Social Media ReInvention Blog

7 Reasons To Study Newsjacking by David Meerman Scott

Last week, I purchased/studied in Kindle format David Meerman Scott's latest book: Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas Into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage. 

Newsjacking reinforces and expands the content from David's most recent book, Real Time Marketing and PR: How To Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Creat Products That Grow Your Business Now.  Here's my review of Real Time Marketing and PR in this blog.

Bottom Line:  I highly recommend studying Newsjacking.  It's informative, quick-to-read, and filled with insightful how-to-examples.  In fact, both books are required reading for any marketing/PR executive, business owner, or brand manager who wants to capitalize on media opportunities generated by the real-time Web.

1. Clever Newsjacking Generates Media Bonanza Opportunities

And, We All Can Do It!  David defines "newsjacking" as publishing your personal angle, ideas, or perspective into a breaking news story / event to earn media coverage for your company, brand, or products / services.  

 

 

Help Journalists Write Their Second Paragraphs.  When hot news strikes, journalists scour the Internet via search engines (i.e., Google) and social media (i.e., Twitter, blogs, etc.).  Why?  They're seeking additional content (e.g., details, opinions, etc.) that can differentiate the point-of-view in their individual news stories.

That differentiating point-of-view or compelling content is the "second paragraph."  Journalists seek second paragraph material that:

• Delivers credible, authoritative, and valuable information / perspective
• Describes "why" something happened
• Interprets the event's impact and future implications 

 

 

Credible Second Paragraphs Can Earn Massive Media Attention.  Be fast, use targeted keywords, and provide valuable context in your Tweets and blog posts so journalists can find your contribution to a story with Google searches.  Quickly writing an informative blog post and shrewdly publicizing it with Twitter may take an hour or less.

And, the impact can be huge:  
 

"With a single hour's work many people manage to generate more media attention than a whole year's return on a substantial PR budget."

"I've been a marketer for two decades now, and I have never seen a technique as powerful as newsjacking."

2. Newsjacking Favors Faster, Smaller Players  

Real-Time Speed is a Newsjacker's Bread and Butter.  Speed, decisiveness, and execution drive successful newsjacking. And, you must respond within the hour of a breaking news story.  That's why fast movers are great newsjackers.    

David Can Trump Goliath.  Plus, smaller firms can outplay their larger competitors.  The Fortune 500 has the same opportunity to successfully newsjack as any other organization or individual.  But, their corporate hierarchies and approval processes are handicaps.  

Therefore, smaller firms can outplay their larger competitors:

"What's abundantly true is that newsjacking is easier for nimbler players than its is for the lumbering giants of the corporate world."

"To successfully newsjack or fend off a newsjack, you can't wait for approval.  You just have to do it."

Newsjacking Lives and Dies by Speed.  The graphic below describes the newsjacking process.  Notice how speed drives the entire newsjacking process:

• Tracking and staying on top of breaking news
• Deciding quickly on your response
• Publishing / Publicizing the response instantly

3. Chapter 6 - Ka-Ching: CEO Bags a Cool Million with a Single Blog Post 

A Classic, Must-Read Newsjacking Blog Post.  Joe Payne is the CEO of Eloqua, a company specializing in marketing-automation.  When he learned and verified Oracle entered his industry space, he quickly wrote this blog post:  Oracle Joins The Party.  

There are multiple reasons why this blog post and the surrounding circumstances make it a classic, newsjacking case study:

• The post provides a valuable and quotable industry perspective
• Payne crafted and posted this blog post quickly
• The blog post contains verifiable details and statistics
• Oracle buried this news story in their website
• He outflanked a larger competitor (e.g., Oracle) using new media tools   

Payne's Blog Post Earned Major Media Attention, Credibility, and $1 Million.  When industry analysts and journalists searched Google for news about Oracle, they found Payne's content-rich blog post.  And, they quoted it verbatim.  

In the following examples, I attached the hyperlink to the actual media coverage if the page still exists: 

• Business Week - Eloqua Guarantees Success for Market2Lead Clients Affected by Oracle
• PC World - Oracle Buys IP Assets of Marketing Automation Vendor 
• InfoWorld - Oracle Buys IP Assets of Market2Lead
• Customer Think - Oracle Buys Market2Lead
• Experience Matrix - Oracle Buys Market2Lead Intellectual Assets

The aforementioned media coverage (and other coverage) increased Eloqua's credibility.  In addition, Payne and his team combined the blog post's media coverage with immediate, next-morning business development follow-up.  These combined activities brought Eloqua software deals worth $1 million in new revenue among six (6) new clients.

That's a great outcome especially without the luxury of a multiple phase PR campaign or massive advertising budget.    

4. Chapter 7: Become the Go-To Gal (or Guy) in Your Industry

Blogs Are Powerful Newsjacking Assets.  Long form content achieves four (4) things:

• Provides keyword rich content for search engines to index
• Increases the probability journalists will find your blog post when searching Google
• Delivers context rich details (hard to do in Twitter and Facebook)
• Positions newsjackers as reputable and credible reputable industry authorities

Here's a direct quote from David: "If a blog develops a reputation for serving up informed, insightful, authoritative, articulate, quotable and timely commentary on issues in your industry, journalists will learn to seek you out when issues arise."

Knowing Your Issues / Topics Cold Leads to Long Term Credibility.  Newsjack the issues and topics in which you are well-informed.  That knowledge will make your newsjacking perspective valuable, credible, and authoritative.  

Long term credibility is vital in building an authoritative reputation and relationships with journalists.  Even more importantly, that credibility and reputation dictates why journalists may or may not seek your input in future news stories.  

Why Amdocs and Jeff Barak Are Telecommunications Billing and Customer Care Industry Authorities.  In Chapter 7, David describes how Amdocs and Jeff Barak used their company blog to comment on regulatory changes in their industry.  Barak wrote this blog post, No Need to Be Bill Shocked, while the FCC conducted meetings in late 2010 to discuss legislation about bill shock.

Journalists searched Google for the latest news about this FCC legislation and found Barak's blog post.  His post earned coverage from industry publications (like this one from Penton Media's Connected Planet blog post -- Not Being Shocked by Bill Shock).

5. Learn from Newsjacking Mistakes: The Golden Rules 

The Kenneth Cole Twitter Blunder.  Remember, this infamous tweet from Kenneth Cole during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution:

Unfortunately, Cole used poor taste and judgment when he tried to newsjack this news event.  And, massive public relations backlash resulted.

