I found some information from an ExactTarget study that examines which digital outlet people check first when they wake up in the morning. I think this information can benefit B2B marketers. Knowing where online consumers begin their daily online activities reveals a lot about their priorities. This information can also help B2B marketers effectively pinpoint where to deliver marketing messages. Some highlights of the study include:

• 58 percent of online consumers check e-mail first
• 11 percent of online consumers check Facebook or Twitter first

This tells me that when messages are being delivered in the morning, B2B marketers should focus on delivering those messages through e-mail, more so than Facebook and Twitter. But with the rise of social media, Facebook and Twitter have their places too so I think it’s important to keep them on the list.

What do you think? Do you think the ExactTarget study can benefit B2B marketers? Why or why not?

Oh, I know, how about talk to someone! Meet a friend for coffee. Try visiting a neighbor you’ve been meaning to meet. What about an act of kindness like taking some homemade cookies to a local fire station or maybe even plan some quality time with your family. Or even better, put down that phone, refrain from texting, tweeting or even chatting on Facebook and intentionally connect face-to-face with someone.

Impossible you say? Not according to Facebook. Wednesday, August 25 is the National Facebook Fast. Facebook is encouraging everyone to do just that—connect face-to-face.

What does this have to do with B2B communications? It’s a new idea called ‘Personal Touch.’ Okay, so the idea might not be new, but when was the last time you took the time to reach out and connect with your clients in a new and personal way?

Not sure what you can do. Be creative and have fun with it. Still not sure? Then call Canyon, we’ve got plenty of great ideas for you to reach out to your current clients and prospects you’ve been trying to reach.

So don’t forget, no Facebook on August 25, 2010—call a friend or Canyon instead…480-775-8880. We would even love to meet for lunch.

The funny part about this is that you use Facebook to invite people to this. I guess we can’t live without it after all.

Now, there is a day dedicated to the fabulous field of social media. Today, June 30, has been designated Social Media Day. This day, created by Mashable, was designed to be a global celebration of the revolution of media becoming a social dialogue.

To celebrate Social Media Day, there are more than 460 meetups in 74 countries around the world that will take place tonight. In the Phoenix area, Social Media Arizona is hosting the Tempe Social Media Day Meetup at MADCAP Theater from 5-7 p.m. Guests will have the opportunity to meet other social media enthusiasts in the area and give a verbal, in-person Tweet about why they love social media, their favorite social media tool or their successes with social media. If you can’t attend the meetup, you can stay involved with the activities by following Tweets that include #smday.

Will you be at MADCAP tonight? What are you doing to celebrate Social Media Day?

Using and understanding buzzwords seem to be a right of passage in business. Your buzzword vocabulary grows along with your years of experience. And, if you want to appear truly sophisticated, you can even make up new ones!

It’s disheartening when I see people attempt to prove expertise by buzzword intimidation. Shouldn’t we seek to collaborate, rather than alienate potential colleagues, prospects and customers? The best B2B marketers seek to distill down concepts to be as simple and straight-forward as possible when helping their clients implement programs that engage audiences and convert customers. The steps are simple:

1. Define what you sell

2. Determine how it is different

3. Explain why people should care

4. Understand the best way to communicate that information

To be fair, a lot of hard work surrounds these steps, but it gets even harder when you have to trudge knee-deep through the buzzword jungle.

Do you think it’s time to declare a National Day Without Buzzwords? What marketing buzzwords to you think are overused?

This week, while implementing a new social media plan for a client, I wondered, when it comes to Facebook, is there a way to determine how much a Facebook fan is actually worth? Of course, I have other success metrics in the plan including measuring the velocity of fans within the first 30 days, visits to the fan page and number of comments or “likes” each week, but I was still curious about the value of a fan.

Through research, I found an article titled “How Much Is a Facebook Fan Really Worth?” It outlines a strategy from a firm called Syncapse that puts an actual dollar value on a Facebook fan. According to them, an average Facebook fan is worth $136.38. This was determined by asking fans of top brands on Facebook why they were fans of those particular companies and about their past and future buying habits.

I’m not completely sure that this conclusion is entirely accurate but, it’s interesting to see that companies are trying to put a value on a fan.

Have you ever put a value on your Facebook fans? What methods have you used to do this?

Since my first day at Canyon, I have jumped right in on several projects to support public relations efforts for clients. One of the projects that I am working on is putting together a packet of information on why B2B companies should engage in social media and how it has changed them for the better.

I have done research and one of the success stories I’d like to mention is Expert Laser Services. Expert Laser Services launched its B2B social media campaign, “Destroy Your Printer Video Contest” to create brand awareness and generate traffic to the company’s website. The contest was promoted on the company’s blog and other social channels and it was definitely a success. It not only created buzz for the company, it increased traffic to its site, built inbound links and brought new business.

Now we have proof! Engaging in social media is changing B2B companies for the better because it provides better interaction with customers, and more customers means more business for your company.

How are you communicating directly to customers?

Obviously Twitter’s business model is evolving as we speak, and surely its technology will continue to evolve to compensate for this. I’ve put together a few predictions for how I think Twitter will evolve to be more useful to marketers

1. Contextual tweets: I see more Twitter-gration in the future. Twitter will integrate with other platforms like Facebook, 4square, Google and whatever is next. Therefore, Tweets can be prioritized by what you’re searching for, where you’re located, your most recent update, etc.
2. Opt-in DMs: Marketers will be able to respond immediately with customized DMs to Tweets like: “I’m looking for a good e-mail marketing software with Salesforce.com integration, please DM me.”
3. Automatic segmentation: Currently, you need an application like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to organize Tweets, but I think Twitter will develop more sophisticated segmentation algorithms, so you’ll be able to receive messages that are most relevant to you.

Do you have other Twitter predictions? How do you think other social media applications will evolve to be more relevant to B2B marketers? What’s next for social marketing?

As PR professionals, it’s our job to educate our clients and bosses about the importance of social media and online reputations. Much like great print coverage, social media conversations deliver valuable information about a company or brand directly to current and prospective customers and influence opinions.

In my opinion, the best part about social media is that you can participate in the conversations about your company or brand that are already happening and you can engage with your customers on a more personal level.

Instead of sharing your daily thoughts 140 characters at a time, Dribble gives you 400 x 300 pixels of space to share visual creativity. Another great feature is that, like Twitter, Dribbble allows you to “follow” your favorite designer, illustrator or developer and keep up with what they are working on.

As Twitter can be helpful to trend what’s happening in this great b2b world of ours, I believe that Dribble can also help us keep up with all things design related and keep things fresh!

Are there any other b2b resources you use to keep at the top of your game?

What inspires me lately are new ways to manage social media and get more people involved. I came across the idea of assigning team ambassadors to each social media outlet and working together to ensure the brand experience is consistent and the messaging streamlined. By allowing more than one person to have their hand in social media, they’re given the freedom to learn and improve their skills, track results and be a lead on driving sales and awareness.

Try this for your next campaign:

• Assign a team ambassador to each social media channel.
• Meet initially to discuss the points of focus, topics, sites and messaging for consistency throughout the campaign. Work together to ensure posts are consistent.
• Set goals per social media channel and establish how each ambassador plans to manage and track them.
• At the end of the campaign, each ambassador will present their results and share feedback on how they increased traffic/usage. Compare results!

If you have the internal resources to support a team effort for your social media, this may be extremely beneficial for employee morale and productivity! What are some other ways you get your employees to work as a team?