The document discusses signs that a company may be overpaying for EDI (electronic data interchange) and ways to cut EDI costs. It notes some potential signs of overpaying include paying a value-added network to handle free transactions, being locked into ongoing transaction fees, and requiring expensive translator software. It then promotes the EDI Advantage 2010 software as an affordable EDI solution integrated within the Sage ERP system that can automatically handle EDI and cut costs compared to less sophisticated alternatives.
4. Letter from the Editor 6
8
sections
Leadership 7
Sales and Marketing 8
Cover Story 16
Book Report
Industry News
18
20 12
Customer Relationships 24
Human Resources 26
Work | Life | Balance 30
16 22
4 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
5. ACOM AD FULL PAGE
DUE ON JUNE 10
5
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
6. LETTERFROMTHEEDITOR
BELLWETHER
A Blytheco, LLC Magazine
Volume 2
Third Quarter, 2011
www.blytheco.com
www.bellwethermagazine.com
STAFF
EDITOR
Apryl Hanson
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Greg Went
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Alicia Anderson
Donna Baeza
Joanne Black
Gary Dahl
Apryl Hanson
Susan McLain
Cortez NaPue
Brian Vellemure
Dawn Westerberg
Geni Whitehouse
ADVERTISING SALES
Dori Fitch
SUBSCRIPTIONS
www.bellwethermagazine.com
Or contact Dori Fitch -
(800) 425-9843, Extension 1168
dorif@blytheco.com
Bellwether Magazine is published by
Blytheco, LLC with principal offices at:
23161 Mill Creek Road
Suite 200
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
If you wish to be removed from the
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reproduction of material herein is strictly
prohibited without prior, written approval
of Bellwether Magazine.
Scan the QR code to the left with your smart
phone to view the Blytheco Social Media Guide
or go to www.blytheco.com/socmed
6 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
7. LEADERSHIP
Leading Social Teams by Apryl Hanson
I n this day and age, we have to be prepared as managers and leaders to equip ourselves
with tools to be effective in an ever-growing social environment.
There are several misconceptions about hiring people that do not work where you work
and how to manage them.
1. MYTH: It’s harder to manage people that work month. Keeping your teams talking to each other
remotely because you can’t “see” them. How is important, as is allowing them to work through
often do you really stare at your employees while their issues.
they are working anyway? In reality, I find that
So what does it take from a leader’s perspective to keep
managing and leading employees that do not
them creative and communicating and keep yourself
reside in the same location easier. Why? Because
managing to results.
you can keep to what you should be managing,
and that is results. With remote employees, you 1. Set clear goals. If the team understands the goals
focus on the deliverables and all of the rest of the at hand they can work better as a team (no matter
stuff goes out the window. where they are) to achieve them.
2. MYTH: You can’t have a relationship with an 2. When problems arise managing them
employee that isn’t in your same location. With aggressively and head on – don’t sweep items
today’s tools like Skype, GoToMeeting, and many under the rug. When something happens that
more, there are plenty of opportunities to engage needs addressing, address it quickly. Each moment
and interact with your employees. With my team, you let go by decreases the effectiveness you will
we meet at least once a week as a team via group have as a leader to resolve the issue.
Skype and I’ve gradually transitioned my one-on-
one meetings to Skype as well. This helps me truly 3. Get on the phone and talk to everyone one
see how someone is doing, not just by what they on one. One-on-one time is the most important
are saying, but by their facial expressions. With time you can spend with your employees. Put it on
today’s tools you can interact in a similar but more the calendar, make sure it is a regular occurrence,
productive way with your employees. and don’t move them. Your employees need to
know that you are there for them, and that you are
3. MYTH: You can’t be collaborative with teams reachable and approachable. It should be their
that can’t be in the same room with each other. time to bring up anything they want to discuss with
I beg to differ. I have one of the most collaborative you and your time to coach.
teams that I know and very few of us are in the same
office. So what do I use to keep them creative? 4. Don’t resolve your team’s issues for them. Let
One, visual meetings like I mention above – but your teams work out their issues, and don’t get
then we can break and work on our own, come excited about them. Focus them back to the goal
back together to present what we’ve come up and how they are going to resolve issues to achieve
with. Usually these types of meetings start with one the goal at hand.
idea and lead to an even better one. Being able to
5. Reward them for the good they do. Employees,
see each other is key. For one month we did our
whether virtual or in front of you, need to have
meetings without being able to see each other
feedback on how they are doing. Make sure
and the creativity level went down dramatically.
feedback is early and often.
We also suffered from miscommunications that
7
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
8. SALES&MARKETING
Getting to R:
The AIPEE Pyramid by Brian Vellmure
How do we create customers? And once we get
them, how can we keep them?
Has any of this really changed with the rapid
rise of Social Technologies?
The fundamentals of
business haven’t changed
– but the tools and
technology available to us
and how we can (and will
be forced to) accomplish
fundamental business
goals like “New Customer
Acquisition” have.
I’ve attempted to illustrate
my thoughts in the image
below – called the AIPEE
Pyramid.
place. Dialogue at this stage will vary – but the offline
So let’s examine each stage of the pyramid: equivalent might be saying “Hi – how are you doing?”
to someone while waiting for a drink at the bar on in
STAGE 1: ATTENTION the line at the bathroom at a networking event. There
For marketers, here is where we are casting our net is a shared common interest, and we’ve just been
far and wide. The key difference versus what we’ve presented with an opportunity for some dialogue in
traditionally done is that companies can no longer rely passing. We’ve just gained permission to continue the
on “shouting” a message. The new goal is to provide conversation.
something of value…something so valuable that folks
who have never even heard of you or your brand want STAGE 3: PERMISSION
to share it with their friends. We have offered something of interest and value that
The content that you provide might be a public the individuals have implicitly or explicitly asked to
webcast, podcast, video, white paper, etc. The know more about us. Some examples of ways that this
idea is to get something interesting and valuable in can manifest itself are:
front of the eyes of some key influencers within your
• Subscribing to our blog
demographic.
