A Reboot To Sunday Links With Social Media Reinvention
I’m rebooting my life. I won’t bore you with the details.
Starting over is a painful process. Changes occur in our lives whether we are ready or not. I am re-grouping and re-prioritizing what’s important in my personal and professional life.
Time heals all wounds (well at least some of them). Most of all, it became clear why I started this marketing strategy blog in the first place:
I LOVE to write. It EXERCISES my brain.
I write for ME.
That’s WHY I love it.
I’m also back to regularly working out my body too. It hurts when you’ve haven’t done something consistently for a long time.
Something tells me committing to writing regularly will bring many of the same aches and pains. That’s okay. I can live with that. Baby steps.
So, it’s time to write. But, what do I write about? I’ll figure that out as I go. And, I hope to have fun along the way.
To kickstart things, I’ll curate links from my favorite news sites and marketing strategy blogs and summarize key points from the articles.
The goal: Publish at least two Sunday posts per month.
These posts will focus on:
Email Marketing: Tips and insights on using marketing’s most measurable channel.
HubSpot’s Inbound Certification Video Class 3: “What Does Inbound Look Like?” shares how a real-world company successfully practices inbound marketing. This is a valuable class as a real-world, spot-on buyer persona case study.
This buyer persona case study proves how well-crafted buyer personas can:
Drive inbound marketing strategy and tactics
Link together content marketing and SEO choices
Support a company’s sales and revenue goals
Here’s what to expect from this blog post on these inbound marketing best practices (and future blog posts) as I prepare for the inbound marketing certification exam:
Open Sharing. I’ll publish my study notes on this blog as I review each video in the twelve (12) classes.
Detail. My notes will be very detailed. Many of the slides in the video classes state the learning or take-home-message perfectly. If I think that’s the best way to state the learning, I’ll record the learning in my notes verbatim from the respective slide.
Context. I’ll provide my context whenever it may help us better understand the inbound marketing and sales concept(s).
This post focuses on the four (4) inbound marketing best practices shared in HubSpot’s Inbound Certification Video Class 2: What Are The Fundamentals of Inbound Success?:
Use Buyer Personas
Use The Buyer’s Journey
Create Remarkable Content
Leverage Your Content Via Distribution Platforms
Here’s what to expect from this blog post on these inbound marketing best practices (and future blog posts) as I prepare for the inbound marketing certification exam:
Open Sharing. I’ll publish my study notes on this blog as I review each video in the twelve (12) classes.
Detail. My notes will be very detailed. Many of the slides in the video classes state the learning or take-home-message perfectly. If I think that’s the best way to state the learning, I’ll record the learning in my notes verbatim from the respective slide.
Context. I’ll provide my context whenever it may help us better understand the inbound marketing and sales concept(s).
HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Certification Course remains one of my favorite learning marketing resources. I remember the joy (and relief) after taking the test and earning the inbound marketing certification. Back then, it was a scrappy, privately held startup taking on the marketing world. Now, Hubspot’s a thriving public company.
It’s time to refresh my certification. Over the course of the next several weeks, here’s what to expect from the next several blog posts as I prepare for the certification exam:
Open Sharing. I’ll publish my study notes on this blog as I review each video in the twelve (12) classes.
Detail. My notes will be very detailed. Many of the slides in the video classes state the learning or take-home-message perfectly. If I think that’s the best way to state the learning, I’ll record the learning in my notes verbatim from the respective slide.
Context. I’ll provide my context whenever it may help us better understand the inbound marketing and sales concept(s).
"A bachelor's degree on its own no longer conveys intelligence or capability."
Suggested Authors / Books to Help Undergraduate Marketing Majors Land that First Job After College
These suggested authors / books are not of the "cookie cutter" or "10 easy steps on how-to land your first job out of college / summer internship in a lousy economy" variety. They share creative ideas to show a potential employer "you're more than a resume and the grades on a college transcript". Their teachings maximize the Internet's global reach and leverage search engines to your advantage.
