In the B2B realm, the exact same thing is going on, key executives are pre-tailing their purchasing, professional services, and hiring decisions.  With today’s smart phones and new apps, your B2B prospect can research your competition, determine price ranges, and solicit recommendations from their friends (that’s the power of social media) right in front of you – even in your office.  That is called “In-tailing”, competitive research done in a store or in a meeting using smart phones, applications, text messaging, and the Internet. The consumer is more and more in control.

In the retail food industry, new strategies have emerged to respond and keep customers in the store.  They are personalizing the shopping experience and enhancing in-store ease and convenience. They are also providing consumers more information (healthy choices, complimentary menu choices, matching wines, etc.) and more “price transparency” – which is exactly what consumers (business and retail) are demanding – more information and truth in pricing.  Crazy?  Look what all the insurance companies are doing in their TV ads, asking consumers to “come to our website and we will provide you competitive pricing information” – that’s price transparency.

But what if you’re B2B?! Well know this, your B2B prospects are pre-tailing, too! Remember the data showing business people in their 50s and 60s are using the Internet – on average – nine hours a week.  The Forbes article I mentioned in my earlier blog clearly states that “C-suite” executives use the Internet to do research and about half do their own research.

As a B2B sales company, it is important to reconsider how you can use the web, online tools, and apps to enhance ease and convenience for your prospects and customers.  Understand, as I said before, how “combining relevant web content and search engine optimization is the very essence of a strong Internet presence today.”

In today’s pre-tailing B2B world, you need to ask yourself, if 50% of my prospects are pre-tailing via the internet, are they finding our website, are they finding our product information?  What are you doing to keep your pre-tailing customers and prospects doing business with your company?  When someone Googles your industry or your products, where does your company rank in the listings?  And, with social media, is your brand represented where they are searching – Facebook, 4Square, etc? And how can you find the answers to these questions?

Putting politics aside, marketers would do well to take a few pages out of Obama’s marketing playbook.  Why? It’s classic marketing with a flourish. Here are a few of the keys to Obama’s election marketing success; each can be related to your own business.

Consistency in brand message and positioning

Key to Obama’s success was having a consistent message which relates back to brand positioning. Unlike some brands that change campaigns as often as changing socks, Obama remained consistent and true to his brand positioning and message. From the onset, brand Obama carved out a position that adversaries couldn’t really touch: change. Specifically, “change that we can believe in.” He was the first to grab this banner, and he was successful in using this message to differentiate his campaign. His competition, first Hillary Clinton, then John McCain, struggled to find a message with traction. Both tried the “experience” angle, and Clinton even tried to copy Obama with her “Countdown to Change” message before migrating to “Solutions for America.” McCain, too, struggled to find a message that his audience could relate to, moving from “maverick” to “experience” to finally “Country First”, which never seemed to connect with voting consumers. Both tried to focus their messages on “I can do change better than him” but “better” rarely works in marketing and this was no exception. Obama clearly pre-empted the change concept in consumers’ minds so his competitors could never take it away from him.

Harnessed the power of the Internet

Team Obama was pitch-perfect in understanding the keys to appealing to all of his audience segments, especially the younger market that is often unattached to political parties, and, at least prior to 2008, somewhat apathetic to elections. He knew how to reach this group on their terms via the Internet and social media.

The centerpiece for Obama’s Internet voice was his website, and his team left nothing untouched. Their strategy was to first build a massive “opt in” email list. Once captured, he was able to circumvent traditional (and expensive) media and communicate with his community directly. Almost 4 million supporters opted in. When you first landed on the Obama website, you were immediately asked to join his mailing list and they made it incredibly enticing to subscribe by providing specific reasons to sign up (does your website do that?).  They also aggressively asked for donations on every page and kept the threshold affordable for all (e.g. only asking for $5). Once visitors contributed, they became engaged and involved, and served as the backbone of a grass roots army of volunteer workers and “brand ambassadors.”

Leveraged social media

Blogs are one of the best methods of communicating and building relationships with consumers and Obama used them very effectively to communicate with supporters on a daily basis, even providing a channel for supporters who prefer to only consume news through RSS feeds. He took advantage of their social media consumption employing every high traffic social networking site including Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Eons, Myspace, YouTube, and Flickr. Not surprisingly, each of these accounts drove traffic to the main website for further engagement.

