Inbound Marketing 101 with HubSpot's Rick Burnes

Inbound marketing - the term used to describe how companies are using Google, blogs and social media to get found - is becoming an increasingly central focus of the work we do at SpeakerBox. Perhaps obviously, "inbound" marketing is the opposite of "outbound" marketing, where marketers use things like advertising, direct mail, email blasts and cold-calling prospects to reach prospects. If you think of how you personally find information on new products, services and companies, are you more likely to be receptive to material that was pushed to you, or do you rely on search results to gather information? Overwhelmingly, people are relying on the latter.

I sat down with some of my SBX colleagues last week to watch video of Rick Burnes from HubSpot from a talk he gave at an event hosted by Red Shoes PR in Appleton, WI**. Rick gave a great "Inbound Marketing 101" presentation, which I recommend every marketer or communications professional watch.

There's a lot of great stuff in the video, covering SEO, content creation, social media and measurement, but here were a couple of my favorite takeaways:

• Marketing has evolved in a way that now helps people. Today's best marketers pull people into their web site as opposed to going out and interrupting people or hitting them over the head with their message.
• Inbound marketing is significantly cheaper and more efficient than traditional outbound channels (trade shows, pay-per-click advertising), and results in higher quality leads.
• Marketing is about more than bringing people to your web site. Once you get them there, you have to offer more reason to have them stay or return, and which helps convert them to leads and then into customers.
• Focus on turning your site into a content library - the longer you are publishing articles / blog posts, the longer you'll have a huge archive of assets which will continue to pull people into your site over time through search.
• You can't just focus on one piece of inbound marketing - all of this (SEO, blogs, social media) fits together like an ecosystem, and your business has to become part of that ecosystem.
• With SEO, be specific about the words you are trying to rank for.
• When it comes to content creation (including blog writing), is quality or quantity best? The answer is BOTH! You need to produce good stuff, but also a lot of it. Write about the content that your customers are thinking about. People want to talk about the issues they are facing, not the software, products or services you are selling.
• Think of yourself as a publisher, and create content that will travel across the web and be useful to people. Above all else, be a resource on your industry!
• What kind of content should you create? Try everything, and don't be afraid to experiment. Burnes  recommends starting with a blog ("ground zero"). Your blog is where all of the content you create other places (podcasts, videos, etc.) should live.
• Host your company's blog on your company's domain! Hosting it on a site like Wordpress.com or Blogspot.com doesn't help your site with SEO.
• Free HubSpot tool Rick mentioned: website.grader.com

Rick's presentation was full of actionable advice like this. I've embedded both parts of his presentation below, and highly recommend watching both them.

-Stephanie
@stephstad





**Observant Sounding Board readers will catch that this is my 2nd consecutive post with a home state reference. Viva Wisconsin! I'll work on extending the streak...

Twavorites

So I’m really not a fan of when people make up twitter words like tweeple, twebinar and the one above. But we here at SpeakerBox are pretty addicted to the social media word itself and we’re not the only ones – Twitter has been named the most used word of 2009 – it has crossed that threshold where a product name becomes a verb (ie: Google and Xerox). Earlier this year Time magazine gave us details about how Twitter will change the way we live – in a great article that outlines just why exactly it’s important.

SBXers are hooked and we all use Twitter in different ways and follow different people, so through this series “twavorites” on the Sounding Board, we are going to give you a glimpse into our favorite people to follow, either in general or around specific topics.

To single my self out in starting this series, I use Twitter mostly as a listening post. I have it or cotweet up pretty much all day and check in periodically to see what folks are saying. I’ve found a lot of useful info this way but don’t actually tweet too often, that said my handle is @asmith731 if you want to find me. 

So without further ado here are a few of my twavorites:

·       @FishbowlDC – I love Fishbowl’s blog and it’s Twitter stream is on the same par. It keeps me updated about local (and national) media news with just enough gossip flair to keep it interesting.

·       @dcsportbog – I am impressed by all things Dan Steinberg. I am a huge sports fan and love his Post column/blog, his twitter feed and when he’s on the Junkies. He keeps me up to date, has a biting wit and the same attitude as DC fans – he also regularly makes my fiancée say “how did you know that?”

·       @shannonpaul – I found Shannon though a guest blog post on PR Squared. She tweets on topics that keep coming up in our office (ie: assigning value to work). She also tends to post links to articles that I find really interesting on the influence of social media on traditional media and consumers.

Stay tuned – there are more twavorites to come from the SBX team…

- Ali Smith

Why Twitter Matters to Lawyers (and Non-lawyers Alike)...

On Wednesday, I joined approximately 500 other attendees on the free Legal Rebels Webinar: Why Twitter Matters to Lawyers, featuring LexBlog CEO Kevin O'Keefe. The webinar was designed to explain how Twitter and social media are changing the dynamic for lawyers, but truthfully you could have changed the name of the webinar to "Why Twitter Matters" and it would have been relevant across industries.

The original agenda for the webinar was as follows:

• How is Twitter being used by attorneys and other industry leaders today?
• Who are some of the "big guns" in the legal industry using Twitter? What are some examples of how they use it?
• Which Twitter applications are worthwhile and which are lame?
• What are some etiquette tips on using Twitter for professional social networking?

I was most interested in point number two, so shared a little disappointment with others that the content focused more on the "how-to" of Twitter and desktop tools like TweetDeck (admittedly, O'Keefe said during the webinar that many of the attendees were non-Twitter users) but he did make some great points during the webinar that are worth reiterating here:

1. Twitter use is pervasive and anything but a trend. Twitter is at the New York Times; Twitter is at CNN. "Twitter is everywhere."
2. When it comes to breaking news, Twitter is unparalleled. In the last year alone, we've witnessed some fantastic examples of times where Twitter brought us first hand reports of major news events significantly before the mainstream media. This same trend is trickling down to business and industry-specific news as well.
3. Protect your brand! Even if your firm or business is not currently on Twitter (or prepared to jump in), claim your firm's name before someone else does.
4. There are significant marketing / business benefits to being on Twitter. O'Keefe walked through the major benefits as he saw them, including: brand-building; relationship building (an opportunity for firms to begin, nurture and develop relationships); information sharing (share interesting industry developments); and news distribution (one way firms are already using Twitter is to share the content they are already developing, from newsletters to press releases and client alerts). There is a big opportunity for law firms to promote its lawyers, firm events, community service activities and major news in the legal world and, to date, many firms haven't taken advantage of this opportunity.
   
