Sometimes, making the case for social media starts with making the case for listening. If you haven’t seen David Alston’s Top 10 Reasons to listen, or the Next 10 reasons, have a look and I’ll hang out while you do.

Back? Okay, good.

So here’s an interesting perspective that a friend and I were discussing the other day.  Making the case isn’t always about the “why”.  Why is important, and it’s the justification behind what we do. Often, it’s the case that the C-suite needs, because while they’re not steeped in the day to day, they need to understand the rationale behind initiatives.

But the “how” people are equally important. These are the folks in the trenches, day to day, that will be responsible for managing the influx of information you’ll get through monitoring. They’ll also likely be the people that need to answer the “what now” question and figure out what to DO with that information once they have it.

So I’d like to put the question to you, How People. Let’s get into detail about the management of all this…stuff. Here are a few questions I keep hearing:

• Do we have to respond to EVERY brand mention?
• How much time does it take each day to do this?
• What’s the best way to handle negative comments? Ignore or engage?
• How does one person manage all of that information?
• How do we keep track of what happens after someone responds?
• Who should respond to brand mentions? What should they say?
• How will we know if all of this is making a lick of difference?

This is just the start, of course. We’ll tackle some of the above questions in individual posts. But what questions do YOU have about the “how” of listening and brand monitoring? I’d love your feedback.

Photo credit: Claudio Matsuoka

I spent the day at BlogWell yesterday, where Radian6 was a table sponsor. What a cool and interesting way to hear -  straight from the doers themselves – how the big brands are embracing social media.

I got to hear half the presentations that took place in the upstairs room where I was: The Home Depot, Sharpie, P&G, and Molson. They all had some interesting insights, but here are a few nuggets I took away from the discussions:

• Most of the companies had a self-appointed champion that saw the potential for social media because it sparked their personal interest. For instance, in Sharpie’s case, @sharpiesusan is a one woman show that believes in this stuff and is building it – brick by brick – within her company.

• It’s okay to swing and miss. Molson launched an early blog that failed because, in their own words, they didn’t have a champion or much of a strategy. So they pulled it down, took a more careful look at their content and strategy, and started again. This time around, they’re enjoying much more success.

• P&G says to look at social media as bring your customers back into the process, simply by listening to them and valuing their opinion. They’ve become particular fans of the review process, letting customers give feedback on their products (and hey, their request for reviews for Dawn dish liquid netted over 500 reviews, so if it works for dish soap…).  The critical component, however, is the company responding to the customers so they know they’ve been heard.

• Social Media is “all in” in the sense that once you start the dialogue with your customers, you can’t opt out again. Home Depot recognized that once they started their blog and their Twitter work, customers wanted to hear from them. They didn’t say all the right things at first, but they kept up their end of the bargain and stayed in the discussion until they DID hear and understand what their customers wanted from them in social media. (Incidentally, that something turned out to be lots of information, not sales offers or discounts or even information about how to buy stuff. Education and information was the name of the game).

• It’s not about perfection. Almost every company that spoke said that they understood the value of social media, but the how was still getting figured out, and that’s ok. They’re trying different things, seeing what works for their business. Trial and error is an inherent part of the process, so they’re figuring out the good and bad along the way.

There was also a brief but super interesting discussion about ethics and disclosure in social media for business. The Blog Council has been doing work to this end to try and frame out some guidelines, and you can find them on their site. According to Andy Sernovitz, the ethics guidelines and checklists have been vetted by several handfuls of Fortune 500 laywers, so even your legal department ought to rest a little easier.

The big takeaway for companies was that you don’t have to have all the answers. Some of them you’ll discover as you go. But the important element is that the social web is growing, not shrinking. The best way to learn how social media will work for you is to start small, pick something to try, and see how it works.

I’d love to hear more about what you’re learning as you try these things out in your business, and what questions or issues are keeping you up at night.

Today, I’ll be attending BlogWell in Chicago along with the fabulous and talented Rich McInnis. Radian6 is proud to be a sponsor of this event, which is put on by the folks at GasPedal.

Why are we going? Because more so now than ever, the real, practical application of social media is critical. We need to be talking about what’s actually working and not working inside the companies across the world that are putting these programs in place and learning – through real experience – how engaging customers through social media presents both rewards and challenges.

We’re looking forward to hearing from brands that are blazing trails in social media and establishing best practices for businesses just now dipping their toe in the water: Allstate, The Home Depot, Walmart, H&R Block, P&G, The Mayo Clinic, Sharpie, and even the US Coast Guard.

