Rick first began his career at Sony in 1990, and over the course of two decades, was instrumental in overseeing the public relations and corporate communications efforts for the entire electronics division. His role encompassed media and analyst relations, and product marketing and promotions, as well as executive, employee, environmental and crisis communications initiatives. Rick was also one of the first communications executives to embrace the web as a new channel for brand communications and customer support. He now lives in the San Diego area and remains a communications advisor and social media advocate. You can find out more on Rick’s LinkedIn page.

We spoke at length with Rick about his career at Sony, and in particular, his pioneering work in implementing social media and online community management into the company’s external communications and PR and marketing campaigns.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your career in corporate communications at Sony. What were your PR and marketing duties like when you first started with the company and how did they evolve throughout the 90’s?

As part of the corporate communications teams at Sony during the early days our focus was primarily on media relations. Obviously the basics, press outreach, press releases, product reviews and the like. Eventually, this evolved into more of a focus on stakeholder outreach and management—the analyst community—and then global communications planning. With the emergence of social networking, our focus turned to corporate public relations from a much broader perspective. The bigger, faster, more integrated world forced us to become much more customer centric and conversational.

Q: Do you miss the days when traditional media outreach, ad placement and tradeshow marketing were the be-all and end-all of a sound communications and marketing strategy? Do additional channels create additional challenges that outweigh potential benefits?

I don’t miss the old days at all. There is a tremendous opportunity for PR professionals to be at the forefront of engagement through direct communications with customers. All PR pros should feel passionately about this evolution because the returns and rewards will be great.

Along those lines, this groundswell of channel development has certainly provided plenty of benefits. We can break down several internal walls and be more communicative with all of our different departments—human resources, legal, customer service. Externally, companies should recognize the importance of engagement and embrace a commitment to responsiveness over other potential challenges or issue.

Q:  When did you first recognize the role that the web could have in facilitating the way you communicated with the media, customers and employees?

Well to set the stage, about four years ago was when we first noticed an increasing amount of online conversation were taking place about Sony that we were in no way involved in. These conversations discussed our technology, products, customer service and even management. At this point, we were just monitoring and not engaging. Over time, our communications team began to recognize that there was no value in remaining silent, and if there were areas where we could effectively engage with people, and provide some help, we should give it a shot.

Q: How did your team begin to put the wheels in motion with an online engagement plan? Was their hesitancy from management about this approach?

Our approach transitioned from initial monitoring and tracking to assessment of the conversations. We actually incorporated assessment because there was hesitancy from both upper management and our customer service team, so presenting this information helped us to demonstrate why we needed to respond in the first place. It took a few presentations, but it became clear that Sony was ready to step up and address this stuff, engage and just become more involved online.

Once we were approved, we began to engage certain third party communities—message boards, sites like EndGadget and TechCrunch, Consumerist, green blogs, “mommy blogs”, and all sorts of tech blogs. We then started our own blogs (I volunteered to become Sony’s first corporate blogger), and eventually created full-fledge communities around our product line through micro-sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Q: How did you specifically interact with these communities? Did you put protocols in place that dictated who would engage, and how they would do it?

At first, we interacted with the external communities by engaging with editors. Eventually, we took the gloves off, introduced ourselves and responded via comments, message board posts, etc.

These decisions were generally made on a case by case basis—sometimes the communications team would address an issue directly, but on occasion, we would bring in other experts from different areas of the company to offer their take. Since our team was more experienced with third-party communications, and we did not have the experience of communicating directly with consumers, it was also helpful to involve the customer service team. That said, we quickly realized that you need to treat these conversations the same way you would treat a face-to-face interaction with a customer.

Q: Tell us about the launch of Sony’s first community blog. Was there a lot of management push-back and confusion with this move? Did you notice immediate results? Any highlights?

I made a point of it to infuse my personality into the blog. I introduced myself as Rick Clancy, not just a Sony representative. There was some sensitivity involved with a flack serving as the face of the company, but I was very upfront about my role and with my intentions for the blog. Over time, management gave me full reign to develop the blog and use it as I saw fit. I began blogging about a wide range of industry issues that I had an interest in, and had experience dealing with but I would also bring in guests from across Sony to get them involved. This kept things topical when I didn’t quite have the expertise to cover something myself.

