Sessions has a year-round (3 semesters) enrollment model, graduation certificates that are presented monthly and classes that can be enrolled in anytime for enrolled students.  So his use is everyday for the various tools Session employs (blog, micro-blog and social networks) to connection to the audience.

What’s the biggest obstacles for the growth of social media presence for Sessions?  Scott says ‘patience’, he sees the the education product characteristics is not the commodity of a fast moving consumer good with a low price point.  His effort is to get subscribers to engage in all areas in a way that they appreciate and have a value associated with the Sessions brand.

Scott has determined that for Sessions, there is a way to use social media to establish a lifetime value with the audience – education is pretty much a one-shot sale in most cases.  The maturation of the relationship allows a prospect for Session.edu to become a student, attend classes and graduate into the business community.  At some point he can trust alumni to evangelize the Sessions.edu product and he does not find that they need to scrub or moderate content.

Community members come to the Sessions presence on Facebook, he has to be sensitive that they may all come for different reasons; some are prospects and others are graduates – it’s why the Facebook audience gets a cultural message in that channel and not a selling message.  They do then migrate the graduate user base to another social network, one more business oriented.

What does Scott identify as key tactics to designing a successful social media presence? 

• Quality vs. quantity needs to be a central objective 
• Sincerity is important
• It’s called social media for a reason, business need not abuse the trust the consumers gives you 
• Be persistent – social media is not a set and forget proposition
• Tactically, don’t over think it – get the content out there, do a soft launch and get started

Play / Download Scott Chappell / Session College Episode 2 Podcast Here

You can find Session College at Sessions.edu and Scott is available at scott@sessions.edu.

This is the final episode of the two part podcast with Scott Chappell.  Guy Powell and I want to thank him; we appreciate his perspective and taking the time to share it with us in our podcast interview!

Here are links to material related to the interview that you may find useful; the entire conversation in one extended recording and soon, a transcript of the conversation

Play / Download Scott Chappell / Sessions College Entire Episode Podcast Here

Read / view the Scott Chappell / Sessions College Podcast Transcript at Scribd.com

We’re very interested in your perspective on the topic and, if you have a favored presenter or person who can add to the conversation, please let us know – we’re looking to interview him / her and put it up here!

Thank you again to you our listeners – hope you enjoyed the effort and work we put into it!

The Podcast and Credit For Where Credit is Due – This transcript was developed from a live interview on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 between Scott Chappell, Guy Powell and Steven Groves using FreeConferenceCall.com.

The podcast interview was downloaded and processes in Audacity, which is available from SourceForge.com, and with ‘4toFloor.wav’ music loop from member ‘Rooks’ and posted at SoundSnap.com.

The transcripts are provided courtesy of Institute for International Research, the organizers of the MeasureUp Conference.

The Introduction Voice Talent is Ms. Cynthia Propst.

Related posts:

• Increase Touch and Engagement Using Social Marketing – Scott Chappell / Sessions College Podcast Interview
• The ROI of Social Media Series – Marcel LeBrun CEO of Radian6 Podcast Episode 3
• Managing Hundreds of Millions of Messages – Microsoft Marketing in AsiaPac

Scott talks about how social media is used by Sessions.edu and how it has supported an almost 10 fold expansion of the number of monthly ‘touches’ with the Sessions Design College audience of prospective student, current students and graduated alumni.  Scott explains how he has embraced the premise of Marshall McLuhan in that “the medium is the message”, but he cautions that too many contacts to an audience can cause them to disengage.  In Sessions case, while social media has allowed them to dramatically increase the number of messages, the reality is that there needs to be quality and sincerity otherwise you run the risk of turning off the audience.

