14 Social Media Risk Factors to Avoid

14 Social Media Risk Factors to Avoid

I recently gave a presentation at Tech Summit that was very well received. Here is a link to my slides for this presentation. Additionally, I recorded a podcast to share it with you. Below are the highlights with more detail covered in the podcast.

Social Media is Mainstream
Businesses are jumping in with both feet. But, there are risks in social media marketing.  You should know what they are and how to minimize these risks. Here is a list of 14 of the top risks.

No Strategy
When a business says let’s just dive into social with no objective and no strategy, that’s a big risk. You can expect limited or poor results, if any.

Wrong Strategy
If sales improvement is your goal but you have product problems, maybe your strategy should be improved customer service. Align your social media strategy with the current circumstances in your business.

Lack of Executive Support
If you want to achieve any social media success, executive support is a must. Otherwise, it will be a skunkworks project. Some companies can pull this off, but not many.

Wrong Staff
The staff must embrace social media. If they are resistant it could undermine your social media strategy. Assess if the current staff has what it take to engage in social media.

Not Measuring Progress
It’s important to measure progress.  For example, measure customer successes, downloads, comments, reach, subscriptions, etc. These can be “first downs” along the way to scoring touch downs (results).

Measuring the Wrong Stuff
What and how you measure depends on your objectives. If improving customer service is an objective, then measuring growth of fans on Facebook is only important if they are existing customers. Set measurement strategies that align with your objectives.

Not Using Available Tools
Measuring progress and results can be achieved through many available tools. Some are free and some are fee based. Here is a partial list of tools to measure your social media progress and results:  HubSpot, Website Grader, Twitter Grader, Facebook Grader, Facebook Insights, Unilyzer, Raven, Hootsuite, SocialOomph, Manage Flitter, Google Alerts, Google Trends, Social Mention.

Unwilling to Experiment
You must be willing to try different ideas. That’s why executive support is so important. If you don’t experiment, you won’t know what is effective.

Expecting Overnight Results
Results vary according to a business, industry, people, and circumstances. Set expectations with executive management that results usually don’t happen overnight.

Trying to Maintain Control
We have little or no control over of our markets. We can influence our markets, but we can’t control them. You can build your reputation but you can’t control it in social media. I offer two examples in the podcast of brands who tried and failed to control their community.

Employee Abuse
All employers have this risk, but large employers have more risk just based on the numbers. In the podcast I describe the experience of employee abuse at Domino’s Pizza in 2009.

Responding Slowly to the Community
The social web is 24/7/365. We now live in a world where we must respond in minutes, not hours, days or weeks. In the podcast I provide an example of how Comcast has done this successfully.

Shorting the Effort
Not applying enough resources. If a new social media strategy is added to someone’s job, in the beginning it may make sense but as it evolves you’ll need to allocate more resources to be successful. Don’t under resource your social media marketing plan.

Underestimating the Influence of One Person
United Airlines learned this lesson the hard way. Band leader Dave Caroll wrote a song and produced a video viewed over 8 million times on YouTube when United Airlines ignored his complaints due to mishandled luggage which broke his guitar.

These are 14 of the most common risks in social media marketing. The way to minimize your risk is to have a well defined strategy, get executive support, allocate resources, get the right people, be responsive in a timely manner, be willing to experiment and use tools to measure progress and results.

Do you have any other risk factors to add to this list?

BTW, I cover this topic in my book, Marketing 2.0. Have you picked up your copy?

The 3 E’s of Content Marketing

When I wrote Marketing 2.0 in 2009 I set out to write a book for the average marketer. My goal was for marketers, particularly in small and midsize businesses and non-profits, to understand what social media is and how to embrace it productively. I boiled my book down to two core principles: content marketing and relationship building (through your content). In this post, I focus on content marketing because it is so crucial. And, truth be told, I still see many marketers struggle with their content marketing strategy.

Any business, in any industry of any size can (and should) create a compelling content strategy. Regardless of your industry, a content strategy should deliver on the 3 E’s.

Educate   |   Enlighten    |    Entertain

We live in an interactive world. People go online to do research about the products they’re considering, the companies behind them and even the people who make and sell them.  There is no hiding behind a corporate façade any longer. It’s not 1997, nor 2007. Those days are long gone. If a company tries to hide behind a corporate identity, they probably don’t even realize how much damage they’re doing to their brand because their corporate head is buried in the sand.

Businesses who produce great content that attracts people to it win. Period! Let’s look at how the 3 E’s of content marketing allow these three companies to market effectively. BTW, it was hard to pick just three examples.