• Inviting us to connect on a Social Network
STAGE 2: INTERACTION • Giving us their contact information in exchange
You’ve now garnered some attention, and have
for a white paper, webinar, newsletter, free product
established a little bit of relational capital. Now
is the time when some 1:1 interaction might take sample or trial.
8 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
9. STAGE 4: ENGAGEMENT: 2. The Value Exchange Retention Cycles
The two parties are fully engaged, figuratively Hopefully the relationship we’ve worked so hard to
“sitting on the same side of the table” and seriously nurture doesn’t stop there. I’ve highlighted 3 areas
exploring how they can help each other out. The where and how further exchange might take place.
company’s main goal is to understand in detail what Let’s briefly touch on each of them.
their prospect is trying to accomplish, and either offer
an existing solution from their offerings portfolio, or A. Repeat Transactions
co-create with them a product or solution that helps We may keep getting referrals. We may keep
them accomplish their goals. selling the same consumable over and over. But
remember, in order to keep our customers with us,
STAGE 5: EXCHANGE we need to continue to add value.
We’ve consistently added value over a series of
interactions. We’ve established trust. We’ve now B. Upsell Opportunities (Deeper Commitment)
earned the right to ask for something. It might be We’ve had an initial exchange. But, there’s more
a sale (Revenue). It might be a Referral. It might there. There are more problems to be solved. You’ll
be a Recommendation. In some cases, it might be see that the retention circle extends back down
all three. We’ve successfully executed an R Value into the engagement stage. Layers of the onion are
Exchange. But it doesn’t stop there… peeled back as new needs are discovered and new
solutions are presented.
Let’s dig a little more into the Value Exchange
Retention Cycles and the potential response(s) of the C. CrossSell Opportunities (Different Product
customer at all stages in their journey up the pyramid. and Service Offerings)
You’ll notice that this retention circle ventures all
1. The customer’s response to their journey up the way back down to the permission stage. While
the pyramid we’ve exchanged value for one business purpose,
Humans have always been social. We’ve always we may need to display competency in another
told our friends, family, acquaintances and business area in order to earn permission to engage in
associates about our day, our experiences, our hopes dialogue for that need as well.
and dreams, who we like and don’t like, etc.
So that’s it. We’ve taken a look at how to get our
What has changed is how many people we can tell prospect’s attention, and facilitate a journey towards
things to in such a short amount of time. Social a mutual value exchange. We’ve looked at how social
Technologies are an amplifier. technologies amplify everything good and bad, and
we’ve taken a brief look at how our relationship with
Good experiences get amplified – an exponential our customers (partners, influencers, etc.) can be
boost to your brand. Bad experiences, well, can retained and nurtured for continuous value exchange.
spread like wildfire, and can do significant damage to
your brand and reputation in a short amount of time. The key is to start by creating something of value,
But really, this isn’t new either. Bad PR stories have something that is sure to garner attention. Start there
been picked up and spread via the press for decades. and you can learn the rest along the way.
What is new is that EVERYBODY is the media. There
is no longer a filter. Information and Stories that are
worth spreading will be spread.
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10. SALES&MARKETING
Has Anyone Ever Generated
Any Leads Using Social Media?
by Dawn Westerberg
I
n a way, the question “Has Anyone Ever Generated Any Leads Using Social
Media?” is a little like asking “Has Anyone Ever Generated Any Leads Using
the Telephone?” Regardless of the platform - social media, conferences,
telephone, or pen and paper – the message has to be good. The message has
to result in the buyer getting to know, like, trust and try you so that ultimately
they will buy from you and refer business to you - repeatedly.
Social Media is any online platform that helps you They believe they shouldn’t have to call to get more
engage with others and communicate your message, information – it should be available online. What this
for example, websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, means is that the blog and website have replaced
LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. Like traditional marketing, much of the role marketing used to perform through
the goal of Social Media is to get the buyer to think print marketing materials: educating and guiding the
“This company might be able to help me with my buyer through the Know-Like-Trust-Try-Buy-Refer-
problem. I’m going to check them out.” It’s the Repeat continuum.
“aha” moment that drives the prospect to act further
– to call you, fill out a request for information form, Social Media has a word of mouth component, a
or email. referral component, and an advertising component.
And as we know from our experience in traditional
Search engines have revolutionized the buyer’s marketing, word of mouth, referrals and advertising
ability to track down products and services and can all generate leads.
placed them firmly in charge of the buying cycle.
10 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
11. Word of mouth in Social Media happens through someone favorably
tweeting about your products and services to their network of
Twitter followers. It could also occur through someone “liking”
your Facebook page or writing a review on a site like Yelp.
Referrals can come through someone retweeting your tweet,
sending a link to your site to their Facebook followers, or
posting a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. A Social
Media referral might also be an invitation to write a guest post for
a blog which would introduce you to a new audience.
Advertising through Social Media works the same as traditional
advertising – you pay to play. But with Social Media advertising you
have greater control over who gets to see your ad. I’m going to
use Facebook ads as my example (LinkedIn and Google ads
are similar) because they offer so much flexibility in
reaching the right audience.
Facebook ads will guide you through a set of
forms for creating your headline, entering
a link for viewers to click on (this can go
to a landing page that you create that
elaborates on the information contained
in the online ad as well as your call to
action – click here to purchase, click
here to download a whitepaper, click
here to receive more information, etc.)
and the body of the ad. The number
of characters for both the headline and the
body of the ad are very limited. You will need to be very brief – yet
make the ad compelling enough to encourage the viewer to click on the link.
You select the demographics of the audience you’d like to see the ad. You can go as wide as
an entire country or as narrow as a city. You can select age groups, gender, interests and job
titles. As you make these selections, Facebook will show you the number of people who fit
your criteria.
