“We should be on Twitter.”

“Does anyone know how to use YouTube?”

Those are not “social media strategies,” a panel of Valley consultants told a crowd of 40 at the Oct. 14 Social Media Club of Phoenix event at Jobing.com’s headquarters. Those are tactics.

Before a business gets started in social media, it needs a strategy, said Chris Sietsema, owner of Teach to Fish Digital.

Is it to improve customer service? Make sales? Engage an audience? That decision will affect how you use social media, he said.

Jennifer Maggiore, founder and president of Maggiore Consulting & Marketing, believes a firm needs to identify an objective and plan accordingly.

“You may be able to hone in on a target audience or segments of that audience,” she said.

The panel discussed ideas behind building relationships. (The panel comprised, from left, moderator Jeff Moriarty, director of social media strategy for Sitewire; Maggiore, Feitlinger, Sietsma, Michael Barber, strategist for Lucid Agency; and Katie Van Domelen, social media manager for Off Madison Ave.)

Jay Feitlinger, president of StringCan Interactive, said firms need to be realistic.

“Companies want to connect with everyone,” he said. “But they need to know their target audience and where they are.”

“You don’t use Twitter if your customers aren’t comfortable there,” he said.

He added that it’s important to pick an objective that you can measure and quantify.

Van Domelen emphasized that the company’s social media strategy needs to be written down. That allows everyone to know the direction and the tone, while also providing some responses if a topic or post becomes controversial.

Sietsma added that it’s important that the owner of the company be involved in the planning and messaging, to assure that he or she is comfortable with how the marketing will affect the brand.

Another key step is to see what competitors are doing in social media. This is the “listening” that should occur before a strategy is finalized.

Are all companies capable of employing a social media strategy?

That was put to the test in a question from an audience member whose company sells parts for RVs.

The initial perception was that seniors may not be online and RV parts are a dull topic.

But then panelists explored possibilities.

Feitlinger suggested the business could produce “how to” videos on RV use and post them on YouTube. “Become an authority in the space,” he said.

Perhaps the business could look to engage the children of the seniors, to address safety and cost issues, he added.

Barber agreed, noting that nursing homes have used that approach.

He also expressed that the company could engage customers – and secure content – by asking them to share videos of their travels and experiences.

Maggiore addressed the issue that the business may simply have a small, local clientele. In that case, the RV store could be a conduit to local media outlets, pitching stories on RV topics using their customers as sources.

Search guru Danny Sullivan speaks to the AZIMA crowd of 210 on Oct. 12 at the Scottsdale Hilton.

It seems like Danny Sullivan has been writing about search engines and search marketing since before search was even created.

The editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land and blogger at Daggle.com, a former journalist with the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register, has been watching the industry’s development since 1995.

He’s been especially busy over the last few years as Google as expanded its search offerings and Microsoft’s Bing has attempted to grab more market share. Search has moved well beyond keywords and one’s place in search results.

Sullivan addressed trends in search marketing as the featured speaker of the Oct. 12 meeting of the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association at the Scottsdale Hilton. His hour-long presentation was a primer on topics like real-time search, the possibilities ahead for Facebook and Google, and what’s happening in mobile.

Despite talk that Google may be losing market share, he noted that the volume of searches has exploded every year and Google still gets the majority of hits.

Microsoft’s Bing seems to be making some headway, but Sullivan cautioned that its surge may be the result of a massive TV campaign. Yahoo, Microsoft’s partner and the early search leader, seems to be scrambling to find its niche.

He is studying the new Google Instant, which is affecting how searches take place.

“Each keystroke could now be considered a search,” he said in disbelief. “So this will really screw up the metrics.”

On Real-Time Search:

Sullivan also told that crowd that the days of a uniform search – in which every user sees the same results – is “dead.” The search engines are using cookies and past searches and users’ demographics to hone searches for the individual, in an effort to make them more relevant and valuable.

On Personal Search:

Sullivan said social media is providing a different approach to search.

