Category: inbound marketing

SVTweetUP: Social Selling or Selling Social?

by Lina Arseneault, posted in Communications, innovation, Leadership, Marketing, silicon valley, Social, social media, Twitter

 

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of mentoring an ambitious and innovative marketer named LaSandra Brill.  It wasn’t long before she blossomed into a leading edge authority on social media. LaSandra is the change agent visionary behind one of the top five product launches in Cisco’s history. At Cisco, she leads a team responsible for implementing a mix of innovative digital, mobile and social media techniques.

Photo credit

You can find LaSandra rocking social media on:

Following are a few LaSandra and Cisco social snipets:

Cisco Unveils Social Media Listening Center – Oct 23 2012

Silicon Valley Tweet Up

One of LaSanadra’s Facebook updates caught my eye.  I’d always wanted to attend an in person TweetUp (a meet up (virtual and/or in person) of people that ‘tweet’ about a specific topic using Twitter) but never got around to doing it.

HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup by Stuart Foater

The one featured in LaSandra’s Facebook update was especially appealing because of its location, the topic (Social Selling or Selling Social?) and the panelists: Ted Sapounitz, Jennifer Leggio, Michael Brito, and LaSandra Brill – la crème de la crème of some of Silicon Valley’s best and brightest social media minds.

Silicon Valley Tweetup combines networking with philanthropy by raising money for family-oriented charities. Run by @britopian (Michael Brito), @gabrielcarrejo (Gabriel Carrejo) and @mediaphyter (Jennifer Leggio).

Michael Brito is a senior vice president of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital.  He is also an Adjunct Professor at San Jose State University teaching social business to undergraduate students.

Jennifer Leggio describes herself as a raconteur, comedienne, hockey lover (no wonder I like her!) and “Security Twits herder emeritus”. She is VP of Corporate Communications for Sourcefire. Forbes.com tech contributor.

As of last week, Ted Sapountzis is head of Marketing and Product Management at NextPrinciples– he was formerly VP Social Marketing at SAP.

Sponsored by onemedical, the event was held was held at the Palo Alto Women’s Club. The format for the event was one part networking, two parts highly entertaining expert panel and one part free going twitter chat.

Needless to say, I felt far more comfortable at this event.

Inperson introvert and online extrovert? | You’re not alone!

Follow Lina Arseneault on Twitter

Gabriel Carrejo moderated the evening with engaging questions that uncovered the following themes:

  • Content is the currency of the social web

  • Make your content social friendly

  • It’s okay to experiment: fail fast, learn and move on

    • LaSandra Brill touches on Cisco’s SecondLife and Jennifer Leggio makes us laugh with her spelling mistake video anecdote.
  • Jennifer Leggio’s Keys to Social Media Success: repetition and consistency (For effect, she said it several times throughout the evening!)
(from left to right) Ted Sapounitz, Jennifer Leggio, Michael Brito, and LaSandra Brill | panelists for SVTweetUp “Social Selling or Selling Social?” – October 2012

Photo credit | More SVTweetUp photos

Everything you wanted to know about Twitter Chats via @markwschaefer

What makes for a great Tweet Up?

  • Topic
  • Format
  • Moderator
  • Panelists
  • Participants

What are some of your favorite Tweet Ups and why?

Related post:  High-Tech Wizardry and Entrepreneurial Witchcraft: What Makes Silicon Valley The World Capital of Innovation?

Follow Lina Arseneault on Twitter

Business Networking: What Archetype Are You?

by Lina Arseneault, posted in Communications, Marketing, silicon valley, Social, social media, Teams

One of my personal professional goals is to attend at least twelve business networking events throughout the year. Many people prefer face-to-face networking over online based networking – I am not one of them. I’m far more comfortable with virtual schmoozing or rubbing of digital elbows. Is it a wonder that social media makes my heart sing!

In chapter two of Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell describes three types of special people:

  • connectors (glue),

  • mavens (content) and

  • salespeople (persuasion).

I’m not shy and I’m a great public speaker (in fact, I love public speaking).  I’m simply not one of those natural in person cocktail “connectors”… but bring digital into the mix and the situation is quite different.   Isn’t it time to consider that some people might not be the same archetype in person as they are in an online setting?   One thing is for sure, I am not a salesperson type in either setting, never have, never will be! I’d describe myself as a maven (data and content are my thing) and hybrid-connector (in-person introvert / online extravert).

Follow Lina Arseneault on Twitter

Of my twelve networking events goal, I’m aiming for a distribution of about eight in-person (outside my comfort zone) and the balance as online or hybrid events.

