Nancy Hendrickson

I sat in on an interesting webinar thrown by the 60-second marketer.  The presenter gave these anologies for our favorite social media marketing sites.

Facebook is like a pub, an informal place where people get together, hoist a beer and shoot the breeze.

LinkedIn is like a Tradeshow – very business-like, watch your language, dress up a little.

Twitter is the famous cocktail party, with lots going on and very high energy

YouTube is like Times Square on New Years Eve – anything goes!

MySpace is like Woodstock - populated by the young and the crazy!

I had the opportunity yesterday to sit in on a 90-minute presentation by Sandy Carter, an IBM VP who spoke about social media marketing.  I wanted to share some of my take-away gems (hint, the biggie is at the bottom):

• Marketing 2.0 is a combination of social media and traditional marketing channels
• The “secret sauce” is the right mix of of marketing venues, all dependent on your goals
• In a poor economy, you can move customers through the buying cycle faster
• It’s critical to monitor and respond to buzz about you or your business
• Look for opportunities to provide a human face to your brand
• Look for opportunities to interact with your audience
• Companies need to focus on loyalty to customers
• You statisticians this is huge for you: track what’s valuable, not what’s measurable

All valuable – - but what really hit home for me was the same thing I’ve been telling you for months – - it’s all about relationship building.  Ms. Carter said we’re moving away from the concept of B2B and B2C.  What’s really happening is P2P . . . . . PERSON TO PERSON.  (was nice to get validation from a Big Blue VP!)