I get lots of questions about how I personally use social networks to market MediaSauce and myself.

And to tell you the truth, sometimes I think I know the answer to this question and sometimes I feel like I don’t.

Has any of my contacts through Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter generated business for MediaSauce.  Well, sort of.  But maybe it’s not the kind of direct correlation that advertising and marketing delivers.  Or that we think advertising and marketing deliver.

You see, you can’t argue with the facts.  Lots and lots of people are using these platforms.  The increase in usage is tremendous.

Facebook is up 700% in time spent and has over 200 million users – over 100 million unique visitors last month.

Linkedin is up 69% in time spent and has over 41 million users – over 12 million unique visitors last month.

And finally, Twitter, the marketing buzz word for the first six months of this year, is up a whooping 3700% increase in time spent and has over 32 million users – over 19 million unique visitors last month.  This is all from Nielsen, if you think I’m making it up.

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Listen, these technologies are just tools.  Just like your fax machine (if you still have one of those) or your email.

It’s a tool for communication with other people.  When email came out (does anyone remember life without email?), some people embraced it.  But others, you know, struggled, they fought it, but then they finally had to give in.  And, of course, there were those that got confused and accidentally spammed the entire company.  That still happens.  But it doesn’t happen so much anymore.  And what companies do actual training on how to use email?  It’s just a part of life in the office environment and you should know how to use email.

Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter can all be the same thing – even if it isn’t called by these specific brand names in a few years.  Think companies won’t have an internal Facebook for communicating.  Think a Linkedin type tool won’t hold all your business and personal information.  What we are seeing is just the first shots at these tools.  Email has come a long way in a short time.  Don’t think that these tools won’t evolve as well. more

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Facebook vs Linkedin vs Twitter

Maybe you think that your target audience isn’t online. You’ve talked to a few of your colleagues and they all think the same thing. Well, maybe they aren’t. But I wouldn’t use my gut to consider if I should be doing more online.

For instance, I have a client that did a series of their target audience (engineers) and their distributors. There was some very insight findings. Their engineers used Google more than anything else to find new products whereas the distributors used Trade Magazines. And the predominant niche search, Global Spec, wasn’t used very often at all by either audience.

So where should be focus our marketing dollars. Trade magazines or Google? The client made the decision to pursue the target audience, engineers, via Google and communicate directly with his distributors dropping trade mags altogether (mainly due to expense).

Now, let’s take a glance at the rest of the world which could be your target audience.

Using Compete.com, Facebook has 91 million unique visitors, a 23% increase over last month, and a 195% over last year. Is your audience going there? BTW, ads aren’t the best way to reach people on Facebook. Being part of the conversation and allowing them to control it is a much better way to engage.
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What questions do you have about digital marketing?

OK, I’ve been gone a while. I apologize. I had a very large client with a very large budget and I needed to focus on them completely. But now that the major presentation is done, I can go back to all the other things I was doing along with my job as a digital strategist at MediaSauce.

I get a lot of questions about what I would do with this or that on the web. Does Twitter work? How should I be using Facebook or Linkedin? What is the best way to get my site seen by Google? (This one is near and dear because I believe that if Google can’t see you, then you don’t exist.) All good questions but there’s a lot that I don’t know about your company before I start recommending how you should be using technology. more

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#1 Thing You Need to Know about this Post:
Pedigree has spent a lot of resources to create awareness about the Pedigree Adoption Drive and will need to use its online resources to prove it was a wise decision, not prideful folly.

A More Detailed Exploration
The Super Bowl is a spectacular affair with entertainment for almost everyone, whether or not you care about the game on the field.  People were overflowing with anticipation, celebration, indifference, derision, and disappointment throughout the evening. And that was just for the commercials (see the Twitter stream).

Out of all the spots that were aired, I noticed two that were primarily cause marketing initiatives: the NFL and Pedigree. While the NFL has a long history of promoting its community support (e.g. United Way commercials) and gets its air time as part of the broadcast agreement, Pedigree had to pay full retail price. more

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Connections are taking on a whole new meaning in the Interconnected Age – and sales executives that believe they can rely solely on the relationship building methods of days gone by are going to quickly become relics.

If you want your sales organization to help you gain market share in the digital age, they must be ready and able to connect; social media is quickly driving new opportunities to generate business.