 

To prevent a social media blunder like this occurring at your organization, David provides these newsjacking objectives and guidelines:

The Golden Rule Objective (Direct Quote).  "When intervening in a news story you should add value - information or insight that contributes to the public's understanding of the situation."

The Four (4) Golden Rules.  Kenneth Cole didn't have the benefit of David's advice before sending out that tweet.  We now have that luxury:    

* Be dignified and statesmanlike.  See the Joe Payne / Eloqua Case Study Above (#3)

* Be positive and upbeat, never mean or vindictive.  Again, see the Joe Payne / Eloqua Case Study Above (#3)

* Write articulate text in full sentences without chatty slang, industry jargon, corporate-speak (i.e., mission-critical or cutting-edge) or social media shorthand (e.g., IMHO)

* Don't get too cute or clever -- especially where human suffering is involved.  See aforementioned Kenneth Cole tweet

6. Newsjackers Monitor News 24/7 Via RSS Feeds

 
RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Feeds Are a Newsjacker's BFF.  David describes how setting up RSS feeds to your favorite news sources, analysts, industry publications, and blogs enables real-time news monitoring.  And, staying abreast of leading news events gives you the competitive advantage to respond fast.  David mentions these RSS services in his book:

• Google Reader
• Newsfire

Fast Responders Earn Attention.  Here's a how-to video I made two years ago on using RSS (e.g., your iGoogle Home Pages) to monitor postings of your favorite blogs to increase your chances of being an early commenter on new posts.  Why? Early commenters earn the author's attention (especially if you're the first commenter).  

The same principle applies when monitoring news sources in real-time and responding quickly to capitalize on a newsjacking opportunity:

 

7. Learn How to Maximize Twitter's Real-Time Capabilities 

A Newsjacker' Must-Have Weapon For Monitoring News Flow.  Twitter's real-time capabilities make it the ultimate rapid response, news monitoring tool.  You can find great second paragraph content and breaking news stories by:

• Catching key phrases by creating columns in Tweetdeck and HootSuite
• Using Twitter's search function
• Setting up a "news" column in Tweetdeck or HootSuite (i.e., a dedicated news column focusing on all the news sources you follow)

A Powerful Fast Response Distribution Channel.  When it comes to publicizing and "pushing out" newsjacking blog posts quickly, Twitter rules.  Remember, journalists search Twitter to find differentiating second paragraph content.

Use Twitter Hashtags (#).  Therfore, include hashtags (the pound key - #) in your tweets to mark them with the unique identifier about a particular subject (i.e., #Cairo).  Remember, the hashtag, makes it easier for journalists to instantly locate in Twitter all references to a particular topic.  Plus, tweets with hashtags are curated in reverse chronological order (i.e., most recent first).

Twitter Can Help You Directly Contact a Journalist.  Most journalists provide or publish their Twitter ID (i.e.@firstnamelastname).  Verify their Twitter ID with a quick Google search.  Then, include his/her Twitter ID in your tweet so you can directly point him/her to your blog post.

HubSpot 2011 State of Inbound Marketing: Long Live Blogs!

Hubspot published its 2011 State of Inbound Marketing Report earlier this year.

Survey responses from 644 professionals familiar with their firms' marketing strategy represented diverse industries such as:

* Retail
* Technology
* Professional Services & Consulting
* Banking / Insurance / Financial Services
* Communications & Media
* Others

The survey respondents of various company sizes included:
* Marketers
* Business Owners
* Entrepreneurs
* Executives 

76% of the companies surveyed said their business sell primarily to other businesses (e.g., B2B).

The report describes how companies are using inbound marketing (e.g., marketing strategies focused on "pulling" relevant prospects and customers towards a businesses and its products).  

Inbound marketing influences purchasing decisions by leveraging the Internet and helping consumers make educated decisions on a company's products and services.

Common inbound marketing tools include:

• Blogging
• Content Publishing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Social Media

 

Here's the complete report in HubSpot's SlideShare Page:

 

The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing

View more documents from HubSpot Internet Marketing

 

Blogs Aren't Dead

Three (3) of the Five (5) Key Takeaways Highlight a Blog's Unique Value.  These key takeaways summarize blogs' importance in customer acquisition, increasing business use, and overall value:

* Blogs and social media channels are generating real customers: 57% of companies using blogs reported that they acquired customers from leads generated directly from their blog.

* More and more businesses are blogging: Businesses are now in the minority if they do not blog.  From 2009 to 2011, the percentage of businesses with a blog increased from 48% to 65%.

* Businesses are increasingly aware their blog is highly valuable:  85% of businesses rated their company blog as "useful," "important," or "critical;" 27% rated their company blog as "critical" to their business. 

Blogs are the Most Cost-Efficient Lead Generation Channel 

* Blogs, social media, and organic search maintained the top slots as least expensive.

* Blogs had the highest instance of being reported as "Below Average Cost."

Companies are Allocating More Resources to Company Blogs 

* Marketers are allocating more of their lead generation budgets to social media and company blogs.

* The average budget spent on company blogs and social media increased from 9% in 2009 to 17% in 2011.

Small Companies Level the Playing Field Via Blogging

* Social media and SEO (search engine optimization) garner the biggest share of small company budgets. 

* And, small companies plan to spend dramatically more of their budgets on blogging (relative to larger companies). 

 

Company Blogs Rank as the Highest Customer Acquisition Channel  

* 57% of firms using company blogs have acquired customers from a blog-generated lead.

* Survey responses show an 11% increase since 2010 in blog-generated leads.

 

And, Customer Acquisition is Directly Correlated to Blog Post Frequency

* At a minimum, successful customer acquisition requires a weekly blog post frequency. 

* 23% more blog users say a weekly blog post frequency delivers a greater return on customer acqusition versus a monthly blog post frequency.

* In addition, 71% of respondents indicated they blog at least weekly.

 

B2B Firms Say You Need LinkedIn and a Blog to Effectively Acquire Customers 

* B2B companies say the LinkedIn is the #1 customer acquisition channel.

* The Company Blog is the #2 customer acqusition channel for B2B companies. 

 

Blogs and LinkedIn are Top Customer Acquisition Channels for Professional Services / Consulting and Technology (Software / Biotech) Firms 

* Three (3) industries had over 50% of respondents say blogging acquires customers:

• Higher Education: 72% (Ranked #2)
• Professional Services / Consulting: 58% (Ranked #2 barely)
• Technology (Software / Biotech): 58% (Ranked #1)

Blogs are the Most Important Social Media Channel

* Blogging Experiences Significant Growth.  From 2009 to 2011, the percentage of respondents with a company blog grew from 48% to 65%.