In my opinion, if you graduated with a marketing and/or communications degree (or are currently studying these undergraduate majors), the following authors and books are REQUIRED READING.
Note: I am not an Amazon Affiliate Program Member. I respect the following authors because of their invaluable advice on how to develop a credible and professional online presence.
David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, advisor to emerging companies, bestselling author of eight books including three international bestsellers, and a professional speaker on topics including marketing, leadership, and social media.
Why The New Rules of Marketing & PR Matters
The New Rules of Marketing & PR is in its 4th Edition, has sold 300,000+ copies, and is translated in 25 languages.
Marketing and communications students will learn from this book the value of:
Thinking Like a Publisher (e.g. managing and creating content as a valuable asset)
Tactfully and Skillfully Informing the World About Your Expertise
Creating Varieties of Content Demonstrating That Expertise
Building, Understanding, and Targeting Your Audience Via Buyer Persona Profiles
Commenting on Other Blogs to Build Online Credibility and Relationships
Giving Away Your Expertise by Publishing and Distributing Free E-Books
Here's David discussing the latest release of The New Rules of Marketing & PR:
"An e-book is a PDF-formatted document that identifies a market problem and supplies an answer to the problem. E-books have a bit of intrigue to them — like hip younger sibling to the nerdy white paper."
If you click on the image captions, the hyperlinks will take you to the respective, eBook PDF download pages.
If I've said it once, I've said it 43 other times. Ann Handley is the best writer and storyteller in the New Media Business. Her writing and storytelling makes you:
Ann and C.C. share clear, actionable advice built on two (2) governing principles:
Thinking and Acting Like a Publisher
Publishing Helpful, Remarkable Content
Content Defined. Words, images, videos comprise content and can take the form of:
Web Pages
Videos
Blogs
Photographs
Webinars
Whitepapers
eBooks
Podcasts
Presentations
Social Outposts (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.)
Learning Through Great Storytelling and Writing. Great writing makes reading Content Rules enjoyable. And, studying it helps you ask the right questions about content strategy execution:
Goal Setting: Who is Your Audience? What Metrics Will Determine You're Succeeding (or Failing)?
Defining: What Content Type(s) Should You Publish?
Publishing: How Often to Publish (by content type)? What are the Platform Considerations (i.e., blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates, LinkedIn Group discussions, etc.)?
Promoting: How to Share Content (without the cologne of a used car salesman).
More importantly, they share practical advice for budget-constrained marketing teams wondering:
How Do We Start?
What's the RIGHT Content Strategy for US?
Pages 22 to 24 to the Rescue. The Content Rules of Why & Who (or Grab Your Colleagues, Tons of Sticky Notes, Lots of Paper, and Thrash Through the Following Questions):
Whom are you trying to reach (e.g., your audience, clients, customers)?
What does your audience crave (e.g., content that informs, entertains, something else)?
What do you want your audience to do (e.g., motivate it to do X, figure out the calls-to-action)?
What content do you already have (e.g. take a content inventory)?
Wake Up (because this is a long post, and I can hear you snoring)! How about re-imagining those boring bullets into something differentiating and remarkable:
Content Rules Video Update with C.C. Chapman and Ann Handley. C.C. and Ann made this September 2010 video before the book's release. It's a great example of practicing what they preach and seeing the human side of great content marketing.
