We talk a lot about the importance of relationship building in social media. To be true, that’s what these mediums allow us to excel at. But there are nuances of relationship building, especially when it comes to that of businesses and their customers, that impact how we all approach our social media program strategy development and execution, and many of those nuances are directly influenced by buyers’ varying needs.

There are some fundamental differences between the needs of B2B buyers and that of B2C buyers that impact how businesses should interact with their customers, and we’re breaking three of those differences down here for you today.

Simple vs. Complex

This is probably the most obvious difference between B2B and B2C needs. For the most part, B2C buyers have a fairly simple purchasing needs that don’t demand extended support from or relationships with a brand. Even in instances in which people stick to a particular brand to fulfill a specific need—say Levi jeans for all their jeans needs—the direct interactions between those folks and brands are quick and shallow.

In the world of B2B, needs are more complex, have an extended life cycle, and generally are those of not just the buyer but also the buyer’s customers. These facets of a B2B buyer’s needs make it imperative that vendors provide extensive, valuable information about their products and services at the very beginning of the buying cycle and remain open to contact from prospective buyers throughout the buying process to answer questions. Post purchase, B2Bs inevitably need to continue customer relationships to assist with product implementation, offer training, and provide customer support.

The complexity of a B2B buyer’s needs demand a higher level of touch with vendors, and thus a higher level of trust. That trust is built through regular contact, valuable information sharing, honesty, and a level of humanness that can only be shown through simple, unscripted interaction.

Emotional vs. Professional

B2C purchases are generally fueled by emotion and basic human needs such as sustenance, shelter, and comfort. Even those basic needs are powered by our emotions and general belief system, which means our buying habits are influenced by brands that resonate with who we are and give us feelings of security and satisfaction.

B2B purchases, on the other hand, are motivated by things like business goals, budgets, and, you guessed it, vendor relationships. To a large extent, there’s still emotion based in that last one, the vendor relationship, but the emotions are driven less by personal security and satisfaction than trust that a particular vendor and its products are best suited to help us reach our business goals.

To that end, B2C companies are tasked with creating a brand and supporting marketing and branding campaigns that reach folks on a personal, emotional level, while B2B companies must create a brand and supporting campaigns and outposts that reach people on a level of competence, expertise, and problem-solving abilities.

General vs. Niche

Tied right in to the emotional and simplistic aspects of B2C buyer needs is the generality of those needs. Personal, emotional needs are rarely obscure — they’re part of the human condition and all of us encounter them. That means the marketplace that appeals to those needs is large and generalized. Sure, there are sub-categories within those markets, but even the most generalized products tend to do the trick, and sometimes we’ll even take those over the more tailored versions because they satisfy more than one need.

On the other side of the spectrum, business goals are often so individualized and specific that the various products needed to help organizations reach those goals need to be just as tailored. That fact means that many B2B vendors exist in a small, incredibly niche marketplace.

While B2C companies have to work hard to stand out in their saturated markets, B2B companies don’t necessarily have that same pressure, and can focus on emphasizing their area of expertise and answering questions within the various social media outposts they own and the communities they’ve sought out and gotten involved in.

These are just a few of the differentiating factors that impact B2B social media outreach. What others can you think of and add here?

As we’ve said before, social media for the B2B world is absolutely doable; identifying how you, as a B2B organization, differ from B2Cs will help you hone in on exactly how you want to use social media to reach your customer and prospective customer base to achieve your goals.

Today’s guest post is the final in a three-part series by Rob Berick, a senior managing director of Dix & Eaton, a communications consultancy that specializes in investor relations. Rob regularly writes on the capital markets and investors relations on his blog and on Twitter @robberick.

For the past two weeks, we’ve been talking about social media in the context of investor relations. We’ve talked about how to determine if social media makes sense for your IR program. We’ve also taken a look at how some companies are using it to reach and engage investors.

Now for the hard part – getting management’s approval.

For many senior leaders, social media and investor relations is an “unholy union” that conjures visions of selective disclosure lawsuits and other breaches of sound corporate governance practices (think: Enron) at the mere mention of the topic.

Frankly, their reluctance is understandable.

In many respects, social media requires a steady flow of new and differentiated content in order to be effective and impactful. To the ears of the senior management, the words “new” and “differentiated” sound a lot like “unstructured” and “unintended” — the types of things that can land them in big trouble.

So, how do you create the buy-in you need within your organization? Here are a few suggestions:

Do your homework. Rather than cataloging which companies are using social media, focus on how these tools could help you achieve programmatic goals (e.g., increase awareness among new investors, improve “customer service” with existing investors, etc.). Remember: you should be counseling your leadership team on how this will help your company, not showing them what “cool” companies are doing.

Be sure the usage of social media tools is clearly delineated in your overarching corporate disclosure policy. In other words, assure leadership that this new activity will be conducted well within the established guidelines for communications.

Make sure there are systems in place to monitor the ongoing conversations – both by the corporation and about the corporation.

Educate leadership on the existing social media conversation about the corporation. Capture examples of the conversation already taking place. That way, together, you can focus on what’s most important – namely, is the corporation safer or more vulnerable having no voice in this conversation?

Practice using the tools internally. Set up a private “beta” system, for internal audiences only, so you can demonstrate over a multi-month period how the tools would be used (and what the content might look like). Not only does such testing help to reduce the concern regarding content and usage, but it also allows you to avoid the risks or bungles that could come during a fast start-up (e.g., how you will handle quarterly “quiet” periods, how you will manage content in advance of major corporate events, how you will address criticism or rumors, etc.).

I truly believe that social media can provide substantial value to an investor relations program – but it requires clearly defined goals and well-conceived content. And, above all else, it requires rigorous oversight of the social media channels to ensure strict adherence to the rules of disclosure for public companies.

Well…before I go back to my world of spread sheets and stock charts, I’d love to know if there are things you’re doing right now on the PR side of the communications ledger that you think are “perfect” for IR applications.

Earlier this month we looked at how some of the larger telecommunications companies in the UK were faring in social media. The levels of engagement as well as the way in which their outreach was received varied considerably from company to company. Generally one would expect companies that are driven by technology, like BT, O2 and Vodafone, to be active in social media, but we wondered how this translated to other industries.