* Responents Cite Blogs as the Most Critical Social Media Channel.  27% of respondents cited blogging as "critical to their business."  Blogs ranked highest among nine (9) social media channels.

Conclusion      

The Death of Blogs is Grossly Exaggerated.  HubSpot's conclusions support the exact opposite of mainstream media speculation (e.g., all you need to succeed in social media marketing is Facebook and Twitter activity).  The data shows blogs are especially important in:

• Acquiring new customers
• Providing a lower expense marketing channel
• Driving customer acquisition in specfic industries
• Leveling the marketing playing field especially for small businesses
• Demonstrating significant marketing value for B2B companies

Blogging's Importance to B2B Firms is Huge.  Business-to-business companies say the two most important social media channels are LinkedIn and blogs.  I don't find this surprising.  

Blogs Provide Content Versatility.  More importantly, management consulting firms say blogs play a significant role in customer acquisition.  Consulting firms who publish content via company blogs can quickly demonstrate to future and existing clients their creativity and industry expertise in blog posts, videos, news updates, client testimonials, podcasts, and images.

Can You Afford Not to Blog?  I wouldn't recommend bypassing the benefits of blogging (especially if you're a B2B company).  The data clearly shows your competitors are blogging (and the future numbers are trending upward).  If you're a small company (e.g., less than 50 employees), you can level the playing field against more established competitors.

 

When are you going to start your blog?

 

Photo Credit via Flickr by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

5 Competitive Advantages in Studying Real-Time Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott

Members of the Social Media ReInvention Blog Community understand I'm an enthusiastic student and fan of David Meerman Scott.  In numerous posts, I've referenced David and his latest book, Real Time Marketing & PR.  

Bottom Line:  I studied Real Time Marketing & PR from cover-to-cover.  And, I highly recommend purchasing it as a key resource in your digital marketing library.

 

1. The New Competitive Advantage is Speed & Agility

Leverage and Respond to Real-Time News Events.  Companies and individuals who leverage current news events to instantaneously communicate with customers (as these events unfold) hold a distinct competitive advantage over larger, bigger budget rivals.  These larger rivals value size and scale (not speed).  And, that distinction provides significant opportunity for competitive differentiation.

Real-Time Responsiveness Differentiates Important Service Capabilities.  Applications of real-time competitive differentiation include:

• Using direct and swift communications in customer service 
• Preparing for and moving quickly in crisis communications (aka disaster recovery situations)
• Developing and testing new products / service offerings
• Creating an organizational culture valuing speed and open communications 

The Link to Important Business Objectives.  All of the aforementioned capabilities achieve one or several of the following business objectives:

• Driving sales revenues
• Saving money (i.e., lower customer acquistion costs)
• Acquiring new customers (e.g., enabiling additional lead generation)
• Strengthening existing customer relationships

2. A Mindset of Real-Time Competitiveness 

The Real-Time Mindset Means Thinking Differently.  Here's my graphical interpretation of David's description of the real-time mindset (page 34):

 

Blink and You've Lost the Advantage.  Gaining (or losing) the competitive advantage depends on WHEN you react/respond to breaking news events.  Pages 29 thru 31 explain why ultra-fast, first movers win in real-time deployment: 

• The Real-Time Marketing & PR Power Law
• The Real-Time Law of Law of Normal Distribution

3. Select Your Real-Time Platforms Carefully 

Real-Time Differentiation and Capability Isn't Always Obvious - Just Ask Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams.  I conducted a back-of-the-envelope analysis of the real-time tools most often cited in Real-Time Marketing & PR.  Hands-down, the real-time winner is Twitter. 

But, Twitter's differentiating niche wasn't always obvious from its beginnings in July 2006.   From FastCompany.com in November 2010, I Want My Twitter TV! (by Ellen McGirt), Evan Williams says on page 3:

"We didn't know what we were at first.  I think it's pretty clear now that Twitter is a real-time information network (e.g., any previous confusion about Twitter being a social network or Facebook is now over)."

Throughout his book, David provides several examples describing how Twitter,  TweetDeck and HootSuite are used for important real-time functions:

• Monitoring conversations
• Responding directly to current customers or new, potential customers
• Directing Twitter audience members to long form channels (i.e., the company blog or YouTube) for more details

The New Media Life Cycle Helps in Evaluating the Right Real-Time Platforms (and Avoiding the Wrong Ones).  Pages 131 to 135 highlight input and data from Andrew Davis, Chief Strategy Officer at Tippingpoint Labs.  Davis explains the New Media Life Cycle as the adoption of any platform (blogging, microblogging, photo sharing, or live video streaming) or content distribution channel (YouTube.com, Slideshare.com, Flickr.com, or Twitter.com). 

The New Media Life Cycle openly tracks and analyzes an online platform's current life cycle phase in seven (7) distinct phases:

1. Experiment
2. Adopt
3. Gestate
4. Escalate
5. Monetize
6. Consolidate
7. Maintain

Early Adopters / First Movers Win.  Early adopters understand The New Media Life Cycle, and exploit it to their competitive advantage.  They know participating early in an emerging social network matters.  Page 134 expains the secret to becoming well known on a social media network is to participate in one that's growing quickly, but is still in the early stage.  A perfect example is the fast-growing Empire Avenue - The Social Media Exchange.

Remember Second Life? They're not a Real-Time Player (but Twitter is).  Tippingpoint Labs and Google Insights provide data driven examples showing why Second Life is already past its prime (page 134).  But, Twitter continues growing and is an outstanding real-time platform (page 135).

4. Managing Crisis Communications Means Real-Time Speed  

The Money Insights of Real-Time Marketing & PR.  The insights shared on crisis communications and disaster recovery are worth the purchase price alone.  Why?  The situations described in the book can happen to all of us.  No one is immune in a digital age.

In my opinion, these sections require careful study:

• Chapter 7: Crisis Communications and the Media (pages 71-81)
• Chapter 8: What are People Saying About You This Instant? (pages 92-94)
• Chapter 10: Real-Time Customer Connection (pages 124-126)

Build Your Media and Journalist Contacts NOW.  David explains how too few organizations (particularly the larger ones) fail to build media and journalist relationships before they need them (i.e., contacts with analysts, editors, and reporters). 

