This document discusses leveraging social media platforms to distribute and collect micro-content for product marketing and sales support. It recommends thinking of content as a stream and in terms of micro-content chunks. It also suggests thinking of the audience as content creators and all content as blog posts. The document then recommends developing a social media-based content cycle that sources input, aggregates, tags, edits, packages, and streams output through common tools like Twitter, Facebook, blogs and email. It concludes by offering workshops to help organizations plan and implement a social media-based content cycle.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SALES SUPPORT Leveraging Social Media Platforms to Distribute and Collect Micro-Content for Product Marketing SM is not just for customers anymore … Success Stories Customer Insights Sales Tactics Competitive Info New Application Ideas September 2009

2. THINK OF YOUR CONTENT AS A STREAM People are moving away from static sites and content libraries and towards the feed, stream, and channel Publishing and broadcasting rest in peace, long live the micro-channel!

3. THINK IN TERMS OF MICRO-CONTENT People are consuming content in smaller chunks (more frequently) Segment your product info, sales training and market intelligence into smaller chunks and tag (add metadata) to make it easy to find Produce and distribute often, even if production value is simpler

4. THINK OF YOUR AUDIENCE AS CREATORS People are drawn to what other people like them … (doing the same thing, solving the same problems) … say and think Your target audience (sales force) has a lot of on-the-ground intelligence that should be part of your “content stream” success stories customer insights sales tactics competitive info new potential applications

5. THINK OF ALL CONTENT AS A BLOG POST Each post in a blog has all the necessary elements for a content management system Title Author and date Link to external media (document, image, video, audio, etc.) Brief text (can be description or abstract) Tags for categorization Thinking of content as blog posts allows us to integrate (conceptually and technically) social media with digital content management It’s an opportunity to unify content created by product marketing staff with insight, customer intelligence and “proto-content” (e.g. success stories) collected from the target community It gives us access to a wide range of SM-related tools that are feed-oriented, open-source and conversation-friendly

6. GO WHERE PEOPLE TALK & LISTEN Find out how and where people are most comfortable exchanging content, and develop micro-content channels based on those platforms (Rather than building a new place / method and then expecting people to come to you) email micro-blogging mobile messaging blogging

7. DEVELOP AN SM-BASED CONTENT CYCLE … OUTPUT INPUT Actively solicit input Make available through structured interface (e.g. KM library) or intranet site Aggregate (from a variety of input streams) Collect community- generated micro-content via SM channels & interfaces Stream through SM interfaces & channels Tag (shared, bulk and auto tagging) email Upload staff -produced content in micro-segments through SM interface mobile messaging blogging Edit (shared editing and re-purposing) micro-blogging mobile messaging micro-blogging Collect feedback and continue cycle blogging Package (.pdf, .ppt, .html, etc.) email

8. … USING COMMON TOOLS & PLATFORMS OUTPUT INPUT Iterative investment in platform development Manual processes based on generic SM platforms PUBLIC Twitter Facebook Blogspot Standard Blog Interface Configurable blog or wiki platforms Customized Blog or CMS Interface RSS XML POP RSS XML POP Standard Email Platforms FEEDS to Email Mobile Messaging Private Microblog Streams Customized Content Management (CMS) platforms PRIVATE Yammer Indenti.ca Present.ly WordPress Server-based scripts that automate formatting and format conversion

10. Validate and/or revise manual processes

11. Validate and/or revise promotional and training strategy

12. Launch

13. Track progress of rollout

14. Evaluate and adjust

15. Define your goals in terms of product marketing content and sales support

16. Assess current content cycles

17. Investigate current communications channels and SM use by sales force (and organization as a whole)

18. Develop a strategy for expanding the use of SM in collecting and distributing product marketing micro-content

19. Pick a bounded area (specific topic, geography, division, channel, etc.)

20. Set goals for achievement

21. Pick tools and platforms, and customize if necessary

22. Develop manual processes

23. Develop internal promotional strategy and/or training package

24. Launch

25. Evaluate

26. Continuously improve tools and processes based on feedback within cycle