Internet Technology Summit 2010

Internet & Technology Summit Special Edition Podcast

I recently attended and spoke at the Internet & Technology Summit, (aka TechSummit) June 22nd and 23rd in Orlando. I managed to connect with nine of the speakers for this podcast. I asked each of the speakers to summarize the key points from their talk. When you listen to the podcast, I’m sure you’ll agree that each speaker did a terrific job of sharing their key points very succinctly. Here’s what you can expect to hear on the podcast from each speaker.

Jody Haneke, President, Haneke Design

Jody provided examples of how some companies are deploying strategic mobile applications, such as a pharmaceutical company sharing info with doctors. He explained how one mobile app allows the doc to enter height and weight of a patient and a dosage calculator will calculate proper dosage to prescribe. He explained the growing importance of creating user experiences that allow the user to access an app from any device they use whether it’s a mobile device or a desktop device.

Carol Cox, Founder of InterMedia4web and Chair of Internet Marketing, Full Sail University

Carol articulated four ways to reach your customers online by leveraging the newest internet business models. 1) Social shopping. People spend a lot of time in social networking sites. Brands can integrate shopping in Facebook, allowing browsing and  purchase. 2)Virtual goods is estimated to be a $1B industry in 2010. Examples include avatars, a digital rose, etc. Brands should consider creating a digital equivalent of their product. 3) Virtual currency.  Place ads and allow the consumer to earn virtual currency they can actually spend. 4) Going beyond the browser. Through smartphones, iPads, Facebook applications and other mobile apps a brand can engage consumers where ever they are. Be available where your customers spend time, engage them and keep them coming back.

Alfred Goldberg, President of Absolute Mobile Solutions

Alfred spoke about how Europe is ahead of the U.S. in the use of mobile technology because they adopted mobile faster than the U.S. Alfred is quick to point out that most businesses adopting a mobile strategy do so without a strategy. They don’t do the research up front. They don’t put the user at the center of the experience, which Alfred believes is stifling innovation. When asked for a good example of a brand using mobile, he mentioned Kraft Foods. They allow us to see the content of food by scanning a bar code. He also referenced location based apps like FourSquare. Alfred optimistically points out that most businesses can harness mobile by creating an SMS app, a mobile website or a mobile application that serves their user community.

Mary Spio, Co-Founder & President of Vidaroo (formally Gen2Media)

Mary opens with the compelling point that over 86% of online users are engaging with video! Wow! As Mary says, brands shouldn’t ignore almost 90% of internet users by ignoring video. Mary explains in her presentation that a company doesn’t have to be a media company to produce video. Just leverage your expertise in your industry and create videos about your products, your company, your industry. Share your videos with your website visitors. Find a way to communicate your product benefits through video.

Tony Greco , CEO of TekGiants

Tony’s presentation took all the mystery out of cloud computing. He explained the three types of cloud computing: public, hybrid, private. A public cloud is a company that builds their own cloud and extends it out to the field for rent. Examples include Amazon and Google Apps. Anyone can rent computing access from them.  In business, the most common cloud is private. The business benefits of cloud computing are many. Among the biggest benefits are cost reduction and lower risk. Cloud computing can considerably reduce IT expenses. Other significant benefits include availability, scalability, affordability, zero footprint, green friendly and less resources are needed to run systems in a business that run on a cloud infrastructure.

Mike Volpe, SVP of Inbound Marketing at HubSpot

Mike gave the keynote on day two. He gave a very inspirational talk on tools and hiring strategies used by HubSpot to fuel their growth. Summed up in four words: Treat employees like entrepreneurs. HubSpot uses a hiring strategy called: DARC. Digital, Analytical, Reach, Content. The idea is that each new hire should have these qualities about them. It turns out that about one third of the key initiatives at HubSpot started without management authorization. That’s pretty darn entrepreneurial. HubSpot prides itself on maintaining an entrepreneurial culture due to their DARC hiring practices. As Mike says, HubSpot uses  modern tools and practices to be a modern company.