Credibility and Trust with Media Contacts Requires Time.  A communications crisis requires speed and focus (so you have little to no time).  In addition, you compound risk by introducing yourself to your media contacts for the first time. 

Five Ways to Build Media and Journalist Relationships.  Build your media and journalist relationships before you need them.  David provides the following suggestions:

1. Follow the Publications and Its Journalists
2. Comment on Their Stories and Blog Posts
3. Introduce Yourself Via Email
4. Follow Journalists on Twitter and Engage Them in Conversation
5. Earn Their Respect by Providing Valuable Content and Information (e.g. No Spam)

When Disaster Strikes, Refer to the Real-Time Communications Checklist.  David provides a 9-Point Crisis Communications Checklist.  All of his suggestions should be implemented before the crisis hits:

• Assigning a crisis communications team
• Gathering and storing key contact information inside and outside your organization
• Delegating who's the organization's lead communicator
• Responding through multiple real-time, online channels (i.e., company blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

IMPORTANT:  Respond in the same online medium spawning the crisis.  If the event happened in YouTube, respond with your own YouTube video.

5. Real-Time Organizations Have Communication Guidelines

Developing Real-Time Communications Guidelines and Roles in Your Organization.  Pages 171 -172 provide an 8-Step Checklist for creating and implementing guidelines.  In addition on pages 175 - 176, David introduces his take on a new senior executive position: Chief Real Time Communications Officer.  On page 176, he explains the job description in a 14-point bulleted list.

IBM, The U.S. Air Force, and Telstra Succeed as Real-Time Communicators.  Pages 161 - 173 describe how each organization uses real-time communications, empowers their employees, and publicly shares their guidelines.  IBM's guidelines are shared on pages 162 - 170.

Here are hyperlinks and titles of the communications guidelines for these organizations:

• IBM: Social Computing Guidelines
• U.S. Air Force: New Media and the Air Force
• Telstra (Australia's largest telecom company): Telstra's 3Rs of Social Media Engagement

Telstra even created YouTube Videos introducing their 3R's of Social Media Engagement to their employees: Representation, Responsibility, and Respect:

 

 

 

BONUS SECTION.  Here are additional resources for social media guidelines:

* Social Media Governance's database to 100+ publicly published real-time / social media guidelines

* Econsultancy Blog: 16 Social Media Guidelines Used by Real Companies

Conclusion

Fortune 500 Executives Please Read This Book.  Real-Time Marketing & PR is essential and required reading for C-Level executives, communications, marketing, and public relations professionals.  As stated earlier, the disaster recovery and crisis communications advice shared makes it a worthwhile investment (especially if you hold that responsibility for a Fortune 500 organization).

Leaders of Small or Medium-Sized Can Outflank the Fortune 500.  David describes how small and medium-sized businesses are practicing real-time communications and ringing their respective cash registers.  Their commitment to real-time marketing and PR is how they're outflanking their larger Fortune 500 competitors.

Have You Read This Important Book?  If you haven't, you're at a key disadvantage relative to competitors.  If you have, I'd love to read your comments.  Please let me know what you learned (especially the points I failed to capture in this review -- there are so many)! 

 

Real Time Mindset: Photo Credit 1 by dirk schaefer via Flickr

Speed: Photo Credit 2 by Randy Le'Moine Photography via Flickr

iPhone Stopwatch: Photo Credit 3 by dyobmti via Flickr 

8 Takeaways from Mashable's Modern Media Agency INFOGRAPHIC

Have you seen the cool infographic Mashable published in the article, What Makes the Modern Media Agency [INFOGRAPHIC]?

 

 

Lisa Waananen wrote the article and created the infographic describing important trends, data, and priorities of modern media agencies and their clients.


My 8 Takeaways. What are Yours?

#1 Digital Media as a Priority. Media buyers still prefer TV over digital by a 2:1 ratio.

#2 Trivializing Social Media (Not Smart). Public Twitter snafus at Kenneth Cole and Chrysler highlight why all brands need social media guidelines.

#3 Mobile Marketing. Digital Agencies are betting bigger on mobile applications versus their clients (e.g., 75% digital agencies versus 62% of advertising clients).

#4 Measuring Buzz for Data. Measurement is important but the biggest challenge is turning all that data into meaningful action.

#5 The Static Newsletter. Static emails aren't enough. They require compelling content (i.e., video) with social sharing buttons to increase engagement and click-throughs.

#6 Using Social Media - Part 1. 65% of executives feel emerging technologies and Web 2.0 tools increase marketing effectiveness.

#7 Using Social Media - Part 2. 25% of Fortune Global 100 companies use ALL four (4) of the most popular social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs.

#8 Recession Cutbacks. 2011 advertising spending will increase (even in TV).


Conclusion

Infographics are becoming more important in the art of storytelling. I love them because they communicate a lot of data in a visually compelling format. To learn more about infographics, I suggest this post by Adam Singer: Data Visualization and Infographics to Tell Your Story.

I especially like Ms. Waananen's infographic because all the data sources for her research are cited at the bottom of the infographic.

What do you think of the infographic? What are some of the key takeaways you learned? Or, what do you think of using infographics as a storytelling tool?

Real-Time PR Speed & Personal Redemption: Kraft Hires Ted Williams, The Homeless Man with The Golden Voice

 

The Ted Williams Story: The Homeless Man With The Golden Voice is a classic, real-world example of applying the lessons from David Meerman Scott's book, Real-Time Marketing & PR.

Background on Ted Williams and the Viral Video

I first learned about the incredible Ted Williams story on January 5th from this Mitch Joel post titled: The New Journalism.  Doral Chenoweth III shot the viral video that has and continues to positively transform Mr. William's life. I've read news stories that this video has received views ranging from 4 million to as high as 11 million. 

Here's a copy of the original video I found through some Google searches.  If the embedded video here is no longer available, try this link to The Columbus Dispatch YouTube Channel.

 

 

Speed Drives Kraft's Brilliant Real-Time Marketing & PR Coup

Real-Time Speed Wins.  The Columbus Dispatch published the video and story about Mr. Williams on Wednesday, January 5th at 2:54 AM. According to this January 7th Marketwire Press Release, Kraft contacted and hired Mr. Williams by January 6th.  Therefore, Kraft viewed this video, understood the opportunity, contacted Mr. Williams, and flew him to New York for the voice-over studio work.  Elapsed Time: Less than 24 hours! 

