Today our guest is Gregarious Narain! Greg is a serial entrepreneur and product strategist, co-founder of the innovation firm Before Alpha, and previously the CTO and founder of Chute. Prior to Chute, Greg was the first employee and vice-president of product at Klout, where he established the Klout store we know and love as the standard for online influence. We discuss the common misconceptions of influence marketing, how Greg works with different companies to show ROI, the traditional vs.current ways of message distribution, the challenge of a brand portraying the right personality, and how brands can create great experiences for their customers.   Gregarious “Greg” Narain has been at the forefront of social media marketing, influencer marketing, and product marketing for more than 20 years. In his illustrious career, Greg has helped drive marketing verticals — such as content management, email and customer relationship systems, and marketing research — with a focus on product development and launches. Greg has been the founder of numerous startups in the influencer marketing space, as well as being the founder of his own agency that worked with startups and Fortune 500 companies on product development and business strategies. Greg brings his product experience to marketing by leveraging his experience and problem-solving skills to dissect industries, define problems and create innovative product solutions. Gregarious has spoken internationally at many leading industry events, including Cannes Lions Innovation, DreamForce, NAB, SXSW, AWS Re:Invent and is involved with numerous nonprofits and organizations.   The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Influence Marketing Podcast: B2B influencer, advocacy, and community marketing

Taking Ideas and Bringing them to Life | Gregarious Narain — EP019

Our guest today is Doc Searls: journalist, writer, and speaker.  We started off this informative conversation talking with Doc about his background, the emergence of the Internet, and the conceptual flaw that could have avoided a lot of today’s problems — overlaying the concepts of the client-server world and centralized control over what is inherently a peer-to-peer network based on TCP/IP. We went on to talk about privacy, VRM, and CustomerTech; what the consumer world could learn from B2B; implications of GDPR and globalization, and how people can protect their privacy. Doc also dispelled  This is the first episode of Season 2 of the Influence Marketing Podcast. This podcast was recorded in September, 2017. Recently, we’ve seen a lot more public discussion about Facebook and privacy, but as Doc insightfully points out in this recent article, it’s not just Facebook and Cambridge Onalytica: the same problems are inherent in the entire online advertising industry (and thus all companies that advertise online). Doc is co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and author of The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge, by Doc Searls, a fellow at the Center for Information Technology & Society (CITS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an alumnus fellow (2006–2010) of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.  The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Protecting customers in a client-server world | Doc Searls — EP019

Today we are talking with Amy Lewis and Matt Broberg, who along with John were the co-hosts of The Geek Whisperers podcast that came to a close at Episode 140 in October 2017. It was great to reconnect on the mic and have a laugh with Amy and Matt, but we also wanted to talk about their roles in influence marketing and what they are up to now. We talked about building a community at a startup, creating great content with a low budget, how their roles fit in across departments within their company, some highlights of the now retired Geek Whisperer podcast, and what projects we can look forward to from them both in the coming months! About our Guests: Amy is an energetic, effective marketing professional specializing in marketing strategy, communications, and customer engagement. She is a diplomatic collaborator with a passion for improvement. Amy is results-oriented with a knack for extracting business intelligence from marketing programs. Matthew (Brender) Broberg is the VP of Community at Sensu. Matt is a technologist with skills in marketing and a focus on product development. His role in a team is most powerful when cross-organizational and driven by the pressing needs of the company. He has the most fun when he’s empowered to lead a team to a collective goal.

Connecting Community Back with Business | Amy Lewis and Matt Broberg of The Geek Whisperers — EP018

Today we are talking about user groups — programs that gather local communities in the real world. Our guests are Victor Bohnert and Brad Tompkins. Victor is a Principal at the Innovatis Group and has worked with associations and user groups for nearly 20 years. Brad is the current CEO of the VMware User Group and his career background spans a number of operations and management roles in the tech area. We discuss the value of a user group program, how you start one, why a company would want one, who should be running the program, the different kinds of user groups, and what makes them different from other professional associations. About Our Guests Victor Bohnert. Victor has worked with various associations for nearly 20 years. He has extensive experience in building and managing customer communities in the all sectors and has led several organizational turn-arounds and mergers. Brad Tompkins. Brad is a 20-year industry executive with a broad and diverse leadership background in corporate technology operations. He currently serves as CEO of VMware User Group (VMUG) and is responsible for building and leading top-performing teams, increasing profitability and managing costs.   The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

