Without a doubt, one of the most popular shiny new objects of many social media marketing programs is Twitter. There are Twitter books, Twitter conferences, Twitter blogs and numerous articles devoted to Twitter marketing .  Unfortunately, there’s not enough time left over after reading all the promises of marketing nirvana from using Twitter to actually implement recommendations.

Fortunately, social media masterminds at companies like Seesmic, TweetDeck and HootSuite — to name a few — have developed tools to make our Tweeting lives easier. Or at least more efficient.  We use such tools here at @toprank to grow own Twitter presence as well as for clients on a daily basis and have learned quite a bit about Twitter best practices and which tools work best.

Here are five Twitter account management tools to help you keep your Twitter activity in check – whether you tweet for one account or many.

1. HootSuite.com

HootSuite is a great – and free – tool for managing multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Ping.fm accounts.

The Twitter and social media management tool allows you to personalize columns, so you can view multiple feeds from the same social networking account or multiple feeds from different social networking accounts. For example, with my personalized Twitter tab (shown above), I can view my Twitter home feed, Twitter mentions, sent Tweets and a saved search for “online marketing” – all from one screen.

Plus, HootSuite allows you to create a message and choose which social accounts you want the message to be automatically posted to.

2. CoTweet

Like HootSuite, CoTweet is a free and easy tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts – up to five – with a single login. It also allows brand and keyword monitoring through Twitter search.

This Twitter management tool’s true distinguishing feature is its workflow management capabilities (shown above). When an @ reply comes in to an account, you can assign it to a person on your CoTweet task to respond to.  They’ll be notified via email and on their own CoTweet page. Plus, the tool allows you to take notes on Twitter users for your co-users to see.

3. EasyTweets

EasyTweets is a low-cost Twitter management tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts – the more you pay, the more continuous searches, feeds and accounts you can track.

With this tool, you can automatically post RSS feed content and track RSS traffic in Google Analytics. That way, you can easily track traffic from Twitter and understand what users do when they get to your site.

Another useful feature, the Twitter management tool lets you set up continuous searches for brand mentions (shown above), and auto follow some or all users who mention your brand. Plus, you can be set up to send SMS or email alerts when people mention your brand. So wherever you are, you won’t miss your chance to respond to a prospect.

4. TweetDeck

This free desktop browser helps you keep track of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace activities from multiple accounts. Like the other tools mentioned here, you can update your accounts, follow topics with saved searches, and manage conversations with @ replies and direct messages from within TweetDeck.

But the social media management tool offers some more advanced features as well. TweetDeck allows you to record, share or watch video clips, and view YouTube videos, from within the tool (shown above). Plus, you can share and view photos, as TweetDeck now supports Flickr, Twitgo and mobypicture.

5. PeopleBrowsr

This Twitter and social media management tool, currently in Beta version, offers a very simple, visual browser-based dashboard view of social activity. PeopleBrowsr uses an interface similar to email, with the Twitter or other social feed appearing as a list in the center of the screen, and additional options in the left nav (see above).

PeopleBrowsr allows you to create and manage groups by adding public or private tags to any users from any of your different social sites. Then you can view everyone in a group in a widget of their own.

Whatever time you dedicate each day for Twitter – whether its hours or minutes a day – there’s a tool available to help you better manage activities. Try out some of our suggestions, and let us know what you think.

Of course there are more Twitter management tools than what we’ve mentioned here including:  Seesmic ,  Tweetvisor , Splitweet and others. What’s your favorite Twitter management tool?

            Subscribe to this Feed

© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | 5 Twitter Management Tools You Can’t Live Without | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

I attending the SMC event a few nights ago and one topic that came up was Forrester’s recent decision of not allowing their analysts to blog about social media unless it was on the official Forrester blog. Here is LaSandra Brill , Janet Fouts and Erin Robbins take on personal and corporate brands:

Hat tip to my colleague at Edelman Digital , TJ Kelly for sending this to me last week.

As you can see from the chart above , more than 30% of Twitter’s visitors were under 25 up from about 20% of its visitors at the end of 2008; thank you in part to celebrity adoption and the mainstream media mentioning Twitter over 20,ooo times last year on television (can’t find the source). Twitter has also extended its global reach expanding in Indonesia, Japan, Mexico to name a few.

What this means for brands.

Brands now have the opportunity to reach more people in more places  on Twitter.  They need to open up the firewall and be ready to engage in multiple languages by empowering their employee base to serve as brand evangelists. The important thing to remember is that Twitter is just a tool and if the masses move to something else (ah em … Google Buzz ), brands need to be ready and try to forecast consumer behavior in order to stay one step ahead of the game.

One model I use when creating strategic social media plans is to follow the Forrester POST Method (People, Objectives, Strategies, and Technologies or tools) in that order; and notice that technologies is considered last.

If you believe some pundits and fanboys, the coming of the iPad and the new market for Tablet PCs that it is expected to open up will revolutionize how I use a computer. It will change the way I browse the Internet, do email and make coffee in the mornings. Here are a few choice marketing promises from the Apple website about the iPad:

“See and touch your email in ways you never could before.”
“Lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen.”
“Feel completely immersed in whatever you’re watching.”

Now take a deep breath and let’s take a look at reality. The iPad is not a mobile device, it’s too large for that. And it’s not meant to be used at a desk (ie - at work for most people) since it would be too awkward for that (or you could get the external keyboard and mouse, but then it’s just a glorified monitor). So if it’s not good on the go and not good in the office, what does that leave? Two places: the couch and the bed.

What does this mean for how the iPad and tablets may change the way we use the computer then? Actually, not much - but that’s not to say they won’t matter or have an impact. Ironically, I believe that it will be “mainstream” media that realizes the biggest transformation. Here are three of the biggest shifts in media that I believe the iPad and Tablet PCs will bring as they hit the market in the next several months:

1. Digital Magazines - For years now magazines have struggled to create digital versions and hardly any have found a profitable model to charge people to access them. Premium content, archived articles, or niche content are all micropayment models that have been tried, but it’s just not a powerful enough reason for someone to pay extra. With the full interactive touch screen tablet PC, you can finally create an immersive magazine experience that duplicates the quality and design of the magazine layout. Full page images, unique text layout and most importantly … you can even go beyond by incorporating video or interactivity right into the story. If the story mentions a YouTube video, you can embed it right there and let someone watch it. Chris Anderson shared the vision for Wired’s new iPad version of the magazine last week at the TED conference and it demonstrates the vast potential of this new type of device for magazines.
2. Interactive Television - One of the behaviours that we know is growing is the idea that people are multitasking while watching TV. When ads come on, they go to the laptop sitting on their lap to do something else. The iPad and other tablet PCs have the potential to completely transform your TV watching experience. Now you can add complete interactivity to any program. Everything from live voting on a reality show to managing your Fantasy Football team, to interacting with an ad as it is being shown on screen, to watching extended bonus scenes during or after the show. There are limitless possiblities for how you could enhance programming through delivering extended content onto a device that is in your watcher’s hands while they are watching TV. More than that, you could build in the programming controls so the tablet would also become your remote control. You could argue that some of this is already possible with a laptop, but the intuitive nature of a touch screen will make it far easier for programmers and advertisers to make the tablet experience part of the live experience of watching a program.
3. eBooks & Social Reading - The one prediction I have heard that I do agree with is how the tablet could change the way that we read books. Everything from integrated links and images to live notetaking, to sharing notes with others in your community are all major shifts in behaviour when it comes to reading books. For students, the other major benefit (in time) could be that finally you don’t need to lug tons and tons of books around with you for any class, you can just load them up on a tablet or iPad device. Even more importantly, the ease of sharing notes around a particular book will make reading and studying much more informed and perhaps lead to a next generation version of Cliffs Notes where you can get the context of a certain piece by how others have described it.

If you believe some pundits and fanboys, the coming of the iPad and the new market for Tablet PCs that it is expected to open up will revolutionize how I use a computer. It will change the way I browse the Internet, do email and make coffee in the mornings. Here are a few choice marketing promises from the Apple website about the iPad:

"See and touch your email in ways you never could before."
"Lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen."
"Feel completely immersed in whatever you’re watching."

Now take a deep breath and let's take a look at reality. The iPad is not a mobile device, it's too large for that. And it's not meant to be used at a desk (ie - at work for most people) since it would be too awkward for that (or you could get the external keyboard and mouse, but then it's just a glorified monitor). So if it's not good on the go and not good in the office, what does that leave? Two places: the couch and the bed.

What does this mean for how the iPad and tablets may change the way we use the computer then? Actually, not much - but that's not to say they won't matter or have an impact. Ironically, I believe that it will be "mainstream" media that realizes the biggest transformation. Here are three of the biggest shifts in media that I believe the iPad and Tablet PCs will bring as they hit the market in the next several months:

1. Digital Magazines - For years now magazines have struggled to create digital versions and hardly any have found a profitable model to charge people to access them. Premium content, archived articles, or niche content are all micropayment models that have been tried, but it's just not a powerful enough reason for someone to pay extra. With the full interactive touch screen tablet PC, you can finally create an immersive magazine experience that duplicates the quality and design of the magazine layout. Full page images, unique text layout and most importantly … you can even go beyond by incorporating video or interactivity right into the story. If the story mentions a YouTube video, you can embed it right there and let someone watch it. Chris Anderson shared the vision for Wired's new iPad version of the magazine last week at the TED conference and it demonstrates the vast potential of this new type of device for magazines.
2. Interactive Television - One of the behaviours that we know is growing is the idea that people are multitasking while watching TV. When ads come on, they go to the laptop sitting on their lap to do something else. The iPad and other tablet PCs have the potential to completely transform your TV watching experience. Now you can add complete interactivity to any program. Everything from live voting on a reality show to managing your Fantasy Football team, to interacting with an ad as it is being shown on screen, to watching extended bonus scenes during or after the show. There are limitless possiblities for how you could enhance programming through delivering extended content onto a device that is in your watcher's hands while they are watching TV. More than that, you could build in the programming controls so the tablet would also become your remote control. You could argue that some of this is already possible with a laptop, but the intuitive nature of a touch screen will make it far easier for programmers and advertisers to make the tablet experience part of the live experience of watching a program.
3. eBooks & Social Reading - The one prediction I have heard that I do agree with is how the tablet could change the way that we read books. Everything from integrated links and images to live notetaking, to sharing notes with others in your community are all major shifts in behaviour when it comes to reading books. For students, the other major benefit (in time) could be that finally you don't need to lug tons and tons of books around with you for any class, you can just load them up on a tablet or iPad device. Even more importantly, the ease of sharing notes around a particular book will make reading and studying much more informed and perhaps lead to a next generation version of Cliffs Notes where you can get the context of a certain piece by how others have described it.

Want to meet with us in 2010? The Redfly team will be traveling the globe to attend a wide verity of Internet marketing and blogging events in 2010. Why not get in touch if you’re at any of the same events or even nearby and we can go for coffee or just shoot the breeze?

Below is a chronologically listed schedule for the remainder of this year. Do say hello!

January 23rd: Mulley Communications Online PR Workshop Dublin

The Online PR workshop run by Damien Mulley of Mulley Communications is putting on it’s inaugural workshop dedicated to online public relations, reputation management, online communications and crisis communication. The event will be held at the Radisson Blu hotel in Dublin and is set to be a sure fire hit.

February 4th: Dublin Web Summit

The Dublin Web Summit run by Paddy Cosgrave will take place in Trinity College Dublin. It will feature influential keynote speakers such as Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, and Matt Mullenweg, founder of Wordpress as well as delegates from a massive array of Irish companies (and a guest appearance from bohemian economist David McWilliams ) .

February 15th – 18: OMS & Search Engine Strategies (SES) London

The first search related conference of the year kicks off with a double whammy. The online Marketing Summit and Search Engine strategies have teamed up to offer search geeks and search engine marketers everywhere a bumper 4 day search conference featuring the legendary author of Web Analytics An Hour A Day, Avinash Kaushik . The conference will feature well known guest speakers such as Richard Baxter , Lisa Myers , Ciaran Norris , The lovely folk from Ayima SEO and legend in his own right, John Myers of Mediavest . I’ve also heard there is due to be quite a large knees up at the LondonSEO party. To get a 20% discount on the cost of this event, use the promo code 20SPG when registering.

March 6th-7th: Wordcamp Ireland

Another inaugural event, WordCamp Ireland will be held in Kilkenny, Ireland (which for some reason I’ve never been to). Wordcamp promises to be two days of everything Wordpress related. The event is being run by Pixel Pusher Sabrina Dent and will feature well known bloggers and techies such as Donncha O Caoimh , Joost de Valk , Niall Harbison . Redfly are also one of the sponsors of this event for which we have been promised that there will be a “Redfly Cocktail” made available to all attendees.

