The featured speaker was Jay Berkowitz, CEO of Ten Golden Rules. You can see him below, next to the event’s hashtag (#socstardom3), which you can search on to find Twitter posts, photos, videos, event recaps (including Mayra’s) and other related content:

Jay Berkowitz speaking at SocStardom3

The event generated a lot of great crowdsourced coverage, (also, Jay’s presentation slides will soon be available from the Ten Golden Rules Web site), and I believe we’ll be doing a followup entry focusing more on the specific topic of the presentation (”Web 2010: Discover the 10 Strategies Defining Your Future”), so I’ll just stick to a quick topline and throw in a few takeaways from the event.

Jay’s presentation was fast-paced and well-structured, built around those 10 general themes fleshed out with examples and basic and advanced strategies for each. While people versed in social media and social marketing techniques (or can fake their way to that claim) probably won’t find any new revelations from each particular bullet, they do tie together to give a coherent picture (perhaps even a functional roadmap) of things social marketers will want to stay on top of.

And there were some great illustrative examples. For the first theme of microcommunications, we saw the example of Mission Pie of San Francisco, which uses its Twitter presence to keep customers up-to-date on their latest offerings, and consequently have seen a 20% increase in business.

Also mentioned as another icon of engagement was the somewhat mysterious Twitter user Iconic88, whose positive posts make him one of the most retweeted humans in the Twittersphere (and whom Jay met and will be featuring in one of his upcoming podcasts).

In the realm of social search, we were told of online pet supply retailer Petco’s experience improving sales 50% through the addition of user ratings and reviews, and how even negative reviews help sales, by adding authenticity to the reviews.

Jay also mentioned that an opportunity with underdeveloped potential is video, both because it helps conversions, but also because a lot of people still don’t know what to do in that space, and have yet to become  competent in producing good video. (Something I can personally attest to, at least to the latter part.)

During the Q&A period, discussion topics included the ever-popular “how do I make money off my content now?” (as opposed to building my name for future business) — a number of people chimed in on everything from ad services, affiliate marketing, and using free content to push people down the marketing funnel. (Jay also mentioned PayPerPost as a possibility, though many, including Jay, find the concept offputting.) There were also questions about specific tools, including strategies for using Twitter clients to follow large numbers of people, and looks into how other cultures use social media (for example, Asia being ahead on mobile and mobile payment, and Australia generally lagging 6-12 months behind in areas).

We concluded with an around-the-room introduction, and then Shashi called in to Jay’s podcast comment line (206-888-6606) so we could record a group thank-you:

In summary, it was another good event, and I say to anyone dissuaded about heading out to Rockville because of geography or that weird Maryland vs. Virginia vs. DC regional feud-thing: You’re missing out.

If you’ve got your own impressions of the event or a writeup or photos you’d like to share, please leave a comment below.

Mike from Helpstream, a CRM-company, commented that companies should go beyond supporting customers on third-party sites, and should have customer service integrated into their own Web sites. (Amazingly, his company offers solutions to do just that.)

I agree with the theory of that, but practically speaking, depending on the business you’re in, the resources you have available, and how far along you are in your social media strategy, I think the logical first step is reaching out to people where they are, instead of trying to get them to come to you. (In a related topic, see “Blog Last“, a recent entry in the Buzz Bin blog.)

It really depends. If you’re, say, a small software developer, people will naturally be looking to you for fixes, patches and help docs, so it absolutely makes sense to try to build a support community on your own site — it’s the nature of the business.

For other businesses (like local businesses that are mainly brick-and-mortar: retailers, restaurants, entertainment venues, etc. — the kinds of businesses you would see in a social review site), this would be putting the cart before the horse. I mean, look at the time you spend on the Web site of any single one of these types of businesses, compared to a social review site that aggregates a bunch of them.

Sometimes, it’s a chicken-and-egg thing: People end up on third-party community sites related to a business, because the business never bothered offering anything of its own. A good example is the owner communities that exist for pretty much every car brand out there. The same thing for cell phone carriers, and other types of companies.

What happens in these communities? All the usual community stuff: People swap tips, tricks, gripes, deals, advice, etc. And since they’re unofficial, they all have a variant of this disclaimer (”The XX user forum is unaffiliated with XX company.”). But what you do often see are self-identified local reps participating in the forums. Or sometimes, an affiliated business (like a local dealer or reseller) will sponsor a forum within the community.

