Explore Dallas

Last Friday myself & GI Sanders attended the Explore conference in Dallas, TX.  Explore was Jason Falls' first event in his ongoing conference tour and it was fantastic. 

For those of you who don't know Jason, he is the creator of Social Media Explorer which is an education and information products company run by him & Aaron Marshall focusing on social media and digital marketing. Social Media Explorer is also a leading publishing platform for insights, opinion and learning around the world of digital and social media marketing, online communications, public relations and advertising and has been rated as high as No. 1 on the prestigious Advertising Age Power 150 Marketing Blogs.

Dallas was extremely lucky to be the first stop on the tour and it was great to see some local social media leaders like Mike Merrill, Eric Swayne, Elysa Rice, Evan Brody, Chris Herschberger, Cynthia Smoot, James Loomstein and others in addition to the amazing panel of presenters.

The conference had two tracks.  Here's a quick recap on the presentations that I attended.  For a in-depth look at the tweets that went on during the conference, check out http://exploretweets.com

The Jedi Warrior Guide to Online Marketing Success
Brian Clark - CopyBlogger

It was great to get things started with some references to Star Wars & Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey!" Brian Clark explained why companies should think like media publishers and tell stories.  "As people, we not only love stories, but we see them."  He went on to give examples of how Apple had historically told stories in their marketing/advertising through their "1984" & "Crazy Ones" commercials & how Subway created a narrative with it's Jared campaign. 

To create these, he outlined three steps that brands must follow to attain "Jedi" marketing
1. Know Your Audience
2. Pivot from Feedback
3. Accelerate

 

Operationalizing Social Media
Zena Weist - Edelman

Fancorps has had the pleasure of meeting several great folks from Edelman over the past few months, like David Armano, Michael Brito, Dave Fleet & Sandy Diaz, so it was a treat to hear Zena Weist speak.  Zena gave two great case studies on managing the social strategies of clients, both with & without an internal champion

In working with Embarq, a division of Sprint, they did not have internal champion or any real strategies regarding social media.  One of their policies was not to communicate with people online unless you were an official spokesperson, so their beginning strategy was simple, Listen! From there, they created 6 strategic pillars to implement their on-line/social goals.

1. Education
Lay out strategies internally & educate employees
2. Seek and cultivate
Begin to aggregate the consumers and cultivate the brand's relationship with nthem
3. Integrate
Engage in online conversations, create content, roll-out contests
4. Research
5. Measure
6. Innovate and experiential

She went one to reiterate that without a champion, patience is key and companies must continually listen, test and learn!

Obviously, things are easier when you have an internal champion on your side and her next case study came from Edelman's work with H&R Block.  From the onset, they had clear goals for their social strategies.  For H&R Block it was to raise the level of their customer service and content through social media and increase their brand advocates to 100,000.  And you know how we love to hear about advocacy at Fancorps!

The key to reaching those goals was to implement a revolving hub & spoke model for their social communication & to streamline the on-line response process

She wrapped things up by saying that companies with a champion must start by listening and aligning with business goals & metrics.  And then most importantly must participate in "Action Listening" or really listening and not just monitoring.

One of the biggest take aways from Zena's presentation was her statement on the three P's to Social Business Strategy.  So simple, yet so true!
1. People
2. Process
3. Platform

"Becoming a social business I'ts not a campaign, it's a continual process!" ~ Zena Weist

 

The State of Location Based Marketing
Aaron Strout - WCG Location Based Marketing
Adrian Parker - Intuit

Aaron & Adrian sparked a great discussion with the attendees on the importance of location based marketing!  They kicked things off by exclaiming 53% of consumers are willing to share a location on a mobile device in exchange for relevant content.  Foursquare's original goal was to help people navigate and explore cities better, but now we see a clear distinction of the types of people that use Foursquare and other location based apps. There are Info-seekers, Special-seekers & Badge-seekers.

