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BELLWETHER
 Get Social




       Volume 2 | Issue 3 | Third Quarter 2011
Overpaying for EDI?
         Signs that you might be overpaying:
          paying a VAN to handle ‘free’ transactions using AS2 and FTP

          unable to use direct communications like AS2 and FTP

          locked into the on-going transaction costs and fees
          of a particular VAN

          separate ‘EDI workstation’ means extra
          hardware/software costs

          staff spends time on manual EDI data entry, importing,
          or exporting to make up for lack of integration

          system requires expensive EDI translator software




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     2     Bellwether Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, and information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Kissinger,
             ©2011 Kissinger Magazine | Third Quarter 2011
                EDI Advantage 2010, Smart Software That Means Business, and associated Kissinger logos are trademarks of Kissinger Associates, Inc. Sage, the Sage logos, and the Sage product and service names
                mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc., or its affiliated entities.
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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
ACOM AD FULL PAGE
                DUE ON JUNE 10




                                                             5
bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
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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                                                           This is a copyrighted publication and
                                                           all articles herein are covered by this
                                                           copyright. Any use of the content for
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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
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
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
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.


                                                                                                                 9
                      bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
                         bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
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
The goal is for you to                                             Geni Whitehouse
fall in love with your                                                  SPEAKER AUTHOR
business again.                                                        CONSULTANT NERD
 Marketing Strategy                                                   She’s been called the “comedian CPA.”
 Marketing Plan and Calendar                                          A self-proclaimed nerd, experienced software
 Campaign Development                                                 executive and former CPA firm partner,
                                                                      Geni Whitehouse has made it her mission to
 Marketing Metrics
                                                                      eliminate boring from the world of presentations.
 Content Development
 Public Relations                                                        STRATEGY
 Social Media                                                            EXECUTION
                                                                         EVANGELISM
                                                                         CONTENT DEVELOPMENT




Begin a process of fun work with
  the purpose of awesome results.


    www.dawnwesterberg.com                                                                            www.evenanerd.com




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                                                                                                                      19
                       bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
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
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
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
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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                       80 or 90 percent!

Following Joanne Black’s proven, referral
marketing system, you’ll discover how to turn
current customers and your myriad contacts
into rich sources of referrals and get qualified
prospects, ready to do business, asking for your
help.

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                                                             Keep an eye on our blog (think.blytheco.com) for
                                                             details about how your company can get your own
                                                             Social Media Makeover from Blytheco.
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
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
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
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
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
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Cut EDI Costs with Affordable EDI for Sage

  • 1. BELLWETHER Get Social Volume 2 | Issue 3 | Third Quarter 2011
  • 2. Overpaying for EDI? Signs that you might be overpaying: paying a VAN to handle ‘free’ transactions using AS2 and FTP unable to use direct communications like AS2 and FTP locked into the on-going transaction costs and fees of a particular VAN separate ‘EDI workstation’ means extra hardware/software costs staff spends time on manual EDI data entry, importing, or exporting to make up for lack of integration system requires expensive EDI translator software Cut Your Costs with AFFORDABLE. AUTOMATIC. ALL IN SAGE ERP MAS 90 AND 200. Affordable Suite of EDI modules for EDI Advantage 2010 is EDI inside your Sage ERP MAS 90 or 200 system. EDI happens automatically and as a result of many standard Sage ERP MAS 90 and Sage ERP MAS 200 processes. Do multi-user EDI at any Sage ERP MAS 90 or 200 workstation, at pricing that competes with—and beats—less sophisticated solutions. LEARN MORE! Get your FREE guide to “5 Ways EDI Advantage 2010 Can Cut Your EDI Costs” today! GET YOUR FREE GUIDE www.kissingerassoc.com/edi5ways Visit Kissinger Associates at Sage Summit 2011 > www.sagesummit.com 2 Bellwether Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, and information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Kissinger, ©2011 Kissinger Magazine | Third Quarter 2011 EDI Advantage 2010, Smart Software That Means Business, and associated Kissinger logos are trademarks of Kissinger Associates, Inc. Sage, the Sage logos, and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc., or its affiliated entities.
  • 3. 90% of spreadsheet budgeting RESULTS IN errors* Budget Maestro® makes spreadsheet errors a thing of the past with budgeting and reporting software designed for SAGE ERP. • Cut budgeting time by up to 50% • Eliminate formula errors • Generate results you can trust • Direct Integration to your SAGE ERP • One Click P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow reporting * PwC study SEE BudGEt MAEStRo in Action, now! tAKE A cALL QuicK touR 800-366-5111 Certified Solution centage.com/budget or visit centage.com © 2011 Centage Corporation. Centage, the Centage logo, Budget Maestro, Planning Maestro, Link Maestro and Analytics Maestro are trademarks or registered trademarks of Centage Corporation. All other brands or products mentioned are registered trademarks of their respective holder(s). All rights reserved.
  • 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 mailing list or to add names to the mailing list, send your request, including name, business name, and mailing address to the above address or to dorif@blytheco.com This is a copyrighted publication and all articles herein are covered by this copyright. Any use of the content for commercial reasons or other form or 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. 9 bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
  • 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 bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
  • 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 fall in love with your SPEAKER AUTHOR business again. CONSULTANT NERD Marketing Strategy She’s been called the “comedian CPA.” Marketing Plan and Calendar A self-proclaimed nerd, experienced software Campaign Development executive and former CPA firm partner, Geni Whitehouse has made it her mission to Marketing Metrics eliminate boring from the world of presentations. Content Development Public Relations STRATEGY Social Media EXECUTION EVANGELISM CONTENT DEVELOPMENT Begin a process of fun work with the purpose of awesome results. www.dawnwesterberg.com www.evenanerd.com COLOR COPIES OF YOUR AD FOR 6 CENTS EACH!* Hey...we’ll even send them to our readers at no extra charge! Advertise in Bellwether... ...it makes ‘cents.’ www.bellwethermagazine.com/ads *Based on 1/2 page color ad sent to our 20,000 plus print readers. 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 Stop wasting your time Everybody Loves a Makeover. calling people who don’t How about a FREE Social Media want to hear from you and Makeover for your business?? boost your close rate to 80 or 90 percent! Following Joanne Black’s proven, referral marketing system, you’ll discover how to turn current customers and your myriad contacts into rich sources of referrals and get qualified prospects, ready to do business, asking for your help. www.nomorecoldcalling.com Keep an eye on our blog (think.blytheco.com) for details about how your company can get your own 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