5. "Don't forget that social media is SOCIAL."
6. Return on investment for time on Twitter? O'Keefe advises lawyers and law firm marketing managers alike to "Relax. Be a person. Build relationships. The more people who get to know you as a person, as a lawyer, the more business your firm will get." O'Keefe says firms need not take a shotgun approach to Twitter - he says he connects with people who may lead to new business opportunities.
   

If you're interested in checking out the archived webinar and its associated mindmap, you can find them online here.

One thing I was very interested in that the webinar didn't address: how many AmLaw 200 firms are using Twitter, and how are they using it? Kevin O'Keefe does a great look at the AmLaw 200 blogosphere every year, but I haven't seen an equivalent for Twitter. I might take this on next month, similar to my look at Washington's Tech Titans on Twitter last summer.

UPDATE (Nov. 2): Shout out to Erin West, a former colleague and Communications and Marketing Manager at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox PLLC for pointing me to some links that answered my final question about AmLaw firms on Twitter. Erin pointed me to this great post by Patrick DiDomenico at the LawyerKM blog from January 2009 on AmLaw 100 firms on Twitter. I'm still looking to do an update on this, so watch for that soon. Erin also pointed out this list of 145 Lawyers (and Legal Professionals) to follow on Twitter. Worth checking out, especially for anyone who is jumping into the new Twitter Lists functionality! Thanks Erin!

-Stephanie Stadler
@stephstad

How Facebook is Killing SEO

Interesting post on Copyblogger about the impact of Facebook on Google’s search dominance. The writer points out that links posted on Facebook are not visible to search engines. Those Facebook links are proving to be incredibly viral (as recently evidenced by the Arlington Rap , a favorite here at SpeakerBox) yet have no impact on Google ranks.

This does not mean you need to throw your SEO plans out the window, it’s just another example of the balance of traditional and social media. You can create interesting content that has the promise to go viral within Facebook and can also be made available outside of Facebook's "walled garden" for wider access via search engines.


-Piper Conrad

Washington's Tech Titans... on Twitter?

When I read Garrett Graff's roundup of the top 100 tech industry leaders in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland last month in the Washingtonian, I wondered which of those execs were on Twitter. Some I knew and already personally follow - but others I wasn't sure about, so I decided to pull together the list you'll find here.

This is based on my own research, so if you're following one of these folks that I haven't been able to find, let me know in the comments and I'll update the post accordingly.

-Stephanie Stadler
@stephstad


Entrepreneurs

• Sid Banerjee, cofounder and CEO, Clarabridge. On Twitter? Yes - @sidbanerjee

• Jim Bankoff, "former AOL executive and senior adviser at private-equity powerhouse Providence Equity Partners." On Twitter? Yes - @bankoff

• John Crupi, CTO, JackBe. On Twitter? Yes - @johncrupi

• Mark Ein, founder and CEO, Venturehouse. On Twitter? Yes, but he's update-less: @markein

• Raul Fernandez, chairman and CEO, ObjectVideo. On Twitter? No.

• Sean Greene, cofounder, LaunchBox Digital. On Twitter? Yes - @sverde

• Rob Jewell, founder and CEO, Gratis Internet. On Twitter? No.

• Ted Leonsis, "longtime AOL exec, investor, adviser, talent scout, movie producer, philanthropist, and sports magnate." On Twitter? Yes, but the posts are only an auto-feed from his blog, Ted's Take - @tedleonsis

• Marissa Levin, founder and CEO, Information Experts. On Twitter? Yes - @marissalevin

• Chris McGill, CEO, Mixx.com. On Twitter? Yes - @chrismcgill

• Phillip Merrick, founder and managing partner, Bibury Partners; chairman and cofounder, VisualCV. On Twitter? Yes - @phillipmerrick

• Haroon Mokhtarzada, cofounder and CEO, Webs.com. On Twitter? Yes - @haroon

• Tim O’Shaughnessy, cofounder and CEO, LivingSocial. On Twitter? No.

• Joanna Pineda, founder and CEO, Matrix Group International. On Twitter? Yes - @jmpineda

• Hooman Radfar, cofounder and CEO, Clearspring. On Twitter? Yes - @hoomanradfar

• Michael Saylor, founder, chairman, and CEO, MicroStrategy. On Twitter? No.

• Chris Schroeder, CEO, HealthCentral Network. On Twitter? No.

• Daniel Simpkins, founder and CEO, Hillcrest Labs. On Twitter? No.

• Pete Snyder, founder and CEO, New Media Strategies. On Twitter? Yes - @petesnyder

• Barg Upender, senior partner, Intridea. On Twitter? No.

• Mark Walsh, CEO and chairman, GeniusRocket. On Twitter? [UPDATED 6/29/09] Yes - @walsh

• Brian Williams, cofounder and CEO, Viget Labs. On Twitter? Yes - @barn

• Daniel Yates, founder and CEO, Positive Energy. On Twitter? No.

Industry Leaders

• Reggie Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Cvent. On Twitter? No.

• Deborah Alderson, president, SAIC’s Defense Solutions Group. On Twitter? Hard to say. She may be @debalderson, but the handle is both update- and bio-less, so I can't be certain.

• Anne Altman, mainframe-platform manager, IBM. On Twitter? Also hard to say. She may be @somka, but there's no bio or updates.

• Bill Angrick, cofounder, chairman, and CEO, Liquidity Services. On Twitter? No.

• Sanju K. Bansal, COO, MicroStrategy. On Twitter? No.

• John Becker, CEO, Approva. On Twitter? No.

• Ed Black, president and CEO, Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA). On Twitter? No.