You chose whether you want to pay per click or pay per impression and select a daily budget, for
example $25 per day. This means you can control your budget and run the ad for any number of days
you specify.
Social Media benefits your online presence. By taking advantage of multiple platforms, you increase your
chances of amplifying and accelerating your message and presence. But most important, Social Media makes
it easier for prospective buyers to find you.
by Apryl Hanson
About the Author:
Dawn Westerberg is the President of Dawn Westerberg Consulting LLC where she specializes in helping business owners fall in love with their business again through installing marketing
systems that optimize fun work and awesome results. She is an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach and has held senior management marketing positions at Sage, Lawson, and Open
Systems. You can learn more about Dawn at www.dawnwesterberg.com.
11
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
12. by Joanne S. Black
P
undits can rant all they want about the “new normal”
and “new realities,” and how Web 2.0, Web 3.0, and
social media will change the way we sell. The Internet is
the most powerful, life- and business-changing tool created in
generations, if ever.
But while it has altered our sales processes, technology Here’s how to make social media work for you.
won’t save our sales careers. It won’t fix our business
development, sales, or customer relationship Do develop a social media strategy. Like a sales or
management (CRM) challenges. It can be a great tool, marketing plan, you should write out your social media
but it is the person behind the LinkedIn profile, all the plan. What is your goal? Who is your audience? What do
fancy gadgets, and high-tech presentations who actually you want to communicate? Leverage social media as part
makes the sale. of your go-to-market strategy. How does your strategy
12 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
13. NO MORE SALES&MARKETING
CALLING
link to your customer’s needs and your business priorities? visitors? Link to other sites that you have found helpful.
As you become recognized as a resource in your industry,
Do link up beyond LinkedIn. Take the time to build your
you will build your web presence—and eventually, your
personal connections: pick up the phone and talk to
“
business.
people. Go to lunch. Have coffee. Just get out from
behind your computer and nurture your Do incorporate your keywords. Your
relationships—even if you did build them profile pages are an excellent place to
virtually.
Social media get extra attention from search engines
Don’t skip the introduction. Just because
sites can help and increase your web presence.
you have a Facebook friend in common you prepare for Don’t forget to do your homework.
doesn’t mean you have a relationship.
Social media is a great way to find out
meetings with Social media sites can help you
prepare for meetings with potential
who knows someone you want to pitch, potential clients clients by allowing you to learn about
but if your mutual associate doesn’t
provide a personal introduction, you’re
by allowing you their backgrounds and your mutual
associates. Instead of rambling about
basically cold-calling. When you reach to learn about the weather, you’ll have something to
out to someone who isn’t expecting your
call and probably doesn’t want to hear
their backgrounds talk about during your first meeting.
from you, it’s a cold call. and your mutual Don’t look for new clients; do look for
new referral sources.
Don’t turn your Facebook page into associates.
If you have been trying to get a
an advertisement. Social sites are not
meeting with a particular company or
for selling. They are for establishing
individual, social media can help you quickly find out who
connections, identifying ways to collaborate, and providing
in your network has a close connection so you can ask for
value. Instead of telling people you’re an expert, prove it.
a referral.
What tips or other useful information can you provide your
About the Author
America’s leading authority on referral selling and founder of No More Cold Calling, Joanne Black helps salespeople, sales teams, and
business owners get more referrals and attract more business fast without increasing sales and marketing costs.
Discover how to turn cold prospects into HOT clients more than 50 percent of the time and ace out the competition with her proven,
referral-selling system.
A captivating speaker, sales guru, and innovative sales seminar leader, Joanne is changing the business of sales.
Joanne is the author of NO MORE COLD CALLING™: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust (Warner
Business Books). In this groundbreaking book, Joanne outlines her powerful, proven, step-by-step system for building a referral business.
Some of Joanne’s views are contrarian, and in the established school of traditional sales, considered heretical thinking. But for Joanne
Black, and her clients, the only smart approach to client acquisition is referral selling. Joanne Black is a member of the National Speakers
Association and regularly speaks at sales and incentive meetings, sales conferences, and association meetings.
Share your sales challenges and tell us what you think. Email Joanne: Joanne@nomorecoldcalling.com
13
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
14. SALES&MARKETING
Picture this. You are at a convention; there
is a breakout session with an expert who
is of interest to your clients. You grab him/
her after the session and get him to agree
to a 5 minute interview. He approves
because you are positioning him as an
expert and essentially giving him free
advertising space on your website. by Gary Dahl
You point an iPhone at him and ask a few questions. At Videos of experts, when placed on your Facebook or web
this point, you have invested maybe 10 minutes. You take page, position you as an expert. They confer credibility
the video home and tweak it - maybe add some titles on you – just by virtue of being on your website. You are
using inexpensive video editing software. You upload it educating your audience and providing information. It’s
to Youtube, and embed it in your website, your blog and not a hard sell right now. You’re drawing them in with
Facebook. You have someone transcribe it. Repeat as some easy to digest information.
necessary.
Video enables you to:
The question is not “Should I include videos on my
Position yourself and your company as experts
webpage, blog and Facebook?” The question should be
“Where do I get the camera?” Give useful, interesting or important information to your
prospects and clients
Decision makers evaluating your products do not have
time to wade through a lot of PDFs, web pages, feature Inform your target market about your products and
lists and bullet points. A product demo video may be too services
specific and detailed. They just want to get a quick hit of
your product and features -the Cliff Notes version. Deepen relationships with your customers
People prefer video because : Show who you are (which adds personalization and tells
your story)
• They don’t have a lot of time
• They want things summarized Add to your credibility with customer testimonials
• They are visual
Free you from answering the same question over and
• Video is accessible and easy for them
over again
• They have a short attention span
14 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
15. Show your gizmo doing what it does - because you might 3. Make sure you get a business card so that you get their
not be able to explain it with words name spelled right. Before the interview, I usually just turn
on the camera and say, “can you spell your name and give
Provide content for your website, blog and social sites
your title and company name?”
