In the spirit of, “All work and no play…”, some of our team ran the Race To Wrigley 5K this Saturday.  If you live in Chicago and haven’t heard of it, it’s only in its fourth year.  The hardest part was getting up for an 8am race on a Saturday morning.  The crowd was good, the weather was perfect for running and everyone had a great time.  Part of the race actually went through the Wrigley Field concourse.

After our Race to Wrigley, we all raced to Rebel’s for brunch and a reward beverage or two.  We were surprised to see that it was the only bar on Clark that opened for the race and the place was packed with runners and their supporters.

Our team is always up for a 5K that ends in beverages and/or a band so if you’re another small business in Chicago and want to get together for a race, let us know.

Last month, Michael Stelzner released a white paper titled, “Social Media Marketing Industry Report”.  While we are late getting around to reading it, there is some good information that we thought was worth sharing.  The white paper is a quick read with some good information based on a survey of nearly 700 marketers and has all of the graphs and charts you could want in a white paper.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Top three questions marketers want answered: (1) What are the best tactics to use, (2) how to do I measure the effectiveness of social media and (3) where do I start?
• Marketers are mostly new to social media: A significant 88% of marketers surveyed are using social media to market their businesses, BUT 72% have only been doing so for a few months or less.
• How much time does this take? A significant 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week and 39% for 10 or more hours weekly.
• The top benefit of social media marketing: The number-one advantage is generating exposure for the business, indicated 81% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic and building new business partnerships.
• The top social media tools: Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook were the top four social media tools used by marketers, in that order.
• Social media tools marketers most want to learn about: Social bookmarking sites were ranked of highest interest, followed closely by Twitter.
• Business owners were more likely to use social media marketing (90+%) than employees working for a business (81%).
• About half of the respondents found that social media generated qualified leads.
• More than half of the respondents who had been doing social media for only a few months and dedicating only 6-10 hours of week said that social media marketing generated qualified leads. 62% of marketers using social media for years noted that it helped them close business.

For those just starting to use social media or trying to justify it to your colleagues and bosses, this is worth a look.

I realize that we’re focuses on helping businesses, but when it comes to building a community and staying on top of social media and marketing trends, nobody is better then the hottest band in the world, KISS.  (Disclaimer:  Yes, I am a huge fan but I have no KISS tattoos and I’ve never put on the makeup.)  For those that beg to differ, say what you want about the music but learn all you can from the band and their loyal fans/followers, The KISS Army.

You wanted the best! You got it!  The smartest marketers in the rock industry, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons!  From day one, they built a buzz and following around their band and they always knew that giving it all at their shows was what was going to set them apart from the rest of the pack.  As with any successful company that’s been around for awhile, they tried different things and changed with the times.  Some worked (Alive!) and some didn’t (KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park).  The point is they’re still around and doing well.

So now let’s skip to 2009 where KISS is working with eventful to let their fans determine where they will show up with the first ever fan-routed Tour.  That’s right.  KISS is letting their fans go online and vote for them to come to their city.  In my mind, this is pure genius.  How so? Here are a few reasons why I think this will rock for both KISS and their fans:

1. The fans get to actively participate in determining where their favorite band will show up and play instead of waiting for a list of tour dates and hoping for the best.
2. Fans will not only actively vote but get the word out to their friends in order to increase their city’s rankings.  That means free word of mouth marketing at $0 cost from your most passionate advocates.
3. Nobody likes waiting around and gambling that the big bands will add another date or two to your city due to how fast tickets sell out.  With this method both KISS and the fans know how many people are interested and will have a good idea of how many dates they’ll play based on the venue’s capacity.
4. KISS will literally know how many shows they’ll do and where well ahead of the concert tour start date.  Imagine going somewhere with a product or service and knowing not just that some people are interested in what you’re offering, but how many.

I can honestly see this taking off as the future standard for big name performers to schedule their tours.  You have to wonder what this will mean for middlemen like concert promoters going forward.

In addition to the trend above, KISS also has a huge following on Facebook and many of the other online platforms.  So what, most bands do. The difference is that KISS (and their marketing team) know how to use them.  When you look them up on these platforms, they are using them like pros.  Here’s a live clip of them promoting their demand tour.

So if you’re a part of a more established company and there are peers within your organization that are claiming that you can’t just change and start using social media like a small business, buy the whole team tickets, take them to see the best show ever and let them know that it can be done and very successfully.  You won’t even need the leather, makeup or six inch heel boots.

Today, we attended MarketingProfs’ Digital Marketing World conference.  As with most professional conferences, we;

• Met other professionals with similar interests and exchanged cards
• Visited vendor booth on the exhibition floor, chatted with them, and saw what they had to offer
• Put in our information at some booths for prizes or SWAG
• Saw some great speakers and presentations along with a few OK ones.

 The difference is that we attended this conference from our desks as this conference was virtual.  I know what you’re thinking, “Virtual? C’mon.”  It’s not like some Sims or Second Life thing where you create some tricked out avatar and it shows you walking around, sitting down, or back in your hotel room sleeping off your fun from the previous night through one or more of the presentations you thought you could skip.

The expo was powered by another Chicago company called InXpo.  The site allows vendors to create booths and distribute materials, people to chat, email, and exchange cards (.vcf files), and presenters to give presentations from multiple locations to hundreds of people.  All in all, I was pretty impressed with InXpo and MarketingProfs for how it was organized.

While I am still an advocate of meeting people in person when possible, there are definitely some advantages to attending a virtual event:

1. T&E costs are much lower. Try $0. Great for most 2009 budgets.
2. No lost time getting too and from the event.
3. Much more of a “green” way to attend an event
4. It keeps you focused on why you’re there and what you want to get out of it
5. Instead of rudely trying to sneak a few emails in on your blackberry during a presentation and thinking others don’t notice, you can type away on your laptop without annoying anyone else.

I can definitely see this as a trend for some conferences or by organizations like MarketingProfs that have numerous events a year and are fully aware that their communities can only afford to attend so many in person.  As with all events, the key will be to make sure that there’s quality content and networking opportunities for attendees as well as the opportunity for those that buy booths and present to reach their target audience.

With that said, there will never be as many funny stories or genuine connections that real world conferences (sometimes induced/assisted by after-parties with alcohol) allow for.  I believe that virtual events will end up being a great supplement for professionals to coordinate and get together in between the annual quality events we all look forward to.