Today, I see a lot of social media activity that looks like a sledge hammer going through butter.  Is your program one of them?  In my opinion, here are a few elements of a social media sledge hammer at work:

1. Extreme cross-linking automation:

A tweet or post on one platform automatically sends the same message across several platforms.  Yes, some automation can be helpful, but when you take it to the extreme it looks and feels like spam.  If you want to improve your strokes turn off some of the automation.  After all, how many different ways do you intend to pound your social audience with the same update?

2. Direct message automation:

This can also lead to problems.  Yes, it’s tempting to send an automated message that thanks someone for following you.  It’s also tempting to suggest they check out your blog, “like” you on Facebook, or connect on LinkedIn.  As tempting as it is to declare total efficiency by throwing your social media program into marketing automation mode, don’t do it.  Automated messages that thank people for following may seem like the polite thing to do, but it’s really just a non-value-add annoyance.  In addition, think hard about whether or not services that generate automated direct messages such as TrueTwit are worth the splashing they give your audience.

3. Extreme posting automation: 

This is another marketing automation temptation.  Preloading canned tweets and sending them out on a scheduled basis definitely lets you check the efficiency box.  You might even argue that it allows you to check the effectiveness box because you can send out tweets based on time zones across the world.  But what happens when someone replies with a question or comment to your tweet and you’re not there to respond?  The answer? You get dunked by losing the opportunity to engage your audience in real time conversation.

When a great swimmer is moving quickly through the water they seem smooth and powerful—almost effortlessly.  During Plebe Summer, I eventually learned that rhythm, timing, and stroke rate are critical to becoming a proficient swimmer.  If you’re not careful, automation in relation to your social media program will actually create drag and slow you down.

Now, at this point you may believe I have it out for the marketing automation folks.  I really don’t.  I use automation tools like TweetAdder to help me target, follow and unfollow profiles on Twitter, and I’ve been happy with the results.  The key is to find a balance between efficiency and effectiveness that doesn’t leave you exhausted and your audience soaked.

Have you experimented with social marketing automation? Have you gone back to some manual practices based on results? Share your experience in comments.

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alan See CMO Temps, LLC. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.

In the world of social media marketing, the “WHO’S VIEWED YOUR PROFILE?” module on LinkedIn is in my opinion, a made you look requirement for serious networkers.  This feature is no trick; it’s designed to help you understand who’s been looking at your profile recently and how many times you have shown up in search results. Here are four reasons why you should like this feature and why I want to make you look at it.

1. Cross platform check point and building block:

I display my LinkedIn URL in my Twitter bio.  That means my new Twitter followers have a direct link to my LinkedIn page.  When I’m screening my new Twitter followers I also like to review who has looked at my LinkedIn profile.  Often I’m able to see a direct match between my new Twitter followers and my LinkedIn profile views, which gives me strong evidence that Twitter is driving traffic and exposure to people who also have a presence on LinkedIn.

2. Message received indicator:

Sometimes, instead of sending my contacts an email, I send a LinkedIn InMail message.  By doing so I accomplish two important factors. First, research shows that a LinkedIn message is more likely to be opened than an email.  Second, there is a high probability the person receiving my message will also revisit my profile for changes that may have taken place since our last conversation.  This is exactly what I’d like to have happen, and I’m able to confirm that action if they show up on my “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” page after opening my LinkedIn message.

3. Name and headline:

Depending on how a user sets their privacy settings, their full name, picture and headline will be available.  I’ll also be able to see our degrees of separation; “1^st” meaning we are already directly connected, while “group” means we have a group membership in common.

 4. Personal brand attention: 

Is my page coming up during profile searches?  According to LinkedIn, the time period you see in the module may vary based on how many people have looked at your profile in the past several weeks. Also, if your profile hasn’t been viewed recently, the module won’t appear.  I don’t know about you, but I want my profile to appear if someone is searching for something relevant to my areas of expertise.  If your “Appearances in Search” is low that probably means your profile details needs some work.