Walk-the Walk and Talk-the-Talk.Inbound Marketing is the second book I studied about digital marketing strategy (The New Rules of Marketing & PR being the first). If you're a serious marketing and communications graduate (or current MAR-COMM undergraduate) and want to "rock it" in your interview, you have to study and learn Inbound Marketing's principles COLD. Published in 2010, Brian and Dharmesh's teachings preceded much of the current and future implications of marketing and digital strategy:
Foundation principles and relevance of inbound links, SEO, Google Authority, Page Rank so potential customers/clients find you (instead of you interrupting them)
The underlying principles behind “closed loop” marketing (CLM)
Inbound Marketing provides clues to what a genuine, 21st century digital-driven organization looks for in employees. Hubspot utilizes its DARC framework when evaluating potential hires:
D = Hire Digital Citizens
A = Hire for Analytical Chops
R = Hire for Web Reach
C = Hire Content Creators
If you can'tanswer the following HubSpot interview questions while simultaneously providing real-time "show-them-the-money" on-screen, digital evidence, YOU'RE HOSED. Here are example interview questions from pages 170-171 and page 173 of Inbound Marketing (within the context of your interviewer verifying your answers on her/his laptop, tablet, or smartphone):
Interview Questions Evalutating Depth of Digital Citizenship:
What RSS reader do you use? Can you show it to me?
What blogs do you read?
Do you rank first for your name in Google?
Do you have a blog? Can you show to me?
Do you use Facebook or LinkedIn? When was the last time you updated your profile?
Do you have a channel on YouTube? Can you show it to me?
Interview Questions Evaluating Web Reach:
How many subscribers to your blog? Do you talk about our industry on your blog or about personal stuff?
How many Facebook followers do you have? Do you talk about our industry at all on your Facebook account?
How many LinkedIn followers do you have?
How many Twitter followers do you have? Do you talk about our industry on you Twitter account?
Closing Thoughts
My apologies for not finishing / publishing this post by the originally stated timeline. My "day job" is crazy/hectic especially as the 2013 4Q ticks away. That's okay (because that's the job).
Please tune in for the this series's next post: a comprehensive list of online resources (i.e., websites, blogs, blog articles, etc) to help recent college graduates and current college students land full-time jobs or internships. The HUGE list will easily comprise "20+ Resources."
Please give me a couple weeks to consolidate this list, provide context, and hit "publish."
Your Turn: What is your opinion of the books listed here? Have you read any of them? If so, how did the book(s) content create an opportunity for differentiating yourself either before, during, or after the interview? What books did I leave off? What additional books would recommend?
Please let me know. It would be great to hear from you!
Note: This is post four in a series sharing resources to help new college graduates and current students land full-time jobs or internships. If interested, here are links to other posts in this series:
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:
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.
* Number of Members: Tens of thousands of companies, agencies and institutions worldwide
* Audiences Served: Thousands of media points through satellite delivery, tens of thousands more through email and fax delivery, more than 600 television stations, and reporters and bloggers from 27,000 news organizations registered for PR Newswire for Journalists, http://www.prnewswire.com/media, plus the general public and millions of investment professionals through more than 5,500 websites, online databases and financial networks.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Benefits. Earning coverage and an inbound link from PR Newswire provides important SEO and Google Rank benefits. Each one builds authority in Google's search engine algorithm:
* SEO Benefit #1: The PR Newswire inbound link equates to an influential and authoritative online vote because many websites link to PR Newswire's site.
* SEO Benefit #2: PR Newswire's inbound link helps increase Social Media ReInvention Blog's online reputation and credibility in social media marketing, social media strategy, and public relations strategy.
* SEO Benefit #3: Social Media ReInvention Blog's exposure to PR Newswire's wide audience increases the likelihood of more people discovering this blog.
What a Way to Start the Weekend! Achieving this online milestone is both thrilling and humbling. It's taken hard work and commitment. And, that hard work and commitment will continue.
2010 is already coming to a close and it has been quite a learning experience. I want to thank each of you for becoming a member of the Social Media ReInvention Blog community. Your comments and emails about how the content published in this blog helps you means so much to me.
Please let me know which posts were your personal favorites or if your favorite 2010 post didn't make the list, please leave me a comment and let me know.
Even more importantly, please let me know what type of content, topics, or subjects you'd like for me to address in 2011. I want the content in Social Media ReInvention Blog to be of value to you. If there were posts that missed the mark (and based on going through this Top 10 exercise, there absolutely were some turkeys), I'd appreciate you telling me.