To this end we undertook some research analysing the reputation of ten water and sewerage companies in social media over a three-month period. We found that while OFWAT, the Water Services Regulation Authority, measured the companies on security of supply, customer service and environmental impact, this is largely done through traditional methods. Using our own team of social media analysts we decided to measure the same key areas as expressed and captured throughout social media. Our in-depth Industry Insight Report includes a rigorous analysis of:

• engagement levels amongst the companies
• share of voice
• sentiment towards these companies
• competitor  reviews and;
• key recommendations.

Our Water Industry report includes the following key insights:

• The spectrum of Social Net Promoter Scores (SNPS) was extremely broad. Across the ten companies reviewed the highest and most positively regarded Wessex and Northumbrian scored +56% and +40% respectively and the lowest scored -20%.
• We also found that environmentally conscious programs were of particular interest to social media users and tended to cultivate a positive response.
• Blogs and micro media (predominantly Twitter) were the dominant locations for discussion. However forums were also an important place for exchanges, hosting a significant proportion of negative sentiment towards several companies.
• Evidence of engagement with consumers was low over the monitored period. In fact our research found that customer service issues relating to the companies accounted for the lowest SNPS for all of the companies reviewed.

Our monitoring captured over 2,300 mentions of customer service issues. While such conversations can be controlled and tended to within social media to a good extent if companies were to engage, our research showed that most were noticeably silent.  Although various key players within the water industry might be monitoring social media, they remain disengaged rather than proactive. All of the 10 water companies reviewed scored an SNPS below +20% on customer services, and six scored a negative SNPS. Clearly more attention needs to be given to customer service. Proactive outreach within social media should factor in both company policy as well as future OFWAT assessment.

If this has sparked your interest and you would like to review the research in further detail you can order the full report by contacting info@6consulting.co.uk .

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.” Alan Alda

Every business strives to be creative, an original. It does not matter if your business is targeting individual consumers or businesses. The goal is to differentiate your organization from the crowd and be recognized by your consumers. So, why look exclusively within your industry for the next big idea or movement?

Look outside the box.

An industry that I am constantly looking to for inspiration is the non-profit sector. These organizations have to pull off great feats with little to no money. How is that for a motivator? I am always amazed at the solutions this industry delivers on a consistent basis. Last week, I spoke on a virtual panel with Beth Kanter for the Women Who Tech Telesummit. The people participating in the webinar chat were smart, savvy and added a dynamic layer to the conversation between myself and Beth. Go to the #WWT chatter from 15 September. I guarantee you will find a gold nugget.

Seek exciting voices.

Remember every organization, no matter the industry, B2B or B2C, is made of people. Broaden your horizon and set aside your thoughts about what they do for a living or who they work for and just listen. Get to know them and what they are passionate about. Get a front row seat for how they are putting theory into practice. Listen, learn and then see how you can adapt their ideas and passion to your mission.

Be your own case study.

Can’t find an example of what your organization wants to do? Don’t wait around for someone else to pull off the idea, go out and do it yourself. Be a beacon for others who are standing by the sidelines. Look at this as an adventure. You may stumble along the way, but the journey will make you wiser. Look outside the box to non, profits, government, artists and any other individuals making strides in their spaces…use their spirit to propel you forward and seize the day.

How have you or how are you getting out of your organization’s comfort zone?

One of the key benefits of monitoring the social media activity surrounding your brand, competitors, and industry is that, when done right, you can identify potential customers and foster relationships with them to turn them into actual, long-term customers. If the process of lead generation and nurturing through social media monitoring seems a bit iffy to you, though, take this post as clarification.

The nuances of relationship building will play a huge role in how successful you are with this tack, but if you’ve got that part down, what’s left is establishing a process for identifying people and businesses that are discussing a problem that your services or products can help them solve. We wrote a white paper about listening at the point of need some time back, and the tenets in this white paper still ring true. We’ll review some of those tenets here, and also add to the discussion.

The Search is On

To make the most of your social media lead generation and nurturing efforts, start at the beginning: conversation searching. There are a few things you can do in your search efforts to begin honing in on the “right” conversations no matter what monitoring tool you’re using.

Most of the social media monitoring platforms available run on keyword searches. Do your homework and identify a decent list of keyword terms and phrases that are used in discussions in the industry you serve. Don’t just guess these terms; take the time to find out what they are. You might even consider surveying your customers to discover specific terminology they’re using in the online social space.

Once compiled, this list is a great starting point, but you’re not done yet. When creating your search profile, include terms that you would see related to someone voicing an issue or need that you might be able to help with. Spend some time manually searching through industry forum and community postings to get an idea of how those “point of need” communications are structured. Without those key terms identifying a need, you’re going to aggregate a greater number of conversations irrelevant to your lead generation efforts.

Be aware that your search profile will probably need to be tweaked and cleaned up a couple times before it delivers exactly what you want to see. Don’t give up on amending your search, as this is where it all starts.

Jackpot! Now What?

Getting involved in every conversation related to your brand or the industry you serve won’t be the tack that makes your lead generation and nurturing efforts here successful. Truth is, not every conversation is going to demand a response from you. Those that do, though – the conversations that specifically request input about products or advice about solving a problem – are opportunities to share information about your products or services, advice you may be able to offer, and show that you want to help.

It’s important to remember that hard selling on the social web is generally useless; badly timed pitches and interjections do little more than offend and alienate the people you’re talking to. Get involved in these conversations by showing interest in the topic of discussion. Ask questions to find out the root of the problem being voiced, and share thoughts before bringing up the possibility that your product or service is an option to consider.

Nurturing and Follow-Up

Okay. You’ve properly defined your search, you’re getting involved in the right conversations and seeing interest, and now…you’ve got to establish a process for follow-up.

Many social media monitoring platforms, including Radian6, offer integrations with some of the top CRM tools around. Create a process for tagging and filtering the leads you’ve identified on social media outlets so those leads are fed to your sales team for proper follow-up. That process should include tracking conversations that have been had up to that point (and afterward, really), classification by source, and any additional information your sales team has deemed pertinent to their follow-up efforts.

In some instances, your outreach efforts with a potential lead will sit in the bounds of social media for some time before paying off. In those cases, continue offering advice and answering questions, and keep up with their circumstances. Lead nurturing is just that – keeping an eye on your leads and interacting with them to show you want to help and that you’re interested in building a relationship. On the back end, you have to formulate an internal process for follow-up that incorporates your social media-based interactions.

Have you had success generating and nurturing leads in social media channels? If so, how? What tactics have you found successful? If not, what problems are you running into? Share in the comments!