You may have noticed that I have a LinkedIn premium account which gives me access to Profile Stats Pro.  The additional information provided, such as trends, total profile visits, keywords, and more, is valuable to me, so I budget for that networking expense.

So, did I make you look?  Do you care if someone has viewed your LinkedIn profile? Why or why not?

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alan See CMO Temps, LLC. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.

Now, before I present my list let me provide some background details. Yes, in case you are wondering, I am over 50, and this group was compiled with the help of my Twitter followers. I’m currently ranked as the 3^rd most followed Chief Marketing Officer on Twitter by Social Media Marketing Magazine. Since I have nearly 60K followers, I was confident there would be at least 50 profiles representing marketing leaders over 50 years of age that are innovative and still doing remarkable work.  I just needed to identify them, and well … get them to admit they were over 50! I also wanted to ask them two questions:

1. How and where do you find innovative ideas?

2. What’s the best way to keep your eye on the future?

It has been an interesting and fun process to put together these names because I’ve learned some things about my Twitter network that I didn’t know, and I’ll be a better marketer for it. An additional side benefit I’ve gained is an appreciation for my contacts in the 40-50 age range who’ve reached out to help me with profile suggestions. They are not old enough to make my list and they are too old for the others, but they were still ready to help.  It’s tough being in no man’s land, so thanks gang!

This project has taken longer than I expected as this group is very busy, and not all were eager to anticipate follow-up tweets and contact from the AARP!  In order to make the list a little easier to digest you’ll need to go to my full post to read how they answered the questions. In the meantime, here are the first 25, on my list of senior marketers on Twitter who still know how to make it happen:

Joan Schneider

@schneiderpr

Title: President and Founder

Company: Schneider Associates

Michael Libbie

@MichaelLibbie

Title: Owner

Company: Insight Cubed

Christopher Donald

@EmailMadMan

Title: Strategist

Company: Inbox Group – Indiemark

Jim Ducharme

@hugeheadca

Title: Community Director

Company: GetResponse Email Marketing

Mark Shevitz

@SJI_Inc

Title: President

Company: SJI, Inc

Jeffrey Peel

@JeffreyPeel

Title:  Managing Director

Company: Quadriga Consulting Ltd

Jeff Ogden

@fearlesscomp

Title: President

Company: Find New Customers

Emily R. Coleman, Ph.D.

@e_r_coleman

Title: President

Company: CAM, Inc.

Brad Shorr

@BradShorr

Title: Director of B2B Marketing

Company: Straight North

Barbara Fowler

@BarbFow50

Title: Northeast Managing Partner, CMO

Company: Chief Outsiders

Steve Kirstein

@steveonprocess

Title: Director of Marketing

Company: OnProcess Technology

Doug Mow

@DougMow

Title: Chief Marketing Officer

Company: Courion Corporation

Adrea Rubin

@adrearubin

Title: CEO

Company: Adrea Rubin Media, Inc.

Dyan Bryson

@InspiredHealth_

Title: Managing Director

Company: Inspired Health Strategies, LLC

David Newberry

@davidnewbs

Title: Group Marketing Officer

Company: Pitney Bowes Software

Kay Ross

@KayRoss

Title: Marketing consultant & coach, editor and copywriter.

Company: Kay Ross Marketing

Ken Rutsky

 @Jayrutz

Title: Go to Market Thought Leader

Company:  KJR Associates, Inc

Scott Doniger

@scottd44

Title: Senior Vice President, Strategy and Services

Company: Sprinklr

Ari Sherman

@ariwrite

Title: Creative Director, copywriter

Company:  Ari Sherman, advertising, formerly of Frankfurt Gips Balkind

Donald Lambert

@3msage

Title: Consultant

Company:  Management, Marketing, Media

John Caldwell

@jacaldwell

Title: Principal

Company: Red Pill Email

Karen Shields

@MarComMgr

Title: Public Information Officer/Communications Manager

Company:  Gwinnett, Newton & Rockdale County Health Departments

Andrew (Andy) Rudin

@andy_rudin

Title: Managing Principal

Company: Outside Technologies, Inc.