To get answers on a subject two decades ago, an individual might go to the library or consult with one or two friends or professionals.

Now, with Twitter and Facebook, people can ask questions and get answers at a speed never seen before.

“We’ve replaced all that,” he said. “It’s the revolution we don’t fully appreciate.”

On “Anybody Know?” Search:

A lot of people are talking about Facebook as a challenger to Google. Sullivan likes to clarify the premise.

“Facebook is not a search engine,” he said. “It won’t rival Google on the search front.”

He added that Facebook is very successful at keeping users on the site (and seeing advertising). Why would they want to steer users off the site?

Each has a niche and an audience, and users may not want them to do the same things, he said. People like choice.

On Google vs. Facebook:

The use of social media applications is also having an impact on local searches, he said.

On Mobile Search:

Sullivan shared some thoughts on where he sees search marketing going over the next three to five years.

On Giving Answers through Search Marketing:

On How Search Will Evolve:

AZIMA president Arnie Kuenn of Vertical Measures speaks to the crowd of 210 before Danny Sullivan’s presentation.

1. Greg Chapman of Sitewire: Objective in marketing (and social media) is to be found, be liked and be known. For each medium, engage customers in a way that creates: Awareness, Consideration, Interaction, Loyalty and, ultimately, Advocacy.
2. Would you like to be considered an authority in your field? Cultivate it as a “thought leader” on issues facing the industry. Then identify the influencers in the industry and interact with them.
3. Identify your target audience and understand the user experience you want to provide. How will you reach them? Is there a way to invite your customers to engage with you on Facebook? Twitter? Foursquare? YouTube?

   ***

4. Matt O’Brien of Mint Social: Have you considered your marketing strategy based on your customers’ psychological profile? Individuals’ dominant characteristics can be separated into four groups (and the media most likely to resonate):
   1. Emotional buyer: Likes success stories, testimonials, helping, humanistic, solving problems (Likes blogs, forums)
   2. Spontaneous buyer: Wants to be entertained, looks to influencers for guidance (Wants visuals like PowerPoints, videos, and photos)
   3. Analytical buyer: Wants information, details, features, data (Needs case studies, white papers, charts and graphs)
   4. Competitive buyer: Wants to be empowered, to get an advantage, get control, get results, improve the bottom line (Wants any information to be short and to stick to the facts)
5. Understand the “long tail” of rankings in Google. A simple white paper on an industry topic can be turned into a video, then a blog, then an audio file of the blog, then ezine text, and then a PowerPoint to put on Slideshare. From there, bring it to the social networks.
6. Blogs + Stats + Photos = Massive social relevance
7. 5 Parts of ROI: Increase mentions and links, Increase traffic to a Call for Action, Increase keyword rankings, Build an online community, and Increase in-bound inquiries.

   ***

8. Cindy Kim of JDA Software: In planning a content strategy for your organization, do an audit to know what you have and don’t have.
9. Create your content and then syndicate across all channels. Use an editorial calendar for the year that identifies these channels and incorporates additional outlets like email and a LinkedIn presence.

   ***

10. Mike Corak of Tallwave: You can find your customers’ demographics with a program like Flowtown. Understand how each medium differs in tone and frequency and identify which one is the most effective way to reach your customers.
11. In planning your search strategy, use Google’s Keyword Research Tools to identify words being used by your customers in searches. Create an Excel file that lists the words to help create a “long tail” for your content.

***

12. Sheila Kleifkorn of KEO Marketing: Search is going nuts! Now there are these search segments – just in Google: Web/Universal, Personalized, Local, Images, Video, Social, Caffeine, Instant.

13. Make sure you use keywords that your customers care about and then repeat them on your Twitter profile, LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile, and YouTube profile.