• Steve Case, chairman and CEO, Revolution. On Twitter? Yes - @stevecase

• Michael Chasen, president and CEO, Blackboard. On Twitter? Yes - @michaelchasen

• Alan Davidson, director of public policy and government affairs, Google. On Twitter? No.

• Edi Dor, president and CEO, TMA Resources. On Twitter? Hard to say. Edi may be @edor61, but with no bio or updates, this one is unconfirmed.

• Fred Humphries, chief lobbyist, Microsoft. On Twitter? No.

• Reed Hundt, senior adviser, McKinsey & Company. On Twitter? No.

• Linda Gooden, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Information Systems. On Twitter? No.

• Don Graham, chairman and CEO, Washington Post Company. On Twitter? No.

• Sudhakar Kesavan, chairman and CEO, ICF International. On Twitter? No.

• Jeong Kim, president, Bell Labs. On Twitter? No.

• Caroline Little, CEO, Guardian News and Media North America. On Twitter? Hard to say. There are four Twitter handles with the name Caroline Little. Some aren't populated at all, and the ones that are have only a few posts. None have bios. Anybody know if any of these - @carolinelittle @caroline_little, @stormx77, @clittle3 - are correct?

• Dave McGlade, CEO, Intelsat. On Twitter? No.

• Linda Mills, president, Northrop Grumman IT. On Twitter? No.

• Donna Morea, president, CGI US and India. On Twitter? No.

• Nigel Morris, former president and COO, Capital One. On Twitter? No.

• George Newstrom, president and COO, Lee Technologies. On Twitter? No.

• Matt O’Connell, president and CEO, GeoEye. On Twitter? No.

• Tige Savage, cofounder and senior vice president, Revolution. On Twitter? Yes - @tigesavage

• Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). On Twitter? Yes - @garyshapiro

• Lynn St. Amour, president and CEO, Internet Society (ISOC). On Twitter? No.


Dealmakers

• Errol Arkilic, industrial-innovation program director, National Science Foundation. On Twitter? No.

• Peter Barris, managing general partner, New Enterprise Associates. On Twitter? No.

• Jack Biddle, general partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners. On Twitter? Hard to say. There's a username (@jackbcmt) under the name Jack Biddle, but the account doesn't have a bio or any posts yet.

• Phil Bronner, general partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners. On Twitter? Also hard to say. He may be @pbronner, but there's no bio or posts yet.

• John Burton, cofounder and managing general partner, Updata Partners. On Twitter? Unknown. By my count, there are a few dozen accounts under the name John Burton. None of the bios mention Updata or DC, but I can't be certain. Anybody know?

• Brooke Coburn, managing director, the Carlyle Group. On Twitter? Hard to say - looks to be @brookecoburn, but the user updates are protected, so this one is unconfirmed.

• Carol Thompson Cole, president and CEO, Venture Philanthropy Partners. On Twitter? No.

• Chris Darby, president and CEO, In-Q-Tel. On Twitter? No.

• Miles Gilburne, managing member, ZG Ventures. On Twitter? Hard to say. Looks to be @mgilburne, but with no bio or updates, I can't be certain.

• Frank Hecker, director of grants and programs, Mozilla Foundation. On Twitter? Yes - @hecker

• Mike Lincoln, partner, Cooley Godward Kronish. On Twitter? Yes - @lincolnmr

• Art Marks, general partner, Valhalla Partners. On Twitter? No.

• John May, managing partner, New Vantage Group. On Twitter? No.

• Kevin McNerney, managing director, Korn/Ferry. On Twitter? No.

• Gene Riechers, general partner, Valhalla Partners. On Twitter? No.

• Ralph Terkowitz, general partner, ABS Capital. On Twitter? No.

• Harry Weller, general partner, New Enterprise Associates. On Twitter? Hard to say. He may be @hrweller, but without a bio or any updates, it is hard to say.

• Tom Wheeler, managing director, Core Capital. On Twitter? No.

• April Young, senior vice president and managing director, MMV Financial. On Twitter? No.

• Dendy Young, CEO, McLean Capital. On Twitter? No.


Politicos

• David Almacy, senior vice president, Edelman Public Relations. On Twitter? Yes - @almacy

• Rick Boucher, cochair, House Internet Caucus. On Twitter? No.

• Sheila Campbell, manager, General Services Administration’s USA.gov. On Twitter? Yes - @sheiladcusa

• Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) . On Twitter? Hard to say. He may be @aneeshchopra, but there is only one update, and no bio.

• Julius Genachowski, chair designate, Federal Communications Commission. On Twitter? Unconfirmed. I believe he is @juliusg1, but user updates on this account are protected.

• Bob Gourley, founder and CTO, Crucial Point. On Twitter? Yes - @bobgourley

• Leslie Harris, president and CEO, Center for Democracy & Technology. On Twitter? No.

• Melissa Hathaway, senior adviser to the Director of National Intelligence. On Twitter? No.

• Cyrus Krohn, former new-media director, Republican National Committee. On Twitter? Yes - @cyrusk

• Vivek Kundra, U.S. Chief Information Officer (CIO). On Twitter? Yes - @vivekkundra, but the account hasn't been updated since Oct. 2008.

• Ellen Miller, cofounder and executive director, Sunlight Foundation. On Twitter? Yes - @ellnmllr

• Macon Phillips, White House director of new media. On Twitter? Hard to say - I believe Macon is @macon, but user updates on this account are protected.

• Joe Rospars, founding partner, Blue State Digital. On Twitter? Unconfirmed. Looks like he may be @rospars, but the account has user updates protected.

• Joe Trippi, principal, Trippi and Associates. On Twitter? Yes - @joetrippi

• Christine Varney, assistant attorney general designate for antitrust, Department of Justice. On Twitter? Hard to say - she may be @cavarney, but there's only one update and no bio.

• David Wennergren, deputy CIO, Department of Defense. On Twitter? No.


Community and Thought Leaders

• Shashi Bellamkonda, Network Solutions. On Twitter? Yes - @shashib

• Mark Bisnow, founder, Bisnow on Business. On Twitter? Hard to say - Mark might be @bigbizzy, but there is no bio and only a few updates.