Today’s guest post is the second in a three-part series by Rob Berick, a senior managing director of Dix & Eaton, a communications consultancy that specializes in investor relations. Rob regularly writes on the capital markets and investors relations on his blog and on Twitter @robberick.

Last week, I introduced the concept of social media in an investor relations context. This week, I thought it would be fun to show you a sampling of some of the public companies (read: you can invest in them on a stock exchange) that are leading the charge in this brave, new world.

As you might expect, the big tech companies are flexing their virtual muscles via social media. Deservedly so, Dell gets a lot of recognition (and invitations to speak at IR conferences) for its DellShares site. Cisco is also making great use of video and other social media tools on its IR website. Last year, eBay reported on the events of their annual meeting of shareholders in real time via Twitter. GE uses Twitter to provide a healthy stream of information on its financial results and its intangible assets (remember that term from last week?). An example of a non-tech company making use of social media channels is Caterpillar, which provides great insight into its business via YouTube and elsewhere.

Ironically enough, one of the biggest shadows in the market today is being cast by one of the smaller companies out there — TVI Pacific. This mining company is using a wide range of tools — Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare and a wonderfully robust website — to help investors understand its business and to track its progress toward its growth goals. By also maintaining a presence on Seeking Alpha, one of the most highly used web resources for investors, the company is proactively taking its story to where investors are online.

Another small company using social media to heighten its exposure to investors is Microvision, which manufactures display and imaging solutions. Its corporate blog — Displayground — not only provides up-to-date commentary and information from the company’s team of contributors, but also invites investors to post their questions in advance of the quarterly earnings call. The company reports that numerous investors have responded. The resulting posts have helped management prepare for the call and ensure that the executives are addressing all issues of interest.

Obviously, there are others I could highlight as more and more companies are getting into the fray. The point was not to try to capture every and all occurrences of social media applications in IR, but rather to give you a sense of what such efforts look like in the real world. Next week, let’s spend some time talking about how to get buy-in from the senior management team–as nothing is going to happen without permission. In the meantime, let me know if there are any companies you think are doing a particularly good job in this brave new world of disclosure.

We have been focusing on customer service this month and in light of of several posts on how to lose your Twitter followers effectively, we thought it appropriate to highlight some key tips on how to provide bad customer service through social media and what steps to undertake in order to turn it around.

1.    Ignore Your Customers

If you are looking to frustrate customers before they even pick up the phone then this might be appropriate. Conveying the image of an organisation seemingly plugged in but then ignoring requests or questions from customers in social media does not help your cause. If you don’t plan on communicating with your customers via Facebook, then is a Page really necessary? Likewise, if you don’t think Twitter would be of use to your business don’t pretend to use it.

If you are not sure of what might work then listen first. Understand what is being said throughout social media; an integral part of any social media implementation plan and strategy. Find out exactly what your customers are saying, where and to whom, understand which avenues of social media would provide added value to both your company and your stakeholders. Once you have tracked this, make sure the knowledge gained is shared throughout your customer services department in order to focus your efforts.

2.    Pretend to Answer Questions

The only thing worse than not responding to your customers is to confuse them even further. Ensure that what you say counts, especially on Twitter. Make those 140 characters work for you even if this means taking five minutes to draft your tweet. If the problem is more complex then make sure you steer the conversation offline to the phone or email in order to provide the additional assistance necessary.

A lot of businesses deal with queries raised through social media by referring them to their website which more often than not does not resolve the problem. What customers are seeking is for someone to solve their query. If the only route to doing so is to jump from channel to channel then this does not usually lead to customer satisfaction but rather to customer frustration.

3.    Don’t Cooperate or Communicate

If you are using a social media channel to complement your customer service strategy make sure that you are connected to the wider business. This can mean using an appropriate CRM system, having a social media policy and ensuring that you have your social media channels included in your customer service objectives. You will find that handovers will run a lot more smoothly if social media is seen as part of the business and not an aside.

In some instances you may need to hand over a query to a more specialised department, but if they are not aware of the social media funnel this may drop off the radar. Alternatively, if there is no agreed system for logging enquiries, customers will find themselves needing to explain the same problem over and over. Therefore, getting the necessary buy in, understanding and having a clear process of communication will save your business considerable time.

4.    Never Escalate Problems

Don’t assume that because the query has come though social media—a channel only you might be responsible for—that you always know the answer. The end objectives of any customer service should be to resolve your client’s problem. While a community manager, often the first one to come across a query, should be well versed in all that concerns the business, they may not always know the answer, or the problem might be severe enough to demand the involvement of a senior manager. To this end it is essential that a proper escalation process is communicated and included in any social media policy.

5.    Don’t Be Proactive

Your customers might not always know where to find you, so take a proactive step to assist your customers. Monitor what is being said in order to provide the assistance necessary when appropriate. Contrary to what has recently been in the news, we have noticed that customers who are provided assistance even when not explicitly contacting a company tend to appreciate this approach. In addition to picking up mentions and questions, having a listening strategy and tool will go a long way to providing key metrics around engagement success, campaign sentiment, or product issues, as well as understanding where within the various social media channels customers are most prominent. All this helps to focus your customer service.

6.    Don’t Personalise

Our earlier post this month showed that adding a personal touch when communicating through social media has a positive effect. While customers might find it easier to communicate via the internet this does not necessarily mean that they don’t want to talk to a real person. Adding a name to a bio conveys the idea that a query or problem is being taken seriously and is being dealt with. Also, doing so will ensure that your representatives are accountable and part of the wider business.

What experiences have you had with customer service in social media? Good, bad, feel free to share.

“That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In between lies art.” – John A. Locke

What does it mean to make your content dynamic? You want your content to rise above the Web 1.0 tomes of monologue and be visually entertaining while driving thoughtful action. Yet, there is a fine line you walk while creating this content that borders between entertainment and distraction. You want your customers or community to purposely interact with the content created.

Remember the mall scene from Minority Report? Wouldn’t it be nice (for you and perhaps your customer or prospect) to tailor content based on a retina scan? Well, while we are making progress with how we personalize content to make it relevant for our community, we have not yet reached that level of automation and dynamic content. This is definitely a topic that we discuss internally amongst our Community team and it just so happens this topic of content creation and the tips and tricks of lead generation through integrated marketing communications dominated last week’s #IMCchat.

The key to creating dynamic content with the ultimate purpose of lead generation is to understand what your community wants and be able to deliver different levels of participation and levels of intensity.