At “Sales 2.0,” Bryan Gray and I layed out the critical need for sales organizations to outwit and outmanuever the competition – or risk being beat by smarter, more digitally savvy sales teams. (Watch the presentation below)

You can listen to the entire presentation here.

Build a culture

Unfortunately there isn’t a magic pill that can turn our traditional sales force into a weapon for the digital age.  So those of us in sales leadership must start today to build a culture prepared to  compete as more and more customers choose to make decisions through the internet and not by RFPs, long sales proposals, etc.

We can, however, begin building a culture by getting our existing staff introduced to social media and give them the insight to start generating new business. Let’s face it, there’s no easier way to get sales people excited about new tools or technology than to show them the immediate impact these tools can make on their commission checks!

3 tools, all free

There are a multitude of fantastic Web 2.0 tools out there to generate leads from, but it’s important we get started with the ones that have the most immediate opportunity for impact. I guarrantee that if your entire sales force exploited the opportunities that these three free sites offer, they’ll make more sales and have deeper relationships with their prospects and customers:

• Facebook
• LinkedIN
• Twitter

Notice I said “exploit” not “use.” There is a significant difference. Just having a profile on these three sites isn’t enough. Adding a couple photos and occasionally sending out a connection or friend request is merely participation on the site.

In the coming days and weeks I will write a few blog posts on the MediaSauce blog about each of these tools. In the meantime, take a look at the presentation Bryan and I gave at “Sales 2.0″ for a quick look at the opportunities that these three tools create for you as you transform your sales organization for the digital age.

Today is the day to make a change in your sales culture. If you don’t, your competition will find a way to sell to your customers while you’re still trying to get a phone call returned for an appointment.

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Traditional lead generation and sales processes are rapidly evolving with new technologies. Is your sales force prepared to outmaneuver your competition? You cannot afford to be outwitted or outplayed by competitors who are using these new tools to generate leads and steal market share.

(Editors note: See a summary of this presentation on the MediaSauce blog by James Burnes)

It is time to act. It is time to empower your sales force for the digital age.

Join MediaSauce for a fast-paced seminar to learn how to transform your sales force and empower them to succeed using digital and social media. (Buy tickets now) more

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So the kids and I went to check out Eagle Creek Reservoir Beach on Sunday afternoon.

I’m very proud of my oldest daughter. She has finally learned to swim (after this summer of swimming lessons). But she’s very particular about her nose. She has to have nose plugs on or she can’t go underwater. So be it. Nose plugs it is. No matter how silly she looks.

After being in the water for an hour or so, I decided to start pitching the kids in the air. They love it and it’s some exercise for me. They swim over, I count 1-2-3 then heave them in the air. There’s a big splash and a lot of laughter.

We did this for fifteen minutes or so and I was about done. So the last one is always a doozie. I threw my daughter up as far as I could and she came down with a huge splash. When she came up, her nose plugs were gone.

Aw, man. Now I’m pretty sure you all know lake water. It’s definitely not swimming pool or Hawaiian Island clear. Visibility is like six inches. And even that is questionable.

She was really upset. Now how was she going to swim?

I started feeling the rocky bottom as best as I could in the 36 inches of water. Nothing just a lot of little rocks.

After ten minutes, my brain was telling me this was a lost cause.

You are not going to find them. Just tell her you’ll buy her some more. What are they? 5 bucks or so. Is it worth it?

Maybe not? But I didn’t stop. I prayed a bit and I kept searching with my hands on the surface of the bottom.

Because of the depth of the water, it was a stretch and I couldn’t really go over a big area of the bottom. I was by inching myself along.

Finally, I thought, just go under and do a quick large scan of the immediate area.

I went under, forced myself to the bottom and reached out.

It only took three tries and I had them. I couldn’t believe how fast I found them. It was same area that I had gone across a couple of times but here they were.

My daughter was smiling and swimming again – funny-looking nose plugs and all.

So what’s the moral of this story – what did I learn?

That once I changed how I was searching, once I dove deep into that dark water – the thing I was looking for came right away.

I believe consumer insights are like those nose plugs. Often insights are hard to come by but they are extremely important.

There’s a good book by Phil Dunsenberry, “One Great Insight is Worth A Thousand Ideas” in which he goes into why an insight is much more powerful than an idea.