Educate
SpaShopper sells spa pumps, filters, covers and other parts and accessories for spas and hot tubs. Their blog, Hot Tub and Spa Expert focuses mostly on educating consumers on a variety of relevant topics of interest to hot tub and spa owners. The topics range from how often the water needs to be changed, to how to regulate the temperature, adjusting filter cycles, proper use of chemicals, reducing electrical costs, how to winterize your spa and much more you might never have thought of.  In addition to great articles on these topics, they’ve produced educational video on topics such as replacing your spa pump and motor which shows a young lady dressed in overalls replacing a spa pump and motor. The message in these videos is anyone can do it! And the message is delivered in a believable, educational way.  SpaShopper also has product promotions displayed on their blog, which results in product sales each time a new educational blog post is released. A key driver in product sales is how the blog content is spread in part through their Twitter account and Facebook fan page. In full disclosure, SpaShopper is a client.

Enlighten
Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) enlightens by sharing insights about their hospital, their staff, their capabilities, what they care about and about the local community. For example, “Sarasota Memorial’s licensed mental health professionals are on call 24 hours a day to provide free mental health assessments, referrals and advice.” Or, did you know that May is national stroke awareness month? And, did you know that strokes are (unfortunately) rising among younger adults. And, did you know that the city of Sarasota has moved from #11 to #5 in the top 25 small cities according to American Style Magazine. This kind of content is endless on a daily basis from SMH. Of course, they also provide enlightening content through Twitter and Facebook and through a new construction blog. All this enlightening content helps make SMH a well known hospital system. And, it doesn’t hurt that SMH is ranked one of America’s top 100 hospitals according to U.S. News & World Report.

Entertainment
There are so many good examples of companies that use entertainment as part of their content strategy including HubSpot’s videos and, of course, Blendtec. But, the example I’ll share with you is from Indium Corp. Their story has become pretty well known too. They are outstanding content producers. Indium has more than 70 engineers blogging about solder paste applications in the electronic assembly manufacturing industry. That’s obviously a very narrow niche. If you’re not an engineer in the electronic assembly market, you wouldn’t be a reader of their blogs. But, the engineers who read these blogs, many of whom are PhDs, have a sense of humor.  Rick Short at Indium decided to create some videos designed to make fun of themselves.  As Rick readily admits, Indium is humanizing themselves by poking fun at the importance of solder paste. Let’s face it, while solder paste is very important to electronic assembly manufacturers, it’s not a product linked with romance or cheer on Christmas. Yet, Rick made video parodies about giving a tub of Indium’s solder paste to his wife on Valentine’s day and to a little girl on Christmas day. The result? Rick is effectively humanizing Indium and creating buzz that often creates new opportunities. Rick was once walking the halls of a trade show in China when he was approached by someone who saw his Valentine’s Day video. Rick had to explain that he didn’t really give his wife a tub of solder paste. It was a joke! Indium’s overall content strategy delivers on all 3 E’s including entertainment.

I hope these three examples have provided some inspiration to develop a content strategy that delivers on the 3 E’s. If you’ve only been delivering one of the 3 E’s that’s a good start. Consider what else you can do with your content to expand into the other 2 E’s. Study your competition. Don’t copy what they’re doing (if they’re doing any good content marketing). Rather, look for ways to capitalize on your strengths and differentiators by creating more content that delivers on each of the 3 E’s.

Did you give someone you love a tub of solder paste on Valentine’s Day? If not, now you have an idea for next year…

Follow Companies on LinkedIn

Last week LinkedIn announced a feature that we’re all familiar with. Following is a social media verb that has been synonymous with Twitter and to some extent Facebook when you would “fan” company. Now you can follow a company on LinkedIn.

No Brainer for Sales

Every V.P. of Sales on the planet should hold a brief meeting with their sales team to encourage each sales person to follow companies of interest on LinkedIn. You can now follow activities of a company including new hires, promotions, announcements.  Sales people can keep tabs on activities in companies of interest. It’s especially valuable to follow activity of individuals to learn of opportunities in your relationship building and business development plans.

No Brainer for Partner Marketing

Many of us partner with other companies whose products or services we resell or support. Partner marketing is a valuable aspect of managing relationships with strategic partners. For example, we are a Certified HubSpot Partner. So, naturally I follow HubSpot on LinkedIn as shown above and here below.

In the notification settings I’ve chosen to get a weekly digest of news from HubSpot. This can be a simple reminder for me to check in on their activities so I can stay current on activities at the company.