I also made a point of it to develop trust through the blog. I recall blogging about Sony in comparison to Microsoft and Apple and other brands. I compared and contrasted products, and addressed their competitive sensibilities. It wasn’t all just all Sony, all the time.

One of the highlights was definitely the Sony blog tour. I would travel to different Sony retail stores across the country to set-up shop and meet with customers, answer questions, communicate produce updates, and assist where necessary. Each store visit turned into a great post. An event like that really represents the total integration of social media, PR and direct marketing.

Q: So, did you first foresee these new forms of communications (your community blog, Twitter, YouTube, etc) as forums for customer service and collaboration, or for PR/Marketing? Where do you see them now?

I certainly viewed these channels as a forum for PR/Marketing professionals, but the more we conversed with people online, I began to recognize the enormous potential for customer service professionals here. Customer service-types should embrace the opportunity to step up and blog, engage with customers like they would offline, and merge with PR pros to create a multi-faceted partnership based on responsiveness and added-value.

Q: Then who should lead the way with “social media strategies?” Should it be left in the hands of specialists, or should PR and marketing practitioners excel at understanding these channels and deploying the techniques necessary to optimize them for communications?

Because in the end, the message is still the most important component of these conversations, PR people are in a great position to lead the way in the online space. While customer service pros can definitely redefine their roles here, it’s the PR pros who have an awareness of the issues, a sensitivity to them, and an understanding of their relation to the firm as a whole. In PR, we’ve learned to listen, reflect on different points of view, and advocate on behalf of our company and client, and those fundamentals are all in play on the web. We’ll see these channels open up a bit more across a company, but PR teams, as well as agencies will play the lead role in monitoring, providing guidance for structure, strategy and authenticity.

-Jeff Benanto (@jbenanto)

To read more about Justin’s experience using social media to the benefit of his restaurant business, his new book, and his experiences working with Chris Brogan and New Media Marketing Labs, scroll on.

What first compelled you to engrain yourself in the world of new media marketing? Did you immediately recognize the potential that these tools could have for your restaurant business?

I have always used these tools as they continued to evolve. It first started out with forums, user groups, chat rooms, IRC and IM. Over the years it evolved into social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. Of course, the number of social networks have continued to grow and now there are a whole host of networks which make up the tools and core of new media marketing.

As it relates to the restaurant. I began experimenting with these tools because they were free and we needed to find ways to extend our brand. Our issue was never a quality of food or atmosphere inside of the restaurant. But, if no one is coming in and buying your stuff, then all of that other hard work doesn’t matter much. We began using new media marketing as a way to grow our brand, build community and leverage that community to spread the word about our restaurant.

Tell us about New Media Marketing Labs and what sort of brainstorming led to the creation of the popular events, Inbound Marketing Summit and Bootcamps?

New Marketing Labs is a social media agency that was founded by Chris Brogan. We opened at the beginning of 2009. At New Marketing Labs, our team works with medium and large businesses to help them use these tools to move needles that are important to them. We do this by helping them to develop a strategic plan with clear deliverables backed by a strong analytics dashboard. We do everything from strategic development to blogger outreach to manning listening and monitoring stations and a host of other activities related to using social tools to fulfill business needs.

Our Inbound Marketing Summit event is a 2 day conference that was formerly the New Marketing Summit. The New Marketing Summit has been around for approximately 3 years and was run by our parent company, CrossTech Media. When we started New Marketing Labs, we acquired the Inbound Marketing Summit from HubSpot and adopted the name. The Inbound Marketing Summit brings together some of the top thought leaders, marketers, brands, and agencies in the industry to discuss using these tools to take strategy and turn it into action. For 2009 we brought the Summit to 3 cities: San Francisco, Dallas and Boston on October 7th and 8th.

The Inbound Marketing Bootcamps are intensive one-day keyboard level training events. Topics typically include blogging, social networks, social media marketing, listening and monitoring, profile development, reputation management, and how all of this ties into business needs. By the end of 2009 we would’ve held Bootcamps in 5 cities as well as our private Bootcamps we do for brands.

You are currently in the midst of writing what should be a popular book, “Facebook Marketing: Designing Your Next Marketing Campaign.” Even social media savvy individuals and businesses seem to struggle at times to grasp how they should be using Facebook to connect and mobilize fans and prospects around their product or service. Will you address how Facebook should be utilized by B2B marketers to have a more effective reach and engage with potential buyers?