14. Onsite strategies:

• First word/Any words in the title tag
• First word/Any words in the H1 tag
• Internal link/external link in anchor text on the page
• First 50 to 100 words in the HTML on the page
• Meta description tag
• URL structure and single URL for each page
• Other headline tags (<h2> — <h6>)
• Image alt text (labeling images)
• Number of repetitions in the HTML text on the page
• Keyword use in image names

15. Don’t forget “backlinks“: Sources include your partners’ sites, distributors, online PR spots, blogs, articles, social media sites, product review sites, and directories.

16. How to incorporate search into social:

• Listen. What are people saying to competitors? Where do I need to be?
• Analyze the audience: What are the keywords and phrases being used? Where?
• Determine the objective and the metrics to use: Is it brand building? Lead generation? Buzz? Sales? Customer service? New hires? Engagement? Influencing?
• Create outposts (i.e. Facebook or consumer forums) where the company will be an active participant
• Engage, listen, dialogue. Repeat.
• Monitor and analyze.

17. Paid ads on Google can be effective but use them only when you need them. If your product is one customers typically buy on the weekend, only advertise then, not during the entire week.

***

18. Derek Neighbors of Gangplank: Some people get caught up in numbers, like followers. But you should think in terms of effectiveness, if you are really trying to tap the power of a social network. For instance, he was trying to recall when and where a child’s soccer game was. He didn’t post a request on Facebook; his daughter sent a mass text to 13 teammates and within minutes they had the information. It’s the quality of the audience, he noted.

That’s the name of the game for businesses in the Internet age.

To hear Al Maag, chief communications officer for Avnet, explain it, every company is now a publisher.

Avnet produces blogs to advance a thought-leadership strategy (see this “soft-pitch” blog for journalists) and incorporates videos from suppliers to share relevant information with customers.

“If there’s one thing our corporation does better than the competition,” Maag told the audience at the Sept. 23 Marketing Technology Summit in Phoenix, “it’s we do educate our customers.”

A key element is Avnet OnDemand. Avnet aggregates informational and training videos from its suppliers, becoming a resource to customers in any location around the world while also strengthening its corporate partnerships.

Maag discusses Avnet’s approach.

Another aspect of Avnet’s strategy is employee engagement. As a distributor, not a producer, the majority of Avnet’s expenses are in human resources.

“We believe strongly that employee engagement leads to better service, and better service leads to better sales and profits,” he said.

Maag’s advice is simple: Try things.

“We’ve been called ‘Blog Boy’ and ‘Tweeter Dee’ and ‘Tweeter Dum,’” he related. “But it all comes down to one word: Education.”

Laurie Griffith Buczek, Intel‘s platform manager and social media strategist for digital marketing, acknowledges that the technology company and its 80,000 employees worldwide are more wired than the average person.

“Employees are probably connected more on social media today than through traditional ways,” she told the audience at the Sept. 23 Marketing Technology Summit in Phoenix.

Intel has embraced social media to engage customers, advance its brand, empower employees and recruit future workers.

Here are some of the ways:

• A YouTube channel
• A LinkedIn profile (with 47,000 employees listed)
• A Facebook page (which 163,263 people like)
• Twitter accounts.

On Facebook you can find pages for: Intel Core i7; Discover Intel Global; Intel Pakistan; Intel Retail Edge Program; Intel WiMAX, and many more.

Here are just a few of the Twitter feeds: @intel; @intelnews, @Intelinside; @IntelOpenPort; @IntelSoftware; @JobsatIntel; @Intel_Education; @IntelScoop; @IntelEvents; @IntelUK; @IntelXeon; and @Intelanz.

Buczek said that Intel has a program called Digital 500 that trains employees on how to become brand ambassadors for the company in social media.

She describes the corporation’s approach:

Intel is also known for its blogs.

They began external blogs in 2004, with most involving researchers or technologists, or being geo-based around a specific facility, she said.

Intel is now looking to do more to offer customer support through blogs, she said.

“It’s a large part of the reason people come to Intel.com,” Buczek said.

Attention is now being focused on constructing a website that understands visitors’ behavioral patterns.

“Then we can personalize that experience for our customers,” she said. “You build a base-level experience … then you are able to stack on the module experience (like Pandora, Amazon or Netflix).”

