Citizen Marketer 2.1

Aaron Strout

Do YOU Unconference?

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By now, I think nearly everyone has heard of an unconference. If you haven’t, it’s an event where a bunch of smart people get together and then self-organize around a series of topics that they vote on. M
ore importantly, if you haven’t been to an unconference, it’s high time you tried one. And in particular, the one you should really consider trying is coming up in two short weeks.
The unconference I’m talking about is of course ForumOne’s Online Community Unconference and it’s taking place in Mountainview, CA on June 10 at the Computer History Museum. Here are just a few reasons why you might consider coming:
  • They expect between 200-300 community pros — people that have lived and breathed community for years at Fortune 500 companies.
  • Because this is the unconference’s 4th year, ForumOne has had an opportunity to fine tune the experience to maximize the learning/networking aspects of the event.
  • Folks that attend are community managers, community directors, social media strategists, product managers, executive level management, community moderators, Web producers, community/product evangelists, marketing managers and directors of primarily enterprise companies.
  • Participating organizations include: Autodesk, Cisco, Civic Ventures, Collabnet, Diddit, Executive Networks, Get Satisfaction, Google, Hi5, Intel, Intuit,  LinkedIn, LiveOps, Microsoft, NetApp, NewGang Live, PARC, Rackspace, Salon.com, Scottrade, Social Edge, Symantec, TechSoup, Twine.com, Walmart.com and Yahoo!.

Find out more about what you’ll learn from from last year’s wiki (including session notes). If you’re a more visual person, here is a collection of attendee-generated pictures from last year’s event on Flickr.
What do I get out of this you ask? Nothing actually. But I’ve attended a couple of ForumOne’s unconferences in the past and they provided an opportunity for some wonderful learning AND networking. On top of that, Bill Johnston, the chief community officer for ForumOne, is a super smart and awesome guy.
Assuming I’ve piqued your interest enough to attend, head on over and sign up now before they run out of space!

Experts in the Industry: Shawn Morton (58 of 45)

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What can I say about Shawn Morton except that he’s a funny guy. A SMART and funny guy. One of my favorites from my 2009 SXSW experience. He’s also a senior consultant for social media at Nationwide Insurance — not an insignificant task given the current economic environment. In spite of all that, Shawn handles himself gracefully on Twitter and in person.

To that end, enjoy Shawn’s answers to the five Experts in the Industry questions:
In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
Wow, you know it will be tough for me to answer anything with just one sentence, but I’ll give it a shot. I am helping Nationwide Insurance become more connected to our customers, prospective customers, agents and employees using my experience in building web communities and aligning social tools with business objectives.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I started working with online communities in 1999 when I joined the team at TechRepublic.com. I was fortunate enough to be paired up with Bill Johnston (who was featured at #43 in this series) for a couple of years as we built and grew a thriving community for IT professionals. I worked on TechRepublic.com (and consulted with other sites within CNET Networks) for a total of 9 years. During that time, we developed one of the largest IT communities on the web.

For the last two years I was with CNET, I also built one of the first lifestreaming services, Profilactic.com, in my spare time.

In July of 2008, I relocated to Columbus to lead social media at Nationwide Insurance.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
If I can’t keep the money to fund social initiatives at Nationwide, I think I would invest it in Zappos.com. They understand the importance of putting your customers first in everything you do. The transparency and responsiveness that they’ve demonstrated using Twitter further reinforces their brand promise.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
There are so many people in the social media space that I admire, so it will be difficult to pick just one. I think Tony Hseih and Gary Vaynerchuk, who couldn’t be more different personality-wise, both really get the power that social media has to provide an exceptional, personalized customer experience. That is part of our strategy for using social media at Nationwide, so both of those guys serve as an inspiration in that regard.

Would you join a toothpaste community?
I think insurance and toothpaste have a lot in common when it comes to interest and enthusiasm. At Nationwide, we are doing a lot of things to get people interested in engaging with us online that don’t focus primarily on insurance.