The biggest understanding that has come from the use of social media is that a successful launch has to be gradual and that he needed to segment the conversation to be able to increase the touch points.  Sessions.edu established messaging in three different categories – Culture, Industry & Sell.  With this segmented messaging schema, Scott talks about how each has a particular characteristic and supports a conversation or connection in a specific area of the relationship with the audience.  The recipients have been very open to the connections because each communication is about something different and Scott says it has ‘enriched the conversation’ and allowed the brand to flourish.

Under lessons learned, he cites trying to use every social tool for everything – he’s come to recognize that the content has to match the discussion and the relationship you want to have with your audience.  He suggests that your listeners, followers, and community members need to get something from the conversation and that is a more a function of the quality of the conversation and message than the quantity of messages delivered.

Play / Download Scott Chappell / Sessions College Episode 1 Podcast Here

To get our posts as they happen, follow us on Twitter (@ROISocialMedia) or subscribe to SocialMarketingConversations.com via email or your RSS Reader.

To support the effort in uncovering the ROI question in social media, we’ve set up a Fan Page at Facebook, and a LinkedIn Group.  Come join us and let us know what the pressing issues are in your efforts to determine an ROI in your social media presence!

Related posts:

• 5 Key Tactics to a Successful Social Presence – Scott Chappell / Sessions College Podcast Part 2 of 2
• How to Give Consumers All They Want From Your Social Presence – Ellen Stone / Bravo Networks
• Why Social Media is Not Just a Gimmick for Dell SMB

If you would have told me a year ago that a 90 year old company would be an innovator in enterprise social media, I’m pretty sure I would not have believed you.  After the time spent with Aneta, I can tell you that a 90 year old company is being really innovative in the enterprise deployment of social media and they’re showing a measureable ROI.

In the last two episodes we’ve covered elements of how PB has done it too.  First, they approached it from an understanding that social media is not a set-and-forget proposition; they recognized a need for needed a sustainable program that at the same time, did not inhibit individual participation.  They also understood that they needed to put some tools in place, watch key performance indicators (KPIs) and apply metrics, looking for the ROI; those efforts have led to a $300K saving in call-center deflections in a 3 month period.

I know that Guy and I are looking forward to connecting with her at the MeasureUp event in Chicago next month and to put a live presence with the enthusiastic personality she has  shown in the podcast series here.

In this episode Aneta lets us know that while they do set certain measures and metrics in place, they are certainly open to evaluating them and updating policy as PB learns what actually makes a difference to their customers and to the bottom line.   We open the discussion referring to the Twitter, Facebook and online forums that PB maintains, but Aneta tells us that social media at PB is not about an overarching corporate social presence. At the end of the day social media is about people connecting to people, and it needs to be a sustainable level of one-on-one social media interactions with PB employees taking the lead.

Aneta shares that she approaches her responsibility as someone whose job it is to think differently, a little outside the box, and to be a guide for PB to a more social future.  This perspective is what constitutes her biggest responsibility in working supporting the PB business units.  He position is not to handle the effort herself; she focuses in on strategy, training and supporting the PB staff, the business units get to decide how and where in the social media ecosphere to reach out to their audience.

We close this three part series with Aneta sharing aspects of the process of social media measurement at PB.  As she sees it, the situation is similar to the early 90’s when corporations struggled to understand how best to develop and present a web presence; she suggests that right now is the time to establish a presence, explore the environment and measurement best practices.  Companies who do so today, and periodically adjust their business model along the way are going to be the winners in the new market model supported by social media.

She and the team can be found at Pitney Bowes on Facebook, @PBNews, @PBConnect and @AnetaH on Twitter, and she blogs at AnetaHall.com.    As we wrap up she disclosers her passion (and addiction) to social media and how she looks forward to the time in between session at the upcoming MeasureUp conference, after all, that is where the real connections get made a conferences don’t they!

Play / Download Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes Episode 3 Podcast Here

This is the final episode of the three part podcast with Aneta Hall.  Guy Powell and I want to thank her; we appreciate her perspective and taking the time to share it with us in our podcast interview!

