Conversation to Conversion is your B2B Social Media Goal

I posed this question on twitter a few times this morning - What are your thoughts?:

For #B2B, Conversation to Conversion is one of the main goals of being in social media; do you manage your leads coming in from Twitter? How?

B2B companies are looking for ways to provide ROI - and you, the social media enthusiast needs to find that value that will have your boss on the edge of his seat wanting more.

But what is it?

Can you convert conversation and relationship building with prospects and current clients into sales leads for your company?

And when you get that message that asks, "put me in touch with your sales rep, I want more details", do you have a process in place?

You may have a process set for current incoming sales inquiries, but does it need to be fixed? Or will you just point your lead to the same form everyone else uses?

Maybe you feel the relationship you have built up over the past 15 minutes deserves something better than a form to fill out (I mean really... what are you even talking to them for).

This just came through a tweet as I started to write from @gregverdino... I think it sums up your reason for being on twitter in the B2B world (in addition to giving kudos to current customers and stengthening brand awareness and loyalty).

How would you manage your leads coming through Twitter? What do you do today to manage current leads? Do you use the same process or have you thought of something clever to do? Share us your story..

NTT's Share of Voice increase caused by Iran's communication censorship

On June 15th, 2009 Twitter was due for maintenance during a time in Iran where Twitter was the main form of communication to the outside world when the government shut down other social networking sites to the country. As Mashable stated, "...the maintenance would be scheduled for Tuesday morning Tehran time, when activity on the ground is likely to be intense. "

A few thousand tweets later and thousands of more people complaining that traditional media couldn't offer the coverage, Twitter wins again. And for those that didn't know that NTT was their network partner, they do now.

Mashable and Twitter (word of mouth) once again proved that the voices of conversation can make a difference.

Take a look at the statistics of NTT's "Share of Voice" since June 1st, 2009. Normally, one would see small spikes as a press release hit the newswire, but on June 15th, NTT's share of voice almost tripled on June 15th and 16th. The below information was pulled from Techrigy's Social Media Monitoring warehouse.

NTT made the right decision to reschedule their network maintenance for the benefit of one nation, Iran, which has a smaller Twitter population than in the United States. I recommend reading the Mashable Article to see how many people retweeted and comments on the story for a greater visual aspect of the power of voice.

Do you have any similar case studies where you found out something about a brand that you never knew about until it was posted on Twitter?

Your Social Networks Have Different Audiences!

I bet you $100 that your Facebook friends don't care what you are talking about on Twitter. They don't know what @username is and they don't know what #hashtag is.

I also bet that half of them have opted out of receiving your FB updates because you spam their Facebook lifestream with Twitter updates.

You have different audiences on your social networks - and your normal friends are not on the 15 different social networks that you are on! Play it safe and only post things on the social networking platform that fits that audience.

Sure sometimes you come across a great article or funny video that you want to share with everyone; it is probably suitable across all your audiences too. But once start using characters that are unfamiliar with non-Twitter folk, you become irrelevant to that viewer.

I am not a big advocate for posting the same msg I do on Twitter to go to my FB account. Half the time, I'm taking the time to find the @username that is associated to the artist or author to give kudos to the individual OR I'm using a #hashtag term to add my post category/conversation.

To me, that is a smart way to use Twitter - You engage more in conversation with individuals at such a small level (140 characters or less) that your followers can scan what you are saying and choose to engage or choose to ignore. Within 10 seconds, your posts will have dropped below the screen and out of their view.

This has been posted on twitter a few times over the past week (or at least this data flow concept). give credit to Louis Gray for this slide deck:

How To Optimize Your Social Media Data Flow for All Networks

View more OpenOffice presentations from Louis Gray.

Fortunatley for me, I don't have too many friends that spam my Facebook lifestream with twitter feeds. I haven't blocked their posts out of respect :) But I'm not everyone, and I'm sure others may hide you eventually!

You MUST be aware of your audience within your social networks. If not, your message is diluted and ignored. Take advantage of your other networks by sharing or pitching information to them in a slightly different way.

Do you agree or disagree?

Twitter Newbies: "They are on there, but don't know where to start"

I see why many people just don't get Twitter.  

1. They don't care, and don't know where start
   
2. They want to care, but don't know where to start
   
3. They are on there, but don't know where to start
   

Just got asked a question about Twitter on Facebook.  See Question and Answer below:

Question

Answer

He also is testing out TwitterFon and Tweetie.

So really, its education of Twitter that needs to be put in place.  

How many professors out there are using Twitter?  Or High School Teacher for that matter!

What are your thoughts?

My 101 Goals to complete in 1001 Days

Today, I start my 101 tasks to complete in 1001 days (2.75 years). Thats 143 weeks (31 months). My BIG DAY is October 8th, 2011.

I have a ton on my plate right now with working full-time at Global Crossing as a Business Analyst, working nights and weekends with the MyMinderz team to launch their next wave of applications, and in my spare time, when I'm not having a social life, working on creating a national awareness campaign called TextSmart.

I love every minute of it, but I also have a list of things that I have been wanting to do over the past 5 years that I have yet to do.

Today, I start on my list of 101 unique tasks that I've always wanted to complete, but always gave excuses for not completing.