This is Real-Time Social Media and PR Brilliance at Work!  Why?  Kraft did everything right in acting on this real-time news opportunity:

1. They reacted quickly
2. They went with the story, recognized he PR opportunity, and published their response without getting bogged down in a lengthy, corporate approval process
3. They published their response in the same social media medium in which the real-time event occurred - YouTube.

In fact, the embedded video is the behind-the-scenes production for one of four (4) videos Kraft created with Mr. Williams.  These videos are scheduled to air at different times during the year (including the 2011 Super Bowl).
 

 

Integration with Kraft's Existing Social Media Channels Promoting Mac & Cheese.  Here's a link to the Kraft Mac & Cheese Facebook Fan Page.  Notice the thank you replies by Mr. Williams on this Fan Page on Sunday, January 9th.  When I typed my well wishes to Mr. Williams, this Fan Page listed 366,000+ Fans.  I'm sure that number continues to increase.

Conclusion

Everybody Wins.  That's what makes this such a compelling public relations and social media story:

* Kraft executes a major PR coup that may be the marketing-feel-good-story of 2011.

* Ted Williams gains a new lease on life.  Here's a link to a recent Advertising Age article discussing Ted William's new personal professional options.

What If Kraft Attempted an ROI Analysis Before Acting in Real-Time.   I recently published a post about social media measurement and not getting all caught up in the paralysis analysis of social media ROI.  If Kraft spends all that time conducting ROI analysis to justify the social media impact on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese sales, this opportunity is lost.

Or maybe, just maybe, Kraft responded quickly for one reason:

IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO

Photo Credit: By DVIDSHUB via Flickr  

The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 5 - How and What To Measure

 

This blog series covers insights shared by Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) on The Business Value Behind Social Media (part of The Premier Business Leadership Series presented by SAS).  Part 4 covers the panel's discussion and suggestions on how to get started in social media (particularly for organizations late to the game). 

Part 5 highlights the panel's insights on measuring social media's business impact by:

* Defining what metrics are valuable (and which are not)

* Understanding how your company performs in search engine results (i.e., SERPs)

* Showing how social media activity "bridges or links" to an organization's bottom line

* Acknowledging the real reasons driving an organization's desire for measuring social media initiatives

This post highlights the panel's discussion from 36:57 to 43:18 of the embedded video.

 

Track and Measure Meaningful Metrics

Number of Followers, Fans, or Page Views Is Not a Valuable Performance Metric (37:07 - 39:18).  According to Chris, reliance on metrics quantifying potential reach or number of people "who possibly saw" your message is a mistake.  The traditional pubic relations imprint methodology for quantifying success is not what you want. Why then do people cite these figures?  Because people want to bring large performance numbers to the C-Suite executives supporting the social media initiatives. 

Customer conversion numbersare the more refined and accurate number marketers should cite (i.e., "how many people clicked on the link you wanted them to click on").  Chris elaborates that earning 1.5 million You Tube views isn't enough.  If none of these viewers takes action on the link that leads to your cash register (e.g., convert to paying customers or take a specific action), then you're missing business opportunities.

Track Metrics Articulating a Specific Business Outcome(s) (38:10 - 38:32).  Chris encourages his clients to track the following metrics when evaluating social media initiatives:

• Revenue Increases
• Lead Acquisition (particularly decreases in cost of lead acquisition)
• Number of Subscribers to Company Newsletters
• Impact on Open Rates to Existing Company Media
• Percentage of Conversation / Percentage of Mind -- Sentiment Metrics

Percentage of Conversation / Percentage of Mind (38:33 - 39:17).  Chris believes sentiment metrics are valuable because they provide an understanding of what and how often customers are talking about your company's products or services (especially relative to your competitors).  He suggests companies locate the most active online forums where their products / services are being discussed and track this metric:

• How much percentage of mind is positive (+)
• How much percentage of mind is negative (-)

The key is to remember how your choice of tracking metrics will always depend on the business goal sought.  Therefore, always tie your social media tracking metrics to specific business outcomes.

Understand and Improve Your Search Engine Results

The Importance of Search Engine Results Pages - SERPs (39:19 - 39:47).  David explains it's important to know two (2) things about search engine results:

(1) What are the important keywords and phrases relevant to your industry

(2) Where do your firm's products / services appear in the search results for these keywords and phrases.  Take careful note of how your results fare relative to your competitors in these searches.

Search engine results matter because a buyer's intent starts with online search.  If a company's products / services are currently landing on the fifth (5th) page of Google searches, social media can improve those results so the company earns first page placement.  

Side Note:  I wrote a blog post on the value of page one Google results in organic search.  According to the research documented in that post, ~95% of consumers stop looking at their search results beyond the second page (regardless of the search engine used).  This is why search engine rankings matter. 

Bridge / Link Social Media Activity to Specific Business Outcomes

Duration of Sales Cycle Close and Linking Other Business Activities to Social Media (40:18 - 41:08).  Chris notes how tracking the time to close sales is important.  If you can accelerate / shorten the sales cycle duration, you are demonstrating how social media contributes to revenue generation.  Other valuable metrics:

(1) Number of Customer Interactions / Touches:  Research says you need to touch / interact with the customer approximately nine (9) times before making a sale.  With social media, an organization can increase the number of customer interactions and beyond industry benchmarks.

(2) Competitive Intelligence Data:  LinkedIn Company Profiles allows you to see which companies are researching your firm on LinkedIn.  Also, you can find additional information about competitors on the Company Profiles Pages.

(3) Link to Existing Sales Funnel Metrics - Car Dealerships and Test Drives:  Chris points out that number of page views on specific car model's home page is good, but that doesn't tell you a lot about overall impact on sales.  Therefore, car dealerships are linking and tracking social media activity's influence on number of test drives. By linking social media activity to number of test drives, the car dealership links to an existing and trusted sales funnel metric. 

To Chris, the type of linking described in the car dealership example is "the gold of social media."  Why?  The car dealership example shows how social media can improve customer conversion.

What's Really Driving the Social Media Measurement Obsession?

Is It Fear?  (41:25 - 42:47)  When David hears senior executives questioning the financial validity of social media, he thinks it's really a veiled response for "I don't want to be bothered with social media."  Therefore he addresses that objection by posing the following question:

"As soon as you can tell me the ROI of giving each salesperson a Blackberry, I'll tell you the ROI of participating in social media."