To find an insight in the past, we did surveys, focus groups, product testing, and/or relied on the engineers or service people to come up ways to make things better. Sometimes this works – sometimes it doesn’t. And it’s amazing how many companies bet the farm on a good idea but not an insight.

But with Social Media, you can find consumer insights. They are right there waiting to be picked like ripe fruit

If you are new to Social Media (blogs, forums, community networks), I’ll bet it looks a lot like dark lake water. There’s too much noise. You can’t spreadsheet the answers as easily as you can with organized and self-generated research.

But here’s the deal. If you dive in, dive deep and put your hands out, you going to find the answers you are looking for.

People (and this system is entirely made up of real people) will give you honest feedback if you act like a person and not a marketer.

It takes some time – but all good things do take time.

The good thing is that you can start now and catch up pretty quick. We are at the foundation level of this digital social media thing. You can cut your social teeth along with everyone else.

For all of you that think social media is Facebook and Facebook is fad, you are sort of right. Facebook is a fad but it is a pretty darn popular fad right now. Some other network might overtake it but it’s not going to be overnight. And it’s going to do a lot of the same things that Facebook is going right now.

BTW, Social Media is not Facebook. If you want a list of what Social Media is not, click here.

If you are still timid about social media, stop by MediaSauce or give us a call at 317.218.0500. We would be happy to help you. We have presentations and clinics you can attend. Most are free.

I believe after you’ve been swimming in social media for a while, consumer insights won’t be lost under lake water anymore. They will be floating in the clear blue.

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Here’s my two cents about Inc. Mag. And don’t get me wrong – I love the mag – but they are always a bit behind the times when it comes to new media and technology. I really miss Business 2.0 – I can’t believe they shut it down and replaced my 2.0 with Fortune – what a waste.

So with the article, “Tapping The Community Pool” in the latest issue, they basically talk about how Social Communities via forums or wikis or blogs are allowing customers to help answer each other questions about products. Wow, that’s so 2003.

The example they give is a pool company (www.poolcenter.com) that has a large forum with 5000 registered users. They have their techs online to answer any questions about their products but a lot of times other customers answer the question before an online tech can get to it.

I don’t know if any of you have a Treo, but Palm’s entire support is based in community forums and a lot of times you can’t even get a tech to answer you. They just redirect you to another customer’s post on how to solve a problem.

I’m a huge fan of Ning and they have two communities for support – both creators and developers. Both of these are filled with workarounds and tips from other customers.

I’ve always pushed for community development around any company’s service or product. Now I almost always get somebody who will tell me they don’t need a full blown social community – that there is too many already. The funny thing is that this is usually from someone that doesn’t use any social communities. There’s a cartoon out there floating around (I should have saved the link) showing a guy signing up for a social community network. Afterwards he says, “That’s it. I officially have more social networks than friends.”

That’s probably the case for me.

I’ve got Facebook, my church, my wellness doctor, my family, my company, my marketing network, linkedin, twitter, and this damn blog.

Maybe you think that is too many…but I don’t think so. I think we go in and out of social communities all day long – the net just made them virtual and gave them names.

A little future gazing here – but I believe that our social identities will become more and more important on the web to the fact that websites will change when we visit them depending on the profile we are using to visit them. I’m also into siteless web presence for companies (you don’t need a website as much as you need a presence on many, many websites) as well but I’ll talk about that in a different blog.

Wow, I’ve really gotten far away from my topic. What I wanted to say about the article is that they don’t mention how much Google loves forums, blogs and wikis. There’s a whole host of reasons that I’ll explain in the future but Google digs the relevant content, the new content, the old content, all the keywords and a whole host of other things associated with these communities and there’s a good chance your community will pop up before your website.

And if Google can see you, then the world can. They don’t even mention that in the article.

To prove my point, search for me on Google. Don Schindler. A while back this guy with my exact same name used to dominate Google because he was a Scientologist and he wrote a few articles. But not anymore.

So this blog is a little longer than I wanted.

Remember this though, maybe you don’t think a community is right for you now. Well, all I have to say is, imagine how hard it will be to start one five years from now. The web is in its infancy and you could build an established base right now.

And if you need help, MediaSauce (who I work for) can help you out. You don’t have to go this alone and you’d be surprised how inexpensive it is to set this stuff up.

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