Thanks to those of you who joined us for our twebinar with Josh Reynolds, Head of Sun Microsystem’s North American MidMarket Initiative. Josh shared all kinds of great info with us today…  from some of the surprises they found when they started listening to who makes up Sun’s online community to what kind of content their community responds to best. Be sure to download the podcast if you didn’t get the chance to attend.

Josh also shared some of Sun’s challenges and successes while using social media.

Challenges:

• Finding the right technical people within the organization to get involved in Sun’s online community engagement
• Finding the right balance of content that appeals to the readership and doesn’t over-promote while still creating leads

Successes:

• Social media has helped them reach an incremental market/ audience that wasn’t being reached through traditional means
• Being able to respond to negative comments and turn the situation around

Be sure to follow Josh on twitter @JoshRey and check out his personal blog – http://convergence-sm.com on the convergence of traditional marketing and social media.

Thanks so much for listening and participating today. Check out some of the questions and great tweets below:

Historically, Sun Microsystems* has been largely known as an enterprise-focused technology solutions firm. In recent months, though, the organization has expanded into the small- and mid-sized business solutions market, and they’ve done some of that through the use of social media channels.

On next week’s Twebinar, we’ll be talking with Josh Reynolds, head of Sun’s North American MidMarket Initiative, about some of the work he’s been doing in social media to grow Sun’s share of conversation and discover what’s being said about the brand and what important topics are emerging in the conversation around the SMB market.

So, join us next Thursday, February 18th, at 2pm EST for our latest Twebinar with Sun.

If you’ve never experienced a Radian6 Twebinar, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

What is a Twebinar?

A Twebinar is a podcast/audio broadcast doubled up with Twitter so listeners can participate on a more interactive level. You can pose questions to guests by tagging tweets with the hashtag #radian6 and ending them with a “?”. We’ve built the Twebinar interface so you can listen, ask questions, and watch the discussion all from the Twebinar page.

Some Tips:

• Once the Twebinar has started, log in and you should hear music or the live broadcast. If you don’t hear the audio immediately, refresh your browser.
• If you log in before the Twebinar starts, refresh your browser at the scheduled start of the show and the BlogTalkRadio (BTR) interface will show up and start playing.
• To ask a question, use the #radian6 hashtag and end your tweet with a “?”.
• @DavidAlston and @MissKatieMo will be your hosts for this Twebinar. Feel free to send them questions in advance on Twitter if you’d like. We’ll also have the backchannel monitored the day of the show to make sure your day-of questions are seen.
• The audio by itself is available on our BlogTalkRadio channel, if you just want to listen.
• A recap and full broadcast of the show will be posted to our blog shortly after the event is wrapped up. You can also listen to the archive on BTR.

If you’ve got questions in the mean time, leave ‘em here and we’ll do our best to answer. We’re looking forward to next week’s Twebinar and we hope you are, too, so mark your calendars and we’ll see you then!

* Sun Microsystems was recently acquired by Oracle, but Josh has been kind enough to join us and chat about Sun’s social media involvement leading up to the acquisition.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for today’s Engaged Brand Twebinar with Lisa and Chelsa from Kiva.org!

Kiva.org is a website that lets people lend money to entrepreneurs around the world who need loans. Individual loans can be as small as $25 and will be combined with other micro-loans to make up the total loan for the entrepreneur. Kiva is raising about $1 million in loans every 9 days.

If you missed out on today’s twebinar where they shared some of their social media strategies, be sure to download the Kiva podcast now.

Since Kiva is a non-profit organization they have a limited marketing budget. One of the ways they are able to make that budget stretch as far as possible is to engage with their community. Recently they were involved in the Chase Community Giving contest where they won $25,000 to help them continue on with their cause.

In order to win the contest they needed to get votes. And the way they got votes was by asking their community for help through social media.

Some of their social media strategies for the contest:

• Used their newsletter to ask for votes;
• Added small ads about the contest to their website;
• Lenders received a message to please vote within their Thank You for Your Loan letter;
• Posted contest info on their blog;
• Encouraged staff members to spread the word through their own personal online communities;
• Twitter – in addition to tweeting about the contest, they also sent personal DMs to some of their followers who had large followings (influencers) and asked them to spread the word;
• FaceBook – they created an event on FaceBook, plus they reached out to their sub-groups to share the information on how to vote;
• LinkedIn – sent out an announcement to all of their followers;
• Recruited other bloggers to share the word on the contest;
• Posted to their community, KivaFriends.org;
• And they approached their top 50 lending teams on Kiva.org.

