Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Social CRM: The New Engagement Realm

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Hundreds of marketers attended the Integrated Marketing Summit this week to learn about how the business of marketing is changing and how to effectively reach their customers. Reside’s Co-Founder, Eric Scheel, presented on Social CRM, an emerging topic that is important for marketers to understand and evangelize throughout their organizations. Eric’s presentation illustrates how Social CRM goes beyond Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and gives a unique opportunity for companies to engage, differentiate, innovate and grow.  Feel free to view and download Eric’s presentation, “Social CRM: The New Engagement Realm,” and see for yourself how Social CRM tools can drive brand loyalty, monitor brand health and inspire innovation.

Join Reside at the Integrated Marketing Summit

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

This year’s Integrated Marketing Summit in Minneapolis is approaching quickly, and is sure to be a valuable event for sales and marketing professionals interested in leveraging Social Media. Reside’s Co-Founder and CTO, Eric Scheel, will be sharing his expertise in Social CRM with a presentation that illustrates the innovative opportunities businesses have to engage with their customers through Online Communities, Customer Portals and Innovation Sites. The event is held on Tuesday, May 25th at the Hilton Minneapolis, which includes all speaker sessions, keynotes, meals and a Happy Hour Networking Reception. Come see the trends that are radically changing the landscape of sales, marketing and service in both B2B and B2C organizations!

Detailed information about the event and speakers can be found here

Register today and save 30% by using the following discount code: RESMN10

Hope to see you there!

2009: The Tweetest Year Ever

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Could the social media trend in 2009 be explained in 140 characters or less? For those of you tweeting out there, you could make it happen. For those of you who have yet to grasp the Twitter world or need some more explanation on how much impact one tweet or a Facebook post can have, there is still some  time to learn. Let’s first see how social media has impacted the past year, and then look at what the predictions are for social media in 2010.

To show just how big of an impact social media has made in our world, consider some of the biggest news stories of the year. Some of the top breaking news stories of 2009 spread simultaneously as the event was unfolding via Twitter. This includes stories such as the Miracle of the Hudson River, where the first news and pictures broke over Twitter accounts, as well as the death of Michael Jackson. And who can forget the rapid spread of Susan Boyle’s amazing talent, gaining close to 83 million views on YouTube? 

Social media also added a creative spin to some marketing campaigns. The low-budget film, “Paranormal Activities” turned into a worldwide success and illustrated how powerful social media can be. The campaign had fans demand to see the movie through Facebook and Twitter. The “Paranormal Activities” social media campaign centered on attracting  movie watchers to share their eagerness and excitement about the movie across social media sites; once 1,000,000 people demanded to see the film on the Facebook fan page, there was a wide release of the movie. This social media campaign proved to save money and hit the right market. Will future movie campaigns go the social media route to advertise and create buzz?

There are many predictions as we enter a new year regarding the financial markets, the economy, even Tiger Woods’ social life. This year we cannot hide from the social media predictions of 2010, something that couldn’t be found a decade ago! Here are some interesting predictions I came across:

1. Social media sites will become more exclusive. Users will begin to “hide” information in order to get more value out of their networks and filter out the clutter. This creates more of a niche for organizations and marketers to reach the right consumers.

2. Corporations will leverage social media. More organizations will follow in Best Buy’s footsteps by using a social media outlet like Twelpforce  to cut costs and serve customers more effectively.

3. Social media becomes more mobile. The obsession of constantly being connected has not subsided, and the restrictions on social networking at organizations have increased. As a result, sales of smart phones continue to skyrocket to feed the social media addiction. We will continue to see more and/or better versions of social media pages, and an increase of accessing these sites via mobile devices.

The use of social media has boomed in 2009 with sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and it is exciting to hear predictions on how the use of social media will continue to increase and improve in 2010.

Here’s to creating buzz with 140 characters in 2009, and staying connected in 2010!

What Would Google Do?

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Just finished reading Jeff Jarvis’ What Would Google Do? The books premise is how the Google business model can be used in nearly all aspects of business and society from airlines to religion. The key elements of a Google model are:

  • Give control to your clients.
  • Be free.
  • Act fast.
  • Iterate.
  • Leverage the wisdom of crowds.
  • How to get ‘Google Juice’ to juice your popularity, links, etc.

