Social Mediarology

While there were several great presentations during ExactTarget’s Connections 2010 Conference, one of my favorite sessions was the Subscribers Fans & Followers: Cross Channel Success With Email, Facebook and Twitter session hosted by Jeff Rohrs (@jkrohrs) and Morgan Stewart (@mostew) on the last day of the conference. You can check out my previous posts about ET’s SFF research here and here. Below are a few videos I took during their presentation.

Mythbusting with Jeff and Morgan:

Throughout the Subscriber, Fans & Followers research, Jeff and Morgan were able to identify some really interesting information. Some of that information was picked up by local and national news outlets, but like with most research, you can make it say whatever you want it to say. Some news outlets ran tiny portions of the research, skewing some of the data. That’s where Myth #1 comes into play.

Myth #1: Email Usage is Dropping:

In the video below, Jeff and Morgan talk about how Nielsen just came out with data saying that email usage has dropped significantly in recent years. In short, the Nielsen study, only includes email accessed via the web – Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc – but it doesn’t include email accessed via mobile platforms or even Outlook!

Myth #2: Facebook Fans are worth 136.38 dollars:

Some recent research said each Fan a brand has on Facebook is worth roughly $136. While that may be hard to prove one way or another, during the SFF research, participants were asked: Are you more likely to purchase from a brand after becoming a Subscriber, Fan or Follower? The results were different than you might think.

Only 17% of Facebook Fans said yes, while 27% of email Subscribers gave the same answer. The real kicker is that a full 37% of Twitter Followers said they’d be more likely to purchase from a brand after following them on Twitter. Obviously, this question only asks about intent and there aren’t any hard dollar figures behind it, but the fact that more than a third of Twitter Followers would be more likely to purchase from your brand after following should encourage you to start using Twitter.

Myth #3: Twitter is Dying:

2009 was a great year for Twitter and it became the fastest growing social media channel ever. At some point, the rate of growth was going to have to slow down a bit. Even though we’ve seen some higher profile users quitting Twitter recently (John Mayer, Demi Lovato), Twitter is far from dying. Jeff and Morgan remind us that Twitter users create six times more content online than non-Twitter users. So, while a few celebrities may come and go, the real influencers on the web still use Twitter heavily.

Did you attend the Connections 2010 Conference? What was the biggest takeaway you got from the conference?

While there were several great presentations during ExactTarget’s Connections 2010 Conference, one of my favorite sessions was the Subscribers Fans & Followers: Cross Channel Success With Email, Facebook and Twitter session hosted by Jeff Rohrs (@jkrohrs) and Morgan Stewart (@mostew) on the last day of the conference. You can check out my previous posts about ET’s SFF research here and here. Below are a few videos I took during their presentation.

Twitter Users as Content Creators:

Through their SFF research, Jeff and Morgan discovered that Twitter users end up creating six times as much content online as the typical online consumer. This is extremely powerful news and should be a wake-up call to marketers – just because only 5% of online consumers follow a brand through Twitter, those consumers are some of the most influential people online today.

In the video below, Jeff and Morgan talk about the tremendous reach and influence of Twitter users.

3 Follow-up Points to SFF Research:

The final report in the SFF study was released just before the Connections 2010 conference and Jeff and Morgan talked about three follow-up points to the research. First, SFF’s are long-term assets, not short term sales opportunities. If you only look at the short term, you’re overlooking the true value of your SFFs. Second, SFFs must be integrated and optimized. Once you’re involved in email, Facebook and Twitter, you must continually work to integrate and optimize the content across all three channels. Finally, leadership must unify email and social marketing – don’t look at email, Facebook and Twitter as channels in separate silos.

Keep an eye out for another post of videos from the SFF talk later in the week. Were you at the Connections 2010 Conference? What was your favorite session?

Connections 2010: Fuel The Conversation

I was fortunate enough to attend and speak at ExactTarget‘s Connections 2010 conference this past week in Indianapolis. In addition to meeting some great people, the lineup of speakers was fantastic. From Sir Richard Branson (@RichardBranson) to Twitter’s COO, Dick Costolo (@dickc), the conference was packed full of great information and ExactTarget did a great job of highlighting some of Indianapolis’ best venues: the Indiana State Museum was the host to a Taste of Indiana event and Conseco Fieldhouse hosted another dinner and a private Train concert.

My Session:

I spoke on a panel with Troy Burk (@TroyBurk) of Right On Interactive (@ROI_Marketing), Dave Morse (@DaveMorse) of Delta Faucets and Bo Lowery (@LoweryB) of Wild Birds Unlimited. Our session focused on how our respective companies are nurturing and scoring leads using Right On Interactive’s Customer Lifecycle Management dashboard. My portion of the session focused on Indiana Tourism’s Fall Leaf Cam/Foursquare promotion.

Conference Highlights:

Some of the most interesting sessions were some of the panel discussions I attended. From a panel featuring some of the founders and key players at CoTweet (recently acquired by ExactTarget) to a panel featuring an employee from Twitter, McDonald’s CMO and others; there was a wealth of information at the conference.

My favorite day, by far, was the third day – really just half-day – which featured further discussion about ExactTarget’s seminal Subscribers, Fans and Followers research (see my previous posts about the research here and here), a great panel discussion about the future of digital and social media and a keynote session from Twitter’s COO – Dick Costolo.

I took some video of a couple of sessions throughout the conference, and I’ll be posting them throughout the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for more information about Connections 2010.