March 27th: Irish Blog Awards (Galway)

The fourth annual Irish Blog Awards (which takes place in a different county every year) will take place in Ireland’s “Culture Capital”, Galway. The blog awards, run by Damien Mulley (Is there anything he isn’t involved in?) is set to be a night of fun, frolics, recognition and … well, cool awards. Redfly is also sponsoring the best group blog category. Good luck to everyone who makes the shortlist!

April 22nd-23rd: Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Sydney

The Search Marketing Conference & Expo in Sydney is “Australia’s #1 Search Marketing Event and is the “must-attend” Search Engine Marketing and Social Media event of the year in Australia”. SMX Sydney will feature speakers like Greg Boser, Todd Freisen and the always lovely Gillian Muessig or SEOmoz .

May 17th-18th: Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Advanced London

SMX Advanced in London is the only search marketing conference designed exclusively for experienced internet marketers. We’ve heard some great things about SMX Advanced sessions and have never been in the US for the Seattle event. No speakers have been announced at the time of this post but we’re positive that this is going to be great. Dedicated to a conference without a schedule or speaker list? It must be good. To get a 15% discount on the cost of the event, enter the promo code REDFLY010

May 20th: IIA Congress Dublin & Net Visionary Awards

The IIA Annual Congress 2010 will be held on Thursday 20 May in the Crowne Plaza Dublin Northwood followed by the Net Visionary Awards 2010 that same evening. The IIA Congress usually operates on an annual “theme” of which most of the sessions are (at least loosely) based on. We’ve been a member of the Irish Internet Association for nearly two years now and this will be our first congress.

Spetember 17th-19th: Think Tank San Diego

For the past two years, something urgent has always come up to prevent us from attending this. Hopefully this year will be different. Think Tank is a conference with a difference run by one of the nicest blokes in the industry, Dave Klein of PurposeINC (Yes, the same Dave Klein who runs the Pubcon Charity poker tournament and fixes back problems). This is an invite only event and caters for experienced online marketers with a friendly no-pitch setting.

October 4th-6th – Search Marketing Expo (SMX) New York

The third Redfly SMX of the year because we’ve never been to an SMX before and believe they deserve a chance considering the good things we’ve seen and heard. SMX Seattle promises Sessions that are fast-paced, Q&A-packed, frequently controversial, always informative…and don’t stop to cover the basics. For those fluent in search engine marketing, SMX Advanced is full of others who speak your native language.

October 11th-13th: A4U Expo London

A4U Expo in London is one of the funnest events with the widest verity of attendees of any other conference. A4U focuses not only on the affiliate marketing industry, but the search industry that surrounds it. While we keep our involvement in the affiliate space fairly clear of the Redfly blog, the quirky and incredibly intelligent people you can meet at this conference makes it a must-attend.

November/December: Pubcon Las Vegas (Exact date TBC).

If A4U is one of the funnest conferences, Pubcon Las Vegas is without a doubt the funnest. Let’s face it, it’s in Vegas, it can hardly be anything but fun. Pubcon is the de-facto search marketing conference. It’s one of the oldest and most respected conferences of the year. Those who have been to one (or a few) know that it needs no introduction, those who have not should come along with us this year for the educational and online marketing event of the year.

Get In Touch.

If you would like to arrange a sit down, some lunch or just a chat at the bar at any of these events, get in touch. We’ll be more than happy to get the first round in.

Well, that’s what I thought before I joined a PR firm and yes, I admit that I was wrong.  My analytics background stems from managing multimillion dollar search campaigns; where one tenth of a percentage point made a difference in the performance of a campaign. Every dollar invested was tracked, measured and easily backed by a strong ROI. Transitioning into social media several years ago has brought an entirely new set of metrics to the table that I am still learning to this day.

In the past, I have always reported into some sort of web marketing organization and due to the nature of my job, I have worked closely with internal PR teams on various projects. To be completely honest, I’ve always had this particular perception that PR metrics were soft. Although I never said anything out loud, I would consistently chuckle under my breath when I saw something like the following on a “what we are measuring” slide:

• Media Coverage
• Sentiment
• Impressions

And now a new chapter emerges in my career and I find myself working for a PR firm, Edelman Digital .  From a metrics perspective, I honestly thought that I would bring to the table significant metrics experience due to my “direct marketing” background. Boy was I wrong.  I am probably the dumbest person in the room when it comes to measuring social media.   I am surrounded by colleagues that not only understand metrics but are pristine in the way they can communicate those metrics to others and correlate them back to business value.  I guess the key takeaways for me are – assuming is bad (very bad), stereotyping is bad (very bad) and I work for a pretty kick a$$ team and learn something new every day (yay for me).

But the reality is that social media metrics in general are soft.

What I mean by soft is that most of it is based on assumptions.  Now this isn’t a bad thing at all; in fact, brand marketing and advertising is even softer, yet less scrutinized than social media.  I have been asked questions like “what’s the value/ROI of corporate blogging?” and my response is something like “well, what’s the value/ROI of billboard advertising?” And to take it one step further, I really don’t see the ROI of organizations that have 50+ people on a web team to support a corporate website that no one really goes to anymore, but that’s just me.

But the issue is that we now have 10 , I mean 100 different ways to measure social media that the metrics become diluted and meaningless. I can’t walk into an executive’s office and show him/her X number of slides with a multitude of different ways to measure the effectiveness of a campaign. They want to know how much they are investing and how much they can expect to see in return. Number of comments, RSS subscribers, twitter followers, retweets and a sentiment analysis is meaningless.  Until we in the industry (and some smart entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who can create the technology) can confidently attribute a valuable metric to some action or interaction on the social web; the metrics will always be soft.

The best case scenario would be data that can accurately attribute a monetary value to thinks like:

-          Tweets/Retweets/Lists/Followers

-          Comment/Likes on wall posts/fans

-          Comments on blogs/subscribers/RSS

-          Everything else..

Until then, we do the best we can and … assume most of it.

So what is a valuable metric?

For most it’s sales. Dell Outlet can confidently attribute a few million dollars to their twitter engagement which I am sure cannibalized a percentage of sales from Dell.com and the products they sell at full price. For others, it could very well be reach, sentiment of just growing a community. However, if this is the case, the metrics should then match the objectives.  Executives and marketing managers cannot expect an increase in sales if the business objective is to grow the community.  A more effective strategy would be to build a community, earn their trust and delicately ask for their permission to market your services; a wise proverb from Seth Godin .

Bottom line is this.

Social media is important. It gives brands a chance to be human and do the things that humans do; listen, converse, love, give and at times ignore.  Measuring these behaviors is difficult yet we all know that it makes a tremendous difference when brands actively engage in the social web.

Metrics are behind; we all know that and I am sure they will catch up. Until then, we have to do our best to identify the right KPIs for each engagement and limit those metrics to 4 or 5 data points.

If a brand engages on the web for the sole purpose of selling products, they are in the wrong place.

So now that this post is going all over the place, I will stop.

Share

Free Live Training Mobile Marketing for Small Business This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

You know mobile is the hottest marketing tactic going right now. Maybe you don’t feel it yet, maybe you’re not sure if it’s really time to get on board or not. Join me for a free web panel discussion – Mobile Marketing for Small Business – February 18th at Noon CST – Register here for Feb 18 Mobile Marketing Event

As mobile devices evolve to powerful hand held computers, smart marketers are embracing this evolution with mobile centric marketing initiatives.

Everything about your marketing online and offline must begin to consider that entire market segments use the mobile device to find everything from food to legal services locally and abroad.

Join me with a special expert panel, Feb 18th at Noon CST as we discuss:

• Ways to get your business ready for mobile shoppers
• How to market through Text and SMS campaigns
• How to make your web site mobile browser friendly
• Integrating mobile technologies into your offline efforts

Panelists include:

Kim Dushinski

Dushinski is the author of the Mobile Marketing Handbook . As an advocate for smart, effective mobile marketing Kim leads workshops and speaks internationally about how to profit with mobile. In 2008 she was a System Seminar faculty member, received rave reviews and was invited back in 2009 as the only mobile-focused speaker at this cutting edge conference. She was the featured speaker for the Houston chapter of the American Advertising Federation and at the first Thin Air Summit.

Shane Neman

Shane Neman founder and CEO of premier Mass SMS and Group Text Messaging service EzTexting.com , Shane Neman has brought his entrepreneurial ambition to the sphere of mobile marketing. Under Neman’s leadership, Ez Texting now sends more than 120 million text messages per year on behalf of over 50,000 clients across the nation for a multitude of purposes.

Igor Faletski

Igor Faletski is the CEO of Mobify , a service that makes websites mobile-friendly. With Mobify, anyone with basic web design skills can quickly create a mobile version from elements of their existing site. Founded in 2007, Mobify is powering mobile for SPIN, BoingBoing, Smashing Magazine and top US fashion retailers. Mobify is based in Vancouver, Canada.

Register here for Feb 18 Mobile Marketing Event

This webinar is presented by GoToWebinar as part one of a three part series

Related Posts:

• A Mobile Marketing Primer
• R U Collecting Mobile Phone Numbers Yet?
• Mobile friendly blogs the easy way
• The Mobile Phone as a Local Marketing Tool
• Free Live Training Facebook for Small Business
• Powered by Contextual Related Posts

Like this post? Share it with others

I know I did an upcoming events roundup last week but the upcoming Online Marketing Summit in San Diego is certainly worth a post of it’s own.  Besides, I get to announce that one of our clients from Zoomerang (MarketTools), won a free conference pass! Congratulations to Amy Lindahl!

Last year OMS came through Minneapolis and I had an opportunity to present on building a case for social media through a  Social Media Roadmap . Feedback comments like “lived up to the hype”, which is a compliment not too dis-similiar from, “it didn’t suck”, renewed my appreciation for Minnesota Nice.

But I digress. Back to the upcoming OMS in California.  The annual OMS conference is, to my great pleasure and happiness, in sunny San Diego.  I’ve had a chance to connect with the event organizer, Aaron Kahlow several times and appreciate the invite to present at OMS a great deal. One of my goals for 2010 is to vary the conferences that I speak at to reach different audiences.

OMS is held in conjuction with ClickZ Feb 22-24 at the Paradise Point Resort and Spa with a day of pre-conference training and a Search Engine Strategies day on Feb 25th.  I will arrive in the morning on the 23rd and will unfortunately, miss the morning sessions. But I do plan on attending “Social Media Inside The Brand: DuPont Case Study” which promises to cover the legal aspects of Social Media, how to develop a proper Social Media Marketing policy, and how to sell a “word of mouth” project internally. Sage advice for client side marketers.

There are some big names in search that will be presenting at OMS such as John Battelle, Tim Ash and Marshall Simmonds as well as marketers from brands including: Planet Holloywood, IBM, REO, New York Times, Jack in the Box, Eastman Kodak and Ogilvy 360.

Later in the afternoon (3:40 pm) on the 23rd I will be on a Social Media Forum which is part of a new “Leaders” track with a total of 5 savvy social media marketers on the panel. (Chris Baggott, Lee Odden, Michael Senger, Caitlin McCabe, Ben Hanna)

Luckily, we have Jason Baer as moderator who has taken the “Twitter approach” to Q and A in light of the inevitable time constraint. Jason will be asking questions and we are to provide answers in 140 characters or less.  Topics to be covered include:

• What’s the best way to integrate social media with other marketing efforts like email, direct mail, etc?
• How can you measure the effectiveness of social media efforts?
• What’s the #1 myth preventing companies from embracing social media?
• What are the main differences between B2B and B2C social media programs?

It should be a great panel!

Day two OMS includes a great mix of sessions. I’m looking forward to:

• Social Media in the Enterprise
• Wharton Dispels Myths of Social, Viral and Online Marketing through Cold Hard Research
• Social Media Measurement Best Practices
• Integrated Marketing Forum
• Lunch Keynote: “How We Used Data to Win the Presidential Election”
• Acquiring New Customers with Email and Social Media
• Demand Generation Secret Sauce (Jon Miller from Marketo, our client)
• Using Social Media for eCommerce

On Feb 25th, Search Engine Strategies Day, SES has programmed a series with Search Engine Strategies conference speakers covering the gamut of SEO, PPC, Local, Social, Analytics and of course, PR/Social/Search.

I will be on the “ PR, Social Media and Search ” panel at 3:15 to discuss the intersection and future of these complimentary channels. If you know my agency TopRank Online Marketing and the content we publish here at Online Marketing Blog, you know the subject matter of this session is a perfect fit.  Panelists include: David “dk” Klein, Dana Todd, Rand Fishkin, myself and moderator duties will be handled by Sally Falkow.

I know there are a lot of people attending OMS and there might even be some tickets left if you’re not.  I’m really looking forward to it (and not just because I get to escape the snow for four days at a resort in San Diego).  If you’re attending OMS later this month, please say hello. I’d like to get feedback from other attendees on this conference for our blog coverage.

