I have been enjoying using CoTweet for the past couple weeks after pleading for beta access.  As I am the point guy on Gist’s beta program, I try to grant quick access to those who make the effort to reach out or make some noise about the product so was happy that after a couple of tweets I got access from the CoTweet guys.

My Twitter needs focus on the act & engage dimension of the aforementioned listening framework (I will post more broadly on that shortly).

I needed to main things from CoTweet:

1. Manage multiple Twitter accounts through a single interface
2. Some marketing capabilities in the product (list management, analytics, etc.)

CoTweet delivers on both allowing me to set up a couple accounts – @Gist & @RobertatGist in my case and use them together. 

One really cool feature of CoTweet is the ability to write a tweet and schedule it for sending at a later date.  Really helpful if you are promoting something or want to share the same info multiple times over a couple days.

I also like the fact that you can see analytics on the links you share (and can shorten through the interface).  How many clicks, where they clicked from, etc.  Cotweet also allows for searching and capturing query results as an RSS feed – which I can add to my Google Reader for easy review and action.

I look forward to continuing to use the product and to seeing what comes next.  I’m also a fan of Tweetdeck and their most recent release allows for both multiple account management and the ability to post to multiple accounts simultaneously.  It is a slick AIR application vs. Cotweet’s web-based one so we’ll have to see how the cloud vs. the client battle shapes up.

This two part post is about "listening" to what is being said on-line and the more complicated aspects of acting on something once you've heard it. I'll focus on listening first and will follow up with one on action & engagement here shortly.

So, what the heck am I talking about? You may be aware of this thing called the Internet and there are a lot of people on it. Not only are they consuming content, they are creating content with increasing frequency and ease. Yes, this includes Twitter, blogs, blog comments, and everything in between.

It sounds a bit trite at this point but there really is a conversation going on and you need to be listening to it in some way as part of your marketing efforts. It's not just about your product or brand but about what people need, what they are unhappy with, where your competitors are falling down, where a new entrant is eating you alive, or where one hater has decided to make it their mission in life to bring your product or service to its knees.

All of this plays out every minute of every day in as little as 140 characters in a Twitter status update.

A note of caution – it is loud so be prepared to turn the volume down a bit with tools, process and methodology.

Here is what I use and what I would recommend using as a starting point. I am sure there are other tools & techniques including one that might do all of this in one product. If it exists, please let me know.

1. Identify 'where' you'd like to listen – Twitter chatter, Linkedin Questions, news outlets, competitor's websites, blogs, blog comments, etc. I'd suggest anywhere you can although you will get some overlap.

2. Identify what you are going to listen for – keywords can create huge false positives especially if it is a frequently used word….like 'Gist.' One note here is that although unique names are easier for you to listen for, it is also easier for your competitors to keep tabs on you so keep that in mind during your next branding/naming session.
3. An RSS reader is your key interface (I use Google Reader)
4. Use Twitter Search to build searches on Twitter content and select "Feed for this query" in the upper left and drop it into your preferred RSS reader
5. Use Google Alerts and select to receive these keyword alerts as RSS feeds
6. Use BackType to monitor blog commenting content and enter search terms as above one by one and select Feeds->Search Results
7. Use Digg and search for keywords/themes then subscribe to these results as a feed
   

Also, check out Tweetdeck to watch Twitter posts (you can set up search terms in this app by clicking on the magnifying glass in the upper right).  The benefit of Tweetdeck is the ability to act on what you have heard by replying publicly, replying privately, or "retweeting" (sharing) someone's post.  More on action and engagement coming shortly.

This framework should give you pretty complete coverage of the on-line conversation and is a must have in any marketing plan.

I was happy to get an invite from a good friend to attend this event last night in Bellevue.  The speaker was Michael Hilton who is EVP of Marketing at Concur and was the company's founding CEO.  Concur is a great company here in the Seattle area that provides enterprise expense management software and, more interestingly, made the transition from premise-based, perpetual software licenses to SaaS, subsricption-based licenses and lived to tell the tale (although they certainly took their lumps along the way).

Michael and I chatted briefly before the event about the evolution of enteprise marketing strategies and if all the social media hoopla (my word) can lead to measurable results and booked new revenue.  I think we both agreed that you have to be doing something with it and Concur has made it part of their overall marketing mix.

During the presentation, Michael shared some great insights with the group and I wanted to share a few of the highlights:

• Search is the awareness king and their #1 source of leads that lead to new business.  They derive about 2/3 of their traffic from natural vs. paid search
• In 2009, they are 100% on-line for ad spend (no more print advertising).
• They measure their marketing success based on "qualified leads" generated and Sales applies this label based on a defined acceptance criteria
• Big users of webinars preferring scheduled events vs. on-demand content
• Experimenting with Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn
• Doing some really cool things around enabling customer communities and allowing customers to provide feature suggestions and vote on their importance as a community.