Guy Hagen, Founder & President of Innovation Insight

Guy gave a very insightful presentation on social media tools. He cites two excuses that people use to not do social media monitoring. One excuse people give is that tools are too expensive. Guy’s entire talk referenced free tools. The other excuse is many people simply don’t know which tools are available. The result is that many people are ignoring the conversations in social media involving them. He shared simple tools like alerts from Google and Social Mention as well as more advanced tools like BlogPulse and Yahoo Pipes. Social Mention also includes some stats such as sentiment.

David Glass, Publisher at Florida Technology Journal

David is the founder and co-producer of TechSummit. David’s vision behind the TechSummit is to educate companies on the latest strategies, tools and resources to help them grow. The speaker slate was comprised mostly of local Florida based entrepreneurs, showcasing our local technology and people. David is passionate about showcasing local talent as much as possible. His next event is the Tech Venture Conference on November 19th in Orlando,  showcasing early stage and growth stage companies.

Steve Tingiris, CEO of Enthusem

Steve shared his experience building a new technology company and the importance of building relationships. As great as tools and technology are, building solid relationships at every level is the most important thing according to Steve. It’s the people that will create the outcomes. The tools will help the people, but the people will create the outcomes. The relationships with employees comes down to “can you imagine working somewhere else?” Ask your customer, “can you imagine doing what you do without (fill in your business name)?” Relationships ultimately drive cash flow, profitability and growth. Technology should reinforce relationship building. Lots of food for thought here…

Michelle Malott, Co-Chair TechSummit, CEO HDYI

Michelle moderated the event, and did so with great charm. She worked closely with David Glass to organize and produce the TechSummit event. Unfortunately, my podcast interview with Michelle got corrupted. But, I will have Michelle as my guest on the Find and Convert podcast very soon where she’ll share her wisdom and insights on innovation with us very soon.

Lastly, I spoke at this conference on the risks of social media marketing. My presentation outlines some of the most common risks in social media to be aware of and how to avoid or mitigate them. These risks include no strategy, the wrong strategy, lack of resources, expecting overnight results, not measuring results, underestimating the influence of one person and the risk of employee abuse.

I hope these interviews have delivered on my commitment to the 3 Es of content (educate, enlighten, entertain). Hopefully you’ve been educated or enlightened, and maybe a little entertained.

There are plenty of pics and comments from the event on the TechSummit Facebook page.

I hope you’ll listen to the podcast to get a feel for the energy at TechSummit and to hear these great speakers firsthand. Just click the play button above or subscribe to my podcasts in iTunes.

Top Five Reasons Podcast Content Marketing is Misunderstood

I often wonder why podcast content marketing isn’t more popular than it is. I admit I’m biased since I’m a podcaster. But, I’m also an avid podcast consumer. I was a consumer of podcast content long before I became a podcast content producer. Now, I listen to podcasts in my car more than I listen to the radio or CDs. My iPod is filled with podcasts, rather than music.  iTunes makes it easy for anyone to find and consume content in podcast format.

The Three E’s
In my book, Marketing 2.0, I encourage marketers to produce content that delivers on the three E’s: educate, enlighten, entertain. Podcast content is a terrific medium to deliver on any of the three E’s. But, why isn’t podcast content more popular?

I offer five reasons why podcast content isn’t more popular.

Podcasts Are Not Indexed by Search Engines
Unlike Facebook fan pages and conventional web and blog pages, a podcast is not indexable by search engines. Podcasts are audio files uploaded into a subscribable format such as iTunes or another podcast directory such as Podcast Pickle. You can also subscribe to podcasts from a blog with a link to iTunes. But, to get the most current podcast you must either visit iTunes to synch or visit the producer’s blog to listen to current podcasts.

iTunes is Big But It’s Not YouTube
Apple may enjoy more market share than Google with the iPhone over the Google Nexus One, but when it comes to video content, Google’s YouTube rules. While video podcasts are available, most podcasts are audio. Let’s face it, audio is just not as popular as video. And, with the iPad here, delivering an even more rich media experience, video will remain more popular than audio as the netbook market continues to grow.