The first part of the book is a great read. While it does borrow on a number of other books and principles including the Cluetrain Manifesto, it continues to emphasize the nature of business today and how the influence of crowds and social networks of the Internet are changing the way businesses interact with their clients and how small voices can make tremendous impact on huge and entrenched industries.

While many of the examples seem far fetched or a matter of extreme optimism, it’s refreshing to think that companies will actually start to behave and act like human beings; and treat their customers as intelligent and thoughtful. Just think if we could eleiminate monopolies and oligarchies to achieve open competition, communication, ideas, and democracy across business, social structures, and politics? Now that is some juice worth drinking!

Reside Rocks the TEKNE Awards

Monday, November 9th, 2009

 Reside’s support of the high tech industry included being a Platinum Sponsor at the 2009 Tekne Awards held in late October. The event was inspiring, a great chance to see some of Minnesota’s most cutting-edge companies and products. I was also impressed by the talented students who were chosen as scholarship finalists. I wanted to share this video clip of Reside’s Matt Johnson (MJ) being interviewed on site at Tekne.

 http://www.vimeo.com/7420498

Reside looks forward to continuing to support the Minnesota High Tech Association and the Tekne Awards

Join Reside at Dreamforce

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Dreamforce is fast approaching and Reside is planning for a successful trip to San Francisco in November (Nov. 17-20). We’ll be sponsoring a pod within the 12,000-attendee Expo at the Moscone Center and look forward to meetings with clients and prospects who will all be there eager to learn what’s next from Salesforce.com. Join us as we uncover more power to meet business needs in the cloud. And the performance by the Black Crowes is sure to make it a memorable event.

If you’re interested in attending Dreamforce, Saleforce.com’s seventh annual user and developer global gathering or you’d like to learn more about Reside’s participation in the event, go to http://www.reside.biz/dreamforce09.html.There are a couple days left for prospects and clients of Reside to enjoy a $100 discount off of the regular conference cost. So check it out now!

If you’re already planning on attending, please send an email to Tina Puente (tpuente@reside.biz). Tina handles business development for Reside and will be working hard to make sure we have a chance to see all of our clients and prospects in person while we’re at Dreamforce.

Tweet and They Will Give

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Just read an interesting article from Fast Company on how non-profits are using Twitter to raise funds. Most notably the organizations that are Tweeting didn’t intend it to be a fund raising activity but rather a chance to interact and communicate with their audiences. However; it comes at no surprise that this type of real-time communication drives contributions and giving.

Let’s look at the traditional model of fund raising for a non-profit. The yearly drives, the direct mail detailing desperate financial woes, give now or we go under. As a contributor to several non-profits it always irks me when I have no clue what is being done with the green backs. Especially the smaller non-profits. This might sound judgmental, rude, or selfish but the point I’m driving at is we all give to movements and causes that we are passionate about. But if I don’t know what’s going on, how do we keep the passion.

Non-profits are quickly learning that the best way to raise funds is to make it personal and timely. Let us know what’s going on. What is happening. Where do you need help today. It’s that personal timely connection that brings us into the field. We can see, taste and smell the village of an impoverished child, the cold of the homeless family, the despair of refugees. Give us that and we will be engaged. You’ll barely have to ask and our checkbooks will open. Just point us in the right direction.

For profits should take note. Make it real, timely and informative. Empathize with us or get us involved. Its all about relationships and trust. You’ll barely need to ask for the sale.

Cloud services beat economical odds

Monday, August 17th, 2009

In economical conditions like these, no company goes untouched.  And though Reside has certainly felt the impact of the changing marketplace, it’s been interesting - and affirming - to see our business sustained and growing during a challenging economy.  In fact, we’ve just closed on two of our top sales months in the 8+ year history of our firm.  Is it just a matter of luck?  A fluke?  I’ve been watching carefully from my “marketing” vantage point, and I truly don’t think so.