The Value of Authenticity in User Groups— EP017

Today our guest is Marshall Kirkpatrick, Product Director in Influencer Discovery & Research at Sprinklr. Previously, Marshall was Co-founder and CEO of Little Bird. Prior to that, Marshall was Co-editor and Lead Writer at ReadWriteWeb, and the first hired writer at TechCrunch.  We talk with Marshall about his experiences with the early days of Twitter, and how using a tool like Little Bird to identify people influential in a given space can be used both to get new insights for your business as well as to change the world. Marshall Kirkpatrick works as a Product Director in influencer discovery & research at Sprinklr. He was previously co-founder of Little Bird. Prior to that, he was Co-Editor at ReadWriteWeb, the first hired writer at TechCrunch, and a consultant to companies large and small. The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

The data is out there: Marshall Kirkpatrick and the science of influencers— EP016

On this very special episode of the Influence Marketing Podcast, we recount the origin story of both this podcast and the Influence Marketing Council. We’re a husband and wife who have operated on two parallel tracks — one in personal growth and leadership development, and the other in fostering communities of technologists. The Influence Marketing Council connects people in both of those area — it’s a group of marketing peers who bring the practice of developing deeply human relationships and connectivity to companies, and it’s a group of professionals who are both innovators and business leaders. Both the IMC and our consulting practice combine John’s bent towards the academic and Kat’s client-centric attitude together with our shared values around empathy with others and making the world a better place. We hope that comes though in this podcast as well! Thank you again to our listeners, and our amazing team for all your help in these projects! We love meeting people at conferences and events, so if you see us, please say hi! -John and Kat

Combining the personal and professional in business | John and Kathleen Troyer — EP015

Today we are talking with Matthew (Brender) Broberg , VP of Community at Sensu, Inc. Previously Matt was at Intel working on Developer Advocacy for cloud automation; he was also the founder of the program now known as the Dell EMC Elect. Matt was also one of the three co-hosts of the Geek Whisperers podcast along with John. It was really fun to hear about the things Matt has pulled from his past endeavors into making Sensu the best it can be. We take a look back and hear how Matt got into advocacy marketing, and how his love for connecting with community and pure curiosity are two things that never stand still. Matt helps develop the balance of business and community at Sensu, and we finish with a fun lightning round to hear who inspires him! About Matt Broberg  Matt is a technologist with skills in marketing and a focus on product development. His role in a team is most powerful when cross-organizational and driven by the pressing needs of the company. He has the most fun when he’s empowered to lead a team to a collective goal.   The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are also co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Building a Healthy Community with Matt Broberg — EP014

Today we are talking with Eric Nielsen, Senior Director of Social Media and Communities for VMware. Eric and his team run the VMware vExpert program, one of the most successful advocacy programs in the enterprise technology area. John created and managed the program with Eric, and the vExperts make up a community that John and Kat are both still engaged with.  Eric reinforces throughout our conversation how the program is first built for its participants — to help make them successful. We also discuss creating programs and process, scaling the program to be global, demonstrating value to the rest of the organization, and how to keep innovation going as the program matures. Eric Nielsen is the Senior Director, Social Media and Community at VMware. At VMware, Eric’s team is been responsible for community, blogging, social media, and advocacy programs. Prior to VMware, Eric was a Director, Enginering Systems Management for Sun Microsystems. Earlier in his career at Sun, Eric created BigAdmin, one of the web’s early technical communities. Eric lives with his family in Palo Alto, CA. The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