If you’ve been to an OMS event, what was your favorite thing about it?

            Subscribe to this Feed

© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Get Smarter at Online Marketing Summit | 5 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

Share

Extending Your Presentations Through the Backchannel This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

The term “backchannel” was coined in the field of Linguistics in the 1970’s to describe listeners’ behaviors during verbal communication. It is commonly used these days to describe the behavior or conversation going on in social media while a speaker is making a presentation. In some conferences the majority of the people listening may be actively Tweeting throughout a speech.

Like it or not, managing the backchannel has become a part of presenting, in person or online. I’ve certainly seen conferences overuse backchannel twitter streams and the like to the point where they overwhelm and distract rather than aid. There needs to be a balance and I don’t think making a Twitter stream a competing channel makes sense for anyone. Having said that, I think it can be used wisely as it allows people who can’t attend to share and extends the reach of your presentation far beyond the confounds of the local hotel ballroom.

For at least a year or so many speakers have made liberal use of the Twitter hashtag as a way for attendees and non attendees alike to group, filter and sort all of the conversations happening at a conference or during a webinar. As the backchannel has evolved into the norm, a new set of tools is cropping up that allow presenters to participate in the backchannel conversation even while they are presenting.

For example, Keynote Tweet for Mac and PowerPoint Twitter Tools for the PC are presentation add-ons that allow speakers to embed tweets into their presentations and automatically have those tweets pushed live when the slide is revealed. The tweet content is actually in the presenter notes in the software so it won’t be seen by the audience and may simply contain a retweetable statement related to the slide or point. What this does is make it very easy for the content to be shared and retweeted by those in attendance and publishes the key points for those that are not.

PowerPoint Twitter Tools for the PC is actually a suite of eight free tools including tools that allow participants to do things like vote or take a poll and have the poll results pushed live to the slide on the screen.

Just getting up and presenting is task enough for many a speaker, but hey, this is the world we live in, so get used to managing the backchannel as well as the frontchannel.

Related Posts:

• Weekend Favs January Thirty
• Explore the Twitter Hashtag
• How to get beyond Bullet Points
• Handy Little PowerPoint Add-on
• Slideshare offers tools for presenters
• Powered by Contextual Related Posts

Like this post? Share it with others

I got an email from a colleague at work today asking the broader team about the definition of “social popularity.” It was an excellent question and I have been thinking about it all day. I am still not sure what the right answer is but I think the term “popularity” is a little fluffy and vague. Unfortunately, I see many people today using tools like Twitter to “gain popularity” using shady tactics; and all it really amounts to is their perceived influence over others merely by their follower count or the ego they try and down play in their bio. Twitter is just one example but it happens all over the web, and even in person.

Without going overboard in its definition, I believe that social equity happens organically and is the net result of relevant content, in any form, that is produced and that the community finds valuable and shares.  The way to increase social equity is to do just that:  create relevant and valuable content. And, just like the value of a home, social equity can go up or go down.  The best example that is top of mind for me is my friend Chris Brogan . I think we can all agree that he is a very popular guy with a significant following.  But more importantly is his ability to create relevant and valuable content, consistently; which is why he is where he is today.

At Intel, we talked about this concept when referencing the social equity of Intel employees who participate on the social web.  In fact, I learned just the other day that Intel has over 1,000 employees who have completed the social media training and are now engaged online and all over the world.  It’s a huge milestone and other organizations should take note.  Yes, Intel the brand has significant social equity for this reason and they should be applauded.

What’s your definition of social equity?

Our team works hard to stay on top of current best practices and as a result, we’re asked to speak at a variety of conferences, workshops and webinars. One of the goals at TopRank Online Marketing is to help companies better understand the current landscape of the digital marketing & PR environment. That includes strategies that can be executed more efficiently and marketing programs that can adjust to persistent change. Hopefully you’ll find an event below that fits your needs.

Feb 9, 2010
Webinar: Secrets to B2B Marketing Success
TopRank, along with our client Marketo and Ion Interactive will be collaborating to educate B2B marketers on best practices before and after lead generation with an upcoming webinar focused on pre-click, post-click, and post-conversion optimization.

The free webinar takes place Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010 at 11:00am Pacific / 2:00pm Eastern and features Anna Talerico of Ion Interactive, Maria Pergolino of Marketo and moi.  Register here .

Feb 11, 2010
Webinar: The Inside Scoop for a PR & Marketing Strategy
TopRank’s Jolina Pettice along with Marc Harty, Editor, 30MinutePR.com will provide the lowdown on Integrated marketing and public relations communications offering case studies and practical tips. Our client PRWeb/Vocus is sponsoring this free webinar.

This free webinar occurs February 11, 2010 2:00 PM EST and you can get more information here and register here.

Feb 16, 2010
Social Media Club Louisville:  10 SEO Tips Communications Professionals Must Know
The excellent Jason Falls reached out and invited me to present best practices search engine optimization strategy, process and tactics for corporate communicators to Social Media Club in Louisville and of course I said yes.  Now more than ever, Communications and Public Relations professionals are in need to best understand digital communications and the intersection of Search and Social Media.  The presentation will identify essential SEO tactics for communicators to implement for optimum search visibility on search engines and within social media content sites.

Event info: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET at the Louisville Visual Art Association at The Water Tower. More info and register here .

Feb 23, 2010
Online Marketing Summit San Diego: Social Media Leaders Forum
The big OMS show in San Diego presented an opportunity to talk about what’s driving the Social Media space forward and since we’re in the thick of developing those types of programs for companies, it seemed a great fit. The panel will talk about cutting edge Social Media tactics and strategies that can give marketers the competitive advantage they’re not finding on their own.

Panelists include: Chris Baggott, CEO, Compendium Blogware; Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing; Michael Senger, CEO & Founder, StoneMass; Caitlin McCabe, Founder, WhiteLabel Marketing; Ben Hanna, VP Marketing, Business.com and Moderator duties will be handled by Jay Baer, CEO, Convince and Convert.

Event info: Tuesday Feb 23rd at 3:45pm PST at the Paradise Point Resort and Spa. Register here .

Feb 25, 2010
OMS San Diego – Search Engine Strategies Forum: PR, Social Media and Search
OMS and SES have partnered to add a day of SES programmed content including this promising session on the intersection of Public Relations, Social Media and Search Marketing. Hmm, Social SEO and PR? Damn that sounds right!

Check out the panelists which include:  Dana Todd, CMO, Newsforce; Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing; David Klein, CEO, Purpose Inc; Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz and Moderator duties handled by Sally Falkow, President, PRESSfeed.

Event info: Tuesday Feb 25th at 3:15pm PST at the Paradise Point Resort and Spa.  Register here .

March 4th, 2010
Webinar:  Social SEO
Alterian, a provider of an integrated marketing platform and suite of services, is having me do a presentation on how to amplify reach and efficiency of digital marketing efforts by incorporating social media and SEO strategies holistically. This webinar is a focus for companies that want to better reach (via search) AND engage (via social) customers online.

We’re certainly not the first to use “Social SEO” to describe the intersection of optimization and social media, but it’s probably the most succinct and meaningful way to explain what should be a key marketing focus for companies in 2010 and beyond.

Event info: Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 10:00am CST. I’ll update the link for registration information once it goes live.

March 8, 2010
LeadingRE Conference: MarTech in Las Vegas
TopRank’s Adam Singer will provide the opening presentation for the MarTech event, “Architecting a Web 2.0 Marketing & P.R. Strategy”. He’ll explain the core elements and strategies of architecting an effective Web 2.0 marketing and public relations program to drive meaningful brand positioning and messaging in the eyes of both clients and consumers.

Event info: Monday, March 8, 2010 at 2:30 PST. More information here.

March 12-16, 2010
SXSW Interactive, Austin Texas
TopRank is not presenting at SXSWi but I will be attending. You’ll no doubt find me in the blogger lounge or one of the many digital media/marketing sessions .  There will be a sizeable Minnesota delegation at SXSWi as in year’s past, so watch the SMBMSP.org site for updates.

March 22-26, 2010
Search Engine Strategies New York: Digital Asset Optimization
We started publishing thoughts on  Digital Asset Optimization in 2007 in publications like  DMNews and Target Marketing Magazine. Much has changed since then. To us, the notion of optimizing digital media or assets, or “DAO”, concerns the changing digital media presented in search results and what companies can do to optimize the various types and formats of digital content they publish.  You know the drill: “If it can be searched, it can be optimized.”

Panelists for this session include:  Mark Knowles, President & CEO, Pixelsilk, Inc.; Chris Boggs, Director, SEO, Rosetta; Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing.

Online Marketing Blog is a media sponsor for SES New York, so you can count on a mix of blog posts, video interviews and plenty of tweets and photos.

Event info: Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 10:45am at the Hilton New York. Full agenda and registration information here.

And that’s it for the first quarter of 2010 for TopRank speaking events. If you’re attending any of these, especially offline, please be sure to say hello. Nothing is better than meeting readers of Online Marketing Blog in person!

            Subscribe to this Feed

© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Upcoming TopRank Social SEO & PR Events | 2 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

Earlier this week, I wrote a guest post on the Social Media Examiner about real time search and it’s affect on businesses. Now that Google and other search engines are displaying real time feeds from Twitter and Facebook in the search results, brands need to understand the implications. I would suggest reading the full article; but here is a quick synopsis.

Here is real time search can drive business results:

• Increased reach of your messages
• Growth in social equity
• Potential customer acquisition

.. and here are some challenges that brands will now have to come to terms with:

• Marketers need to be empowered and willing to participate on the social web
• Technology today is still not fast enough to monitor live conversations. Real-time search requires “real-time” monitoring which translates to “boots on the ground” brand participation. If a brand is highly engaged and savvy with Twitter, it will be ready to respond when issues arise on the fly
• Brands must be more strategic when posting updates on facebook and consider what keywords to use

The article is timely, since I wrote about how brands should be living in the conversational stream earlier this week.

According to this report , senior marketers say that social networks and applications were their biggest priority for their 2010 marketing plans, followed closely by digital infrastructure. The others priorities included search optimization, mobile, blogger outreach, viral campaigns, digital advertising, email marketing and games.  While these are all important, what’s interesting is that “community management and/or engagement” is not mentioned at all. Perhaps those marketers interviewed consider community management a part of “social networks” but I doubt it.

I would think by now that the majority of marketers are beginning to understand the dynamics of social media.   With all the published case studies, surveys and data available, one would think that marketers would invest more in creating a framework that facilitates conversations between a real-person-of-a-brand and a consumer. In my mind, this is the true nature of social media.

A study back in 2008 showed that 55% of consumers want ongoing conversations with companies and brands. The study investigated how brands and consumers interact and how consumers want brands to engage with them. And the results were awesome. In addition to the 55% wanting an ongoing interaction, 89% of respondents said they would feel more loyal to a brand if they were invited to take part in a feedback group.

A more recent study in 2009 ( you can download here ) found that 85% of Americans using social media think companies should have an active presence in the social media universe. What’s even more interesting is that those users actually want interaction with these brands . Here are some other data points you mind find useful:

Out of the 85% of people who want companies to be present in social media:

• 34% want companies to actively interact with them
• 51% want companies to interact with them as needed or by request
• 8% think companies should only be passively involved on social media
• 7% think companies should not be involved at all

This survey alone tells me that marketers should pay a little more attention to their customers and less on spitting out traditional one way messages.

div xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”pa href=”http://blog.marketo.com/.a/6a00d83451b45369e20120a78ac639970b-pi” style=”FLOAT: right”img alt=”Bill Odell” border=”0″ class=”asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d83451b45369e20120a78ac639970b ” src=”http://blog.marketo.com/.a/6a00d83451b45369e20120a78ac639970b-800wi” style=”MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” title=”Bill Odell”/img/a This next a href=”http://blog.marketo.com/blog/thought_leader_interviews/”B2B Marketing Thought Leader Interview/a is with Bill Odell, vice president of marketing at a href=”http://www.helpstream.com/”Helpstream/a, a Social CRM solutions company.  Bill is responsible for the company’s overall marketing and go-to-market strategies and oversees all product marketing, partner marketing and corporate marketing activities.  Bill has 20 years of experience leading marketing for several innovative, category creating technology companies, including Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Compression Labs – the developer of DirectTV – and Interlace Systems./p pstrongWhat is social CRM?/strong/p pThere are many definitions floating around to describe Social CRM, but the one I like the best is one provided by Paul Greenberg, author of emCRM at the Speed of Light/em and arguably the most highly regarded expert on CRM. Paul describes Social CRM as “what we do when the customer controls the conversation.” Many companies today are realizing that the era of command and control, where companies dictate how they want to engage customers, has changed due to the rapid adoption of social software such as Facebook ,Twitter and YouTube. Just think about how one musician drew the attention of every major news network when he posted a homemade music video on YouTube – with 5 million hits in 48 hours - pointing out how United Airlines refused to compensate him for breaking his guitar. Today customers have a much larger say in how they want to engage with vendors and in fact, research has shown that they would prefer to engage socially, with a network of their peers, supported by the vendor. Social CRM enables that type of relationship./p pstrongWhy is this relevant to marketers?/strong/p pThere is so much hype today regarding social media for marketing that it’s hard to make sense with all the noise. I attend conferences with marketing professionals that are packed with people trying to understand what to do with social media. I spoke with one marketing person recently who came back from such a conference and complained that she had only become more confused and was searching for something to help her strong“make sense of the chaos.” /strongSocial CRM helps marketers leverage the power of social media by integrating it with existing marketing processes and systems such as CRM platforms and a href=”http://www.marketo.com/”Marketing Automation/a platforms. The power of this approach makes it easier for marketers to manage and monitor the effectiveness of social media marketing campaigns and understand what’s working and why./p pstrongSocial CRM is so cutting edge. How did you get involved in this area of marketing?/strong/p pActually, I became aware of Social CRM when I had a problem with my iTunes software. I shared my issue with a friend who pointed me to Apple’s customer forum where I could ask for help from other Apple customers. It turned out I got my answer in less than 10 minutes, complete with step-by-step instructions from another Apple customer who had the same problem. After years of trying to shift through company web sites searching for documentation or waiting on hold for some tech support person in India or the Philippines who may or may not know how to solve my problem, I now first look for help from a company’s customer community. So I guess I would say I became a believer by realizing the power of Social CRM first hand. With the ability to leverage Social CRM beyond customer service and into a href=”http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-resources/sales-marketing-alignment.php”marketing and sales/a, I see an enormous potential in the market. /p pstrongI know Helpstream lets community members vote on ideas they have about a product or service. Why is this voting important and is there a benefit here for marketers?/strong/p pVoting is fantastic example of the power of Social CRM. As a former product manager, I know how difficult and time consuming it is to capture and assimilate customer input on new products and new product features. Often product managers are left with sifting through some long list of customer requests for enhancements and maybe vetting these with a few customers before locking down an MRD or PRD. With Idea Sharing or Voting, it’s very easy and very fast to get ideas for new products from customers and have the customer community vote on those product ideas. There are companies that routinely use this feature of Social CRM to develop new products that are much more aligned with customer needs. /p pstrongRecently I have seen some debate about whether social media is the responsibility of the marketing team or the customer support team. What do you think?/strong/p pYes, the debate about who owns social media has been raging for some time now, in fact the broader debate over who owns the customer relationship has been raging for years. Ironically, I am not sure the rise of social media will force any definitive answers to that question, but I do think that the forward looking companies are asking all functions to figure out how best to leverage social media. Given that social media has given customers more control over their the entire spectrum of their relationships with vendors – from customer service, marketing and to sales – it behooves companies to have a cross functional social media strategy./p pstrongWhat metrics should marketers include when reporting to their C-Suite about the results of a social CRM?/strong/p pFrom a marketing perspective, Social CRM enables marketers to:/p ul liHave a better handle on metrics for their social media investments. /li liLeverage the same reporting systems, their CRM systems and their Marketing Automation systems/li liTrack social media marketing campaigns. For example, with an active customer community in place, supported by a robust Social CRM platform, marketers can track the activity of prospects and customers in the community and pass this information over for lead scoring by a Marketing Automation system. /li liIn addition, marketers can bring in feeds from public social networks, like Twitter, to their Social CRM system for actionable insights./li /ul pThe C-Suite wants to know how social media marketing investments translate into business, and this is exactly what Social CRM enables marketers to communicate. /p pstrongWhat do you think will be some of the challenges and trends in social CRM for 2010?/strong/p pThere is a lot of noise in the market today around Social CRM. If you do a Google search on Social CRM today, you will get as many hits as you will for Marketing Automation searches. That is a good thing for the industry and it means people are genuinely seeking for more information, and ultimately solutions. One of the challenges for the industry will be making it easier for companies to understand the solutions landscape and how best to think about making investments. I often tell people the question the industry should focus on is “how” not “why.” The days of why Social CRM are largely behind us. It’s time to start educating companies on how to get started./p pstrongBonus Question: Outside of social CRM, what other emerging (or traditional) areas should marketers be focusing their time right now?/strong/p pI think marketing professionals still struggle on communicating the ROI of their marketing spend. While this is not a new issue, the recent economic downturn only exacerbated the need for marketers to do a better job of developing strategies that drive top line revenue. I did a presentation at a seminar earlier this year entitled “Defending Your Spend.” My opening comment was that the days of ‘spray and pray’ marketing spend were dead. Marketers simply have to do a better job articulating and measuring how their spend translates into sales. If we all do a better job on that issue, we will see an increase in marketing budgets and hopefully more successful businesses leads by marketing./p/divdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/modernb2bmarketing?a=N75qrzGA_QU:mw1jpb4EFXA:IZZ1qzr7sQ0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/modernb2bmarketing?d=IZZ1qzr7sQ0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/modernb2bmarketing?a=N75qrzGA_QU:mw1jpb4EFXA:bcOpcFrp8Mo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/modernb2bmarketing?d=bcOpcFrp8Mo” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/modernb2bmarketing/~4/N75qrzGA_QU” height=”1″ width=”1″/

According to Nielsen , consumers spent more than five and half hours living in the conversational streams of  Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year when users were spending just over three hours. And, of course that was followed by an astronomical increase of unique visitors.

Image from Nielsen Blog

Ahh, so what is this conversational stream you ask?  Well, given this growth in social networking, I wonder how often you check your Twitter stream and hit refresh? What about Facebook? Do you click back and forth between the “live feed” and “news feed” to see what your friends are talking about? I do quite often. Have you ever noticed people talking about a product, brand or maybe the outcome of an election? This is the conversational stream (some call it activity stream or just stream).  Brian Solis refers to this as the attention dashboard ; whereby all of our attention is deep rooted in the thoughts, ideas, opinions, and perceptions of the communities that we belong and subscribe to.

As a consumer, living in the attention dashboard is natural.  I have a vested interest in what my community actually cares about. So when a friend posts a link to a review of product that he/she just bought and raves about its features; I am probably going to click on it to see what all the hype is about.

For a brand, this is a huge opportunity but it also presents a few challenges.  Steve Rubel, a friend and colleague at Edelman sums it up here :

To mitigate this ongoing trend of streams, communicators will need to: 1) be as ubiquitous as possible, 2) adopt multiple messages, stories and formats and 3) make sure you allow your employees to get out there – in other words, use the force, don’t fight it.

Here is how I see it. Brands need to be relevant. Skip the marketing messages that go through rounds and rounds of approvals from the brand and legal teams. No one reads it anyway. Equip and empower your marketing/PR/product groups to become brand evangelists so they can participate on the social web starting within their own micro-communities. What you will find is relevant messages appearing in others’ streams. Participation means that “relevant branded content” will be omnipresent on the social web; from the Google search results, Delicious & Stumbleupon bookmarks, to links being shared in Twitter and Facebook .

Of course, I have a tendency of oversimplifying everything. There are many issues to consider about real time community engagement but you catch my drift, hopefully.  If not, get with me on Twitter and I will clarify.

Recently I posted a series of informal poll questions about  blog SEO on Twitter to gain insights and feedback which were leveraged to construct a more in-depth survey.  I used the longer survey to collect information on how companies are using blogs for search engine optimization purposes and what kind of impact those efforts have. Essentially, I wanted to get opinions on and answers to: “Are blogs still important for SEO and why?”.

The topic of business blogging and search engine optimization as distinct and synergistic tactics have been explored here many times. A large number of companies are familiar with the process of starting a blog, but few have experienced the challenges of maintaining and growing a blog for more than a year.

Understanding long term benefits is key to sustainable business blogging.

Part of the goal was to tap into a variety of experience levels with this survey and capture insight into the SEO impact blogging.

Participants were solicited here, on social networks and vial email that blog. Here’s a simple breakdown of the 326 survey respondents:

• 28% Internal Corporate: Advertising, Marketing or PR
• 42% Agency: Advertising, PR, Search Marketing, Social Media, Marketing
• 30% Independent Consultant or Small Biz CEO

One of the biggest questions we were looking to get insight on was the degree to which marketers are using blogs as a SEO asset.

95% of survey respondents indicated that they do incorporate blogs as part of their search engine optimization efforts

While the majority of respondents  indicated SEO as a benefit to blogging, several comments indicated that there are resource issues:  ”We did but resources became an issue. Will be bringing it back in 2010.” And that the applicable use of blogging for SEO outcomes depends on the market:  ”Sometimes… depends on client and market and product/service”.

Blogs at the most basic level are straightforward or “easy” to start. But the real question is whether they deliver on the SEO promise so many blog marketers make. Our survey results show that 87.4% of respondents “successfully increased measurable SEO objectives as a direct result of blogging “. Savvy SEO practioners made comments like, “Absolutely. In fact, we make sure to create a small, quality cluster of blogs on different platforms and Class C IP’s to support their communications initiatives.”

Of the 12.6% that didn’t find measurable SEO results from blogging , comments like “starting to but since we don’t post comments from readers on our blog I think we stall any momentum that we are generating from our posts” and “Site owners are not able to follow through on keeping up with their blog.” provided insight as to possible reasons why.

How important are blogs as part of a SEO strategy? The majority of respondents (90%) cited blogging as important, significantly important or a primary SEO tactic. The remaining 10% rated blogs as somewhat important or irrelevant.

Many company marketers, public relations and communications professionals are not aware of what the SEO benefits of blogging are. We asked, “What SEO functions do blog(s) serve for you?”. While the responses were fairly evenly distributed, the most popular SEO benefit was that blogs provide an easy way to create new, optimized content. Content is the cornerstone for any search engine optimization or social media marketing effort, so it makes sense that content creation was so popular.

Overall, links were the most often cited SEO benefit from blogging: Attracting inbound links from other web sites or cross-linking from blog posts to corporate site content. Community building for content/links promotion and Increase crawl rate/frequency were also indicated as important SEO benefits from blogging. Additional social and SEO benefits from blogging mentioned include:

• Social Media word of mouth
• Show a human side to a business and another side to the more “static” web site
• Communicate back with customers
• Can surprisingly create evergreen #1 search rankings for odd phrases we might not have necessarily thought about in planning.
• We’ll serve ads through a network that allows blogs to publish our ads
• Traffic from twitter and the increased exposure that goes with that
• Establish authority in the marketplace
• Promoting products, services, sales, expertise … I come at it from the UX side – credibility, authenticity
• Blog is ideal for long tail search terms
• More long tail ranking
• Blogs dovetail well with social media efforts like twitter
• Focused silos around specific markets and functions key to the client.

With any new marketing effort, setting expectations for time to see results is crucial for allocating resources and budgeting. We asked, “In what time frame do you typically start to see an increase in measurable SEO performance indicators (links, ranking, traffic) as a result of blogging?” The most common answer was somewhat shorter than expected, 0-3 months.  54% of respondents start to see SEO benefits from blogging very quickly. This short time frame should be very encouraging to those hoping to use blog published content to gain better search engine visibility.

Since many of our respondents were professional search marketers with the ability to properly optimize a blog and promote content to attract links, time frames for results would be very different than someone who does not know how to implement blog SEO tactics.

94% of bloggers reported seeing measurable SEO benefits from blogging within 12 months

Measuring impact is important and certainly, the definitions of success from blogging will vary according to the purpose of the blog. We asked, “What are the most important measures of success when using blogs as part of a SEO effort?”. The responses to this question were fairly evenly divided with increasing company site traffic at the top closely followed by a desire to increase company leads/sales. Other important metrics included inbound links, referrals or leads directly from the blog, web site rankings and blog traffic.

Additional success measures from blogging included many benefits besides search engine optimization, which is very important in our opinion. Starting a blog purely for SEO reasons will make content sustainability difficult in the long run. A blogging strategy must meet meet other goals as well, especially those that involve engaging customers or interactions with readers. Other success measures from blogging include:

• Increase overall online exposure. They won’t know about you if you don’t say anything, participate
• Contribute to company’s bottom line goals in at least a semi-direct way
• Branding and owning SERPS
• Increase quality of site traffic
• Improve visibility and prominence in search engine results is by far the most important, it’s all about search
• Branding
• Incease visibility and demonstrate the company is “up to date”
• Increase of Peoples (incl. existing customers) awareness of things and what you (the business) does and can do for them. It is not really quantifyable, but noticable and very important. It impacts all other figures mentioned, but indirectly.
• Increase positive blog mentions
• Increase Transparency which in turn builds loyalty.
• Puts a face on company; great customer service signal; illustrates USP over competitors
• Depends totally on strategic objectives – for some it’s leads/sales, for others it’s thought leadership
• Increase overall community interaction
• All – It depends on the objectives of the campaigns – be it traffic, sales, awareness, etc.
• The only real measure of success is conversions linked to organization goals (sales or whatever)
• Increased engagement on the blog or elsewhere
• All of these are important measures, but sales has to be number one.
• I don’t believe that blogs take the place of traditional marketing/sales tactics… they just make them easier and more credible
• Increase colloquial “voice” of the CEO/CMO/CTO/Social Marketing specialist. Finding and amplifying the voice of the company/founder/visionary.