Podcasts Are Not Understood by the Masses
I’ve often heard marketers refer to their audio file on their website as a podcast. A podcast is only a podcast when you can subscribe to it and get updates through a feed. The lack of understanding of a podcast as a content delivery medium combined with the high popularity of video contributes to low popularity of podcasts.

Inconsistent Quality of Podcasts
Let’s be honest, some podcast content producers just don’t produce quality audio. I’ve often downloaded podcasts based on the title and description only to listen to just a few minutes before ditching it due to poor audio quality. Worse yet, the audio quality is good but the personalities on the show babble for 10 minutes before getting to the point. Good podcasts get to the content quickly and engage their listeners, creating a loyal audience.

Lack of Consistent Content from Producers
If you want to listen to podcasts on marketing, you have plenty of choices among content producers with a track record. But, there is a high rate of abandonment among podcast producers, due at least in part to the lack of monetization opportunities around most podcast content. Therefore, many podcast shows start and end often within a few weeks or months. Podcast content producers should adopt a content marketing mindset, only starting a podcast series when they can commit to longevity.

The Bright Side of Podcasting
If this blog post was about the good, the bad and the ugly of podcasting, the five reasons above address the bad and ugly. Now, let’s get to the good because there is plenty of good in podcasting.  First, there are in fact many terrific podcast shows produced by terrific peeps. Below I offer you a list of some of my favorite podcasts. Admittedly, these podcasts are all about marketing. If you have other favorites, please add yours to this list in the comments section below.

Find and Convert Podcast
This is my podcast. It’s my favorite because I thoroughly enjoy producing it. I interview ordinary marketers doing extraordinary marketing. I produce two or more podcasts per month, each providing an interview with a guest that has valuable experiences and insights to share about their marketing strategy. My guests are regular marketers just like my listeners. My audience can relate to these guests and gain inspiration from their stories. I deliver mostly on the first 2 of the 3 E’s. On occasion, there may be some light entertainment.

DishyMix
The DishyMix podcast is hosted by podcasting extraordinaire Susan Bratton. Susan interviews digital marketing executives, many of whom are authors, CEOs and entrepreneurs. Susan’s interview style is one of the best. She really does her homework with each guest, and consequently brings out his or her best. Susan Bratton is CEO of podcast empire PersonalLifeMedia, a portal of podcasts ranging across all topics ranging from art, health, news, politics, marketing and many others.  Susan delivers on all three E’s with DishyMix. I am the self appointed #1 fan of DishyMix.

HubSpot TV
HubSpot TV is a weekly video podcast that airs live on Friday’s at 4pm. People tune in live to watch HubSpot.TV every Friday, or download it from iTunes and time shift it as I do. Their format is comprised of hosts Mike Volpe and Karen Rubin running through inbound marketing news from the week, offering tips, advice and their own, sometimes controversial commentary. Their personalities are so different, it makes for an interesting chemistry. Mike and Karen usually have a guest on their show to discuss the guest’s claim to marketing fame. HubSpot TV delivers on all three E’s with a heavy dose of entertainment mostly through Karen’s off the wall humor.

Marketing Over Coffee
Christopher Penn and John Wall record a weekly podcast from a Dunkin Donuts in the Boston area. They cover current news in marketing with a bit of a technical twist. They often provide tips on how to fine tune various aspects of your permission based email or social media plans. I always learn something from Penn and Wall. Therefore, I find their content to deliver on first two of the three E’s.

Six Pixels of Separation
Mitch Joel, CEO of digital media agency TwistImage, author of the book Six Pixels of Separation, and frequent speaker hosts this weekly podcast which comes in two flavors. He usually interviews interesting people in marketing with great conversation around contemporary marketing topics such as the future of  newspapers in a digital society. His conversational tone is always pleasant and interesting.  His other podcast is called Media Hacks and features a group of social media mavens who banter about anything. The unscripted conversation is always colorful and usually interesting. Both of these podcasts deliver on the first of the two E’s.

Podcast Show Notes
When a podcast is linked to a blog post, the show notes can provide a written summary to readers and provide search engine results on the topic of the podcast. I write a blog post for each of my podcasts in part to broaden the exposure of my podcast. But, I also recognize that I may get readers of the blog post who won’t listen to the podcast, and vice versa. So, writing a blog post is an effective way to straddle both lines of blogging and podcasting. The show notes also create SEO value for the podcast content because the post will be indexed in search engines.