This is Matthew Ray's "No More Excuses" List:

1. Take Guitar Lessons (I've had one for 5 yrs)
2. Learn 10 songs to play on the guitar (0/10)
3. Learn to speak Spanish Fluently/improve what I know (LiveMocha and/or SpanishPod)
4. Buy a house or rent out a Classy Loft Apartment with a spiral staircase and balcony
5. Complete my U.S. Lincoln Head Penny Collection that my grandfather from Mom's side and grandmother from Dad's side started and handed down to me when I was younger (year 1909-present)
6. Take Yoga Lessons and apply them
7. Finish decorating and painting my current apt
8. Cook 1 brand new meal a week at home (3/143)
9. Go try out a "Singles Mingle"
10. Go an art exhibit at the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery 3 times a year (0/9)
11. Go to two RMSC exhibits each year (0/6)
12. Learn all current countries and their capitals in the world (195 currently; 192 in UN)
13. Print out and Frame 12 of my best photographs taken from my road trips
14. Take a professioal photo shoot with my brother and send to all our family members that are still around
15. Travel to Hawai'i (2nd to last state I have yet to visit; North Dakota is the other)
16. Buy a MAC laptop
17. Buy an Amazon Kindle (one more step to going green and paperless)
18. Travel to the Galapagos Islands
19. Pay off my debt
20. Pay off my car (Honda Civic '00)
21. Donate a garbage bag or more of my old clothes
22. Buy a new bike and actually use it during the summer months
23. In a round of 18 holes of Golf, get a under a 100 strokes
24. Go to a new restaurant once a month (1/31)
25. Enter 3+ photo contests (0/3)
26. Win a prize or honorable mention in at least one photo contest that I enter
27. Organize and catalog ALL my past Uncles belongings (antiques, paintings, statues, etc) from around the world
28. Find a way to hack into my old harddrive to grab my old music (5,000+ songs)
29. Launch my blog site to consoledate all my social sites, etc.
30. Double my annual income at least one more time
31. Launch my three other content-driven sites I have plans for (0/3)
32. Have more low key nights in with a movie, boardgame, dinner, coffee, converstation (non-out-till-2am-bar nights)
33. Go on a date (maybe from the singles mingle I'm going to attend..its been a while since I've been in the dating scene)
34. Get 1000 people to follow me on Twitter @MatthewRay
35. Read the 1st Harry Potter Book; read the rest if I like it (0/1)
36. Get a pedicure - I hear its worth it
37. Travel to Montreal for a long weekend
38. Donate all my clothes and start fresh buying a whole new waredrobe
39. Use the dry cleaners regularly
40. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
41. Run a 5K
42. Go to a U2, Muse, ColdPlay, or Spearhead concert (travel if neccessary and make a long weekend out of it)
43. Take my Business Law CLEP test and Graduate with an MIS from RIT
44. Get Lasik Surgery...unless talked out of it
45. Visit a Psycic (tarot and palm reading)
46. Visit a nice zoo and aquarium - Not the Rochester zoo
47. Go to a new Cirque de Soleil
48. Help 5 people complete an item on their 101 in 1001 (0/5)
49. Learn to play a full song on my grampas "Blues Harp" Marine Band Harmonica circa late 1800s (Key of G)
50. Put $20.00 into a savings account with every goal completed (2/101)
51. Learn to Dance (be it Salsa, Tango, Waltz or Ball Room)
52. Go on at least 3 spur of the moment day/weekend trips each year (0/9)
53. ReDesign/Restructure my "Our Drive To Alaska" site
54. Have a cookout party on the rooftop patio at my apt building on the first beautiful weekend this spring 2009
55. Revise my Facebook Page and get rid of the dumb applications I've collected and never used.
56. Revise my LinkedIn Profile at least every quarter as needed (0/11)
57. Complete Tim Ferriss' "Ideal Lifestyle Costing": http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/lifestyle-costing/
58. Help someone on the side of the road change their tire when no one else will stop to help
59. Travel somewhere to go skiing (besides Bristol Mt.)
60. Read Guy Kawasaki's, "Reality Check" (in progress)
61. Read Malcolm Gladwell's, "Outliers"
62. Find 2 more favorite red wines besides Ménage à Trois (0/2)
63. Go Scuba Diving
64. Go cross-country skiing at Mendon Ponds
65. Go see 2 movies at Charlotte Beach over the summer (0/2)
66. Go to the Little Theatre at least once a month (0/31)
67. Take time-off work to go volunteer my time and build a house/school/church overseas
68. Go on a camping and whitewater trip in summer of 2009
69. Visit Austin, Texas to see a Bob Schneider Concert
70. Visit family in South Carolina
71. Go the the Public Market in Rochester (never been)
72. Read 5 books that someone else suggests (0/5)
73. Watch 10 movies that someone suggests (0/10)
74. Get new responsibilities OR change position at Global Crossing
75. Successfully get 5 new people to monetize their company/sites/themselves on Twitter (2/5)
76. Help someone get a Facebook Page up for their company or band
77. Help get WorkAlertz into 100 markets (1/100)
78. Go to another Rochester Social Media Club Event
79. Spend a day at Darien Lake
80. Go rock-climbing (indoor)
81. Invest in a Wii
82. Test drive a car I'd want to buy but can't afford today
83. Learn to smoothly drive stick shift
84. Take a digital photography workshop
85. Create a frame by frame picture video and post it to YouTube/Vimeo
86. Spend the day on a beach (not Charlotte Beach)
87. Successfully run the national TextSmart campaign
    
88. Listen to Pink Floyd's, "Dark Side of the Moon" and watch Wizard of Oz
89. Find 9 more things to do (6/9)
90. Make a YouTube/Vimeo Music Video Playlist (Possibly MixTube...)
91. Join a HotShots Volleyball Team for a season
92. Contact Guy Kawasaki and explain to him who MyMinderz is and how he will love to talk about them (with success or no success, I'll still reachout)
93. Go to a Roller Derby somewhere
94. Take my Mom to a Destruction Derby - Can't believe she wants to go to one (shes never been and neither have I)
95. Successfully run @RocTwestival
96.  
97.  
98.  
99.  
100.  
101.