I’ve been a member of Ecademy.com (a social network for business people) for four years now.  I’m still a newbie in many respects, because some members have been on the site for ten years.  I’ve ‘met’ 2928 people on Ecademy and continue to connect with people most days.  Last night for example, I had a beer with Richard Derwent Cooke - someone who I’d not met before but whose Blogs are good reading.  He’s an expert on managing change in large corporates and he made great company.

So what have I noticed about Ecademy in those four years?

For starters, it reflects real life. That might sound like an obvious thing to say, but there is a perception that because Ecademy is an online community it is somehow different from real life. But increasingly it is real life – particulary for the increasing numbers of people who have the Internet integrated into the fabric of their daily lives. Unfortunately for many larger organisations, they just don’t realise this yet.

Only the day before I was talking to a major (global) high street brand about integrating Social Media into their marketing and communications mix. The meeting was in London, and a senior manager responsible for ‘customer experience’ had come over from Bristol. After listening carefully and politely to my presentation he said:

“I hear what you’re saying…” (You know what’s coming next)

“…but this is something we just don’t do.”

I mentioned that his customers do – every day.

“No they don’t” he responded.

“How do you know they don’t?” I asked

“They just don’t… (pause) do they?”

A live demonstration of Ecademy proved that they do indeed. Four years on Ecademy has shown that whilst there are more and more members joining from the corporate world, this new way of interacting and engaging with their customers is still very alien to them. They will need their hands holding for a while yet until they understand what ‘customer experience’ is all about in the modern world.

Then it occured to me that every supplier to my business is from Ecademy. Even the person who’s supplying our hens is now thinking of joining

The idea that you might choose a supplier simply based on their profile, recommendations and testimonials – and without even meeting them would seem daft just a few years ago – but I suspect it happens all the time now.

Four years on Ecademy has shown that the platform itself, and the increasing number of other social networking tools now available adds a lot of value to the lives of thousands of people. It’s clear that different people are using Ecademy for different reasons, and often one person dislikes the way other people use it.

I for one enjoy the richness that this brings, and don’t mind if some people use Ecademy solely to attract Google. I don’t mind if some people use it to blatantly sell their products and I don’t mind if some people use it to enhance the perception of their expertise and credibility. It’s real life – just online.

We all have our own views on how Ecademy should be used, but there’s no doubt that the people who work hard to add value appear to be well thought of. For those people who do use Ecademy just to blatantly sell their products – good luck to you. But a key message has to be that the more you try to sell – the less you’ll actually sell. And anyway – there’s a place for that – Marketplace. But either way – you’re welcome.

What of the future?

Ecademy will continue to grow. Members will come and some will go. Some will join in and some will lurk. One thing’s for sure – there will be fun, arguments and business to write – just like in ‘real life’. The only option is to enjoy it.

But whatever the shape of online social networking in (say) 2020, and whatever the latest toy is – it will still be all about people.

People buy people. Never forget it.

Phil

With Thomas Power’s timely Blog today about Marketers waking up to Social Networks, it’s reassuring and exciting to announce that a project I’ve been working on to help a client use a Social Network (i.e. Ecademy) as a marketing and client engagement tool has been recognised with a nomination at a major awards ceremony for the Recruitment world.

Ian Partington – Managing Director of the online Sales recruitment site SimplySalesJobs.co.uk, read Power’s article in New Media Age about how Brands can use Social Networks as part of their communication mix.  Ian and I discussed the different ways that he could use Ecademy to add value to his existing customers whilst simultaneously attracting new ones.

So in June last year we set up the Simply Sales Club on Ecademy, and we have just heard that it has been nominated for Most Innovative Online Marketing at the OnRec Awards at the Café Royal on 5th March – the leading awards ceremony for the online recruitment industry (Onrec.com being the main supplier of global online recruitment news and comment).

In its own small way, this is an important step forward for marketers looking to engage with customers and prospects through Social Networks as we’ve shown that the model can really work.  And guess what?  The Simply Sales Club is growing at around 300 members per week and is one of the largest clubs on Ecademy – a fact not lost on its sponsors who now have a powerful and compelling new medium to offer to it’s advertisers.

So everyone wins:

SimplySalesJobs.co.uk have a vehicle to add value to their customers
SimplySalesJobs.co.uk attract new customers by adding value within Ecademy
Ecademy members get value through an exciting new club
Ecademy gets 300 new members per week
Calvert New Media gets paid to create and run their club
Ecademy members who have products and services for Sales people have a new place to promote themselves
Ecademy, Philip Calvert and SimplySalesJobs.co.uk all get publicity for the award nomination
SimplySalesJobs.co.uk discover a new income stream by selling advertising in the club

Social Media Marketing – sounds like a good idea to me.

Phil

I mentioned a few weeks ago that social media is proving to be a powerful tool to help you to raise the profile of your seminars, workshops and courses.  Well it seems that it is much more powerful than I originally thought.

