Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media but...

Last Monday was the last Webinar in the four part series on social media that I organized with the Software and Information Industry Association. The goal of the series was explore all the business applications that you can use social media for and show real world examples of how this was being done. We gathered a impressive line up of panelists to share their insight and best practices, including marketing executives from BurrellsLuce, Deloitte Services, Jigsaw and Vocus, among others.

If you are curious about how companies today are integrating social media into their overall marketing programs for applications like:

• Lead generation
• Enterprise sales support
• Competitive intelligence gathering
• Deal capture
• Distribution partner identification and cultivation
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Executive visibility and thought leadership
• Reputation management
• Employee recruitment
• Team, culture and morale building

...then I highly recommend that you listen to the discussions and check out the slides from the Webinars below.

Overview of Business Applications of Social Media (Audio | Slides)
Social media has already begun the transformation of how we interact, and has the potential to transform the way we do business. Understanding and effectively implementing a social media strategy can have a major impact on how businesses are perceived and how they interact with their customers. Nowhere is this more evident than the PR, marketing and sales departments. In this 90-minute webinar, you'll hear how social media tools can be used in lead generation, enterprise sales support, competitive intelligence management, employee recruitment, team culture & morale boosting, and branding & awareness

Moderator:
Karen Leavitt, CEO, Marketing Fusion

Panelists:
Angela Lauria, CMO, AppAssure
Gail Nelson, SVP, Marketing, BurrellesLuce
Jeff Majka, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Strategic Communications Group

Enterprise Sales Support - Using Social Media to Support the Enterprise B2B Sales Cycle (Audio | Slides)
With new service-based models and the rise of "freemium", the sales cycle is getting complicated -- and every advantage counts. Social media has the potential to connect these new models to the customers that want them, but how do you implement it? Where do you start? Hear how social media can transform the way you approach lead generation and sales cycle support.

Moderator:
Ian F. Strain-Seymour, Director of Product Strategy & Development, Apogee Search LLC

Panelists:
Steve Lunceford, Director, Public Sector Strategic Communications, Deloitte Services LLP
Adam Mertz, Product Marketing Manager, Jive Software
Jay Hallberg, Co-founder & VP of Marketing, Spiceworks

Using Social Media to Target the C-Suite and Close Deals (Audio | Slides)
Many of your customers are using social media to communicate with THEIR customers. How can you tap into their social media programs? The first step to closing the deal is to conduct a social media audit of your principal prospects. How can this be completed efficiently and comprehensively for a large number of prospects? How can you facilitate social media for deal capture?

Moderator:
Jeff Majka, Director Marketing & Business Development, Strategic Communications Group, Inc.

Panelists:
Steve Ressler, Founder, GovLoop
Jim Fowler, CEO, Jigsaw

Social Media for Brand Awareness, Thought Leadership and Other Traditional PR Activities (Audio | Slides)
Social media should be an integral part of your PR strategy, not just your sales function. To run a successful campaign Marketing, Sales and PR need to be integrated using today's popular social media tools. How can you effectively integrate your social media strategy across the enterprise?

Moderator:
Robert Carroll, VP Marketing, Clickability

Panelists:
Jeff Majka, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Strategic Communications Group
Kye Strance, Director of Product Management, Vocus
Richard Dym, CMO, OpSource, Inc.

Webinar: Using Social Media to Target the C-Suite and Close Deals

Last week, I had the great opportunity of serving as a moderator for a Webinar on the use of social media to target executives and close complex sales, hosted by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). There were two excellent presentations and a fascinating Q&A session. The speakers were:

Steve Ressler, Founder, GovLoop
Jim Fowler, CEO, Jigsaw

Download the PDF of the 36 slides here and listen to the audio here (about 60 minutes).

What do you think? Please leave a comment or drop me a line!!