LinkedIn doesn’t get as much hype as Facebook and Twitter. There are many people however who recognize how valuable it is for business networking, relationship building and business development. This new feature allows you to follow a company in a new way that can be very productive. It’s very simple. Anyone in a business development role should consider following companies of interest.

Which companies do you follow on LinkedIn? I invite you to follow Find and Convert on LinkedIn.

Inbound Marketing Is All About Leverage

Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Survey

HubSpot recently released a report on the State of Inbound Lead Generation. The report is a result of interviews with more than 1,400 HubSpot customers who are mostly small and mid size businesses. A webinar delivered by Rick Burnes and Sophie Schmitt of HubSpot summarized the findings.

The findings are very interesting and very compelling especially for businesses who are either still sitting on the sidelines or are flat out skeptics of inbound marketing. I find that overwhelmingly those businesses who don’t buy into the inbound marketing mindset haven’t allowed themselves to break out of a decades-old paradigm. But, the earth is shifting and marketers simply can’t ignore the facts especially as more facts become available such as those in this report from HubSpot.

Critics of this research may say that the companies interviewed are users of the HubSpot inbound marketing software. Of course! You wouldn’t survey people sun bathing on a beach about their winter vacation habits and expect that data to be of high integrity.

HubSpot has built a customer base of more than 2,500 customers. While the degree to which each customer is using the full gamut of inbound marketing strategies to include SEO, blogging, social networking and generally a strong content marketing mindset may vary, the common denominator is they buy into the fact inbound marketing can effectively produce leads.

So, here are some of the most compelling findings from this report.

The More Google Indexed Web Pages the More Leads Produced

Businesses with 60 to 120 Google indexed pages produced a median of 7 leads per month. Those with 176 to 310 Google indexed pages produced a median of 22 leads per month. Those with 311 + Google indexed pages produced a median of 74 leads per month. This triple digit growth is achievable through a bonafide, committed, consistent blog strategy.

Business Who Blog Produce More Leads

As stated above businesses with more Google indexed web pages produce more leads. The most practical way to increase indexed page count is by having a blog connected to your website. This chart shows that companies who blog produce more leads.

Blog Size Matters
The survey proved that having a blog alone doesn’t move the needle. The more content the better. The data suggests that fewer than 10 blog posts didn’t make a difference in lead generation. But, more than 20 blog posts demonstrated more leads from those surveyed.

Twitter Matters in B2C
B2C businesses who use Twitter produce twice as many leads as those who don’t use Twitter. Though this research doesn’t account for B2B businesses on Twitter I’m a fan of Twitter due to the reach it can provide and ability to spread your content. For example, in addition to my personal Twitter account, Find and Convert also has a Twitter account.

More Keywords Ranking in Top 100 Produce More Leads

This data point proves two myths wrong. Myth #1 is that many businesses think the only ranking that matters is for a small number of keywords which typically represent their core business. Sometimes it’s just one keyword phrase. Myth #2 is that the only rank that matters is page 1. Of course, we all want to rank #1 on page 1. But, this data shows that businesses who have dozens of keywords ranking in the top 100 rankings get more leads. This translates to having dozens of keywords that rank across the first 10 pages of Google. The way to look at this is like a diversified portfolio of assets. The value is in the total portfolio, not any one asset. Having dozens of relevant longtail keywords that rank in the first 10 pages of Google will produce more leads.  These two myths are shattered in the chart below.

It’s All About Leverage

This webinar concluded with the concept of leverage. Inbound marketing allows a company to leverage content assets online to produce connections with people who have interest in your company’s products. Ignoring this leverage opportunity is very risky in a marketing economy where established competitors can surpass you with inbound marketing strategies quickly. Worse yet, newer nimble and inbound marketing savvy competitors can come out of seemingly nowhere and eat your lunch.

Get on the inbound marketing bandwagon. A good place to start is with my book, Marketing 2.0 . I wrote Marketing 2.0 for executives and their staff looking for a basic understanding of how social media and inbound marketing strategies can bridge the gap between sellers and buyers. Mike Volpe, V.P. Inbound Marketing at HubSpot wrote the foreword of my book. Those who’ve read it say it provides a good primer to get started. Check out the reviews.

Allow me to give a plug for the fact my inbound marketing agency is a certified HubSpot partner. We can help you get started producing more leads through inbound marketing or take it to the next level.

Top 5 Reasons Your Social Media Strategy Can Fail in 2010

There are many reasons your social media strategy can fail in 2010. Here are just five of them…

No Top Down Support
It doesn’t matter how mainstream social media is without top management support you’re going to fail. Social media takes time. When the boss sees people Tweeting, blogging and Facebooking during business, if he’s not on board he’s not going to like it. Find examples of competitors or other companies in your industry doing an effective job of engaging community and brand building through social media to get the boss on board.