So say you’re Bob’s Transforming Yugo Motors, a local car dealership. Transforming Yugo corporate hasn’t made a community play yet, but there are established Transforming Yugo owner forums out there, some independent, some as part of larger auto fan communities. Do you try to set up community on your own site?

Well, Bob, first, invest some time and participate in the existing communities. And, of course, don’t just jump in with both feet and your mouth yapping — read for a month or two (at least), to get a feel for the place. After that, start participating (making sure you’ve clearly identified who you are) and try to be helpful without trying to sell people stuff. Seek out the local or regional subgroup most relevant to you, and become a resource for those folks. Then, figure out if it makes sense for you to set up community tools on your own site, and how to make sure that they exist in collaboration, not competition, with existing communities and resources.

If you’re participating in someone else’s community site, you give up a measure of control over your message. Which is precisely why people value them, and trust them more than company sites. What you can do in your owned-corporate site is offer canonical information and access to decision-makers — what you do with that is up to you.

Have thoughts on where and how to engage your customers? Leave a comment.

I’m an independent consultant, so technically I run my own small business. But I’m under no illusions: My primary expertise has been helping big (huge, even) companies figure out what to do with online community and social media (which covers everything from e-mail listservs, discussion forums, blogs, profiles, and new stuff that people keep inventing).

However, I am a very strong believer in the power of social media, and how it can help people do valuable things.

So, what I’ll try to do in my blog entries is offer my own thoughts and observations about social media, and how I think it can help people with small businesses (and bigger ones, too, I guess). Then, I’ll listen to you folks, take my lumps on any wildly-incorrect assumptions, then try to shape all that together into things you can use to help your business.

Assumption #1: Social Media Is Valuable to Your Business
I’m biased, of course, because I work in the field and I’ve gotten jobs thanks to social media. If you’re a consultant, social media is just another way to maintain relationships with people you know; form relationships with new people; tell people what you’re doing; and keep tabs on what other people are doing.

Change “people” to “customers” (as well as “collaborators” and “competitors”) and this is why social media can help your business, too.

Assumption #2: Social Media’s Impact Is More Immediate on Small Businesses
Over the weekend, Johnson and Johnson kicked up a storm over some Motrin ads that some mommy bloggers found insulting (Jeremiah Owyang has a pretty good roundup, with stats). But even though it kicked up a big fuss among Twitter users and mommy bloggers (both very vocal, somewhat insular, communities), we won’t know how (or even if) it’s going to effect Motrin sales or Johnson and Johnson revenues for some time. (Since JnJ reacted and apologized pretty quickly, the role of social media here might simply be as a tripwire before it turned into a really big problem in the mainstream.)

However, if you’re a small business owner, you’ve got a simpler way to see if what you’re doing in social media has an impact (good or bad): Count feet coming in through your door, and sales coming up on the register.

Assumption #3: People Are Talking About You. So You Should at Least Know What They’re Saying
In a user-generated content world, every person who steps through your door is a potential reviewer. Blogs, local city guides, and review sites are all part of this conversation. At the very least, you should know what they’re saying: rants, raves, and useful feedback you can act on. (It’s like a focus group, only more valuable.)

The insidious thing is, once you know what people are saying about you, you usually want to respond (so make sure it’s in a way that helps your business).

Assumption #4: Your Web Presence Is Like Your Yellow Pages Listing… Only Much More Important
Just like your Yellow Pages listing, your Web presence should help people find your business, and answer basic questions about it (what you do, how to reach you, etc.). Unlike a Yellow Pages listing, though, you can interact with your customers and prospects, and they can interact with each other.

This is an opportunity: Having a presence on the Web and in social media can help you stay relevant to people’s lives — especially if you can be useful to people, even when you’re not even trying to explicitly sell them something.

Assumption #5: Who I Think I’m Talking To
Outside of the usual gaggle of self-proclaimed and self-promoting social media experts (of whom, of course, I am one), I’m thinking about real and regular people using the Web: Consultants and information workers trying to drum up prospects; brick-and-mortar retailers trying to drive more foot traffic; roofers, plumbers and other service professionals looking to drive referrals; restaurant owners trying to figure out how to stay connected with regulars; pet groomers trying to tap into the community at the local dog run.