Investing in some kind of social media is becoming less and less optional for brands in the Web 2.0 world. But it’s also critical that businesses are taking a hard, practical look at which elements of social media make sense for their business goals, their available resources, and most important of all, their customers.

So we’re headed down into the windiness of the Windy City to learn, absorb, and meet some of the great people we’re fortunate to work with each day in these companies. And we’ll look forward to sharing with you more about what we learn so that you, too, can consider how social media applies to the business you’re working so hard to build.

If you’ll be in Chicago today, please stop by and say hello!

So then. The dust has settled a bit, and I’m getting cozy with my new role here as Radian6‘s Director of Community. It’s no small occasion, not just because it’s a new job to me, but because I think it’s indicative of something bigger and more important that I’m hoping to see in the business world.

Community management is in many ways the first of what I think will be a host of hybrid disciplines that will filter out of the 2.0 era. It’s not customer service, it’s not communications, it’s not brand management or business development. It’s all of those things, but rooted in a very fundamental principle: being accessible to customers and empowered to help make your business more useful to them.

It’s the next step to getting involved with social media as a business, but it’s a critical one that almost needs to happen simultaneously. Community roles provide the human element that completes a healthy cycle of communication from company to customer and back again, all with a real, personalized voice. (After all, what good is talking if you have no accessible and approachable way to listen and respond?)

Just like we’re discovering that the same communication strategies and tactics are evolving alongside business, so too are the roles that have been traditional touchpoints for customers and clients. Silos don’t work anymore (I would actually argue that they never have, but this for another discussion…). We’re all responsible for stewarding our brands, and community roles put customer relationships front and center to doing that well. It’s less about a laundry list of responsibilities, and more about being fluid and flexible enough to learn what your customers and clients need from you, and adapting to that.

But this has a host of challenges, right? How do you scale humans to be everywhere they need to be? What’s the balance of familiarity and professionalism that’s needed to do it just right? How do you keep up internal communication and make sure you’re doing something with what you learn? And most importantly, does this role matter to your customers and if it does, what are their expectations for it?

So let’s hear from you. Let’s talk about what *you* think community management is all about, and what unanswered questions we should be tackling.  Is this an essential role to you, or a glorified buzzword? Why? And how do you see it fitting into today’s business operations?  The comments are yours.

We’re more than pleased today to announce that we have recently closed our series B financing round, completed in December, of just over $6.5M.  This joins with our additional exciting news that Radian6 will also receive up to $2.9M from the Atlantic Innovation Fund which we will use to accelerate R&D in the social media monitoring, engagement and marketing space.

Momentum in the social media space is strong.  Many companies are increasingly adopting social media practices as a new medium for them to connect with customers.  They are discovering new ways to measure their efforts and to monitor their success.  And they are concluding that it’s really about the value of connections, not impressions that truly counts.

Indeed, we are seeing this wave of social media adoption continue to build in 2009 and we’re excited to continue to be a part of this momentum.

Well, it’s Friday again, so why not announce another rockstar joining the Radian6 team.  If you remember, it was just one week ago that we announced that Amber Naslund would be joining us as our Director of Community.  This week we are thrilled to announce that social media marketer, Warren Sukernek, @warrenss, will be joining us as Director of Content Marketing.  We had posted and tweeted this position just before Christmas and had a lot of amazing resumes directed to us (to everyone I say a big thank you!).  I first met Warren at the WOMMA conference in Las Vegas back in 2007.  I’ve always been impressed with Warren’s knowledge of the space, his strategic mind and his focus on the customer.

So what of “Content Marketing”?  Well, I’ve been fascinated with the power of this approach ever since Chris Brogan formally introduced me to the format.  It just makes total sense to approach marketing in this way.  In fact, when Chris and I worked on the Twebinar series last year it was probably Radian6′s first real move in this direction.  Content marketing, to quote it from Wikipedia, ” is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases. In contrast to traditional marketing methods that aim to increase sales or awareness through interruption techniques, content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action.”

And that’s exactly why we are glad to have Warren on the team.  His background brings interactive marketing experience meets social media community knowledge.  Warren gets the subject in depth and has the chops (to use one of Amber’s favorite words) to deliver it in a compelling and effective way.  Watch for lots of new opportunities for our community to interact with valued content this year.  And none to soon.  The social media space is still in its infancy and thus demand for content on how to integrate it into organizational roles and processes is very high.  We are hoping we can lend a hand.