Research

• Understand each channel and the different ways individuals consume the content delivered throughout the customer decision/purchase process.
• Examine the data from all customer touch points to determine the point of need.
• Craft and test unique communication.

Value

• Deliver content that is relevant for the consumer.
• Remember, nothing (no channel) is dead if your community wants it.
• Consider the resources and frequency required to deliver content so you do not create a false expectation.
• Avoid limiting content to social media distribution and engagement; social media must work in tangent with other communications and there is no one magic solution.
• Ascertain the right timing to deliver content…it all comes down to research.

Mutual Engagement

• Interact with your community on their terms (Abide by spam laws and opt-in etiquette).
• Remember instant gratification metrics of consumption only scratches the surface; Interact and measure the long tail of content.
• Avoid putting up useless walls; less barrier to entry and consumption is a pathway to learning and interacting more with your community.

Let’s keep this conversation going. How do you generate dynamic content?

“Content” seems to be so trendy these days, doesn’t it? The word itself is gaining all sorts of traction in the digital space as consultants and companies put more emphasis than we’ve seen in a long time on creating smart and useful resources. Heck, we’ve never really seen this level of emphasis before, but with the ability to access endless amounts of information living right at our fingertips, it’s no surprise content has become so popular.

As is most often the case, a concept becomes popular because there’s enough value in it to catch on in a big way. The foundation of producing useful content, creating documents and videos and images that share ideas and expertise, is a strong one—the more you share, the more you help others satisfy their needs and/or achieve their goals, and when you help others they will generally help you in return. In the business world, that help usually takes the form of referrals or purchases, the Holy Grails of business.

Now, if you connect that basis for content creation to your marketing goals, you can probably see just how well marketing and content fit together, and quite noticeably in the B2B sector. Your customers need information and value throughout the buying cycle, plain and simple, and if you can provide those things to them—especially when they’re trying to make important decisions that will greatly impact their productivity, ability to achieve their goals, and their budgets—you’ll see some pretty nice returns.

Without getting too wordy, here are a few key reasons content marketing is so important to the B2B sector:

1. Large sums of money on the line. Let’s face it, the average consumer purchase costs fairly little compared to the money spent on a business-to-business product purchase. Granted, we can all say that buying a home is a pricey endeavor, but that isn’t an average purchase; interestingly, though, the process of buying a house resembles that of a business-to-business purchase in that a person or family will want to view multiple houses, learn as much as they can about the homes themselves and the neighborhoods they’re in, and consider a wide range of short- and long-term factors in making a final decision. Why? Because a house is a major investment. And just as a house is a major investment, so are most B2B products, which means providing as much information as you can about your product, its applications, and the various impacts it could have on your customers’ business and their customers’ lives is an imperative piece of the marketing process.
2. Greater, more complex problems to solve. In the world of B2B, as a vendor you’re not only working to solve the problems of your customers, but you’re also working to solve the problems of their customers, as well. Add to that the fact that B2B product solutions are usually put in place to help businesses accomplish multiple nuanced goals and you’ve got a pretty complex set of considerations to address. How can you best address those considerations? Content, of course. Good, well-planned content. If you don’t offer those resources that answer initial prospect questions and give them fodder to continue narrowing their field of buying scope, you’re missing opportunities to capture attention, build trust, and, ultimately, make sales.
3. Extended buying cycle that lasts pasts the initial sale. The B2B buying cycle is a long one, full of stops and starts halted and fueled by changing needs, goals, and budgets. Because of this stop-and-start aspect of B2B sales, it should be part of your marketing process to offer up content that helps customers get back on the buying train and stay on it. Again, answering their questions, showing them the various applications your product has, and demonstrating what goals your product can help them achieve outright—all throughout the buying cycle—will keep customer eyes on you. None of this ends after the sale is made, though. A customer loss for a B2B vendor is a much bigger loss than one in the B2C world, so focus a certain amount of your content creation and marketing efforts on retaining the customers you have; you want them around for the long haul, so give them reason to stay with you.

How else do you see content marketing impacting the B2B sector? As a B2B company, is producing useful, quality content already part of your marketing program? If so, how has it affected your marketing efforts? Share with us in the comments!

Today’s guest post is the first in a three-part series by Rob Berick, a senior managing director of Dix & Eaton, a communications consultancy that specializes in investor relations. Rob regularly writes on the capital markets and investors relations on his blog and on Twitter @robberick.

While much has been said, written and blogged about social media’s value in cultivating relationships with customers and generating market opportunities, there has been much less attention paid to the potential of such media as a tool to engage investors, who are using the Web in growing numbers for their investment due diligence.

Believe it or not, there is a growing contingent within the investor relations (“IR”) ranks that believes social media platforms offer public companies a cost-effective channel to further differentiate themselves with investors.

In fact, some corporations are already using innovative ways to communicate with shareholders and raise awareness with potential investors – from using Twitter as a way to further disseminate major corporate announcements or solicit questions in advance of an investor event, to conducting facility tours or product promotions via YouTube , to creating truly interactive annual reports. (Author note: Despite what you might think, investors love things besides numbers. We nerdy IR types call such things “intangible assets.”)

Over the next three weeks, we’ll take a look at this growing trend. Consider me your correspondent from the mythical land of IR–where capitalists roam like free-range chickens and recent MBA grads have the unalienable right to tell the most senior members of management teams how best to run their businesses.

For many companies, social media tools not only help to stretch their investor communications budgets, they are also helping to level the playing field in the competition for investor awareness. I’ll give you some real-world examples of companies putting social media to work in their IR programs in my next post.

Before that, let’s take a few minutes to discuss how to get started, as social media programs are not “one-size-fits-all” in any context, let alone in an IR effort. Before developing a social media strategy, your company should first determine which tools would be most effective in achieving your specific objectives. There are several questions to ask:

• What are you hoping to accomplish?
• How will you measure success?
• What sites are your target investors using, and what are they saying about your company, if anything?
• Who are the influencers within those communities?
• What online tools are your peers using to reach investors?

Armed with answers to these questions, you can determine if social media is right for you and, if so, which channels would be best to use in your effort to further engage with investors while amplifying your value proposition (read: why now is the right time for investors to own your stock).

As I said earlier, we’ll take a closer look at some of the brave explorers among the IR ranks next week. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what questions you think those in the IR ranks should be considering as they evaluate the pros/cons of social media strategy.