• Andy Carvin, social-media strategist, National Public Radio. On Twitter? Yes - @acarvin

• Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist, Google. On Twitter? No.

• Steve Crocker, board member, iCANN. On Twitter? No.

• Bob Kahn, CEO, Corporation for National Research Initiatives. On Twitter? No.

• Peter Corbett, founder, TwinTech. On Twitter? Yes - @corbett3000

• Frank Gruber, cofounder, TECH Cocktail. On Twitter? Yes - @frankgruber

• Justin Thorp, community manager, Clearspring. On Twitter? Yes - @thorpus

• Jill Foster, editor, WomenGrowBusiness.com. On Twitter? Yes - @jillfoster

• Allyson Kapin, founding partner and executive creative director, Rad Campaign. On Twitter? Yes - @womenwhotech

• Bobbie Kilberg, president and CEO, Northern Virginia Technology Council. On Twitter? No.

• Alan Merten, president, George Mason University. On Twitter? No.

• Bob Templin, president, Northern Virginia Community College. On Twitter? No.

• Shireen Mitchell, executive director, Digital Sisters/Sistas. On Twitter? Yes - @digitalsista

• Walt Mossberg, personal-tech columnist, Wall Street Journal. On Twitter? Yes - @waltmossberg

• Michael Nelson, visiting professor, Georgetown University. On Twitter? Yes - @mikenelson

• Nick O’Neill, founder and blogger, Social Times. On Twitter? Yes - @allnick

• Debbie Weil, corporate-blogging expert. On Twitter? Yes - @debbieweil

Live from BlogPotomac 2009: Scott Monty on Using Social Media in a Crisis

Coming to you live from the State Theatre in Falls Church at BlogPotomac, a one-day social media marketing event with nationally renowned speakers and nationally renowned speakers and advanced discussion of best social media marketing practices...

I'm live blogging the session from Ford Motor Company's social media guru, Scott Monty on using social media in a crisis, whose experiences provide essential perspective and best practices for organizations of all sizes and across industries. In a company of 200,000 employees, Monty is Ford's only social media employee.

Here are my notes from Scott's presentation:

-Stephanie Stadler
@stephstad

Scott started his presentation with an overview of TheRangerStation.com crisis. Not familiar? Here's Scott's recap from his own blog:

In short, the issue was that there was a Ford fansite called TheRangerStation.com that received a cease & desist letter from Ford, and the owner posted that Ford was asking for $5,000 and the URL to be turned over. It turns out there was much more to the story. The owner was selling counterfeit Ford goods, and together, we reached a reasonable solution to the situation.

Recalling the Motrin Moms social media debacle, Scott immediately turned to social media to give people a window into his job ("I'm checking with the legal department;" "I'm looking into the matter") instead of remaining silent on the issue.

Once facts started coming out, Monty asked his community to start spreading the word via Twitter and their own communities. Ford used the same method to spread the word about the resolution (which was ulimately reached after Monty had a phone conversation with the site's owner, when he was able to learn about the site owner's concerns, intentions, etc.).

Monty's key lessons for using social media to respond to a crisis:

• Monitor: Ford uses a number of systems, including the "free stuff" you can get via Google and Twitter. Fortunately for Ford, their community also helps them monitor, and alerts them to things they should be aware of and comment about.
  
• Responding: Notion of being transparent; not going quiet. Invite people into the process and take part in it with
  
• Leverage your community, especially those who are fans and **want** you to succeed. The circles and networks of people they know are greater than your own.
• Have a digital hub: an anchor, a place where you can quickly post updates, comments, videos, etc. Ford uses The Ford Story as this hub - it is constantly transforming / under construction, but it is meant to be their social media hub. The Ford Story is a combination of Ford-created content and content by third-party contributors.

Where is Ford moving today?

• The goal at Ford is to democratize social media across the company to leverage employees (a key audience invested in the company's future).
• Monty pointed out that the tools are irrelevant - and will always change.
  
• But by giving Ford employees guidelines and a process, they are creating a culture of open communication to inside the company.
• Ultimately, by using social media, Monty's goal is to humanize Ford as a brand, to show who the company and its employees are beyond its blue oval logo.

Other key takeaways:

• Monty recommends that the social media function sit inside the corporate communications team, because corporate communications serves as the "information gatekeepers" and social media applies to all aspects of a company's brand (services, communications and marketing). TheFordStory.com was a collaboration between marketing and communications (best practices from both teams, and the marketing team uses online banner ads to drive readership on TheFordStory.com), but site is maintained by Monty as part of the corporate communications team.
• Companies shouldn't be online and using social media to sell products. Ford, according to Monty, is using social media to "increase consideration, build their reputation and engage with customers."
• Companies need to know when it is appropriate to respond. Not every post or comment requires a response. Sometimes it is hard to sit back and not jump in with a response or a comment of your own, but you have to pull yourself back. What happens? The community responds and helps accurate facts emerge.
• Respond in the context of where the crisis broke. If it broke with a video, respond with a video. If it broke with a blog post, respond with a comment on that blog.
  
• Admit when your company makes an error in the way that it did (or didn't communicate with people), and acknowledge people's feelings. You're never going to win by trying to disprove the statements of those you've upset. Always more economical to keep an existing customer than it is to win a new one.
  

Want to know what BlogPotomac attendees are saying about Scott Monty's presentation? Follow the conversation online here.

Technology Apocrypha. Or What The Hell Does This Even Mean.

“With the proliferation of Twitter, blogs and other assorted social media armaments, the relationship between PR and the media has changed dramatically.”

That’s the distillation from the 40,000 plus blog posts and articles written in a post-social media world describing the ever-evolving love/hate tryst between public relations pros and the media (define that as you will). This isn’t a blog post about what’s changed. Good Lord it’s not about what has changed – there’s been enough ink, digital and otherwise, written on that subject to wallpaper my house. (Clarification: The pre-existing viewpoints devoted to the changes in PR aren't bad or wrong, and the above two links are both excellent, well-done examples.)