The fourth and final Webinar is coming up a few weeks. Take a second and mark it down on your calendar:

Social Media for Brand Awareness, Thought Leadership and Other Traditional PR Activities
Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Monday, December 7th - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT
Social media should be an integral part of your PR strategy, not just your sales function. To run a successful campaign Marketing, Sales and PR need to be integrated using today's popular social media tools. How can you effectively integrate your social media strategy across the enterprise?

Moderator:
Robert Carroll, VP Marketing, Clickability

Panelist:
Richard Dym, CMO, OpSource, Inc.

Two other panelists are TBD

New SIIA Webinar This Monday on B2B Social Media Apps- Targeting the C Suite

I want to make sure my faithful readers are aware of the next SIIA Webinar coming up this Monday, November 2 at 1:30pm. This latest episode is going to focus on how sales and marketing can work together to leverage simple, free social media tools to identify decision makers, grow relationships and close deals.

I'll be moderating the session and cuing up a fabulous panel that includes

• Jim Fowler, CEO, Jigsaw
• Steve Ressler, Founder, GovLoop

Click here to register: "Social Media Webinar Series: Using Social Media to Target the C-Suite and Close Deals"

There is a $89 charge to register- however, since you’ll be my guest, you can register for free if you use the following code- PRMSTRAT.

Listen to my Webinar- an Overview of B2B Social Media Business Applications

Last week, I had the great opportunity of serving as a speaker for a webinar hosted by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). There were three excellent presentations and a fascinating Q&A session. The speakers were:

Jeff Majka, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Strategic Communications Group
Gail Nelson, SVP, Marketing, BurrellesLuce
Angela Lauria, CMO, AppAssure

...and the session was moderated by Karen Leavitt, CEO, Marketing Fusion.

Download the PDF of the 36 slides here and listen to the audio here (about 90 minutes).

What do you think? Please leave a comment or drop me a line!!

As I told you here, this was the first webinar in a four part series. The next three webinars will be held as follows (mark your calendars and click on the links to register):

Enterprise Sales Support - Using Social Medial to Support the Enterprise B2B Sales Cycle
Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $35
Monday, October 5th - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT
With new service-based models and the rise of "freemium", the sales cycle is getting complicated -- and every advantage counts. Social media has the potential to connect these new models to the customers that want them, but how do you implement it? Where do you start? Hear how social media can transform the way you approach lead generation and sales cycle support.

Panelists:
Adam Mertz, Product Marketing Manager, Jive Software
Jay Hallberg, Co-founder & VP of Marketing, Spiceworks

Using Social Media to Target the C-Suite and Close Deals
Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Monday, November 2 - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT
Many of your customers are using social media to communicate with THEIR customers. How can you tap into their social media programs? The first step to closing the deal is to conduct a social media audit of your principal prospects. How can this be completed efficiently and comprehensively for a large number of prospects? How can you facilitate social media for deal capture?

Panelist:
Jim Fowler, CEO, Jigsaw

Social Media for Brand Awareness, Thought Leadership and Other Traditional PR Activities
Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Monday, December 7th - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT
Social media should be an integral part of your PR strategy, not just your sales function. To run a successful campaign Marketing, Sales and PR need to be integrated using today's popular social media tools. How can you effectively integrate your social media strategy across the enterprise?

Moderator:
Robert Carroll, VP Marketing, Clickability
Panelist:
Richard Dym, CMO, OpSource, Inc.

New SIIA Webinar: "The New Marketing Paradigm: Social Media in a B2B Setting"

I'm announcing a new webinar series, "The New Marketing Paradigm: Social Media in a B2B Setting", to be held over the next four months, sponsored by my firm, Strategic Communications Group, in conjunction with the Software and Information Industry Association. We will explore the many business applications of social media in a business to business environment. Some of the topics will cover how and when to use social media for:

• Lead generation
• Enterprise sales support
• Competitive intelligence gathering
• Deal capture
• Distribution partner identification and cultivation
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Executive visibility and thought leadership
• Reputation management
• Employee recruitment
• Team, culture and morale building

