As I write this, I am attending the Social Graph Symposium in Silicon Valley which I am super excited about. The event is centered around “the social graph and the implications of the social graph in business, technology, and the community.” I’ve been looking forward to it because I have been thinking a lot about social data lately, and in particular how marketers can leverage it with their communications.

Earlier this year at the Email Insiders Summit in Park City, UT, I was on a Social CRM panel with some great folks, where we were discussing in free form, the aspects of the effects of social data on customer relationship management (CRM). I wanted to expand on one of the interesting points that we only touched on in the panel, which was defining the types of social data that are available to marketers. As you can imagine, this could easily have been the focus of the entire panel. Since social data has been a focus of mine over the last few months, I wanted to put down some thoughts on how I view it’s relevance to marketers.

Social Data Defined

The idea of social data is relatively simple. With the growth of social mediums (social networks, micro-blogging, location based technologies, etc), individuals are generating out an incredible amount of activity, content and behavior on the web. This data is propagated and distributed through many channels (web, email, mobile, etc), and at the same time, a market has been evolving that aggregates this data, organizes it, and in some cases analyzes it. This type of data, albeit in some cases, data overload, can bring to bear some interesting opportunities for marketers. Lets look at the two types of social data that encompass the root of these opportunities.

Social Data Attributes

The first, is social data attributes. This is the broad aspect of defining the social graph within a given audience. Lets say for example that the audience is your customer base. Clearly, this is one of the most valuable assets to any business.

Social data attributes allow you to add specific data points to your given customer database, in particular the social graph layer. For example, maybe on average a marketer would have some basic data attributes on their customer list:

1. First & Last Name
2. Company
3. Email Address
4. etc… (the more sophisticated the marketer, the more data fields included in a customer database).

Social data attributes come into play when you can also identify where your subscribers are on the social web. What percentage of them are on Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, etc.. ? Beyond where your customers are on the social web, there are also attributes like “influencer” data – this is where the number of “friends” or “followers” can be aggregated, and you can identify who in your customer base is a potential “influencer.” These data points can also be aggregated and appended to your database. This is the base foundation of adding the social graph layer to your customer file.

Social Data Activity

The next, and perhaps more challenging social data marketers now have at their fingertips is social activity data. What I mean by this is, what kind of conversations, interactions, posts, updates, check-in’s, etc, are your customers generating online?

This type of data, which is almost always in the public domain, truly is the “real time” heart and soul of your customer base. Aggregating, analyzing, and responding to some of this data has the potential to completely transform traditional CRM, and in many cases already has.

Just think of how much more relevant your customer interactions can be when you’ve read their latest blog post, tweet stream, viewed the flickr pix they posted from an industry event they just attended, etc. On the human level, this is social CRM. Deeper, more meaningful interactions.

From the sales & lead generation perspective, acting on social activity also helps fill the top of the sales funnel. Think about it, with the right approach, people are having more meaningful relevant conversations that start online with some kind of social activity, but are quickly brought offline for deeper discussion. I know many companies who are having great success leveraging this, mine is one of them. With these small examples, I am just scratching the surface of what is possible.

Socialize My Database

From my perspective, email and social are a beautiful marriage. When you think about where to start with all of this, your customer email database makes the most sense. Since email offers one of the most targeted, efficient and measurable mediums available to marketers today, it would make sense to build your social graph around the email address, hence why you always hear me and the folks at Blue Sky Factory touting email as “the digital glue.”

Think about it, if all of the other social mediums went away, there would still be the email address. Recent research data from Merkle’s “View from the Social Inbox 2010″ report also suggests that many people use the same email for permission-based emails as they do for social networks. This makes even more of a case to leverage your email database first.

I’ve Got the Data Now What?

Many marketers I speak with are not so much struggling with where to find this type of data, they are struggling with how to use it. This is the beginning of a new era of marketing strategy and tactics. When combined with email, some of the basic social data elements described above, the following are just some of the tactics a marketer can leverage:

1. Identify, and target influencer’s within your customer or subscriber file.
2. Create accelerated loyalty & retention campaigns.
3. Jump start a social media presence (cross pollinate your customers to your social properties).
4. Convert community into new email subscribers – build your list!
5. Build your sales pipeline by active social web participation & engagement.

Again, I am just scratching the surface of whats possible. I would love to spark some additional dialog on this topic. What are your thoughts on social data? What did I miss? Do you agree?

Feel free to comment and continue the conversation below. Thanks for reading.