That is exactly the intention of the book. This book is being written for businesses and will, hopefully, provide them the concepts, strategy and tactical information needed to bring Facebook into the fold of their marketing plans. The book will provide a basic overview of features, deep dives into some of the tools that are important for businesses to understand, a review of some of those brands that are considered the “best in class” through their use of Facebook, and how to build a marketing plan that has Facebook as a main component of it.

Every social media marketer seems to have a slogan, or a concept, that they espouse when describing how best to use these tools for business (i.e. “listen to engage’, etc). What is your go-to?

While I have a lot of ways that I tend to explain how I believe these tools should be used by businesses, I tend to return to topics surrounding how these tools allow business to become humanized. Also, that we tend to want to do business with friends. By showing the human side of your business, it allows you to develop these personal relationships with your customers. In turn, they become fans of your business, product, or service and carry forward the message.

I also think that listening and monitoring is the most important thing that any business can do, especially when they’re just starting out. Conversations are taking place all around their brand, products, services, executives, competition and industry.  It’s up to them if they’re going to be part of that conversation.

What have you found to be the most useful social media tools for marketing your restaurant? Why do you think this is the case?

The most successful tools for our restaurant have been our listening and monitoring station, blog, video blog, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, and Flickr. Each of these tools allow us to have two-way conversations with our customers and fans. They also allow people to connect with us on a more personal level and get to see some of what goes on behind-the-scenes at a steakhouse. Tools like Yelp allow us a mechanism for feedback about what our customers like and don’t like.

What kinds of advice do you give to people who are just beginning to get involved with social media?

Start reading as much as possible. Subscribe to blogs that you find valuable and start following those people who you learn from on networks such as Twitter. Also, don’t think you need to start everything at once. You should lay back for a minute and observe everything that is going on and then set a plan on how you want to engage. If you don’t have a clear plan of how you intend to use these tools and what your measures of success are going to be, it will be hard to determine if you’re using the right tools in the proper manner.

Chris Brogan is obviously a very popular figure on the social media web. Can you tell us what the most important thing is that you’ve learned from Chris?

I’m constantly learning from Chris. I’m extremely fortunate to get to work every day with someone that I consider a mentor and a friend. Probably the single most important skill that I continue to learn from Chris is how to build community with trust at its core. In everything that Chris does, one of the reasons he’s able to be so successful is due to how hard he has worked to build and nurture his community. He gives everything he has to his community.
For more information about Justin Levy, visit his blog.

To read about Mack’s insights into how to launch, manage and grow an effective B2B or B2C blog,  how to target and connect with the “right” audience online, and how to measure the reach and value of those connections, scroll on below.

451:  Your token motto is “Don’t focus on the tools, focus on the connections that the tools help facilitate.”  How would you explain this motto to someone who is new to social media marketing?

MC: It’s kinda like the difference between using a hammer and a drill.  Both are very useful, but for different reasons.  So in the end, the tool itself isn’t what counts, it’s what the tool allows you to do that’s important.  Twitter, for example, is valuable to me because it lets me connect with so many other people, so easily.  But the value comes from those connections.  Other people connect via Friendfeed, or via blogs, or even by picking up the phone and calling someone!  The ability to connect is where the value is.  Not in the tool itself.  I guess the main point is not to fall in love with the tools and become blinded to the fact that it’s the CONNECTIONS and PEOPLE that are most important.

451:  What would you say are the biggest mistakes made by companies when using social media tools, and how can companies avoid making them?

MC: I think one of the biggest mistakes is not having a clear strategy in place from the outset.  Many companies start blogging, for example, simply because they feel the need to ‘do something’ with social media.  But 2 weeks into it they realize that not getting comments or traffic or links really sucks, and they abandon the effort.  Other companies have customers that are actively trying to engage with them via social media, and they ignore them because they believe if they don’t respond to their customers, that no one will realize that they are saying anything.  (Feel free to start the eye-rolling at this point.)  In short, I really think the excessive hype around social media is confusing a lot of companies.  It’s making some companies feel that they HAVE to use social media, when maybe that’s not their best course of action.  And it’s discouraging other companies from using social media that should be, because they feel that the tools are too complicated for them.  At the end of the day, social media are simply a set of communication tools, and the rules that govern effective communication with other tools, mostly apply to social media as well.  I find that most people know more about social media than they give themselves credit for.