As a provider of Web services, Reside has seen consistent year-over-year sales growth since our start in 2001.  But in this especially unique economy, Reside’s expertise in cloud services (Cloud Computing) seems to have secured for us a unique competitive edge.  [Learn more about Cloud Computing here.]  We didn’t plan our strategy around the economy.  In fact, our strategy has always centered on bringing maximum value to our clients, using the Web.  And with the maturation of cloud offerings, it only makes sense for our services to focus in this area.

Growing demand from our clients and prospects points to the validity of the cloud model and its ability to truly deliver value to businesses.  And considering some of the following statistics and predictions on the topic, it’s not surprising that we should be experiencing a boom in sales at this time when companies are seeking more value for less spend.  Take a look:

Gartner predicts that cloud services will vault from $46.4 Billion in 2008 to $150.1 billion by 2013.  CIO Magazine tells us that 47% of CIO’s surveyed are using the cloud or researching it.  And Nucleus Research has established that “Speed to ‘go live’ is five times faster in the cloud,” and also states that “Cloud development offers more rapid time to value, lower cost and greater ongoing flexibility [compared to traditional software or Web solutions].”

So, is our business strategy economy-proof?  Certainly none of us can predict the future.  But judging from the recent past, and looking toward the emerging offerings in the cloud, it seems clear that experienced service providers in this niche can expect to grow.  It’s a good time to have your head - and business - in the clouds.

What could Trent Reznor and Nielsen possibly have in common?

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Nielsen recently released a report on consumer trust in brands; what resources do they trust the most, least, etc.  The report proves that consumers trust recommendations from people they know the most, followed by opinions posted online, then brand websites.  Similar to this data, I was reading a very interesting blog post by Trent Reznor, the lead singer and founder of the band Nine Inch Nails, where he states that the most effective way of marketing (the only marketing that matters) is word of mouth advertising.  Coincidence?  I think not.   Trent goes on to discuss successful marketing of a new unknown artist starts by establishing your goals, who you are, what you want to accomplish (your brand promise).

It seems so simple, right?  It is - if your goals are clearly defined, you know who you are, what you stand for, and have a good product.  In that case, word of mouth advertising will be your best friend.  It doesn’t matter if you’re an unknown band trying to garner your first fan or a multi-national corporation building a new-media marketing plan.  The days of personal recommendation are back.  People like to pass on great experiences - be they with good customer service or killer music.

Take it from Trent Reznor and Nielsen - word of mouth advertising is the most trusted and only marketing that matters.  Before “joining the conversation” (over-used social media buzzwords), take a look internally and make sure you know who you are and what you stand for first.  If that’s clearly defined (and right), people will do all the marketing that matters for you.

trust_in_advertising

Teach your Landing Pages to be More Social (Media)

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

As I would expect from a company that is a leading provider of marketing tools for the web, Eloqua knows a thing or two when it comes to building relationships with prospective clients. They have also done a couple of simple (some might say obvious) things to ensure that their marketing campaigns are as effective as possible.

Color me impressed when opened one of their recent email marketing blasts. When I did this, here’s what I landed on:

Eloqua Landing Page

Eloqua Landing Page

Whoa! Now this is a landing page that’s all business (social business, that is). No extraneous verbiage here to dissuade you from taking another action.

Here’s a couple of thoughts I have on this page:

  • Eloqua doesn’t expect the user to make a purchase exclusively from the email, so there is no need to have sales copy on the page.
  • There is more value to Eloqua for you to pass-it-on to your friends and colleagues, which makes social media a natural fit.
  • If you’re interested, why not purchase a copy of the book by clicking on the Amazon link.
  • And, oh, if you are interested in learning more about Eloqua’s platform, check out these videos at the bottom of the page.

This is a great landing page because all the actions they present you with either:

  • Position Eloqua as an expert (book chapter download)
  • Help promote Eloqua (social media)
  • Generate direct revenue (book sales)
  • Move you down the sales funnel (viewing videos)

Anyaction you take on this page (save for closing it outright) is beneficial to Eloqua. This means that by adding some simple social media links to their landing pages, Eloqua has enabled their prospects to help them broaden their marketing reach.

As Fred Wilson of Twitter recently said, Twitter’s value is in “The Power Of Passed Links”. Looks like Eloqua got the message.