No Content Strategy
Just because your company has a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page doesn’t mean you have a strategy. You need a content hub and a content theme for an effective content marketing strategy. Define the “why” and the “what” of your content strategy. Develop content that delivers on the three E’s: Educate, Enlighten, Entertain. Use platforms like Twitter and Facebook to support your content strategy. But, put the horse in front of the cart, not the other way around.

No Consistency
You’ve developed your content marketing strategy and you have the boss on board. You plan out the first two months of content and you post. Then that big trade show comes up and you get super busy. Your consistency goes from daily, to weekly and before you know it your only consistency is being absent from your social media strategy. This is worse than not having a social media strategy. If you’re not consistently posting content and engaging community, you’ll never enjoy the benefits of social media marketing. You wouldn’t water a garden once or twice then walk away from it, would you? Consistency is not an option in social media marketing.

You’re Too Loud
If all you do is consistently deliver a sales message on social media, you may just as well go buy billboards and skip social media. For social media newbies, the temptation is sometimes to use the tools as megaphones to shout sales messages. Some brands can earn the right to offer deals and promotions on social media. But, even those brands must have a loyal audience. In most cases the loyalty must be earned through consistent content and authentic, creative engagement. Brands that engage their community through enjoyable experiences win.  Remember the three E’s.

You’re Not Human
Brands who hide behind a corporate facade with corporate speak and no human interaction don’t do as well as brands who engage human to human. Zappos and Ford Motor are good examples of large B2C brands that engage well human to human.  In B2B some relatively unknown names such as Indium Corp.

BatchBlue and HubSpot are successful at engaging human to human rather than hiding behind a brand. The people at each of these companies post content in their individual name, respond to comments and engage with people who engage with them. They recognize that the brand perception is what other people think it is. They don’t ignore anyone. They engage human to human and it’s very effective for them.

There are other reasons your social media strategy could fail in 2010. For additional reasons, you’ll find an entire chapter dedicated to it in my book, Marketing 2.0.

Add your comments below to join in the conversation.

Bernie Borges

Interview with Brian Halligan, Co-Author of Inbound Marketing

Podcast interview with Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot.

I interviewed Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot to discuss his new book, Inbound Marketing, Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs, which Brian co-authored with his co-founder and fellow MIT alumnus Dharmesh Shah. First, I asked Brian to briefly describe HubSpot. In full disclosure, Find and Convert is a HubSpot partner.

HubSpot is an inbound marketing software company which is about three years old now. HubSpot helps companies transform their marketing strategy from the ground up through a methodology which is implemented and managed on their web-based software platform. HubSpot software helps marketers run their organic search engine optimization, PPC and social media strategies with analytics and lead intelligence to measure results.

Inbound Marketing – The Book

Brian describes his new book as a cookbook for marketers that provides the transformation from old style marketing to the new inbound marketing. The book describes how marketing has changed over the past 5 years. In his book, Brian and Dharmesh outline the five steps in becoming an inbound marketing centric business.

1. Create lots of content
2. Optimize that content for Google and social media
3. Spread that content
4. Measure results
5. Convert website visitors to leads and customers

A New Mindset

If you’ve read my blog before or listened to any of my recent podcasts you’ve heard me say that the new marketing is a mindset. It’s a new way of thinking. It’s all about creating content and building relationships through your content. As Brian points out in his book, marketers need to make the shift away from interruptive marketing to inbound marketing. He says the modern marketer is half a traditional marketer and half a content creator. When a marketer creates “remarkable” content, other content producers will remark about your content. In fact others will link to your content. And, links are the currency of the web which will produce traffic to your website. In fact, Brian says the modern marketer’s content becomes a magnet to their website hub.

Not Your Father’s Marketing

I asked Brian how marketers can embrace inbound marketing? In response he takes us on a trip down memory lane (you may not be old enough to remember his story). He says that marketing hasn’t changed much over the last 50 years. But, during the past 5 years it’s changed a lot and will continue to change in the coming years. In 1965 television ads worked exceptionally well. People had to watch the ads. They had no choice. In fact, they had few choices in their media consumption. Today, consumers can block out ads across most media platforms including television, radio. email and web browsers. In short, consumers can filter out most advertiser’s interruptions.

Are You Worthy?

In years past any company with a healthy budget could advertise and sell products. Even bad products could be marketed and sold with a big budget.  Today, the friction is far less for great ideas with less money required to get the word out. Good products with good positioning and happy customers can sell by spreading the word around the web. Bad products (unworthy) can’t hide anywhere in the current marketing paradigm.

