So, full disclosure on this post, the new collaborative networking tool I’m talking about is RGlobe and I am engaged with RGlobe as a consultant on their marketing communications. But I would still endorse the product concept even if I wasn’t working with them as they’ve hit on something really terrific for sales professionals.

Though they haven’t officially launched, RGlobe is working with their first enterprise customers and several analysts are extremely excited about the product. (Check out this upcoming event on October 7 with Forrester Analyst Tim Harmon in which the RGlobe CEO will be participating: Emerging Technology Trends for Channel Sales and Partner Marketing.)

RGlobe is the first company to offer enterprises a private collaborative selling network that allows their sales professionals in-house to network and collaborate on deals with their partner companies. Partner leveraging has long been an issue with channel partnership models because of inefficient processes and security risks in sharing information across partner sales teams. RGlobe addresses these issues with their private collaborative selling network allowing users to connect and communicate across their partnerships for real-time collaboration.

An enterprise builds their private collaborative RGlobe network and invites their partners to join. That enterprise then  instantly increases its social capital by expanding its prospecting funnel to include all their partners who they now have connectivity with through the RGlobe Network.  All of the sales and biz dev professionals within the enterprise company are now aligned by account coverage and competency with all of their counterparts at each partner. But the prospecting funnel expansion is mutually exclusive. The partner companies benefit from being on the enterprise’s RGlobe Collaborative Selling Network because they are able to connect, communicate and collaborate with the enterprise’s internal social capital pool, but they have no access to any of the enterprises other partners on the Network. Only the enterprise’s sales teams are able to connect with others across all their partners within the RGlobe Network, thus increasing the number of individuals they can now connect and communicate with considerably.

RGlobe utilizes many of the common social networking features to allow users across partnerships to collaborate efficiently and effectively. For sales professionals, being able to connect with their partners sales pros who sell into the same companies and industries offers terrific potential for them to share information with each other that will help them close deals. The RGlobe solution also encourages and facilitates the assisting of other users with User Incentive Recognition and a Trust and Value Rating System. It’s very much a Whuffie Factor enabler! And if you read my blog often you know I’m a big believer of the Whuffie Factor concepts.

Check out RGlobe for yourself. RGlobe will also be in San Francisco during Oracle Open World later this month–they’re taking meetings with companies interested in viewing RGlobe.

A recent research report put out by Knowledge Networks last week seems to miss the point of using social media for business. “Social Media Fails To Manifest As Marketing Medium, Report Likens Twitter To TiVo: More Hype Than Reality,” an article posted at MediaPost News Online Media Daily summarizes the findings.

From the article:

“Social media has reached critical mass, with 83% of the Internet population now using it – and more than half doing so on a regular basis – according to new research being released today by Knowledge Networks. But for all the media industry’s hype and buzz surrounding social networks, microblogs, and other social networking platforms, the genre has failed to become much of a marketing medium, and in the opinion of the Knowledge Networks’ analysts, likely never will. The report, “How People Use Social Media,” finds that social media is having a profound impact on the way people connect with each other, but that it’s not becoming a very meaningful way for people to connect with brands, or advertising promoting brands.”

Read the rest of the article, it just really seems like they’re missing the point of social media technologies and how people actual think and behave regarding purchase processes.

Social media technologies and sites are brilliant for engaging in the market conversation. The problem is, too many companies are just creating noise in social media spaces because they’re trying to use it to “advertise.” People want to connect, they don’t want to be talked at–that’s why the Do Not Call, spam filters, and junk mail delisting services emerged.

Asking people if they turn to social media when making purchase decisions seems a rather ridiculous question. We already know that very, very often, especially the larger the ticket price item, people turn to other people for purchase advice (as mentioned in the article word of mouth is #1.)

How would you answer this question: “Do you turn to social media when making a purchase decision?”
My answer: “No. I turn to people and communities I know and trust to give me purchase advice. Oh, but wait, I ‘talk’ with those people and communities often using social media, but the medium is not what I turn to, I turn to the people and communities and I just need to use the “tools”/mediums by which those people and communities converse.”

1. People are interested in their wants and needs and how to fulfill those. They don’t care about products.
2. People are using social media to connect with other people and a lot of the time that means they are talking about fulfilling wants and needs.
3. Sometimes people use social media as the “tool” to convey “word of mouth” (I wonder why Mr. Tice thinks WOM is a totally separate thing from social media? WOM means one person shares thoughts with another or group–the means by which they share thoughts could be face to face conversation, blog post, review on a website, Twitter, etc.)

Conversation marketing is working very well for many companies and it just so happens that many of the tools used in engaging in the market conversation are social media technologies

I just watched the movie Fight Club (again) and it inspired me to adapt Tyler Durden’s ‘8 Rules of Fight Club’ and create the ‘8 Rules of Conversation Marketing’. If you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, I highly recommend you do. So here we go…  

#1 The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.

#1 – The first rule of Conversation Marketing, is you do not market AT people.

Forget what you learned in Marketing 101.

Times have changed. People are no longer sitting back and having their wants and needs dictated to them. They are now speaking up and telling you. Listen to them.

Believe it or not, there are people out there that have a better understanding than you of how to improve your product/business/service, and also very willing to share it with you. Learn from them.

Your customers are also now closer to you than ever before. This creates an incredible opportunity to establish trust and create relationships with them. Be authentic in your communication. Fewer scripted emails. Quicker response times. Ask them questions. Share with them your process. Interact with them.

Conversation marketing practices provide for a two-way dialogue, where traditional marketing practices are one-directional, only sending information out. When a company opens itself up to having a two-way conversation—listening, speaking and sharing—with all audience members—Influencers, Participants and Listeners—the benefits are beyond what traditional approaches can provide.

