The Bloggin’ BUZZ

Chuck Hester, Communications Director for iContact, has been utilizing social media (particularly LinkedIn) for over 3 years. In my interview with him, we focused on some of his social media activity, his company’s social media activity and whether he thinks that companies should embrace this trend or not.

Here are some highlights:

Hughey: For listeners out there that aren’t quite as fluent in interactive or online marketing, how would you define social media marketing for them?

Hester: Social Media is…similar to what it would be as far as business networking in person, but it’s online. So it’s being involved with communities, it’s being involved with interest groups that fall within your businesses and your range. A chance to actually meet folks from around the country and around the world because of the internet and its reach. Just like you would do at a local chamber mixer, you can do internationally.

Hughey: You seem very heavily involved in LinkedIn. What ignited the spark in you to get involved there?

Hester: I’m kind of a LinkedIn poster child, I guess. I got my job here at iContact through LinkedIn.

Hughey: Really?

Hester: It became my first social network that I was actively involved in. My wife and I, Stephanie, relocated from southern California about…almost 4 years ago now. And we used LinkedIn to look at Marketing/Public Relations jobs in the Raleigh area. I was looking for a job at the time and Ryan Allis, our CEO at iContact, was looking for a PR Director and we connected on LinkedIn. And as I like to say, the rest is history. But that’s almost 3 years ago now.

Hughey: I would like to discuss how much or if iContact has embraced Social Media marketing as much as you have or if it has at all. And if so, to what extent?

Hester: Actually, Ryan Allis is the one who taught me Social Media Marketing, so yes, that’s our CEO, so yes, we definitely embrace it. We have a Communications Department of four people, including myself and two of them are actively involved in what is known as “Reputation Management” through Social Media where we monitor what folks are saying on everything from LinkedIn to FaceBook to Twitter. We promote our events on LinkedIn and through Twitter as well. We’ve got a road tour coming up. We’re doing seminars in ten different cities throughout the country. This is a good example of how we use social media. But we went out and promoted those events and as a result within two days, we had an increase of 100 people signing up for seminars throughout the country. So we use it on a regular basis to promote our products and we also actively work with our customers and get a chance to have conversations with them in the community that we build out there. One more thing too, we also have an iContact users group on LinkedIn as well, where folks can join if they’re users or if they are employees and we can have dialogue back and forth through that particular way of speaking.

Hughey: Can you share some high level tips for companies that are possibly in a discovery mode when it comes to deciding what type of social platforms or applications they should be using for themselves?

Hester: One of the best tips that I can possibly give is you really need to choose the social media platform that you want to be involved in. There are approximately 4, what are known as winners out there already, and that is LinkedIn, FaceBook, YouTube and MySpace. Those are really the active, and Twitter’s becoming one of the, probably the fifth one that is out there now. But you really, social media can take a lot of time. You can go down a different maze every single time you get involved with it. So it’s a lot, it’s very easy to get lost. So the best thing you need to do is stick a line in the sand and say, “This is where I’m going to be.” The other aspect of it is you need to be part of the community. ‘Cause that’s really what social media is all about – it’s a community. And that means you need to be part of conversations, you need to answer questions. If folks are talking about your company, you need to respond back. The third thing that is very important is you need to be transparent. And that means that if there’s a problem, you need to talk about that problem and be able to address that problem as opposed to trying to do what is known as “corporate speak”, where it’s being spun and oh, “we’re not going to worry about this”, or “we’re going to ignore this” or “we’re going to try and put a better face on it.” Folks really out in the Social Media world really appreciate straightforward honestly, transparency. That really does make a difference.

Hughey: The number one opposition to Social Media or opposition that I come across when I talk to people about Social Media is that it’s a waste of time. What would you tell somebody that thinks it might be a waste of time for their company?

Hester: Specifically for iContact, I would point to the national media coverage that we’ve gotten as a result of our work in Social Media. We’ve been involved with FastCompany.com, Inc.com, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, all have covered through our efforts in Social Media and being actively involved in it. I don’t think Social Media is going be one of those things that it comes in, it’s a fad and it goes away. It’s here to stay. It’s the way folks are communicating these days. So whether or not you believe it’s a waste of time because you don’t feel like you have time to put into being involved with this tool. It is a communications tool and it’s not going anywhere.

Hughey: Are there any other sites, blogs, books, events, in particular that you rely on for information?

Hester: Yeah, I read a lot of different blogs. Paul Gillin for instance, is one of the best Social Media experts in the area [social media area]. He’s one of the re-inventers, if you will, he’s about my age. A gentleman named Brian Solis writes PR 2.0 and that’s a really cool blog to pay attention to. And there’s a third gentleman named Scott Allen, he writes a really good site on LinkedIn in particular. I’m actively involved in the Social Media Club and I’m actively involved in the Society for New Communications Research and through those particular organizations, I get a lot of good information as well.

Hughey: What are some of the opportunities in Social Media that you see that salespeople and businesses are not taking advantage of?

Hester: Being part of the community. I mean, I can’t say that enough. LinkedIn, in particular, that’s my expertise, but LinkedIn in particular has 6 different ways that you could be actively involved and get more sales. One of the ways is their section called “Answers” which is where you ask a question and you get answers back. If you ask the question, in a good way as opposed to an advertising way, you can get some really good prospects out of there and you can vet some prospects. The other side of it, they have a section called the “Search” section, where you can search out prospects and folks that you’re looking for. And then finally, on LinkedIn, there’s a thing called groups and FaceBook has it as well, but I think LinkedIn does it a business better than anybody else. And you can be connected to folks within a group, you can start your own corporation’s group, we have an iContact users group. This works out very well for us in connecting to customers. But, you need to be part of the conversation, that’s what it really comes down to. Treat your connections like they’re standing right in front of you and be part of the community and give back and it works out very well. It will come back to you.

1.2.3.Synopsis:
1. Social media is here to stay and has value on a corporate level.
2. Salespeople and companies need to pay attention to the online community and find a way to get involved.
3. Have a strategy and plan to ensure that you have a direction and don’t waste time.

Were there any surprises to you in this interview?
Have you found any successes online?
Please share your thoughts by clicking on COMMENTS.

~Deidre

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 8:24 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.