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Joe Chernov

VP of Content Marketing, Eloqua

Eloqua is a pioneer of Revenue Performance Management and Joe is their face to the world. Joe develops content marketing strategy for Eloqua and executes campaigns that use social media to increase awareness, engagement and lead generation.

What were the biggest changes for social-driven businesses in 2011?

   

Misaligned expectations. Many companies are caught between the push-and-pull of vanity metrics (the "counting stats" such as Likes, Fans or Followers), which are easy to measure and can demonstrate quarter-over-quarter "progress" for executives; and business metrics (lead generation/conversion, sales velocity, etc.), which take a much longer time to prove and require cross-departmental alignment.

The challenge is that in order to progress to the latter (business metrics), marketers need to prove themselves in the former, but spending too much time building a case for vanity metrics can effectively trap the marketer into a loop of interesting, but ultimately useless, data.

   

"Spending too much time on vanity metrics can effectively trap the marketer"

Joe Chernov

What social channels or platforms are growing and which do you think will decrease in importance?

   

Google+ is growing in importance. It's becoming an SEO play (Search, Plus Your World almost forces companies to be active on Google's social platform), which is the natural evolution.

For B2B marketers, SlideShare is an imperative (lead capture tools, integrates with marketing automation systems). Having solved (over solved?) the "noise" problem that dogged Yahoo Answers, Quora is similarly on the rise.

Social bookmarking sites may find themselves giving way to the virility of Pinterest. So I imagine we'll see marketers backing off of social bookmarking, unless they market to moms, in which case, Pinterest is going to become invaluable.

   

"For B2B, SlideShare is an imperative."

Joe Chernov

What has been the big surprise in 2011 for social-powered business?

   

The public-ness of the war between Google and Twitter over Search, Plus Your World. Most observers had been watching the search giant and Facebook square off, but the sudden — and very public — entry of Twitter in the debate was surprising.

What has been the biggest disappointment or over-hype?

   

Social Media Management Systems are still point solutions. There is no clear cut leader when it comes to a single system for managing a multi-profile, multi-geography, multi-network social strategy. Social strategists still need to integrate disparate systems. Some are even building their own. That needs to change.

Big companies like Dell and Zappos get a lot of attention for their social efforts. What smaller companies have demonstrated the power of social business over the last few years?

   

Non-profits have proven to be remarkably nimble on social channels, "newsjacking" stories to their favor, capitalizing on political opportunities, and truly humanizing their organizations. I think corporations can look to non-profits for ideas and inspiration.

   

"Corporations can look to non-profits for ideas and inspiration."

Joe Chernov

What's the next big thing for social business?

   

The next "big" thing will be a "boring" thing: It will be an integrated social media management system that replaces or consolidates multiple point solutions.

What should a CEO or senior strategist be keeping an eye on in 2012?

   

They should be keeping their eyes on the ultimate goal: how close can we get to tracking social engagement all the way through sale, retention, advocacy and referral. Keeping focused on that larger objective will make the day-to-day decisions much easier.

   

"Keeping focused on that larger objective will make the day-to-day decisions much easier."

Joe Chernov

How can a company inject social media into its culture?

   

People join a winner. Create a compelling social media presence, one fueled by compelling content, and the culture will follow.

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