We Do Certain Things in Business Because It's the Right Thing to Do.  Here are additional examples of existing corporate activities that David cites as having no quantifiable ROI, but we do them because these are the right things to do:

• Painting the walls
• Maintaining a nice-looking corporate campus
• Providing salespeople with Blackberry smartphones for client management (and as a company expense)

It's Not Always About Putting in $X and Always Getting $X Back .  David concluded his point-of-view with an important point.  Yes, measuring social media is important, BUT make sure you're divorcing your indvidual fears/ignorance/bias before justifying the need to measure something.

We Tend to Overvalue the Things We Can Measure and Undervalue the Things We Cannot (42:49 - 43:48).  Charlene cited this quote from John Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer of American Express, when describing the social media measurement obsession. 

She elaborates it's not a matter of "is social media worth it" because we already know there's value in it.  In the big picture perspective, she points out:

• Is it really possible to value a relationship?
• If so, how much value do you place on that relationship? 

Conclusion

How Much Do We Value Relationships?  This should be the governing question for all organizations when evaluating and measuring social media business impact.  Why? The resounding theme expressed by Brogan, Li, and Meerman Scott throughout the video always comes back to:

It's All About Relationships

Companies who've founded their reputations on this moral value are the ones genuinely investing the time, resources, and money to become relevant social media citizens.  Companies like Starbucks, IBM, Best Buy, Intel, H&R Block, Boeing, HubSpot, Amazon, Dell, fall into this mix. 

Cold, Hard Fact: Social Media is Reinventing the Power of Customer Influence.  The power of one individual (or a collective group) to influence a company's online reputation is significant -- and that power is here to stay.  In fact, that word-of-mouth power (WOM) is escalating.   

This brings me to a simple question:

Is Social Media ROI really just Corporate Code for CYA? 

I would argue Yes.  Please understand, I strongly believe in measuring social media's business impact and linking its activities to targeted, business outcomes.  Doing so allows an evaluation and understanding of the social media activities making a positive business impact (and even more importantly, those that are not).  Making that determination is critical because successful social media initiatives require the significant investments mentioned earlier.  As a result, measurement drives informed decisions on resource prioritization.  

Therefore, let's not go down the paralysis analysis road to financially justify every aspect of social media participation.  Let's keep an eye on the ball and the big picture.  While you kindly invested time to read this post, someone is online.  And he/she is positively or negatively influencing your company's financial success RIGHT NOW. 

In closing, if our customer and client relationships are strictly based on the bottom-line (e.g., transactional), then we're making a momentous mistake.  Here's a direct quote from MG Siegler's December 17th Tech Crunch article describing Yahoo's current financial and strategic challenges:

"Yahoo is all about the shareholders now.  It's all about the bottom-line.  That's all that matters.  It's not about the users.  It's not about building or maintataining great products.  It's about finding the ones that make the money and slicing the rest." 

Remember, at the end of the day, it's not about you or me.  It's about clients, customers, and helping them make informed decisions about the business challenges they confront.  It's about something bigger than ourselves. 

It's All About Relationships.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for spending your valuable time in reading this installment of The Business Value Behind Social Media.  Please tune in for Part 6 - Social Media and Crisis Recovery.

I'm targeting January 15, 2011 for publishing Part 6.  I want to get it right, and I'll also be catching up in my "regular job" after returning from vacation over the holidays. 

Many Thanks and Have a Safe and Happy New Year's Day! 

Photo Credit: By atomicjeep Via Flickr

Intel's Social Media Strategist Says Social Media Is Not Free

 

Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst, recently spoke with Kathleen Malone, Senior Manager and Social Media Strategist of Intel.  During the interview, Ms. Malone shared key insights about investments Intel is making in social media marketing.  The interview included Intel's social media budgeting process, how the Social Media Center of Excellence operates, and the challenge allocating staff resources.

The Challenge of Managing Stakeholder Expectations: Social Media is not Free

Social Media Initiatives Requires Budgetary Funding.  Here are some direct quotes supporting the fact that social media requires financial investment (even in a large organization like Intel).

* "We like to remind management and stakeholders that social media is not free."

* "Intel has been an early adopter in social media, but we haven't funded it as well as many of us would like."

* "We anticipate funding in three areas: expanding tools, infrastructure and analytics, because we need to expand our ability to measure and drive insight; social network site development; and campaign activation."

* "We'd like to scale social media [globally] in 2011.  We're hoping that we secure budget to move funding into this area."

When Williamson asked Malone about budgets expanding at Intel to support social media marketing, she replied: "Yes, it would be an expansion and a more defined social media budget to support scaling, more interesting and dynamic social content and our enablement goals.

Processes, Infrastructure, and Marketing Integration Supporting Social Media

Intel's Social Media Center of Excellence Manages Social Media Guidelines, Training / Education. Intel established The Social Media Center of Excellence as part of the marketing strategy and campaigns team.  This team reports to sales and marketing and ultimately to Intel's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).  The Social Media Center of Excellence manages social media guidelines and governance which is important because this team's role is to drive strategy, enablement, use of social media, and social media training and education within Intel. 

Centralized Social Media Training and Guidelines.  At Intel, the Social Media Center of Excellence makes sure that Intel's employees using social media (corporate marketing group and other business units) understand and know the latest guidelines. These guidelines include employees disclosing they are Intel employees in their Twitter "names or handles" and blogs.

Social Media Integration with Overall Marketing Requires Infrastructure.  Social media started off at Intel organically, unstructured, and was led by early adopters.  According to Malone, 2009 and 2010 have been about operationalizing social media and putting in an infrastructure.  The goal in 2011 is to scale up social media use but ensure Intel does so strategically. 

Successful Audience Engagement Requires A Social Media Team 

2011's Biggest Challenges for Successful Social Media Engagement.  Williamson asked Malone what will be the biggest challenges she faces in making social media engagement successful in 2011 and beyond.  Malone makes two key statements:

"The resource issue is a big obstacle, because social media can be time-consuming.  To be successful you need to fully engage in a two-way dialogue."

"And so I think the challenges are around having enough resources to get social media to scale."

You Need an In-House Social Media Staff Participating in Conversations.  Malone points out how successful social media engagement must come from within the organization.  In her view, the organizations successfully leveraging social media are participating and engaging with their own teams or as she says: "We believe it's important to stay engaged firsthand."

You Can't Outsource Genuine Social Media Engagement.  Furthermore, Malone implies that "handing off social media execution to an agency" is a mistake.  I agree with this point.  I think her direct quote says it all:

"It's not the same a putting a media plan together, where you are briefing an agency to complete the plan.  You can do some of that in social media, but I don't think the companies that are most successful in social media are handing off a whole lot." 