Getting a blog implemented in a company is not always an easy task. Resources can be slim as well as expertise and confidence in the ability to achieve a return on effort within a given period of time. We asked, “What have been the most common objections from internal or external clients to implement blogs (with or without SEO benefit)?” This question received the most comments of all in the survey.

67.2% cited resource issues as the most common objection to implementing a blog

Other reasons cited included issues with content sourcing (42%) or simply not seeing the benefit (35%). Regulated industry or legal issues got in the way for 19.3% and lack of measurement round up the answers with 12.9%. Many of the comments about obstacles to blogging centered around time, resources, measurement and a lack of awareness.

On the surface, implementing a blog is straightforward, once you gain approval. The trick is sustainability and reaching measurable goals. Staying on top of what strategies and tactics are successful blogging also takes time and therefore it’s important what resources marketers depend on. We asked, “How do you stay current with blog SEO best practices?”. The overwhelming most popular answer was Other SEO blogs. The good news about that answer is that we publish a list of over 500 SEO and Internet Marketing related blogs on the TopRank BIGLIST.

Other popular resources for staying current with blogging and SEO include: Social Networks & Groups, Conferences, Observations from Testing, Newsletters, Forums and books. Interestingly, Paid Subscription Communities ranked lowest which is a niche community.

92% of respondents feel blogging will continue to be an important content optimization and marketing tactic for the next 3+ years

Interestingly, 8.3% feel blogging will only be important for the rest of 2010.

What is your opinion on the longevity of blogging as an online communications and marketing tool? Do you think the death of blogs is imminent in 2010?  What blogging benefits have you experienced and how have you overcome objections to implementing a blog in your company?

We hope this survey and results have been helpful to you and plan on conducting many other surveys in 2010 to provide additional insights into digital marketing and PR topics. Clearly, there is interest and a need for companies to better understand the strategic and practical applications of business blogging. Specifically, there is benefit in understanding how search and social channels can be combined with core blog content publishing to reach business goals.  We hope to continue providing such insight here at Online Marketing Blog as well as the conferences and corporate training events we’re engaged to speak at.

            Subscribe to this Feed

© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Survey Results: Impact of Blogging on Search Engine Optimization | 34 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

Ok, the title may seem a little over the top but it’s true. Over the last 5 years or so, the exponential growth of the social web has suddenly given a voice to just about anyone who wants one.  I wrote about this a few years go but it’s even more true today.  The emergence of technology and the fact that tools like Twitter and Facebook have become mainstream is forcing the enterprise to plan accordingly and consider something new, something they aren’t used to. Consumers. I’m not referring to audience segmentation or identifying a target audience either. I am talking about consumers’ perceptions, point of views, interests, dislikes and likes about their brand.

Take the recent Alterian Annual Survey 2009 (just released yesterday) as an example and it paints a very important picture. Here are some key insights of the study:

• 40% of respondents anticipated a shift of over a fifth of their budget, with 21% predicting more than a third of their budget will shift towards digital/social channels.
• 66% of all respondents plan to invest in Social Media Marketing in 2010.
• 57% of respondents reported a plan to invest in engaging individuals on their websites.
• 36% of respondents plan to invest in Social Media Monitoring tools.
• Over half of all respondents (51%) are expending a ‘fair’ or ‘significant’ amount of effort to ensure integration of their communication strategies.
• 54% of respondents said social media was ‘increasingly important’ to the overall marketing mix, with 14% believing it to be ‘critical for success’.
• Only 6% of respondents felt ‘extremely prepared’ to take advantage of the new techniques that digital and social media represent with 40% of respondents believing that their staff had either ‘none’ or ‘some – with a plan to invest further’ of the skills necessary to take advantage of new marketing or customer engagement strategies.

What this data tells me is that more organizations are taking social media consumers more serious by listening to what is being said about their brands online and making a strong financial commitment to engage with them.  The data also suggests that most organizations are not ready internally to take on this challenge and it’s quite possible that they may fail . Financial investment is imperative but that’s only half the battle.

Download the full report here (registration required).

Ok, the title may seem a little over the top but it’s true. Over the last 5 years or so, the exponential growth of the social web has suddenly given a voice to just about anyone who wants one.  I wrote about this a few years go but it’s even more true today.  The emergence of technology and the fact that tools like Twitter and Facebook have become mainstream is forcing the enterprise to plan accordingly and consider something new, something they aren’t used to. Consumers. I’m not referring to audience segmentation or identifying a target audience either. I am talking about consumers’ perceptions, point of views, interests, dislikes and likes about their brand.

Take the recent Alterian Annual Survey 2009 (just released yesterday) as an example and it paints a very important picture. Here are some key insights of the study:

• 40% of respondents anticipated a shift of over a fifth of their budget, with 21% predicting more than a third of their budget will shift towards digital/social channels.
• 66% of all respondents plan to invest in Social Media Marketing in 2010.
• 57% of respondents reported a plan to invest in engaging individuals on their websites.
• 36% of respondents plan to invest in Social Media Monitoring tools.
• Over half of all respondents (51%) are expending a ‘fair’ or ‘significant’ amount of effort to ensure integration of their communication strategies.
• 54% of respondents said social media was ‘increasingly important’ to the overall marketing mix, with 14% believing it to be ‘critical for success’.
• Only 6% of respondents felt ‘extremely prepared’ to take advantage of the new techniques that digital and social media represent with 40% of respondents believing that their staff had either ‘none’ or ‘some – with a plan to invest further’ of the skills necessary to take advantage of new marketing or customer engagement strategies.

What this data tells me is that more organizations are taking social media consumers more serious by listening to what is being said about their brands online and making a strong financial commitment to engage with them.  The data also suggests that most organizations are not ready internally to take on this challenge and it’s quite possible that they may fail . Financial investment is imperative but that’s only half the battle.

Download the full report here (registration required).

Last week Erik Qualmann posted a list of “ All Star Social Media ” players in his ClickZ column. Being included in such a list with the likes of Chris Brogan and Scott Monty was humbling to say the least.  Erik qualified the list by saying they were mostly people he knew and he welcomed suggestions.  I noticed few women were mentioned and knowing there are so many power players, I decided to create a list of my own featuring women that I think “rock” the social web.

The photo to the left is my flexible business partner, Susan Misukanis, who “Rocks” as President of  TopRank Marketing .

Many in the list below are from the PR industry that I know so it’s biased in that way. Suggestions of other accomplished & influential women in social media (consultants and corporate) are welcome. Now on to the list:

Katie Paine @kdpaine – Katie is a world traveler, author, consultant and PR measurement guru that has been publishing , presenting and educating us about PR and social metrics long before social media, social web, social this and social that became fashionable amongst communicators, marketers and certainly, mainstream media.

A. Jo. Martin @digitalRoyalty – Amy Martin’s Twitter bio (and follower count of 1 million plus) is one hell of a resume: “Work w/ Shaquille O’Neal, UFC, White Sox and other sports, athletes, entertainment and corporate brands to develop measurable digital & social media strategies”. That’s not all: There’s YouTube , LinkedIn, Facebook , UStream and others. Walk the talk

Charlene Li @charleneli – A true pioneer in the field of social computing, Charlene’s accomplishments with Forrester and as co-author of “ Groundswell : Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies” propelled her into starting Altimeter Group providing thought leadership, research and consulting on new technologies. She shares insights on her blog .

Tamar Weinberg @tamar – A techie at heart, Tamar has been an active power user and social media marketing practitioner for several years. She’s also an author of an excellent book on Social Media Marketing called, The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web .

Valeria Maltoni @ConversationAge – I like to think of Valeria as an Italian secret social media agent that helps others learn the value of conversations and connecting people on the social web. Among her many other accomplishments, she’s authored an eBook, “ Marketing in 2010 – Social Media Becomes Operational ” (pdf).

Jessica Smith @JessicaKnows – Once a Wal-Mart mommy blogger and now VP & digital integrator at Fleishman-Hillard, Jessica and I met on a panel (Looking Ahead: The Nexus of Social Media & Public Relations) at PRSA International in San Diego. Her practical insight made a big impression. So very smart.

Shonali Burke @shonali – A true social butterly, Shonali can be found speaking at conferences or  Waxing Unlyrical on media & communications topics. More likely, you’ll find her working with clients on strategic communications, PR and social media as an independent consultant – a career she moved into after working with the ASPCA.

Beth Kanter @Kanter – Beth Kanter is a social media force of nature in the non profit space. She has the longest running blog for non profits, is the CEO of Zoetica and co-author of the upcoming book, “The Networked Nonprofit”.  In 2009 Beth was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most influential women in technology and one of Business Week’s “Voices of Innovation for Social Media. Be social, do good. Walk the talk.

Maggie Fox @maggiefox – Maggie is CEO of Social Media Group, which is a very large social media consulting agency that has worked with the likes of Ford Motor Company, SAP Global Marketing, Yamaha Motor, Corbis and Harlequin Publishing. She’s also a frequent conference speaker and contributes to the SMG blog.

Mari Smith @MariSmith – With enthusiastic Mari, 8,688 Facebook fans and nearly 60,000 followers on Twitter, there’s no question she a power social media practitioner. That “walk the talk” perspective helps her provide social media training and share her insights as a speaker and consultant.

Jennifer Cisney @kodakCB – I think Jennifer is the first blogger with a “Chief” designation, given for her role as Chief Blogger and Social Media Manager at Eastman Kodak. She’s active both in her professional role and personally on sites like Twitter , Facebook and blogging . More walk the talk.

Kami Huyse @kamichat – Not content with simply running her own PR and social media consulting practice, running workshops and publishing her insights on effective social communications , Kami decided to co-found another agency, Zoetica , serving the non-profit sector.

Deirdre Breakenridge @dbreakenridge – Author and c0-author of several important books on PR and social media including, “ Putting the Public Back in Public Relations “, Deirdre runs a successful agency, PFS Marketwyse, and is an adjunct professor teaching courses on Public Relations and Interactive Marketing.

Beth Harte @BethHarte – Community Manager for MarketingProfs is a position Beth takes to heart (ba dum bump). It’s a great intersection of social media and marketing plus PR position that allows this long time marketing professional to show her stuff, besides blogging , teaching and speaking at conferences.

Shannon Paul @ ShannonPaul – The “ very official ” Shannon Paul was helping the Detroit Red Wings with their social media before she landed a spot at PEAK6 where she excels even more as a social media manager.

Amber Naslund @AmberCadabra – In my opinion, Amber as Director of Community is exactly what Radian6 needed. Her mix of marketing and social media expertise is shared on Altitude Branding as well as through several eBooks and speaking at conferences.

Liz Strauss @lizstrauss – Don’t be alarmed if Liz calls you a SOB. That’s a good thing. Her SOBCon event is a think tank for social media and attracts the brightest and the curious-est. Liz is another “walk the talk” and highly networked social web enthusiast that  blogs , consults and speaks at industry conferences.

Debbie Weil @debbieweil – Debbie “wrote the book” on corporate blogging ( The Corporate Blogging Book ) when most online marketing and communications professionals were still trying to figure out what a blog was. She runs a successful corporate blogging and social media  consulting practice, works as a strategic advisor for Compendium software and continues to share her insights via blog and public speaking.

Laura Fitton @Pistachio – Laura was an early star on Twitter and with a mutual embrace, she’s turned that knowledge and network into a new business, oneforty along with consulting , speaking and co-authoring a book, “Twitter for Dummies”.

Sarah Evans @PRsarahevans – Sarah Evans showed up on Twitter like a firecracker (on my radar at least) and hasn’t looked back since with #journchat , blogging , Facebook, Twitter and plenty of real-world social networking at conferences. She’s also launched sevans Strategy and works as a Community Manager at PitchEngine.

Toby Bloomberg @TobyDiva – Toby is the original social media diva in my book and a long time business blogging evangelist for companies since 2004. She consults with companies on strategic marketing plans that incorporate social and traditional media.

Li Evans @storyspinner – As Director of Social Media for Serengeti Communications, Li is one of the few SEO savvy social media people I know that also has a public relations background. She’s a very active conference speaker, blogger , social network participant and publishes “how to” videos on internet marketing and social media.

Julia Roy @juliaroy – Julia is a Senior Manager of New Media at Coach and is yet another “walk the talk” social media participant with an active blog and participation on social sites ranging from Facebook to Vimeo.