So please join me in a toast – “To Warren – Welcome aboard!”

PS. You can also see Warren’s post on this announcement on his blog here.

If you’ve ever heard of @comcastcares on Twitter then you’ve heard of the guy behind it, Frank Eliason. Comcast has become one of the more well-known examples of a company using social media to listen and respond to customer service requests and inquiries. I’ve hung around with Frank on numerous occasions and I’ve generally seen him glued to his BB or iPhone responding to customers at all hours of the day and night. Talk about a dedicated guy trying to making sure customers are taken care of. And now there is an entire team working with Frank at Comcast to assist with outreach and engagement. Frank has a lot of insights to share and I am thankful I was able to tear him away from his BB for a few minutes to capture his thoughts on video.

“So let’s kick things off, there’s been a lot of talk about the ROI of social media. And in terms of engaging, it appears that there are companies are still debating on whether they should make the leap.”

Response (1:28 min.)

“Some CFO’s might be thinking that an investment in social media during hard-times might be seen as discretionary. Frank, what are your thoughts?”

Response (0:46 min.)

“What do see in the future for Comcast in terms of social media listening and engaging. Is this just the beginning and do you have other things you want to accomplish?”

Response (1:26 min.)

“What about those who say Comcast is a big company in the tech space with lots of customers and online conversation BUT my company only sees a handful of customers discussing online so why should I care about investing in listening and engaging?”

Response (0:42 min.)

“There has been the occasional article talking about a handful of people who question whether companies should be reaching out to consumers who talk about them online. There was an article that mentioned Comcast actually in their discussions. I know that vast majority appreciate the fact that companies make the effort to reach out and since these are public conversations many do it in order to be heard. What are your thoughts on this?”

Response (1:28 min.)

“So what are the results of being there, listening and engaging?”

Response (1:00 min.)

Frank is the Director of Digital Care at Comcast. He’s a great interactive speaker so if you can try to catch him at any number of social media conferences coming up this year. And he’s a heck of a nice guy just to hang out with too. Thanks for the interview Frank.

PS. I also featured on of Frank’s responses in a recent article on social media ROI I wrote for MarketingProfs. Check it out here.

What do you think of Frank’s advice?

* This interview is one of a number of interviews done with various leaders in social media at the MarketingProf’s Digital Mixer in Arizona at the end of October. The theme of the interviews was around why social media is a smart investment for any marketing, PR or community support professional, regardless of the economic climate. Thank you to all those who agreed to be interviewed. Sorry it took me so long to get the edits done

Rohit is able to share wonderful stories on why companies need to be taking social media seriously.  His book, Personality Not Included, is packed full of them.  And he’s also a great speaker, having kicked off the conference using a very interactive and engaging style.  A very social media friendly style.  Here’s my interview with Rohit at MarketingProf’s Digital Mixer in Arizona (and he’s got cool sunglasses too

And, oh yeah, Rohit was one of my first interviews and the location was less than ideal for sound quality.  I didn’t want to erase the interview because Rohit covered some great stuff.  Sooooo, I want you to close your eyes and imagine you are at a Zamfir concert (background music on the hotel speakers).    Ok, now imagine a sandstorm blowing through like the one in The Mummy with Brendan Fraser. Are you there now?  Perfect, let’s start the interview.

“So Rohit, companies are looking to figure out whether social media spending is something discretionary or if it should be core to their marketing strategies.  How should they figure this out?”

Response (1:28 min.):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tiqjY9pMRQ

“People have become used to thinking about marketing in the traditional sense.  They are focused on how I reach millions of people.  So then the option of using social media to reach potential consumers comes along and they ask, how can I scale this?  Thoughts?”

Response (2:19 min.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVRwte5gsFA

“Imagine the possibilities of brands taking say, 10%, of their million dollar media spends and allocating it to hiring a team to listen and engage in social media.  That could be a great way to get scale wouldn’t it?”

Response (1:27 min.):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xwueUsb1jk

Rohit is the Senior VP of Digital Strategy & Marketing at OgilvyPR (Note: Radian6 is proud to be working with OgilvyPR on a global scale) I was fortunate to be one of the lucky ones to attend Rohit’s book signing as well just after the Mixer finished.  If you haven’t already, pick up a copy of his book on Amazon.  And thanks again for the interview Rohit as this was the second time in one year.  Chris Brogan and I had a chance to interview Rohit previously as part of the Radian6 Twebinar series last summer.