If you look at your sales pipeline right now, can you count at least one huge deal that has been there a long time and promises to be the game changer/make your year/validate your business event?

Most sales pipelines (especially those from early stage companies) have at least one large 'deal' that sits there.  The reasons are many and predictable – have not received a yes or no, wants to meet again, still looking for who has budget, project owner changed, re-prioritizing projects due to budget constraints, gone silent, etc.

The bigger the deal, the more important to you, and the longer it sits in the pipeline as a whale but not making any real movement means it will not happen in a time frame that is meaningful to you – this quarter, this year, before funding, etc.  That doesn't mean it won't happen.  It just means it will come together when it comes together if at all.

Chase big deals but be disciplined about measuring progress including having clearly understood desired end states at each step in the sales cycle that signify meaningful progress versus more meetings and email exchanges that provide limited clarity.  Mostly, and it sounds corny, don't put all your eggs in one basket as it rarely works out when and how you imagine.

There are lots of people talking about the value of social media marketing and all the amazing things you can do with it.  As someone who is trying to use these various tools and bending them to meet my needs, I have a suggestion for the three musketeers (Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn) to make life a little easier for those of us trying to use them to reach customers and prospects. 

Please, please give me some type of list management capability.  I have no way of exporting those that have become followers, friends, or fans.  I don't want to spam them, I just want to manage them centrally and know when a new follower/friend/fan signs up or, more importantly, leaves.  LinkedIn apparently allowed a .csv export but has since disabled that functionality.  If this feature exists in any or all and I am being dense, please let me know.

I like the ability to share news, updates, and special offers with these self-selected groups and understand that If I abuse the priviledge of being connected, I will be dropped aburptly so why not give me a way to monitor and manage them?

Oh, and if there is an innovative start up out there doing this, please let me know.  I am a buyer.

I received this in the mail yesterday and felt the need to share it.  Not because I have started my own institution of higher learning but because it really caught my eye.

Talk about a personalized and targeted direct mail piece from Alumni Originals.  Using my last name in the products shown.  Mass customization for sure.

And, no, I do not plan on buying one but if any of my loyal readers are interested, I'd be happy to get you something.

How do you sell to someone that doesn't want to be sold to?

If you haven't asked yourself this question and you work in sales, marketing, or business development it is time to embrace the new reality.  The leverage in sales has been turned on its head and if you have something to sell you need to know that the person or persons you are contacting are better informed and have more information available at their fingertips (via a search engine) than ever before.

Prospecting still matters but the way to do it is changing.  Cold calling can make you feel better in that you are doing "something" but it might not be the something that matters.  Give them a reason to learn more about you especially if they are actively seeking an answer to whatever problem your product or service addresses.

How do you do this?  This is about more than just cranking up the PR engine.  This is about projecting your expertise not your marketing message, building a strong customer reference base, and actively nurturing and enabling it.

Think I'm kidding?  Check out this post by Tony Wright.  Tony runs a really cool company called RescueTime here in Seattle and is also a small businessman.  My favorite part:

Well said Tony.  If you sell or enable selling for a living, print this quote out and put it on your wall.  It defines your new selling reality.

It's Friday, the sun is actually out in Seattle, and I thought I would do a post that combines marketing strategy and a NASCAR reference.  What the heck am I talking about?  Drafting.

For those of you that don't know, drafting is used in auto racing to make two cars go faster than one with the second car expending less energy by getting as close as possible to the car in front.  Here's a nice tutorial video on it:

How does this apply to a go to market strategy?  Identify the lead company in your space or the one that is gaining fast on the leaders and draft off of them.  You both will go faster but you expend less energy (ie, money) and can position yourself for the lead with a "slingshot pass" defined by our friends at Wikipedia as:

"The 'slingshot pass' is the most dramatic and widely noted maneuver
associated with drafting. A trailing car (perhaps pushed by a line of
drafting cars) uses the lead car's wake to pull up with maximum
momentum at the end of a straightaway, enters a turn high, and turns
down across the lead car's wake. The combination of running downhill
and running across the zone of lowest aerodynamic drag allows the
trailing car to carry extra speed and pass on the inside of leader."

No, just because I am from the South I am not a racing fan.  I did, however, attend a race many years ago and suggest everybody put it on their list as it is a uniquely American experience. 

This just seemed to fit with my thinking today.

Great post by Eric Norlin entitled "An Open Letter to Technology Startup Marketers"

Eric and I have chatted on the phone a couple times and exchanged emails as he is the guy behind both the Defrag and Glue conferences and Gist is involved with both.  He's a great guy and hits the nail on the head with this post.  Here's a couple of my favorite parts:

And this one (which I have endured in a prior position):

I totally agree with the point above about being comfortable in sales.  Marketing success is viewed best through the sales pipeline.

Here's Brad Feld's post on it as well.

Great stuff Eric.