In fact, once you’ve found your way around online networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Xing, MySpace and others, you’ll discover a very clever secret about them.  In fact it virtually guarantees that I get a full house at my own seminars – and as a result my ‘Seminar on Seminars’ on 1st February 2008 is now sold out. Like the other Seminars on Seminars before them, this one has also sold out more than two months in advance.

Every week I meet a lot of people who tell me that they’re members of (say) Ecademy, but haven’t yet got ’stuck in’.  As a result they are wondering why they joined in the first place!  As a marketing coach and someone who’s a member of over 20 social networks, I would strongly recommend that you do get stuck in – because they are powerful tools to help you in your business.  And increasingly they are including office functionality specifically designed to help you in your day-to-day work – and are not just a place to ‘lark about’ (as one business person described Facebook to me recently). 

Make the effort to put time aside to look closely at the functionality of these networks – consider it as part of your professional development.  Yes – take it that seriously.

If seminars and workshops have a part to play in your business – now or in the future – and you would like to learn powerful and proven techniques to get profitable bums on seats at your events, courses and workshops, contact me soon because at the next Seminar on Seminars I’ll reveal exactly how I use social networks to pack-out my events… so that you can too.

Click here.

Phil

Xing has introduced a tool (albeit to market their social network) to help you calculate the value of your network. Answer their quiz and they will give you the potential monetary value of your network which you can tap into and capitalise over the next 10 years. Your network value can be converted into hard cash – for example by generating new sales, getting pay rises or promotions, holding seminars or giving lectures etc.

Give it a try here and tell us how you get on.

Phil

 Join my network here

Of course it isn’t – but I’m wondering if Social Media is making us lazy marketers.  With just a few well-chosen keywords, tags and links it’s just all to easy to promote our products and services on the Web with very little effort.  But does it work and do we run the risk of substituting the Web for tried, tested and proven marketing techniques?

Whilst I was presenting some new ways to promote seminars at my workshop last week, I suddenly realised that I use 18 separate social tools to get my message out and about.  They all work to a greater or lesser degree – but if everyone uses these tools won’t our promotional mesages just get lost in the noise?

Should we go back to sticking posters on lamp posts?

Phil

Successful Seminar Selling Live! on the 16th November 2007 and 25th January 2008 are now sold out. The first one sold out one and a half months before the date, with the January workshop filling up more than three months in advance.

Kick-start 2008 by learning in one ultra high-content day how to use seminars and workshops as a powerful marketing and brand-building tool. The next event is on Friday 1st February at the Hilton Bracknell. I’ll share exactly what I do to sell-out my events so that you can too.  And yes – you’ll discover how to use social networks and new media as valuable new tools to successfully promote your events.

A full list of benefits is at this link.

See you there…

Regards

Phil

FastPitch suggest my Blog will get greater visibility if I add the links above to my Blog here.  So I have – let’s see what happens.

Phil

Whilst I’m quick to bang on about the importance of integrating the Internet into your marketing activities, it’s refreshing to see how many businesses are increasingly keen to use seminars, workshops and product showcases to raise their profile.

Many business people have been involved in a seminar in some shape or form in the past, but gave up this approach for a variety of different reasons – not least of which was getting bums on seats.  It’s the biggest challenge of all for seminar hosts – but when you know how to get bums on seats, it makes seminars one of the single most powerful tools in your marketing armoury.  When supported by an integrated Internet campaign – including both your website and social networks, then you’re on to a winner. 

But where can you learn more about this stuff?  Where can you find a wealth of tips, tricks and proven techniques to help you plan, prepare, present and profit from a seminar programme?

Here – on the 25th January 2008.  A full-day, ultra high content ’seminar on seminars’ – where you’ll discover everything you need to start profiting from seminars.  Take a look.

Phil

Good news from LinkedIn today, as members are now able to upload a photo into their profile page.  Until now, I’ve found LinkedIn a little dry and this simple new feature will start to bring it alive.

If you use the Internet to promote yourself and your brand, it’s important to remember that ‘people still buy people online’ as much as they do face-to-face.  So if you have a LinkedIn profile, head on over there and upload a good quality image.  Follow this link.

Oh – and if you need an outstanding photo, I can thoroughly recommend David – probably the best portrait photographer around at the moment.

Philip

I see that the British Lawn Tennis Association has taken tough action by withdrawing the funding for two junior players after they were deemed to have breached contracts requiring them to act professionally.

The two concerned had allegedly posted “photos and confessions” on Bebo.  Is this just a case of teenagers being teenagers or is even the use of social networks part of the sacrifice you need to make to get to the top?

Use of social networks and blogs is rapidly becoming part of every day ‘marketing activity’ for many smaller businesses (and increasingly larger corporates) – but are we potentially letting ourselves down?

Phil