I want to talk about what hasn’t changed: the words. This isn’t a good thing, especially in technology. For an industry that prides itself on wordsmithing, too many PR professionals take the lazy route with technical data – they simply repeat what their clients tell them, no matter the clarity of said message. You can push a message out a thousand different ways – Facebook, email, Twitter, blogs, social news aggregators, and so on – but if it is nothing more than gibberish, why even bother?

Fact: We aren’t hired to regurgitate technical messages word-for-word. Public relations is a value-add service, meaning that it should add value to whatever it touches. By mimicking existing information verbatim, that value disappears like a snowball in an oven. Most PR pros aren’t technical, or at least not in the same manner as our clients – so what turns hardcore techie information into usable, media-friendly messages?

1. If you don’t know, ask. There’s a difference between looking bright in a meeting and completely failing behind the scenes. Pretending that you know more than you do is a surefire recipe to tank, whether to a client-side expert or, even worse, to a tech-savvy member of the media. When it comes to fully understanding a client technology before undertaking a campaign, very few questions are dumb.
   
   
2. Learn, dummy. Wikipedia. You should use it. Don’t take granular details from the resource as fact, but getting more information on general trends is extremely useful, especially if you’re faced with a screen full of esoteric acronyms.
   
   
3. Analogies are your friend. Trying to explain extremely back-end/high-tech/emerging technologies to a wider audience can be daunting, so it’s far easier to compare and contrast it to a piece of technology already in existence. That’s not to say you should compare a SOA platform to a toaster…but if you’re doing that, you need a different blog post.
   
   
4. Jargon must die. Buzzwords and “popular” technology phrases should be avoided at all costs – why are you filling your message with something that’s already been said? Find a unique way to describe the product or at least prove differentiation to competitors – unique and different make news; the crowd just watches the news.
   

This is not an indictment for technical news items – every industry and field has watchers that will understand each buzzword or jargon-laden phrase in a release. But once you go beyond that handful of publications, you need to adapt your message or risk being ignored. Or worse, mocked.

-John Terrill

(Photo Courtesy of David Reeves)

What is Content Marketing?

Came a cross an inspirational post filled with ideas on how to create and repurpose content. While the objective behind the post is to show how to use content to create new revenue streams, any of the ideas could be “given away” for free and still end up driving bottom line revenue. That’s the idea behind content marketing -- creating and delivering information that is useful to your audience/buyers. Content marketing is not about creating sales sheets on your products, it is about using the expertise you’ve gained in building your business to inform and educate your audience about issues and solutions that they care about. By becoming a resource, you build a trust with your audience that will lead to sales and bottom line growth that is more valuable than an extra line item of newsletter subscription revenue.

Now, if only there were a seminar that would explore this issue in depth and a company that could help you execute….
-Piper Conrad

Interesting Reads

I saw a couple of interesting articles this week dealing with social media for business that I thought would be good to share…

The first is from Tom Foremski on practicing what you preach. He asserts that it’s really not possible to advise a customer on Facebook, Twitter or other social media outlets if you’re not using them yourself.

While I do think it is possible to read up on the business uses of Facebook and Twitter to be able to recommend smart usage to companies looking to achieve different results, it also seems necessary to personally be part of the conversations to understand all of the intricacies of the networks/outlets.

The second is from Micah Baldwin of Lijit Networks on Mashable… He posted an article today on measuring online influence. Understanding the influence of one blogger compared to another or the influence that an online outlet can have for a company, is something that PR pros have been increasingly looking for more information on. Measurement is key to showing clients value, and as online/social media becomes more prevalent, we will have to change the way we measure success.

Happy reading!

-Ali

Negative Comment Found. World Ending.

“I’d love to get involved with social media from a corporate standpoint, but I’m worried about losing control of the conversation.”

I will guarantee that nearly every PR, marketing and social media expert has heard this phrase, perhaps uttered verbatim, from one, two or three-dozen clients in the past 12 to 24 months. And it doesn’t mean that your client is worried about thousands of ecstatic users flooding the Internet to deify their product.

Your client is worried about the bogeyman of blogging – negative comments. First things first, turning commentary off is not an option, so nip that thought in the bud. The whole point of a blog is to facilitate conversation, so why are you trying to clamp it down?

With silencing commentary off the table, how do you teach clients to deal with the fact that not everyone online loves their product or service?

1. The Inevitability of the Internet - it’s not if, but WHEN you receive negative commentary. It’s a fact of life, both Web and real-time, that no matter your opinion, someone in the world has the polar opposite viewpoint. Someone is probably already dissing them RIGHT NOW but they just aren’t paying attention. Prepare and have a strategy for when adverse feedback does appear.
2. Listen, then Talk – responding to comments to clarify points or positions, correct wrong information or just to ask questions is not just okay, it’s expected. Online conversation goes both ways, so bloggers should absolutely respond to reader’s points/questions/suggestions.
3. RAARGH HULK SMASH - Never, ever respond in anger. Take a timeout and examine the comment in question – Are they misinformed? Did they actually read the post? Do they have a point? Consider what sort of response, if any, is warranted.
4. Trolls Under the Web-Bridge – Once a blog starts to get popular, the trolls will start to pop up. Trolling is commenting purely to elicit an angry response or to start a fight – most of the time the commenter is also anonymous. These should be ignored or, in many instances, deleted.
5. The Big Red Button – Deleting negative comments could seem like a very appealing strategy, but it starts to look shady when you only have glowing remarks on your corporate blog – or none at all. That isn’t to say you should never delete comments (or block commenters) but it should only be used in rare situations – for obvious trolling or personal/inflammatory attacks.
   

The big thing about negative comments is that it means your company is engaging users – the community is willing to listen to what you have to say and respond. Use this as an impromptu focus group – find out what your users are concerned about or requesting. Who knows, you might even act on their suggestions.