Drew Neisser

@DrewNeisser

Title: CEO and Founder

Company: Renegade, LLC

Jim Lyons

@jflyons

Title: Writer/Analyst/Blogger

Company:  JLA (formerly HP, Lyra Research)

And the author…

Alan See

@AlanSee

Title: Chief Marketing Officer

Company:  Alan See CMO Temps, LLC

Stay tuned to my blog for the complete list of 50, and remember, there are only two kinds of managers; the growing and the obsolete.  Be a lifelong learner.

Who would you add to the 25 over 50 list?

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alan See CMO Temps, LLC. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.

During economic uncertainty, one of the major reasons businesses go under is because they run out of cash.  Cash flow is the lifeblood of every business, and in order to keep the business healthy, cash needs to continue flowing; an economic crisis can be particularly hard-hitting for small businesses unless they have plenty of capital to ride out the recessionary waves.

In my blog post “You Can Support Headcount and Share of Voice on a Tight Budget,” I presented a high-level case study in which a small business was able to increase qualified leads by 7 percent while cutting their marketing budget by 24 percent, and the decrease in spend was not the result of reducing headcount.

Now, I’ll offer three cost-effective initiatives based on that case study that may help you bootstrap your 2013 marketing budget:

1. Blog

Create thought-leadership content by leveraging your in-house subject matter experts to craft blogs that focus on building customer trust, rapport, and credibility, while still supporting the sales cycle. Make sure all the content is search engine-optimized so certain keywords are likely to be picked up in industry-specific searches.

2. LinkedIn

 Accept the use of social networking tools and encourage your employees to join.  Form groups on LinkedIn that are relevant to your business (like user groups – but make sure you maintain control through a moderator) and encourage your customers to also join.  Coach your employees to respond to questions that surface in the group discussions and encourage your business development organization to use LinkedIn much like they would use a contact management tool.

3. Twitter

Use Twitter for micro-blogging and micro-selling.  You can automatically feed twitter your blogs, press releases, and other communications, and Twitter can then feed your LinkedIn profile.  As the process matures it takes on the characteristics of an integrated lead generation/lead nurturing system.

By integrating a social media-focused marketing strategy, you can make a cost effective difference in both your lead generation and lead nurturing programs.  It will also help you maintain your customer focus while you’re doing everything possible to manage your cash flow in a very tough economy.

How has social media helped your company generate and nurture leads? How will your company use it to keep cash flow steady in a tough economy?

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alan See CMO Temps, LLC. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.

“You’re not going to mow over everyone to get ahead…
But you’re also powerful enough to make things happen for yourself.
You understand how the world works, even when it’s an ugly place.
You just don’t get ugly yourself – unless you have to!”

The key word in the Machiavellian characterization is manipulation.  At least according to Abdul Aziz, associate professor of management at the Baltimore school in a recent Wall Street Journal article.  A Machiavellian person, Prof. Aziz explains, is emotionally detached, prone to deceive, and believes that the end justifies the means, even if it is not morally right.  In fact, Niccolo Machiavelli, who condensed his views on politics in The Prince, argued famously that “it is far better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.”

So, am I really cut out to be a Chief Marketing Officer?  I have to ask that question because it seems to me that “somewhat Machiavellian” could imply that I bring neither fear nor love to the executive table.  Or in other words, no influence, and where does that leave a CMO during a C-level meeting?

Speaking of influence, what might Dale Carnegie (How To Win Friends & Influence People) have to say about the results?  Few historical figures are as divisive and polarizing as Niccolo Machiavelli, and few are as quoted as Dale Carnegie when it comes to leadership and influence.

