Monday, September 28, 2009

10 Fortune 500 Companies Doing Social Media Right

Jennifer Leggio wrote a very nice blog post on ZDNet titled: 10 Fortune 500 Companies Doing Social Media Right. I am honored she chose to include my company Newell Rubbermaid and a quote from me in that list. Some excellent companies are included on the list: Intel, Cisco, EMC and Fedex to name a few.

Jennifer Leggio, also known as Mediaphyter, is a co-host with Aaron Strout on BlogTalkRadio Quick-n-Dirty Podcast.

Friday, September 25, 2009

New Media Atlanta 2009 - #NMATL

I am attending and will be on a panel at the first ever New Media Atlanta conference at the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center in Atlanta, GA.

The keynote speaker is Chris Brogan (his blog: chrisbrogan.com) and I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with him. He also autographed his new book for attendees: Trust Agents - Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.

Here are pictures of Chris Brogan, with Stainless Steel Sharpie in hand, and I taken by Jenny DeVaughn and Jennifer Carter:

Share photos on twitter with Twitpic



My panel was titled: Are You Ready For Social Media?: Preparing Your Teams to Listen, Engage, Measure & Adapt

Bert DuMars, Peter Fasano, Seth Miller (and TBSVeryFunny, MostlyMuppet) with Jeff Turner moderating:

Managing an effective social networking campaign is both an art and a science. This panel will give you insight into the tools and techniques used by several large companies in their efforts to engage their customers using Social Media.

Also, I came in 5th during the special Chris Brogan/New Media Atlanta TwitterINGO game. I will be hosting TwitterINGO on September 29, 2009. Hope you can play, should be a challenging set of words.

So many great Atlanta friends in attendance it is difficult to list them all. But you can follow everyone's tweets at #NMATL.

September 26, 2009 Update:

Stacy Williams wrote a thoughtful post on the Backnoise channel at New Media Atlanta. Well worth the investment of your time to read the post and the comments. Unexpected Learnings: BackNoise Can Be Toxic

September 27, 2009 Update:

Another excellent blog post on New Media Atlanta - Blog: New Media Atlanta and Chris Brogan by Ilyce Glink

And another: New Media Atlanta - Social Media Rockstars by Jenny DeVaughn

September 28, 2009 Update:

More blog posts that are excellent reads on New Media Atlanta and the backchannel noise on BackNoise:

Do Backchannels Know No Boundaries by Jason Keith

Who Can Be Brogan by Matt Fagioli

He Said, She Said Volume 5 (and here) by Todd Schnick & Stephanie Lloyd

Snarkiness, anonymity, and backchannel conversations at professional conferences by Paul Chaney

September 29, 2009 Update:

What I told them at New Media Atlanta by Chris Brogan (includes some comments and video of presentation) - Interesting, Insightful and Fun

Thursday, September 24, 2009

iab MIXX New York Presentation

I presented with ForeSee Results at the iab MIX Conference & Expo in New York City on September 22, 2009. Our presentation was titled: Beyond Click-throughs and Tweets - Qualitative Measurement of Site Visitor Segments.

Here is a summary of the presentation:

Beyond Clickthroughs and Tweets: Qualitative Measurement of Site Visitor Segments

Successful interactive and social media campaigns drive traffic to your web site, but how well does your web site succeed at bringing vistors closer to your brand and making them loyal customers? Applying a scientific analytics approach to online customer satisfaction measurement provides a qualitative view of the customer experience. This approach enables brands to quantify the intangible value of the site experience and project future behavior that will drive financial success. In the process, brands can gain key insights about visitor segments that help them market more effectively online and offline. Learn how Newell Rubbermaid is applying this measurement approach to Sharpie and other brands and how satisfaction analytics can enhance your measurement system.

Bert DuMars, Vice President, E-Business and Interactive Marketing, Newell Rubbermaid

Eric Head, Senior Director, Business Development, ForeSee Results

The audience was energized and had lots of questions. It was a pleasure presenting with Eric.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

New Calphalon.com Website Launches



We launched the new Calphalon.com website today, September 19, 2009.

The new design is focused on the Culinary Lifestyle and integrates consumer generated product reviews from BazaarVoice and advanced where-to-buy services from Channel Intelligence.

The site was developed by LBi Atlanta (@LBi_Atlanta) on a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Commerce Server, Microsoft SQL and Biztalk server platform hosted at Rackspace.

Kamie McHenry-Eckert was the lead Calphalon E-Marketing Manager and Imran Khan was the lead Corporate E-Business Program Manager on the project.