When I first started in social media about a year ago I quickly found out that the holy grail seemed to be this thing called being “An Engaged Brand”. After all, that’s what social media is here for, right? To be a conversation space where brands can connect with their consumers, the public, fans, and even the negative folks. That’s a lot to take in, so let’s agree on a few things first.

Yes, engagement is the goal for some companies. Yes, it can be intimidating sifting through your mentions, posts, and everything that is being said out there that you’ve been told you should monitor. Yes, being a B2B company can add to the pressure of trying to figure out what you should be paying attention to in the social media space. But the good news is there are tools that are being developed in order to help you deal with all of this information. They are shiny, bright, and awesome at achieving workflow management and getting you to all the posts you need. So what should you do when you first start using a social media monitoring tool of any sort?

Turn it off.

As helpful as any tool can be, it will do nothing if you haven’t planned out your social media strategy and day-to-day workflow to use it effectively. So let’s take a step back and walk through the workflow and day-to-day reviewing of posts side of social media engagement.

Reporting

We’ve written many posts on metrics and reporting, and we’re even starting to release our own internal reporting templates as our Professional Services team develops. But at the end of the day there is no generalized answer to reporting for anyone. While there are metrics that will fit every company/brand/event, not everyone will find value in those.

Before you start reading, tagging, or engaging, set your goals. They may be initial goals that you find after two months don’t apply anymore and need revising, but at least they will be yours. Don’t be afraid to say, “Well, that was a waste of time and useless to measure,” because once you’ve said that you will start to see the metrics that matter to your company.

Workflow

One of the key areas that are going to make your reports valuable and worthwhile is the workflow that you apply to the posts you review. If you’re using our Radian6 system, these are your Classification and Post tags as well as User Assignment and Engagement Level fields.

Here’s one way to think of it:

Classification = Big Bucket
Post Tag = Cup used to fill the bucket
Posts = The drops of water in the cup

For each of our classification areas, we have a chart that outlines the different Post Tags we see applicable for that area. See the table below for an example of ours to outline your own.

Day to Day

Everyone is going to find a different way of dealing with their volume and mentions. It really depends on where you want your focus to be and the level of engagement your brand/company is comfortable with. There are some tips and tricks for best practices, though, and here are a few:

1. Divide the data: If there’s too much to look at it all at once find a way that works for your goals to divide the data whether it be by influence (i.e. Twitter followers, comment counts) or by media type (micromedia, blogs, etc). Divide the data into small, more manageable pieces so you’re not overwhelmed.
2. Route your posts: At Radian6 we have one dedicated person always “on-duty” who is in charge of being the first person to read posts and then route them out accordingly. Maybe one person on your team can be in charge of micromedia and another in charge of blogs. Or maybe someone watches from 9 am – 12pm and someone else takes over for the afternoon. Find a method that works best for your team and go with it so there’s always one person paying attention.
3. Classifications: Make sure these buckets fit your needs and relate to the information you are trying to pull from them. Try to be more generalized with the buckets since they’ll mainly act as umbrellas for your Post Tags.
4. Post Tags: Even though these are the smaller parts of your workflow, don’t get too specific. If you post a new blog post every day, having a different tag for each of them will get very messy, very fast. A more generalized tag like “blog” will serve your purpose better.
5. Use your monitoring and engagement platform effectively: Whatever tool you are using, use it the way that works best for you and your team. This doesn’t always mean that it follows what other people are doing or even what the company is saying is a “best practice”. Don’t be afraid to test and use your listening and engagement platform the way that works best for you team.

Once you have figured out your reporting goals, broken down the classifications and post tags you’ll be using, and designed a monitoring method that works for you and your team, it’s time to jump in the pool and start wading through the water. Remember, it’s not always about engaging everywhere right away. Small moments of engagement can make big waves in the social media pool so keep at it and adjust your methods as need be to keep your team a float.

What engagement struggles are you facing on a day-to-day basis? What could make your day-to-day workflow easier? How do you break down your posts for response?

Are you an outstanding content creator? Are you passionate about the potential for social media in business, and eager to put your strategic knowledge to use? Do social media listening, engagement, and measurement discussions get you jazzed? Do you have the drive to connect with customers, collaborate with colleagues, and spend time engaging with brands and agencies on behalf of Radian6?

We might just have the job for you.

We’re currently recruiting for an experienced Community Manager to engage with our community, create compelling social media content, contribute to industry discussions, and participate on our behalf at public events.

In this key role, you will have the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the industry with the leading social media monitoring and engagement company.

Think you’re the right fit? Have a look through the highlights of the job description below, and scroll on down for instructions on submitting your resume. And if you’ve got recommendations, referrals, testimonials for your work? Send those, too! We’d love to hear about the impact you’ve had on the communities and professionals you’ve worked with.

Key Responsibilities:

• Listen to and engage with the Radian6 community actively and responsively, both in relevant outpost communities and existing resident channels;
• Work closely with account and sales teams to contribute subject matter expertise in support of client accounts;
• Proactively participate in related industry discussions when possible and appropriate to contribute expertise;
• Create and contribute content to Radian6 though leadership initiatives (blogs, webinars, whitepapers, etc) on an ongoing basis;
• Work with the community team to establish and refine consistent community engagement practices;
• Collaborate on internal communication programs to inform and educate around social media initiatives and their broader implications;
• Provide ongoing feedback to community, account, training, and support teams on agency community trends, issues, and interests;
• Master the Radian6 dashboard for use in reporting, online demos, and engagement; and
Attend and participate in industry events as appropriate (some travel may be required)

Attributes:

Job Requirements:

• Passion to explore new ideas, contribute critically to discussion, and build on ideas from others;
• Discipline to work projects to deadlines, or build structure and process around new initiatives;
• Commitment to internal communication and collaboration;
• Passion for client service and connecting with people;
• Curiosity and interest in how social media intersects with the business world
• Outstanding written and verbal communication;
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in a communications, customer service, or professional social media role;
• Sound social media strategy mindset, including committed personal experience and contributions across multiple social media channels;
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, distilling necessary tasks from high-level direction; and
Delivery of consistent, helpful and engaged client and prospect attention.

Clarification and update 9/8: This is a full-time position, and location can be flexible for the right candidate.

Sound good to you? If you’re interested send your resume and a brief summary of why you think you’re person for the job to careers@radian6.com. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

We’re talking about social media for B2B this month. (We wrote a nifty eBook about it just in case you missed it). It’s something that comes up over, and over, and over in conversations in our industry. There’s an impression sometimes that in business-to-business companies, social media just doesn’t have a strong case. But that simply isn’t true.

