From Mark Vanbaale: Conversational marketing articles of interest

Mark Vanbaale, Deere & Co, was kind enough to include me in distribution on this email. He agreed we could share with students on the SMMUCLA blog. Great stuff, so I hope you'll take time to check it out.

1) Yes, Brands Belong on Twitter.

I like the opening paragraph for this article:

"Many companies still don’t get the power and influence of social media tools like Twitter; and simply use it to broadcast one-way-in-your-face-marketing messages. I believe it’s more effective when organizations empower their employees to use social media to engage in meaningful conversations." People relate to people, not logos/brands.

Allow employees to be the face of your company to customers. Well said.

Organizations should focus on hiring people who understand the value of relationships and of course who are proficient with tools such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

By the way, I worked with a non-profit organization last week and showed them the power of Twitter for communicating with people. They were in awe and so excited to listen and learn. They are on Twitter now and I plan on working with them to start using more social media tools to get the word out on what they do and how they can help people: http://twitter.com/SignificntMttrs

2) For those of you that are not yet on Twitter, here is a great video presentation at the recent Conversational Marketing Summit about Twitter and how it is used. Very good one to watch for those of you that are new to it.

Social Media Twitter Addiction

3) This article hits it right on the head of why it is so important to value those employees who understand how to use various social media tools and allow them to use this expertise and knowledge to help other employees in the company learn how to use the tools and help their company move forward in using the tools to connect with customers. Don't just snuff out these employees. They are crucial to the company and its future.

Article snippet: "Often in the corporate world, as an employee raises their personal brand they are more likely to be treated with skepticism. Called self-promoters (or worse), these growing superstars are often alienated and driven out of organizations by managers or colleagues that feel threatened by them. The majority are genuinely strong performers who have the ability to use their personal social capital to be even better at their job if you can find a way to embrace them."

Why You Need to Hire Employees with Strong Personal Brands