Messaging with mobile

Obama used mobile marketing to further his message distribution, and even introduced an app for Apple’s iPhone, the Countdown to Change calendar that ticked off seconds until Election Day. Perhaps, the “pièce de resistance” was his regular use of text messaging announcements prior to the news media having it. Social media also allowed him to almost instantaneously counter negative advertising by his opponents.

When a negative story broke on the news, his online community not only knew about it but had already heard Obama’s side of the story! It was “reputation management” at its finest.

Inviting tone and language

Obama’s communications were, for the most part, confident, consistent, professional, and reassuring without being slick or in-your-face. His Internet voice was always conversational – interacting like a human, not a brand – inviting two-way dialog. Team Obama also encouraged user-generated content, allowing people to feel like they were participating in the campaign process as well. Most importantly, the Obama staff was not afraid of potential negative comments, instead taking the opportunity for transparency and allowing users to share feelings and concerns. This allowed Obama to respond in a rational way to refute opposing arguments using reason and logic. It appears users appreciated that.

What you can do

Consider addressing your own marketing efforts like Obama’s team did. Here’s food for thought:

• Evaluate your brand message and positioning. Is it relevant? Is it ownable?  Does it really differentiate your brand?
• Are you consistent in your messaging? Have you avoided switching a campaign theme just because you’re personally tired of it?
• How well do you know your target audience? Are you reaching them in the right voice and in the right venues? What are their media habits?
• What are you doing to turn passive website visitors into avid supporters and fans of your brand? Are you providing tangible reasons for consumers to return to your website on a continuous basis?

In reviewing Obama’s 2008 presidential marketing efforts, he not only brilliantly executed the basics of marketing, but took advantage of new media technology to efficiently and economically build his brand. How does your marketing campaign compare?

1. Mashable “The Social Media Guide”

Mashable’s website is a great source to keep up with the latest news and developments in social media: http://mashable.com/ However, I very seldom visit it, I prefer several of their other ways of communicating which are through their RSS feed (http://feeds.mashable.com/Mashable), Twitter (http://twitter.com/mashable), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mashable), Buzz (http://google.com/profiles/mashable), or the good ‘ole email updates (http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Mashable&loc=en_US).

2. The Next Web “Best of the Web’s News, Views, Startups and Culture”

The Next Web is another great source for updates on social media and the internet in general. The community around it doesn’t seem to be as robust, but they usually have an interesting take on what’s going on. You can follow them at their website (http://www.thenextweb.com/) or through their RSS Feed (http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TheNextWeb), FriendFeed (http://www.friendfeed.com/the-next-web), Twitter (http://twitter.com/TheNextWeb), Facebook(http://www.facebook.com/thenextweb), or email (http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=295309&loc=en_US) as well.

3. Read, Write, Web

This one’s a distance third on the list, but they still occasionally have some unique content or insightful commentary. Visit their website (http://www.readwriteweb.com/) for the latest, or follow them through their RSS Feed (http://www.readwriteweb.com/rss.xml), Twitter (http://twitter.com/rww), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/ReadWriteWeb), or email(http://www.readwriteweb.com/newsletters/index.php).

Those are definitely the top three that I would suggest but I would also like to mention two more:

Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/) While Gizmodo is mainly a blog about technology on the hardware side of things, there’s a lot of content about social media and online culture. Also a lot of hardware now is driving social media, especially if you look at how GPS systems in smartphones enable the onslaught of location based services.

Your Friends: Once you make the plunge and get social media working for yourself and/or your brand, you’ll find that many contacts in your new digital social circle will be more than willing to share the latest news and give their opinions on the direction the technology is headed. And if you’ve got questions, they’re the people you want to ask. It’s a great reason to get a conversation started.

By simply staying up to date with these resources you’ll be doing a lot for your social media know-how. You’ll probably even to start feel like an early adopter! And for those of you who are already in the early adopter category, how do stay on top of it? What resources am I forgetting?

Todd Jackson, product manager for Google Buzz, called it “an entire new world within Gmail.”

On the other side of the aisle, Facebook is allegedly working on an email client that it is calling Titan. This news has come amidst yet another “Facebook facelift,” with the social networking site releasing more changes to the home page, specifically within the toolbar, with Messages, Notifications and Friend Requests now drop-down menus on the left-hand side of the screen.