Podcasting has been around for less than a decade. It’s been trumped by video in popularity. But, consumers who want to get smarter on a topic of interest should search out podcasts starting with iTunes and subscribe to them. Marketers looking for another content channel should consider producing a podcast series.  If you’re a marketer that has never produced a podcast series, you may want to consider it. But, consider your ability to commit to a show with regular frequency. Even it your frequency is only monthly, as your audience grows they will expect your monthly show. You won’t want to disappoint them once you’ve developed an audience.

I invite you to visit my podcast page. You’ll find my podcast interviews to be about ordinary marketers doing extraordinary marketing across a range of topics including B2B marketing, SEO, social networking, inbound marketing, experiential marketing, small business marketing, measuring results, success stories and others.

If you have favorite podcasts to add to my list, please add them in the comments below.

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

Measuring Results in Social Media Marketing

This blog post an updated excerpt from my book, Marketing 2.0.

Measuring results is one of my favorite topics in marketing. Since the invention of marketing (I couldn’t find that date in Wikipedia), executives have wanted to measure the effectiveness of marketing dollars against sales in order to determine their return on investment, or ROI.

The reality is that in recent years, measuring marketing results, at least at the quantitative level, has become increasing sophisticated through tools and techniques. In addition to quantitative metrics, measuring qualitative results can be just as valuable.

Social media marketing measurement is very similar to measuring other web marketing results. First I’ll review the tools you can use. Then, I’ll offer ways you can use them to measure social media marketing results.

Conventional Wisdom

Let’s start with a look at the conventional web marketing metrics tools, beginning with some free tools. You may be familiar with some or all of these tools. As obvious as they are to me, I often meet marketers who are not harnessing them to their full potential.

Google Analytics—a free web analytics service that provides website owners valuable insight into website traffic details including visitors, sources of visitor traffic, pages visited, time spent on your website, keywords driving website traffic, geographic location of visitors, conversions based on a predefined goals, and much more.

Google Webmaster Tools—another set of free and powerful tools from Google providing another level of detail in studying traffic data for your website as well as keyword click-throughs and inbound links.

Google Alerts—another free service that will alert you by email or to your RSS reader each time Google finds a relevant result for a topic you’ve set up to track.

Google Blogsearch—a free search engine subset of Google’s search engine geared to display blog posts. When you search on a phrase, Google displays recent blog posts for that phrase.

Social Media Measurement Tools

As social media marketing has exploded, so has the landscape of tools and services designed to help companies measure and optimize their results. I’ll start with a partial list of free social media measuring tools. Note most free tools offer fee-based premium versions as well.

Blogpulse—a service from Nielsen Buzzmetrics that acts as both a blog search engine and blog tracker. Bloggers can track conversations taking place about topics of interest, as well as discover where their blog ranks in relation to others covering similar topics.

Trendpedia—a free service that functions mostly as a blog search engine. Its main feature involves helping people find the most popular trends in social media across a variety of topics and tracking the trend of the topic over a three-month period in comparison to other relevant topics.

Trendrr—a free service that adds a real sense of analytical measurement through its use of trending graphs. Trendrr lets anyone track, compare, and share trends on any topic across blogs and other social media.

Technorati—a free service that functions as an Internet search engine for blogs. You can track your blog content in Technorati.

Twitter Search – Whether or not your have a Twitter account, you can use Twitter’s search engine. Marketers should search relevant keywords to learn about conversations about their brand on Twitter.

The free tools listed above are a partial list of many tools available to track your content results. I encourage you to use as many tools as practical to measure and track your social media marketing results on an ongoing basis.

Staying on Course

However, tracking the reach of your content in social media is just a part of the measuring results secret sauce. You also need to gain insights so you can measure your progress and take action. A metaphor comes to mind. Social media marketing is like flying an airplane. The sophisticated cockpit constantly calculates the extent to which the plan has shifted from its course route and makes the necessary adjustment to get the plane back on its course. In social media marketing, you must similarly be tracking and interpreting in order to know when and how much you must adjust your content strategy and your tactics to stay on course.