Here are links to material related to the interview that you may find useful; the entire conversation in one extended recording and soon, a transcript of the conversation

Play / Download Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes Entire Episode Podcast Here

Read / view the Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes Podcast Transcript at Scribd.com

We’re very interested in your perspective on the topic and, if you have a favored presenter or person who can add to the conversation, please let us know – we’re looking to interview him / her and put it up here!

Thank you again to you our listeners – hope you enjoyed the effort and work we put into it!

the Podcast and Credit For Where Credit is Due – This transcript was developed from a live interview on Thursday, February 4, 2010 between Aneta Hall, Guy Powell and Steven Groves using FreeConferenceCall.com.

The podcast interview was downloaded and processes in Audacity, which is available from SourceForge.com, and with ‘4toFloor.wav’ music loop from member ‘Rooks’ and posted at SoundSnap.com.

The transcripts are provided courtesy of Institute for International Research, the organizers of the MeasureUp Conference.

The Introduction Voice talent is Ms. Cynthia Propst.

Related posts:

• Creating Sustainability and Providing Loose Governance Essential for Enterprise Social Media – An Interview with Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes – Podcast Episode 1
• A 3-Tiered Model for Measuring Social Media Success and How Social Media Saved Pitney Bowes $300K – An Interview with Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes – Podcast Episode 2
• Increase Touch and Engagement Using Social Marketing – Scott Chappell / Sessions College Podcast Interview

In this episode, Aneta talks with Guy Powell and myself about how the elements of a relevant online strategy for PB includes traditional elements, like before social media came to onto the scene, but now it has changed many of the ways PB structures campaigns to their audience.

In 2010 a major goal for PB is to bring structure to their investment in social media.  The investment includes technology, and organizational structure and people.  Aneta shares how PB now makes the effort to evaluate interactions relative to the ROI of the time and resources it takes to connect to the audience, ‘No more free lunch’ says Aneta.

She shares the 3 tiered model for measuring social media that PB uses, each have several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) beneath them.  The major categories are -

• Attention,
• Engagement, and
• Influence.

All these help understand the contribution to the leads, sales, and brand awareness for PB and it’s business units.

Aneta discusses how involvement with philanthropic campaigns has allowed PB to experiment with social media and develop an understanding of how to use social media, to monitor the interactions and to measure their results.  Early campaigns have been focused on philanthropic efforts, with the example of teaming with American Red Cross for the ‘Holiday Mail for Heroes’ campaign last year.  The effort connected US citizens to American Troops and Veterans around the 2009 Q4 Holiday Season.  

PB also investments in an extensive community driven customer support effort in their online forums.  Aneta suggests that it is hard to get a message out, if you are not ‘paying attention to your own backyard’ and responding to calls from the community for help and support – they just cannot hear the marketing message and they are unlikely to buy if they are not happy with your product. 

In order to encourage user to user support in the forums, PB staff monitors the questions and wait at least 24 hours before responding, allows time for research into the issue and to allow the community to support one another – PB believes this results in a substantial amount of call deflection to the user support center.

An ROI example she shares is that for every 5 visits to a specific answer posting in the forum or for every 25 visits to a general posting (figures from the book Groundswell) they have calculated that they have averted around 30,000 calls to the PB customer service center.  They estimate that every call into the customer support center costs about $10 USD, so they conservatively calculate that they’ve save over $300,000 in call deflection.  This consider this real ROI that is shared with all the business units leaders and helps drive the investment in social media.

Play / Download Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes Episode 2 Podcast Here

To get our posts as they happen, follow us on Twitter (@ROISocialMedia) or subscribe to StevenGroves.com via email or your RSS Reader.

To support the effort in uncovering the ROI question in social media, we’ve set up a Fan Page at Facebook, and a LinkedIn Group.  Come join us and let us know what the pressing issues are in your efforts to determine an ROI in your social media presence!