I'm Going to Experiment and Try Some New Things in 2011. I hope you'll have the patience and trust to stick with me as I try out some new stuff like:
* Video Book Reviews. If authors are willing to stake their individual reputations on social media and digital marketing with their books, then I should have the courage to provide a video portion to accompany the written review. No security blanket of hiding behind the keyboard and an Internet connection — time for me to put some skin in the game on the online scrutiny front.
* Social Media and Inbound Marketing in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry. First, I want to assure you I'm not going to focus this blog solely on one industry regarding the use and applications of social media and inbound marketing. Personally, I find that kind of focus too confining. Secondly, I think it's important to understand how social media and inbound marketing are leveraged in multiple industries because so many lessons can be learned by observing other organizations. As I continue studying the books Real -Time Marketing & PR and Open Leadership, those multi-industry lessons are highly evident.
I've worked in the pharma / biotech industry for almost fourteen (14) years, and this industry's current use (or more importantly its existing fear) of how to use social media for customer engagement fascinates me. This is a highly regulated industry confronting significant challenges not only on the business side but also the public relations side as well. I hope you won't mind if I add my personal two cents about what I observe and recommend (either rightly or wrongly).
* eBook Publications Stirring in My Head. I have some ideas for eBooks that I'd like to publish in 2011. These books will be completely free for download, and I when I say free, I mean absolutely no strings attached (e.g., providing contact information or personal information). I've got the ideas scoped out, and have already started writing about two of these topics in this blog. Now, it's just a matter of doing it and making it happen.
Conclusion
Many Thanks for investing your valuable time in reading and subscribing to my blog. It means so much to me that you think I have something noteworthy to share.
I promise to hold up my end of the deal by commiting myself to learning as much as I can about social media and inbound marketing in 2011. And hopefully, I will publish a variety of thoughtful and engaging content that supports my point-of-view and makes you think.
May You and Your Families Have a Safe and Happy New Year!
* 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.
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.
(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 …
Arguably one of the most influential books in the past five years is The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. The book focuses on the economic forces creating thousands of sales niches found in online retailing (i.e., iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, etc.). In the book's 2008 update, Anderson included an additional chapter titled, "The Long Tail of Marketing." Here, he discusses the influence of "incoming links" (e.g., inbound links) and how they are reinventing online marketing strategy because:
* Attracting inbound links drives online word-of-mouth (WOM) and * Generating online word-of-mouth is what influences 21st century consumer behavior
I find Anderson's analysis intriguing because it's a "plain-spoken" explanation of how Google calculates PageRank. I'll do my best to capture Anderson's explanation here.
The Online Social Impact of an Inbound Link Anderson makes the case that an inbound link is a measure of influence and the best way to measure WOM. Why?
* When someone or another organization links to your content (i.e., your blog or your product / service webpage), you've received a reference or recommendation — the ultimate act of online generosity.
* A link to someone else's content signals "you should leave my site and go to this other site" because this other site has great content that's worth learning about.
* Providing a link to another site symbolizes "a vote of confidence." In essence, this vote is a "transfer of reputation" from the referring site (aka "the trusted source"). An example of online reputation transfer is what you see in the blogging community when bloggers provide attribution to each other when either linking to other blogs or citing a fellow blogger's work.
Importance of Inbound Links in Google Organic Search Rankings Inbound links determine how high you rank in organic searches because the Google algorithm values inbound links when determining relevance and authority:
* Online content earning high numbers of inbound links will receive higher placement in Google organic searches. That's why you want your content to provide value to other consumers. That value can take many forms such as providing "how-to" advice in addressing a problem or providing entertainment value. Either way, you want consumers to share your content and link to it in blog posts, Twitter tweets, Facebook discussions, LinkedIn forums, and social networking sites.
* Therefore, if you want to get found in Google, you have to create lots of valuable content generating lots of inbound links. The more inbound links your content earns, the higher your placement in Google's organic search rankings (and hopefully, higher consumer awareness that you can convert into increased sales of your products or services).
