“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
In “The Growth of a CME,” Brian Dodson’s post on Incept’s blog, he reviewed what he has learned since becoming a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) at Incept. Along the same vein, I’m going to summarize my own experience since coming to Incept, specifically my growth as an iCME (Internet Conversational Marketing Expert).
Here’s what I’ve learned in the past three months as an iCME:
- Incept values what we bring to the table. Whatever skill or ambition an iCME has, the staff at Incept wants to put it to use. The iCMEs are encouraged to come up with their own ideas instead of just waiting for orders. All of us are new to this type of work, but our ideas are taken seriously!
- The Internet is the ultimate tool for communication. Online, you can communicate in any way, shape or form. You can post status updates, blog posts, pictures and videos. You can chat with your roommate or someone on the opposite end of the Earth. Your voice is heard.
- People get paid to play with social media! Before I joined the department I didn’t realize what a big business social media is. I knew that the creator of Facebook was waist-deep in profit (as illustrated in the movie “The Social Network“) but had no clue there was such a thing as a social media consultant, like our own Nate Riggs. I also hadn’t put a lot of thought into how businesses can use social media to promote themselves. Many businesses communicate with their customers via Twitter, Facebook and blogs, and Incept is now in the game.
- Your reputation is just as important online as it is offline. Nowadays, there is no difference between yourself and your online identity. When I’m representing Incept as an iCME, I have to not only promote the company but also protect its reputation. Whatever I do on the internet, I do with my company’s well-being in mind.
- Goals need to be quantified. I’ve noticed this about my personal goals, as well as my goals at work. When my goal as an iCME is to post a minimum of five tweets per day on Twitter, I’m far more likely to do that amount than if I tell myself to tweet when I can. Having a specific goal helps me do my best work as an Internet Conversational Marketing Expert.
- Editing film is fun! Although I don’t necessarily enjoy the actual filming, I do love piecing together the final product (and adding nifty text effects and soundtracks). The social media department at Incept films video interviews of our highest performing CMEs every week!
- Identify what’s expected, then do 10% more. Tim Johnson touched on this in his post on Incept’s blog, Are You Waiting or Creating Your Opportunities. When I was in school, I always did extra credit when my teacher offered it. It’s important to do the same thing at work, to the best of your ability.
- Take risks. Calculated risks, of course, but risks nonetheless. It may seem like common sense but every life coach and mentor will say the same thing: you won’t accomplish anything unless you risk failing. It’s cliche but true that if you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t trying hard enough. Be willing to make mistakes and have the guts to bounce back!
I look forward to the days when I get to do social media work at Incept. What do you enjoy about your job?
Every morning, I come into the office, fire up the computer and open up my Internet browser. The first page I visit is my email. The second page is HootSuite.
Managing the outbound content on my personal blog, the Incept blog, two company Twitter accounts, my personal Twitter account, my LinkedIn network, the Incept Facebook page, and my Facebook profile would require me to juggle no less than 5 open internet windows simultaneously, at any given time. However, with the help of Hootsuite, everything is condensed into one neat, little window.
The Swiss Army Knife
I refer to HootSuite as my “Swiss army knife” for one basic reason: a Swiss army knife is meant to be the only tool you need in a survival situation. It has multiple gadgets to help you through just about anything you might get into in the wild. HootSuite serves the same function for me online, doing just about anything I need it to.
I use HootSuite for 5 main functions across all of my social media networks:
- Hub – Because I can connect to any of my profiles from one page, HootSuite acts as my hub, or base camp, from which I can branch out into a conversation on any of my networks at a moment’s notice. Not having to open a new window and jump between sites means quicker communication, which also means stronger relationships.
- Scheduler - Maintaining an online presence 24 hours a day meant drinking pots of coffee and not sleeping a few years ago. Nowaday, however, with the help of HootSuite’s handy scheduler, I can program content to go out on any of my profiles at any time of the day. I don’t have to be at the computer to be in front of my network. A bonus is that I can actually customize the content to make it more effective by choosing pictures for my Facebook posts or using the URL shortener to save valuable tweet space.
- Real-time Communication – By using HootSuite’s content streams I can keep a watchful eye on what’s being said on any of my networks and react in real time. Personally, I like using the HootSuite interface to send messages on Twitter more than I like using Twitter itself. Cycling between profiles and accounts, sending messages on multiple accounts to reach more followers or cross-networking with followers on my other profiles is all made super easy, because it’s controlled from one window.
- Team “Crossroad” - One of my favorite features of HootSuite is that it allows me to interact with people on my team. If Tim has a conversation with a follower on one of the Incept profiles and I need to lend a hand, I can take over that conversation seamlessly. If a post I scheduled needs to be updated before it’s sent, a team member can jump in and make changes if I can’t get to a computer. It’s the ultimate back-up system.