Let’s examine three key executive competency areas to see how Machiavelli and Carnegie might actually interplay:

1. Strategy:  To quote Machiavelli, “I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.” Hmmm… actually that sounds a lot like a typical CMO!  But you are going to need to manage your ego.  Your peers on the senior staff are likely to consist of high-energy, strong-willed, and perhaps difficult-to-manage professionals.  Such people have a tendency to work towards their own agenda.  So, before you push your bold new social media program forward, ask your peers for their ideas.  And then don’t be so quick with your own opinions.  To quote Carnegie, “Be a good listener.  Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.”

2. Processes:   Machiavelli believed, “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”  One of the most difficult responsibilities of any C-level position is to be the lead person for process change.  Regardless of how good a decision is, it will never work if employees fail to get behind it or, worse, if they sabotage your efforts.  People who are involved in decisions are more likely to go the extra mile to make the decision a success.  Or better yet, as Carnegie stated, “Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.”

3. Technology:  Machiavelli also believed, “Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.”   Leaders must learn to quickly adapt in a fast-changing world powered by technology in order to avoid corporate disaster.  Have your peers stayed up-to-date on the latest knowledge in your industry?  Do they make it easy for their reports to go to seminars and otherwise advance their education?  If not, Carnegie would likely have coached you to “Appeal to the nobler ideas” in order to win them to your way of thinking.

Where do you fall on the Machiavellian scale? How could you apply a little advice from Carnegie to win friends and gain influence? We look forward to hearing from you.

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alan See CMO Temps, LLC. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.

It kicks in for most of us when we believe we have reached the point of diminishing returns in relation to the value of acquiring additional insight.  More than likely, your organization started its social media journey with great excitement and a willingness to invest and learn. Now that the honeymoon is over, most of your staff missed the profile page changes on LinkedIn, and it’s been months since they tweeted.

The concept of rational ignorance, while popping up on a daily basis for most of us, is particularly consequential to a social media strategy because the social media ecosystem is still evolving at a rapid pace.  In short, we now live in an age when the most important marketing skill set is the ability to keep our social marketing knowledge relevant and up-to-date. Yes, as the saying goes, there was a time.  And indeed, there was a time when knowledge of the 4 P’s of marketing – product, place, price, and promotion  — was a sound, long-term investment. These campaign strategies seemed straight forward and predictable.  But that was then and this is now.

So, with the help of Peter Senge’s book “The Fifth Discipline” here are three resolutions for 2013 I intend to focus on in order to keep rational ignorance from infecting my team.

1. Build a stronger shared vision about social media: Genuine caring about a shared vision is rooted in personal visions.  I’ll be spending more time this year helping each of my team members build and nurture an even stronger vision of the personal branding benefits of social media — and how those personal visions join to create our shared vision.

2. Declare my training support:  Training is one of the most important ways for a marketing team to keep their social media skills up to date.  I’ll let my team know how vital training is to me and personally conduct “practice” sessions to hone our social media process and technology skills.

3. Enrollment, not selling:  I’m a salesperson at heart.  That means I have a tendency to try to “convince” my audience of the benefits of a vision.  As I focus on vision and training with my team I need to make sure I turn down my need to persuade in order to let them have time to develop their own sense of vision.

I’m betting the year on a shared vision and building a learning organization.  Where are you placing your bets?

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alan See CMO Temps, LLC. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.

In Reichheld’s opinion what really helps us to achieve excellence is actually the study of failure. It’s not exactly in our nature to seek out failure though; in fact, your career path is probably linked to success.  And yet, about 40 percent of new executive hires fail within their first 18 months, according to Forbes.  If four out of ten of us are failing in our new roles, it’s easy to see how excellent organizations quickly lose their status.

The “onboarding” process for every new leader typically calls for them to outline their first 100-day action plan.  In fact, these plans are supposed to be a road map for taking charge quickly and effectively during the transition period.

So what’s the problem?  Are road maps out of date, or are we building them wrong?

