I found this quite amazing. 760 different twitter tools and considering that this information is almost a year old there’s probably a lot more out there today. http://thesocialmediaguide.com.au/2009/05/30/the-ultimate-list-of-twitter-tools/
I was reading a fresh report on the state of search engine marketing and it had some interesting stats about social media. The first one was that the majority (>60%) of companies have decided to (or are currently) tackle social media with in-house resources. Using a social media specialist, a pr agency, a digital marketing agency etc. were all in the 3 – 7% range. This is quite natural when you think about it, because although there can be policies and guidelines around social media, the actual execution need to be spontaneous, immediate and less scripted, so it all lends itself towards people from within the organization. This, I think could create an interesting dynamic, because unless companies are willing to invest in resources, social media initiatives might starve and be slow to take off. It also creates a challenge for agencies. After all they are supposed to be experts, but with less opportunities their portfolio could look a bit thin. More to follow.
What does field marketing do and how can field marketing create value? This is an interesting question, particularly in engineering focused companies, where there’s sometimes a lack of marketing understanding, and marketing at its best is often marginalized to entry level marcoms, like production of specification sheets, etc. So how can a marketing organization in these situations justify its existence, and achieve a higher level recognition? One way to do this is to partner with sales, because even the most engineering minded organizations needs sales to survive. This might feel like marketing is taking a sub-servant role, and in many organizations, unfortunately this is the case, but played our right this could be only a start. One way to think about the marketing value is to use the sales model concept from solution selling. In solution selling, the sales process (focus, value, relationship, intent, etc.) is generally thought as being in one of four phases or levels. Level one selling is where the relationship with the customer is casual, the focus of the efforts is the product, and the only intent is to get the customer to consider buying. Level four selling, on the other hand, is a place where the sales person is an insider, in a symbiotic relationship with the customer and through a thorough understanding of the customers’ business can provide strategic advice, while making a sale. Similarly, marketing on level one is normally limited to lead generation, providing presentation material and general assistance, while a level four marketing is a partnership, enabling, equipping and providing sales with strategic leadership. Using a model like this can benefit marketing in many ways, but most importantly by aligning the marketing efforts to whichever level the selling is done, “sales support” can be optimized for maximum fit, which helps build the relationship with sales providing a good platform for success. In addition in knowing the maturity level of sales, marketing can help push the organization to the next level of sophistication and value, and ultimately be able to use more of its brainpower and earn the recognition it deserves.