- Listening Tool – By far, my favorite way to use HootSuite is as a “listening” tool. By setting up streams focusing on keywords and searches, or following a particular person’s conversations, I can get the drop on opportunities I might have otherwise missed. I can listen to what’s going on in my extended networks, watching what the friends of my friends are doing, so I don’t miss anything useful. It’s kind of like having your ear to the rail on the train tracks but being in the middle of the train yard. I can listen to all sorts of conversations, then pick which ones have the most potential and engage them – all from one window!
HootSuite serves as my Swiss army knife, my go-to tool. Of course, I also use other programs to complement what I can do in HootSuite. Heck, you wouldn’t go off into the woods with just your knife if you had the choice right? But when I know that I need something to rely on, I turn to my good friend, the HootSuite owl!
What tools do you use to organize your social networks?
www.facebook.com
In my last post, about how to be conversational online, I focused on blogging.
This week is about that social media staple that everyone from my college friends to my pastor to my grandmother is using: Facebook. With its own movie coming out (a la “The Social Network“), Facebook is as popular as ever. As an iCME at Incept, I have a Facebook page specifically for work that I use to communicate with my coworkers, get to know other businesses that are in the conversational marketing and blood donation industries and get updates from Incept (like what the dress code is for the week or who splashed into the dunk tank at the company picnic).
When I have conversations on my professional Facebook page, they’re very different than the ones I have with my friends on my personal page. If you’re interacting with your customers, clients, co-workers, and/or supervisors on Facebook, remember these rules:
- These are professional relationships so keep it professional! Write on Facebook only what would be appropriate to say to face-to-face to your customer.
- Choose your language carefully. Promote yourself in the best way by avoiding slang and cuss words.
- Use the skills you learned in high school English. Everything makes an impression, including correct spelling and proper grammar. That extra effort can make you stand out!
- Limit emoticons. I use a
or a 
all the time on Facebook. While the traditional “smiley face” and “sad face” emoticons are universally understood, others are more complicated and can be misunderstood. If you use an emoticon to communicate with a client, you might not be taken as seriously. Avoid misunderstandings by simply writing that you’re satisfied or dissatisfied.
- Avoid acronymns and abbreviations in your Internet lingo. Your boss might think that “LOL” you sent him means “lots of love” instead of “laugh out loud.” The consequences of that go without saying!
Here is where conversations – productive or otherwise – happen on Facebook:
- Private messages: messages that are sent to the other person’s inbox and are seen only by him or her. Use this feature if you don’t want your conversation to be seen by all of your Facebook friends.
- Chats: instant messaging with your Facebook friends.
- Walls: every Facebook user has their own wall where you can leave public comments.
- Status updates: start conversations by stating what you’re up to today (what you’re reading, where you went, what you ate for breakfast, etc.)
So what does this all mean for conversational marketing? For a business, the best part about Facebook is that you can create your own fan page. Your employees, clients and customers can visit it to start conversations and learn about your services. It can be a jumping point to your company’s official website. Use the same conversational marketing skills on Facebook as you would use face-to-face or over the phone: listen attentively (read that status update carefully) and offer results (write short, easily understood, helpful responses). A conversation on Facebook is productive when both parties are on the same page with Internet lingo, are on the level of privacy the conversation requires (talking on a “wall” or in a personal message) and pay close attention to the words being written (as if they were being spoken).
If you’re like me and find it hard to keep track of every conversation you get involved in on Facebook, sign up to receive email notifications and use your email account as a to-do list. When I receive an email from Facebook, notifying me that someone commented on my status or photo, or even “poked” me, I don’t delete that email until I’ve responded back. That way when I look at my inbox I can see what I have to do.
Do you have any advice for having productive, meaningful conversations on Facebook?
Further Information:
Online Conversations: It’s All About How You Say It
iCME Social Media Toolkit
When we talk about conversational marketing, here at Incept, the Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) are always reminded to talk with the person, not at them. Usually, this is in the context of phone conversations. It involves both sides of the speaking and listening coin – a balance between hearing what the other person has to say and telling them what they want or need to know. It happens in real time just like a face-to-face conversation.
Conversations on the Internet, however, are a bit different, especially when your “voice” consists of little black letters (like mine right now)!
On the Internet, there are real-time instant messaging services such as AIM, Facebook’s chat feature and live video feeds like Skype. But what about conversations that are not in real time? Ones that are not instant? These include tweets on Twitter, status updates on Facebook, email and blogging. How does conversational marketing work when the conversation is not face-to-face, not in real time and sometimes not even continuing on the same day? One way to start, encourage and hold a non-instant conversation is with a blog.