In addition to the free tools listed above, there is an ever-growing list of fee-based tools to measure social media results. I will only list two because these are the two we use at Find and Convert and therefore I’m most familiar with them. Again, there are many other good tools available and you should do your own homework.

HubSpot – an inbound marketing software as a service (SaaS). HubSpot allows marketers to track keyword rankings, competitor’s web marketing presence, traffic analysis, leads and lead intelligence. Recently, HubSpot added social media tracking features allowing marketers to track the impact of social media on your desired goals (such as sales leads). In the screenshot below you can see the emerging impact of social media traffic.

ScoutLabs – a social media tracking tool that allows marketers to track mentions in blogs, bookmarking sites, Twitter, photos, video and more. We like the ability to track sentiment of keywords and the ability to chart trends. Below is a short video interview with Jennifer Zeszut, CEO of ScoutLabs.

Measuring Quantitative Results
There are many factors you can measure in your social media strategy. First, make sure you have clearly defined goals. Otherwise your metrics will not be meaningful and you won’t be able to measure success. Here are some quantitative metrics you can measure.

Subscribers – watch the subscriber count to your blog(s) and newsletter grow.

Followers – watch the number of followers on Twitter or Facebook grow as well any groups or communities your create.

Mentions – track the mentions of your brand and relevant keywords to learn about conversations and decide which conversations you should engage.

Sentiment – track the sentiment of your keywords to determine what (if any) changes you should consider in your content strategy and in the tactics you use. A negative trend on a topic may give you cause to back away from that topic or to change your approach to it.

Inbound Links – links are the currency of the web. Track the number of links you’re building and where they are coming from.

Comments – study the comments being made on your blog or your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Comments could give you reason to engage or add more content on a topic of high interest.

Connections – one of the greatest and measurable factors in social media marketing is the new doors that can open up. New connections can result in speaking opportunities, media interviews, guest blog or publication articles, key introductions and new sales opportunities.

Brand Equity – all businesses should care about brand equity. It’s not limited to large companies. Using any combination of tools described above you should study the trends in your brand. Is your company name a growing keyword driver of traffic to your website? If the trends are positive, correlate that to your sales results. If you have employees with a strong social media presence include them in your brand equity study. The relationship between your employees and your brand is tied more tightly than ever before. Take Mike Volpe as an example. His blogging, speaking, podcasting and overall content creation on the web has a positive impact on HubSpot, his employer. And, btw, both Mike Volpe (the brand) and HubSpot (the brand) benefit from his efforts.

It Takes Work!
If you’re thinking, man this sounds like a lot of work, you’re not only right, you’re onto something big! Measuring results properly is not just hard work. It’s time consuming. So, where are you going to get all this time? By eliminating non-performing marketing activities! Measure all your marketing activities. If you have losers in your marketing mix (assuming you’ve been at it more than six months) scale them back or eliminate them. Many marketers report cutting back on marketing activities such as direct mail and tradeshows after measuring success in their social media strategy. BTW, attending a tradeshow can be just as effective as exhibiting at a tradeshow at a fraction of the cost. While you’re at the tradeshow you should be posting to Twitter about the people you’re meeting and the content you’re enjoying, taking pictures and shooting video interviews with industry people and posting all this content on the web to keep building your footprint on the web. Of course when you tag this content you’ll create links and build more brand equity. And, you can measure that…

To measure your social media marketing results keep at it and measure. Keep at it. Measure. Keep at it. Measure.

Bernie Borges on HubSpot TV

I recently had the privilege of being a guest on HubSpot TV. If you’re not familiar with HubSpot TV, it’s a weekly video podcast that airs live each Friday at 4pm Eastern, U.S. The show is also syndicated on iTunes. HubSpot TV is hosted by Mike Volpe and Karen Rubin. Each week Mike and Karen discuss news items of the week pertaining to marketing topics, most notably Internet marketing topics. And, they have a lot of fun doing it!