Measuring Results

A common question asked by marketers about inbound marketing is how do you measure results? Not surprisingly, Brian and Dharmesh devoted a chapter to this question. Their advice is to look at campaigns using the funnel metaphor. Study the flow of visitors to your website hub, the conversion to leads, to opportunities and ultimately to customers. Study all the web channels that filled your funnel and see which ones have produced the best results in the funnel. The ones that work best you should  “double down” on and nix or revise the ones that don’t.

What’s Remarkable Content?

I asked Brian how does a widget manufacturer produce remarkable content? One of the case studies in his book is Whole Foods. They are a natural and organic grocery food retailer. As part of their inbound marketing strategy one of their buyers blogs during his trips to France.  He blogs about his meals during his trips, and the cheeses he bought on his trips. He cites another example of a fishing rod manufacturer who creates lots of content about the industry, not about the product. The magic sauce of inbound marketing is not to sell your product through your content. He says marketers should turn their website into a magnet about your industry to attract people. Invite customers, analysts and others interested in industry topics to engage with your content. Allow your content to become a magnet and engage people in ways that can convert into leads. It’s a very common mistake when marketers jump on the web and create content all about their products.  Marketers can be very successful inbound marketers if they talk about industry issues and watch others link to your content.

Watch Your Competition

Marketers can easily watch their competitors in the age of social media and tools like Google Alerts. HubSpot created a series of tools under the Grader brand. Marketers can use Website Grader to measure their own websites, as well as their competitors side by side.  Other Grader tools such as Twitter Grader and Facebook Grader allow marketers to watch their competitors on a frequent basis with a lot of transparency. Marketers can watch the competitive trends. Startups can be very aggressive by watching competitors closely.

Why Now?

In this chapter Brian and Dharmesh stress that marketers should not wait to embrace inbound marketing.  The barriers to entry to beat the top content producers are high. The longer a marketer waits to become an inbound marketer the harder it will be to catch up. All the great content that marketers produce will generate links back to their website hub. The content becomes a permanent asset on the web.

Marketing Crystal Ball

I asked Brian what’s in his marketing crystal ball? To answer this question, he referenced the large old style marketers like P&G who have allocated big money to advertising over the past 50 years. This approach to marketing built Madison Ave. Brian predicts that in the next 50 years inbound marketing will flip Madison Ave on its head. Advertisers have fewer media outlets to turn to because consumers are watching less television and reading less print. Instead consumers are going online using Google, social media and blogs. Brian predicts the next group of companies that will become Google-size success stories are those who engage on the web through remarkable content. The next Coke will not be an interruptive marketer. The next Coke will be content producers with a great product. I partially disagree. I think this will happen in the next 5 or 10 years. It won’t take 50 years. Just look at Zappos.

Two Real World Examples

I asked Brian for two great examples of inbound marketing. But, I required that he describe his own company as one of them. You may think this was a softball. But, the truth is that HubSpot is a poster child for inbound marketing. I asked Brian to describe their success with HubSpot TV. He described the early days of HubSpot before the product launched.  He was actively blogging about inbound marketing several times each week.  He rapidly adopted the mindset of constantly creating content. So, it started even before HubSpot launched version one of their software product. This approach eventually led to the development of their free Grader products (great content) described earlier. One day one of HubSpot’s product developers, Karen Rubin, suggested starting a TV show! Though some people initially laughed, she convinced V.P. Marketing Mike Volpe, himself a prolific content producer. The rest is history. HubSpot TV is more than one year old now with a loyal and sizable audience. It airs live every Friday at 4pm eastern and is syndicated in iTunes ranking #1 for inbound marketing and other related terms. Shameless plug: I was a guest on HubSpot TV in August. I had a blast!

The other success story Brian told is from his book about a company called 37Signals. I learned that this company has long provided inspiration to HubSpot. They are a small software company out of Chicago with really great products. They created a wildly successful blog called Signal Versus Noise. This blog was once a top 100 blog. They also created a book, and their reputation spread very quickly. I pointed out (unknown to Brian) that we are a 37Signals customer. We use their Basecamp product in our client engagements. And, we learned about Basecamp through word of mouth. Proof positive that inbound marketing is for real.

At the end of my interview with Brian he said something which I believe is profound in its simplicity and its reality. Brian said “Inbound Marketing is not rocket science. The sooner you do it the better off you are!”

Brian, I couldn’t agree with you more…I wish you and Dharmesh success with your new book, Inbound Marketing which is available everywhere.

Inbound Marketing Book Review

I’m writing a review of the new book Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. I haven’t read the book yet.