4. Always start by introducing the topic of the video.
Video Ideas: 5. Introduce the speaker on camera before asking the
• Interviews with industry experts questions and thank them on camera when the interview is
• Direct messages your prospects or clients done.
• Customer testimonials
6. Do not assume that you will be comfortable or can “wing
• Roundtable discussions (industry experts, clients, business
it” in front of the camera. I’ve seen really knowledgeable and
owners)
passionate people who, when the camera is rolling, cannot
• Interviews with your employees
put a coherent sentence together. If necessary, you be the
• Demonstrations of your products
“Producer” and have someone else ask the questions.
Get your videos on your home page and link to your videos
from inside your emails. This will help get your information 7. Don’t ask “yes or no” questions. Ask open-ended
out there and make it easy for people to pass it along. You questions that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no,
can also put a link in your advertisements or send a prospect and if you can, send your interviewee a list of questions in
a video that addresses their concerns. advance.
OK, so how do you do it? You can find great editing
software for under $100. See my
Don’t be intimidated by the process; try it, and be willing to
demonstration of making a quick
make mistakes. Sure, polished professional videos present
video for YouTube, visit our blog at
us in a great light, and if you can afford it, go for it. Others can
think.blytheco.com/videotips
disagree, but my opinion is that right now, the expectation
is lower. We’ve done videos with web cams or lower quality
video. Get started now, get better later. Here are some tips:
1. You can use a cheap camera to get your feet wet,
(seriously, even try your iPhone). You
can upgrade later as you find out
how this will be working for your
company.
2. When interviewing, have
your questions prepared ahead
of time and your topic decided.
But be prepared to go off-topic
if your interviewee goes in an interesting or unexpected
direction.
Marketers are increasingly turning to making short videos to as a relatively easy way to dramatically
enhance credibility, sell products and services and provide valuable information to their prospects and
clients. Video has impact and is compelling - most importantly your competitors are doing it more and
more.
With a little time a little money and a little preparation almost anyone can do it, and the payoff is huge.
Now smile and put your best video forward.
15
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
16. COVERSTORY
a C
e di
M
an
ow Social
W o rk
by Alicia Anderson
H
Pam Montgomery, Owner and President
Chukar Cherries
F
rom orchard to harvest to manufacturing to Pam now says customers are “absolutely” engaging
shipping, Chukar Cherries owns the complete with them online on a daily basis. Their blog, Facebook,
process of offering delicious fruit treats from and Twitter streams are getting the attention of new
their Prosser, Washington location. customers every day. Below is our interview with Pam
with more information about how they got started,
They make their own food – with fewer companies how they approach social media and the benefits they
doing that now (most have a big company produce are seeing.
the food and just package it themselves), Chukar
is understandably proud of their work. They like Many companies are concerned about precious
explaining what they do and how they do it, in real- company resources being used in social media with
time. no immediate benefit. But, as Pam says, “The world is
changing – we know communication and how people
Pam Montgomery, Owner and President of Chukar buy, meet and talk is evolving – I don’t want to NOT
Cherries, recognized that social media could help get a ride on that carriage!”
them tell those stories, and engage with customers.
The company has always rewarded and encouraged How did you decide who in your company would
customer feedback – social media just makes it faster be responsible for social media? It’s a team effort.
and easier. We did hire a point person for our social media
effort – Beth is very smart, a writer and editor. She’s
16 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
17. curious, which is important, and she is a good person, so Any to-dos or helpful hints you would recommend to
her authenticity comes through. We spent a lot of time with small businesses starting a social media program?
her to ensure a good match for our brand. Be yourself. Talk to your fans rather than hard-selling. Ask
My role is to be sure the identity and brand of our company lots of questions.
comes through. It took some time to articulate that identity
- it’s not the easiest thing to do for me. Get a college intern. College students are good social
media experts – they were raised on computers and it’s
At first I was the only supporter of a social media initiative. natural to them.
Others in the company thought there weren’t enough
time, money, and personnel for it. It took a lot of time Take it slow – it can be a process of getting up to speed.
to get everyone to buy in – but now the team is eager to Technology companies are developing roadmaps to make
participate. Everyone sees the importance and benefits it easier, but those are more about nuts and bolts. Focus
now. on developing your voice, and knowing your customers.
Define what your message should be.
Now it’s fun, largely because there’s immediate feedback.
And I like the discipline it brings to the business. Don’t look to “normal” channels to help – marketing and
PR departments might not know how to be supportive or
What’s your approach with your posts? Our goal is helpful.
to engage, build loyalty, strengthen the brand, integrate
social media to our other PR and marketing efforts – and What are the challenges of social media at Chukar
of course to grow sales! We do that by working as a team Cherries? The “real-time” quality of social media is both
to be sure the voice remains authentic. Social media is like a benefit and challenge. You have to constantly evaluate
“being naked” - you can’t fake authenticity. what you’re doing.
The voice should be consistent even though the person What are the benefits of being active on social media?
behind it may change – our voice is conversational, warm, It lets us hang out with our customers in our blue jeans--we
with enthusiasm and passion for the business. And it must get to be ourselves with them. Social media gives us a bead
be honest – if we don’t know the answer, we say so and find on who our customers are, what they enjoy and allows us to
out. We also must follow-through with questions that come interact with them in something close to real-time. It also
in to us. gives our customers a chance to give us valuable feedback.
Do you have an editorial calendar for social media posts? I’ve noticed that fans are particularly receptive to posts that
Yes. We have a plan created a year out, and then review and reflect their values. We had a very good response to a post
revise at three months out and again at one month out. We honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and to one talking about
have a calendar with integrated marketing activities for B2B “Stand with Japan,” a ceremony put on by the National
and B2C, including other PR and marketing items like our Cherry Blossom Festival showing solidarity with Japan in
regular newsletter. the wake of the tsunami.