-John Terrill

(Photo Courtesy of blueforce4116)

Middle School Marketing - Thoughts for the New Year

There was a definite buzz this week around social media predictions for 2009 and how brands should interplay. It was a natural topic of discussion for my Middle School Marketing group. Jen Krupey from Viget Labs posted a nice recap. Sitting at the intersection of traditional and social media, my prediction for 2009 is that we'll see a stronger push by big brands within social media communities. As with all things social media, you get what you give, and the result will be a few great case studies - but more than less of these brands will view social media as a low cost alternative to traditional advertising and will ignore the concept of community and embark on campaigns that will end up compiled in the 2009 volume of social media gone bad. I think mid-sized companies will continue to engage in social networking at a cautious pace next year. I believe they understand the concept of community and the bandwidth needed to engage authentically, but stressed maintaining this year, will ultimately will fall back on what they know (the more traditional stuff), while keeping their big toes in and waiting until 2010 to more fully embrace social networks (having learned from the mistakes of the big brands). It's probably no surprise that I think small business will continue to be "mavericky" when it comes to connecting with their buying audiences and will serve up some strong case studies on how community engagement helped them buck the recession and get their businesses to the next level. What do you think? Where do you view your business or your client's fitting into this progression in 2009?

Meet the Influencers: Jason Kintzler, PitchEngine

If you’re like me and have stumbled upon the website for PitchEngine, you’ll quickly realize you’ve found a new PR tool worth exploring. Billed as “PR for the social web,” PitchEngine is a web app and hosting service that automates the creation of Social Media Releases (SMRs) and Social Media Newsrooms. A concept first developed in 2006 by Todd Defren, the SMR has taken on several iterations and pushed the major wire services to incorporate social elements into their core service offerings. As Jason Baer points out, however:

The hang-up with social media releases has been actually getting them built. Most PR folks are not Web programmers, and the very nature of what makes a social media release useful (tags, links, multi-media) makes it tricky to execute if your definition of high tech is inserting a footer in Microsoft Word.

PitchEngine is the answer to easy SMR creation. Using PitchEngine, organizations can create and share SMRs for free. The site can also archive your brand’s releases, and offers a customized newsroom option as well (these features come with a nominal fee). Instead of pointing you to the PitchEngine site for more information, we went straight to the top and PitchEngine founder Jason Kintzler was kind enough to answer our questions about his site.

-Stephanie Stadler

1) First, can you share a little about your background and the genesis of PitchEngine?
I'm a former print journalist and broadcast news anchor turned PR and brand guy. I love the media industry and wanted to make it easier for both to share PR content and information. That is where social media and PitchEngine come in. Journalists need more than a bunch of printed paragraphs - they need flexibility of high-res images, cut-and-paste quotes, related links and contact info.

Brands need to share more than marketing, they need to share their culture and personalities. With PitchEngine, they can incorporate social links, video and other things that help give the brand (or your client) more authenticity.

2) I know there are a few different facets of PitchEngine. Can you break them down?
Sure. First, PitchEngine makes it possible for PR pros to share all sorts of PR content and assets with their media contacts for free via the Social Media release - it's like a micro-site for a PR pitch.

Second, PR pros can share their social media release with their media contacts via email, or through social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and more. We share your release with Google News, or PitchFeed subscribers, and more to come...(all that is still free!) We host each releases free for 30 days, after that you can subscribe to archive and host it. You can also get a custom newsroom to feed your website all of your SMRs.

On the media side of things: Journalists and bloggers can filter your news by keyword, search by category and create a personalized feed of the stories they want to see. They subscribe to it and every time someone posts a new story, they'll see it!

3) For our readers who may not be familiar, what makes the Social Media Release and the Social Media Newsroom different from their "traditional" counterparts? Why are they valuable?
The social media release allows for so much more flexibility. The word doc is for lawyers, email attachments suck and press kits are old school. How's that? No seriously, it gives you the ability to deliver your media contacts (not just a select few) all of the goods. It's like a press kit packed into a link - nice, huh? Media love it, because it is clean, consistent and concise!

4) How does PitchEngine compare to all of the household name (in PR and marketing) distribution methods and wire services? Is PitchEngine designed to replace or supplement these distribution methods?
I think it can supplement them now. Eventually, I think they'll all be like PitchEngine. You can pay to send your press release out and hope it gets picked up, or you can share it with media contacts, engage with them (through comment-enabled Social Media Releases, Twitter and more), and impress them. You decide which is the better approach.

5) For the company that has never created a social media release, or thought that they needed to build a Social Media Newsroom - what's your answer? Why should they do it, and do you have any best practices to recommend as they get started?
Um, here are a few "twestimonials" that might help convince you. The best thing to do - get on PitchEngine, sign up, create and share a release. It's free and you'll love it, seriously.

6) What's next for PitchEngine?
We're adding functionality by the minute. Translation, localization and Asian distribution are coming soon, lots of new SEO benefits and more and more places we'll be sharing to. We want to be known as "PR for the Social Web" and we're going to get there, just a matter of time. :)

Event Recap: Solutions Stars Video Conference

I participated in the Solution Stars Video Conference yesterday. The online event was a series of nine videos on social media marketing topics ranging from Building Web Presence to Visibility Through Search and Time Demands. Each video was a montage of discussions with some of the great minds of marketing and social media (Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan and Liz Strauss, to name a few). Some of my takeaways were interesting sound bites and analogies - my favorite: "twitter takes less time than responding to voice mail." Check out my tweets for other discussion that resonated with me.

The videos are now available on-demand. Regardless of your social media savvy, I encourage you to check it out - there's something for everyone and they're short (5 minutes or less) so you can listen at your leisure.

Thanks to Shashi Bellamkonda and Geoff Livingston for pulling this together. The attendance and chat during the conference tells me that there's steady demand for on-going education on social media marketing strategy and tools - so I look forward the next installment.

- Lisa Throckmorton

Welcome to Middle School

One of my passions is this notion of a "Middle School" when it comes to marketing strategy. For me, Middle School is realistically how most marketing programs are functioning today - blending more traditional marketing activities with new school tools and initiatives to strengthen and expand brand, community and reach. There are some amazing new school tools, and a plethora of them and it's more than a full-time job for people running marketing teams to keep up with them, never mind thoroughly understanding them, determining who will own them and how to measure their effectiveness. Forget educating a more seasoned management team or board on the evolution - "Why do we need a Facebook fan page? Isn't that mostly college students?" I believe that most marketers are overwhelmed. Katie's post today on the results of our buzz seminar is case in point. Sixty-two percent of the people surveyed said that they either didn't have a social media strategy or weren't sure, which tells me that despite the buzz and fanfare, when it comes to marketing programs, we are still closer to the old school than the new.