First, we are using a variety of services (Radian6, Google alerts and blog search, Twitter search, etc.) to listen and respond to what customers are saying about us. Over time, we want social media users to know that they can reach out to us on their platform of choice. We think this will help us provide a better overall customer experience.

Second, we are establishing presences on the leading social sites (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube) and posting content from Nationwide events and sponsorships. So instead of trying to establish an insurance-focused community, we are engaging customers and prospective customers around their areas of passion. These include our relationships with the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ohio State athletics and The State of the Black Union.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
A lot of people ask me how a big company can get started in social media. I think the best thing any company can do is to start listening to the conversations that are already taking place about them on the web. Whether they are on personal blogs, discussion boards, Twitter or sites like Epinions, you have to start paying attention. Not all companies are ready to start participating, but if you start listening, you’ll get a better sense of the opportunities you have to use social media to respond and interact with your customers online.

Photo Credit: Jim Storer

Experts in the Industry: Bill Johnston (43 of 45)

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Not only is Bill Johnston, chief community officer at ForumOne Communications, a good friend, he’s also one of the best kept secrets in the world of social. When I tell you that Bill is one of the most knowledgable people in the space when it comes to online community, I’m not pulling your leg. In addition to overseeing Autodesk’s online community in a previous life, Bill now runs a community of communities at ForumOne with member companies like eBay, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft and Sony (heard of them)?

In case you needed another reason to like Bill, he’s also a great business partner. Over the past few years Bill and I have worked together on a number of different events

 and I can tell you that he is as fair as they come. Oh yeah, Bill also lives in So
noma, CA so he’s a good guy to know when it comes to things like 40th birthdays. To that end, I couldn’t resist including at least one of our pictures of Bill and me out with the rest of my friends and family that joined us for a wine country tour de force last October.
But enough about wine… off to Bill’s answers to the Experts in the Industry series:
In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I bring people together (online and in person) to collectively gain a better understanding of developing and growing online communities. I think I’m *pretty* good at it, but as a consequence of my work, I’m constantly humbled by the other practitioners in the space that I meet. I love working on community strategy and development, and I think that makes the difference… as hokey as it may sound, I really do love it.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I was employee #20 at TechRepublic.com (1999), which at that time was headquartered in Louisville KY. I have to admit that at first I didn’t really appreciate the “community” aspects of the TechRepublic community. Then one night I started following a thread between two WIndows NT admins – one in the states and one in Latin America. They were helping each other troubleshoot a really obscure configuration issue, and it dawned on me: We brought together two out of probably 20 people in the entire world that were capable of discussing and solving that particular problem. From that moment on, I was hooked.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Seriously? One that I would start. There are so many problems to solve and so many opportunities.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
Let’s just assume that Obama, Gore, et al. are in my top 5. How about #6 on my list? My wife is looking over my shoulder, so I’m going to say Oprah. Ok, now she’s gone. Although I love the media empire Oprah has created (I would love to become MOprah, or Man Oprah), I’m going to go with Richard Branson. He’s fearless, funny, innovative and always recovers from failure with a smile on his face, and he has driven the Virgin brand in many places (health, space, cola?!?) that it probably shouldn’t be, but it is successful nonetheless.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
No, but I *might* join a health community that had a dental health section. It’s hard to get excited about toothpaste, but easier to get excited about the good health in genreal, and (maybe) dental health. I think that is the problem with a lot of community and social media strategies… thinking in isolation vs. thinking holistically.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
Some pearls for the aspiring online community or social media strategist:

  • You learn by doing, so go do.
  • Self promotion and personal brand shouldn’t be your sole focus. Work on something larger and it will come back to you.
  • Trust yourself, especially as you start to gain experience. There are a lot of “experts” in the space, but none know your community as well as you probably do.
  • Thank those that help you and praise people that deserve it.
  • Be nice. I learned this the hard way, and sometimes still struggle with it.
By the way, Bill’s Twitter handle is @billjohnston.

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