Which social media platform outlet do you find most You can (and should!) find Chukar Cherries online at:
useful? Facebook. Least useful? Twitter. www.chukar.com
How often do you try to post? On the blog, once a http://blog.chukar.com/
week. For Facebook and Twitter, at least daily. www.facebook.com/ChukarCherries
http://twitter.com/ChukarCherries
Did you model yourselves after anyone else online?
I choose not to look at competitors’ social media. It makes it
easier for us to be authentic that way, if we aren’t influenced
by others. The point is to be yourself and tell YOUR story.
I do look at other successful bloggers – people who I would
want to know, or who I feel like I do know. Some of the blogs
that have inspired us are: 101cookbooks.com, heavytable.
com, and smittenkitchen.com. Some companies that we
see doing an excellent job with Facebook are Food &
Wine, Food Network, Pike Place Market and the Tri-Cities,
Washington page.
17
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18. BOOKREPORT
by Geni Whitehouse
W ith all of our focus on technology and tools, we tend to forget about the things that make us uniquely human - our ability
to connect, to make choices, and to share. These authors provide insight for businesses seeking to apply technology that
improves the human experience of the future.
The Most Human Human: What talking with computers teaches us about
what it means to be alive | Brian Christian
Author Brian Christian takes on the world of Artificial Intelligence and along the way raises plenty of
questions like: “Why do computers get computationally faster but no faster to use?”, “How can voice mail
systems be improved?”, and “How does a computer win at Jeopardy?” In his fascinating quest for answers
that will help him win the Turing test (a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior), Brian shares
insights that can help businesses better meet the needs of their human audience. He gains insights equally
from brain research and leading chess champions. By the end of the book, we are hopeful that businesses
of the future will spend their time helping humans leverage technology so we are free to spend more time
making judgments, exploring, discovering, creating, and ultimately building long-term relationships.
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Thaler and Sunstein offer an enlightened perspective on human decision making. Their mission is to
help people make decisions that are inherently good for them – an approach they call “Libertarian
Paternalism.” They explain basic human behavior when it comes to choice and offer simple, elegant tips on
providing choices that are likely to result in desired outcomes. They offer suggestions that can be applied
in a number of areas – from getting people to sign up for 401(k) plans to choosing healthier food in the
cafeteria line. They compare results from opt-in versus opt-out programs and explain how to apply their
research without raising social or political objections. The book exposes a world of “choice architecture”
which promises to have far-ranging impact on businesses that hope to nudge their employees or customers
towards decisions that are in their own best interest.
the mesh : Why the future of business is sharing | Lisa Gansky
Gansky’s book turns our view of markets and products on its ear. In a world of “meshed”
businesses, tangible products will be built to last and designed for universal repair. Businesses
will create products that can be shared, tracked and managed on mobile networks.
And these products will be marketed primarily by word of mouth on
social networks. The virtues of ownership will be supplanted by a take-
only- what- you-need, use-only-when-you-need-it mentality with an
emphasis on long-term sustainability. The book gives you more than 1,000
examples of mesh businesses that are already up and running including
Zipcar, thredUP, and Kickstarter. Businesses of every variety need to pay
attention to this new way of serving an increasingly mobile and
technology savvy consumer seeking high value products without
the hassles of ownership and the high cost of waste.
18 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
19. The goal is for you to Geni Whitehouse
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19
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
20. INDUSTRYNEWS
TOOLS YOU CAN USE
by Cortez NaPue
N
ow that Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (among others) have catapulted social media
into a huge ever-booming industry, one would expect the recent influx of third-party
social media software and companies. Many of these software applications offer
the ability to monitor social media activity and generate leads, while others provide methods
of audience engagement. With Wal-Mart recently acquiring Kosmix, Salesforce acquiring
Radian6, and YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen recently buying Delicious and
tap11, not only are social media tools in obvious high demand, so are the companies that
develop them.
With so many tools out there, finding the right one can be like finding a needle in a haystack (or is it
tweetstack?). It’s important not to feel as though you need to use every social media tool out there as
there is a lot of overlap between them with many offering the same or similar features. Here are some
options to choose from as organized by their most prominent features:
Inbound Marketing and Lead Generation
Many small-to-mid-sized businesses will (and already have) find solace in Hubspot’s
inbound marketing platform. On average, small businesses do not have
designated marketing teams and often have to outsource their marketing
tasks. Hubspot is a one-stop shop for many of your inbound marketing needs,
offering tools for:
• Lead Generation and Lead Nurturing
• Landing Page Management and Tracking
• Web analytics
• Content Management
• SEO Tools
• Social Media Monitoring and Engagement
• Blog Management
Hubspot also integrates with virtually any CRM or e-Commerce system. Users
will also be astonished by Hubspot’s unparalleled training and education
services. Hubspot offers 1:1 monthly coaching, training sessions, access
to learning center tips and documents, and even help with marketing plan
development. Hubspot also publishes free webinars, whitepapers, and blog
articles on a regular basis. Hubspot really works with you to make sure that
you not only understand their products, but marketing as a whole.
Monitoring the Twitterverse and Beyond: Audience Engagement
TweetDeck is a platform that allows you to view and respond to activity across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, mySpace,
Foursquare and more in real time. Anyone hoping to have a strong presence in social media communities can strongly
benefit from this type of product. Tools like TweetDeck and similarly, HootSuite, allow users to easily engage fans,
20 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
21. followers, and friends. You can also disseminate videos, overnight. Stay up-to-date with the ‘Sentiment’ section, which
photos, and other content across several platforms with the includes sentiment trend over time that allows you to monitor for
spikes of positive or negative posts and a snapshot of the three
touch of a button. With TweetDeck you can: most recent positive and negative posts.
• Use your TweetDeck Account to add all of your social network • Demographics: Find out more about the authors of social media
accounts in one go content with our demographics section. Receive a breakdown of
social traffic by gender, age, location and more.