Related posts:

• Empowering a Team and Thinking Outside the Corporate Box = Success in Social Media – An Interview with Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes – Podcast Episode 3 of 3
• Creating Sustainability and Providing Loose Governance Essential for Enterprise Social Media – An Interview with Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes – Podcast Episode 1
• Increase Touch and Engagement Using Social Marketing – Scott Chappell / Sessions College Podcast Interview

As part of the series around the ROI of Social Media, and leading up to the 2010 MeasureUp Conference in Chicago next month, we interview Aneta Hall, the Emerging Media Manager at Pitney Bowes.  She is a presenter at the 2010 MeasureUp Conference in Chicago, where her topic is “From Fear to Trust – Employee Engagement in Social Media”.

Aneta introduces us to the processes Pitney Bowes (PB), as a 90 year old company, has adopted using social media to connect with prospects, customers, employees and stakeholders around their mail and information needs.  The changes have driven real change in the various business units, particularly as in the last 10 years they have acquired a variety of businesses.  PB now provides a broad range of solutions to the market, not only in mail instruments and document management, but also location intelligence, traffic pattern analysis, predictive intelligence, and relationship marketing.  Aneta shares how sees social media technology supporting the ability to tell the PB story to the market.

The role of the Emerging Media Manger at Pitney Bowes is to help the organization understand and constantly analyze the evolving landscape of social media.  In her role, Aneta teaches other how to use the technology and she often presents the model outlined in Chris Brogans’ awesome book, ‘Trust Agents’.  She also maintains the strategic roadmap for PB and is often glued to the PB Radian6 console, because of the value she places on listening to the conversation in social media versus trying to use social media as just another channel to broadcast the same messages used in traditional media.

Pitney Bowes is using the information Aneta manages for several of their business units.  As you might expect, some are more advanced than others in their use, but most are looking to up their social media investment in 2010 and take advantage of what social media can provide.

The major topic she finds herself discussing with business unit leaders is in the sustainability of the social media effort.  Aneta sees covering this issue as a key component of her work and that means the units find they need to invest in training, guidelines, tools and tactics that support users, and providing a ‘loose governance’ structure that does not stifle the conversation between PB and it’s audience.

Play / Download Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes Episode 1 Podcast Here

To get our posts as they happen, follow us on Twitter (@ROISocialMedia) or subscribe to StevenGroves.com via email or your RSS Reader.

To support the effort in uncovering the ROI question in social media, we’ve set up a Fan Page at Facebook, and a LinkedIn Group.  Come join us and let us know what the pressing issues are in your efforts to determine an ROI in your social media presence!

Related posts:

• A 3-Tiered Model for Measuring Social Media Success and How Social Media Saved Pitney Bowes $300K – An Interview with Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes – Podcast Episode 2
• Empowering a Team and Thinking Outside the Corporate Box = Success in Social Media – An Interview with Aneta Hall / Pitney Bowes – Podcast Episode 3 of 3
• Increase Touch and Engagement Using Social Marketing – Scott Chappell / Sessions College Podcast Interview

The first is the booming growth in the adoption of mobile, their application for placing orders on a variety of mobile platforms is growing rapidly.  Today you can use your Blackberry, Android, or iPhone to place an order from the 1800Flowers.com Mobile Gift Center in several categories for personal or business.

1800Flowers.com has not been afraid to try out new ideas has often been a first mover in many areas to stay connected to their audience and they try a lot of things, sometime uncertain of the outcome; case in point was the effort in creating a 1800Flowers.com store in the 3D social platform of Second Life, which they discovered was not the right platform at the time to connect them to their audience.

A success is the development of the ideal customer model, which they have named ‘Tina’. Tina is the aggregate persona of the ideal 1800Flowers.com customer, which embodies the characteristics of the buying behavior they see in the market overall.  Lewis shows us how they referenced Tina in the ‘Spot-a-Mom’ campaign leading up to Mothers Day in 2009.