The week I appeared on the show Karen Rubin was on vacation. Rebecca Corliss filled in for Karen. And, she did a mighty fine job, I might add! The premise for my guest appearance was to promote my new book, Marketing 2.0.

I am honored that Mike Volpe wrote the foreword in my book. So, when Mike asked me on the show why I wrote the book, I think he was a little surprised by my answer. He also asked me to summarize the key take-away message from my book, and what makes my book different than other books on social media marketing.

Of course, I was happy to answer these questions. We had a boat load of fun during this interview. We even sipped a little beer during the show, which is SOP on HubSpot TV. Of course, we also discussed other topics pertaining to Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter and measuring online marketing results.

During this interview we announced a special book giveaway offer available only for a limited time, as well as how to buy Marketing 2.0 on Amazon. Check out the video below and let me know if I should have gone through with my promise to dress like a certain singer/celebrity and what that might have looked like.

BTW, I kidded Mike off the air that if you search “inbound marketing” in iTunes, my inbound marketing podcast ranks #2 behind HubSpot TV. I’m keeping the pressure on.

Marketing 2.0: My New Social Media Marketing Book 

This podcast provides an introduction and overview of my new book, Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing, now available on Amazon.

Background

I wrote the book between late 2008 and early/mid 2009. My motivation came primarily from my experience running my inbound marketing agency, Find and Convert. We work mostly with small and medium size businesses (SMBs). Our clients are mostly niche companies. During the course of running my agency I have met many businesses who have not yet embraced social media marketing. I realized there is a gap between the seller and the buyer in today’s digital economy. Today’s buyer doesn’t want to be engaged the same way that sellers have engaged them for many years. This book sets out to help SMB business executives think of marketing 2.0 as a mindset.

Foreword

The foreword was written by Mike Volpe, V.P. Inbound Marketing at HubSpot.  Mike mentions that he and I met online and exchanged a lot of content before we met in person. He speaks about inbound marketing as being the new way for businesses to engage buyers and convert them to customers. When he researched me, he found all of my content on the web where he could get to know me and my value proposition and to begin to build a relationship with me. By the time he shook my hand the first time we met, he felt he knew me. He says he had a connection with me. This is exactly how buyers want to feel when they do business with a company.

Testimonials

I am fortunate to go to print with two terrific testimonials on the back cover. Joe Pulizzi, CEO of Junta42 and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers and Gary Katz, CEO of Marketing Operations Partners. Both Joe and Gary are outstanding marketers who were gracious enough to provide testimonials on the back cover.

Chapter Summaries

Following are some of the chapter topics and summaries. For a complete listing of the chapters visit the book table of contents.

Buyers Want to Consume Seller’s Content

Business executives should set out to produce great content, all kinds of content and present it to buyers so they can engage with you on their terms so they can begin to build a relationship with you online.

When buyers seek out new product vendors they have these two habits (hint: the same as you):

1. They search online. They may start at a search engine, but as they click around they find content across the web in blogs, forums, videos, photos, articles, white papers, directories, webinars, slide presentations, etc. None of these aforementioned locations may necessarily be your website.

2. They ask for referrals. They are influenced by other people’s opinions even if they don’t know them.

Content Marketing & Relationship Building

Outbound marketing doesn’t work anymore…In the near future the decades-old form of interruptive marketing will become obsolete. Buyers can already filter out the seller’s outbound marketing tactics. It’s only a matter of time before outbound marketing as we know it today is totally obsolete.

Significance of 2.0

In my book I provide insight into the significance of “2.0.” I provide other examples of major leaps from 1.0 to 2.0. Some of the examples I provide include:

• World 1.0 was flat. World 2.0 obsoleted a flat world when it was discovered the world was round.
• Software 1.0 was installed from from a disc or tape.  Software 2.0 is not installed. It’s accessed from the web and paid by subscription.
• Music 1.0 was purchased physically on a vinyl or CD format. Music 2.0 is downloaded from iTunes and other music sharing sites.