There is a strong Internet buzz that Titan will kill off Gmail, especially since it is rumored that Titan will be able to be configured with any email client. With over 400 million users, it does seem that Facebook can’t really go wrong with this move. You can already search the web with Facebook. You’re connected to anyone who you want to be connected with. You can update your Twitter account through your Facebook status update with a special app. So if you incorporate email, would you have any other reason to leave Facebook.com?

I’m actually pretty excited about the changes within Gmail; however, I am a little skeptical about any true success. People are looking for the “next Facebook,” not another Facebook. We’re looking for something different that fits our needs in a better way. For a long time, we thought MySpace fit the bill just fine until Facebook one-upped them. If Google/Gmail had something truly innovative, then this would be an entirely different blog post. But they’re not one-upping anyone here – they’re just copying Facebook and hoping that the Google brand will encourage people to switch over.

What Google does have going for it is that the company has a strong track record of responding to consumer needs and desires. With that history alone we can expect several versions of Google Buzz to update our Gmail accounts over the coming months. And there are unique features that have been announced, and I’m sure there will be many more to come. For example, Buzz will be location-enabled on your phone, so it will know where you’re at without even being told. Ignore the creepy factor, and that’s pretty neat. But I’m not entirely convinced that those features will be enough to persuade people over to the Google-verse.

Who knows? Maybe two years from now I will be eating my words and Facebook will be as irrelevant as MySpace is, with Buzz leading the way. I do think Google is on to something with Google Wave, so perhaps they’ll end up mashing together Wave + Buzz + Gmail to create something that will end up eating the Internet.

The first wave is scheduled to start today; hopefully this won’t be on such a limited-basis release as Wave was. I also can’t find a date on when Facebook’s Titan will be released, though I’m thinking that will be sooner rather than later in an attempt to stay ahead of Buzz.

The best news about all of this? With some of the best online sites duking it out, we all win.

Here are the top 5 way a business can get started using Foursquare:

1. Offer Nearby
When a Foursquare user enters a business, one of the first things they will do, is “Check in” via the application on their mobile device. This does two things: 1. It alerts that user’s friends where they are and 2. It earns them points.  At this point, you’re also declaring to Foursquare your exact location. Because of this, Foursquare offers a service that allows businesses that are nearby to promote themselves. If I run a café in a neighborhood I can set up a system that will send a message to anyone that checks into a local business and this message can (and should) include some kind of promotion. Something like “We noticed you just checked into Booky’s Bookstore down the street. When you’re done, stop by Cute Café for a free dessert with entree.”

2. First Check In
Foursquare also keeps track of how many times you’ve checked into a place. (On your first visit to a location you receive more points for discovering a new place.) To encourage new business, why not do a promotion that rewards people for their first check-in?

3. Mayor Discounts
Speaking of keeping track of how many times you’ve checked into a place, Foursquare also keeps track of who’s checked into a certain place the most. That person is deemed the Mayor. This creates some real excitement and competition among the players while at the same time keeping customers coming back to earn their mayorship. Why not encourage and promote this? I’ve seen several bars do this by offering to buy the mayor’s first beer on each visit. An incentive like that keeps other Foursquare users coming back to earn the mayorship and the mayor coming back to defend his title!

4. Discounts for Favorable Tips
When Foursquare users check in to a business they are also encouraged to leave a tip for other users. One thing to encourage lots of favorable tips is to offer an incentive, such as 10% off your bill if the Foursquare user shows the cashier that they just posted a favorable tip. It’s important to note as well that if businesses are participating in Foursquare they are also given the ability to post “Sponsor Tips” about their own venues or what to do in the area as well.

5. Sponsored Badges
Another great way to promote your business or brand is to sponsor a badge. As Foursquare users continue to use the site, they earn badges based on their activity. There are many badges built into the system already, but businesses can sponsor their own. As an example, let’s say you own a chain of ice cream parlors in your community. You could sponsor a badge that a user can only earn once they’ve checked in to each of your locations.

Foursquare has certainly changed the game for location based, social networking and with Yelp! and Facebook both trying to replicate what it has created, it’s pretty obvious this technology is here to stay. What’s great is it’s also a perfect way for many businesses to promote themselves.  Choosing any or all of these options is going to help you create a very loyal and dedicated customer base and keep you ahead of the competition.

