Fail Whale!!!

Posted on | March 27, 2009 | Comments Off

So tonight I went to the Social Media Club event at the CME focusing on Social Media for B2B. What did I learn?

There’s this thing out there called Coachsuite which is in private beta and I NEED IT RIGHT NOW!
Showing up late because you’re working on a proposal is lame
Social Media can be great for customer service
Social Media is great for listening to what your customer base is talking about.
A roomba is actually a robotic pet that happens to vacuum.
the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Tweets. (no, really. It tweets!)
Social media agencies mainly work with the marketing department (half the time I’m working with the IT department)
I’m not very good at working the room.
Sometimes, when people see the fail whale, they say “Oh, Gosh.” (not that there’s a website for that or anything)

And finally – Arrive at networking events ON TIME, and sit in the front. I learned this because I arrived late, missed the actual networking part, sat in the back, couldn’t see anyone, and in the end was very confused at to who was who and where everyone came from.

I didn’t really get what I wanted out of the evening, which is half my fault – of course I wanted awesome sales leads, but that requires showing up on time, and a lot of circulation, which I’m not very good at. I don’t know about you, but when I meet someone, I want to talk to them. I can’t explain what I do in a handshake.

But what I was really hoping against hope for was to learn more tricks of the trade and get some better ideas. I’m already very well versed in the idea of starting with your ultimate objective, figuring out where the audience is that fulfills that objective, and then going to that place and driving them to you (it’s like herding snails . . . . with money in their shells). Anyone with a background in tracking and analytics can tell you that. What I need are fresh ideas – from myself. I do come up with some very innovative recommendations at times, but if something goes really hot it turns into a broken record for the next two weeks. I need skittles people. SKITTLES!

I also wanted to learn more about how agencies are managing the conversation when the brand ambassadors are in-house – it seems that many companies are finding a road block in that they are not ready to let their employees talk about the brand. First off, we need to realize that branding doesn’t live in a vision document but in the hearts and minds of the people that love you most. Secondly, I should hope that the people that love you most are your own employees!

Finally, going back to the fail whale in the room – I am a little worried about Twitter and Facebook. I think Facebook will kick their advertising sales platform into high gear by 2010, and it will be a lucrative venture for them (and sometime soon most advertisers will learn how to target the clients on facebook – so that when my cat goes online she will be served ads about catfood, etc.)

Twitter – I just don’t know, man. I’m out of ideas.

But I did get to meet the wonderful and exciting @scottfmurphy (very briefly) and @lenkendall (even more briefly! (I mean, I just died of shock when I came home and found out he was following me (see how lame it is to not have an iPhone, I have to wait until I get home find out that I have a new follower)))(oh I should add he did an excellent job moderating) So for that alone, it was a worthwhile adventure.

Not to mention gossiping with @crosberg is ALWAYS a good time.