Conclusion

The Intel case study demonstrates how successful social media marketing is neither free nor easy.  Even for a technology-savvy organization like Intel, successful social media strategy execution requires time, financial investment, people, guidelines, processes, and infrastructure.

Most importantly, Ms. Malone's viewpoint that genuine social media engagement requires significant resources in time and people (e.g., a dedicated team) bears repeating.  The guidelines, the processes, and the team members required to enable Intel in "scaling up" its social media strategy will require major investments in time and people.

Social Media Engagement Requires Time + Commitment.  This is "the commitment investment" that many organizations fail to honor.  Social media engagement isn't about the technological tools (i.e., Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Facebook, etc.).  Social media engagement is about interacting with another human being who enjoys participating in the online conversation by sending out tweets and updating their personal status.

And it takes a lot of time, hard work, and commitment to genuinely and consistently engage those folks if you want to earn their trust over the long haul ...

 
Photo Credit: By yomanimus Via Flickr

The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 1 - Social Media Strategy from A to Z

 

David Meerman Scott shared an informative YouTube video in his November 16th blog post, The Business Value Behind Social Media.  The video took place during The SAS Premier Business Leadership Series and included a panel discussion on The Business Value of Social Media with the following participants:

* Martin Giles, The Economist, US Technology Correspondent.  Martin moderated the October 2010 panel discussion.  In David 's aforementioned blog post, he notes how Martin Giles is the best moderator he has ever worked with.  After viewing and studying this video, I understand why. 

* Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, popular blogger and co-author of Trust Agents and author of Social Media 101.

* Charlene Li, Founder and CEO of Altimeter Group, popular blogger, and co-author of two (2) books, Groundswell and Open Leadership.

* David Meerman Scott, popular blogger and best-selling author of the two (2) books The New Rules of Marketing & PR and Real-Time Marketing & PR. 

  

 

The discussion topics covered the following issues relevant to social media strategy, emerging trends, and several case study examples of its successful execution (or in some cases, unsuccessful):

* How should organizations build a social media presence?

* Who within the organization should own the social media function?

* How can organizations measure and analyze the value of social media?

* Who are the model organizations of modern social media management and strategy execution? 

Part 1 represents the first piece of a multiple-post blog series describing the insights shared in this video.  My goal is to publish the posts from every Saturday morning until completion (but please bear with me if I slip on a date).  Part 1 will be the A to Z Executive Summary provided by Martin Giles at the end of the panel discussion.  In the future posts, I will publish the deep dives generated from the panel's discussion.  And trust me, there's a lot of substance in this panel discussion because I recorded 20+ pages of notes.

Martin's A to Z Executive Summary starts at 1:01:57 of the video.  His Executive Summary recapped Chris', Charlene's, and David's insights from different parts of their hour-long conversation.  Where appropriate, I sprinkled in my point-of-view (I hope you don't mind).

Executive Summary: Social Media Strategy from A to Z

* A = Analytics.  Understanding the value and ROI your social media initiatives produces requires analyzing the data with analytics tools. 

* B = Brogan and Boeing.   Chris did a great job as a contributing member.  Boeing showed it was listening to the conference's live Twitter Feed by acknowledging David Meerman Scott's positive comments citing Boeing as a model organization in social media strategy and execution.  Here' the tweet, Boeing sent to David: @dmscott thanks for citing us during #pbls10. Here's the air show effort DMS mentioned. http://bit.ly/dkQEqC 

* C = Control.  Control in social media means you have to give it up.  Learn to lose control.

* D = Disaster Recovery.  Mistakes will happen in your business. Have a disaster recovery plan in place to address these mistakes through the right social media channels.  For example, if an irate customer makes a highly publicized complaint via their blog, respond quickly by commenting on that customer's blog.  Responding via a press release is a mistake. 

* E = Earpiece and Earning Credibility.  Martin made light of having to constantly readjust his earpiece during the panel discussion.  He also pointed out how much of the discussion focused on "earning credibility" through your social media efforts versus the traditional advertising mentality of "buying credibility."

* F = Facebook and The Future of The Web (two highly debated topics among the panel members). 

* G = Grab Audience Attention. On the World Wide Web, you have to creatively think of ways to grab audience attention.  Martin also said G stands for Go Giants because he lives in San Francisco.

* H = Human.  Be human and don't be afraid to put real human beings on The Web to support and implement your social media efforts. 

* I = Innovate and Influencers.  Identify the online influencers in your impacting your organization's online reputation and think of innovative ways to reach them.

* J = Journalists.  Martin noted The Internet's impact on traditional publishing and how he may be searching for a job soon (so please hire him).  Also, David suggests organizations bring journalists into their social media operations because of their storytelling abilities and gift for creating share-worthy content. 

* K = KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).  Carefully think about and select your KPIs and how they can inform your decision-making.

* L = Charlene Li and Listening. Charlene Li contributes great insights to the panel and cites many different examples particularly in the Fortune 500.  Martin thanks the live in-person and online audiences for listening.  Most of all, he cites how organizations need leverage social media in listening to their respective online audiences.

* M = David Meerman Scott, Modeling (a humorous reference to David's former career as a male model in Japan), and Measurement.  An ongoing and important future trend in social media is understanding how to best measure its impact.

* N = Need to Respond Quickly.  Martin notes how he and his fellow journalists are online 24/7.  Learn to respond in real-time because if you're not, there's a problem. 

* O = Open Leadership and Ownership.  This is the title of Charlene's recently released book (I purchased my copy this past week).  Her book describes the required organizational and leadership attributes required to effectively compete and successfully engage audiences in today's World Wide Web.  In addition, her new book discusses how to determine, manage, and execute the right open leadership strategy for your organization.  Ownership is for who's going to own and execute your social media strategy (and what's the best way to do that).

* P = People and Paris Hilton.  As Martin says, I'll stop right there ...

* Q = Questions.  Pose better questions to your audience because we've discussed numerous examples of how really smart companies benefit from seeking audience feedback.

* R = ROI and Real-Time.  The panel shared examples where companies have achieved ROI and how they measure it.  Furthermore, companies who learn or take the initiative to respond and act in real-time will have future competitive advantages in areas ranging from product development, interacting with the media, and capitalizing on real-time events impacting your industry.

* S = Sharing.  Social media is about sharing great content so be willing and generous in sharing it.