Their biggest learnings while using social media are to sit back and listen to your community and engage with them in their conversations. Plus, don’t be afraid to experiment. Just put yourself out there and start out small in one area until you get a feel for it.

If you want to keep up with Kiva and see what they are doing next, be sure to follow them on Twitter @Kiva

Thanks again for listening and asking some great questions. To hear the answers to the questions below, be sure to listen to the podcast.

David Alston, VP of Marketing and Community at Radian6, recently did a twebinar with AwarenessInc called “Answering the Social Phone”. In the twebinar, David discussed how social media is not really media but a two-way communications channel and that all of the conversations going on out on the web are like phone calls. The phone could be ringing off the hook with mentions of your brand and if you aren’t involved in social media who is answering those calls?

Some brands think that if they don’t have a FaceBook page or a Twitter account then they aren’t involved in social media. This isn’t true. People are using social media to talk about everything… including your brand.

If you missed out on David’s twebinar, be sure to take the time to listen to it. He shares all kinds of great insights on marketing in the age of social media. And if you don’t have the time to listen right now, bookmark this page and come back later.

Some of the highlights:

David talked about how marketing was traditionally about the 4 P’s:

• Place
• Promotion
• Product
• Price

But social media has changed marketing. Now that everyone is connected the place no longer matters, people don’t like to be promoted to and the product has become the whole customer experience and not just what you are selling.

He tells us how the 4 P’s should be replaced by the 5 C’s.

• Content – offer content that has value and can be shared.
• Community – join the community and get interactive. By being involved you can offer help and discover needs and trends.
• Conversation – listen, learn, converse and engage. Be open and accessible.
• Collaboration – once you engage with your community you’ll discover that there are great ideas and feedback out there.
• Connections – reach out to people that are passionate about the things that you are passionate about.

There are plenty of roadblocks to keep you from using the 5 C’s:

• Policy
• Culture
• Bureaucracy
• Momentum (in the another direction)
• Window Dressing
• Misinformation
• Lack of Top Level Support
• Lack of a Plan
• Lack of Commitment
• Lack of Resources

David addresses all of these topics and more during the twebinar so take the time to listen to it. And follow David on Twitter where he shares lots of great info with everyone.

In closing, David explains how brands should look at communities as an investment. If you learn from and engage with your communities they will be an asset that grows. Community members will be your biggest fans and a source of feedback and inspiration.

And in case you don’t know, AwarenessInc is a social media platform provider that helps organizations engage with their audience through the use of communities.

If you’re not already familar with what Kiva.org is up to, start by checking out their work.

Their mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.  In short, donors to Kiva make microloans in smaller dollar amounts to emerging entrepreneurs around the world. Donations help individuals gain financial independence and support their families, and Kiva works with existing microloan institutions to help find qualified entrepreneurs and get the money to the right spots.

The entrepreneurs pay back the money as their business gets established, and then donors can relend that money to someone else. Pretty cool, huh? Learn more on their website, and read some of their amazing stories.

Radian6 is working with Kiva to help them tap the potential of the social media world through listening, engagement, and measuring their efforts. And we want to share not only how they’re working with us, but how they’re working with the social media at large, including the campaigns they put together for this year’s Chase Community Giving contest. We’ll be joined by Chelsa Bocci, Kiva’s Director of Community Marketing, and Lisa Shah from the Community Outreach Team.

So, join us for our next live Twebinar on Thursday, February 4th at 2:00 PM EST. No pre-registration is necessary and it’s totally free. Bring your questions. And if you’ve never been to a Twebinar before…

So… what is a Twebinar?

A Twebinar is a mashup between a live podcast/audio broadcast and Twitter as the backchannel for discussion.

How Can I Participate?

Join us by logging in with your Twitter account on Thursday, Feb 4th (no preregistration is required) or listen to the audio on our Engaged Brand BlogTalkRadio channel.