#2 The second rule of Fight Club is, you DO NOT talk about Fight Club.

#2 – The second rule of Conversation Marketing, is you DO NOT market AT people.

This bears repeating. You must participate in the conversation with content that enhances the Influencers’ conversation topics, motivates Participants, and addresses the Listeners’ needs. If you just simply blast out your marketing messages via social media tools, you will be viewed as a SMAMer (Social Media Spammer) – losing the attention and loyalty of your audience. Be sure to interact with, not market at your audience.

#3 – If someone says stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over.

#3 – If someone says something, pay attention.

Here’s a great quote I came across:

“In the old days, brands wanted everybody to pay attention to them. Now, brands need to pay attention to everyone else.” – Anonymous

Listen to what is being said before joining the conversation. Find out what people are talking about, what they like/dislike and what’s being said about your company, your competitors and the overall industry. Learn from what you gather and participate in a way that addresses the current market conversation.

Be sure to also identify who are the ‘influencers’ behind those conversations. Understand where they converse (blog, twitter, conferences, etc.) and what their views are. At a point where you can actually add value to the conversation, participate.

#4 – Two guys to a fight.

#4 – Two or more people are needed to have a conversation.

Conversation Marketing is not one-directional. It’s about the dialogue. Many companies take the first step of posting, sharing, uploading, tweeting, etc. – but jump to the next initiative without paying attention to the conversations that emerge. If you ‘say something’ – be committed to listening and responding to others.

#5 – One fight at a time.

#5 – Participate where it makes sense, not just because it’s available.

Being everywhere can be dangerous as it can spread your resources thin. Remember, it’s about quality versus quantity. Sometimes it will make sense to get involved, other times it won’t. Have a clear understanding of why you would participate and the resources needed to do so. Have a strategy.

#6 – No shirts, no shoes.

#6 – Be transparent, be authentic.

Don’t be afraid to share your experiences—positive and negative—and your insights as you grow your company and evolve your product lines. It’s also OK to make mistakes as long as you explain/apologize/learn from them and communicate that. People appreciate transparency and authenticity. This type of interaction will add a personal touch to your brand that is greatly lost through mass-marketing.

#7 – Fights will go on as long as they have to.

#7 – Conversations will go on as long as they have to – monitor them.

Just because you’ve moved on to other things, doesn’t mean people have. Use monitoring tools to keep up-to-date on new developments of old topics/conversations you’ve had, as well as current topics. There are plenty of free and paid tools to help you monitor the conversations that take place.

#8 – If this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.

#8 – If you join the conversation, you must be committed to follow through.

Even if you don’t choose to get involved, the conversations about your product/service/industry will go on with or without you. Pretending they don’t is dangerous.

Just as bad is initially getting involved, but not following through. I’ve seen plenty of companies jump onto the hot new trend (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but after some time, fail to be active (or even reactive). To the audience, it’s as though you’ve set up a store, with the front door open, but no one is working inside.

This is why it is essential to have a strategy. Social media is not a strategy; social media are tools and locations where communication takes place and where you can interact with your audience. Social media should also not be looked at like a campaign.

Conversation Marketing identifies the people behind the market conversation, locations where they interact (online and offline), and how businesses can become qualified participants and influencers in that conversation. Creating a conversation marketing strategy is a holistic way to align your marketing efforts and be sure they support your business goals.

As Tyler once said, “Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on.”  So listen to them, learn from them, and get to know them. Otherwise, you may get knocked out… 

In the post, Shiv says:

“That its not enough to focus on social alone. That nurturing the conversations in the social realm are the starting point not the end game. That it is indeed about getting customers to influence each other to make positive purchasing and brand affinity decisions. That the core philosophies around social can and should be deeply integrated into a business. And that, the more holistically you look at social influence marketing – across all touch points digital and physical, the more likely are you to harness it for competitive advantage. It is the social ideas that matter more than social media. Ideas that harness social philosophies but create new outcomes and not just new tactics.”

Interesting, but…

1. A given–social media activities alone will not sustain a company.
2. “Nurturing the conversations in the social realm are the starting point?” I beg to differ. Market conversations take place everywhere at all different times. If by the “social realm” he means any location, on or offline, where people talk, then sure, but if it means the online world of social media only, nope. Social media is experiencing wide-spread adoption, but the whole world isn’t on there yet. Heck, the whole world isn’t even online and many of the most important market conversations still take place offline.
3. Agree–core philosophies around social media activities should be deeply integrated into a business. This isn’t new, though, as marketing practices have been working on becoming “integrated” with business goals/operations/functions for a long time now.
4. Not sure I’m understanding what was actually meant by the last two sentences, but perhaps I agree with it if it means that the market conversation really drives product innovation and business growth because the greater market conversation is talking about how to fulfill people’s wants and needs and not about what products need to have what features next or need to be created.

In December of 2007, Shiv wrote a post in which he defined Social Influence Marketing: “Social Influence Marketing is about leveraging social media at every stage of a marketing campaign, and it goes beyond the lifetime of the campaign too.”

So taking this definition and looking at the excerpt from his recent post it seems to me that it would be more holistic to think of utilizing social media tools and online conversation locations to engage with influencers, customers and prospects as a part of what your company offers rather than simply as an extension of a traditional marketing campaign. This would be a more inline with what we call Conversation Marketing:

The strategic and tactical ways in which a company chooses to participate/engage/interact in the market conversation. As opposed to the typical definition of Social Media Marketing, Conversation Marketing focuses on building mutually beneficial relationships with Influencers; responding to market conversation topics and initiating topics that do not include traditional marketing messages; extrapolating market conversation content to utilize as company/product proof points and to counter sales objections; and internalizing the market conversation for business growth.

What do you think?