451:  It is a bit of a different animal than B2C, so how can B2B companies “create, nurture and grow” connections with their clients by launching a blog? Who should write it?

MC: This is another area where I think people ‘overthink’ social media.  The end rules for effective blogging are the same for B2C or B2B companies.  Who are your end customers, and what type of information will they find value in?  Figure out what type of content has value for them, and create that value.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  That’s it.  As for who should head up your blogging efforts, if all things are equal, I’d place the most importance on the person that has the most passion for blogging.  Because when you first launch your blog, it is probably going to take a while for it to gain traction.  You’re going to spend those first few weeks/months staring at a blog that’s getting few comments, few visitors, and few links.  If your bloggers don’t LOVE blogging, they are probably going to want to quit.  But the passionate ones will stick with it till their efforts start to bear fruit.  And besides passionate, obviously you want people that can write well, and that understand your business and your customers.  Blogging is NOT something you should hire for, IMO.  And do NOT outsource the actual blogging to someone to ghost-write for you.  Hiring an agency/consultant to help you ramp up your blogging efforts is fine, but don’t hire them to ghostwrite for you, as that’s doing nothing for YOUR blogging efforts.  And while I have my soapbox out, if you DO hire a consultant to help you with your blogging efforts, demand that they provide you with training so that you can handle the blogging efforts when the project ends.

451: As a follow up, your blog post “The idea that ‘content is king’ in blogging is total bulls*it” raises some very interesting points. Explain the importance of “leaving your blog” to also help promote it.

MC: I think that post was a bit misunderstood by some people, and that’s probably my fault for framing it in such a ‘controversial’ way.  Great content is absolutely important, but IMO the best way to grow your blog, is to leave it.  Think of having a bakery that produces the absolute best cupcakes on the planet.  If you are in downtown NYC, you are set.  WOM will carry your business almost immediately.  But what if that bakery is in rural Montana?  Fewer people will discover it, and the odds are that those people will be able to promote your delicious cupcakes to fewer people.  So even if you have an amazing product, given your location, you still might have trouble staying in business.  Same thing with starting a new blog.  You can have absolutely amazing content, but if no one knows that the blog exists, it won’t matter.  Growth will still likely be very slow.  You can accelerate your efforts by interacting with people on other blogs and social sites.  As you do that, it helps drive traffic back to your blog.  People see you leaving comments on their blog, and they want to check out YOUR blog.  They see you being active on Twitter, and if you say smart and interesting things, they want to follow you.  Maybe they want to click the link on your Twitter profile and check out your blog.  The bottom line is that when you launch a blog, no one is going to know about it.  The people that you want to be reading your blog are going to be spending time elsewhere.  If you can go and interact with these people in THEIR space, that gives them an incentive to come check out YOUR blog.

451: Everyone is realizing how important social media marketing is, but don’t necessarily understand why. When companies don’t see immediate results they become impatient, and think it isn’t working. What have you developed as your ROI-indicator that helps a company understand if it is getting its time and money’s worth from social media?

MC: First, companies should start tracking everything as soon as they launch a social media strategy.  Let’s say they launch a blog.  Immediately start tracking visitors, comments, incoming links, and track traffic to the main website and incoming links as well.  That way you can watch how these metrics change over time.  If you launch a blog and 2 weeks later your skeptical boss calls you into his office for an update on what’s happening, he wants to see numbers.  You better be able to say that ‘traffic to the blog is up X% and referral traffic to the main site is up X%.’  In other words, you have to put the effectiveness of your blogging efforts in terms that the boss understands, and values.  YOU might want more interactions via comments and emails on the blog, but unless that increased interaction ties back to a larger business goal, and the boss UNDERSTANDS this, then who cares?  But if you can show the boss that increased comments leads to a higher probability of an increase in incoming links, then he will probably understand the impact that has on SEO for his company.  So you have to understand how the pieces fit together and track changes in the metrics that matter.

451: Recently you wrote about social media as being “one big clique” with several “superstars.” Do you think a business’s blog has to catch the attention of these superstars of social media in order to be successful?