Adrian added to these comments by stating "Brands must become butlers in location based marketing." They have to help consumers navigate the world they live in, give them direction and ultimately reward them for their experiences.  During his tenure at Radio Shack, they observed that 80% of their Foursquare redemptions were non-mayor redemptions, which spoke directly to first-time and casual consumers taking advantage of deals.  He also went on to say that philanthropic tie-ins always increase the value to the consumer as the "Live Strong" campaign was their most popular badge!

The panel wrapped up with the statement that brands must pay attention to SoLoMo; Social Local & Mobile!  Check out the SoLoMo Manifesto from Moment Feed that was mentioned in the discussion!

How Big Brands Go Local
Kevin Magee - Expion

To continue the discussions on local marketing I stepped right into Kevin Magee's presentation.  He started out by stating that 86% of national marketers are looking to localize their marketing.  Why?  Because localized marketing = greater customer relevance!

One of the great misconceptions in LBM is that everyone is doing it, when in fact only 5% of US consumers use Foursquare!  Therefore, it's important for brands to manage local efforts on Facebook and other social networks. Brand must determine a policy that works best, whether it's managing local pages centrally or building regional teams and training them properly.

The bottom line is that local conversation drive actions and brands cannot survive unless they think global & act local!

Fireside chat w/ Chris Baccus
Chris Baccus - AT&T

Was good to hear two good friends, Jason Falls & Chris Baccus sit down and chat.  The absolute key take-away from the short discussion was Chris' statement: "Don't look at the value of a Facebook like, but rather the value of a Facebook community!"  We must look at overall effort & the reach it created to gain a true sense of the success of social media efforts. "This effort on this site, had this amount of value between these two points of time"

Explore Case Study Panel
Jeff Semones - M80
Stephanie Scott - American Airlines
Courtney Turner - Aquasana
Jason Dove - Social Compass

Was great to hear some insights from all of these companies on how their implementing social media, mobile, location-based marketing & advocacy to expand their overall business & client strategies.  Jeff Semones, summed up things best by laying out common ties to successful campaigns.
1. Those with good products or services. Commitment to excellence
2. Ones that embrace and invest in social media
3. Internal champion. One that is senior enough to unlock budgets

Smart Ears: Using Social Media Monitoring for Strategic Business Decisions
Arienne Holland - Raven Tools

It was refreshing to hear a platform provider speak and not use it as a forum to pitch their own platform. Arienne's presentation centered on the all important task of listening to the conversations that are taking place in the social sphere....really, listening!

Listening is twice as important as talking
1. It's proactive, not reactive
Go where your people are
2. It drives better business decisions
Use words real people use
3. It requires thought, time & tools

Mobile Marketing: Turning Passive Advocates into Social Influencers
Tim Hayden - 44 Doors

Tim closed out the day of presentations with some amazing insight into how consumers interact with their mobile phones.

Interesting stats:
- 50% of people in the US own a Smartphone
- 90% of Americans are within 3 feet of their phone 24 hours a day!
- Text messaging is the number 1 thing we do on our phone

The key is to "think mobile behavior, NOT mobile technology." Decisions are being made in dynamic communication systems, or mesh networks, where consumers share experiences and make decisions together, so brands must constantly think about when, where, why & how people are communicating with each other.

To wrap up the day, we heard from Explore's creator, Jason Falls, who summed up the real reason that we're all here! As "marketers' we're always led to believe that various things are the most important piece of our job.  It's not SEO, it's not e-mail marketing, it's not LBM, it's not Lead Generation! The most important thing in marketing is remembering what your supposed to be doing.

"Marketing is persuading an audience to take action!" ~ Jason Falls

And to put a capper on it, Jason gave us this simple test to gauge the effectiveness of our marketing plans:

The Holy Shit Rule - Will this make your audience say "Holy Shit, that's ______!"

Thanks to Jason & Aaron for a fantastic event.  Looking forward to more Explores this year and in years to come!

~ @tonyfancorps