Technology and Social Drivers

We didn’t get to marketing 2.0 overnight. There are many technology and social drivers that have evolved us to where we are now. People under 35 in the workforce are accustomed to using the social web. In time as the workforce ages the marketing 2.0 mindset will be commonplace. At this moment in history, there is still a transition underway.

Developing Communities and Engaging Conversations

Buyers are in control. Sellers must understand this to engage buyers successfully. Buyer perception is what counts. Buyers want to engage with sellers through authentic converstations, not sales pitches. Buyers want to engage through communities where people help each other. The role of the brand has evolved from marketer to collaborator.

Developing a Social Media Strategy

I provide SMBs guidelines to develop a social media marketing strategy. I call it “old school meets new school.” There is research required to devleop an effective SMM plan.

Think Like a Publisher: Content Marketing

A big aspect of Marketing 2.0 is the mindset of thinking like a publisher. Sellers should strive to produce relevant content for buyers so they will engage with your content.

Lifecycle of Interaction

There are four stages in the lifecycle of interacting with community on the web. Sellers must understand these stages in order to understand how to engage people based on the stage they are in.

Measuring Results

Measuring results in a marketing 2.0 strategy is not the same as in years past. First, it is possible. But, the methods and the metrics are different. Some web analytics apply. Sentiment monitoring also comes into play. Measuring qualitative and quantitative results are both important.

Risks of Social Media Marketing

There are many risks in a marketing 2.0 strategy. Though I list more than ten risks in my book, the biggest one is what I refer to as social media abstinence. Understanding the risks will minimize mistakes and minimize failures.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

There are many benefits to a marketing 2.0 strategy. This chapter outlines the many benefits and how to reap the rewards. One such benefit is the opportunity to build a strong brand even if you compete with a large conglomerate who has a huge budget. The social web levels the playing field.

Staffing Implications.

There are many staffing implications to consider in your marketing 2.0 strategy. This chapter discusses how social media marketing impacts your current staff and possibly future staff. The decisions you make to staff your marketing 2.0 strategy may be different than in years past.

Social Web Platforms

I devoted individual chapters to SEO, blogging, social networking, Twitter, podcasting, video and photos. Each of these is discussed in the context that they are enablers and tools.  None of these alone is the answer.  They enable us to create content and build relationships. Of course, SEO is not a platform. I discuss the role your content on the social web can contribute to your SEO results.

Marketing Operations:

Gary Katz, CEO of Marketing Operations Partners contributed a chapter on marketing operations. Gary explains how to make the marketing department a profit center, not a cost center.

Case Studies

My favorite section of the book is the case study section near the end of the book. I researched and wrote about real world examples of SMBs and solopreneurs who are succeeding with marketing 2.0 and their learning process. Each is learning and each is succeeding. I think you’ll find the diversity of industries and approaches very interesting and inspiring.

It’s About Content and Relationships

In the final chapter, I reiterate a key point I stressed throughout the book. The new mindset of marketing 2.0 is to engage buyers through great content and to build relationships with them. This mindset is a process. The old style of marketing is on its way out. Marketing on the social web can be integrated with offline marketing using the same principles of content and relationship building.

Resources

I put together a list of good books, blogs and podcasts on social media marketing. You’ll find plenty of great resources to further your education and insights into marketing 2.0.

Bernie Borges Live at Your Events

I enjoy speaking on Internet marketing topics at industry conferences and private events. Anyone interested in bringing me in to speak can contact me.

Special Offer

At the end of the podcast,  I offer a free copy of my book. But, you must listen to the podcast to learn how you can get a free copy. No gimmicks. No form to fill out. My offer is a free copy of my book. Listen to the podcast to learn how to get it. Click to play above, or visit iTunes and search for it by my name or by “inbound marketing,” or “social media marketing.”

I sincerely hope my book is a valuable resource to you. I look forward to getting your comments through my blog or the various ways you can contact me:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/bernieborges
Facebook: http://profile.to/bernieborges
Facebook Fan Page: http://companies.to/findandconvert/

Memories from the Inbound Marketing Summit

I attended the Inbound Marketing Summit in San Francisco April 28/29.  I’ve processed the event in my head and here are some of my memories from the event.