I am really excited about Bootstrap Maryland. When Jared Goralnick first asked me to be a part of it I hadn’t even realized he had been working on such an interesting and important event. I’ve always thought an event that brought together similar entrepreneurs who have experience building businesses outside of the most common routes, (ie. raise friend and family money, raise angel investment, raise VC, etc) would be extremely valuable to the next generation of entrepreneurs. Our region is ripe with talent, ideas, and products that are already in “the lab” and just waiting to officially “launch.”

I look forward to sharing my story and advice around building businesses with little to no funding at all. It certainly isn’t easy, but it can be done with, as Jared states “drive, brains and little creativity.” Details on the event are below, or you can click here. If you are thinking of starting a company, or already are out of the gate and are looking for some additional inspiration. Hope to see you there on May 2nd.

Bootstrap Maryland brings together young entrepreneurs and the necessary tools for running a lean and successful technology business.

At the Bootstrap Maryland Conference on May 2, 2009 you will learn how to turn your web or technology idea into a business. The presentations will cover topics such as:

* What you need (and don’t need) to get your business off the ground.
* Most products fail due to lack of marketing, not failed technology. How to get the word out inexpensively with social media, events, and creative PR
* The most relevant technologies people are using today, and ways to get the technology right the first time
* Stories, lessons learned, and discussions from young people who have built successful businesses

I wanted to put out a quick post to remind folks about SocialDevCampEast 2, which is taking place this coming Saturday, Nov 1, at the University of Baltimore in the heart of Baltimore City. For those of you who are in the region and are involved in technology, social media, marketing, development, etc this is a must attend event. For those of you hearing about it for the first time:

“SocialDevCamp East Fall 2008 once again invites east coast developers and technology business leaders to come together for a thoughtful discussion of the ideas and technologies that will drive the future of the social web.”

SocialDevCampEast is organized by Dave Troy, with help of a bunch of volunteers and sponsors. The first event was in May of this year, and was a super success. You can read about my recap of last May’s event here. Blue Sky Factory was a proud sponsor back in May and will be sponsoring once again this weekends event. I hope to see you there!

I just returned from the lovely city of Seattle where I attended Gnomedex 8.0, the incredible event put on by Chris and Ponzi Pirillo. Blue Sky Factory was a sponsor of the event and this time we set up a table, gave out our minty fresh email marketing gum and also sponsored the wifi. In short, we love Gnomedex, its a one of a kind event, and my favorite conference of the year.

Throughout the event, I broke out the Sanyo Xacti and asked a random sampling of the attendees why they come to Gnomedex, below is the video we cut of the responses. Check it out:

Julia our rockstar marketing intern for the summer has been busy making lots o media the past few weeks for Blue Sky Factory. If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter you probably have seen the videos. Below is one of her masterpieces Here is our office tour in MTV Cribs style format. Hope you enjoy it!

Gary Vaynerchuk and I sat down for a brief chat on his recent visit to BSF HQ in Baltimore. We chat about Wine Library’s use of email and Gary talks about his experience with our team at here Blue Sky Factory. Check it out:

Next Tuesday, June 24th, I will be participating in a half day session called “Social Media 101: Getting Started” which is being put on by the Greater Baltimore Technology Council. The event will be held at the University of Baltimore’s Thumel Business Center. This is the same building where SocialDevCamp was, just two blocks from the Amtrak at Baltimore Penn Station. Here is a quick overview of the session:

Overview & Objectives:

The purpose of this seminar is to provide a high-level overview on social media and networking. From this seminar participants will learn:

1. The whys of social media and its basic principles: building trusted relationships, participation, user generated content, direct connection to customers, and persuasion via networks.

2. That social networking can be tangible and easy to use.

3. Potential ways to build your reputation and value with customers through social media to drive sales.

I will be presenting on a panel along with some of the incredible people listed below:

Dave Troy, Roundhouse Technologies
Jared Goralnick, SET Consulting
Shashi Bellamkonda, Network Solutions
Geoff Livingston, Livingston Communications
Yair Flicker, Smart Logic Solutions
Sean Oakley, Congruent Media
Matt Goddard, R2i.ntegrated
David Beaudouin, DB+C

As a participant in the event, I was given 5 free tickets to give away by the Tech Council. The tickets are $190 value for non-members of the GBTC. I am offering up the tickets to the first 5 people that contact me. Leave a comment here on my blog or shoot me an email at gcangialosi at blueskyfactory dot com. Hope to see you at next weeks event!

I have been thinking about all of the reasons why I have been feeling so good about yesterday’s SocialDevCamp. Its a little hard for me to pin down exactly, but all I can say is that it was an absolutely great event. No, it was a special event. Baltimore has been craving for something like this for years (at least in my opinion).