In many respects, B2B actually has an advantage in social media. Most our their business is centered around longer term relationships between suppliers and consultants and clients, and there are so needs for information sharing along and around the sales and customer cultivation cycle that simply don’t exist in B2C situations.

Let’s look at three ways that B2B social media stands out.

Content

One distinct characteristic of B2B businesses is that our work centers around helping people do their jobs better somehow. It’s less about lifestyle and personal interests, and more about how the business ecosystem improves.

Content marketing and the ease of information sharing give B2B companies a massive opportunity to do more than just promote stuff. By creating useful, helpful and informational content, we can increase the knowledge and expertise of the people we’re hoping to do business with. Through the knowledge we share, we can demonstrate that we’re qualified to help you with more than just a product, but with a bigger picture business goal. And by empowering individuals with information, we can help them become more educated, informed customers.

The very nature of social technologies supports sharing, distributing, and creating content more easily and faster than ever. Think of it as a content-driven resume for a business, and a demonstrated investment in your customers’ needs even before they work with you.

We want to work with people who are the experts in what they do, not just what they sell.

Networks

In the world of B2B, our professional network is everything. Because our business is about business, the potential of who we know and who they know is an important part of the equation.

Before something like LinkedIn, the breadth and intricacy of our network was a bit invisible to us. In order to know who our contacts knew, we had to ask, and usually with a specific need in mind. Now, we can simply search. Investigate. Research. Social media’s very searchable nature helps you find the quality and relevance among your connections.

With social technologies, the depth of our networks is exponentially multiplied, too. If B2B endeavors overall are about doing better business, social media gives us the power to listen carefully, find the people that are discussing the topics we care about, develop layered connections across several networks, and interact with even small, niche communities right on their own turf.

Relationships start with a connection, so the better our individual connections, the stronger the eventual web.

Impact Points

We all know that that Almighty Relationship dictates so much of B2B success. So much of any success, really, but we focus especially heavily on it when we’re doing business with another business.

The purchase cycle is B2B sales is a great deal longer, and often the pricetag is quite a bit higher, which means the risk-per-decision factor is that much greater. As a result, it’s even more important that we have a sense of established trust and reliability with those we do business with, and that we have a certain expectation for what we’ll get out of the relationship.

The longevity of those relationships, too, depend on our cultivating and nurturing them well over time. Because the decision timeline is so much longer, we spend more time in between sales than we do closing deals. That means that in-between time had better be valuable to those customers.

Interactions through social networks can provide the personal touch to business relationships that we’ve often found on the golf course, or over drinks or dinner. It’s business development, but rather than all touch points being live and in person, some of them are geographically independent, and happening online.

These interactions, as they always have, bridge the gaps between purchases and continue contact around and between the sales. But now we’re not limited to just the phone or meetings, we have Twitter or community forums or blog comments. We aren’t limited to brochures and trade publication articles but we have blogs, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn Groups, and all manner of social channels through which to tell our business story.

The Bottom Line

As simple as it sounds, all business transactions happen between human beings even when the company writes the check. Someone has to choose a product or a service provider, and that someone is always a person that thinks and makes judgment calls based on both facts and feelings.

When we’re the one deciding or recommending, we want to be equipped with the knowledge, context, information and framework of a relationship that makes use feel like that transaction is low risk, high reward, and rooted in a sound business framework. And we want to get to know and trust the people we’re buying from or selling to.

There’s nothing about social networks that can’t help all of those elements. Have a look at resources like Social Media B2B for some discussions and examples that explain why these two can work so very well together.

The phone changed our business once. Email did it, too. So did those crazy website things. We’ve found that better connections and more information can help us build our business, whatever package they come in. Social media is the new package, but the ideas are as old as business – to business – itself.

Are you a B2B company using social media successfully? Are you still struggling with making the case? What is it about B2B that feels so different or has us so skeptical? Talk with us in the comments.

I have a fondness for acronyms. Perhaps it is because of my former role in the government, but I can have a conversation using only acronyms. (One day when we meet in person, you can test me.) An acronym is used to simplify long expressions that are difficult to remember or time consuming to say and write. Sometimes acronyms take on a life of their own and become over-simplified to the extreme. I think this is what has become of the B2B versus B2C debate within social media. The acronyms have boxed in the definitions and given no room to stretch legs and creativity in new communication channels.

It is time to start coloring outside the lines of these predetermined beliefs surrounding how B2B and B2C organizations operate within social media. Because, as Jason Falls stated in 13 Essential Social Media Lessons for B2B Marketers from the Masters, it is all about people.

“B2B is more P2P – people to people. The buyer still wants to buy from a trusted friend, not a logo or a company. Making your business more human, putting a name, face and relationship on the relationship goes a long way. United Linens isn’t a company. It’s Scott, the marketing director. I can trust him. Some random linen company? Not so much. That brings B2B down to a level we can all relate to.”

The essence of social media is about breaking down barriers, forging relationships and encouraging a dialog and not a monologue between the organization and the community. As defined by the dictionary, a relationship is “an emotional or other connection between people.” Not between a person and a company avatar. Not between a person and an automated response. People to people.

Organizations do not make decisions to buy one product over another. People within the organization make those decisions based upon research and bias from external relationships formed between themselves and the people representing the other vendor.

So, whether you are seeking B2B or B2C relationships, your organization must reveal characteristics of itself through the workforce and truly embrace three dimensional characters. Can a large B2B organization pull off this type of interaction? IBM is a great example of how a large organization is embracing social media through their workforce.

The principles of B2B versus B2C are not so very different. At the end of the day, it is about establishing and maintaining long term relationships. Is this any different than the house or office call of one vendor to another or chat over coffee? No, it is just another business communication channel and opportunity to humanize the organization.

So, if you have to use an acronym, why not P2P?

The new business pitch can be one of the most adrenaline-fueled time period for agencies.

It’s exciting, it’s competitiveand it’s hard work. When you review the Request for Proposal (RFP) the potential for ideas and opportunity seems endless.

Public Relations agencies will first review the RFP and break it down into a few sections. They will look at the opportunity, scope of work (is it just PR, or is there advertising, social media and account service attached to it?) and what the brand is. They also take into account the industry vertical.

The industry vertical is important for a few reasons:

1. Is it a regulatory industry such as healthcare or finance?
2. Is it a high tech brand, and if so, is it healthcare IT?
3. Do we have any of their competitors on our roster that would go against agreement?
4. What type of experience do we have on our current roster, and does anyone on our team have outside experience?