What do you think of Rohit’s advice?

* This interview is one of 15 interviews done with various leaders in social media at the MarketingProf’s Digital Mixer in Arizona at the end of October.  The theme of the interviews was around why social media is a smart investment for any marketing, PR or community support professional, regardless of the economic climate.  Thank you to all those who agreed to be interviewed.  Sorry it took me so long to get the edits done

As many of you already know Chris knows a lot about the power of social media.  He’s living proof, as the Chris Brogan brand was built on a solid foundation of online word of mouth.  And not only is he infinitely knowledgeable but he’s also a hell of a nice guy.    Here’s my interview with Chris at MarketingProf’s Digital Mixer in Arizona.

“Chris, regardless of economic times, why is social media a smart thing to invest in as a marketer?”

Response (54 seconds):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLmCdk9ho_I

“Tell us about the prickly subject [witty repartee ] of social media and why people are taking it seriously enough?”

Response (1:48 min.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSOWFDeVAog
“Even for those market segments where they don’t yet have a large percentage using social media, Google is still somewhere that they use.  It only takes a small handful of influential bloggers in space to say something that lands them on a brand’s Google search results.  Everybody searches.  Thoughts?”

Response (1:32 min.):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4set_GLDb78

“Finally, what are some of the excuses you hear out there for why executives are not moving forward with social media initiatives and what are some of the comebacks for these excuses?”

Response (1:10 min.) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tSoS_yg0Ok

BTW, Chris recently became president of New Marketing Labs, a new social media agency. He also runs the New Marketing Summit events with CrossTech Media.  I was very fortunate to work closely with Chris on the Radian6 Twebinar series last summer using a “Twitter meets video webinar” format that we created together. Thanks Chris.

What do you think of Chris’s advice?

* This interview is one of 15 interviews done with various leaders in social media at the MarketingProf’s Digital Mixer in Arizona at the end of October.  The theme of the interviews was around why social media is a smart investment for any marketing, PR or community support professional, regardless of the economic climate.  Thank you to all those who agreed to be interviewed.  Sorry it took me so long to get the edits done

(photo: Amber Naslund, @ambercadabra – photo by David Alston)

To say we are excited about Amber joining us would be an understatement. Please read on.

It was just before Christmas when we decided to post two new roles at Radian6, with one focused on community outreach.  The interest in the role was tremendous (thanks to all who reached out to us).  With just a couple of tweets from us the news spread fast and by the next morning we have over 600 visits to our job posting page and numerous resumes from some amazing candidates.

Radian6 owes a lot of it’s success to it’s wonderful community.  From numerous blog posts to fastastic shows of support on Twitter the community has carried us to places we never would have imagined.  And for that we are humbled and truly grateful.  We’ve always maintained that we should be very accessible to our community (while we are no Zappos yet we have at least 28 active Twitter accounts – which I will include at the bottom of this post if you’d like to connect with any or all of us.)  And not want to stopping there we aim to bring more to the community.

As some of you know Amber has been a valuable part of our PR, marketing and community efforts over the past 6 months.  I first met Amber via a Plurkshop we held where I got to talk about social media monitoring and Amber volunteered to miraculously boil down the one hour and 600+ plurks into a great summary post.  I knew then that I’d love to find a way to join forces and work on a number of our projects together.  And we did, being one of the lucky ones to get some of her precious time as a client of her successful consulting firm.

Amber is well respected for her knowledge of the social media space, a wonderful friend and supporter of the community and a blast to work with.   We are totally thrilled and humbled that she decided to join the Radian6 team.

So please join us as we sing out at the top of our lungs – “Welcome to Radian6, Amber” 

UPDATE:  You can read Amber’s post on her new role here.

Amber joins our team of Twitteraholics (well some of us more than others perhaps

Radian6 Twitter accounts

http://twitter.com/radian6
http://twitter.com/ambercadabra
http://twitter.com/davidalston
http://twitter.com/lebrun
http://twitter.com/cdnewt
http://twitter.com/tweetrich
http://twitter.com/jcarr
http://twitter.com/marcwhitchurch
http://twitter.com/CraigComeau
http://twitter.com/nbreau
http://twitter.com/briandunphy
http://twitter.com/andreatarrant
http://twitter.com/coryhartlen
http://twitter.com/barrypope
http://twitter.com/huggard
http://twitter.com/mbrewer13
http://twitter.com/TomHasselman
http://twitter.com/andymccann6
http://twitter.com/reubenator
http://twitter.com/nigelorfei
http://twitter.com/genevason
http://twitter.com/leesaarobertson
http://twitter.com/r6greg
http://twitter.com/chrisramsey
http://twitter.com/Twebinars (used during events)

6Consulting (Radian6 agent in the UK)
http://twitter.com/6consulting
http://twitter.com/JulieBurgess

Motoring and travel organization will engage with nationwide members to gain insight into relevant community issues.