MC: If those ’superstars’ are their end customers, then absolutely.  Otherwise, they need to be focusing on connecting with the actual people that will be buying their products and services.  Sure, if your company has created a really cool blog that you think my readers might want to know about, absolutely contact me.  But I think too many people are targeting ‘influential’ people in social media, when they need to be targeting the people that are enthusiastic about them.  Which is why I think companies should target evangelists over influencers.  IMO targeting influencers is about trying to build buzz, and that’s rarely sustainable.  If you reach out to your evangelists, you are connecting with people that WANT to promote you to others.  They have a vested interest in seeing your company succeed.  Embracing and empowering your evangelists is a MUCH better business move than reaching out to ‘influencers’ who probably have influence with a market that has little to no overlap with your own.

451: Also, how important is it for companies, and individuals (including the superstars) to understand the importance of maintaining social interactions and engagements both online and off?

MC: I think ’superstars’ get this, for the most part.  But for companies, they need to treat social media as simply a set of tools that are going to let them better connect with and understand their customers.  Ultimately, you would love to see online connections lead to connections offline, because that just strengthens the ties.  And this is a point that often is overlooked by companies, but as you make these connections with your customers, you better understand them, and they you.  It’s kinda like getting free market research, you can take what you have learned from your connections with customers, and apply it to your marketing efforts, to streamline and improve them.  You better believe Dell is taking all the mountains of feedback they get from submissions made and commented/voted on at IdeaStorm and using that information to improve their marketing and communication efficiencies.

For more background on Mack, check out his consulting site.

Read on to learn why a brand’s customers can also be their best salespeople, how service-selling companies can get started with social media, and why Boston is primed to remain the hub of “inbound marketing” activity.

Q: You’ve formulated a great presentation about passion, specifically how “passion is contagious.” Could you give us a high-level summary of why brands should be leveraging the passion that their fans/customers have for their brand, and how the social web is the perfect place to capitalize on the contagious nature of it?

Think about the last time you bought anything. More then likely you went out online looking to see what people had to say about the products. This might be a quick Google search, or reading reviews on a site like Amazon. Either way, what people have to say about a product or service has a direct effect on purchasing.

We also know that each of us loves certain gadgets, tools and other things that we use on a daily basis. Why wouldn’t a brand want to encourage and empower someone who is passionate about their products to talk, share and expound on their passion in whatever way they want? I think this is something that most brands are completely forgetting about. They get hung up in messaging and the layout of a print ad and completely forget that people are people. They are going to talk about it in the way they want to, and not what someone has written up for a press release.

Q: Could you provide an example of a brand that is doing an excellent job here?

Zappos is really doing great in this lately. They’ve asked people to take pictures of themselves with their products. They did a whole series of videos around people opening up their Zappos box when it arrived to capture their excitement.

Don’t forget Zappos doesn’t actually make anything and yet people love the company and are passionate about purchasing from them. There is a lot to be learned from how they are approaching their customers and why it is working.

Q: How engaged should brands be with their customers online? Should they just create the platform (blog, contest, etc.), and let the users run with it, or should there be a system in place to respond to comments/suggestions?

This really depends on the culture of the company. Some companies just won’t be able to deal with interacting with their customers in the way they should online. That being said, if they can’t, then maybe they shouldn’t be doing this sort of thing because it probably won’t be successful.

To be successful, the brand needs to engage with their customers. Yes, setting up the contest, portal or platform is a big step, but the most passionate people will be excited by having someone from the brand talking with them. They want that contact and personalized approach. They crave it.

Q: Should brands be identifying “brand ambassadors” online and leveraging them to keep it up? For instance, what if a very active account on Twitter (with a host of followers), constantly raves about how they love Starbucks? Could there be a paid relationship?

Sure, there could be a paid relationship there, but that depends on the person, the company, and the deal that is made. But, at the same time in that example if the person already loved Starbucks just think what sending them a $100 gift card and a hand written thank you card would do for them as well. They’d love it!

The idea of finding your biggest fans and then somehow making the relationship with them more formal and beneficial to your company is a great idea. Yes, you have to tread carefully and smartly because this isn’t some actor you are hiring to be a spokesperson. It is different and many companies will approach it in that fashion and blow it. Talk TO the person and figure out what works best for them. They may have some strong ideas on how you can work together, but if you come in with an iron fist it could completely turn them off.

Q: What about a company that offers a service, say a law firm or an investment bank. The passion for these brands may be harder to find and difficult to quantify and broadcast. Do you have suggestions for these types of brands that want to utilize social media for their benefit?

Certainly a lot harder indeed. But, start out small and smart. Begin establishing an online footprint using the various and appropriate platforms so that people can find you. Don’t forget that this is not a quick hit solution, and rather it is something you are going to have to grow over time so it may take a while, but people will start coming to you.