Intel is also continuing to build out its own intranet, with social-media features like YouTube for employees to use. Already there are 13,000 users groups formed around products, communities, or work and free-time interests.

“We asked, ‘How could social media make a difference in engaging employees and encouraging collaboration?’” she said.

Krause, vice president of marketing and communications for the Lisle, Il-based enterprise, discussed the change that has occurred since April 2009 at the Sept. 23 Arizona Marketing Technology Summit in Phoenix.

Molex is a global supplier of interconnect products. Its engineers design and develop electronic, electrical and fiber optic interconnects to switches and applications.

One could say it followed the “social media playbook”: introducing The Connector blog, an informal conversation separate from the Molex website; a YouTube channel; a Facebook page; and a Twitter account. It created a company profile on LinkedIn.

Here’s how he describes the approach:

Molex works with its partners and distributors to “broadcast” each other’s messages. They connect, re-Tweet and refer each other’s customers to the information.

“Together we are taking our messages out to the marketplace,” Krause said.

It’s working, he said. With all of the external links and some SEO, Molex has climbed up the search rankings from fourth or fifth to first or second, he said.

Krause emphasizes that doing business today is different than how he use to interact with customers.

The lesson? Identify ways to add value to your relationships with customers.

Didn’t think so.

But that’s changing. As explained by Brian Chapman, director of e-business for Honeywell Process Solutions, the engineering-focused company needs to embrace it to attract future employees.

Chapman, who spoke at the Sept. 23 Arizona Marketing Summit in Phoenix, said that a survey showed that Honeywell’s customers – “extreme industrial users,” he said – had little interest in making purchases online. That makes sense; the typical sales process runs 18 to 24 months.

The survey revealed some key insights about them, however. Honeywell was able to create four “personas” – audiences — to use in its marketing strategy. They then created a fifth composite to represent a future customer.

The five are: Charlie the Channel Partner, Sam the Supporter, Ivan the Installed-Based Buyer, Nick the New Buyer, and Fiona the Future Buyer.

Chapman discussed the process:

The survey also provided insights into their customers’ online behavior, he said.

First, the majority reported spending seven to 10 hours a week online, a figure lower than expected.

Most users reported they couldn’t find information fast enough on the Honeywell website so he’s investing more dollars in internal search.

“95 percent said they like to use email for communications,” he said. “92 percent surf the web to research an issue, and 90 percent start with Google.”

Another insight was that customers want to do training online, not travel to a 2- or 4-week class. This has an impact because the on-site classes are a revenue stream, he said.

You either ramp up online training or risk losing customers.

They also hate marketing “fluff,” he said.

The information helped his division establish online priorities:

• Pump up email frequency
• Focus on Google
• Improve onsite search
• Build online training capabilities
• Facilitate online purchase of spare parts (if you can get the purchase price right)
• Improve response times to online inquiries
• Review results against strategic intent using tools like Google Analytics
• Create micro-sites that could publish content faster than the primary website

The company started dabbling in Twitter in June.

“We have 70 followers,” Chapman said. “And 75 percent are Fionas.”

They have embraced LinkedIn, with 800 engineers in a group.

In fact, the exhibition hall at the Phoenix Convention Center cleared out at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 23 as Jamie Walker, general manager of the U.S. Enterprise Marketing Sector at Microsoft, took to the stage for the morning keynote of the Arizona Marketing Technology Summit. They weren’t disappointed.

Walker acknowledged that customers and Microsoft followers usually want to know two things: what is Microsoft doing in social media and what is the company’s road map for the future?

Walker noted that his marketing world has been turned upside down in the last four years. In 2006 digital spending accounting for 5 percent of his budget.

Today that figure is 60 percent – and the actual budget has been cut in half.

The expense for use of banner ads on websites has been shifted to SEO tactics. The company is using a tracking system to better serve individual customers.

Events are still the primary vehicle for Microsoft to reach customers but social/digital media is a way to nurture relationships, Walker said.