And of course, anyone interested in figuring out ways to improve their search engine rankings, engage their communities, and tap into word-of-mouth.

If you have anything that you want to share (about social media and your small business) — challenges you’re facing (or that you’ve conquered), questions you have, things you want to see us cover, and of course, anything I got wrong — let me know with a comment.

This fits in perfectly with the series that I’m working on now on branding & establishing a presence for your business online. It’s imperative that others have an awareness of your site. I listed StartPR.com as a tool that you can use. This is Alex’s business venture.

Alex offers a lot of information in this interview. His suggestions in the answer to question five are excellent advice.

Connie: What motivated you to create StartPR.com?

Alex: The idea for StartPR grew out of a need for better blogger relations. About a year ago, I helped launch an online service that received hundreds of favorable mentions from bloggers and websites in the US and around the world. A few months later, my friends Brian Breslin and
Xavier Bussiere launched their own service, which was also well received. However, we noticed and commented to each other about how manually tedious it had become to manage the online conversations! In fact, we were responding to each blogger and there was no way to easily keep track of mentions or reporting on our activity. We soon decided to create StartPR, a service that would make it easier to identify the online conversations, to manage blogger relations, and to document our communications activity.

Connie: How do you see small businesses using it?

Alex: I think it’s important to realize that more and more people are expressing themselves across various social networks and blogs. Without a doubt, some of these conversations will be interesting or very relevant to your small business. Whether people mention your company’s name, products, employees, industry, or competitors, it is important to keep track of what’s being said in order to respond appropriately. Since StartPR will track any term or combination of terms across the internet (including on photo- and video-sharing sites such as Flickr and YouTube), you may easily keep up with the latest conversations that are of interest. Whether the mentions are positive or negative, you now have a way of receiving them centrally, managing the response with your colleagues, and keeping tabs on your blogger relations efforts.

Connie: What would a work flow be for using your product?

Alex: Immediately after setting up the key terms you would like to track, you will start receiving search results in your workspace. These results are drawn from a variety of blogs, social networks (including Twitter), and multimedia sharing sites. Most any online mention of your terms will appear in your workspace. The next step is to decide whether to respond to the mention, and if so, who among your team is best suited to do so. In our multi-user environment, you may post notes about each mention and delegate these mentions to your colleagues. This way, you may coordinate an appropriate and timely response with your team to respond to the people, bloggers, and websites that are talking about your company and products. After an important announcement, you may also want to visualize the number of mentions you are getting by consulting our charts. At the end of the week or month, you may print out reports on your blogger relations activity, or download it to a spreadsheet for further analysis.

Connie: What sets your product apart from others in this space?

Alex: Online brand monitoring is still a nascent field in response to companies’ efforts to engage with the growing number of people participating in various types social networks. Competing services in this space differ on focus, features, and price. Each service offers different sets of features, and many of them focus mostly on displaying metrics and charts of online mentions. We aim to provide the best user experience for engaging with bloggers, while also providing tools to facilitate intra-company collaboration and reporting.

Connie: What advice would you give small businesses as they add an online presence?

Alex: If you’re a small business, the primary strategy must be to increase your rank in Google. Too often, businesses spend too many resources on their website’s design and not enough effort on increasing the number of organic (unpaid) visits from Google searches. Choose to work with professionals who will advise you on how to build a website and online presence that will position you highly in Google. Next, think about
which social networks to join and how to participate in them. After all, people are spending their time socializing on these networks — from Twitter to Flickr to Facebook to YouTube, and many more. By maintaining an active presence on the appropriate social networks for your business, you will attract new people to your own web properties. Finally, consider maintaining a professional or business blog. A history of quality posts may turn into your most powerful asset for establishing your online presence, establishing your credibility, and gaining authority in your field. Working on these aspects should lead to increased conversions and customer retention. There is a slight learning curve to using social media, but in time, this should feel natural and something you look forward to!

Our thanks to Alex for his time & contributions to the social media world! For the last question, I consider the social networking as building community & completely agree with Alex. It takes time, starts slow & builds. But you definitely need tools to do it.

You can find Alex at:

Alexdc on Twitter

his blog – AlexDC.org

Have you tried StartPR.com? I’m sure that Alex would welcome your feedback.