You remember the days of having a Rolodex file, right? OK, maybe not, but you have an address book in your phone. That’s your social graph. That’s the connection YOU have with a network of friends, contacts and relatives who have some degree of importance to you.

Let’s explore that a bit, because part of the change we’re going to see in 2009 and in a big way in 2010 is the evolution of social networks to allow you to bring your social graph (meaning your social connections) from place to place without have to start over every time. (It’s optional, of course, so don’t let your mind get carried away with privacy.)

Surely you’ve felt frustrated and even defeated at times with the onerous task of rebuilding your identity and your friendships every time you join a different system: LinkedIn, Yahoo, Google, MySpace, Facebook and the list goes on. These days more and more of us have constructed and are participating in social networks, and though that’s rewarding it’s a hassle to access and update everything or share ideas and news info with others in your ‘address book’ … your social graph.

But let’s do some base-setting here on what this social graph term means and how it might apply to you as a user and as a business owner, B2B and B2C. Here are two useful slide presentations to illustrate these points. Many thanks to Robin Grant of “We Are Social” for posting this originally and spurring my thinking. I’ve been wanting to find a way to illustrate these concepts better to my community of readers.

We’ll begin with Alisa Leonard-Hansen’s presentation What’s the Social Graph Got to Do with It?:

And now let’s look at Jesse Pickard and Shiv Singh’s presentation, Portable Social Graphs – Imagining their Potential, using the example of Facebook Connect:

OK, so you got that? Let’s take a look at some already-in-place implementations. Here is a list of ‘10 Great Implementations of Facebook Connect“.

Some are better than others. If you know of more, send me a note.

Tom

If you’re following the rise of social networking and social media in business and in particular the business of politics, then be sure to read this article from NYTimes this morning.   The essence of the article is summed up in this quote:

” … as  it [the new White House staff]  tries to accomplish what aides say is one of their most important goals: transforming the YouTubing-Facebooking-texting-Twittering grass-roots organization that put Mr. Obama in the White House into an instrument of government.”

Regardless of how deep your interests in party politics run, what’s going to be fascinating to observe is how the traditional broadcasting networks will manage a head-to-head meeting with the Obama ‘network’.  No president has leveraged the power of the Internet and all the social networking tools before.  This is going to be a fascinating year of change for every business, organization and political activity.

Tom

Here’s an illustration of the way things are changing so you/your company can help Marketing and Sales use the Internet to build engagement and trust that lead to greater numbers of qualified prospects.

I’m going to take some liberties here and poke a bit of fun at traditional marketing, for the sake of making a point. Traditional marketing efforts in B2B have been largely focused on driving traffic to a landing page with enough enticements to move people through the long sign-up form in hopes of a payoff, such as a white paper, at the end. I once heard a presenter says that it’s analogous to what we do in Texas with cattle at branding time: We try our best to get ‘em to move through a chute with various enticements and prods in order to count ‘em and brand ‘em so we know our total worth in beef.

What’s on offer now is a perspective that lets the most interested or qualified prospects through the filter, but does it in a different manner. Think about all the traffic interested in visiting your site (a product site or social networking component of your site, or your media content, now spread all over the Internet). This traffic falls into one of three types: Yahoos, Bluebirds or Shy Yesses.

The Yahoos are a small percentage of people on the left side of the bell curve that are lost or kicking tires or whatever, but you’re not marketing to them.

The Bluebirds are the visitors who come to your site on purpose and engage directly. You focus on moving them into the sales process directly. You’ve been a Bluebird, haven’t you?  When you just call up and order something directly from a company–no salesman contacts you–that’s a bluebird sale. It’s the small percent of the bell curve on the right-hand side and, regardless of their numbers, you’re really not marketing to them either.

In the middle of the bell curve of behavior is the Shy Yes traffic. These are all the people coming to the website or bumping into the hundreds of podcasts and blog articles your company has distributed all over the Internet for the last few years. These people have some particular interest. Likely they have a need brewing on the horizon but the last thing they want is a sales guy calling, and they sure don’t want to tip their hand by filling out a long form just to get a white paper and then have someone start hounding them.