There is no silver bullet solution, but consider setting up a Facebook Page for your service and then doing a few weeks of targeted ads to the towns around you to drive traffic to the page. It is a great cost effective strategy to see if your audience is there while not breaking the bank. The key is to think long term and build a strategy that helps you reach your goals. What works for one company is not going to work for the other.

Q: We like to use the phrase “inbound marketing” to classify the shift we are all noticing in marketing (and advertising and public relations). What’s your go-to terminology?

Honestly, I go back and forth on this because it is changing every day and while a few years ago everyone was saying “new marketing” or “conversational marketing,” I feel neither of those truly capture how things are today. Even “social media” is getting a bit old because the nature of how we do everything online is beginning to play along the social graph and becoming more conversational and social in nature. The last thing I want to do is add any new buzzwords to the world. I’ll let someone else decide what to call it!

Q: Boston, as reported in Scott Kirsner’s piece and has been well evidenced, has become sort of the hub for this industry. Why do you think that is? More importantly, did Stuff at Night miss the boat by not including any of the thought leaders like yourself in their “Players” issue?

There was a Players issue? Guess they must not have promoted that well online since I didn’t see anything about it. *laugh*

I’m a life long New Englander so I think it is very easy. People who live here love to talk to other people, help people out, and come from a variety of backgrounds. With all the colleges we have here, people come from all over the world and never leave. That mix match of people makes for not one set of ideas and I’d argue that it mimics the web in that nature.

People seem to forget that this are has always had a strong tech footprint. Rt-128 may be littered with the shells of a lot of companies, but they are being replaced by the new generation and that is exciting. While I love San Francisco and New York City, you’ll never find me leaving New England. We’ve got something really special going on here.

You can read more from this Boston-based “Media Maven” by visiting his blog at http://www.cc-chapman.com/

Read on for Mike’s thoughts on how social media can help brands build scalable and intimate relationships, the “socialization” of B2B marketing, and the importance of maintaining a stable “buzz” at the social media cocktail party.

451: You have a extensive background of experience working in the ad business. When did you realize that you wanted to make the shift into digital marketing and found Ogilvy & Mather Interactive? Actually, was it your choice?

MT: No, that one actually wasn’t. I was working for Martin Sorrell at the time as a kind of troubleshooter, and he sent me in to fix “a problem at Ogilvy with American Express.” The solution to that problem became O&MI.

451: When you first started the interactive side of the agency I bet you never could have anticipated that the Internet would look like it does today, littered with social media technologies. Am I wrong? Did you anticipate that this would eventually be the web’s next big progression?

MT: Looking back, the signposts were there. It was obvious to us that e-mail and chat were the real engines of AOL, not the “professional” content. But did I envision that leading to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter et al? No way.

451: So tell me a little bit about where you are now, and how you are attempting to make sense of the shift in the way that we all interact with brands and media. Are you 100% invested/convinced in the viability of the social Web to be the central focus of marketing for the foreseeable future?

MT: Yes. I would go so far as to say that while the move to digital media was incremental, the move to social is transformational. At the risk of sounding like a pretentious geek… we’ve reached the end of the broadcast-dominant paradigm. Brands need to make the leap and engage to stay relevant, or – eventually – they’re going to dry up and blow away.

451: You do a great job describing your blog and overall thesis of social media marketing on your blog’s “Manifesto,” but can you give us a high-level overview of what you mean by “Scalable Intimacy” as it relates to social media?

MT: Scalable Intimacy is how I think about the true promise of social media… to enable brands to build the kind of “intimate” relationships that are only possible with authentic dialogue, on a “scale” sufficient to impact the operating results of the enterprise. That’s it.

451: That overview should segue nicely into a question about your blog post on engagement vs. activation. In essence, is the ROI of effective social media quantifiable in measurements like sales, response rates, signups, etc? Could we aggregate all of that and just say, “qualified leads?”

MT: It goes beyond sales and beyond leads. Activation might enable a brand to answer a critically important product question in a timely fashion, or reduce their unit customer service response cost, or grasp the external reality in a way that influences their business strategy. It depends on the business goal, really. Engagement is about creating the means; Activation is about delivering the end.

451: Do you have any examples of companies that have effectively developed marketing content online that is engaging enough to drive a good amount of activation?