• Integrate LinkedIn for your professional contacts
• Influencers: Who are the most important members of your social
• View YouTube videos within TweetDeck, and record and share
conversation? This section gives you a breakdown of the top
video clips though TwitVid
influencers from different media channels such as Twitter, news
• Retweet Twitter style - or your style sites, blogs, forums, videos etc.
• Manage conversations with @replies and direct messages • Content: Know what people are saying about your brands or
• See what’s currently hot and trending with Twitter Trends and products by looking at top trending topics, most used keywords,
TwitScoop #tags, as well as sample words and phrases from your social
• Manage multiple Twitter accounts easily traffic.
• Locate your friends
• Send longer messages through our new Deck.ly service
• Use our scheduling feature to check-in or send a tweet in the
Looking to spruce up your Facebook
future page? Check out these awesome apps:
• Add, create and manage Twitter Lists
• Use the Global Filter to remove unnecessary tweets by account, RSS Graffiti: RSS Graffiti periodically checks the RSS/Atom
service or hashtag feeds that you specify and posts any new entries it finds to
• Add networks that use a compatible Twitter API, like WordPress the Facebook Walls that you specify. You can get any feed
and Tumblr written on any wall (Facebook Profiles, Fan Pages, Groups,
• Avoid Twitter spam with TweetDeck’s spam button. Events and Application Profile Pages). In fact, you can
even have multiple feeds to multiple walls. You choose the
combination.
Monitoring the Twitterverse: Social Media
SlideShare: SlideShare is the world’s largest community for
Metrics and Analytics
sharing presentations. You can: share presentations and
A great tool to use to analyze social media activity is Radian6. documents with your Facebook network, upload portfolios,
Radian6 is often marketed to larger corporations. Radian6 PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, college lessons, etc.
provides in-depth metrics on specific topics, conversations, Formats supported include: ppt, pps, pptx, odp, pdf, doc,
or industries in real time. With this cloud-based software, you docx, odt, Keynote, and iWork. The SlideShare app is also
can see what is currently trending across virtually any online YouTube compatible and allows for direct webinar creation.
social space including: blogs, forums, online communities, If you’re not an avid Facebook user, the application is also
Facebook, and Twitter. available for LinkedIn.
Essentially, with Radian6, you are able to measure the Buddy Media: Buddy Media is one of the hottest Facebook
ubiquity of certain topics and compare them. This can be platforms available right now. They can do almost anything
important when determining relevant conversations and -- host contests, create video galleries, and provide user
brand mentions, insertion opportunities, or when gauging analytics.
the current sentiment of your audience and industry. Radian6
Wildfire: Wildfire is the most popular way to run a promotion
is very much about understanding consumer sentiment and
on Facebook. They offer a thorough suite of apps that
how your brand fits in. Here are some of its amazing features:
allow you to easily set up contests, sweepstakes, and offer
• Volume: Learn everything you would want to know about the coupons.
amount of conversation surrounding your topic. This includes
share of voice and share of conversation, a graph of volume
Payvment: Why direct your customers to Amazon when they
trends, a breakdown of volume by media type and Insights
information such as top sources. can buy your product on Facebook? Payvment makes it easy
• Sentiment: The way people feel about brands can change
to set up an online store on your page.
21
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
22. INDUSTRYNEWS
by Susan McLain
A marked decrease in sales and use tax income over the past few years, compounded
by overall budget shortfalls, has caused states to focus on ways to collect additional
revenue. To this end, states are changing sales tax laws and regulations to broaden the
definition of nexus, increasing the number of audits and decreasing
exemption qualifications.
This environment requires businesses to be • Increased audit activity in the states;
even more diligent in keeping accurate sales • Lack of skilled staff with tax domain
tax records including: expertise;
• Tracking and applying correct rates • High cost of negative audit results;
according to product taxability, jurisdiction • Mandates to improve organizational
and sourcing rules for each state where productivity.
there is liability. In order to achieve Best-in-Class performance
• Easy access to exemption certificates and the benefits associated with sales tax
and proper association with non-taxed compliance, three steps were cited as “must-
transactions. do:”
• Ensuring timely filing and remittance along
with appropriate registration for sales tax • Automate workflow from tax preparation
liability. to remittance.
Keeping diligent in these areas can help • Enable centralized management of tax
reduce your risk of exposure to sales tax information.
audits and enable you to respond rapidly to • Establish standardized procedures for
any inquiries from state authorities. It’s been managing government
estimated that for every $1 of sales tax error, audits.
When seeking an automated solution
the cost to fix the error exceeds $50 when Automation using a cloud-
that supports best practices, companies
using manual processes. This estimate is very based tax management service
should look for a product that provides:
modest and does not take into account the reduces costs by providing a
cost of lost staff productivity and customer solution that is scalable to the • Thorough tax analysis of state rules and
dissatisfaction when overcharged. needs of the business. A full- regulations
lifecycle automated solution • Accurate calculations based on sourcing
BEST PRACTICES will include tax calculation, rules, jurisdiction and product taxability
exemption certificate
In a 2010 Aberdeen Group survey, responses • Exemption certificate management for
management and filing and
showed companies that implemented Best- non-taxed transactions that includes:
remittance services.
in-Class sales tax compliance practices
• Digital collection of certificates
experienced a decrease in audit penalties and Learn more about best • Easy accessibility
fines as well as in the time spent addressing practices and automation
tax errors. • Certificate to customer and
of the sales tax compliance
transaction association
process at www.avalara.com.
Driving factors for companies to adopt • Reporting capabilities
effective sales and use tax management were
• Full sales tax cycle support with filing
identified as:
and remittance of returns
• The need to comply with regional and • Easy integration with ERP solutions
jurisdictional regulations;
22 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
23. INDUSTRYNEWS
Set up a company Set up a blog with If you are selling to
Facebook page and relevant articles and businesses or busi-
ask your customers commit to posting ness people, get
and friends to “like” yourself and your
new content at least
company listed on
you. three times a week.