Long before a salesman comes into the picture, your company gets involved in a scoping or planning session to do something and wants to figure out how to proceed before getting vendors all hot and bothered.  This is the makeup of a Shy Yes. I’m sure you can think of other behaviors of people finding your content and hovering over product pages, checking things out.

What’s needed are ways to entice or engage the Shy Yes with small pieces of interaction … what you get is more and more of his/her attention by satisfying their need to learn more, to ask questions without worrying about a sales guy calling, to be better informed about making budgeting decisions on projects.

I think of the social media (audio podcasts, video podcasts, blogs, comments, and so forth) and social networking (being a member of a community to exchange useful perspectives and information on pertinent topics) as a kind of birdseed.

Remember when you were a kid and you went to the park? You’d put a few pennies into a seed dispenser so you could feed the birds. At first you would just run and throw the seed at the birds, thinking you were giving them what they wanted, but the birds would fly away. Over time, however, you noticed people who were sitting patiently on benches and had birds eating out of their hands. You noticed that the people got up slowly and put food down in small, separate portions, giving the Shy birds the seeds and space they needed to build trust. Over time the birds developed enough trust in that relationship to come right up to the person on the bench.

Social media and the container for engagement/social networking are the birdseed. They are what will draw the attention of the bulk of the web traffic poring over your site each month. This is the Shy Yes traffic, picking up information piece by piece, engaging more and more with your company. They spend more time on your site, which is garnering more of their attention during the day, and maybe in the evenings on their iPhones and iTouches. You’re there, and when they are ready they start to communicate with you because you’ve made it easy.

There are so many more ’seeds’ of engagement now with social media and social networking, compared to the old days of only one landing page per 45-day sales campaign. And now every touch point can be counted and used for gentle encouragement to offer help or for the Shy Yes to contact you when they want to know more.

As I’ve said many times before, none of this replaces traditional marketing efforts. Those will always be with us and always have value. I’m simply introducing a new perspective on other ways to find qualified prospects from the web using the various social tools now at hand.

Tom

One reaction I’ve noticed while performing social media assessments and giving social marketing strategy presentations to prospective clients is the worry in their eyes when the discussion comes to creating content for a multitude of online social media distribution channels.

B2B companies that already have a fairly well-defined traditional marketing group think a particular way, so it’s important to align your thinking with their current focus on product announcement dates, press releases, white papers, conferences, and so forth. If you can position your social media strategy to align with what they already know, you’re more likely to get them thinking about what’s possible instead of putting up roadblocks. All too often their worrying comes after you explain ‘how and why’ to use a variety of social media channels like Twitter (micro-blogging), blogging, audio and video podcasting, and various RSS tools to help with Internet visibility (and engagement, if they have a social networking site already or plan one soon).

One of their concerns is how in the world will they come up with content for all those channels (not to mention, who’s going to do that) and another is when to use all those social media channels of distribution. I have a simple way that gets folks enrolled.

A traditional marketing person’s ‘style’ of thinking is often calendar-based, meaning they look at least 6-12 months out (especially given they have a yearly budget to spend). I suggest that they consider two ‘types’ of content workflow, one that somewhat synchronizes with the scheduled marketing events for the year, and the other being more asynchronous, to fill in the gaps. Big waves and little waves, I call them.

The big waves utilize variations of existing content to repurpose and retransmit the news about the product release/update into your blog, Twitter, and one or more audio/video podcasts (either at your site or ‘with’ others who podcast about your products to their audience).

A specific scenario might be: Collaborate with the Product Marketing manager who knows everything about the product to get the typical white paper that is such a part of traditional B2B marketing efforts. Think about the subtopics discussed in that white paper and write one or more blog articles which relate to, and link to, the white paper. Consider some creative way to write short, text-based interviews with the white papers’ author(s) or related industry experts. This is a great way to start and gives you a segue from yammering on about the technical nature of the product to actually focusing on how ‘users’ are adopting the product. Keeping a keen eye on comments and emails will guide you in the direction to take those blog articles.