We are thrilled and excited to unveil this next generation website and look forward to its continued evolution.

UGA CONNECT 2009 Conference

I attended University of Georgia, Grady College, CONNECT 2009 conference today, September 19, 2009 in Athens, GA. Porter Novelli is the lead sponsor for the conference.

Panelists and audience debated the value and impact of social media communications.

The hashtag for the conference is #connect. You can also find out more about the conference, speakers and discussions at the following locations:

Twitter: @UGAConnect
Blog: ugaconnect2009
Flickr: ugaconnect09
Delicious: UGAConnect2009
YouTube: UGAConnect

The panels included the following:

Is Social Media Transformational? – Panel Discussion
Melanie James – University of Newcastle (Australia) (via Skype)
Dan Greenfield – Bernaise Source Media, Atlanta, GA
Aaron De Lucia - Porter Novelli

Integrating Social Media in Non-Profits Panel
Tom Watson – Bournemouth University (United Kingdom) (via Skype)
Richard Waters – North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Sara Valkova – Emory Healthcare, Atlanta, GA

Integrating Social Media in Business and Industry Panel
Jeremy Pepper – Palisades Systems, Los Angeles, CA
Toby Bloomberg – Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing, Atlanta, GA

Speaker: Lauren Fernandez, Public Relations Blogger, Dallas, TX

Legal Issues with Employee Blogging
Perry Binder- Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Integrating Social Media in Government Panel
John Tedesco - Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Lt. Connie Braesch – U.S. Coast Guard, Washington DC (via Skype)

Speaker Bios can be found here and here.

The nice thing about this conference is that it is small enough for the audience to actively engage and debate the presenters. Nothing is taken for granted and controversial perspectives on the theme are not held back

Thursday, September 17, 2009

New Rubbermaid.com Launches


We launched the new Rubbermaid.com website last night, September 16, 2009.

The new design is focused on home organization solutions and integrates consumer generated product reviews from BazaarVoice, advanced where-to-buy services from Channel Intelligence, and affiliate marketing services from Commission Junction (@CJnetwork).

The site was developed by LBi Atlanta (@LBi_Atlanta) on a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Commerce Server, Microsoft SQL and Biztalk server platform hosted at Rackspace.

Jim Deitzel was the lead E-Marketing Manager and Imran Khan was the lead E-Business Program Manager on the project.

We are thrilled and excited to unveil this next generation website and look forward to its continued evolution.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

From Zero to Community: Practical Advice for Growing and Nurturing an Online Community

I will be on a webcast tomorrow, September 17, 2009 at 3PM Eastern with Aaron Strout, CMO at Powered, and Rachel Happe, Principal and Founder, The Community Roundtable (@theCR). We will be presenting: From Zero To Community: Practical Advice for Growing and Nurturing an Online Community.

Rachel will be presenting her Community Maturity Model and community management best practices. I will be discussing our Sharpie - Uncap Your Creativity, Graco Baby - From The Heart and Rubbermaid - Adventures in Organizaton communities and social networking efforts.

Hope you can attend.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

New Marketing Ecosystem And Three Spheres of Web Strategy

I like the poster that Mullen marketing agency developed depicting The New Marketing Ecosystem (see below). This is a comprehensive view of all the touchpoints and complexities of connecting with today's consumer. I have this poster hanging in my office.


I also like the perspective Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) provides on Web Strategy with his diagram below - The Three Spheres of Web Strategy - Updated for 2009. It is a simple view that provides needed clarity on this very complex subject. I keep a copy of this with me wherever I go.


Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions

The above graphic provides a very interesting perspective on distractions caused by digital devices. The pyramid was developed by Chris McCandless, http://informationisbeautiful.net. Here is his blog post: The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions and a Mashable article on the graphic. Chris definitely develops some interesting and cool graphical representations. Check them all out on his blog and at Flickr.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The HUB Magazine - Being Social

I was interviewed by Tim Manners of The HUB Magazine on Social Media and Social Networking topics a few weeks back. The article: "Being Social," just came out today. The article also includes quotes and comments from:

I am honored to have been interviewed with these other very strong players in the social media and social web ecosystem.

In addition to this article coming out today, Newell Rubbermaid was also featured in a Wall Street Journal article discussing our Twitter recruiting efforts. "A New Job Is Just A Tweet Away" discusses how we use Twitter to find untapped talent. The Newell Rubbermaid Twitter recruiting id is @CoolJobsatNWL.