Businesses can’t ignore this.

Media and technology have turned monologues into dialogues and individuals have gone from always offline to always online (through computers and cell phones).

Thus, businesses need to use a structured framework to determine what they want to do in social media, how to engage customers and how to assess if the strategy is working.

Microsoft’s “Solution” involves understanding audiences, experiences and intelligence on their activities.

“Are you reaching the right people at the right time with the right message?” Walker said. Does the message keep their attention?

For the launch of Windows 7, Microsoft dived into marketing aggressively with the social-media-friendly tagline “Windows 7 was my idea.”

On a broader marketing front, Microsoft sought to engage consumers beyond the traditional media with the Bing search engine. One avenue was to incorporate information in video games.

Microsoft tested its marketing and found that through TV ads the company could reach 13 percent of consumers.

When they moved beyond one “screen” to mobile units and the Internet with ads, the reach exploded to 53 percent, Walker said.

One audience Microsoft has targeted for engagement is CIOs. The company created “thought leadership” episodes on its website – and visitors have ended up spending on average 8.5 minutes, which is “eternity” on the Web, Walker said.

“If you have valuable content, people will engage,” he said. And they, in turn, become your brand advocates.

At the Sept. 23 Arizona Technology Marketing Summit in Phoenix, executives of five multi-billion-dollar corporations described their firms’ forays into Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Companies with large budgets and global resources and staff face the same issues as a 6-person startup: identifying audiences, generating content, filling the information “pipe” 24-7, and engaging customers.

They are challenged to stay on a brand message, to produce blog posts on a regular schedule, and to optimize all content with keywords to show up on the first page of a Google search.

And like smaller firms, they have seen their share of successes and failures.

Over the next week this blog will report on five corporations’ strategies:

• Microsoft
• Honeywell
• Molex
• Intel
• Avnet

The participants were articulate on what customers expect, how the company assessed their priorities and how social media has changed their approach to marketing.

The event, organized by the Arizona Technology Council and the Phoenix chapter of the Business Marketing Association, included presentations by Suzanne Martin, head of worldwide field marketing networks for Motorola, and Aaron Kahlow, founder of the Online Marketing Summit.

Martin detailed how Motorola’s re-branding effort of 2009 eventually led to a more in-depth assessment of what the corporation does (and now its looming split).

Instead of revisiting mission and vision statements, the Motorola team focused on a new word: Purpose.

The intent was to speak to employees first, then customers. The team envisioned a circular flow of Inform, Inspire and Engage.

Kahlow emphasized that social-media technologies are great and effective but that they need to go hand-in-hand with offline marketing activities.

He also shared the tools he uses to measure social media’s impact.

The experts emphasized that social media is a community, not a place for wanton selling. Simply blabbing about yourself or your business ignores the real power of the medium – connecting with others who can educate, enlighten and enrich lives.

“Social media isn’t about you,” Corak said. “It’s about the community in which you participate, so engage!”

The panel agreed that blogs are a great way to build rapport with customers. O’Brien cautioned, however, that blogs shouldn’t be a monologue.

“Blogs can be a spot where you share the best of the best,” with contributions and links showcasing what leaders in your industry are saying, he said.

Kim noted that hits to a company website increase dramatically when the company starts a blog.

“Websites are often static while blogs are dynamic and can be updated quickly with breaking news,” she said.

Slim said it is important to listen to what is being said about you on the Internet but companies need to use discretion in who it responds to and how it responds.

“You needn’t engage every critic. You have a choice in who you let into your world,” she said. “Leave the troll under the bridge!”

Finally, Corak warned of the perils of not joining the social media wave.

“Social is the new telephone,” he said. “What would happen to your business if you just turned off your phone?”

Corak and O’Brien on how to assess an investment in social media:

Slim and Kim on how to interact with customers when a crisis hits or negative comments are expressed:

On Twitter: @Blogster @MikeCorak @CindyKimPR and @pamslim