One of my pet peeves about conferences is that they’re so damn big that you can quickly lose people in the crowd. My favorite activity is to find friends and compare notes about sessions that we’ve attended and about ideas for the coming year.

None of this collaboration works well if you can’t find the people you want to compare notes with. Even entering the keynote sessions I’ve found it difficult to locate people in the sea of faces (over 2,000 people are expected at Insights).

This year I’ve started a test group to collaborate in real time using Google Wave to collaborate on Sage Insights sessions. So far we have 60 87 people who’ve joined our Insights Google Group.

Using Google Wave, anyone who is a member of the group can join, read, create and edit the notes that others take during the sessions. Have a question for another participant? Google Wave is a great place to ask other participants. Have an observation or question during the keynote? You’ll be able to share that with the group as everyone jointly creates notes and shares their thoughts on Wave.

This is strictly an unofficial group – Sage is not sponsoring it or endorsing it – though we invite them to steal the idea and improve upon it for next year’s conference.

You can take a quick peek at the main Insights 2010 Wave or join in the fun using these instructions to join the Sage Insights 2010 Google Wave. Or if you prefer you can follow the Twitter feeds (over 120 users) who will be at Insights and Twittering about the happenings by viewing our Sage Insights 2010 Twitter Feed Group.

The best example that I’ve seen of someone using social media to promote their business is Scott Jordan.

He’s the owner of Scottevest which make jackets for geeks with lots of pockets to hold their cell phones and other gear.

http://www.scottevest.com

Take a look at Scott’s Facebook page to get an idea of the type and quantity of things that he posts that help him generate business (he claims much of his new sales increases have been driven by Twitter/Facebook).

Some things that I think are noteworthy.

One of the most important things you’ll notice about Scott Jordan is that the doesn’t only use one Social Media site. He uses nearly all of them.

If one site’s not working after a while he just stops. But he’s always providing a regular stream of content on the sites that work for him. Invariably I’m sure that Scott measures effectiveness by tracking incoming traffic to his site via a free tool like Google Analytics.

Scott doesn’t just broadcast information about his business all day long. It’s not one big sales pitch (though that’s a big part of it). He mixes in personal and interesting topics.

- He doesn’t use only one method – it’s not just Facebook or Twitter or YouTube — he uses them all. And most of them converge on his Facebook page as well as broadcasting out on Twitter. Click the image below to see all the places that Scott’s active.

- He talks about a wide variety of things – it’s not just business. How boring would it be if all he did was post pictures of jackets and asked you to buy. Here’s an interesting item from Scott Jordan’s Posterous site

- He has a mix of daily posts that may show him skiing or walking his dogs – as well as posting about new products that he’s thinking of introducing.

The mix of content that Scott produces keeps you following his updates. Along the way that invariably also keeps you updated on his products. In most cases Scott never has to ask you to buy anything – the thought will probgably naturally occur from exposure to his products in a non-sales type of format.

If you (or your company) have been wondering where Social Media should fit into your marketing mix — take a look at how Scott Jordan does it. Friend him on Facebook. Watch how he markets. Do the same thing (or modify the ideas) for your business. I think the concepts will be helpful — take the best ones and adapt them to your business.

Read more about Scott Jordan’s Social Media in this article from MSN dated 1/4/2010 .

http://www.facebook.com/scottevest

I really enjoy reading your posts and observing how you are leveraging social media. You have presented yourself as an expert on many topics–good for you!

I am interested in learning more about how you are using social media in your business. Do you currently promote products through Facebook, twitter and other forums? If so, I would really like to talk with you about the metrics you watch and time you dedicate to contributing and responding in these forums.

Thanks again for sharing your articles.
While I don’t think I have any unique answers to this question — it is one that I get quite a bit and perhaps by sharing my response I’ll provide value to someone else who is wondering about the same thing. Namely – how does all this Social Media fit into business and can you make any money at it (and how??).

My Response:

Hi -

We’re lifestyle consultants over here — that means we earn more money than awards….;-)

Almost all of our marketing is to existing users and “our end” (aka – why we are doing this and how we monetize it) of the marketing is to offer both project work and ongoing support plans to existing “A list” users of MAS90 or MAS200. Selling our services is the most profitable business line for us to be in.

Another reason I use social media is that I’m a terrible salesman. If people didn’t come to me I would starve….

We probably turn away 6 to 10 people every month who want to ask a quick question or pay only for 15 minutes of our time.

In a good month we’ll bring on 3 or 4 MAS90 phone support clients at $2,800 each and usually a project to go along with it. This does not happen every month (certainly not in summer) but it isn’t out of the ordinary – especially during times when Sage issues upgrades, etc.

We don’t take on existing users who are looking for free quick questions or for pay per call type support. I don’t see any business model in that and have found those types of customers to be very disloyal and resource hogs (to put it candidly).

Social Media is one component (not the only) that helps to establish us as experts that a user should feel comfortable writing a check to without a lot of back and forth sales discussions. So far this works well.

Time estimates and measurement?

Really the only measurement I’m doing now is Google Analytics to measure page growth.

I also run an email newsletter that publishes twice per month and goes out to 2.200+ subscribers. This is VERY effective in obtaining new clients.

I can’t say whether Facebook or Twitter are going to attract any particular business. My gut feel is they are a part of a way that prospects expect you to communicate — and not an entire marketing program in themself.

I’m Senior Editor at Geardiary.com which I blog for from 4:30 to 8:00 7 days a week. This is where I learned WordPress and the art of generating and posting my own unique content.

Until recently the concept of blogging for VARS was unheard of. Now you see some big ones get involved and I think you’ll see a lot more. Most of them struggle mightily with the concept of finding something worthwhile to write regularly about.

The biggest issue with VAR bloggers is they think the same 15 articles about “why you should use ____ ” is a pretty good article inventory….and they write the same damn ones over and over. B-O-R-I-N-G…

With respect to time commitment it’s a matter of re-using content whenever possible and getting good at the tools needed to post. So much of what is available online will cross post to other blogs — and Twitter serves as a good source — that once you leverage these tools it make the time a little less.

I blog probably 4 to 5 hours per day — counting geardiary.com

Wayne