The event reminded me in many ways of the very first Podcamp in Boston two years ago. There was a clear energy present, and everyone who was there knew it. Yesterday was like that for me in many ways. From the moment I got there until the moment I rolled out of the Brewers Art at the afterparty, it was energetic, passionate, educational and inspiring among many other things. It was great to connect with so many other folks from the area and along the corridor (Boston, NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC), the Amtrak corridor that is

For the first time in a long time it felt like the Baltimore scene was truly vibing. I know we have all been “vibing” in our own ways, but SocialDevCamp brought a lot of like minded individuals together for the first time ever in our city. Sure there have been small gatherings, happy hours, and definitely lots of great programming by the GBTC to bring the business community together, but this was the first time, that I can think of, where everyone came together. The entrepreneurs, the hackers, the developers, the media, (insert what you are here), etc, it was a collective, and it was a good one.

Thanks once again to Dave Troy, Ann and Keith for organizing this. A big thanks to all of the volunteers, and to all of the other sponsors for financially supporting the needs of the event, and finally thank you to all of the participants for showing up and making it happen. What a turnout!

Here are a few random thoughts from my perspective:

Facility & Location

University of Baltimore’s facility was a GREAT location for this event. The physical space simply worked. There was a main common area where the meals were and tables, the auditorium and the session rooms were all right there. This kept the attendees connected and engaged. It was refreshing to see that there were no sessions on multiple floors, lack of a common gathering area, and basically people all over the place, which is often the case when using university / academic facilities for these types of events. Finally, the actual location couldn’t have been better for out of town folks who hopped on the Amtrak and came from other cities. The UB facility is literally 2 blocks (at the most) from the train station. That fact alone definitely helped with the great turnout.

Sessions & Participation

Although I didn’t participate in the session selection and voting (I showed up a little late), I think the sessions were great. I particularly enjoyed the “Business of Social Media.” What was really great to see was the level of participation from attendees. I know thats the point of these events, and it was definitely present and accounted for. It was great to hear so many perspectives and to learn what was on peoples minds. I sat in the Business / ROI of Social Media, learned about the semantic web, attended Shashi’s session on selling social media to the boss, and the mashed up “who needs VC’s and Amtrak Tech” session. All good stuff.

Corridor concept (DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC, Boston)

I liked the discussion that was started around linking up the “Amtrak” cities and building off of the momentum of every location. There was a lot of discussion and comparison around startups in Silicon Valley vs. startups out here on the east coast. Discussion around the available resources we have to us, from money to talent and more. The thinking is that we need to start to look at ourselves, out here on the east, as our own corridor or ecosystem, and shouldn’t look at it from a single city point of view. The connecting link between five major markets, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, NYC & Boston, is the Amtrak. You can get to any of these cities VERY conveniently via the train, and be in the center of them within a few hours. I look forward to more discussion around this, as we truly are our own technology corridor. Lets tighten this concept up.

In many ways, its great to finally see Baltimore on the map as a micro-hub. I look forward to many more events like this in the future. The next SocialDevCamp is already being planned for this September, details will follow as they are announced. Blue Sky Factory will continue to support these events and any other event that helps bring everyone in our region together.

Here are some links to SocialDevCamp Media: (feel free to add more links in the comments to other media)

Flickr photos

Animoto Slide Show from East Coast Blogging

Video of Sessions by Kenneth

Twitter hashtags

Great to see everyone, catch you all at the next one!

Just a quick shout out to anyone in the Baltimore / DC metro area, to let you know or remind you that tomorrow is SocialDevCamp East. Blue Sky Factory is a sponsor of both the event and of the afterparty at the Brewers Art. If you are in the area and want to participate please feel free to join us, the event is free and open to everyone.

What is SocialDevCamp?

SocialDevCamp East is the Unconference for Thought Leaders of the Future Social Web

Where is the social web going? It’s going mobile, to geocentric services, and to open platforms. Join a community of like minded developers, social media gurus and thought leaders for an unconference to discuss the future of the social web.

We’re looking for thought leaders from DC to Boston to meet, forge relationships, and envision the future.

For all event details check out the wiki. Hope to see you there!

Anyone out there looking for a great podcast on marketing? If you haven’t tuned in yet, Christopher Penn and John Wall produce a great weekly podcast dubbed “Marketing Over Coffee”. They cover both classic and new marketing in detail, and dig into both strategy and tactics. Its a great listen for anyone involved in marketing or communications.

Marketing Over Coffee is recorded every business Wednesday at 5:30am Eastern at a coffee shop in Natick, MA, just outside of Boston. The program is runs about 20 minutes and comes out on Thursday mornings.

You can subscribe to their RSS feed here, or check it out in iTunes here.

Blue Sky Factory is proud to be an official Marketing Over Coffee sponsor. Keep up the good work Chris and John!