriented media (read: bloggers) may be watching the company you keep.

Rohit’s presentation resonated with me because I agree – it’s not necessarily about transparency in communications, it’s about authenticity – in everything you we do.

If you accept that businesses are around to make money, you must also accept that there will, necessarily, be limitations on how open a company can/should be. That means that sometimes, this “transparency” isn’t always the right choice for companies – particularly when discussing future plans of the company.

However, I believe it is very possible for executives to be authentic while still maintaining a competitive edge and protecting proprietary information. In the end, it’s all about adding a lot more “human factor” and removing the corporate speak — which ultimately helps build trusting relationships with employees, shareholders, customers and partners, and even the media. All this is done by simply allowing a spokesperson to be honest and forthcoming (without disclosing company secrets).

To me, the most interesting take away from this online discussion is a reminder that as PR evolves, it leaves a bumpy road for agencies. We all understand (well, we’re starting to understand) the boundaries of PR engaging with the blogosphere. Open, honest, etc. But as far as PR agencies go, I think we’re only beginning to agree on where the boundaries are. As blogs become more mainstream, more and more PR people will be required to build relationships with bloggers. Already, agencies are starting to promote relationships with bloggers as prominently as relationships with the media and analysts.

But, here’s the catch: Traditionally, PR agencies took great strides to NOT act as company spokespeople (I remember a few times I was cited in stories, and I’ll tell you my clients weren’t happy). The rules of engagement have changed, though, and many bloggers prefer public comments over private emails. At what point is it okay for an agency PR rep to respond? Is it considered on a client-by-client basis?

AND, when the PR rep isn’t pushing a client agenda, does it make sense for them to post comments on blogs? I think so, but I was also on the agency side and I’ll admit, having junior staff publicly exposed like that scared the hell out of me. Yet, to only have senior folks comment kills the relationship building. I certainly don’t think it can be a free for all, with PR people openly commenting on blogs to promote their clients. I’m also not convinced that encouraging a PR person to post comments related to their clients is really how to go about building a relationship in the first place (I actually think that’s exactly what not to do, but others disagree).

At the same time, I wonder if it makes sense for agencies to begin developing content experts who can engage industry bloggers in thoughtful debate, publicly? Or is that counter productive to thought leadership campaigns with their clients? And at what point, as an agency, do you open your most junior staff up to public scrutiny, and where do you shield them? I don’t have a solution to offer here, and my gut tells me a lot of agencies are grappling with these very topics internally. I’m sure their clients also have opinions (probably 30 of them), which complicates the topic even more. And then, of course, the bloggers (both independent and media) probably have another set of opinions. It would be a facisnating round table discussion, that’s for sure! What about you? Where do you think the boundary is (or should be)?

As Lois points out, “It’s wonderful that the media are on Facebook. It is a good way for conversations to take place and that would be a benefit for CEOs who are open to really building and maintaining a strong relationship with influencers.”

The Internet flattened the world, and PR people now need to build relationships around the country and the world, often virtually. That makes a platform like Facebook’s is very compelling, and is why, I believe, so many in the PR and media circles have embraced the social networking phenom. And I agree with a lot of the potential benefits of executives joining the interaction circles on Facebook.

But, something is still holding me back from joining. Actually, several things are (in no particular order):

• It’s a huge time suck. And an even worse perception killer. I can justify the need to network with media, but I could easily burn several hours a week on the site. That in turn could fuel a perception that I’m the one always on Facebook, which would rank me just above the YouTube watcher on the perceived productivity scale.
• My friends are on the site. And sometimes, it’s just too easy to be distracted.
• Did I mention my friends are there? Merging my personal and business networks isn’t something I’m quite ready to do. Granted, I socialize with people in my business world outside of work. And it’s possible (even likely) that I could run into a friend at a professional networking event. But I’m still not ready to introduce my professional contacts to my college roommate or my mother [Facebook just announced friend grouping, which may help address this]
• And finally, no matter what people say, Facebook is not set up for professional networking, at least not to me. For example, right next to your picture is your marital status and orientation. It’s subtle, but riddle me this — when was the last time your introduction at an in-person networking event started out with “Hi, my name is John. I’m a straight married man” or “Hi, I’m Heather and yes, I’m single”? The intro alone sets the tone for informal socializing. It’s fitting for friends and great for college kids, but awkward (or creepy) for executives. If Facebook really plans to cross over into the business world, subtleties like that need to be adjusted.

Even with my concerns, I still believe there are several very compelling arguments for where and how Facebook can complement an existing program. But until I come to terms with whether or not I should join, and whether or not I should encourage my execs to join, I’ll continue to be an interested observer (and will continue looking for a better solution, which I think I’ve found … more on that in a few weeks).

What about you? Is anyone else holding out? Or do you think I’m letting the Facebook parade pass me by?