Since we’ll be using Twitter, just tweet us your questions with a #radian6 hashtag, include a “?” and we’ll be sure to see them. We’ve built the Twebinar interface so you can see all the tweets and discussion at a glance, listen to the broadcast, and submit your questions as we chat.

Twebinar Tips:

• Once the Twebinar has started, log in and you should hear music or the live broadcast. If you don’t hear the audio right away, please refresh your browser.
• If you login before the Twebinar starts, refresh your browser once the Twebinar begins and the BlogTalkRadio (BTR) interface will show up and start playing.
• To ask a question, type it in to Twitter using the #radian6 hashtag and end it with a “?”. We’ll see it.
• Your hosts for this episode will be @ambercadabra and @davidalston. Feel free to send them advance questions on Twitter if you like. We’ll also have @vargasl on hand to help gather and answer your questions during the broadcast.
• If you’d prefer to listen to the audio without the Twebinar interface, you can do so at our BlogTalkRadio channel.
• The full broadcast of the event will be posted on our blog shortly after the event is over, or you can always listen to the archive on BTR.
• Any other questions, leave them here in the comments or ask us on Twitter and we’ll do our best.

So, don’t forget to mark your calendars and join us next Thursday for a chat with the fine folks at Kiva.org. I can’t wait to listen and learn, so hope you’ll join us for the chat. See you then!

Thanks to all of you Xbox fans out there who joined our hilarious and informative chat with McKenzie Eakin and Jerry Kansky during today’s Engaged Brand Twebinar. McKenzie is the Community Program Manager with Xbox LIVE Service and Jerry is a Social Support Analyst from the Xbox Elite Tweet Fleet.

Their Twitter handles give you a peek into their personalities. McKenzie aka @machetebetty is a former WOW player who came to work today with her mother’s bull whip (you’ll have to listen to the Twebinar to find out why and Jerry aka @jerrymoneta plays in a band called Moneta based in Seattle which he shamelessly plugs at the end of the Twebinar.

It wasn’t all fun and games talking to the Xbox crew today though. There was some really great information on why using Twitter as a means to connect with gamers has been such a positive experience for them.

Xbox has struggled with customer service perception in the past so they decided to start a 4 week pilot program called the Elite Tweet Fleet. They had 3 objectives:

1. To give support a human face
2. To proactively reach out to gamers
3. To educate a vocal community

The pilot project was a raving success and customer satisfaction levels were through the roof. The amount of positive reinforcement from the people they have supported has been immense. People are so pleased at the instant nature of support that they get with the Elite Tweet Fleet that they share their positive experience with others (the way that Tweeters do).

Jerry told us that the most important thing for people to remember in a Business Model of Twitter Support is that “absolutely every single tweet that is talking about your business is important.” Twitter is a unique way to create a connection with customers and the Tweet Fleet takes advantage of that fact.

Download the Xbox podcast to listen to more of the Elite Tweet Fleet’s learning’s and to hear some of their plans for the future. You’ll know it’s going to be a fun chat when McKenzie starts off by saying that “everything is more fun when it rhymes”, e.g. the Elite Tweet Fleet.

Thanks to everyone who came and listened to today’s Twebinar and for the multitude of questions. If you need some Xbox support, give them a shout @xboxsupport and if you just need some giggles follow Jerry and McKenzie. As always, there were some fun tweets that took place during the Twebinar:

Did you hear about Microsoft’s Xbox Elite Tweet Fleet? You can today.

Join Radian6 Community Director Amber Naslund with Marketing & Community VP David Alston in a Twebinar Today at 2 P.M. EST to meet the people behind the Xbox Elite Tweet Fleet team.

Tune in to Today’s Twebinar at:

• http://twebinars.radian6.com/ or
• http://www.blogtalkradio.com/theengagedbrand

The Elite Tweet Fleet makes customer support “social” using Twitter @Xboxsupport. What’s the benefit to Xbox players? Tune-in, Find out and Join the Conversation Today.

To tweet your comments and questions, use #Radian6 and include a “?”.

_________________________________________________________

Next Thursday’s Tune-in is all about YOU: Getting Organized and Managing Your Social Media Presence in 2010.

Amber will reveal 9 Guiding Principles to help Make Time Work for You.

Join Amber’s Free Webinar & Learn to:

• manage disruptions
• control information overload
• leverage tools
• use time saving templates
• wrangle task management
• & more!