And remember, every time you blog also post a Twitter note about the blog(s) and, where appropriate, mention the availability of that white paper with a URL to it.

Next, schedule an audio or video podcast on the product (or service) release. Just have a conversation about the product, not a word-for-word redo of the white paper. Think about how Robert Scoble does his interviews with product managers and CEOs of smaller companies. It’s just 10-20 minutes and they talk about topics relevant to the product and how it makes life easier for the customer in some fashion. You will, of course, post a short blog article with a summary of the podcast and a link to it, as well as a Twitter with a URL to the podcast and/or blog article.

An important strategy to keep in mind: Whether you’re doing podcasts yourself or with a outside vendor, make certain they show up well in the search engines. Make sure the RSS feed is syndicated to all the major RSS aggregators so you get maximize visibility of that content. If you’re expecting a lot of traffic and comments you may want to configure a ROOM in Friendfeed.com or some other tool for monitoring the comments.

The idea here is to post content that’s fairly synchronous with your existing marketing activities. I say ‘fairly synchronous’ because it’s critical that the posts be thoughtfully timed. There are often reasons to post slightly before or slightly after the event. For example, traditional marketing activities include real-world social events you attend, like mixers, conferences and so forth, that are planned for the year. These are always good opportunities to blog, Twitter, post pictures, capture short videos and so forth, all aligned with your existing calendar of activities.

Now for the little waves of social media content. Just think of these as ’salt and pepper’ to keep alive the listener’s ear. If you already have one or two posts regularly coming from your big-wave planned marketing activities, then you might not see the need to sprinkle in little-wave blog posts and Twitters. But if your product release dates are, say, once a month or less, then you’ll want to find ways to talk about what’s going on in the industry, find out what other bloggers are saying about your product or company (setting up a custom room in FriendFeed may help here) and repost the ones that have some bearing on the product, especially those that mention creative ways to use your products and services.

As an aside, give the following a read for helpful hints in Tweeting news about your company.

Keep in mind that anyone who is reading RSS feeds like blogs and Twitter is reading a number of them at once. They are often scanning for news of interest and, at times, resending what they find to others. Regardless of how often you post for your company, make it educational, directly useful and/or highly interesting. If you don’t have anything that day or that week, breathe, relax and focus on when you will have something. I know that the mantra is post often and be regular, but I don’t think that’s all that useful, especially for B2B-type companies to be that stringent. It’s better to focus on quality of what you’re creating versus quantity. This isn’t a race it’s about educating and engaging with others and this is what will get their attention so you’re remembered.

If you have any questions or have a different opinion, be sure to let me know.

Tom

A question came my way recently about outsourcing using Elance.com as a means of reducing costs for the client’s video-editing requirements in his business. Elance is an Internet company that makes it possible for people with computer skills anywhere in the world to connect with people who need work done. It’s like a people version of Ebay – you can see the results in the feedback on work done for other clients from each company offering to work for you.

Outsourcing isn’t a new concept. All businesses use contractors for work and the idea is to keep more profits. Everyone knows that American businesses have been outsourcing IT to India and China since the ’90s, to varying levels of success. We’ve all heard customer-support outsourcing debacles, but don’t let those stories keep you from outsourcing. A small business has a great chance of being successful with outsourcing. 

What’s not known is how widespread outsourcing has become for small businesses for projects of every conceivable type of work, from office administration, graphics, web development, creating content, copyediting, SEO, bookkeeping, to software development and media development (such as audio and video editing). Make a visit to Elance.com and do a search for anything you’re interested in, and it’s likely you’ll find a dozen companies willing to bid on your work, regardless of its size.

The point: Big business is not the only one on the path to leveraging the benefits of outsourcing. It’s equally beneficial, if not moreso, to small businesses, but you’ll likely have to learn many of the same lessons that large businesses learned over the last 10 years about cultural sensitivity. You may enjoy a movie called Outsourcing because it’s an interesting story with many cultural insights.