A Program for the Participants | Eric Nielsen of VMware — EP013

In today’s episode, we have the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with the great and fantastically unique Eric Wright. Eric is the Technology Evangelist at Turbonomic, and he shares with us his passion of building a community and engaging with them. Giving with no expectations while having faith that this generosity will be returned in the long run are two main themes that come up for Eric, both in his personal and professional life. This mindset has helped him develop a strong gut instinct and ability to show the impact of intangible efforts to Turbonomic’s internal team. And wait — there’s a twist! Turbonomic does not have a traditional advocacy program, and it’s on purpose. Eric shares what the Green Circle Program is, and finally gives us his forecast on the upcoming future for influence marketing. We appreciate and admire the energy, generosity and thoughtfulness he brings to everything he does! About our guest Before joining Turbonomic, Eric Wright served as a systems architect at Raymond James in Toronto. As a result of his work, Eric was named a VMware vExpert and Cisco Champion with a background in virtualization, OpenStack, business continuity, PowerShell scripting and systems automation. He’s worked in many industries, including financial services, health services and engineering firms. As the author behind DiscoPosse.com, a technology and virtualization blog, Eric is also a regular contributor to community-driven technology groups such as the vBrownBag community and leading the VMUG organization in Toronto, Canada. He is a Pluralsight Author, the leading provider of online training for tech and creative professionals. Eric’s latest course is “Introduction to OpenStack” you can check it out at pluralsight.com.   The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.  

They Call it Evangelist for a Reason | Eric Wright at Turbonomic — EP012

Today we are talking with Perrine Crampton. Perrine is the Influencer Relations Community Manager at Citrix. Created in 2006, the Citrix Technology Professional program is currently made up of 50 dedicated members. From sending meeting notes and feedback to holding an unconference, Perrine is thorough in her dedication to having the CTP program give back a rewarding experience and win/win for the members and the internal Citrix team. She takes what does work at webinars and in-person events, such as Synergy, and molds it into the future path to best connect Citrix and CTP’s. Both sides have to understand and respect each other, and Perrine does a great job of fostering that environment. Perrine is the Influencer Relations Community Programs Manager at Citrix. She has been a technology geek for more years than she cares to admit. Her experience has been in customer-focused roles at AT&T, Colgate-Palmolive, Symantec, PayPal and Citrix. Her first experience with social media was in 1997 when she created a mailing list for owners of Pembroke Welsh Corgi dog owners (Corgi-L.) Her current exposure is through Twitter, LinkedIn and a wide variety of other social channels. Her motto: Pay it forward wherever / whenever possible. @pcrampton Perrine is engaging the community on an ongoing and frequent basis, acting as a conduit between our external community of experts and internal Citrix experts and stakeholders. She is part event emcee, part content developer, part cat-herder, part geek, and part cheerleader and community champion.   The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Participating, Listening, and Making it Safe for Both Sides | Perrine Crampton with Citrix

Today we are joined by Francine Hardaway, friend and advisor to the IMC. We cover a lot of ground on the current state of marketing, new vs. old marketing methods, the important roles of influencer marketing, and her personal experience as an early adopter of most leading marketing trends. Francine does an amazing job of getting products to market and helping startups, and we appreciate her sharing her expertise and advice! About our guest, Francine Hardaway Francine is a marketing strategist who leads Stealthmode Partners, where she focuses on helping startups grow. Prior to Stealthmode, Francine held several executive marketing roles at Intel, where she worked on digital imaging, in-car computing, USB, and home networking. As an entrepreneur, Francine built the largest marketing and public relations firm in Phoenix, Arizona before leaving it to join Intel. Mentioned In This Episode: John’s Twitter: @jtroyer Kathleen’s Twitter: @dailykat To Join the IMC or for more information: info@influencemarketingcouncil.com Francine’s email: francine@stealthmode.com Twitter: @hardaway Stealthmode Partners The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com. 

The Future of Marketing Is Influencer Marketing: Francine Hardaway — EP010

Today we are delighted to share our episode with Mark Browne. Mark serves as the manager for the Dell EMC Elect Program and the Community Manager for the Dell EMC Community Network. The (then) EMC Elect Program was started by Mark and another colleague, Matt (Brender) Broberg who came together from different parts of EMC with the same goal of recognizing others for good work. Now with the program combining both the Dell TechCenter Rockstars and the EMC Elect, Mark sees himself in a trustee role for the members, making sure they have help getting what they need within the program. The Dell EMC Elect overall has a huge ROI for both members and for the company through the trusted peer-to-peer influence of these micro-influencers. Mark has a Master’s Degree in Data Business, and is currently building a guide to the value of advocacy program and measuring their value. Thank you for sharing your time with us, Mark! About our guest, Mark Browne Mark has more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry, in technical and customer support. Mark serves as the Community Manager for the EMC Community Network (ECN) Support Community Forums, which have over a quarter of a million members, including customers, partners, and EMC employees. The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Going Internally Berserk with Excitement: Mark Browne of Dell EMC — EP009

