Interview with Kristin Bockius, Microsoft’s State and Local Government Relationship Manager

Originally posted on MicrosoftPartnerNews.com...

The Worldwide Partner Conference is hopping down here at the Washington Convention Center. The energy level is high as 14,000 attendees network with each other and learn about the latest Microsoft software and services. One attendee I had a conversation with was Kristin Bockius. She works in the Public Sector group at Microsoft and leads their efforts to build relationships with state and local government clients and partners that service them. She is is an thought leader in how to utilize social media marketing techniques. Here is a few snippets of our conversation:

Why are you here at WPC?

I’m here mainly to connect with partners that sell to state and local governments or have an interest in tapping into this huge marketplace. I’m particularly keen on showing how they can use effective social media marketing campaigns to grow sales and strengthen client relationships. For example, if a partner isn’t using any social media tools now, they can still work with us to leverage the social media properties Microsoft has already built, like www.gov2social.com, and www.brightsidegovernment.com, and twitter.com/microsoft_gov.

Can you share some examples?

Sure. Infostrat is an IT consulting company and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. I recently sat down with them for a social media consult. They were very interested on how to leverage social media in a business to business (B2B) and a business to government (B2G) situation. I shared a set of best practices that we’ve developed at Microsoft and now they are going to be launching a new marketing initiative with social media at its core.

Another company is SpeakTECH. They already have embraced the benefits of social media marketing as cost effective way to reach to prospects and customers. The challenge is here is how do we at Microsoft co-mingle our social media marketing activies with theirs in a way that effectively but appropriately drives new sales.

Lastly, I’m also going to be talking with Zones about how they can expand their already successful business into the sometimes hard to penetrate state and local government marketplace.

This is your first time at WPC. What do you think so far?

I’m psyched to be here. For one, I love DC! Plus, compared to other trade shows, everyone here is really engaged and enthusiastic.

Facebook Worth $23 Billion? and Other Questions

Is Facebook worth $23 billion or $12? Whatever Facebook is worth in the end- those are some really big numbers...

Twitter Places is targeting Foursquare and Gowalla (again). I haven't seen the benefit of location based social media. Although I do have a Foursquare account, I haven't used it much. Do you use it regularly? What do you get out of it?

Worried about a large asteroid hitting the earth and wiping out life as we know it? Don't worry, the Russians have our back.

My agency was just selected by TerraGo Technologies to provide integrated public relations and social media services with the goal of increasing awareness for TerraGo's software solutions among decision-makers at government agencies and industrial organizations. TerraGo is a really cool geospatial data company that delivers software applications that extend the access and application of maps and images for non-GIS users and customers. I'm psyched we get to work with them.

Lastly, take a moment to vote for Ryan Zimmerman for the All-Star Game this Monday. Not convinced? Click below to see the video of him hitting a walk off home run last night...

Braun Jones of WWC Capital Group, latest on Straight to the Point Podcast

For as long as I've been recording podcasts for the Straight to the Point series, I've been focused on how marketing executives have been addressing larger business problems from a marketing perspective. I've been really lucky to sit down with some outstanding professionals from Microsoft, British Telecom, Socialware, BearingPoint and others.

Last week, however, I shifted gears a little bit and interviewed Braun Jones. Braun is a principal at WWC Capital Group, which is an investment banking and private equity firm dedicated to serving middle market companies in need of capital or seeking advisory services to complete a sale or an acquisition. I wanted to sit down and pick his brain about economic and market trends that affect the environment that marketers have to operate in.

What did we cover?

• What does the economic outlook look like right now? Five years down the road?
  
• How does he make transaction decisions?
• What kinds of start ups are getting investments now? What technology trends are "hot"?
• Is the government contracting market ready for another round of mergers?
  

Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio...

or just click play...

Listen to internet radio with JeffMajka on Blog Talk Radio

Congrats to Tandberg on Social Media Award

I spent a fun evening at the K Street Lounge last night. No, I wasn't there to see and be seen with the cool people here in DC. One of our clients, TANDBERG, now part of Cisco, was there to receive an award from the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC)- "Best Use of a Corporate Blog."

The blog, "Break Down the Walls," has evolved greatly from an experimental pilot project to see if a blog could help support its public sector telepresence business to a successful social media portal integrated into the overall sales and marketing infrastructure. The Strategic team member who leads the account for Strategic wrote a post about working with TANDBERG back in March- read it here: http://cparente.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/breaking-down-walls-with-tandberg/. Here is a quick but illuminating quote:

Social media initiatives must demonstrate measurable value to earn their place in marketing budgets during tough economic times. Grounded in strategy and executed properly, social media can build audiences that directly support the bottom line of an organization.

Hear, hear. And I'm happy to see that strategic approach validated and recognized by local tech community...but its really a great pat on the back for the TANDBERG marketing team for taking a "risk" on social media and seeing it through to success.

Follow them on Twitter- @TANDBERG_FED

Should I Automate My Social Media Marketing?

Well, are you stupid? Then by all means.

If you aren't, then you are going to have to think deeply about what kinds of activity is value added by the fact of its being non-scalable. A lot of social media stuff (tweets, posts, etc) can be scheduled in advance, especially the promotional type actions. But the core value of a social media marketing campaign is the content you create and use to connect with and build your audience.

There are no short cuts. Spamming or posting meaningless, valueless marketing content will not generate you a credible audience of the right kind of targeted individuals.

Content creation is expensive and time consuming. Yes, you can re-purpose already created content. Yes, you can and should aggregate content you create with that you find through your network of peers and on the Internet. But the core of your social media marketing program has to be the entertaining, engaging and educational content you create yourself. And it can't suck.

All marketers need to start thinking like publishers.