Sally Falkow @sallyfalkow – Sally and I have been on many panels together at Search and Public Relations conferences talking about blogging, SEO and social media. She’s an active social media marketing and PR practitioner that  blogs and runs an agency as well as a software services company called Press feed .

B.L. Ochman @whatsnext – B.L. “tells it like it is” as you would expect from one of the few people actually born in NYC, which makes her blog , AdAge DigitalNext articles and tweets both snarky and interesting. B.L. works with Proof Digital Media (part of Burson-Marsteller) as Managing Director of Emerging Media. She’s led some of the earliest social media consulting projects and has been blogging since 2004 (at least).

Check out the Twitter list of social media divas for a much larger group including Serena Ehrlich ,  Connie Bensen , Jane Quiqley , Rebecca Kelley , Lisa Stone , Lisa Barone and many others. By all means, make suggestions in the comments too.

            Subscribe to this Feed

© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | 25 Women That Rock Social Media | 101 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

(CC) Randy Stewart, blog.stewtopia.com

Vanessa Fox works as Entrepreneur-in-residence with Ignition Partners but is especially well known in the Search Marketing world because of her past work as Google’s search engine strategy spokesperson and creator of Google Webmaster Central. I’ve interviewed Vanessa several times on video in the past here , here , here and podcast here but nothing as substantial as what you’re about to read.

Vanessa has a new book coming out called “ Marketing in the Age of Google “, which I’ve had the opportunity to preview and it reminds me of how important it is to draw attention to her exceptional insight. My kudos for the book:

“Finally! A C-level book about smarter search engine marketing.  Marketing in the Age of Google by Vanessa Fox is undoubtedly, the search marketing bible for senior executives looking to maximize business growth through search engine marketing. This is a must read and if you don’t, your competition certainly will.”

In this interview you’ll discover the importance of SEO strategy, dealing with CEOs and social media, search personas, operationalizing Social Media and SEO, thoughts on upcoming search innovations and her favorite search engine (not what you think).

Let’s start off with an elevator bio: 50 words or less? (Not to be confused with the escalator bio, which is much shorter)

I’ve been involved in user experience, product development, and web development since the mid-90s. I was able to draw on all that background when I worked at Google and built Webmaster Central . We realized that we could provide a lot of key information to site owners (in ways such as diagnostic tools and education) to help them see better results from organic search acquisition. Now post-Google, I’m focused on that same goal.

Many companies are approaching social media tactically and making big mistakes. There’s a lot of encouragement for corporate social efforts to start with a strategy first. Do you think the same is true with SEO? Are companies approaching SEO tactically with little consideration of a search strategy?

Oh absolutely. True search strategy is integrated into overall product and business strategy, and too often whoever is responsible for SEO isn’t involved those parts of a company’s planning process. Unfortunately, that means that in some cases, those doing SEO focus on what they can accomplish tactically. Certainly, many tactical elements of SEO decoupled from strategy can improve search acquisition (particularly regarding architecture), but without a strategy, you can only go so far.

For instance, if you’re looking at search acquisition strategically, a large part of your assessment is around what your potential customer base is really looking for and how you can best meet their needs. Where that meeting first happens is often in the search results, but in order to have the potential to show up there, your site needs to provide what it takes to meet those needs, and that often lies beyond the SEO department.

Even with highly technical components, having a strategy can help ensure that you’re tackling the more impactful issues first and that you’re laying groundwork to ensure that any new infrastructure elements are search-friendly from the start. That prevents you from spending all of your time fixing issues that just pop right up again.

How can we get the C-Suite to overcome their fear of change when it comes to the importance search and social media within a marketing strategy?

I think the situation is already starting to change. Many marketing departments already realize that search and social media are important aspects of a comprehensive marketing strategy in today’s online world. The question becomes what to do with that knowledge. Traditionally, marketing has been able to operate well in silos. As long as everyone was working towards the same marketing message and vision, they could build their campaigns separately. But that’s no longer true. Truly effective search and social media strategies are integrated into larger marketing strategies and often that bridge needs to span beyond marketing and into web development as well.

In terms of implementation, it can significantly easier for a marketing department to have an agency build a microsite to support a campaign than to engage directly with the development team, but in terms of effectiveness, it’s more difficult to truly integrate search and social media.

“SEO isn’t voodoo or magic or spam.”

Some key things to consider are:

• The consumer experience – can the consumer easily engage with your brand if each social media site you are active on leads back to a different domain and has different goals? If the consumer is engaging on microsites named for particular campaigns, are they getting positive brand reinforcement or just a positive experience with that particular campaign? Do they have a clear path back to the brand or are you just adding confusion? What happens when the campaign ends? In some cases, building social media engagement via a particular campaign and building a microsite to support these efforts can absolutely be effective. But it’s important to make these decisions as part of a broader, more long-term plan and to understand the complexities.
• How search works – SEO isn’t voodoo or magic or spam. But it does require a firm understanding of both how search engines technically crawl and index pages and how searchers behave.  The company needs a search advocate who either understands it and can help ensure it’s taken into account during every step of the process, or needs to gain that expertise, whether it’s through hiring a consultant or firm an hiring someone in-house.
• Key metrics – Search in particular is very measurable, key is knowing what to measure and what the metrics mean. With web analytics and search data, you are overwhelmed with hundreds of data points. It’s easy to either dismiss them all or to fixate on certain ones that don’t seem to show progress. While some key pieces of data are important for any business, many of the important metrics tend to depend on your business goals and your customer base. Building an effective framework for measurement can alleviate the hesitation some may feel at expanding into these types of marketing efforts.  I still see a lot of powerpoint slides prepared for board meetings that showcase visits to the website as the key metric and that’s almost never the right primary measure.

A lot has changed in search technology and how search results are displayed over the past year or so. Since we’re in the new year, any predications on major changes in the nest 6-12 months?

This is difficult to answer, as we’ve seen a lot of experimentation in the last year and many of the changes will likely be based on the searcher data that results. We’re still watching to see what’s going to happen with Microsoft and Yahoo. If that deal indeed goes through, it’s not clear exactly how that will change things, so a lot is in flux.

For instance, will Yahoo still offer BOSS, which currently powers a number of smaller search engines? I’m not sure that they can without a crawling infrastructure and index of their own.

But certainly we’ll see continued evolution beyond text-based search results. The major search engines have to balance richness against complexity. I find the ability to view search results just from the last week or just from forums, for instance, really helpful, but if those options were front and center, they’d likely confuse many searchers who just want to type into the box and get back an answer.

Of course, the solution Google is skewing towards is personalization. Google will ask for less interaction, but will show you more variety in results based on your online behavior. Microsoft seems to be taking a different tack – they’re also providing more variety (for instance, with categorized search) but are also providing more ways to interact directly within the search results (such as with the Farecast integration).

Please explain the notion of search personas and why they’re important.

Searcher personas and search acquisition workflows are integral to the way I approach search strategy. Before you can start attracting visitors to your web site, you need to know who you are attracting and why.  I always start with asking what the goals of the business and the goals of the web site are. From there, we can work backwards to who the company wants to attract to help them meet those goals, and then dive into the goals of that audience.

With that information, we can build searcher personas, which are similar to typical personas, except that they start with understanding what the audience wants to accomplish and what they are searching for. This leads to a user workflow that starts at least two steps before the user accesses the website. And of course, with search and social media, every page of the site is the home page, so the user workflow assessment evaluates each page to determine if it meets the searcher goal and if it draws the visitor deeper into the site to meet the business goal.

Without this framework, it’s difficult to fully realize the potential of search.

“If a company is serious about building search and social media into their organizations, they need to make a real commitment to building that expertise”

Advice given in some Social Media/SEO sessions at conferences can be quite varied from recommendations to automate duplicate content on bookmarking sites to the importance of listening and engagement. What is it that marketers should be paying attention to when it comes to Social Media and SEO?

That’s a broad topic but one thing marketers should think about is how search and social media can work together. When you’re working on a viral campaign, make sure links are designed in a way to provide SEO benefit (via their structure and anchor text). Realize that with search, social media efforts can have long lasting impact beyond the engagement. If you help someone solve a problem, that discussion may later surface in search results for someone else looking to solve that same issue. I’ve seen companies build pages that expire after 90 days.

Any tips on operationalizing SEO or Social Media in organizations? How can companies move from where they are to making SEO part of processes?

This happens as search and social media become a regular part of the business (product development, marketing, customer support, etc.) and not a separate silo. But if a company is serious about building search and social media into their organizations, they need to make a real commitment to building that expertise (through hiring a consultant, training, hiring someone in-house, or some other way of gaining expertise). I’ve seen so many organizations who felt search was important but implemented it ad hoc based on random advice different people would read online (like this interview! ) So, while it was great that everyone in the company was empowered to drive SEO, one programmer who decide to add nofollow tags on all the footers, and someone in marketing would change all the title tags to be a certain number of characters, and without a comprehensive strategy, and without any barometer of what was a valuable use of time, the company can feel like SEO was a failure for them.

Let’s say someone reads your new book, Marketing in the Age of Google , and they “get it”. What should they do next to take that appreciation for a strategic perspective and start improving their marketing?

In the book, I provide a number of suggestions for getting started. If the company already has an in-house SEO or consultant, then involve them in high-level strategy discussions. How can search data help influence product strategy? How can the technical team build search best practices into their development process? How can marketing better integrate search acquisition?

If search is new to the organization, it’s probably worthwhile to hire someone to help build a strategy that works for the organization: benchmark where things are, flag any big issues, help build in search best practices at the key points of the organization, develop searcher personas and workflows that can be used as templates for future development.

Once search is built into existing processes, ongoing search strategy is much easier and companies can see much better results.

If you were a search engine, which would you be?

It would be the Urban Spoon iPhone app: always traveling and surrounded by delicious food.

Thank you Vanessa!

Find more about Vanessa’s work online at:

• ninebyblue.com – Online marketing strategy
• janeandrobot.com – Search friendly design patterns for web development
• SearchEngineLand.com – Contributing Editor
• Office Hours – Weekly podcast
• @vanessafox – Twitter

            Subscribe to this Feed

© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Marketing in the Age of Google: Vanessa Fox Interview | 7 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

I love Twitter because it allows me to share and consume information. Whether it’s the protests in Iran or the recent earthquake in Haiti ; for me, it’s the number one source of information because it is curated by a community that I trust. It’s the perfect medium to build and activate a community for reasons greater than ourselves.  Another reason I love Twitter is because it helps bring awareness about causes and fundraisers that one would normally not hear about.

I love Twitter because it allows you, me and just about anyone to take action and do something for someone else.

This is Gideon from Tanzania

Please meet Gideon . He is the kid on the right who is reading Twitterville written by my good friend Shel Israel. From what I have been told, he is a dynamic and energetic young kid with a great big heart.  I hope to meet him someday. He also attends Shepherds Jr. School in Arusha, Tanzania which needs financial support.  The tweetup I am hosting next week (January 20 th ) is an effort to raise funds not only for Gideon but all of his classmates at his school. Funds raised will go toward a much-needed orphanage/boarding facility at the school. The total estimated cost of the facility is USD $50,000 which will accommodate approximately 50 children. Every $1,000 raised will ensure that one more child has a warm, safe place to call home, with a loving Mama from their community to make nutritious meals and tuck them in at night.

My goal for the tweetup is to raise $2000, at a minimum; and even if you cannot attend – which I hope you will – I would ask that you please click here and make a small donation via paypal.  The great thing about this is that you can track the progress of this project that you are donating to by simply following Gideon’s blog or even interacting with the Twitterkids on Twitter .

Thank you for your support; and you are more than welcome to come to the tweetup next week if you want. You will have an opportunity to meet Shel Israel and purchase an autographed copy of his book.

I love Twitter because it allows me to share and consume information. Whether it’s the protests in Iran or the recent earthquake in Haiti ; for me, it’s the number one source of information because it is curated by a community that I trust. It’s the perfect medium to build and activate a community for reasons greater than ourselves.  Another reason I love Twitter is because it helps bring awareness about causes and fundraisers that one would normally not hear about.

I love Twitter because it allows you, me and just about anyone to take action and do something for someone else.

This is Gideon from Tanzania

Please meet Gideon . He is the kid on the right who is reading Twitterville written by my good friend Shel Israel. From what I have been told, he is a dynamic and energetic young kid with a great big heart.  I hope to meet him someday. He also attends Shepherds Jr. School in Arusha, Tanzania which needs financial support.  The tweetup I am hosting next week (January 20 th ) is an effort to raise funds not only for Gideon but all of his classmates at his school. Funds raised will go toward a much-needed orphanage/boarding facility at the school. The total estimated cost of the facility is USD $50,000 which will accommodate approximately 50 children. Every $1,000 raised will ensure that one more child has a warm, safe place to call home, with a loving Mama from their community to make nutritious meals and tuck them in at night.