And so, early in October, I accepted an exclusive invitation from SAP in concert with Diversity Week at the company. The Palo Alto based event featured a presentation by Barbara Annis, world-renowned gender specialist.  Following Barbara’s “Great Minds Think Unalike” lecture, there would be a Get to Know Us networking party with key executives.

Four things intrigued me about the SAP invitation:

1.      The title of the event: A Celebration of Female Talent

2.      There would be a lecture to celebrate diversity and inclusion in the workplace (I wouldn’t have to schmooze during that time!)

3.      Executives would be on hand at the networking party, and

4.      Most importantly, I am a huge fan of Michael Brenner.

Michael is the author of B2B Marketing Insider, the co-founder of Business 2 Community and also serves as Sr. Director of Integrated Marketing and Content Strategy for SAP where he is the founding editor for the SAP Business Innovation blog. Isn’t it interesting how my perception of Michael is both as SAP brand ambassador and industry expert? Corporations that embrace the social era will want to have many Michael’s – the more the better.

Join The 1% And Become A Content Creator by Michael Brenner

Your Employee Is an Online Celebrity. Now What Do You Do? – via @WSJ

Same Words, Different Language: How Men and Women Misunderstand each other at Work and What to do About It

Barbara was very engaging around making the case for gender intelligence.  She presented findings and case studies that illustrate how gender differences are complementary and help create competitive advantage.  Much of her material is based on her second book “Same Words, Different Language: How Men and Women Misunderstand each other at Work and What to do About It”.

Barbara’s lecture was certainly thought provoking and provided a great platform to open networking conversations (I was thankful for that).  The networking event was exceptional and I’m glad I attended.  Truth be known, after the fact, I’m always very pleased with in person events I attend … I just have to push myself to go.

Little did I know that I would have more exposure to SAP the following night at SVTweetUp, a hybrid in-person and online event.  More on that in a follow-on post.

What’s your archetype profile? Does it differ between online and in-person? Add your comments below.

 Follow Lina Arseneault on Twitter

Additional Information

Clive Thompson on the Power of Introversion

Wired Magazine | April 2012

“Guy Kawasaki, by all appearances, seems like an outgoing guy. A former Apple “evangelist,” he’s an omnipresent voice online, blogging his ideas about entrepreneurship and tweeting 40 times a day to his half-million followers.

But a few years ago he posted a surprising 140-character revelation. “You may find this hard to believe,” Kawasaki wrote, “but I am an introvert. I have a ‘role’ to play, but fundamentally I am a loner.” His followers were gobsmacked.”

Continue reading at Clive Thompson on the Power of Introversion.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Cafélina uses Royalty free images

CaféLina Receives Certification in Inbound Marketing

by Lina Arseneault, posted in blogging, closed-loop analysis, Communications, inbound marekting certified professional, inbound marketing, inbound marketing university, lead conversion, lead nurturing, Marketing, search engine optimization, Social, social media

For some time, I’ve wanted to complete Inbound Marketing University’s Inbound Marketing training curriculum. Inbound Marketing University awards the Inbound Marketing Certification as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (http://inboundmarketing.com).

“If you have more money than brains, use outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, use inbound marketing.” 

Guy Kawasaki

To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, I completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive online certification exam. The comprehensive exam contains 50 multiple choice and true & false questions. The examiner must receive a 75% or above to achieve the certification.

The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times’ best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more.

 Get Found | Convert | Analyze

Much of content is skewed to the < Get Found > portion of the inbound marketing continuum which is comprised of  < Get Found | Convert | Analyze >. < Get Found > is broken down into three areas: [ create, optimize and promote ]. For future revisions of the curriculum, my hope is that IMU will further expand on the < Analyze > portion.

My favorite classes were taught by David Meerman Scott (Viral Marketing and World Wide Raves), Lee Odden (SEO Crash Course to Get Found) and Avinash Kaushik (Advanced Marketing Analyics).

This certification acknowledges my proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

I join an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. Over 2,000 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program since its inception in 2009. Students from all over the world have participated; countries include India, Australia, Denmark, Brazil, and more. The training and certification is completely free. Inbound Marketing University program is administered by HubSpot.

If you’re looking to sharpen your content marketing skills, consider Inbound Marketing University (IMU)

If leading edge marketing is your thing, build in a bit of time in your calendar over the course of the next few months and the next thing you know, you’ll obtain one of the industry’s hottest certification, and IMU is a free!

Are Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing Mutually Exclusive?

via Kuno Creative

Additional Information:

About InboundMarketing.com

InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site’s content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc.

Learn the latest tips and tricks to online marketing by downloading the latest edition of HubSpot’s most popular ebook!

About HubSpot

HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot’s software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot’s free marketing tools can be found at http://marketing.grader.com/.