Talking Social Media Engagement at Conversion Conference West 2010

Next week, I am presenting at Conversion Conference West: the first conference devoted exclusively to online conversion. It will be held on May 4-5 at the luxurious Fairmont Hotel in San Jose.

Whether you are looking for the psychology of persuasion, graphic design, copywriting, usability, landing page testing & tools, or best practices for your specific situation, its all here. Enjoy world-class expert sessions, hands-on live critiques, and no-holds-barred open mic panels. Use promo code "CCW560" when registering at www.ConversionConference.com to save $250 off of a 2-day full conference pass by May 1st!

I am presenting on Wednesday morning at 11:10 am, and my topic is "Social Media for Engagement & Conversion." Full Agenda

I'm putting the finishing touches on my presentation for next week, and thought I'd share with you some highlights in the messaging I plan to use...

As marketers are forced to look at how to best leverage social media to drive the business, some traditional ways of thinking need to be looked at in a new way. For example, companies that are successfully leveraging social media for B2B marketing are finding that social networking has changed the concept of a "lead" and the ability to connect with and establish relationships with key prospects.

"The nice thing about social media is that on social networking sites, we have access to contact information and the ability to reach a target contact very quickly and easily."

What that means for us is that success is now marked by penetrating the noise and establishing a relationship.

A desired action in social media can involve brand awareness and brand building or a more direct action such as a click through (from Twitter, for example) to a web site where a lead is generated or a purchase is made. On top of all of that, social media can help marketers and sales professionals to continue to foster relationships with existing clients - particularly with high-revenue or high margin services or those with a significant project life-span, leading to repeat business.

My presentation will include a brief overview of the major social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), a list of metrics to focus on for each, best practices for engagement and calls to action, some case studies, and then tips on metrics, reporting and alerts.

Don't forget that you can follow me on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/ErinE.

You can also follow the conference organizer, Tim Ash, at www.Twitter.com/Tim_Ash or follow the hash tag #ConvCon

The Social Media Rolodex: Using Social Media Effectively for B2B Business Development

Yesterday, I was the featured speaker at the esteemed Business Marketing Association's St. Louis chapter monthly luncheon. I was honored to have been offered the opportunity since they've featured recent speakers like Steven Woods (@stevewoods) of Eloqua (also, author of the excellent book, Digital Body Language) and in a few months, their speaker will be Kodak's CMO, Jeff Hayzlett.

That's pretty great company to be included with!

So, I met some excellent marketing professionals and business owners, and my presentation focused on how you can use social media sites to grow your professional network and drive more business in a sales role with a B2B company. I spoke from experiences having worked closely with folks at Perficient who are doing exactly that, and I made recommendations about which sites are ideal to focus your energies on in this capacity. You can view my presentation below, via SlideShare.

I also recently attended a luncheon by the St. Louis BMA in which Scott Davis (@ScottDavisShift) was the featured speaker. He is the author of the best-selling marketing book, The Shift: The Transformation of Today's Marketers into Tomorrow's Growth Leaders - an excellent read!

The St. Louis BMA has become an extremely valuable event for me, but unfortunately, now that I live in California, I won't be able to take advantage of it each month by attending their monthly luncheon series. I recommend anyone working in marketing (especially in a B2B or lead generation capacity) and living in St. Louis to sign for their alerts, start attending the luncheons and get involved. They are clearly embracing the opportunities that exist for marketers in the interactive and integrated marketing space.

Big thanks to Michael Flavin (@michaelflavin) Carin Schulusky and the rest of the BMA STL team for inviting me to speak and coordinating the event!

Some resources:

• BMA St. Louis Event Schedule
• Subscribe for BMA St. Louis Emails
• BMA St. Louis on Twitter

Social Media Marketing for B2B Business Development - Business Marketing Association St. Louis

View more presentations from Erin Eschen.

Leveraging Web Analytics to Increase Conversions

I gave this presentation yesterday at the first ever Market St. Louis conference in downtown St. Louis, MO at Lumiere Hotel.

I was asked to make this a pretty basic introduction to using Google Analytics, and when I asked the attendees how many were already using analytics on their site, only 5 raised their hands. We had mostly small business owners and entrepreneurs in attendance, so I think the presentation fit them. However, even if you have already been using analytics for a while or use it regularly, you may still get some value out of reviewing this. What I did was outline my personal 4 best uses for analytics:

1. Troubleshooting problems
2. Tracking & Increasing Conversions
3. Gaining Business Intelligence about your visitors
4. Monitoring Performance

Big thanks to @MarketSTL (Will Hanke) for inviting me to speak. I enjoyed it!

Leveraging Web Analytics to Increase Conversion - Market STL Presentation

View more presentations from Erin Eschen.