I meet with a group monthly, you'll be surprised to hear that we call it Middle School. It supports the bridge between the two schools and our jobs as vendor partners to help in the education process and design of strategies that map to your goals and use tactics and tools that communicate to your target audience.

In future blog posts, I will share highlights from our discussions. October's gathering focused on commitment to social media initiatives. Welcome to Middle School.

- Lisa Throckmorton

(Photo by smellyknee)

Finding the mutual purpose of your social campaigns

The thought of participating in news and content creation can be very attractive for companies trying to connect for marketing or customer relations purposes, but before you dive into the new media and social networking pools, make sure you have what Adam Sarner, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, calls a “mutual purpose,” to keep you afloat.

“By a ‘mutual purpose,’ he means a way to serve both the company putting out the campaign and the audience interacting with it.” I’m sure we all know how to be self-serving, but how do you “serve the audience interacting with your campaign?”

One way to is to follow the advice of Jonah Paransky, vice president of marketing for Stacksafe, and recent speaker at SpeakerBox’s Measuring Buzz event, and create problem-focused content – provide answers to common client questions or information that your prospects want and can use to solve a problem or met a need. By doing so, you not only position yourself as a thought leader or expert in your field, but also provide prospects with ideas or introduce opportunities of which they may not have been aware.

In order to be successful your new media and social networking campaigns needs to be less about your business and bottom-line, and more about your customer. After all, it’s not new media if you simply broadcast information. New media is about networked information, contribution, and communication.

- Lisa Wells

Photo source: Flickr.com

A newbie’s foray on Twitter and all the other variations of the verb form

Twitter, Twitter Search, twitterfeed, TweetBeep—is tweetbook on the horizon or is it already here? Well maybe, but its not affiliated with Twitter.

As a newbie, delving into the Twitter world is more than just taking part in the latest phenomenon of microblogging, but a journey that promises to deliver social media at its best and is definitely worth encouraging.

Who doesn’t want to debate, heckle, or send a few lines of communication love via direct messages (which can be routed directly to cell phones mind you)? Why not boost your ego a bit by gathering a flock of followers? Or follow others that have plenty to offer in way of news, business know-how, political gander, a healthy dose of comedy, and the list goes on. A tip to see your flock flourish: microblog often and be real in your few sentences for the world to see.

The basics of posting my 140 words or less was pretty self-explanatory, the only problem I had was trying to figure out how to respond to my followers or those that I was following. I have to say that I’m pretty savvy when it comes to figuring out and maneuvering new sites and until someone pointed out the reply sign on the updates popping up on my message board, I had no clue on how to sound off when I had an opinion about a post.

If that’s the only critique—then I’d say the site is in pretty good shape.

On top of what it regularly offers, Twitter has a lineup of addendum sites that provide specific services, enhancing your Twitter experience. Take TweetBeep as an example. All you have to do is input any one of your topics du jour (i.e. Sarah Palin, the bailout, Spore, Apple, Tina Fey, Wii, all the way down to Ask a Ninja) and then type in your e-mail address. Tada! Now you’ll get alerts via e-mail when a tweet matches your search.

Some of you might already have a blog—well guess what? You can feed that to Twitter too! Sync it up by using twitterfeed. The site’s server will check your blog's feed at the specified interval and post any new items to your Twitter account.

I have to say that Election 2008 on Twitter is the best addition yet. See what all Twitter users are saying about the candidates, Congress, and all things political. Just like Twitter search, Election 2008 is real time. Read the lifeblood of citizens nationwide and across the globe—and see what they’re really thinking outside of what the media is splashing in the news.

Oh and FYI, Twitterbook is the site affiliated with Twitter, offering users the ability to update your home page vis a vis Facebook. However the site that offers a series of tweets strung together in a never-ending story is one thought of by many, but put together on tweetbook.com. What needs to happen? Giving Twitter users the ability to create their own Tweet Book, invite their followers to come play along in the fictionalizing process and see how the story unfolds. Sure, we give Micah Baldwin props for having his own Tweet Book site—but what about all the other Twitter users that want to have control of the storyboard? Come on Twitter—make it happen already!

- Jackie Gilbert

Twitter as a corporate tool? Six reasons your company should be communicating in 140 characters or less

By now you've likely heard about Twitter. TIME let us know why everyone was talking about it, BusinessWeek told us why it mattered, and Forbes named a Twitter King. After reading Federal Computer Week's cover story on Twitter earlier this week, and excellent posts from social marketing guru Chris Brogan and Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang on the value of Twitter for business, and how to jump in (here and here, respectively), I decided to pull together some ideas for the use of Twitter as a corporate tool.


But first, some Twitter love from businesses who are already using Twitter to communicate.
37signals, the software company behind popular Web-based applications like Basecamp, Highrise, Campfire, and Backpack, shared their benefits with Twitter:

"We're able to see what people are saying about us or our products, and if they report a problem or slowness with Basecamp, immediately twitter them back. If they have contact information on their profile page, we send them a direct email from our support address asking for more info so we can troubleshoot the problem for them. It opens up this whole new level of contact with our customers and we're able to proactively handle support requests within seconds of problems being reported."

Last year, the CEO of calendaring startup 30 Boxes weighed in with their goals for communicating via Twitter:
1. keep those people who are interested literally in the development loop
2. provide an offsite status location in case there are any site issues–so bookmark http://twitter.com/30boxes.
3. provide a direct and instant feedback mechanism in case any of you find something drastically wrong, have a creative impulse, or just want a private channel (add 30boxes to your twitter account and you can message us directly)

Want other examples of who's doing this well? Check out Dell, Comcast, Zappos.com, Southwest Airlines, Siemens, JetBlue, and Intel.