When us Internet Conversational Marketing Experts (iCMEs) started training, the first thing we learned was how to write blog posts that promote conversation (special thank you to Nate Riggs!). We were taught to write with our own voices, to keep the paragraphs in the blog posts short, to include images that catch the eye and to be careful with jargon so that every reader can understand. Most importantly, we were taught to always end our blogs with a question.
Businesses write blogs to provide information, state opinions, define and advertise themselves, and promote their customers. Unfortunately, some blogs stop there. Their readers read, shrug, and move on. They don’t comment. They don’t get involved in the conversation. By ending a blog with a question, even as simple as “what do you think?” readers are encouraged to join in and the conversational marketing process begins!
Do you have any advice for promoting comments and conversations on blogs?
Well, ok, not everything I need to know…
Whether we learned from attending kindergarten or reading Peanuts comics, these “All I Really Need to Know” lists always seem to leave out some essential life skills. For example, I own All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek. That book told me to avoid red shirts, but said nothing about potty training. I learned to never smile at a new alien race with my teeth (it could be interpreted as an “I’m going to bite you!” snarl), but nothing about how to program my DVR. My training in conversational marketing at Incept hasn’t covered every life experience, but now that we’ve started to narrow down the definition of conversational marketing in our previous posts, it’s apparent that the same skills and philosophies apply to our personal lives as well. Here are some observations I’ve made:
Incept in space?
- Life is about relationships, not contracts. Here at Incept, we recognize the difference between having a contract with a customer and having a relationship. It’s the difference between an acquaintance on the bus and a close friend. Friends not only know each other’s names but also their desires, needs, preferences, priorities and beliefs. Conversational marketing places an emphasis on uncovering the other party’s desires, needs, preferences, etc. and Incept strives to deliver.
- Talk with people, not at them. In his video and blog post, Conversational Marketing: Its Origin and Our Definition, Incept president Sam Falletta emphasizes this concept. Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) are not telemarketers. We engage in a conversation and invite the blood donor to give. Billie Johnson’s post on Incept’s blog, What is Conversational Marketing? reminds us that a “one-size-fits-all approach is no longer effective.” That’s true for personal relationships, as well as with businesses such as Incept. If we approach everyone the exact same way with precisely the same words, how do we show certain people that they’re valuable to us? Conversational marketing at Incept takes a customized approach.
- Even if you’re having a bad day and don’t feel positive, have the attitude. In his blog post, The Makings of a Conversational Marketing Expert, Incept iCME Brian Dodson emphasizes the importance of attitude. I’ve noticed that when I’m on the phone as a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME), there is a direct correlation between my attitude and the likeliness of a blood donor’s reception of what I have to say. It’s exhausting to articulate a certain attitude with my tone of voice over the phone – especially when I don’t feel it – and even more tiring to do that with my body language and facial expressions when I’m face to face with people. It takes more energy to promote a positive attitude, but it also energizes you and gets better results. If it works over the phone, it will work at home!
- Assume the best. When I was going through training at Incept to be a Conversational Marketing Expert, I thought that “assumptive” meant “assertive” or “aggressive.” But then I learned that, as Stephen Smith explains in How Assumptive Conversations Drive Results, it’s all about being presumptuous. It’s about assuming that the blood donor wants to donate blood. We assume that the donor wants to help and do a good thing, because he or she donated blood before. Assume that people on the street mean well too. Assume the best.
- Give people options. Instead of asking blood donors if they want to donate blood, we ask if they want to donate on a weekday or a weekend. We give them options to choose from. If you’re a parent, you’ve probably learned to do this. Instead of asking your child what they want to eat for dessert, you ask, “Do you want a popsicle or a cookie?” That way they start to think about their options, instead of saying, “I don’t want dessert, I want a ferris wheel!” I discovered that this conversational marketing tactic was applicable in my personal life when my mom asked me where I wanted to go for lunch. Instead of saying, “Anywhere, I don’t care,” I said, “Bob Evans or TGIFridays.” Since I like both of those restaurants it was a win-win scenario for me, no matter which my mom chose.
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Let’s do this. I began that restaurant conversation with my mom by using one of Incept’s conversational marketing jedi mind tricks (thanks, Brian Wells!). I said, “Let’s do this,” before I mentioned the restaurants. By saying “let us,” I pulled my mom onto my side, onto my team. I was speaking on behalf of “us” instead of just myself. The “marketing” part of conversational marketing requires this control.
Do you utilize the skills and philosophies of conversational marketing in your own life?
www.inceptresults.com