If you’re not using Foursquare yet, download it for: iPhone | Blackberry | Android | Palm

LinkedIn

1. Integration with Microsoft Outlook

With the release of Microsoft Office 2010 Outlook will have LinkedIn integrated into it. Users will be able to keep up with their Connections’ Network Updates, email their Connections, and manage their inbox all from within Microsoft Outlook. Users will also be given a quick link to add or invite people to their LinkedIn network. This way, when your new prospect emails you, you can quickly add them to your LinkedIn account with a simple click. I know not everyone will use LinkedIn in Outlook, but it will certainly bring in a lot of new users who just don’t remember to visit the website or never got the hang of it. Now that it’s integrated into something we all do, it’ll be easier for it to become a habit for a lot of us.

2. Follow In Groups

If you’re like me you want to keep your Connections as sincere as possible and only add those people who you actually know or have worked with. But sometimes you find some great thinker or similar spirits in some of the groups you participate in. While it wouldn’t really make sense to invite them into your network you still want to be able to follow them easily. Enter the Follow In Group feature that allows you to follow the activities of other users within the groups you both belong to. Sounds like a perfect compromise.

3. Faceted Search

LinkedIn greatly updated their search feature by adding 8 facets to each search you perform. Now your results can be narrowed down by Current Company, Past Company, Location, Relationship, Industry, School, Groups and Profile Language. If something still can’t be found with all of that, then it’s probably not there anyway.

4. New Navigation System

This one was sorely needed. The team at LinkedIn move most of the navigation to a horizontal, drop down menu across the top. While drop down menus aren’t always the best solution, this one is very reliable and nicely organized. The best part is that freed up a lot of real estate lower on the page which then allowed the important information on the page to move up as well and make it easier to find. Great solution.

5. Syncing with Twitter

Everyone who’s anyone started syncing with Twitter last year and LinkedIn was no different. However, they orchestrated the syncing in a pretty smart way. I don’t know about you but I don’t feel confident that 100% of my tweets belong on a forum as professional as the profile of my business identity, but a lot of them are. To solve this, they created a super simple way to filter what’s posted from Twitter and what’s not. Once you’ve got the account connected you can chose to turn on a filter that only posts from Twitter to LinkedIn if the tweet contains “#in”. Easy to remember and effective.

6. Developer Network

Now this is very similar to Facebook opening up it’s platform for developers, but I still think it’s a great think for LinkedIn and anyone who uses it. We saw how quickly we started seeing nearly all website allowing users to connect to their site through Facebook and reporting back their activity. Hopefully something similar will be done with LinkedIn as well as some surprising, new ways of using it, too. This one is still pretty new so it’s something to watch in the future.

7. The New iPhone App

The biggest news from LinkedIn for me was the complete redesign of their iPhone app. Their previous one was fine but there wasn’t much to it and not much you could do. In the new one you can search, mark profiles as favorites, change your Network Update and view others’, send and receive messages. You’ve also got a fully functional address book and allows you to transfer contact information between two people when they bump their phones. Pretty sweet. Download it for your phone here.

1. Motorola’s Backflip Android Device – While I would almost place any betting money on the iPhone winning the smart phone wars, I do look forward to seeing more competition in this arena. I think we’ll see several strong contenders in 2010, including the recently released Nexus One.
2. 3D TV – In my heart, I’m nothing more than a couch potato. I even ended up buying myself a Snuggie recently. My ideal Friday night is pizza and a marathon of Cheaters. (That show is hilarious.) So yeah, I’m really excited about 3D TV. Granted, the idea has been around for some time, but considering how many new models are being showcased at CES, it’s shaping up to become much more mainstream.
3. This see-through laptop – Samsung created a laptop with no special features other than a transparent screen. Huh? I don’t understand why you would want one of these … but it looks really cool and can also lead the way to new, more relevant technologies.
4. This Android-powered smartbook – I just think this is cool.

And, of course, I am looking forward to all things Apple.

Any new gadgets being unveiled at CES 2010 that you’re looking forward to seeing?

While we all want to be a better person, who couldn’t stand to be a better employee? Below are my professional resolutions for 2010.

1. Convert to a better organizational system than Post-Its. Don’t get me wrong, Post-Its are great but it gets pretty annoying (and embarrassing) trying to find my ‘really important reminder’ note that accidently got stuck to the bottom of my purse or magazine.