Back to the point of the post. How can you use Twitter for your business?
1) LISTEN. Want to know what your customers, partners and target press/analysts are saying on Twitter? Use tools like Twitter Search (formerly Summize) and Quotably to not only find, but track conversations. If you want to be notified every time somebody tweets about your company, product, competitor or market, set up Twitter alerts (similar to Google News Alerts) via TweetBeep.

2) COMMUNICATE. Using Twitter for business is about more than just observing what people are saying about you. Use it as a tool to communicate with customers, partners, media, analysts and your broader community on the trends impacting your industry, product / service news, or company culture. Respond to the questions and feedback you receive. Above all else, make sure that the company voice is authentic, and that if you are hearing customer feedback via Twitter (even bad) that you take the opportunity to actually help.

3) SPOT TRENDS. Use tools like Twist to compare the relative popularity of words and phrases (similar to Google Trends), Twitbuzz to track the latest popular links, and Tweetmeme to identify hot trends.

4) REPURPOSE YOUR CONTENT. Use tools like TwitterFeed to feed your blog (or other corporate RSS feeds) directly to Twitter.

5) ENGAGE YOUR INFLUENCERS. Just like the rest of us, an ever-increasing number of analysts and journalists are using Twitter to communicate, source stories and stay in touch with their communities. Follow those people for the same reason you want to engage with customers and partners - to observe what trends they are watching and what they are working on, to engage in a dialogue on industry trends, and - above all else - establish an authentic and personal relationship with those contacts. SageCircle maintains an excellent Analyst Twitter Directory, and Twellow is a people search engine that will help you locate other influencers.

6) PROVIDE REAL-TIME UPDATES DURING EVENTS. During its annual user conference in June, SpeakerBox client Red Hat used Twitter to keep attendees up to date. For Red Hat Summit attendees who were not Twitter users, Red Hat took advantage of a large, open wall in one of the convention center's central areas and projected the Summit feed onto the wall. Each time I walked past, large groups of attendees were gathered around the Twitter wall catching up on the show's real-time updates. Industry conferences are using it to communicate as well. Check out the RSA Conference's Twitter feed for one of my favorite examples in action.

At the end of the day, the true value of Twitter for businesses is the forum it it offers to create authenticate relationships. Don't think of it as another place to test marketing messages or sales pitches; its not. Twitter is your opportunity to show brand transparency, authenticity and sincerity by listening to and communicating directly with your community.

- Stephanie Stadler

E-Marketing and Viral Video - Diddy Style

My guilty pleasure is trashy reality TV. The more catfights, “tell offs,” hook ups, and acts of debauchery, the more likely I am to tune in. One of my new favorite reality TV shows is “I Want to Work for Diddy.” Produced by Vh1, the show tracks 20 contestants competing for the job of a lifetime: personal assistant to Diddy.

For the reality TV and pop culture challenged, Sean “Diddy” Combs, who you’ve probably seen featured in Burger King’s latest TV ad campaign, is one of the richest people in the hip-hop entertainment business. Banking in $35 million from revenue streams (Sean John clothing line, Bad Boy record label, Ciroc premium vodka and two reality TV shows), Diddy ranked No. 3 on Forbes.com's 2008 Hip-Hop Cash Kings list of the top-earning people in the business.

The fourth episode of “I Want to Work for Diddy” aired on Monday night and featured a viral video challenge. Diddy instructed contestants to create 90-second videos that were “out of the box” and “creative” to help promote the launch of Diddy.com. The videos would be release online, and the team with the highest number of views would win.

While I can’t give the episode a five-star rating on my trashy scale, I can commend Diddy for recognizing the impact of the digital era, the importance of an online presence in today’s marketplace, and for using the Internet as a resource and marketing communications platform.

Diddy creates amateur promotional video (low production cost makes ROI easy) that’s short, interesting, humorous, and sometimes edgy (produces something people will want to watch and talk about/share); optimizes the video by adding a URL (helps people find, save, and share); and then leverages the power and popularity of YouTube and trendy, user-generated content sites such as his blog and MySpace page (makes the video “viral”) to drive traffic to Diddy.com (profits from Web site traffic). And there you have it. A successful e-marketing campaign – that’s recession proof.

- Lisa Wells

Getting the (Text) Message Across

(Photo credit: ABC News)

Today, in an effort to create buzz and push out news, Obama supporters (or anyone else who has signed up) will receive the announcement of who his running mate will be by text message or email. This decision to text supporters is being seen as a way to boost his appeal to younger voters who want to be the “first to know”.

Obama, whether you like him or not, has used technology to his advantage in his campaign to reach his database of supporters for whom text and email are 24/7 realities. You can sign up for e-mail notes, text messages about a number of topics and/or become a fan of his on Facebook. Many voters of any age use email on a daily basis but adding text messaging and social networking to his campaign is aimed at reaching millennials – who are always looking for the fastest and easiest ways to communicate.

Is the Obama campaign simply catching up with the times? Or will the use of ‘newer’ technologies to reach supporters have an effect on voter demographics in this election? I am very interested to see the results.

- Ali Smith

Event Announcement: “Measuring Buzz”

We’re pleased to announce our next event in the SpeakerBox Communications Strategies event series.Details are as follows:
Measuring Buzz: How to Assess the Impact of Your PR and Social Media Strategies

Thursday, October 2, 2008
11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Tower Club, Tysons Corner
Cost: $50 (includes lunch)

Speakers:
* Steve Harris, Director Performance Insights, Clearspring
* Myra Norton, CEO, Community Analytics
* Jonah Paransky, VP of Marketing, StackSafe
* Dr. Jerald L. Feinstein, Professor at The George Washington University, Former Harvard Fellow, and Managing Partner at Buzz Analytics, LLC
* Elizabeth Shea, CEO, SpeakerBox Communications (moderator)

We’re looking forward to an informed discussion by our panel of experts who will discuss strategies for engaging customers, evaluating customer sentiment and determining the most important metrics. For the complete event description, click here. To register, click here. We hope to see you there!

- Katie Hanusik