As I see it…

Days of jammed meeting rooms, long lines at bars/nightclubs and hopelessly congested wireless networks are now history – the Interactive part of the annual South by Southwest music/film/tech conference has ended. Hopefully, conference lessons regarding how small/medium-sized businesses can use social media to strengthen their ties to existing customers and connect to new ones will soon be put into practice.

The Splash Media team attending SXSWi has already weighed in for this blog on some of its key takeaways for the week. But Smart Brief On Social Media contributing writer Daley Epstein has a nice roundup of talking points for companies about building customer communities with social media, and how business leaders should get over any initial fears about joining the online conversation.

Other social media news this week:

• Online shoe store Zappos, owned by Amazon, is famous for pulling up its own bootstraps and dedicating resources to customer service. The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Nassauer writes how the company is now using marketing videos starring its own employees talking up their favorite brands of shoes. A key point: when Zappos adds videos to product pages, sales jump.
• Delta Airlines strengthens its industry-first connection with Facebook by now allowing customers to check-in and follow flight status via the social media network.
• New media marketing dictates new ways of measuring return on investment (ROI). That’s the gist of marketing consultant/author David Meerman Scott’s latest post on his WebInkNow blog.

Were you at SXSWi this week? Tell us about your favorite sessions/workshops there, and what you learned regarding social media marketing for businesses. And by all means, have a great weekend!

Source: Splash Media

The Social Media Marketing industry is developing at a ridiculous pace, and many B2B companies are wondering, does the combination of business-to-business and Twitter make sense? Typically the business to business community understands the value of Facebook when reaching out to business contacts, however, show them Twitter and they hesitate a bit. After all, what can 140 characters do for their business?

Actually, a lot. Here are five things to think about when presented with Twitter as part of your B2B social media marketing package.

1. Twitter opens up conversation – Twitter is a very low barrier medium. You can literally start up a conversation with anyone that has a Twitter profile by mentioning them in an update or direct messaging them if they follow. With a simple bio search you can find anyone you dream up from the VP of Marketing for Best Buy Canada to the President of Ohio State.

2. Twitter is a fountain of real-time information – Companies that have active and vibrant communities don’t have to launch an expensive customer survey to get the temperature of their clients and customers. Launching a new product and want a few beta users that might help you spread the word after its release? Positioned well, all of that can be accomplished with a tweet.

3. Google loves Twitter – Google indexes all tweets and includes them in Realtime search results that can be found as an option on the left hand side of all search results.

4. Twitter can drive your website traffic and make you money – Here are a few facts and quotes that show how businesses are making money from Twitter

• In the fall of 2009, Dell sold $6.5 million in U.S. sales just from links posted in Twitter.
• Among senior managers who use social media for business, 41 percent use Twitter, according to a Business.com survey.
• “I keep expecting to see diminishing returns [from Twitter],” says Bill Robb, social media marketing manager at Cisco, “and it just doesn’t happen.”

5. Twitter can improve your customer service budget - Consumers certainly are looking for help on Twitter. 58% of respondents to a USA Today survey said if they had tweeted about a bad experience, they would like the company to respond to their comment. Seeking out and responding to negative comments could solve many problems before they get out of hand.

Do you have any other reasons that business to business companies should be using Twitter?

Source: Splash Media

“As we saw in Egypt, we know it can start a revolution. But can social media sell?” That’s the question posed by KPIX-TV anchor Allen Martin this week for his story on social media and businesses, which included Splash Media.

A crew from the San Francisco CBS affiliate showed up for one of our recent Social Media Boot Camps for CEOs in the Bay Area. Martin interviewed Splash’s national social media marketing instructor John Larsen and got his take on how businesses should – and shouldn’t – use platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to connect with customers. Martin also interviewed a Bay Area car dealer and mentioned how social media marketing helped major brands Pepsi and Ford change their minds about Super Bowl advertising strategies.

Source: Splash Media

The restaurant business can serve up success for entrepreneurs – if they make the right connections with customers. Social media is becoming more of a key ingredient for that success, as restauranteurs learn to master Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and YouTube.

Joe Sorge of Milwaukee may be the best example of this trend. Sorge and his wife own four restaurants there, including A.J. Bombers, whose off-the-hook hamburgers were featured in “Food Wars” on the Travel Channel. Sorge has used Twitter and Foursquare to not only bring in new customers and help out non-profit projects, but also to solidify connections with his community.

Sorge is the co-author of “Twitter Works: A Social Media Guide For Restaurant Owners.” He talks to SplashCast host Renay San Miguel about his adventures in new media and his newest project, Kitchen Table Partners.

SplashCast is a video series focusing on social media marketing for small to medium sized businesses. You can subscribe and watch more videos on our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/splashmedialp.

Source: Splash Media

For 360 days out of the year, Austin, Texas is the live music capital of the world. For the five days of South by Southwest Interactive, it takes on an additional title: temporary global capital for technology and digital innovation.

Splash Media has a contingent at the 2011 SXSW Interactive, and its focus has been to seek out presentations and sessions dealing with social media/content marketing and customer/audience engagement.

A couple of conference highlights passed along by our intrepid crew:

• Splash social media managers Michael Witt and Nic Miranda attended the “Flip The Funnel” session led by Joseph Jaffe, president of strategic consultancy Crayon and author of the books “Join The Conversation” and “Life After The 30-Second Spot.” Jaffe’s talk was all about keeping existing customers happy and using them as brand advocates.

  Some quotable quotes from Jaffe included “Retention is the new acquisition,” “Give the megaphone to your current customers,” “Influencers (bloggers, etc.) are not important. Your customers are the true influencers,” and “Marketing is not a campaign – it’s a commitment.”Jaffe said the days of 24-hour response times have gone the way of New Coke. “We are now doing 24-second response times via Twitter.” He also suggests that brands spend at least 33 percent of their advertising budgets on mobile platforms.

• Mouyyad Abdulhadi was impressed with legendary technology maven Guy Kawasaki’s session, “Enchantment,” which is also the name of his newest book. The former Apple chief evangelist and co-founder of Alltop.com defined enchantment as the process of becoming likable and trustworthy, and having the ability to build relationships based on trust and reliability. He then detailed how that elusive quality transferred to customer service models and business relationships.Kawasaki’s top ten ways to be enchanting include “enchanting the people you work for, and enchanting the people who work for you.

If you were at SXSW over the Interactive weekend, please pass along comments on what you thought were some memorable sessions from Austin.

Source: Splash Media