2. Become a better blogger. Come on, you all were hoping I’d say this! Coming up with topics to write about is my biggest challenge.

3. Start each day with a positive attitude. Who doesn’t wake up to days where you know all you’ll be working on is that project that just doesn’t seem to want to end? I’ve started telling myself that it’s gonna be a good day no matter what – I like a challenge!

4. Build a website completely on my own. I’m a print designer who’s slowly been making the move to web design. Not that I’m resistant to the digital world, there’s just a lot to learn all at once.

5. Find more ways to be creative. I’d like to take more art and photography classes. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in always being on the computer that I forget that there are other ways to be creative.

So, I’ve got almost a full year ahead of me to work on my resolutions. Time to start baby stepping out of my comfort zone and start accomplishing my goals! What are some of your professional resolutions for 2010?

These gifts are a copywriter’s/marketing professional’s/blogger’s/geeky girl’s dream … so what are you waiting for? Click the link and find out what I want for Christmas.

1. A Nexus One. The rumors that Google has been developing a phone have been circulating for years, but it’s finally been confirmed and the phone is expected to be on sale in January 2010.
2. This ‘Fail Whale’ necklace. The ‘Fail Whale’ is genius, although I’d much rather see him glittering around my neck than on my screen when I’m trying to tweet.
3. A MacBook Pro. With Final Cut Express and Aperture installed, please and thank you.
4. A Canon Rebel. All the cool bloggers have one.
5. These cool holiday backgrounds for my desktop. (Ha! These are free, and Chantelle designed them. Be sure to download one to get into the holiday spirit!)

I’d also settle for Facebook to care about my security, for AT&T letting my iPhone using friends actually use their iPhones, and for Twitter to actually work for longer than 48 consecutive hours.

You can mail any of the above to 1000 Parkwood Circle, Ste. 360, Atlanta, GA 30339. Please mail to the attention of Carly Sharec so that there is no confusion.

Everyone have a great (and safe) holiday season!

Tell me, what do you want this year?

1. Nexus One

Of course we have to mention the phone first. We’ve all seen Android released into the wild, but now it’s been confirmed that Google will be releasing its own Google-branded phone, called Nexus One on January 5th, 2010. No one knows for sure what the reason is for them to have their own phone but it will be exciting to see. Also the competition will be good for all the iPhone users out there, too.

2. Homepage Redesign

The next biggest announcement from Google was the simplification of their homepage and the addition of a nice fade. The average user may not have even noticed a difference, but designers with a keen eye will certainly have caught it. It’s not a drastic change, but it’s a nice upgrade.

3. Chrome for Mac

Google’s lightweight browser that has been thrilling PC users has now been released for Macs. We’re all pretty excited about that as a 100 percent Mac shop. Download your copy here.

4. Google Real Time Search

This is a huge change in the results of all of our searches and with it the Internet has officially become time-based. Read our post on it to learn more.

5. Google Suggests Answers

Google Suggests is a great little tool that we’ve all come to love (that drop down list of suggestions when you’re typing in your search terms.) Now Google has added answers into that list. For example, if I type in “Atlanta Weather” I get some search suggestions, but I also get the actual weather! Search over before it began!

Google Suggests Answers!

6.  Google Favorite Places

This one is getting started and seems to be Google’s way of fighting against Yelp! and Kudzu. Local business can be listed as a favorite spot and then also display QR code on their windows that can be scanned by iPhones and Androids. Plus one of our clients has already been selected as a Google Favorite Place! (Congrats Strand!)

7. Speed Tracer

This is only for us web dorks, but Google released another new tool that will help web masters quickly optimize their websites for speed! Hopefully this will make a big difference and we’ll see a vastly faster Internet soon. (Not holding my breath, but a really useful tool none the less.)

8. Goo.gl

For some reason Google has launched a URL shortener. Not sure what the intention is, but I’m sure whatever they plan to do with it, it should be interesting. http://goo.gl/

9. Google Goggles

Google jumps into the augmented reality game with it’s visual search function for Android phones. It’s only in the labs right now, but check it out here. It sounds like it’s a program to watch for in the future.

So thanks to Google, we already having a pretty great Christmas season with all of these new toys to play with! Let me know which one is your favorite or what new Google feature I left out in the comments.