Over the past five years I’ve put together three 100-day action plans as I’ve transitioned into different roles.  The following list is not intended to be comprehensive, but it does represent some key factors I’ve found to be linked to a successful start.

1. “Once I’ve been in the position for three months, what will I have to do to hear you say; well done, great job, I like what I’m seeing!”  I always ask that question before I accept the assignment. I want to know upfront exactly what early results my boss is looking for. Too often executives do a lot of work in the first 100 days without accomplishing the one or two things that their bosses are really looking for.

2. Connect, connect, and connect early. Before starting a new assignment, in fact during the interviewing and scoping process, I reach out and connect to all constituents on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.  I read their blogs and use this time to build trust, credibility and rapport with everyone who may be involved with my assignment. Too often executives fail to build trust and rapport early in the game with the people they’ll need to get buy-in from.

3. Accelerate.  Almost every organization is really working from a sequence of short-term plans, so it’s disastrous for an executive to think they have six, nine, or 12 months to get up to speed.  You need to accelerate the learning curve as fast as you can in order to understand the market, products, systems and culture.  That’s exactly why managers should be lifelong learners.

The goals of your plan do need to be realistic and based on the current state of the company. The plan also needs to be updated as you acquire new information and gain a better understanding of what you’ve walked into. This is not to say you are going to solve all the problems in the first 100 days with your documented plan. But, first impressions and beginning momentum are important to moving the company in a new direction, and all plans have to start somewhere.

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alan See CMO Temps, LLC. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.

• Since they’ve been born, the United States has measured progress by a 2 percent jump in unemployment and a 16 cent rise in the price of a first class postage stamp.
• They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it.
• They have never seen an airplane “ticket.”
• Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge.
• Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends.
• They have always enjoyed school and summer camp memories with a digital yearbook.
• The Twilight Zone involves vampires, not Rod Serling.
• Point-and-shoot cameras are soooooo last millennium.
• Lou Gehrig’s record for most consecutive baseball games played has never stood in their lifetimes.

In general, the Mindset List is a statement of experiences and events that shape the views of this year’s freshmen. And since most people believe their views are accurate it must also represent their understanding of the truth. The perception is the reality.

Marketing is involved in the process of dealing with perceptions, and this is tricky. What makes the process even more challenging is that consumers frequently make purchasing decisions based on second-hand perceptions (friends, family and other social connections). In short, they make purchasing decisions based on someone else’s perception of reality.

If your organization views the world through a product-centric position you may be inclined to dismiss the perception challenge. Market research facts and figures convince you that the real truth is on your side and that the best product – your product — will win. Do you believe that all you need is to have the truth on your side? If so, you may need to modify your perceptions and embrace the phrase “through the eyes of the customer.”

How does your business tap into the mindset of your customers? What techniques do you use to effectively market to the perceptions of your customers and their influencers?

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alan See CMO Temps, LLC. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.

Mistakes were made. We’ve heard that before – many times. The phrase first made famous by the Nixon administration was later used and re-used by many politicians – Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, to name a few. People generally aren’t fond of admitting their mistakes. I’m not. Businesses are the same. They don’t like to talk about their mistakes — certainly not publicly — but not even within company walls. How mistakes are handled within a business says a lot about the people who lead that organization. Are mistakes seen as something to hide, deflect, or feel ashamed of?

Like them or not, mistakes are inevitable. Even the hardest working, most competent employees will make them. It’s impossible to predict all the possible mistakes that can occur and be prepared for them. So what’s a company to do? I’ve found that one company’s approach to mistakes is particularly effective. The sales team of this company had a conference call weekly, which included time to discuss “teachable moments.” Typically one or two sales agents volunteered to discuss a mistake and what they learned from it. Discussing mistake openly eases the stigma that often comes with making a mistake and offers valuable advice to other employees, ideally empowering them to avoid the same error.