To begin with, you need to know that Mothers Day is one of the two largest holidays for florists all year – Christmas is a bit bigger in terms of number of people ordering flowers and Valentines Day is third.   I know some of this because my Mother was an award winning florist and we always knew that during the big floral holidays, we were not going to see Mom for the weeks leading up to the holiday.

For Mothers Day 2009, 1800Flowers.com wanted to make sure that there was ‘No Mom Left Behind’, that all Mom’s, regardless of how they came by the title, we’re recognized with a gift.   Leveraging the 1800Flowers blog by Floral Lifestyle Expert Julie Mulligan, and with support by their PR organization, they undertook an outreach program 6 weeks before the holiday.  In the effort, they identified several types of bloggers, reached out to them and gave those bloggers a reason to talk to their readership regarding 1800Flowers.com.   By the time the holiday came around, they estimate that they had touched around 6 million prospective customer, even before they started the formal advertising campaign, and the net result was increased sales and more sales earlier than ever before.

When we asked ‘What metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) does 1800Flowers track ?’, Lewis tells us that there are three primarily -

• With sales revenue as a primary objective, they use promotion codes extensively.  A set of codes are given to partners, those partners can then provide them to their audience, and as an incentive for the consumer to use the code, it also provides a discount on a 1800Flowers.com order.
• A second measure is ‘untagged’ traffic.  This is the number of visitors to the site that have not been referred or do not use a promotion code, and
• the third is a ‘share of mind’ or the number of discussion going on about 1800Flowers.com vs. key competitors in the social media ecosphere

Twitter use is growing for them as well.  They have over 50 CSR on Twitter and part of their job is to look for people who have issues in their use of 1800Flowers and tweet some comment about it.  Lewis talks about how they set up the first-responder program, again just prior to the 2009 Mothers Day holiday and what their results were.  As a measure of the success of the program, they evaluated the tone and sentiment of messages in the week following the holiday and they found that of all the mentions on customers experiences around flowers and florists, around 2/3 were positive for 1800Flowers.com and in comparison, 3/4 of the comments made about a major competitor ranked negative.  A definitive measure?  No, but certainly it shows that 1800Flowers is listening and that the ability to provide a first responder capability can impact market perception.

Lewis wraps up the conversation explaining how they have implemented 3 Twitter channels, each focusing on a different type of conversation – one for communication / interactive (marketing & branding), one for customer service, and one as a discount channel.  The discount channel helps move perishable inventory at a savings for the customer and at a profit for 1800Flowers.com that might have been otherwise been taken as waste / shrinkage.

Play / Download Lewis Goldman / 1800Flowers.com Episode 2 Podcast Here

Our first episode with Lewis Goldman of 1800Flowers.com was well visited; here is the second and final episode, as well as the entire interview in a single podcast.  We’ll post the transcript as it becomes available – Guy Powell and I want to get the podcasts of the MeasureUp Conference speakers we were able to interview posted right away.  To get the updates to the posts as they happen, follow us on Twitter (@ROISocialMedia) or subscribe to StevenGroves.com via email or your RSS Reader.

To support the effort in uncovering the ROI question in social media, we’ve set up a Fan Page at Facebook, and a LinkedIn Group.  Come join us and let us know what the pressing issues are in your efforts to determine an ROI in your social media presence!

Here are links to material related to the interview that you may find useful; the entire conversation in one extended recording and soon, a transcript of the conversation (Update – 02/13/2010 – Transcript Posted)

Play / Download Lewis Goldman / 1800Flowers.com Entire Episode Podcast Here

View / Download Lewis Goldman / 1800Flowers.com Podcast Transcript at Scribd

We’re very interested in your perspective on the topic and, if you have a favored presenter or person who can add to the conversation, please let us know – we’re looking to interview him / her and put it up here!

Thank you again to you our listeners – hope you enjoyed the effort and work we put into it!