Experience is key when it comes to the new business process. Lack of experience in an industry vertical can sometimes be the death of the pitch, even before it starts. When responding to the RFP, agencies will include references from clients and related experience as proof of work, and that they can get the job done for this specific brand.

There are speciality shops for a reason – many brands like knowing the type of knowledge and education that comes to the table. But what happens to a heavy B2C client roster agency that has an amazing opportunity with a B2B brand?

There are similarities in the B2B and B2C field when it comes to traditional and digital approach. A B2B brand, just like a B2C brand, will first want their agency to understand the processes they have, what type of audience they serve and what they do. Then, industry vertical comes into play – is it high tech? Is it healthcare? Do you have experience in both healthcare and B2B? The list goes on and on.

That doesn’t mean that all is lost, or that the agency shouldn’t pitch the brand. There are other ways to show strength and that you understand the type of industry, even with no experience in B2B.

Rally the Troops

There is a possibility that there is someone on your team (or that works for the agency, depending on size) that has had experience with a B2B brand. It’s not bad to reference a team member that has worked previously on accounts that the agency hasn’t had. So, if Billy Senior Account Director has worked with a B2B brand, write down what he has done, the knowledge he has and how many years of experience he brings. It’s also ok to reference these clients by name. Name recognition can go a long way in niche circles such as a healthcare IT vendors.

If there is not experience in that specific field, it is up to the agency to showcase experience in the overall industry, whether its in public relations, advertising, marketing communications, analytics/research or consumer insights. What does your agency bring to the table, and how do you make up for lack of experience in the potential client’s field?

Research Will Be Your Best Friend

We learned in school that research will get you far in life. If you don’t have the experience needed for that particular industry, start researching. You will want to review both mainstream publications for information on the client, and then trade publications for information about that industry. Ping a few people you might know in that particular industry, and take them for coffee. Try to discuss trends and what has been happening in their professional life. Heck, even ask them what their typical day is like. Use Google and see if they have a social media presence. Ping a few professional organizations and look at their websites for resources. If they have had an agency before, see what type of services they offer. Meet regularly with who will be pitching and discuss ideas, knowledge found and how it applies.

Show Related Work and How To Apply

You might not have work in that specific industry, but you have something. You have knowledge of certain industries, the industry you work in and experience working with brands. Use that related work and show the potential client similarities and comparison. Show your success stories and why certain areas, such as media relations or social media presence, would work for them. If they can relate to you and your experience, you are already building that trust foundation. Don’t just use any type of work, but one that is solid, relatable and had success.

These are just a few ways to get your foot in the door in a B2B new business pitch. What areas would you add? Have you seen brands that go with agencies over another because of experience? Let’s discuss.

For all that social media is all the talk of the business town these days, the B2B sector seems to be having a tough time making sense of – or seeing the value of – these channels. Are they really useful for the B2B world? All we see is B2C success, are there cases of B2B social media success out there? How do we make social media work for us?

We offer a resounding “Yes!” as answer to those first questions, and as for that last one, well, that’s the question we’ll be working to answer for you throughout September. This month we’ll be offering up as many tips, concepts, anecdotes, and examples to help you start connecting the dots between your B2B company and social media.

And to support our social-media-for-B2B endeavors, we’ve written up quite the eBook that faces head-on the argument that states social media only fits the B2C business dynamic. We don’t agree with that statement, and we’ve taken the liberty of laying out exactly why we don’t agree, as well as providing some concrete examples of goal and objective setting and strategy development for you B2Bers to refer to.

We hope you’ll be on our side by the time September 30^th rolls around. Social media in its purest form is communication, and communication keeps business moving, no matter how it’s facilitated. We’ll do our best to round out the social-med-for-B2B discussion for you, so please jump in and share your thoughts on this topic, and if you’ve got any questions for us, you know what to do (leave us your questions in the comments section, that’s what you do).

Engagement is a scary concept for some companies. The fears are plentiful and range from basic questions about how to get started, to the more advanced questions about how to continue your engagement during a crisis.  It’s all well and good to talk about dipping your toes into the engagement pond, but what about those companies that aren’t there yet? How can they start overcoming their engagement fears and prepare to take those first steps?

Evaluate

Every solid strategy starts with research and engagement strategies are no different.  Start by taking a long hard look at your own company.  Some questions you may want to ask are:

• What channels do we currently use to get our messages out there?
• How do we capture feedback?
• What do we do with the feedback once we have it?
• What crisis communication plans do we have?
• What departments do we currently trust with customer-facing communications?
• What does the approval chain look like for external communications, like a press release?

Make a list of questions you’ve been asked, or fears you’ve heard expressed, and make sure your research provides the answers you need.

Look for examples from other companies in your industry and active around the web to see what their engagement looks like. Does there seem to be a consistent focus? How many of your competitors are actively engaging online? Are there any patterns you can see with how they’re going about it?

Look outside your own company and try to find examples to support or add to your research. Does this help calm any fears or address any questions on your list?

Chances are that once you really start digging down, a lot of questions will answer themselves. Other fears or questions may need to be talked about internally before they can be understood and overcome.

Plan

Once you’ve done your research, start creating your plan. Some questions you may answer here include:

• Where will you focus your engagement strategies?
• Who needs to be involved?
• What approvals need to be given, and when do they need to be granted?
• How much time will you dedicate to engaging online?
• What standards and expectations will you set?
• How does your engagement strategy affect your social media policies and guidelines?

A lot of fear seems to come from the fact that companies either don’t know what to say, or they don’t want to try and boil the ocean.  A comprehensive plan can help in a number of ways, including putting some boundaries around what you’re trying to achieve and who/what needs to be involved.

Communicate and Iterate

By now, you’ve looked inside your company and outside at the wider online world to evaluate where some of your engagement boundaries exist. You’ve taken your findings and turned them into a plan that can be handed to someone for action and maintained as the industry changes and your company grows. The next step is to take that plan and put it in front of the people that matter.  Who needs to sign off on your plan before you can start putting it into practice? What sort of oversight is needed once you start engaging?

Communication is key!  Put your plan in front of everyone that needs to see it, from the people that will be doing the engaging, to the higher-ups that will be keeping an eye on progress and company goals.