My goal for the tweetup is to raise $2000, at a minimum; and even if you cannot attend – which I hope you will – I would ask that you please click here and make a small donation via paypal.  The great thing about this is that you can track the progress of this project that you are donating to by simply following Gideon’s blog or even interacting with the Twitterkids on Twitter .

Thank you for your support; and you are more than welcome to come to the tweetup next week if you want. You will have an opportunity to meet Shel Israel and purchase an autographed copy of his book.

More than ever, it’s essential for hospitals and health providers to rethink their healthcare marketing mix to include social media.

The proof is in the numbers: 34% of consumers use social media to search for health information, according to research data from How America Searches: Health and Wellness .

While it’s easy to identify demand, many healthcare marketers are not exactly sure how they might tap into the social web to reach business goals. To help understand the possible applications, consider these five examples of how the social web can work for hospitals and others in the healthcare industry:

1. Tweet Live Procedures
In the past year, social media channels have helped open up an area of healthcare previously only available to a select few: the operating room.

Last February, Henry Ford Hospital became one of the first hospitals to Tweet a live procedure from an operating room. Doctors, medical students and curious non-medical personnel followed along as surgeons tweeted short updates on the kidney surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.

This healthcare marketing tactic can effectively create excitement and raise public awareness for a healthcare organization. In the case of the Henry Ford procedure, Twitter was abuzz that February day with users both re-tweeting the messages from Henry Ford and adding their own thoughts on the event. That buzz can help healthcare organizations both attract new patients and recruit medical personnel.

2. Train Medical Personnel
Some healthcare organizations are beginning to recognize the potential impact of leveraging social media channels to complement training efforts. Mayo Clinic Social Media Manager Lee Aase , for example, incorporated social media into a recent training presentation for local chapters of the American Heart Association. (Check out Lee Odden’s social media interview with Aase for Online Marketing Blog.) During the presentation, Aase leveraged Twitter to encourage participants to contribute to the discussion using the #AHAchat hashtag.

Weaving social media into healthcare training initiatives can provide multiple benefits, including:

• Giving trainees a forum to ask questions and quickly receive answers
• Providing presenters with immediate feedback from trainees (i.e., if trainees have mastered a concept of if more guidance is needed)
• Enabling organizations to complement healthcare marketing efforts by sharing slideshows, video or pictures from training sessions on social sites like YouTube or Flickr

3. Reach Mainstream Media
70% of journalists now use social networks to assist reporting, compared to 41% the year before, according to a  Middleberg Communications survey reported by PRWeek . With numbers that high, it only makes sense for healthcare marketers to leverage social media channels in order to achieve coverage by both mainstream media and industry publications.

As part of healthcare marketing efforts, organizations can use social media channels – including blogs, forums and microblogs – to share success stories from out-of-the-ordinary operations or treatments, medical research or other significant achievements. For example, when Aurora Health Care tweeted a knee operation in April, it received significant media attention, both from mainstream media and industry publications including Good Morning America, the local Milwaukee public radio network and Hospital Management Magazine.

4. Communicate in Times of Crisis
When disaster strikes – whether it be a flood, an earthquake or a terrorist attack – hospitals and healthcare providers are at the center of it all. Healthcare providers can leverage social media networks to provide real-time updates both for those directly affected by the crisis and those watching from afar.

During the November Fort Hood shooting attack, Steven Widman of Scott & White Healthcare – one of the hospitals that treated Fort Hood victims, used Twitter to provide up-to-the-minute news. Through Twitter, Widman provided updates on emergency room access and hospital operation status, re-tweeted news from Red Cross and communicated with reporters.

Widman shared with Found In Cache Blog the results of the social media crisis communication efforts:

• Twitter followers increased 78% in just three days
• Scott & White Healthcare was listed on the front page of Twitter as a “trending topic”
• The hospital’s YouTube channel was ranked the 79th most viewed non-profit channel during the entire week surrounding the crisis

5. Provide Accurate Information to Patients
73% of patients search for medical information online before or after doctors visits, according to this video from the HealthCare New Media Conference. With the magnitude of health information available on the web – both accurate and inaccurate – it’s likely that these patients can easily be misinformed.

By integrating social media into the healthcare marketing mix, organizations can share accurate, timely information regarding symptoms, diseases, medications, treatments and more. Social sites like Inspire are providing a forum for patients to share their health problems and questions about treatments with other patients, as well as qualified medical personnel. Inspire, for instance, partners with trusted health nonprofit organizations to ensure information is accurate and its community is safe.

The benefits of integrating social media into healthcare marketing efforts are priceless – from improving patient care to gaining media coverage to attracting new patients and staff. If your healthcare organization hasn’t already taken advantage of social networking channels, now is the time. If you’re having challenges getting approval, check out “ Social Media in Healthcare Marketing: Making the Case “.

How else can healthcare marketers leverage social media to complement their efforts?

            Subscribe to this Feed

© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | 5 Examples of Social Media in Healthcare Marketing | 12 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

… well, maybe one or two may be.

I was inspired from this post by @mediaphyter a few weeks ago and I thought I would reflect back on 2009 and mention a few people who have really impacted my life and my career. These are friends I know personally and I look up to based on their knowledge of the social space; leadership qualities or things they do in their personal  lives to make change and help others, all in a 140 characters or less:

Jennifer Leggio | @mediaphyter

Personal friend, influencer, partner, smart, good hearted person who has been to my house before and we broke bread for my birthday

Ted Murphy | @tedmurphy

Entrepreneur and good friend; he has given me solid career advice and I am inspired by all of his achievements despite constant criticism

ps..and this doesn’t count against the 140.  I promise to never leave you alone at a club in Vegas, AGAIN.

Bob Duffy | @bobduffy

Strategic & he is capable of managing any social media team for any large org. He understands people, technology, marketing and organizations

Becky Carroll | @bcarroll7

All marketers should think like her; customers first. Smart, savvy and has an awesome radio show which will be syndicated, I’m sure of it

Sanjay Patel | @sanjspatel

I just met Sanjay and admire his ability to put other peoples’ needs before his. I wish there were more Sanjay’s in this world.

Thank you all for an awesome 2009. I look forward to watching you grow as I grow in 2010.

… well, maybe one or two may be.

I was inspired from this post by @mediaphyter a few weeks ago and I thought I would reflect back on 2009 and mention a few people who have really impacted my life and my career. These are friends I know personally and I look up to based on their knowledge of the social space; leadership qualities or things they do in their personal  lives to make change and help others, all in a 140 characters or less:

Jennifer Leggio | @mediaphyter

Personal friend, influencer, partner, smart, good hearted person who has been to my house before and we broke bread for my birthday

Ted Murphy | @tedmurphy

Entrepreneur and good friend; he has given me solid career advice and I am inspired by all of his achievements despite constant criticism

ps..and this doesn’t count against the 140.  I promise to never leave you alone at a club in Vegas, AGAIN.

Bob Duffy | @bobduffy

Strategic & he is capable of managing any social media team for any large org. He understands people, technology, marketing and organizations

Becky Carroll | @bcarroll7

All marketers should think like her; customers first. Smart, savvy and has an awesome radio show which will be syndicated, I’m sure of it

Sanjay Patel | @sanjspatel

I just met Sanjay and admire his ability to put other peoples’ needs before his. I wish there were more Sanjay’s in this world.

Thank you all for an awesome 2009. I look forward to watching you grow as I grow in 2010.

I had the opportunity to write a guest post for Amber Naslund that highlights some of the issues/challenges and conversations I have had with others working internally for brands. Here is a snap shot of my post, but please do continue to the conversations in the comments section of Ambers blog:

Measuring Social ROI – The question we need to start asking ourselves is “how do we go about quantifying metrics to show how they drive true business value and/or revenue?”

Research: don’t just talk about it, use it – There was a time in my life when I hated research; especially since I spent three years in grad school, yes three. But research is a valuable asset if you do more than just talk about it.

Top-Down Organizational Support – If an organization is not ready to embrace social media 100% internally from their leaders, they will not succeed in driving effective customer relationships externally; it’s a fact.

Seeking Participation Across the Organization – A blog is good, but a blog without a solid editorial calendar, a human voice and a subject matter expert is not good. Too many times, marketing and PR departments launch blogs and expect for people to actually read them.

Global Social Media Programs – What may work in the US, Canada and maybe the UK will not necessarily work in India. For global brands, this nut has yet to been cracked but there are some good learning and best practices that can help brands manage this.

I had the opportunity to write a guest post for Amber Naslund that highlights some of the issues/challenges and conversations I have had with others working internally for brands. Here is a snap shot of my post, but please do continue to the conversations in the comments section of Ambers blog:

Measuring Social ROI – The question we need to start asking ourselves is “how do we go about quantifying metrics to show how they drive true business value and/or revenue?”

Research: don’t just talk about it, use it – There was a time in my life when I hated research; especially since I spent three years in grad school, yes three. But research is a valuable asset if you do more than just talk about it.

Top-Down Organizational Support – If an organization is not ready to embrace social media 100% internally from their leaders, they will not succeed in driving effective customer relationships externally; it’s a fact.

Seeking Participation Across the Organization – A blog is good, but a blog without a solid editorial calendar, a human voice and a subject matter expert is not good. Too many times, marketing and PR departments launch blogs and expect for people to actually read them.

Global Social Media Programs – What may work in the US, Canada and maybe the UK will not necessarily work in India. For global brands, this nut has yet to been cracked but there are some good learning and best practices that can help brands manage this.

A lot of chatter online this week about social media snake oil here , here and a heated, yet insightful discussion going on over here . I thought I would do what I do best and chime in on the conversation and try to be as delicate as I can not to hurt anyone’s feelings (trust me, this is not my intention). Conversation is always good, even if  it’s not always positive in nature.

With that said, here are some high level thoughts on social media experts, social media snake oil and those who are just perpetrating (fakin’ the funk) and I decided on a bulleted list because it’s easier and much more to the point:

• Branding oneself on twitter (or social media in general) is MUCH different then helping a brand (big/small) build true connections on the social web
• Twitter is temporary (just a tool) and finite. Relationship building, if done right, can be infinite (at least a lifetime)
• You (not you the reader, personally) can’t teach/certify/preach/counsel/coach someone on a topic unless you yourself have been in the trenches and (behind the firewall) understand the dynamics of organizational culture. I certainly don’t mean that you have to work for a brand as an employee. Consultants and agencies deal with it all the time too
• I don’t entirely agree that there needs to be a “social media” certification for this space but I guess I could be convinced otherwise; as long as it’s not facilitated by an agency who is trying to monetize the distribution list either (see below for more on this)
• Social media experts are bad (very bad) and when I see that in a bio somewhere; i immediately unfollow/unsubscribe because self proclaimed experts have huge egos and I don’t have time to deal with it
• The folks at the International Social Media Association who created the certification program are just trying to monetize their micro communities. Nothing wrong with that at all; I am a true capitalist at heart. But the question one must ask before spending nearly $3K is … Will I be more credible after graduating? Will it help me get a job in social media with a big brand or even small company? Will it help me kick off my own consulting practice? Is there any value in the curriculum that I can’t learn myself by simply participating?

Hopefully this bit of advice will help someone before they spend a ton of money getting certified and/or hiring an agency or consultant. I would ask them how they would go about:

Measuring ROI: of course, counting twitter followers or RSS subscriber growth is easy; but quantifying those numbers to show how they drive true business value/revenue is not so easy.

Driving organizational buy in: building communities from behind the firewall is no easy task. There are a lot of things to consider; and collaboration across the organization (marketing, legal, PR, business units, customer support) is imperative. Decisions behind the firewall can take months and sometime years.

Integrating social media across a multitude of marketing channels: launching a blog, twitter account and Facebook page is useless unless there is tight integration across the board with retail, online, search, channel partners, resellers, paid media and the list goes on; and then deciding on brand/unbranded community, on domain versus off domain.

Seeking participation across the organization: a blog is good, but a blog without an author is not. A Twitter account is good; but a one way conversation spitting out marketing messages and press releases is bad. Marketing (and I was in marketing for years) is good at hiring agencies and building blogs. What they are not good at are being subject matter experts when it involves something technical or product relates. This is why marketing departments today have to seek out employees within the organization to “volunteer” their time to participate in the social web.

Launching global social media marketing programs: This was part of my responsibility at Intel and it “AINT” easy, trust me. What may work in the US, Canada and maybe the UK will not necessarily work in India. So how would a consultant/agency provide strategic and tactical support for launching a global campaign?

These are some things you should ask before any significant financial investment to any organization.  If they can’t answer any of the above questions in a somewhat coherent and intelligent way, I would suggest moving on.  Heck, these may even be good interview questions when hiring in house social media managers/strategists as well.

Look, I know and understand the game. You share what you know online, build a community; play Monday morning quarterback by criticizing brands when they mess up — and hope you get hired by one as a consultant so you can go create their Facebook fan page. News flash; it’s not going to work.  Companies aren’t stupid and you won’t get paid to have an ego.