I spent Friday at Blog Indiana, a great social media and blogging conference  based in Indianapolis. It was a great chance to run into some social media and tourism people from Indianapolis and a chance to finally put a face to some names I’ve gotten to know through social media.

Day 1 Highlights:

• Getting the chance to “tag” ourselves by wearing buttons that described what we did and specialized in – such a great idea.
• Getting to hear Jason Falls (@JasonFalls – Social Media Explorer) speak about conversational marketing
• Listening to a panel of Jason Falls, Chris Baggott (@ChrisBaggott – Compendium) and the newest Hoosier, Jay Baer (@JayBaer – Convince and Convert) speak about blogs and your blog readers and how to reach them.
• Lisa Vielee (@LisaVielee – Gracie Communications) mentioned the Indiana Insider Blog as an example of how to build a blogging community.
• Catching up with Doug Karr (@DouglasKarr – DK New Media) and hearing him mention the Wibiya bar as a great tool to use on a website – I’ve been using it for a while now.
• Finally getting to meet Chris Theisen (@CJTheisen – Hare Chevy), Heather Richey (@hnrichey – Conner Prairie), Josh Humble (@tkographix – TKO Graphix) and Lisa Vielee.

Thanks to Noah Coffey (@NoahWesley) and Sean Plew (@HoosierPlew) as well as all the other presenters for putting on a great conference this year.

Since I’ll be at BlogIndiana tomorrow, I’m posting the weekly Four On Friday a day early. Here are some great posts from the past week about social media:

1: Facebook Places Makes Location a Commodity | ReadWriteWeb

Social Mediarology thinks: With Wednesday’s release of Facebook Places, what does this mean for location-based services in general and for Foursquare and Gowalla specifically? This post hints at the idea that the commoditization of location that Facebook Places could provide might just allow services like Foursquare and Gowalla to focus on providing rich features to users, rather than having to spend so much time on location accuracy.

2: The 8 Wrong Questions PR Firms are Asking About Social Media | Convince and Convert

Social Mediarology thinks: Instead of clamoring to make sure you can provide social media service to your clients, make sure you can provide the RIGHT social media service to your clients. These tips can be extracted for whatever industry you happen to work in, not just if you work at a PR firm.

3: 100 Free High Quality WordPress Themes: 2010 Edition | Smashing Magazine

Social Mediarology thinks: Smashing Magazine delivers a fantastic list of 100 free WordPress themes. Take a look through to find what you’re looking for. Read our How To: Choose a Blogging Platform for Your Organization post to see if WordPress makes the most sense for your business.

4: BlogIndiana 2010

Social Mediarology thinks: We’ll be out of the office today at Blog Indiana 2010. This great event, now it it’s 3^rd year, features 35 different speakers from across the country talking about all kinds of digital topics, from blogging to social media and everything in between. If you missed this year’s event, be sure to check it out in 2011.

Last week, we hosted the first Indiana Tourism Summit at the Indiana State Museum. It was great to see so many industry members in attendance and we hope you got as much out of the summit as we did.

Our four speakers included Bill Geist, Josh Hallett, Dan Schilling and Rob Hunden. Here’s a brief synopsis of what each one spoke about:

Bill Geist – Zeitgeist:

Bill has been a friend to the tourism industry for many years. From his time at the Madison (WI) CVB to his current role as a CVB/tourism consultant, he is at the forefront of the tourism industry. Bill’s presentation focused on everyone’s favorite topic: Strategic Planning.

While Strategic Planning can be viewed as a dry and tedious, it is still a necessity. Bill spent time talking about best practices for creating a strategic plan and among those was the idea that there’s no such thing as a bad idea. The beginning of a strategic plan is a brainstorming session. Some of the best ideas come from these early sessions.

Josh Hallett – Voce Communications:

Josh has spoken for our industry before, at our Tourism Council meeting in December of 2007, but every time he speaks, he brings something new to the table.

Josh’s speech touched on social media and how to use it effectively in your organization. The goals of the Tourism Tech Corner are similar and Josh is extremely knowledgeable about interactive new media.

Josh actually attended the tour of Lucas Oil Stadium and took some great pictures. Check them out here.

Tourism's Triple Bottom Line

Dan Schilling – Civic Tourism:

Dan brought some great information with him. Heritage (Cultural) tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of tourism, and tourism is the 1st, 2nd or 3rd largest industry in each of the 50 states. It’s Indiana’s 3rd largest industry.

One of the most interesting ideas Dan brought was that of the “Triple Bottom Line”. More than any other industry, Tourism benefits from being located in an economically, socially and environmentally healthy area. Similarly, no other single industry can contribute as much to help an area become more

Rob Hunden – Hunden Strategic Partners:

Rob is a native Hoosier and an IU graduate and has done quite a bit of work in Indiana, even though his office are located in Chicago now. Rob spent time talking about economic development through real estate development. His speech resonates, not only with the Indianapolis’s of the state, but also with small towns and cities.

After the presentations, we all headed over to the Lucas Oil Stadium for a guided tour that brought us through many public areas of the stadium, as well as some private areas. We got to go down on to the turf, through the visitors locker room, up into the press box and through the Quarterback suites.

Dinner followed soon after at The Rathskeller. Good food, good beer and great conversation followed. I hope that everyone had as much fun attending the event as we had!

Very soon, we’ll have each presenter’s presentation posted on our industry site, Tourism.IN.gov, and I’ll come back and link to those.

What were your thoughts of the Tourism Summit? Did you like it? Anything you would change?