Don’t forget about your legal team! Ask them to review your plan to identify if your engagement strategies open the company up to any risk. If so, how can you work together to mitigate those risks? Instead of viewing your legal team as a force stopping you from getting out there and engaging online, view them as an ally. Their job is to protect the company, so instead of asking “Can we do this?”, a better approach may be to ask “How can we do this, and what do we need to keep in mind?”

Along the way, incorporate the feedback you get from your colleagues and superiors. It’s fine if things change, but just be sure to go back and make sure that the changes don’t have a domino effect and raise other red flags.

What does it all mean?

At the end, you should end up with a well-researched and actionable plan, as well as a potential list of fears or questions for you to go back and answer.  This is an iterative process, so don’t get discouraged if you have to go back to the drawing board a few times.  This is all about preparation and setting the proper expectations. Jay Baer says it best:

“The graveyard of digital marketing is littered with the bones and business cards of those that dove in head-first with high expectations, no strategy, and no plan for testing and optimization of results.”

For some companies, researching and putting together a thorough plan, then socializing and getting approval for the plan might be all it takes to start wading in the engagement pond. For others, the exercise can reveal some very real forces stopping you from ever taking that first dip.  Either way, the research and preparation is a necessary precursor to execution, and measurement and open communication about questions, fears and expectations upfront can only help when the time is right to start jumping in.

What engagement fears have you heard? How did you end up overcoming them? Share your stories in the comments!

Here’s the truth:

If social media presence is all or part of your professional role, your online presence is going to be intertwined. It can be tricky to balance the two when you’re “on the job”, answering customer inquiries, being present in the community, participating and creating content.

Balance is possible, but it will always be a little imperfect. You’ll have to make choices and judgment calls about what to say and how to say it, and sometimes, that might mean saying nothing at all. Here, let’s discuss a few guidelines for keeping your personal and professional presence online in harmony.

Choose Which Doors are Open

When you’re a professional in social media, you’ll figure out where your customers and community are, and where they’re reaching out to you online. If it’s a forum or Twitter or blogs, you’ll need to have a profile in those networks where you can keep the door open for questions or outreach, and where you can respond and engage in a professional manner.

Sometimes, you can use a single profile if you’re willing to keep some filters on, and maintain an even keel. That might mean keeping the sharp political or religious conversations to yourself, or exercising good diplomacy. It’s a choice. Because if all of your personal and professional stuff is piled into one, they reflect on one another. That’s just reality.

You’ll have to decide where and when you’ll keep the doors open for people to follow or friend you on a professional basis, and where you’re able to keep your networks more closed for personal purposes. Maybe your answer is to have separate profiles on Twitter, and keep your professional interactions on Facebook to your Page instead of your profile. But whatever combination you choose, you have to balance being available and accessible to your community, and finding homes for personal discussions or interests that you might not want to mix with work.

It’s Okay To Not Talk About Work

It might sound like I’m suggesting you never mix personal and professional, and that’s not it at all. In fact, it’s okay to not always talk about work. The people that interact with you professionally often appreciate seeing the human side of you. As we’ve well learned from social media discussions, the Official Corporate Voice isn’t very welcoming or friendly. And you want your customers and community to feel welcome and at home when they talk with you.

So, share your victory at last night’s Ultimate Frisbee game (our Radian6 team rocks, by the way). Share the picture of the dog or the kid if you’re comfortable with that. Talk a bit about music you like, or what you did on your summer vacation. A blend of personal and work-related stuff can help you feel more approachable, friendly, and “one of the gang” to your customers. That helps build trust, which is definitely what you want.

The trick is really in the stuff that’s either super personal, or potentially really polarizing to your community. You’ll have to make your own judgment call about which of your personal interests, beliefs, experiences, or opinions are better suited to more closed audiences. Each company will have different tolerances, each individual will have different comfort levels. And your customers just want to know that when the chips are down, you can shift into professional mode and help meet their needs.

When In Doubt, Leave It Out

It’s like email: if you’re not sure, don’t send it. Better to err on the side of caution if your job involves a public online presence. After all, people are paying attention.

Is that hard sometimes? Sure. If I’ve got a vehement opinion on a topic, or someone says something I find patently offensive, it’s so difficult not to pop off and say what I think.( After all, if you know me, you know that I’m one to speak my mind.) If I’m having a hard day, it can be tempting to dump it all out onto Twitter in search of support.

Things like selective Facebook lists (groups where you can post an update just to that selection of friends or family members) can help. Or a private Posterous where you can let it all hang out. Building selective filters outside the realm of your “on duty” places online can make it a little easier.

But here’s the difficult truth: If you’re working online (and we all are, more and more, in some way or another), your personal actions and behaviors will impact your professional presence and reputation, and vice versa. So we’ve each got to decide what facets we want to be part of that multi-dimensional online presence, and which might be expressed elsewhere.

Above All, Be Approachable

In a professional social media job, you’re often the front lines. The face of the company, the first person people think of to go to when they need a hand or attention or a question answered. If you pursued this line of work, that’s probably part of what drew you.

If you’re not in social media as a profession but if it’s part of your communication set – like customer service, let’s say – you’ll still need to be present, available, friendly, findable. You want people to come to you every bit as much as you’d want them to feel free to email you or pick up the phone and call. That’s what your customers are looking for; a human being that they can virtually tap on the shoulder and know that they’ll get a welcoming response.

It’s the online equivalent of a common office dynamic. When someone walks up to your desk, do you sigh in exasperation for being interrupted, or do you turn around, say a warm hello, and ask how you can help? Are you the person they’re always afraid to come up to, or is your presence always a comfortable, open one?

It’s Not Easy.

There’s no doubt that this isn’t nearly as clear cut as we’d all like it to be. We’d love to have a set of “do this, don’t do that” guidelines that guarantee that we’re engaging and interacting in the best way possible. But there’s no such thing.

What’s interesting about the public nature of engagement is that it puts our judgment skills on display in a way they haven’t been before. Using good judgment was something that we’ve always had to do, but we haven’t had to do it on a public, visible stage. And now we do.

But if we want businesses to evolve and become more human, we individuals have to contribute to that equation through our own decisions and actions. It’s a give and a get, and as tricky as the change might be sometimes, it’s all part and parcel to this new world of communication we’re building.

I’m on board. I’m learning every day, and my future online personal and professional self will undoubtedly be shaped along the way.

What challenges do you have balancing personal and professional when you engage online? What questions can we answer, or what input can we provide? Looking forward to hearing from you in the comments.

image credit: nzgabriel