Chris Brogan’s humility is as impressive as his wisdom.

Justin Levy doesn’t need much sleep to get the job done.

David Meerman Scott offers countless triggers to turn your content into a world wide rave.

Paul Gillin is my choice to lead a panel session any day of the week.

Dharmesh Shah likes to give presentations no matter how much he tells us he doesn’t.

Tim Ferriss isn’t shy about plugging his services while he has the stage.

Brian Halligan’s parents had deep discussions about Tide detergent commercials.

Tim Street is my choice to close out a full day of presentations any time.

Tim O’Reilly is also my choice to close out a full day of presentations any time.

The private party sponsored by DNA13 was great. Too bad just two bartenders were on call for 200 people.

Here are some interesting factoids that caught my attention during the presentations.

The average age of the newspaper reader in the U.S. is 57: Paul Gillin

We learned to share in kindergarten. Our training for social networking started then: Tim Young.

To get your video to go viral create a spectacle, tell a story, create emotion: Tim Street

Companies who measure the lifetime value of customers measure the outcome of relationships in social media: Charlene Li. BTW, not to take anything away from Charlene, but I’ve been saying the same for quite a while…

Chris Brogan’s (self proclaimed) occupation is “typist.”

Here is a list of 19 things learned at the Inbound Marketing Summit by Jason Stewart.

I interviewed Chris Brogan to discuss why he shaved his head for charity (unedited):

I interviewed Mike Volpe to discuss the meaning of inbound marketing:

Hope to see you at the next Inbound Marketing Summit in Dallas, May 27/28.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

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

10 Ways to Promote Your Blog

Business blogging is a hot topic.  I recently podcasted on the importance of having a blogging strategy.

Yesterday, Chris Brogan wrote a great post with 9 ways to promote your blog.  I agree with all his tips, especially sharing your best blog posts (not all your blog posts) with your network.

But, I want to be direct about an observation many of us in the Internet marketing world experience.  Business blogging is getting harder.  Business blogging requires a big commitment.  Guys like Chris Brogan of CrossTech Media, Mike Volpe of Hubspot and Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research spend a lot of their time blogging because it’s a big part of their business.  And, not only do they have a lot of good content to share with us, they have developed a loyal following through their blogs.

What about the average business competing to sell widgets every day?   How do you develop a strong business blog with limited time for blogging?

I don’t know if my tip is the silver bullet….But, here it is.  Think “small.” Forget what you’ve been taught about “thinking big.”  Think small!

Target your blog for a narrow audience with a very narrow topic.  Don’t worry about what you can write about, unless you don’t have a subject matter expert (in which case don’t even consider this idea).  You’ll be surprised how much you can write about a narrow topic.

Most businesses have a well defined target market.  Pick a segment of your target market and start a blog on it.  Maybe it’s a very specific industry segment such as office furniture dealers.  Just write about office furniture dealers.  If you have more than one person in your company qualified to write about this narrow topic, that’s even better.

There are at least three advantages to a narrow approach to business blogging.

1. You don’t have to write very often.  If you write about once per week or so, that is sufficient.  Just be consistent and write good content for your target audience.  Don’t write every other month, then once a week, then every other month.  Your blog will go stale.

2. The probability of your blog being noticed is greater because it is so narrow.  In fact, if you get a little lucky, you may get a handful of people in your narrow niche that really embrace your blog and promote it for you to others in your niche.  If that happens, you’ll find out that your niche is bigger than you thought.

3. Less competition.  Tecnhorati is currently tracking 112 million blogs.  In your narrow niche you’ll only be competing with 10 of them.  Ok, I made up this (second) number.  My point is you’ll compete with a fewer number of blogs for mindshare in your narrow niche.

4. Promoting your blog will be easier.  Just refer to Chris Brogan’s list of 9 ways to promote your blog.  If you do just half the suggestions made by Chris, your blog has great potential to become popular and give your business great exposure and open new doors for your business.

I said there are three good reasons for a narrow niche blog strategy, but I gave you four reasons.  I thought the fourth reason might be added to Chris Brogan’s list for an even 10.

Send me a link to your niche blog.