* T = Twitter and Trusted Advisor.  The panel provided a number of examples of using Twitter to generate revenues, enhance customer service, and promote content.  Consistency, commitment, responsiveness, and a genuine attitude to help customers make better, informed decisions described organizations developing Trusted Advisor reputations online. 

* U = Understand Customer Insights.  A lot of these insights come from "L" Listening and "A" Analytics.

* V = Virality.  Whatever you're publishing on the World Wide Web, learn to accept that your content will flash across at the speed of light.

* W = Word-of-Mouth.  That's the real goal here.  If you get existing customers and potential customers to talk about you to one another, you've created a fabulous success story.

* X = X  Marks the Spot.  Martin joked this is what he figured what the audience was wondering for what he would write for "X."

* Y = You.  Martin also joked "you" (as in the audience) must be wondering "when I'm going to shut up."

* Z = Zero.  Zero because Martin had zero time left.  

Conclusion

Watching and studying this video was a labor of love.  How many times do you get the opportunity to learn from thought leaders like Brogan, Li, and Meerman Scott interacting on the same stage.  I personally want to thank SAS for publishing and sharing the videos from The Premier Business Leadership Series.  By allowing thought leaders like David Meerman Scott to share this content, everyone in the social media community benefits.

Thank you for reading and if you watched the video, please let me know in the comments.  What did you enjoy and learn?   I would love to hear from you.

Please stay tuned for next Saturday's installment -- The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 2 - Open Leadership, Guidelines, Process Discipline, and Goals. 
   

Photo Credit: By Kyle Van Horn Via Flickr

PM360 Online Social Media Think Tank Article: What's Hot, What's Next in Social Media

In the April 2010 Issue of PM360, I'm featured as a contributing author to PM360's Social Media Think Tank Article: What's Hot, What's Next in Social Media.  I was both thrilled and humbled when they asked me to participate in providing some observations on the use of social media in the pharmceutical industry. 

In the article, I described Johnson & Johnson's extensive participation in social media channels and opinions from their communications leaders on what's driving their success.  Also, I provided my personal opinions on potential audience engagement metrics to help an organization in prioritizing time invested in social media.

This is the first time I've been asked to provide opinions on social media to an industry publication so I cannot begin to express my gratitude for this opportunity.

If you have a few moments, please check out the PM60 article.  Eight (8) additional contributing authors are featured (and trust me they're all a lot smarther than I am).  I wrote the second article listed on the website. 

I hope you don't mind me sharing this quick post.  Really, a short post from Tony Faustino - Yeah, Right ...

 

Successful Social Media Marketing Is Neither Free Nor Easy

 This article, "Entrepreneurs Question Value of Social Media," from the Wall Street Journal caught my eye (and I'm sure several other readers' eyes) with it's clever headline and additionally provocative phrases:

* "Marketing Via Facebook, Twitter Yields Results for Some, Others Say It's Overrated" and "Hype Right Now Exceeds the Reality"

The WSJ article quotes findings from 2,000 small business owners surveyed by the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business and Network Solutions LLC.  Among the survey's findings included:

* Most users of social media - 58% - find the medium "just met expectations for success.  For the remainder, twice as many feel the medium fell short of expectations (26%) than exceeded expectations (12%) for success.

* 50% of small business users of social media have found that it has taken up more time than they expected.

So does this mean social media really doesn't work?  Is all that blogging, tweeting, friending, videoing, and updating of statuses to engage a specific target audience or buyer persona a complete waste of time?

  

Of course not.  But, I think these findings should "recalibrate" our expectations about how quickly social media and inbound marketing can impact overall business success.  Here are some thoughts in putting the achievement of business success via social media into perspective:

 

1. Social Media Success Stories Like Chris Brogan and HubSpot Didn't Happen Overnight

In my opinion, two of the most successful social media success stories demonstrating the time, dedication, and commitment required are Chris Brogan and HubSpot.  Both have invested years and countless hours to build their brands and business success via social media and inbound marketing. 

And their level of commitment continues ...

Chris Brogan.  Brogan has been an online practitioner and social media evangelist for more than a decade, and in the last few years he's finally receiving more mainstream recognition and credit.  His book, Trust Agents, about how organizations can use social media to personally engage consumers, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. 

But, this success and recognition did not occur overnight.  In fact, Brogan says it took him eight years (8) to acquire 100 subscribers when he started his blog.  Check out his video series called "Overnight Success" so you can see first-hand how social media success is hard-earned.

HubSpot. This organization literally created and proliferated the phrase "inbound marketing." They've published a best-selling book called Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs describing the online strategies and tactics driving their current business success (along with the success of other small to medium-sized businesses).   

And yes, they've also been diligently implementing and practicing those social media and inbound marketing strategies from their book for years.  As a point of reference, I looked at two data points regarding their popular Internet Marketing Blog.  These numbers illustrate the significant time and dedication required (and blogging is just one important channel of their multi-channel social media strategy):

(A) Years Invested in Blogging: ~3.5 years; Their first blog post was written in August 2006.  During a HubSpot webinar I attended this week, Brian Halligan (one of HubSpot's co-founders) said they initially started blogging once per week.  Now, they publish almost 3 blog posts daily.

(B) Number of Blog Posts Published by HubSpot: ~1000+ as of March 31, 2010.  This is my "back-of-the-envelope" analysis based on the number of posts I found on the HubSpot Website.

 

 

2. Long Term Commitment, Patience, and Flexibility: Social Media and Inbound Marketing are No Exception

This post by John McTigue of Kuno Creative, "Disappointed By Your Inbound Marketing Results," provides realistic and practical advice when managing expectations about social media and inbound marketing.  He emphasizes four (4) points (which I've paraphrased here).  Read John's entire post because it's great: 

(A) You shouldn't expect instant success.  Time and effort are required to reach people and convert them to customers.

(B) You must build relationships, not numbers.  Create interesting content, engage people directly, and reach them with great offers and service.

(C) You must be a chameleon.  Remain flexible and tweak your strategy daily by monitoring your metrics to keep improving.

(D) Be patient.  Invest at least a year before deciding to end the program.

From personal experience, I've only been blogging for 6 months and I can speak to the time and effort required to publish this blog.  For me, John's advice is readily applicable and timely. 

 

Conclusion

Patience, Perseverance, Effort.  Last time I checked, those traits applied to "traditional marketing success" also.  I fail to see why accomplishing social media and inbound marketing success would be any different ...

 

Photo Credit: From Flickr by Tony the Misfit