There are two questions I need to answer before you read my review. First, why am I reviewing a book I haven’t yet read? And, why am I reviewing a book when I have a book of my own to promote?

Reviewing this book before I’ve read it is easy because I know a lot about this topic and about the author’s credentials.  In case you don’t know, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah are the co-founders of HubSpot. In full disclosure, my inbound marketing agency, Find and Convert, is a HubSpot partner. In short, we are so aligned with every word that comes from HubSpot that endorsing this book site unseen is a no brainer. Let’s put it this way. If I didn’t align with this book it would call into question our own belief in inbound marketing principles.  And, nothing could be further from reality than anything short of full embracement of inbound marketing strategies from the founders of HubSpot.

As for the second question, even though I have my own book to promote, I’m not greedy. Inbound Marketing is a book that supports everything I stand for professionally.

In Inbound Marketing you’ll learn or gain further insights into why every business needs to become a magnet to its customers by being easily found on the web. You’ll learn how people don’t tolerate outdated sales messages and outdated shouting through outdated marketing media where the marketer has a one-way message mentality. You’ll learn how any competitor can out market another competitor through remarkable content. You’ll learn how social media is not an option for any business. You’ll learn how to produce leads and convert leads into customers through inbound marketing. You’ll learn how to build and retain your staff for an inbound marketing strategy.

Inbound Marketing, the book, is full of examples of companies who employ compelling content marketing strategies that attract buyers through the web.

Here’s a chapter breakdown of Inbound Marketing, the book.

Shopping Has Changed, Has Your Marketing?
Is Your Website a Marketing Hub?
Are You Worthy?
Create Remarkable Content
Get Found in the Blogosphere
Getting Found in Google
Get Found in Social Media
Convert Visitors into Leads
Convert Prospects into Leads
Convert Leads to Customers
Make Better Marketing Decisions
Picking and Measuring Your People
Picking and Measuring a PR Agency
Watch Your Competition
On Commitment Patience and Learning
Why Now?
Tools and Resources
Tips from the Trenches for Startups

In a few days I’ll launch a podcast interview with Brian Halligan discussing Inbound Marketing and its strategic impact on businesses around the globe. If you want to be notified of that podcast interview subscribe to my blog in the upper right.

Inbound Marketing is a book I’ll recommend to all our clients. I recommend you put it on your reading list.

Mike Volpe Podcast Interview on Inbound Marketing

In this podcast, I interviewed Inbound Marketing guru, Mike Volpe, V.P. of Marketing at HubSpot. Below is a summary of the podcast interview.  The interview is 28 minutes long and worth every minute (IMHO).

Mike has been a marketing geek for about a decade. I can legitimately call him a marketing geek because his background is in investment banking where he did marketing with a very analytical perspective.

Mike has transferred his analytical skills to HubSpot, an inbound marketing software system sold primarily to small/medium business. HubSpot is an all in one inbound marketing system that, when used to its full potential helps businesses produce more leads. Find and Convert uses HubSpot for ourselves and for our clients. We implement inbound marketing strategies for clients using HubSpot as a toolset as a one-stop-shop platform to manage all inbound marketing campaigns.

The term Inbound Marketing is a relatively new buzzword. It stems from the trend that marketing is transitioning from outbound marketing – broadcasting messages, interruption based tactics hoping that a small percentage respond – to an inbound strategy where you are doing the right things to get found and contacted by prospective customers through good content and relationships on the web. Buyers now have numerous tools they can use to block unwanted outbound marketing tactics such as caller ID (cold calling), spam filters (email blasts),  RSS readers (print advertising), TIVO (television advertising).

A survey conducted by HubSpot in January called the State of Inbound Marketing, cites several compelling findings  including:

• Inbound marketing channels deliver a dramatically lower cost per sales lead than outbound marketing channels. The study cites a 61% lower cost per sales lead through inbound marketing channels!
• Blogs lead other social media categories in terms of importance to business.
• Small businesses are most aggressively allocating lead generation budgets to blogging, social media and search engine optimization.

I often ask clients how they buy products/services. The common response I hear is by searching on the Internet and asking their friends/network for recommendations. So, it’s not hard to understand why Inbound Marketing makes sense in contemporary marketing.

HubSpot co-sponsored the The Inbound Marketing Summit in 2008  in Cambridge (which I attended). This year New Marketing Labs has launched 3 Inbound Marketing Summit events. Both HubSpot and Find and Convert are sponsors at all three events. The theme of IMS 09 is Turn Strategy Into Action.