Today our guest is Jonas Rosland, Open Source Community Manager at {code} by Dell EMC. The {code} community has become an active way for the Dell EMC ecosystem to participate in open source projects. There are currently 3700 members in this community, and Jonas forecasts even more future growth. In this episode we really enjoyed speaking with Jonas about his background of developer advocate to community manager.  Jonas goes into finer detail about the {code} Catalyst program and hisrole as a community leader, and how important it is to them to use the program as a way to thank those who are out there interfacing on behalf of Dell EMC, and to keep a good balance between the internal and external engagement. Leading and managing an open source community inside one of the world’s largest technology giants is not an easy task, but Jonas finds much motivation with real life examples, such as his colleagues in Japan finding their work lives easier because of the {code} Catalyst program. Finally, we talked about perception with big companies’ involvement in open source. Jonas feels Dell EMC sets a great example of how a large traditional company can interact with the open source community and we appreciate his dedication to making sure the goal is to integrate with projects in the larger open source ecosystem.   About our guest, Jonas Rosland Jonas Rosland is a community builder, open source advocate, blogger and speaker at many open source focused events. As Open Source Community Manager at {code} by Dell EMC, he is responsible for the growth and prosperity of the {code} Community. The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Striving To Continually Be Great Open Source Citizens: Jonas Rosland at {code} by Dell EMC— EP008

 Today our guest is Sam Moulton, Senior Manager of Influence Marketing at NetApp. Sam has held a variety of roles in technology industry spanning sales support, product management, media and analyst relations, and marketing communications. Throughout her career the relationship she develops with other members of the community, colleagues and peers has remained of top importance. This is why being a champion for The NetApp A-Team and their team of dedicated and passionate influencers suits her well. The A-Team is the marketing and development arm for NetApp, and Sam shares with us the origin, present successes, and tips for those starting their own advocacy program, on how she helps support the A-Team members in their own path to success. About our guest, Sam Moulton Sam has held a variety of roles in the technology industry spanning sales support, product management, media and analyst relations, and marketing communications. Throughout her career, one thing has always been paramount: the relationships she develops with members of the communities she supports as well as with her colleagues and peers. So it’s no surprise that championing the NetApp A-Team suits her well, and she considers it a privilege to be working with such a smart, dedicated group of influencers.   The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.  

Advocating for the Advocates, featuring Sam Moulton of The NetApp A-Team— EP007

In today’s episode we talk with Chris Aniszczyk. Chris is the COO of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, aka the CNCF. We spoke with Chris on site at DockerCon 2017 in Austin, TX earlier this year about the CNCF Master Program. CNCF is part of the Linux Foundation, of which he is a VP, and a home to many projects, including Kubernetes. Kubernetes is one of the fastest growing open source projects. We had a very interesting talk with Chris on how the ambassador programs of both the CNCF and Linux mirror other types of open source contributions, where participants themselves often have day jobs and work with commercial products based on open source projects. Chris also shares with us about open source culture and his extremely impressive involvement with CNCF, Linux and Twitter. The ambassador program at CNCF seeks to cultivate a worldwide community of people interested in spreading the notion of Cloud Native Computing. About our guest Chris Aniszczyk is an engineer by trade with a passion for open source and building communities. At Twitter, he created their open source program and led their open source efforts. For many years he served on the Eclipse Foundation’s Board of Directors representing the committer community and the Java Community Process Executive Committee. In a previous life, he bootstrapped a consulting company, made many mistakes, lead and hacked on many eclipse.org and Linux related projects. He is now the COO of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and VP of Developer Programs at The Linux Foundation. Mentioned In This Episode John’s Twitter: @JTroyer Kathleen’s Twitter: @DailyKat To Join the IMC or for more information: info@influencemarketingcouncil.com DockerCon Cloud Native Computing Foundation CNCF Ambassadors Chris Aniszczyk’s Twitter — @CRA The Linux Foundation MeetUp Lanyrd.com Kubernetes The Apache Foundation   The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com. 

Connecting and Expanding through Open Source Collaboration — Chris Aniszczyk EP006

The Influence Marketing Podcast discusses influencer marketing, advocacy marketing, and community marketing in B2B companies. The Influence Marketing Podcast is brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council. Hosts: John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer.

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Influence Marketing Podcast: B2B influencer, advocacy, and c...

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