I worked with outsourcing teams at Motorola in the mid-’90s, including setting up teams in India and China and then interfacing with them in a way that we all understood each other well enough to accomplish various project goals. And I’ve worked with a team in the Ukraine and other places in Eastern Europe for smaller projects for my own business. I use Elance periodically for projects, and I’m currently taking bids on a project to write a requirements document for a multimedia-based iPhone application.

So back to the question about reducing costs in a business that needs video editing. I am familiar with this client’s business, and the nature of his video projects is pretty much the same from project to project.  It’s likely he can outsource some of his editing tasks; however, he will need to learn how to bid on projects with people remote from Austin, Texas, and, more importantly, learn how to collaborate with people whose native language is likely not English.

It’s all about the relationship, and as we all know, relationships take time to build and they don’t always go as planned. The difference in working with contractors on Elance is it takes a lot more time to grasp the nuances of the relationship, especially if you’re using only email (therefore, I’m always suggesting Skype). Sometimes this is not an issue for short-term, simple projects that take only a few hours, but for longer-term, on-going work you’ll need to be aware of the relationship-development time factor.

Consider your initial projects as a kind of testing period. Look for smaller chunks of a project that you can portion out and see what it’s like to work with people overseas.  This will help you see the time required to develop a relationship through the email that you send back and forth. For example, on my iPhone applications I’m seeking bits on just the requirements development piece. I’m willing to risk $100-$200 for a firm that says they specialize in this area to see how it goes in creating the specification for the application. Typically the hourly rate will range from $10-$20 or more from companies in India or Eastern Europe. This is low enough for me to potentially have two companies collaborating to put a requirements document together so I’m sure I’m getting a range of ideas about what’s possible.

Sometimes I recommend using Skype for both chat and audio/video calls to help you get a better feel for the person on the other end. For video editing I think it’s going to be imperative to have text, audio and video chat capabilities with the person(s) you’re developing a relationship with. One simple trick to check on the status and ‘feel’ of a project early on is have the editor point their webcam at the screen to show you some incremental results. This will help you feel more connected and keep the feedback loop tighter.

You might not do this for a simple 1- to 2-hour project. For that, email is fine. But if you’re doing something like video editing you want to get to know the contractor so the end result is more what you’re looking for. If you think about it, it’s the same thing you’d do if you hired a local editor. You’d meet him or her for coffee and just talk some. So you’re going to need to do something like this in a more abbreviated form with Skype calls or Skype video to develop rapport.

In summary:

• Take a project and break it into steps and find pieces you feel comfortable outsourcing
• Get familiar with the process of bidding on eLance with something you’re not in a time crunch on
• Remember, you’re working with someone whose first language is not English, and even if they are taught English (as are people in India) their culture and work behaviors will be different from yours

Outsourced projects often take 2-3 times longer to complete. This isn’t always the case but quite often you’ll feel a sense of frustration when dealing with people in companies overseas. Very often those companies are 1- to 3-person businesses – just like yours. Remember, you live in a different time zone and culture. You’re hopefully going to get quality work at a lower price, so be patient if they take longer than expected to get back with you and complete the job. Focus on the relationship and communicating clearly and even-handedly.

Be willing to fail. In some cases you might start a project with a company and, despite your best efforts, you don’t get the results you want. Be willing to let that go and work with another. I’ll say it again: It takes time, and you know how relationship-building can go.

A word of caution: If you notice that you’re not having good luck with local contractors you might take a close like at what’s going on on your end before you try outsourcing. I say this because people are people and even though they are located in a different country they can sense when they are working with someone who is difficult in some way. You could end up with the same experiences in outsourcing as you have with contractors locally.

This may seem like a lot to keep in mind. Sorta like the first time you go on a date and you’re gettting all kinds of advice from others about how to proceed. That’s my point, though. You’re building a relationship with someone to perform important work for you. Make it clear that you believe ‘they’ are important and be patient (very patient) as you communicate in various forms.

Tom