LinkedIn, and make
sure that your em-
ployees are listed
under your company.
Top three things you MUST DO
to get started in Social Media
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Keep an eye on our blog (think.blytheco.com) for
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Social Media Makeover from Blytheco.
24. CUSTOMERRELATIONSHIPS
SALES and social media
S ocial media – it’s not just for marketers anymore. The age of logging onto Twitter or Facebook
to tell someone that your cat snores in his sleep is not obsolete, but in the past. There is a
trend emerging where departments outside of the scope of marketing are beginning to use social
media to complete certain tasks. Think Twitter is used only for people with opinions to share or
organizations with agendas to promote? Think again. With the right hashtag (scan the
QR code to the right or go to ‘think.blytheco.lcom/headlines’ for more info on how
to use hashtags on Twitter), you could easily have a job posting up and searchable in
minutes. Need a phone to provide “real” customer service? In the Stone Age, perhaps,
but more and more customer service centers are researching customer social activity
and public conversation trends in order to better (and perhaps more
compassionately) service people and establish rapport. Sales teams, too, are
now using social media in order to find leads, to maintain relationships
with current clients, and to gauge the climate of opportunity.
Social Media has evolved from its humble beginnings of digital
fraternizing and marketing into an application that customer service,
human resources, and, sales teams can take advantage of in order to
enhance their performance.
SELLING know about their prospects, the more effective they
are in identifying and closing sales opportunities.
SOCIALLY Simply put, it pays to listen. This basic concept is the
centerpiece of leveraging social media to support
Are You Listening? sales. Sales departments can use the same tools
As any sales person will as marketing teams to monitor and respond to
tell you, the more they activities occurring in the socio-sphere, and then
identify opportunities that will enhance their account
strategies and on-going activities. Check out “Social
Media Tools You Can Use” on Page 20 to find out
more about social media “listening tools.”
by Cortez NaPue
24 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
25. In this day and age, monitoring the social web is fundamental methods to socially share your content or that link to your
to any social media marketing or sales approach, however, social media websites. This could help spread the word
where the marketing and sales departments need to about the e-mail’s subject matter and provide a way to
focus their resources differs significantly. Marketing tends organically market sales team initiatives.
to monitor keywords, phrases and activities that provide
insight on brand awareness and sentiment, which is Empowering the Individual Salesperson
less actionable for sales people. Contrarily, the sales Sales agents need to know that they can share or promote
department should create and monitor Key Sales Indicators company content. Giving them this ability is a great way to
(KSIs) to locate information that is specifically relevant in the market your brand and promote your business. For many
sense that it points to a prospective customer and indicates organizations there is a large gray area that surrounds
where they are in the decision process. KSIs indicate a clear company social media use. As such, a
need, interest or evaluation of a product or service, though prerequisite for this is drafting a corporate
they can be harder to find. social media policy that outlines what all
For example, a prospect may be considering switching employees -- not just the sales team -- can
to a new vendor by expressing their dissatisfaction with a and cannot do (Scan the QR code to the
current vendor on competitive forums, which can easily be right for more info on developing a Social
elicited by enabling real-time keyword analysis notifications Media Policy or find it at ‘think.blytheco.
“
with social media monitoring software like Radian6, com.’)
Tweetdeck, or tap11. A sales team can monitor these
forums and third-party support blogs on Another way to empower the
a continual basis and remain in sync with individual salesperson is to
their community or industry. Then, when Social Media has create content for ideation
armed with knowledge of the prospect’s
specific pain points, the sales person
evolved from its platform such as a blog,
Facebook page, or LinkedIn
can effectively contact the prospect with
relevant solutions suited to their needs.
humble beginnings group. An ideation platform
can be any kind of platform
of digital fraternizing that fosters feedback to
Empowering your E-mail
The initial step in leveraging social and marketing into help improve the product
or service being offered by
media for sales initiatives is to integrate
the sales staff’s contact databases with
an application that your brand. Sales agents can
write blog articles, respond
their social media networks. Whether
managed through a single client
customer service, to lead inquiries in online
communities, or examine
application (such as Outlook) or a human resources, KSIs across several platforms.
sales automation application (such as
SalesLogix), a sales person can easily and, sales teams can Sales agents are in a unique
create a single view of their contacts.
Combining contacts and social networks
take advantage of position in that they have a
direct link to customers and
allows for a more unified approach when in order to enhance prospects and are therefore
maintaining communication with clients extremely familiar with the
and/or leads. their performance. most common patterns of
Several tools currently exist to integrate customer feedback. With
contacts and social media networks—including SalesForce. this unique customer insight, sales agents can generate
com’s Jigsaw, Microsoft’s Outlook Social Connector, or relevant and specific content that many clients have an
Gist. Sage SalesLogix has recently added the ability to interest in or have had questions about. The sales agent
integrate your Facebook or LinkedIn contacts as well. Some should then post the content to the respective ideation
key features to these tools include: platform(s) and/or work with the marketing team in order to
use the customer insight for effective messaging.
• The ability to compile all contacts from various sources—
inboxes, address books and social networks—and If your organization employs local/regional sales reps,
incorporate news, status updates and blog posts to provide them with the tools and training that can facilitate
create rich business profiles the creation of locally targeted web content, and then work
• Synchronization of contact data with status updates from with your search team (in-house or agency) to develop a
various networks and recently posted files strategy for optimizing the content to rank for local and
regional keyword phrases. Often, certain facets of this
• Display of a snapshot of recent conversations, meetings strategy can be automated or streamlined in a manner
and shared attachments that allows for optimization across a wide swath of locally
targeted keyword phrases.
Once you’ve done that, you can spice up your e-mail
messages by adding templates or widgets that feature Social Media…not just for marketers anymore.
