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Lee recently struck out on his own and started E Quint after a long tenure at GlaxoSmithKline. He had a variety of roles that included project management, HRIS and for the last 12 months of his job was the social media evangelist for the company. E Quint is a company that helps large firms utilize social media tools to have real conversations inside and outside the conference room. I recently was able to spend some time with him and talk about his new venture. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Steve: Where did you come up with the name "E Quint"?
Lee: Well, I was searching for good names and started researching the history of the printing press when I came across references to Roman philosopher Marcus Quintillian. He wrote many things back in the first century but his great work talked about how you needed to speak at a certain level for everyone to understand you. This is true in today's business world where there is too much "corporate speak" and not enough conversational speak. So I shortened the last name and add the "E" and there you go.

Steve: You have talked about how marketing communications is so encoded and that the way people talk has become so parsed and filtered that people really don't trust it anymore. How can companies engage their employees and customers better?
Lee: The first thing they need to do is to learn to listen. Most organizations begin with the premise that they are the singular authority of their own product or service. In today’s world, this is a false assumption. Listening serves two ends. First it allows them to learn more about their customers, their products and themselves. And by the way, traditional market research does not count as listening in my book. Market research, by design, sets up huge filters, and prevents critical information from passing through to the decision makers. Secondly, listening opens the door for stakeholders (customers, employees, etc.) to begin trusting the organization, because the stakeholders begin to believe that the company really cares what they think.

Steve: What kind of services do you provide at E Quint?
Lee: My main service is to work with companies that are looking for a new and better way to improve their organizational effectiveness. I provide this by bringing social media and conversational communication to the table as a way to increase employee engagement, improve organizational collaboration, and optimize the decision making process.

Steve: What is your typical target customer who could really benefit from your services?
Lee: I think that medium to large companies provide the best opportunity for this approach to yield benefits. The greatest value from using social media comes from overcoming organizational barriers, whether those barriers are geographic, functional, or other.

Steve: What is your philosophy on using social media in corporations?
Lee: The best way to learn is by doing. Anytime I work with an organization, I try to get them actively involved in the processes of design and implementation. I am not the type of consultant that claims to have all the answers and presents a 154 page powerpoint and says there you go…bye. I want to work in partnership with the client where we each have something to contribute to reaching the final solution.

Steve: What tools do you recommend companies use?
Lee: It depends, every situation is different. All solutions are dependent on the objectives trying to be obtained. Only with the objectives in mind can the tools required can be determined

Steve: You recently launched a series of workshops, could you describe them and how would people benefit from them?
Lee: I am developing a workshop, currently called “Net Working”. This workshop is designed to introduce participants to options and examples available for them to make use of social media to improve organizational effectiveness. With that as the setup, the participants will engage in a design process for developing their own social media solutions.

Steve: What do you see the next 12-18 months looking like for E Quint?
Lee: I plan to continue with client consulting and the workshops. My biggest hope is to increasingly develop partnerships with other consultancies and tool vendors, in order to bring more value to my clients.

Steve: Since you are a proponent of social media tools, how does someone reach out and have a conversation with you?
Lee: The old ways still work, email and phone, but my favorite medium now is Twitter. It is a great way to get attention and have a public conversation where others can join and add value. I can be reached at:
Phone: (919) 280-5925
Email: leewhite.nc@gmail
Twitter: http://twitter.com/leewhite

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Successfully Taking a Business Online

There is never a better time to establish a business online than now. The downturn in the economy is forcing many people to look at business in a new light. Whatever your reason is don’t let the shift to the online world intimidate you.

There are many things to consider & I briefly addressed the big picture previously. Today I’m excited to share an example of someone who not only transitioned successfully, but is very enthusiastic about the potential of doing business online!

I met Keith Bloemendaal because he linked to my personal blog. He sells fences in the Raleigh, NC area. That’s totally related to what I write about, right? (Bloggers have egos & whoever lists me with the likes of Chris Brogan & ProBlogger gets my attention!) The evil part of me left a comment with the first sentence as, “My husband would love a rail fence!”. So when Keith followed up on the lead - his first statement was,

I think you should find a local contractor to put up your fence.

But I did compliment Keith on his site & asked to interview him. (There was a reason that he linked to my blog!).

One look at Keith’s site & I was totally impressed because it’s totally sleek & gorgeous. Here is Keith’s story & I hope that you find it motivating! Three weeks ago Keith chose to not only launch a traditional business online, but he also launched himself into the social media scene. He’s been researching & learning as much as he can.

Keith’s new vocabulary includes words like Google AdSense, SEO, Twitter, content management site, Digg, etc. We had a spirited discussion & he’s quite familiar with Technorati already, so he’s well on his way. He even explained the advantage to hosting images on Flickr so that they can be tagged & Google will see them. (I’m presently embedding my images but it’s always good to consider new ideas!)

Before going online Keith did some research & there’s not many people blogging in the fence industry (and he’s hoping that no one else catches on to it!). He wants to increase his SEO as fast as possible. It sounds like he’s been having a great time learning the in’s & out’s! His organic search rankings have doubled & he’s looking forward to continued success in that area.

The fence industry in Raleigh, NC where Keith is at is fairly competitive. There are 35-40 others offering similar services. But some are going out of business. He’s had a tremendous response to his site. All of his leads are from his website. He has one ad in a traditional mailer. He’s primarily using location targeted AdSense & building his network. Craigslist sends him a number of people each day too. He also realizes that a small business owner is a community manager (and I’m glad that he finds my blog helpful!).

On that note the local social media people in the Raleigh area are lending him a hand. I’ve said many times here on my blog how amazingly helpful bloggers are. Keith mentioned that Wayne Sutton has been a great help. (I’m connected with Wayne on both Twitter & Plurk - it’s a small world!).

I asked Keith what the pro’s & con’s have been. He said that the networking is hugely time consuming. On the flip side he loves the research & growing his network. I think he used the word addiction! He said,

Honestly, this is the way of the future - to take your business to the next level. Whether you’re a small sign contractor or in construction you have to stand out (especially in this economy).

Keith said that he’s gotten customers because they said that he knew what he was doing after reading his blog. So if you want inspiration check out Keith’s new business. I look forward to hearing how it grows!

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