MT: The usual suspects… JetBlue, Dell, Zappos, all do both to one extent or another. HubSpot offering a free SEO audit to people who visit it’s content-crammed blog… that’s activation. Tony Robbins interspersing product promo with inspirational messages on Twitter is another. Chris Brogan using his online influence to drive attendance at his shows… It’s everywhere, I think, at least among people who seem to know what they’re doing.

451: It is typically harder for the B2B marketer to be “social” with their brand. Have you found that the social web opens up opportunities for these marketers that may not have existed before?

MT: I guess. If you’ve ever been to a B2B trade show, you know there’s a strong social component in meatspace. When a critical mass of decision-makers in those industries are on the social nets – as is inevitable – it will happen there as well.

451: Where do you see this all going in the next 5-10 years, and what will the typical brand manager/marketer look like?

MT: Wish I knew. What I do know, though, is that brand managers will start to look a lot more like sales guys, and a lot less like MBA-types. It’s time to get dirty and go sell some sh*t. Old school.

451: Lastly, riffing off the “social media is a cocktail party” analogy. What if you’re a brand that has a “drinking problem,” likes to take things to the next level, and is often too edgy or over-the-top? Do you play in the social media marketing sandbox too and risk doing something controversial, or do you stay out?

MT: Social media is about doing stuff that’s worthy of attention. If the attention you get is negative, adjust your behavior. Most attention is good, though – just don’t be more “drunk” than the people you hang out with.

Mike Troiano is the founding CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Interactive and an established tech venture entrepreneur. Currently, Mike serves on the board of Crimson Hexagon, a Cambridge-based technology company that distills meaning from the online conversation. Read his professional blog at http://scalableintimacy.com/ and check out his personal blog at http://troiano.me/

Tech heads tackle stress, build leadership on the rugby field

By Lynette F. Cornell

Special to Mass High Tech

When AJ Gerritson shows up to Monday’s board meeting with a shiner, don’t assume he got whacked in a weekend bar fight. He was just letting off steam with some fellow executives, all of them pounding each other in a fierce game of rugby.

Gerritson, a founding partner at 451 Marketing in Boston, is just one of many C-level people whose nights and weekends involve props, locks and hookers — the strange yet standard terms for various positions in rugby.

“It takes a certain person to play rugby,” said Gerritson.

That person, he said, is team oriented, a necessary quality for the game and one that carries over into being a successful company leader. Networking with other business leaders, he frequently met other current and former rugby players. The connection was always instantaneous and one he has never experienced with any other sport, he said.

Looking to unite other executives passionate about rugby, he recently created the Massachusetts Rugby Executives, a co-ed group of rugby players in various leadership positions.

The manager of the group, Steven Drew, has been playing rugby since he was a freshman at Babson College. He has also played hockey and soccer but says that there is something completely unique about rugby.

“I’ve never seen anything like the camaraderie and true team spirit as I’ve seen in rugby,” said Drew.

Now in his mid-forties, Drew doesn’t play rugby as much as he’d like. Yet, the 26 years he spent playing still influence his skills as a leader, he said. As the managing director of Hollister Inc., a Boston-based staffing agency, he is responsible for leading a team of employees. The importance of teamwork in rugby, he said, has helped him become a better team member.

For Linda Bourque, owner of B&B Realty Inc. in Watertown, rugby influences every aspect of her life, including her career. She said her 14 years of rugby playing have helped make her a better listener, a skill she greatly used while holding various leadership positions at Norwalk, Conn.-based Xerox Corp. The sport also shaped her thinking, she said.

“It gives you a different mental attitude, that ‘you can do,’” she said.

When she began playing rugby, few Americans even knew what it was. People who pursued the sport didn’t do it for the notoriety, said Bourque. Rugby demands a high level of commitment to training and personal fitness, a dedication that Bourque said requires self-motivated, self-starting people who are secure in what they do.

“It’s not for the faint of heart,” she said.

Those unfamiliar to the sport can expect to see more of it soon. In March 2010 the US Rugby League will launch. Boston is one of six major cities where franchises have been set. Gerritson said he is not worried about the mainstreaming of rugby affecting the special bond he shares with other players.

“At the end of the day a rugby player will always have a special set of qualities that you don’t find in other sports,” said Gerritson. “Because of this fact the bond will always be there whether rugby is mainstream or not.”