25
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
26. HUMANRESOURCES
Social Media 102: Business vs. Persona by Cortez NaPue
I
f you’re not yet into social media, you’re not a part of 1/3 of the world’s adult population. According to
the Nielsen Company, the global average time spent per person on social networking sites is now nearly
five and half hours per month (February 2010 data), with Facebook accounting for the majority of
that time. With all of the recent changes and innovations in social media (particularly with Facebook),
that number has surely increased. Some 1 billion people are accessing social media nowadays and it is no
surprise that businesses are quickly following suit. The Forum of Private Businesses reports that 69% of
SMBs (small-to-mid-sized businesses) currently access social media sites, again, with the majority of the
usage coming from Facebook. Among businesses and consumers alike, social media use is becoming more
ubiquitous by the day – however, there are stark differences between personal and company use.
The Intent connected and to facilitate an easy communicative
environment for information sharing. Mark Zuckerberg,
Social networking in business was founded on a founder of Facebook said in 2010, that his initial intent
completely different premise than personal social for creating Facebook was to create a “visual directory in
networking. Businesses identified sites like Facebook, which people with common interests could stay in touch.”
Twitter, or LinkedIn as platforms for marketing and Today, it has morphed into not only a communication tool,
consumer engagement. Soumitra Dutta of the Harvard but literally a way to rate the world. With Facebook, if you
Business Review clarifies the reasons so many businesses come across something that you’re interested in on the
have joined the social media bandwagon, saying social web, you can ‘Like’ it or share it with a touch of a button.
media sites “provide a low cost platform on which to On Twitter if you like what you see, you can retweet it.
build your brand, allow you to engage rapidly and Every time you like, share, or retweet something, you
simultaneously with peers and customers, and they give are essentially boosting its popularity on the internet.
you an opportunity to learn from instant information and However, you can also attach negative comments to most
unvarnished feedback.” Businesses access social media things shared this way, fundamentally giving what you
to share information, but generally only when it pertains to shared a negative “rating.”
their company or industry. It is not so much about sharing
opinions or thoughts as it is about engaging consumers
Do You Trust Me?
and maintaining customer relationships. The unfortunate reality is that for many businesses, both
public and private, social media is a nuisance and is treated
Personal social networking began with something entirely
as such. The culture of trust is all too frequently absent
different in mind. It began as a way to keep people
for many organizations. Employees are often reluctant to
26 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
27. share information on their company’s behalf businesses requires much more rigor than personal use.
as not to offend any policy. Many employees In the workplace, content disseminated via social media
al
even go as far as blocking their employers in in many instances has to go through an approval process.
hopes that their disseminations will remain The trick to developing a social media policy is to figure
private. This type of behavior more than likely out the perfect balance between too much regulation and
stems from the fear of getting disciplined or in not enough.
some cases even terminated. There have, after
Believe it or not, personal social media use does come
all, been dozens of cases where employees
with its share of policies and regulations, though many
have been terminated for sharing things on
are site-specific. Facebook for instance has taken a
Facebook, including an employee of National
strong stance against harassment of others and posting
Suisse who was fired for accessing Facebook
obscene or offensive material. Most people however have
at home while sick.
no issues with following these guidelines providing for an
With personal social media use, trust is environment of basically-free expression.
inherently given upon acceptance of the
connection. Most people follow, befriend,
The Verdict
or ’Like’ a person/page based on a genuine It is clear that businesses are beginning to master
or common interest. It is easier to trust and consumer interaction via social media and people too
engage with an entity that you have something are pros at communicating with or about businesses. It is
in common with (and who is not responsible much less rigorous and involved when using social media
for your paycheck). personally, and businesses have a lot more to consider
when accessing social platforms. The main issue with
Russ Edelman of CNBC states, “in the corporate
SMB’s and social media lies within the culture of trust.
world, a proactive effort is required to build a
If your own employees are not willing to promote you,
culture of trust; one that allows participants to
consumers will probably have a difficult time doing so as
dip their toe in the social networking pool and
well.
see the benefits that are duly derived.” Some
“
techniques for building trust with social networking in
your business could include recognition of contributions
and/or the inclusion of gaming theory (contests and
group trivia are some examples) to foster a friendly sense The trick to
of competition and to motivate the team.
developing a social
To Regulate or
Not to Regulate? media policy is
Businesses generally have to figure out the
some sort of policy in place
that outlines their expectations perfect balance
of social media use within
the company. These
between too much
policies can often
be restrictive, but
regulation and not
a business must
protect its interests.
enough.
Consequently, social
media use among
27
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
28. HUMANRESOURCES
Sourcing and Interviewing in
the World of Technology
by Donna Baeza
W
hile some industries may still utilize newspaper recruiting and/or a
walk-in kiosk or paper application approach, most employers have
moved far beyond those options to utilizing sophisticated on-line
recruiting solutions. These applications tap into well-known existing job boards
and the recruiting page(s) of an employer’s corporate website. They also tie into
an organization’s HRMS and provide robust analysis and reporting. Just as job
boards such as Monster and Careerbuilder were revolutionary years ago and
changed the way employers sourced candidates, today social media is doing
the same. As it was with job boards, the transformation is both for candidates
and employers, but with a twist. When utilizing social media, recruiting efforts
LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are a few of the more and; (3) identify their education, professional memberships
well known social media sites but there are hundreds of and certifications, etc. all for full viewing. It allows users to
social media sites available today, many with very specific post short snippets of content on a given subject, such as
focuses. LinkedIn, as an example, is a social media site with “I’m attending the upcoming IT Professionals Conference
a focus on professionals from all different industries. It is a in Chicago next week.” It also allows for social media sites
global site that allows users to: (1) post their professional such as Twitter to mirror posts on a user’s LinkedIn account.
experience; (2) have those whom they have worked for, and This allows for double the exposure with half the effort.
with, provide on-line “recommendations” (i.e. references),
28 Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 2011