About the Podcast and Credit For Where Credit is Due – This transcript was developed from a live interview on Wednesday February 3, 2010 between Lewis Goldman, Guy Powell and Steven Groves on FreeConferenceCall.com.

The podcast interview was downloaded and processes in Audacity, which is available from SourceForge.com, and with ‘4toFloor.wav’ music loop from member ‘Rooks’ and posted at SoundSnap.com.

Introduction voice is Cynthia Propst.

Related posts:

• Social Media and e-Commerce: Fad or Fundamental Change? An Interview with Lewis Goldman of 1800Flowers.com
• What the 5 Customer Value Drivers and Top 5 Metrics are for the Dell SMB Social Presence
• The ROI of Social media Series – Marcel LeBrun CEO Radian6 Episode 5 – Final Episode

Lewis shares a little on the background of 1800Flowers.com founded in 1976 by Jim McCann (still Chairman and CEO), who started the venture when he was looking to extend his income.  They have been an mover in the online commerce space, even in the early days by support their customers by helping them ‘express and connecting with the important people in their lives.’  They do that by providing a quick and easy way to let people easily give flowers, chocolates and small gifts to one another using the phone or on the web.

Jims topic at the MeasureUp Conference is titled ‘Social Media and e-Commerce – Fad or Fundamental Change?’ and he shares some of the points he will present in his presentation, all based on his 14-year background in online, ecommerce initiatives.

He suggests that social media is not new and points out the community and ecommerce experience in the early days of the web ala Geocities and online networks.

The difference today, he points out, are 2 key component differences -  the demographics have changed on the web, and people are a lot more comfortable using ecommerce and accepting the recommendations of ‘trusted authorities’ from social media communities.

He observes that the use of Facebook is the next step beyond the use of email, albeit with rich media components.  He shares his own experiences in using Facebook to connect with friends and how he’s used the 1800Flowers.com product to extend a relationship and how the social media platform supports a more meaningful connection.

Play / Download Lewis Goldman / 1800Flowers.com Episode 1 Podcast Here

To support the effort in uncovering the ROI question in social media, we’ve set up a Fan Page at Facebook, and a LinkedIn Group.  Come join us and let us know what the pressing issues are in your efforts to determine an ROI in your social media presence!

Related posts:

• Being an Innovator in Social Media; 1800Flowers.com Experiences – an Interview with Lewis Goldman / 1800Flowers.com – Podcast Episode 2 of 2
• Undergoing Renovations – Please stand by
• Why Social Media is Not Just a Gimmick for Dell SMB

The sponsors deserve a lot of thanks – you all helped make the event possible and you contributed generously to the mission of OTEF; Microsoft BizSpark, Infusionsoft, Wells-Fargo, Osborn Maledon, C-Scan Technologies, City of Tempe Community Development, Arizona Department of Commerce, Deru Internet, Phoenix Business Journal, HSL Financial, Gangplank, Digestif, Sacks PR, BusinessWire, and BrainSavers all made meaningful contributions.  Metro Studios and Essential Event Technologies made service and in-kind donations as well

The speakers, the breakout session presenters, the staff at ASBA and Joan Kerber-Walker all deserve some thank too.  Chuck Reynolds did a great website, Justin Crossman produced a great logo, Melissa Balkan / StrongDesign gave us a program I know I used every minute.There are probably a dozen or so other people that made contributions I did not mention, but the sponsors all helped make the event possible with their generous donations of money, resources or in-kind products and services.  All of which I know are mentioned at www.AZEntreprenurship.com

What’s next? a well deserved rest (I’m in Claypool Hill, Virginia as I write this, visiting friends) and then back to the work of launching Silent Dispatch, looking at next years event (promising to be event bigger & better) and enjoying the upcoming holiday with my family.  OTEF’s work for next spring is set it seems, looks like the event did it’s job by raising enough to fund a program next year in the community.

See you all soon.

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