Mike Volpe wrote the foreword in my forthcoming book: Marketing 2.0. I invited Mike to write it because we are very aligned on inbound marketing strategies. Mike believes that my book will provide a tactical resource to marketers in the “why” of inbound marketing and “how” to do it, for small/medium size businesses (SMB). Of course, I agree.

I have observed many SMB CEOs starting to use LinkedIn and Facebook at an accelerated pace. CEOs are saying “I can’t ignore this, I need to be a part of the social media movement.”

When I speak to anyone about inbound marketing, I try to answer the question “show me the money.” There is a gap between sellers and buyers. That’s a fact…I talk about how marketers can bridge that gap. Conventional marketing is still relevant to some extent but less so. Relationship building has always been important, but now it’s important online. Inbound marketing strategies allow marketers to start building relationships online long before the prospect can become a customer.

A case in point…Mike Volpe and Bernie Borges met online before we ever met in person. When we met in person we already had an online relationship which was strengthened when we met in person. Staying in contact online allows the relationship to continue rather than relying on the traditional, but rare phone call to stay in touch. We can stay in touch easily and productively by following our respective activities through platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Mike also discussed HubSpot TV, which is is a live a video stream every Friday at 4pm at www.hubspot.tv. The weekly show is hosted by Mike Volpe and Karen Rubin. They pick stories that occurred during the week. Sometimes they have a special guest (like MC Hammer who dropped by one day). The studio is in the HubSpot office and is very low cost. They originally spent $400 on a video camera and a $100 microphone.  Any company can do a live web TV stream. HubSpot hopes to add more subscribers. More guests may be coming in the future (maybe me?).

The point of inbound marketing is not about budget. It’s about taking the initiative, anyone can do it!

Predictions from Mike Volpe: Search will become more personalized over time. People will use more than search engines. For example, Facebook delivers relevant results within Facebook. Mike’s prediction is exactly what I’ve previously blogged about: SEO should become SO. This means that people need to have a presence in social media, not just in search engines as technology comes available to deliver search results across many properties on the web. Broaden your footprint on the web where your content and relationships exist on the web so you can increase your ability to be found. Search results will become more personal and will not be limited to search engines.

I will see Mike in San Francisco at the first IMS09 event.

You can find Mike Volpe on Twitter: @mvolpe

You can find me on Twitter: @berniebay

If you’re planning to attend IMS09 in any city, make sure to connect so we can meet up. If not, follow along on Twitter with the stream #IMS09.

Bruce Almighty: Exemplary Content Marketing

In this podcast I fly solo to provide an interesting story about a house painter named Bruce.  Bruce is not the podcast interview type so you’ll have to hear the story from me. In fact, Bruce doesn’t know much about the web. If I talk about “social media marketing” with him, he wouldn’t know what it means.

Bruce is a successful house painter located in my Tampa Bay area. He’s been in business about 20 years. He works alone. He does no marketing. None whatsoever. He has a business card and a magnetic sign on the side of his truck with his name and phone number. That’s the extent of his marketing.

Bruce’s marketing is a combination of great content and great customer service. So, how does a house painter produce great content? I’ve said before, “let your content be your marketing.” In Bruce’s case, his content is his knowledge of quality painting, his willingness to give clients paint samples, show up on time, be courteous, be reliable, be friendly, exceed expectations and be clean during and after the painting process. The result of all this great content is that his work is outstanding and his 20 year reputation is proof.  100% of Bruce’s painting jobs are from word of mouth. If the phone doesn’t ring, he doesn’t work. And, even in a weak economy Bruce is never without work. When Bruce completes a painting job at a residential or commercial property, he cleans up so meticulously you wouldn’t even know he was there. Bruce has even been flown out of state by affluent homeowners who have learned of his reputation from a satisfied client.

What does this have to do with social media marketing? If you follow me (and my contemporary social media evangelists) you’ve heard me say that successful social media marketing is based on two pillars: great content and relationship building. Bruce’s example in an offline world transfers to marketers who are marketing online.  Bruce could produce a website displaying photos and video of his painting experience. He could list testimonials of thrilled clients. He could Tweet about his experiences, and share them on Facebook. Sure, he could share that great content online but then he would probably have to hire other painters to keep up with the demand. Bruce is pretty happy working alone, so he won’t do any of these.

But, the rest of us can learn from Bruce’s exemplary content and relationship building as we project our brand through our online strategies. Let your content be your marketing. Produce great content, build relationships online and like Bruce, you’ll do just fine..