Orlando, Florida (PRWEB) January 9, 2009 – AAA, the nation’s largest leisure travel and motoring organization, has implemented the Radian6 platform to better connect with their more than 51 million members and strengthen the AAA brand across the web.

Radian6′s social media monitoring platform gathers real-time-as-discovered information from across the social web, including blogs, video sharing sites, boards and forums including LinkedIn Answers, and emerging media such as FriendFeed and Twitter.

Social media provides AAA members and consumers with a powerful opportunity to make their opinions and experiences known. We are actively engaged in listening and responding to those on the Web who are talking about AAA

“Social media provides AAA members and consumers with a powerful opportunity to make their opinions and experiences known. We are actively engaged in listening and responding to those on the Web who are talking about AAA,” explains Janie Graziani, AAA’s manager of new media and technology. “To do this better, AAA is using Radian6 to provide insight into who is talking and what kind of impact they are having in their online communities. In addition, AAA is able to track issues of interest to members, such as transportation infrastructure and senior mobility, and become involved in conversations which, logically, AAA should be providing information about.”

“The fast moving nature of the web means that conversations about a company can get fractured and splintered across several channels. For example, a brand mention may start on a forum, and carry to a blog, then to Twitter,” says Radian6′s CEO Marcel LeBrun. “With Radian6, companies can better connect the dots online between these points of dialogue. Not only can they get a holistic view of how the conversation unfolds, but they can choose appropriate places to engage with their customers and provide a valuable connection with the brand.”

The Radian6 software also allows users to focus their analysis and results on a specific set of sites or sources on the web, or exclude specific sources as needed. These capabilities allow companies to home in on targeted results for a particular issue or topic that’s highly relevant to their community.

“Radian6 helps us discover which social media, such as comments, social bookmarks and on-topic inbound links, are working together to create influence,” continues Graziani. “By learning who is leading the discussion in our industries, AAA can create more effective and efficient outreach efforts by focusing resources in those areas where they are most likely to have the greatest impact.”

About Radian6 Technologies

Radian6 provides the social media monitoring platform for marketing, communications and customer support professionals. The company’s flexible dashboard enables monitoring all forms of social media with results appearing in real-time as discovered. Various analysis widgets give users the ability to uncover the top influencers as well as which conversations are having an impact online. Visit www.radian6.com for more information.

About AAA:
As North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides more than 51 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. AAA clubs can be visited on the Internet at www.AAA.com. News about AAA can be found at www.AAA.com/news.

Based on your suggestions and feedback, we have recently added more new features to the Radian6 Dashboard. Please keep the requests coming.

Twitter Metrics
You now have the ability to sort Twitter posts by Twitter metrics in the River of News widget. So you can now quickly and easily view Twitter conversations based on who has the most followers, friends and updates. Twitter profile pics now also appear with each tweet to make it easier to recognize people you may already know.

Forum Replies
Forum Replies are now tracked as their own media type, allowing you to now track forums at the thread level and/or at the individual reply level. You can set the media type at the Topic Profile level and also on the configuration panel on the widgets. In addition, Forum Replies is now included in the influence model – including the influencer EQ and the Influencer widget.

Forum Thread Size
In addition to being able to track Replies, you can also sort Forums based on thread size, allowing to see where the most active conversations are taking place that are mentioning your brand or topic of interest.

Streamlined River of News Sort Curtain
The sort curtain in River of News now has easy-to-use drop-down lists for selecting sort options and workflow filtering options. In addition, the new “thumb tack” on the far right of the curtains allows you to lock the curtain down for even quicker access to your sort and filtering capabilities.

Multiple Simultaneous Post Deletes
Open the sort menu in River of News, click and edit and the widget goes into edit mode allowing you to select multiple posts — even across pages in the River of News — and batch delete posts in a single click.

Additional Vote Metrics
In addition to the existing de.licio.us bookmarks and Digg.com vote metrics, we now include Reddit votes in the Vote metric.