Here’s a presentation I put together recently that discusses the benefits to using a CMS as well as a brief look at the big 3, namely WordPress, Drupal and Joomla.

Every year at The Jones Group we all come together to brainstorm new and clever ways to recognize the holidays. The over-arching goal is  make it fun and make it unique. Each year we try to outdo ourselves from the previous year. This year we quickly garnered an award and recognition! Just days after we launched “Well Orchestrated Holiday” we were awarded the Site of the Day by CSS Design Awards.

This years holiday wish to our clients and friends gave them a chance to interact with everyone at The Jones Group and make them sing, kind of anyway. We all dressed up in choir robes and shot video segments of us singing and playing video interments. Then, upon having our individual key pressed we belt out a somewhat in-tune note. You compose your own music track, record it, save it or forward it. The site proved to be very popular with our clients and friends. We emailed 800 folks and our stats say 2600 views so far. If you have not yet visited or played with it yet we invite you to take a look

Companies of all sizes, from global enterprises to small businesses to start-ups, in almost every industry continue to integrate Facebook into their marketing and communications strategy. Consider that:

- 58% of Fortune 500 companies have corporate Facebook pages (The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research and msnbc.com)

- 35% of small businesses utilize Facebook in their marketing mix (American Express OPEN and eMarketer)

- 97% of the top U.S. charities utilize Facebook in their markting efforts (The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research)

Despite the mass adoption of the popular social networking platform, particularly since 2009, many marketers are unaware of all of the tools at their disposal, which minimizes their effectiveness, and critical mistakes are often made in marketers’ execution of brand, engagement and promotional efforts on Fan Pages. For example, the “Info” tab is rarely taken full advantage of, and custom “Welcome” pages leave much to be desired or are nonexistent.

A plethora of resources are available to assist marketers in developing and executing their Facebook and social media strategy, such as agencies like ours. HubSpot, widely recognized as a leader on the subject of inbound marketing, routinely creates content around best practices, often in the form of “How To” guides, that can be applied quickly. They have created a quick-reference resource that can help relatively experienced social marketers and those that are simply in the planning stages of their social presence: How To Master Facebook Marketing in 10 Days. They believe that with little effort, you can boost your Facebook interactions by 30% or more. Follow the principles and tactics in the ebook to find out how.

Specifically, you will learn how to:

- Evaluate successful Facebook pages

- Understand Facebook best practices

- Create custom Welcome pages

- Use Facebook’s analytics package “Insights”

- And much more

You can download it here. Don’t just “do” Facebook. Master it.

Digital Atlanta 2011 kicks off on November 7 for its second year of celebrating the technology and new media marketing achievements of Atlanta . Formerly Social Media Atlanta, the week-long series of events will take place at numerous venues across the metro area and is a ‘can’t miss’ event for companies, agencies and individuals that want to stay at the forefront of all things digital.

The conference features a wide array of learning tracks, signature seminars and networking events. Digital Atlanta is designed to offer a lot of flexibility when selecting sessions that fit your needs and schedule. It is also economically priced: sessions are only $12 a piece.

The conference is expecting over 3,000 people from Atlanta and beyond that will include business owners and executives, entrepreneurs and professionals from various industries and organizations, as well as universities and state and local governments. The programming is expansive and diverse and will include topics such as:

- Augmented Reality

- Social Gaming

- Blogging

- Social Couponing

- E-Commerce

- Mobile Strategy

- Non-Profits and New Media

- Sustainability

- Media, Entertainment & Sports

- Small Business, and much, much more.

The first day of the week-long extravaganza is marked by AppNation Conference Atlanta at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center. AppNation is a one-day event focused entirely on the burgeoning business of apps and their transformative impact on our personal and work lives. It will examine the exploding business of mobile apps within our increasingly connected world and discuss the critical decision points and inherent business challenges that marketers and agencies face when devising and deploying a mobile app strategy. Our mayor, Kasim Reed, will provide welcome remarks, and James McCaffrey, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Turner Networks, will keynote.

So peruse the list of topics, sessions and locations and join Atlanta’s digital elite for a week that is sure to provoke thought, challenge and inspire as we all continue to learn how to harness the technologies available to us today to improve our businesses and provide value to our clients and customers.

Jay Baer is one of the country’s most recognized and renowned authorities on the subject of social media and its effective application in business. His consultancy, Convince and Convert, works with companies to build integrated, measurable social and content programs. He’s worked with over 700 brands since 1994, is a prolific blogger, professional speaker and is currently on a national tour promoting his latest book, one that he co-wrote with Amber Naslund, VP of Social Strategy for Radian6, The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Businesses Faster, Smarter and More Social.

We at BMA Atlanta were fortunate and excited to have Jay stop by during his whirlwind tour to address the audience at our October Keynote event Wednesday night. He provided an overview of his book and explained in a compelling and engaging way why social media represents a fundamental shift, not a tactical shift, in the way business is and should be conducted. One of the things that stood out to me was Jay’s point that success is predicated so much on company culture, not just in the realm of social media, but in the overall health of the company. Changing organizational culture is an enormous challenge, but one that must be met.

Below are some of the highlights from his presentation. I’ll soon post a short video of Jay that we shot prior to the event.