Click on this link for more information and to register: "The New Marketing Paradigm: Social Media in a B2B Setting"

Webinar #1: Overview of Business Applications of Social Media
Price for All: Free
Tuesday, September 8th - 1:30pm - 3:00pm EDT
Social media has already begun the transformation of how we interact, and has the potential to transform the way we do business. Understanding and effectively implementing a social media strategy can have a major impact on how businesses are perceived and how they interact with their customers. Nowhere is this more evident than the PR, marketing and sales departments. In this 90-minute webinar, you'll hear how social media tools can be used in lead generation, enterprise sales support, competitive intelligence management, employee recruitment, team culture & morale boosting, and branding & awareness

Moderator:
Karen Leavitt, CEO, Marketing Fusion
Panelists
Jeff Majka, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Strategic Communications Group
Gail Nelson, SVP, Marketing, BurrellesLuce
Angela Lauria, CMO, AppAssure

Webinar #2: Enterprise Sales Support - Using Social Medial to Support the Enterprise B2B Sales Cycle
Price for All: Free
Monday, October 5th - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT
With new service-based models and the rise of "freemium", the sales cycle is getting complicated -- and every advantage counts. Social media has the potential to connect these new models to the customers that want them, but how do you implement it? Where do you start? Hear how social media can transform the way you approach lead generation and sales cycle support.

Webinar #3: Using Social Media to Target the C-Suite and Close Deals
Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Monday, November 2 - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT

Many of your customers are using social media to communicate with THEIR customers. How can you tap into their social media programs? The first step to closing the deal is to conduct a social media audit of your principal prospects. How can this be completed efficiently and comprehensively for a large number of prospects? How can you facilitate social media for deal capture?

Webinar #4: Social Media for Brand Awareness, Thought Leadership and Other Traditional PR Activities
Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Monday, December 7th - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT
Social media should be an integral part of your PR strategy, not just your sales function. To run a successful campaign Marketing, Sales and PR need to be integrated using today's popular social media tools. How can you effectively integrate your social media strategy across the enterprise?

Moderator:
Robert Carroll, VP Marketing, Clickability
Panelist:
Richard Dym, CMO, OpSource, Inc.

I'll be updating this page as we add more speakers. If you'd like to submit your name as a possible speaker, or if you have any other topic suggestions, please don't hesitate to email me at jmajka@gotostrategic.com.

Walt Mossberg Raises the Red Flag of Revolution

A colleague of mine pointed out to me an interesting blog post by Walt Mossberg this morning:

http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20071021/free-my-phone/

A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer.

Up until the 1970s, when the federal government intervened, you weren’t allowed to buy your own landline phone, and companies weren’t able to innovate, on price or features, in making and selling phones to the public. All Americans were forced to rent clumsy phones made by a subsidiary of the monopoly phone company, AT&T, which claimed that, unless it controlled what was connected to its network, the network might suffer.

Well, the government pried that market open, and the wired phone network not only didn’t collapse, it became more useful and versatile, allowing, among other things, cheap connections to online data services.

I suspect that if the government, or some disruptive innovation, breaks the crippling power that the wireless carriers exert today, the free market will deliver a similar happy ending.

At the SIIA Changing Landscape seminar on mobility last month, D. P. Venkatesh pointed out that Apple is a odd choice to lead the anti-oligarchy charge. It's model is based on it owning the entire software stack to the exclusion of anyone else. Although, Apple just announced that they will eventually allow third party programs, this seems like too little to late. After all, my three year old PocketPC (on Verizon, widely acknowledged as the "worst" carrier in terms of openness) easily allows third party applications.

Now, switching it from one carrier to another might prove a challenge...

However, Walt's economic instincts are correct. More competition will bring more innovation, and greater value at lower prices. And you can bet that the carriers will fight tooth and nail to prevent that from happening...