In this podcast, I also provided an update on my book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Sellers and Buyers on the Social Web. The book is at the publisher going through the second round of editing. It should be available by the end of June. I will be podcasting chapter summaries soon with my podcasting buddy Chuck Palm (@chuckpalm). Stay tuned on that…

I also will soon be interviewing interesting guests on my podcast shows. Some of my upcoming guests include Steve Tingiris, CEO of Enthusem, Justin Levy, General Manager of New Marketing Labs, Mike Volpe, V.P. Inbound Marketing at HubSpot and Susan Bratton, CEO of Personal Life Media and host of the DishyMix podcast show. Other guests include successful marketers whom I wrote about in my book. You’ll hear firsthand their stories about how they are using social media marketing in their business.

I hope my solo podcast was interesting and enlightening, if (admittedly) not as entertaining as they are with Chuck Palm. The podcast medium allows us to do whatever we want with little regard for professional studio quality (Chuck Palm notwithstanding). If the content is useful to you, that’s what matters most, even if you have to tolerate a little bit of hissing in the audio.

As always, I welcome your feedback, input and suggestions for future podcasts.

Bernie Borges, aka @berniebay

Twitter in Business: It’s for Real!

How can businesses use Twitter in a way that executives can justify having their employees spend time on Twitter? Listen to the podcast above. Below are the show notes.

Twitter is a cross between a social networking platform and a micro blogging platform. You create a simple profile, you start following people, some follow you and you have 140 characters to say something about what you’re doing, thinking or planning.  People who talk about interesting, meaningful stuff and include links to blogs and articles have a positive affect on their brand.

There has been lots of press coverage on Twitter including a Wall Street Journal article titled: “Twitter Goes Mainstream.”

In December 2008 HubSpot published the Q4 report on the State of the Twittersphere. Some interesting stats from this report:

• Twitter is dominated by new users – 70% of Twitter users joined in 2008.
• 5,000 to 10,000 new accounts are opened every day.
• 35% of Twitter users have 10 or fewer followers.
• 9% of Twitter users follow no one at all.
• There is a strong correlation between the number of people you follow and the number of followers you have.

Chuck Palm started following some Twitter celebrities recently.  He started following the CEO of Zappos, the well known online shoe store. Chuck searched for blue suede shoes and found a pair that meets his unique feet. Chuck found their customer service was terrific!

Zappos has over 400 employees using Twitter. They are very focused on customer service, engaging people on the web and building relationships. When you buy from Zappos you can Tweet what you bought and post it to Facebook.

When someone of prominence starts following you on Twitter others notice and your Twitter following starts to grow.

A Ford Motor Company promotion: “just drive one.” Scott Monty heads up social media marketing at Ford Motor. He builds relationships on the social web. He communicates what Ford is working on and allows word of mouth on the web to run its natural course. He talks in a conversational way. He informs in a human voice. He educates and he engages people. He once conducted an interview on Twitter between Alan Mulally, Ford’s CEO and consumers.

Many famous individuals use Twitter. To name just a few: Lance Armstrong, Governor Schwarzenegger, Demi Moore, Anderson Cooper. Cooper always drops links to stories on CNN.

How important is the number of followers? It depends on how important that is to you. Guy Kawasaki once stated that he would be willing to pay $500 per month. He said it’s the best platform to communicate with so many people so easily. Marketing reach like never before!

“Show Me The Money!”

Who in your company is a good candidate to embrace Twitter to write interesting posts several times per day? Ideally it should be more than one person.  Consider a Twitter persona branded by the company, e.g., Apple, Comcast, L.A. Fire Department, Zappos, HubSpot, etc. Individual employees should be Tweeting about anything relevant, not always about yourself or your company.

Focus on building great relationships!

Breaking Twitter Etiquette

The biggest etiquette rule on Twitter is not to view Twitter as a platform for shameless promotion. Some  view it as an advertising billboard.  It’ NOT! it’s a platform for your human voice to build relationships across a great reach.  You can make so many connections on Twitter. Market through relationship building, not shameless promotion.

@chuckpalm got a new Twitter background. The gal behind TweetGlitz.com created a new Twitter background for Chuck for free. And, she got a shameless plug from Chuck on this podcast. Not bad!

During the holidays of 2008 Dell sold more than $1M through Twitter. People were tweeting about promotions during the holidays, only available to Dell’s Twitter followers.

I personally have made several valuable connections on Twitter as I use it for relationship building in my social media marketing plan.

Twitter provides access to your community and to your extended community through a multiplier affect.

Twitter is like a marketing megaphone due to its exponential reach.

Many businesses can strengthen their brand through Twitter.

Do you know any businesses doing a great job on Twitter? Please write about them below.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Next Page »