Then on Monday night during the opening reception, the show was relatively slow. You see, they open the show with a two-hour open Expo, and the organizers treat attendees to beer, wine, and food. Because of the treats and eats, very few of the attendees are actually interested in engaging in business-related discussion of any sort. Of course, as an exhibitor (@AnueSystems, actually), we are required to man the booth in case we are approached by anyone with questions or interest in our products.

Since we were mostly standing around looking for some meaningful conversations to crop up, I decided to partake in one of my favorite pastimes when out in public: people-watching. RSA presents a very interesting range of people from all around the world. There were business types in suits, hard-core security techs in t-shirts and jeans, booth talent in various getups, marketing and sales folks in company branded attire, and just about anything else you can imagine.

About an hour into the show, a woman approached the booth across from us in a very peculiar outfit. In fact, it looked as though she were dressed by a color blind, stylistically-challenged imp! We had a nice chuckle among our group, and of course we snapped a couple of photos. Then it dawned on me…I had to share this one on Twitter. It would surely elicit some nice laughs by my online friends, so I opened up email and teed it up to send with the following message included: “RSA 2010: Not a fashion conference”. After a few minutes, I had second thoughts about whether this was a smart thing to do, but it appeared the email had already sent, so I was all in.

The next day while having lunch with Jennifer Leggio (@mediaphyter), Social Business blogger for ZDnet, I shared this story to see what she thought. Her reply? “What if that is one of your customers?” Of course, I was just about certain it was not, but as I pondered her feedback further, I grew more and more concerned about doing something so stupid without thinking first. Now, I’m a guy who is no stranger to the taste of my foot, but at this point in my life, I’m most certainly too old to blame such a gaff on the folly of youth.

That night, I logged into Twitter to see what maelstrom of feedback I may have gotten to the picture, and it unexplainably wasn’t showing up in my stream. I was befuddled! Can it be…did the email never in fact deliver? So I went to TwitPic and logged in, and alas! I did manage to successfully cancel the transmission, which was the result of either luck or badly-needed common sense [maybe a little bit of both].

Whew, what a close call. For those of you who know me, you’re aware that I’m always up for a good laugh, but seldomly in such a disrespectful way to fellow professionals (and yes, even those with no fashion sense deserve respect on an intellectual and business level). I try very hard to foster productive and mutually beneficial relationships. In fact, networking is one of the most important things I do outside of work and spending time with my family.

But in one fell swoop, I nearly let the my fervor for a newfound toy throw me off my course. Never forget, social networking is still about people first. Anything you say or post online is available for public consumption, and with your “it’s me” stamp of approval permanently attached. Sites, tools, software, and cool apps are great, but they are just methods by which to interact with real people. Think about how it might affect the person on the other end, and in this case, the “butt” of the joke. It’s just not worth doing something potentially offensive for a cheap laugh. Oh yeah, and if you’re in the job market, be sure your Facebook account won’t scare off your interviewer. If you don’t think they are looking, think again.

Special thanks to @Mediaphyter for her voice of reason. If you haven’t seen her work, I highly recommend you take a moment to do so.

On that note, namaste my friends.

This week, Return On Now has the privilege of sharing with you a guest post by Aaron Strout, CMO of Powered Inc. right here in Austin, TX. In addition to running marketing, he also serves as a key “social voice” for the company.  In that capacity, Aaron continues with his speaking, blogging, podcasting, and social networking activities with an eye toward creating awareness and lead generation for the company. Aaron co-hosts the Quick-n-Dirty weekly podcast with Jennifer Leggio, he maintains a social media blog titled Citizen Marketer 2.1, and he is well-known as a thought leader in online and social media marketing.

For today’s post, Aaron has agreed to give his overview on B2B and how social media can actually be used to benefit the business. With all of the discussion surrounding concerns about measuring impact to the bottom line, I felt that this would be an important topic for all to hear.

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Why is it that, when it comes to conversation about social media, business-to-business (B2B) seems to get the short end of the stick every single time? As someone who does a lot of webcasts, blog posts, and speaking gigs, the question/comment that always comes up is, “what about B2B examples.” Fortunately for me, I’m able to mention companies like BreakingPoint Systems and Hubspot that do a great job tapping into the power of social media, but I often wish there were more examples (with public results) that I could discuss.

In thinking about this topic, one of the main reasons that B2B has taken a little longer to adopt social media into its marketing mix is that it’s harder to do effectively. It’s also feels risky because there is less control then  in other channels. With that said, I personally believe that B2B companies stand to benefit the most from social media because they live and die based on the strength of their customer relationships. On top of that, many B2B companies actually know exactly who their prospective customers are, so seeking those folks out in a meaningful way and creating relationships with them can have a huge impact on the bottom line.

Given that I’m a prescriptive kind of guy, I’d feel remiss if I didn’t offer up some tips about how companies can start thinking about putting social media into practice. There are obviously tons of ways, but here are a few (including a diagram that provides more color commentary on item number three):

1. Start listening. This is easier to do than you think. Set up a Google alert for your company’s name, your competitors’ names, and keywords for your industry. If you’re already doing this, consider hiring a “listening” service like Techrigy, Radian6, or Meltwater Buzz. This will help you find where all the relevant conversations in your space are happening.
2. Create a Twitter account for your business. However, resist the urge to put up links to press releases, product specs, and links to press that are singing your business’s praises (at least out of the gate). Instead, talk about things that people in your industry care about. For instance, if you create bill payment software, talk about the needs of small-to-medium sized businesses across the financial spectrum (payroll, credit, vendor management, etc.) Link to reports and industry analysis. Point out other peoples’ blog posts and magazine articles.
3. Set up a blog. Before you do this, though, make sure you have someone (ideally internal) who is willing to commit to posting at least 5-6 times/month. This can be someone on your marketing, product, or PR teams, or even better, one of your executives. Think about creating an editorial calendar to help guide your topics. Most importantly, spend time looking at other industry related blogs — in fact, you should spend at least a month doing this before you set up your own blog. Be sure to comment on those blogs (talk about the topic, not your company). This will help with getting to know the relevant “social” people in the space.
4. Create an online community. Once you’ve gotten comfortable with items 1-3, start thinking about an online community. Ideally, this is for both current and prospective customers. Some businesses feel more comfortable about creating private communities where customers can talk to one another. The key in either case is to hire a great community manager and let them help you create relevant content via webinars, blog posts, and conference calls (see diagram below). A community manager will also help you draw out your customers and ensure that conversations stay relevant and productive.
5. Measure, measure, measure. This is less difficult than you might imagine. This really should start with looking at your current goals — i.e. new customers, greater retention, larger share of wallet, referrals, etc. Then make sure you benchmark (i.e. look at your webstats and current KPI’s) before you launch your social efforts. Then, look at how you’re moving the bar over time. A key place to look is your web analytics, to see what kind of traffic and engagement your Twitter feed and/or blog efforts are driving. Also, it doesn’t hurt to survey customers and ask them if your efforts are impacting their loyalty to your company.

I won’t lie to you; everything I mentioned above takes effort. But it’s worth trying, especially when it’s done right, because it will yield results. One thing that I failed to mention is the importance of integrating the recommendations above with your existing marketing/channel activity. Social media doesn’t live in a vacuum, and if nobody can find the fruit of your efforts, you may as well not have exerted the time and resources.

Am I missing anything? You bet I am. But that’s where you come in. What types of social media have you tried? What’s worked? Please feel free to share in the comments section below.