That’s next Thursday, January 14th 2 p.m. EST

_________________________________________________________

Tune-in the 3rd Thursday in January. It’s all about Protecting and Empowering Your Organization by Creating Social Media Engagement Guidelines.

Learn the “Anatomy of Engagement” – in this Free Community Webinar presented by Radian6 Community Manager Lauren Vargas with Amber Naslund.

Space is Limited. So don’t miss out!

Thursday, January 21st at 2 p.m. EST

Get Engaged! We’re Listening. Tune-in Thursdays with Radian6.

What would Microsoft say? Could Twitter become the social model for customer service delivery?

Hear Microsoft’s answer in a Radian6 Twebinar Thursday January 7^th at 2pm EST

How many uses does Twitter have?

With 40 million using 140 characters to communicate, Twitter’s ‘reason for being’ continues to evolve. Twitter’s simple question “What are you doing” helped a U.S. President become elected; helped free American James Buck from an Egyptian jail after issuing his one-word tweet “arrested” – which subsequently inspired a book called Twitterville; helped Dell sell $6.5M in computers – and with Comcast, Ford and now Microsoft as examples, it’s also becoming part of an emerging model for customer service.

What does ‘Social Customer Service Engagement’ look like?

Meet Microsoft’s Elite Tweet Fleet. It’s a new team that tackles customer service issues the social way. The Fleet listens and scours the Twittersphere for customers having problems with their Xbox 360 and asks how they can help. Customers can also contact the Fleet directly on Twitter @Xboxsupport. It’s the brainchild of McKenzie Eakin who created a pilot project to see if communicating socially could help educate and enable customers to help each other. And it worked – so well – that the pilot is now part of the business, working closely with the customer service crew.

Meet the Elite Tweet Fleet in our first Radian6 2010 Twebinar

The Elite Tweet Fleet has been up and running in time for the Christmas rush. Sales for Xbox 360 consoles were close to $1M last month alone and with all the latest Xbox games found under this year’s tree, Xbox consoles are no doubt getting a workout. So our Twebinar next week with Microsoft’s McKenzie Eakin and one of her Elite Tweet Fleet members, Jerry Kansky, will be topical. It will be our first Twebinar in 2010 so collect your questions and join the conversation Thursday January 7^th at 2 p.m. EST.

So… what is a Twebinar?

A Twebinar is a mashup between a live podcast/audio broadcast and Twitter as the backchannel for discussion.

How Can I Participate?

Join us by logging in with your Twitter account on Thursday, Jan 7th (no preregistration is required) or listen to the audio on our Engaged Brand BlogTalkRadio channel.

Since we’ll be using Twitter, just tweet us your questions with a #radian6 hashtag, include a “?” and we’ll be sure to see them. We’ve built the Twebinar interface so you can see all the tweets and discussion at a glance, listen to the broadcast, and submit your questions as we chat.

Twebinar Tips:

• Once the Twebinar has started, log in and you should hear music or the live broadcast. If you don’t hear the audio right away, please refresh your browser.
• If you login before the Twebinar starts, refresh your browser once the Twebinar begins and the BlogTalkRadio (BTR) interface will show up and start playing.
• To ask a question, type it in to Twitter using the #radian6 hashtag and end it with a “?”. We’ll see it.
• Your hosts for this episode will be @ambercadabra and @davidalston. Feel free to send them advance questions on Twitter if you like. We’ll also have @vargasl on hand to help gather and answer your questions during the broadcast.
• If you’d prefer to listen to the audio without the Twebinar interface, you can do so at our BlogTalkRadio channel.
• The full broadcast of the event will be posted on our blog shortly after the event is over, or you can always listen to the archive on BTR.
• Any other questions, leave them here in the comments or ask us on Twitter and we’ll do our best.

Thanks to all of you who joined us for today’s Engaged Brand Twebinar with Edward Boches, the Chief Creative Officer and Chief Social Media Officer at Mullen. We really enjoy it when you come prepared with questions and boy were you guys prepared today.

Edward has such a passion for social media. It was evident in all aspects of our conversation. His enthusiasm and expansive knowledge on the topic is definitely worth a second listen. So be sure to download the Mullen podcast.