New Event with the SIIA- Security

As I mentioned a while back, I've partnered with the Software and Information Industry Association (www.siia.net) to develop a series of events that will take a look at the transformational changes occurring right now in three critical areas. Each of these areas are wrestling with dramatic change that is raising technology, regulatory, and cultural issues while generating tremendous business opportunities and creating real value for customers. Each of these events will spotlight panelists with differing perspectives on all of these issues as well as give insight into what the future might look like given today’s trends.

Our next roundtable will shed light on issues and trends in the changing landscape of security. Enterprises are wrestling with a variety of ever growing challenges such as identity management, mobile security, managed security services, and regulations (Sarb-Ox, FISMA, HSPD-12). We'll take a practical look at how these challenges are being addressed by enterprises.

Panelists: Dipto Chakravarty, Vice President of Engineering for Identity and Security Management, Novell (Confirmed)

Lyall Venatta, VP Marketing, Sigaba (Confirmed)

Paul Innella, CEO, Tetrad Digital Integrity (Confirmed)

Moderator: Jeff Majka, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Strategic Communications Group

Date: October 24 2007
Time: 8am to 10am
Location: SIIA DC office, 1090 Vermont Avenue, 6th Floor, Washington DC
Attendees: 30-40 people
Registration Fee: SIIA members $20/non-members $40

Click here to register: http://www.siia.net/events/prereg.asp?eventid=758

The Changing Landscape of Mobile

Hi all. I've partnered with the Software and Information Industry Association (www.siia.net) to produce a series of events that will take a look at the transformational changes occurring right now in three critical areas. Each of these areas are wrestling with dramatic change that is raising technology, regulatory, and cultural issues while generating tremendous business opportunities and creating real value for customers. Each of these events will spotlight panelists with differing perspectives on all of these issues as well as give insight into what the future might look like given today’s trends.

The first event will be very informative and will focus on the changes in the wireless industry and the impact that mobility is having on consumers, enterprises and marketers. We've scheduled two other events: one on security (Oct 25) and one on enterprise software (Nov 13). Look for those invitations down the road.

I’ve included the event information below. If you’d like to attend, please visit https://www.siia.net/events/prereg.asp?eventid=757.

“The Changing Landscape: Mobile”

Panelists: Leslie Poole, CEO, Javien Digital Payments
Gregg Smith, CEO, Acuity Mobile
Rich Carlson, CEO, Wireless Matrix
D. P. Venkatesh, CEO, mPortal

Moderator: Jeff Majka, Strategic Communications Group

Date: September 25, 2007

Time: 8am to 10am

Location: SIIA DC office, 1090 Vermont Avenue, 6th Floor, Washington DC

The Changing Landscape: Enterprise

I've been busy over the last few weeks developing a series of events in partnership with the Software and Information Industry Association (www.siia.net) that will take a look at the transformations occurring right now in three critical areas. Each of these areas (enterprise, mobile and security) are wrestling with dramatic change that is raising technology, regulatory, and cultural issues while generating tremendous business opportunities and creating real value for customers. Each of these events will feature insight from panelists with differing perspectives on all of these issues as well as peek into what the future might look like given today’s trends.

The first panel discussion (scheduled for next Tuesday morning) will cover the issues and trends in the changing landscape of enterprise software. Such issues include SaaS, outsourcing, integration complexity, Oracle's acquisition spree, Google's new SaaS app package, etc. A special focus will also be on the impact of change among government enterprises.

If you are going to be around the DC area, please click on the link below and register!

The SIIA Changing Landscape Series: Enterprise

Panelists: Tony DeSomma, Vice President, Oracle Public Sector Practice, BearingPoint
Tom Mazur, VP Government Sales, Lagan
Gary Golding, Edison Venture Fund
Moderator: Jeff Majka, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Strategic Communications Group
Date: July 31, 2007
Time: 8am to 10am
Location: SIIA DC office, 1090 Vermont Avenue, 6^th Floor, Washington DC
Attendees: 50 people
Registration Fee: SIIA members $20/non-members $40

Please register here: http://www.siia.net/events/prereg.asp?eventid=756