- Before the advent of social media, we were limited in our ability to communicate, which was primarily “word of mouth.” There is now no limit to our ability to communicate, and every customer is a reporter. In order to survive in this new environment, businesses must do three things: 1) get faster, 2) get smarter, and 3) get more social.

- There have been many product innovations and channels of communication through the years that changed the way we do business. First there was the telephone, then fax, then the web, then email, and now, social media. “This (social media) is the most transformative of all because it fundamentally changes the nature of the relationship between businesses and its customers. It’s not a master-to-servant relationship anymore; it’s closer to peer-to-peer.”

- “The success of social media relies on corporate culture and sociology, not tools and technology.”

- “Companies should move with one mind and one heart. To move this way, we have to hire for passion and train for skills. The companies that do this are the ones that will achieve cultural alignment.”

- “Social media is the new ‘canary in the coal mine’. It’s the new telephone; you have to answer it.”

- Social media success metrics: know what you’re trying to accomplish with your social media efforts. Is it awareness? Sales? Loyalty and retention? Other? Each have different metrics. “The problem is not that we can’t or don’t have enough to measure, it’s that we have too much to measure.”

- Facebook Fans, for example, is a worthless metric. 84% of current Facebook Fans are current customers. “In social media, we have to measure behavior, not aggregation.” “Facebook is digital bumperstickering.”

- “If you use these four words fast and well, you’ll be better than 80% of the companies using social media: ‘thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’

- The engagement spectrum: Ignoring > Listening > Responding > Participating > Storytelling. “Participating” is the act of jumping in and adding context and value. “Storytelling” is creating content. “The less people are talking about you, the more content you have to create. The more people are talking about you, the less content you have to create.” At some point, you have to create conversations, not just engaging in them.

- The companies that are best at storytelling are best at “internal story harvesting”. Sales, Operations and Customer Service are the groups that know the most about the business. A tunnel should be developed between those groups and every other group in the company so that the story is known, communicated and consistent.

- “The enemy of storytelling is features and benefits.”

- Find your brand voice by talking about people, not company abstract. “We are intrigued by and remember human stories.”

- Helping vs. Selling (in social media): “In social media, you earn the right to promote by being helpful, useful and relevant.” You can’t buy that right like you can in every other medium. Help first, sell second.

- “We’re in the era of the invitation avalanche (when every company has a special offer, invites you to join their blog, become their FB fan, etc.). This is where we’re going, folks. We need to be part of the solution, not part of this growing problem. You differentiate around helpfulness.”

- “Social media is a job today, but it’s going to become a skill, much like typing. Everything important in business eventually becomes a skill. You have to have people in the company that have their antennas up.”

- There are two types of changes in business: 1) protocol and 2) paradigm. “Social media is both, which is why it’s so hard. Customers will simply ultimately demand that you communicate with them this way.”

- “Be social, don’t do social.”

- “Social media requires experiential learning. If you don’t love it, you suck at it.”

Have you heard Jay speak before? What are your thoughts? What would you add to this conversation?

Our agency has always looked for ways to contribute to our community and promote awareness, education and engagement in causes such as the arts, sustainability and health and wellness. So when it comes to supporting one of our clients’ efforts to do the same, we are even more eager to contribute.

So we are pleased and proud to participate in a unique project for one of our clients. Georgia-Pacific Professional is sponsoring an exhibition in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s David J. Sencer Museum and the CDC Foundation. The show, Watching Hands: Artists Respond to Keeping Well, will open this Saturday, September 24, 2011 and run through January 13, 2012 at the museum at CDC headquarters in Atlanta and feature new original works from six diverse and talented artists: John Bankston, Didi Dunphy, Joe Peragine, Katherine Ross, Laura Splan and James Victore. Georgia-Pacific’s YouTube channel showcases compelling video of each of the artists in action while preparing for the exhibit.

The exhibit explores the importance of proper handwashing through a variety of media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, graphic design, video projection and vinyl installation. Because hand washing is the single most effective way to prevent the spread of disease, this is an opportunity for Georgia-Pacific to bolster awareness with new audiences of the health benefits of hand hygiene in a nontraditional and innovative way.

We developed the brand identity and supporting communications materials for the exhibit, taking special care to utilize graphics that communicate the theme of the show without overshadowing the works of these renowned artists. The Atlanta Business Chronicle provides more detailed information about the exhibit and each of the artists. Thanks to everyone at Georgia-Pacific for your key role and contribution to this terrific exhibit.

We are pleased and excited to announce Kathy Strall as the newest addition to our ever-expanding team of professionals. As much of an asset as she will be to us, she’ll be an enormous asset and advocate for our clients as she assumes the role of Account Services Group Director.

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We would like to introduce you to the newest member of our account management team, Melissa Smallwood. Melissa joins us as a Senior Account Director and is a great addition to our group of brand stewards.

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Yesterday I enjoyed the pleasure of being a guest on High Velocity Radio, an Atlanta Business RadioX property, along with three of my colleagues on the board of directors at the Business Marketing Association of Atlanta. It was a special BMA Roundtable broadcast to announce and celebrate the new partnership between Atlanta Business RadioX and the BMA. BMA is the only organization in Atlanta dedicated to the needs of B2B marketers, and we’re proud of our partnership.

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It’s a question that consistently surfaces. Corporate marketers are searching for that sometimes elusive mix of winning factors as they evaluate their next potential marketing partner.

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