Reputations Event Featuring Keynote Speaker Chris Brogan at Best Buy Headquarters in MPLS

I'm writing this blog post at the Minnesota Business, Reputations event with Chris Brogan as the keynote speaker. If you would like to follow the conversation for this event on twitter you can visit the hashtag #broganmpls. The panelists are Beth LaBreche CEO of LaBreche, Gabby Nelson Director of External Relations and Social Media, at Select Comfort, Paula Prahl Senior VP of Communications and Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility at Best Buy, and Brian Vanderah who does Customer Operations Supervision for QBP.

The majority of this post is going to be of some of my favorite quotes during the event and my personal feedback. I look forward to reading YOUR feedback.

"Marketers like to hear themselves talk and don't care what I'm thinking." -- Chris Brogan Are you a marketer? What can you do to start paying attention and be a more helpful customer service partner for your company. Helping people is going to help your company. Just look at Comcast or Zappos, I say their company name and have instant customer service. If I'm looking for a place to live in MPLS there are two people on twitter that will probably respond to me (I say probably because their is no guarantee). So what do you do? How can you connect your customers to solutions? Who are you? After you figure that out, try to be realistic and be helpful in ways that you would want. Some thing you CAN offer are unnecessary.

"The customer is not an idiot, she's your wife." --Brogan I love this quote because it is true. Your customer is your best friend, significant other and neighbor. Do you yell at your friends with weird branding slogans? Probably not. Think conversation, be appropriate, be relevant. "Helpful trumps marketing. I'm trying to impart wisdom, but I believe in sugar with medicine. Listening. Connecting. Publishing. Listening is the secret sauce. Don't bother stuffing old shit down new pipes." -- Chris Brogan

"Listen at the point of need." --Chris Brogan Then treat EVERYONE like VIP. Doesn't mean you have to be all things to all people it just means if you are the knight in shining armor when someone is looking for your product or service then they are probably going become loyal to you in the future. The last few times I've been on trips and bored I've turned to social media and found hotels (like brogan), found events to visit, and new people to tweetup with. Think of what you would say online if you where looking for you. Then respond as a human, not as a robot.

"If you make money for the company you are working with, they wont kick you to the curb as fast." --Chris Brogan Meaning if you say you do social media, don't just walk the walk. Be prepared to show ROI. If you aren't ready for that, then don't take their money. Figure out your goals, your brand, your customer service and then be prepared for happy and angry customers online. Then help your client find new customers.

"Start finding people who aren't in your vertical and then connect with them as well. The Dunbar number is you can't connect with more then 150 people at one time. How do you beat that? By knowing more people then who you work with, connecting with locals and verticals outside of the usual. Then talk about them, not about you."--Chris Brogan Do you have more then 150 followers on social media? How do you "keep up with the conversation"? I use lists to separate different types of followers for different types of conversations. I answer questions that I get asked a lot via my blog and YouTube. To get to know new people I follow them via text message (on Twitter) for 2 weeks at a time up to 15 people. Following people on my phone gives me the opportunity to follow up with people in real time. I also follow clients on my phone so that I can help guide them and try to prevent potentially embarrassing etiquette snafus. What do you do?

My favorite quote: "In social media if I go to shake your hand, don't stick your tongue down my throat." --Chris Brogan I love this quote and have read it in his blog before. It means if you join the conversation and I'm trying to say hello and slowly get to know you, don't market to me like you do via T.V. Be human and don't just try to force your company and products at me. Try to help your customers. Listen to your customers. Respond to them.  "If you write about yourself, who cares, but if you write about others they will come and talk." People like talking about themselves. "The more you talk about other people, the more awesome you are. Promote other people 12 times as much as you talk about yourselves." --Chris Brogan

"We don't only use one brand, we are not mutually exclusive." -- Chris Brogan Understand that your competitors exist and that you may not always be the best choice. Think Macy's in the classical Chrismas story, Miracle on 34th st. they referred people to their competitor and still had clients. In fact that nice gesture made brand evangelists. Also think progressive auto insurance, they do this. Progressive will give you their prices and the prices of their competitors as an added value. What value can you add? How are you helping your clients or prospects? Make their lives EASIER. "You're here to be a participant, not wrangle in the brand. Equip your community." -- Chris Brogan talking about Chris Grams from Red Hat. 

Thank you to Chris Brogan and the awesome panel for coming to Best Buy today to talk about Social Media and Reputations.

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Thanks for reading!

--Desarae A. Veit
Agency Couture