This is not a common approach. More often, employees and managers find ways to hide mistakes or put the blame on someone else. Why? People are fearful of the consequences of their mishaps, which are sometimes costly.  A simple accounting error, if made public, can hurt the company’s reputation, and that too has a cost.

Within a company, a boss who accepts that his or her employees will occasionally make mistakes and has a measured response when they do is a boss people want to work for. That’s smart management because employees are encouraged to be more open about mistakes and to view them as something to learn from versus something to hide or be ashamed of.

Underlying this approach to mistakes is humility, the belief that I’m not perfect, nor is my staff, nor is the company as a whole. Humility, a quality the corporate world doesn’t talk much about – unlike productivity or competitiveness. Humility seems more a topic for the pulpit. But there is a tie between humility and productivity. Humility can significantly help the morale of an organization. It can foster better rapport between managers and employees, and between employees and customers.

Not all mistakes are equal, of course. Some are the result of negligence and should be handled accordingly. I’m not saying let’s just make mistakes, forgive and forget. Instead, use the mistakes to learn and make procedures better so they don’t happen as often.

Errors can cost a company, but they’re also an inevitable part of being human. A company that operates in atmosphere of humility, respect, and honesty allows its employees to excel at their jobs without the paralyzing fear of making mistakes, and often the result is that fewer errors occur.

What is your business doing to leverage mistakes and turn them into opportunities? What do you think managers can do to help create a culture of respect?

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at MindLeaders. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.

People are human, and that means mistakes are bound to happen. In fact, few of us get through the workday without making a single error. The closer we get to 100 percent, the better, of course. But, should 99.9 percent accuracy be considered good enough?   Google the phrase “99.9% is good enough,” and see what comes back.  You will find  that 99.9 percent would leave a lot to be desired. At 99.9 percent accuracy you could expect:

• 810 commercial airline flights to crash every month.

• 1,314 phone calls to be misplaced by telecommunications services every minute.

• 107 incorrect medical procedures to be performed today.

• 18,322 pieces of mail to be mishandled in the next hour.

• 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions to be written in the next 12 months.

• 22,000 checks to be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next 60 minutes.

Some environments, like aviation and medical safety, are certainly high stakes. In these businesses, you just can’t depend on a mulligan, a do-over, or a re-load.  Other situations present day-to-day examples of defects that while not life threatening can certainly be annoying and costly.  Either way, product and service quality are important.

Most of us depend on people, processes, and equipment to get it right the first time.  So where does excellent quality begin?  Do you think defects occur mostly because someone is lazy or doesn’t care about good quality?  Actually, it’s more complicated than that, but in my opinion it starts with management.

Arm Your Workforce with Training and Tools to Reach 100 Percent

Errors frequently happen because an employee is not trained sufficiently.  Time and money invested in training can reduce the odds of mistakes happening.  Managers often underestimate how much time and training is needed to get an employee up to speed if he or she is assuming a new position.  It may be that manager has worked at the company, or in the profession,  so he or she has lost sight of what it’s like to start in a new position, to have to learn so much so quickly.  A manager who expects too much out of his or her employee without also providing that staff member with the tools to do the job is doing an injustice to that employee, to that manager, and to the company as a whole.

Companies are increasingly realizing that.  Last year, spending on employee development rose by nearly 10 percent to an average of $800 per learner, according to a study done by Bersin and Associates, a firm that researches workplace issues.  The research also found that the large business investment in social learning tools last year nearly doubled.

Mistakes can be costly, and so can bringing in new employees to replace the ones who left too soon.  Effective bosses invest the time and resources in making sure their employees have the tools they need to allow them to succeed.  Training can build the respect and confidence that a boss needs to have in a team member to minimize mistakes.

What is your business doing to reduce errors and improve quality? What tools or training are the most important to producing quality work in your job?

Alan See is the Chief Marketing Officer at MindLeaders. He has written this guest post for the Networking Exchange Blog.