I put together some of the highlights from today’s Twebinar but, seriously, there were so many awesome insights you really should listen to the podcast.

Some of Edward’s tremendous take-aways on Social Media:

• The cool thing about social media is that you can do a lot of things quickly, learn from them and then do something else.
• Counting fans and followers is a vapid metric. The quality of your followers is much more important than quantity.
• One word-of-mouth recommendation is worth more than 200 TV ads.
• People are turning to their social friends for recommendations.

Why should you get involved in Social Media?

• If you don’t you will be obsolete so fast
• It is the most exciting, inspirational, creative source of media. It is a revolution. It gives you more access to thinkers and new ways to expand your tribe

The 25 tactic when using Social Media:

• 25% of the time, talk about yourself or promote yourself.
• 25% of the time, promote content created by your followers.
• 25% of the time, identify and share links that will be useful to your community.
• 25% of the time, engage in dialog, answer questions and interact with your community.

If you take that approach people will spread your content, share things back with you, say nice things about you and share word-of-mouth.

Current Trends:

• Consumers want to participate, not just watch.
• People’s relationship with media is way more complex than it used to be, eg Obama’s inauguration.
• There are so many choices and options that people no longer have the same shared experience like they did when there were only 3 TV channels. People want to be connected to as individuals. Brands should customize their approach and invite communities to participate.

What is next for Social Media?

• In 1 or 2 years we won’t be using the word Social Media, everything will be Social.
• CrowdSourcing: Invite co-creation for everything you do. Your community will create content.

If we didn’t get to your question today, make sure you follow @edwardboches on Twitter. You can connect with him directly and see what he’s up to next. And be sure to check out his new blog TheNextGreatGeneration.com, it’s written entirely by Gen-Y 18-25 year olds who will share their thoughts on life, love and everything in between.

Thanks again for listening and participating. Here are a couple of the cool tweets that took place during the Twebinar:

Date: Thursday, December 10th
Time: 2pm EST

Do we really need to Make a Case for Social Media?

With …
•    325 million on Facebook
•    100 million on MySpace
•    40 million on Twitter
•    100 million daily views on YouTube
•    50 million people blogging

Edward Boches says social media changes everything except the need for creativity! He should know, as the Chief Creative Officer and Chief Social Media Officer at Mullen, a modern advertising agency based in Boston. He definitely has an opinion!

He’ll share those opinions and a multitude of stories in a Twebinar with Radian6’s Amber Naslund and David Alston on Thursday, December 10th at 2pm EST. Join us and meet Edward as he shares his passion for “Creativity in the age of Social Media”.

This Twebinar is open to communities everywhere so please join us by logging in with your Twitter account on Thursday, Dec 10th (no preregistration is required) or listen to the audio on our Engaged Brand BlogTalkRadio channel.

What is a Twebinar?

A Twebinar is a mashup between a live podcast/audio broadcast and Twitter as the backchannel for discussion.

How Can I Participate?

Since we’ll be using Twitter, just tweet us your questions with a #radian6 hashtag, include a “?” and we’ll be sure to see them. We’ve built the Twebinar interface so you can see all the tweets and discussion at a glance, listen to the broadcast, and submit your questions as we chat.

Twebinar Tips:

• Once the Twebinar has started, log in and you should hear music or the live broadcast. If you don’t hear the audio right away, please refresh your browser.
• If you login before the Twebinar starts, refresh your browser once the Twebinar begins and the BlogTalkRadio (BTR) interface will show up and start playing.
• To ask a question, simply type it in to Twitter using the #radian6 hashtag and end it with a “?”. We’ll see it.
• Your hosts for this episode will be @ambercadabra and @davidalston. Feel free to send them advance questions on Twitter if you like. We’ll also have @vargasl on hand to help gather and answer your questions during the broadcast.
• If you’d prefer to listen to the audio without the Twebinar interface, you can do so at our BlogTalkRadio channel.
• The full broadcast of the event will be posted on our blog after the event is over, or you can always listen to the archive on BTR.
• Any other questions, leave them here in the comments or ask us on Twitter and we’ll do our best.

Head to the Twebinars site to log in and join the discussion (don’t worry, we don’t see your login credentials; Twitter keeps those). We can’t wait to talk with Edward, and we hope you bring along some questions.