A lot of chatter online this week about social media snake oil here , here and a heated, yet insightful discussion going on over here . I thought I would do what I do best and chime in on the conversation and try to be as delicate as I can not to hurt anyone’s feelings (trust me, this is not my intention). Conversation is always good, even if  it’s not always positive in nature.

With that said, here are some high level thoughts on social media experts, social media snake oil and those who are just perpetrating (fakin’ the funk) and I decided on a bulleted list because it’s easier and much more to the point:

• Branding oneself on twitter (or social media in general) is MUCH different then helping a brand (big/small) build true connections on the social web
• Twitter is temporary (just a tool) and finite. Relationship building, if done right, can be infinite (at least a lifetime)
• You (not you the reader, personally) can’t teach/certify/preach/counsel/coach someone on a topic unless you yourself have been in the trenches and (behind the firewall) understand the dynamics of organizational culture. I certainly don’t mean that you have to work for a brand as an employee. Consultants and agencies deal with it all the time too
• I don’t entirely agree that there needs to be a “social media” certification for this space but I guess I could be convinced otherwise; as long as it’s not facilitated by an agency who is trying to monetize the distribution list either (see below for more on this)
• Social media experts are bad (very bad) and when I see that in a bio somewhere; i immediately unfollow/unsubscribe because self proclaimed experts have huge egos and I don’t have time to deal with it
• The folks at the International Social Media Association who created the certification program are just trying to monetize their micro communities. Nothing wrong with that at all; I am a true capitalist at heart. But the question one must ask before spending nearly $3K is … Will I be more credible after graduating? Will it help me get a job in social media with a big brand or even small company? Will it help me kick off my own consulting practice? Is there any value in the curriculum that I can’t learn myself by simply participating?

Hopefully this bit of advice will help someone before they spend a ton of money getting certified and/or hiring an agency or consultant. I would ask them how they would go about:

Measuring ROI: of course, counting twitter followers or RSS subscriber growth is easy; but quantifying those numbers to show how they drive true business value/revenue is not so easy.

Driving organizational buy in: building communities from behind the firewall is no easy task. There are a lot of things to consider; and collaboration across the organization (marketing, legal, PR, business units, customer support) is imperative. Decisions behind the firewall can take months and sometime years.

Integrating social media across a multitude of marketing channels: launching a blog, twitter account and Facebook page is useless unless there is tight integration across the board with retail, online, search, channel partners, resellers, paid media and the list goes on; and then deciding on brand/unbranded community, on domain versus off domain.

Seeking participation across the organization: a blog is good, but a blog without an author is not. A Twitter account is good; but a one way conversation spitting out marketing messages and press releases is bad. Marketing (and I was in marketing for years) is good at hiring agencies and building blogs. What they are not good at are being subject matter experts when it involves something technical or product relates. This is why marketing departments today have to seek out employees within the organization to “volunteer” their time to participate in the social web.

Launching global social media marketing programs: This was part of my responsibility at Intel and it “AINT” easy, trust me. What may work in the US, Canada and maybe the UK will not necessarily work in India. So how would a consultant/agency provide strategic and tactical support for launching a global campaign?

These are some things you should ask before any significant financial investment to any organization.  If they can’t answer any of the above questions in a somewhat coherent and intelligent way, I would suggest moving on.  Heck, these may even be good interview questions when hiring in house social media managers/strategists as well.

Look, I know and understand the game. You share what you know online, build a community; play Monday morning quarterback by criticizing brands when they mess up — and hope you get hired by one as a consultant so you can go create their Facebook fan page. News flash; it’s not going to work.  Companies aren’t stupid and you won’t get paid to have an ego.

pEarlier this month I left my newborn and poor wife at home for an unforgettable week at a href=”http://www.eloquaexperience.com/” target=”_blank”Eloqua Experience/a in San Francisco. This sold out event brought together some of smartest marketers from all over the world. While there were a few keynote speakers, the conference focused on having the Eloqua community share their experiences so we could all learn from each other.br /br /img style=”DISPLAY: block; FLOAT: none; MARGIN-LEFT: auto; MARGIN-RIGHT: auto” src=”http://adrianduane.smugmug.com/Other/Eloqua/My-Eloqua-Experience/IMG7950/704670916_vqVWP-S.jpg” /br /The main difference this year from last year was that we not only shared our knowledge and insights with each other but with the power of Twitter, we could share these with the rest of the globe. This made the event even more exciting as tweeters could listen to speakers, engage other tweeters, tweet their experiences, and see what others were tweeting about all at the same time! To better understand, how Eloqua pulled this off, see: a href=”http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/11/social-media-buzz-at-live-event.html” target=”_blank”Social Media Buzz at a Live Event/a. The result was better than Eloqua could ever have expected. The content generated by the event attendees was almost as good as the content from the speakers themselves. Why? Because it’s real. It’s in the moment. What better way to get in the heads of those that attended than by reading their actual thoughts.br /br /a href=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/_lKU6yD-Lo5s/SwDbztpHyvI/AAAAAAAAATU/mAs0IintHT0/s1600-h/EE09_Eloqua_Experience_Twitter%5B6%5D.gif”img title=”EE09_Eloqua_Experience_Twitter” style=”BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; DISPLAY: inline; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px” height=”216″ alt=”EE09_Eloqua_Experience_Twitter” src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/_lKU6yD-Lo5s/SwDbz5Pzx1I/AAAAAAAAATY/C_HX7Dv7WMs/EE09_Eloqua_Experience_Twitter_thumb%5B4%5D.gif?imgmax=800″ width=”254″ align=”left” border=”0″ //aWhile I could write a number of blog posts on my own findings from this event, I decided to let Twitter write the post for me. Of course, I did sift through over 1,000 tweets for trends as well the most memorable tweets. The Eloqua product was much discussed at the event but I’ve excluded those tweets here as this post was focused on learnings for B2B marketers that goes beyond Eloqua. I hope you enjoy it and I encourage you to follow the Tweeters that I mention below. They are some of the best and brightest out there. And if you’re mad that I forgot a important moment or missed a cherished tweet of yours, add a comment at the bottom. /ph3Social Media And B2B Marketingbr //h3pSocial media played such a major factor at this event. This post as an example, was written from the product of social media (Twitter). At Eloqua Experience, there was a focus on helping marketers better understand the different aspects of social media, how to better leverage social media, and why they need to leverage it. One of the memorable moments on Day #1 was at the social media training session when all of students needed to set up a Twitter account (if they didn’t have one) and tweet using the a href=”http://www.search.twitter.com/ee09″#EE09/a hash tag. It actually caused Twitter to block the IP address at the hotel from accessing Twitter for a short period of time due to the amount of new Twitter accounts generated. Those at the event felt proud that they’re collective voice reverberated across the internet – powerful stuff!br /br /a href=”http://www.webinknow.com/” target=”_blank”David Meerman Scott/a was a fantastic speaker and adding all the golden nugget tweets from his presentation wouldn’t due it justice. I have added a few though. /ppbr /img style=”DISPLAY: block; FLOAT: none; MARGIN-LEFT: auto; MARGIN-RIGHT: auto” src=”http://www.rothytography.com/Eloqua/EE09-Keynote-Sessions/DSC08313/704966614_AifSJ-S.jpg” /br /Here is a small taste of what was discussed:/ppbr /a href=”http://twitter.com/tracyekraft”tracyekraft/a: Social Media Revolution a href=”http://bit.ly/1Q6I5R”http://bit.ly/1Q6I5R/a at Eloqua Experience learning how to be better w/social media. a href=”http://twitter.com/search?q=%23ee09″#ee09/abr /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/EricHorton” target=”_blank”EricHorton/a: Twitter just blocked the IP for the #ee09 Twitter training session. How will new users learn to reap the benefits from Twitter?br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/jocebrown” target=”_blank”jocebrown/a: Social’s big impact in B2B marketing will be in how you interact with customers and develop advocates and relationships - Laura Ramos #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/stevewoods” target=”_blank”stevewoods/a: Thought leadership and credibility, NOT community size are main drivers of why ppl engage in online communities - @lauraramos at #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/chadhorenfeldt” target=”_blank”chadhorenfeldt/a: Track social media engagement, not ROI @lauraramos #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/edthewebguy” target=”_blank”edthewebguy/a: #ee09 steve woods - if facebook was a country it would be the 4th most populousbr /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/rhonda” target=”_blank”rhonda/a: #EE09 It’s not about controlling the message it’s about getting information out there. @dmscottbr /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/Bpoz” target=”_blank”Bpoz/a: @dmscott: lose your fear of social media and lose control of your marketing. #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/tillatorrens” target=”_blank”tillatorrens/a: New Rule by @dmscott - EARN attention by publishing your way in - via YouTube, blogs, etc #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/chadhorenfeldt” target=”_blank”chadhorenfeldt/a: a href=”http://twitter.com/search?q=%23EE09″#EE09/a @a href=”http://twitter.com/dmscott”dmscott/a borrowed this from @a href=”http://twitter.com/yohda”yoda/a to describe new rules of marketing: u must unlearn what u have learned/ph3The Marketing Organization/h3pWhile many of my conversations are focused solely on technology, it’s the a href=”http://anythinggoesmarketing.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-build-lead-nurturing-culture.html”people and process that are the building blocks of a successful marketing organization/a. The tweets below focus mostly on the session held by Tony Jaros from a href=”http://siriusdecisions.com/” target=”_blank”SiriusDecisions/a and some additional tweets from the Omniture session who use much of what SiriusDecisions preaches. The marketing organizations that have the right people and are using the best practice strategies will have the most success. As an example, SiriusDecsions focused on the concept of what they called the a href=”http://www.demandgenreport.com/archives/feature-articles/221-siriusdecisions-summit-points-to-growing-need-for-demand-center-services-concept-.html” target=”_blank”Demand Center/a.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: Tony Jaros of Sirius Decisions talks about the gap in marketing skills, not the technology or relationship with sales.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: Now need 2 worry about how 2 facilitate demand through the entire waterfall. Don’t sell yourself short by thinking it’s anything lessbr //pa href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: Best marketing organizaitons will see the biggest change at the bottom of the waterfall. Waterfall is center of all marketing.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/jocebrown” target=”_blank”jocebrown/a: Neither a white paper not a product is a campaign….you need to be solving a problem….cannot continue to be tactically focused #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: Quality marketing talent must support a wide variety of disciplines. Silos must go. Marketing automation experience will be key.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/jocebrown” target=”_blank”jocebrown/a:Frightening number of B2B marketers self taugh with no budget for training according to Sirius….huge performance gap #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: The Demand Center is a center of excellence for program creation but with advisory, technical, and execution around buyer’s journey.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/jocebrown” target=”_blank”jocebrown/a: It’s the people and process not the technology that is stalling sophisticated nurturing and scoring - Laura Ramos #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: Omniture organization looks like: Audience Program Mgmt, Offer Development, Channel Execution, and Marketing Operations supports all.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: 1: Sales engagement means taking in sales language: what do we contribute to the pipeline, how many sales accepted oppty do you need?br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/paynejoe” target=”_blank”paynejoe/a: Avg CMO tenure 22 mnths. BUT if the CMO has a demand generation or sales enablement background he/she is 2 times liklier to make 5yrs #ee09br /h3Measuring Marketing Effectiveness/h3pThis was definitely a hot topic and Eloqua was lucky to not only have speakers like Laura Ramos and Tony Jaros but also CMOs from its customer base. A theme across many of these discussions was the need for marketing to demonstrate its impact to the rest of the business. This doesn’t just mean the pipeline influenced from a a href=”http://www.eloqua.com/platform/campaign_management/lead_nurturing/” target=”_blank”lead nurturing/a program but also can mean the effectiveness of a href=”http://www.eloqua.com/topics/lead-scoring.html” target=”_blank”lead scoring/a to the sales team.br //pa href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: all this [marketing] activity amounts to 18 to 30% of the pipe. Must look at influence in the waterfall, even if marketing doesn’t source it.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: @siriusdecisions Marketers must measure the performance of demand creation, not of marketing.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/SuaadSait” target=”_blank”SuaadSait/a: Benchmarking marketing statistics is NOT what matters, Baseline YOUR mktng data amp; set goals to grow as a commitment per @lauraramos #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/jocebrown” target=”_blank”jocebrown/a: Nurturing value measured in pipeline velocity - Drew Clarke IBM #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/rhonda” target=”_blank”rhonda/a: #ee09 Drew Clark on measuring nurturing: what type amp; how many activities lead participates in, what their role is in opp amp; in account.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: Waterfall + database segementation shows Omni needed to acquire 150K more names to feel the model. Content choice: research survey.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: Omniture measures conversion across channel and pipeline. Lets them know where to invest marketing programs and why.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/rhonda” target=”_blank”rhonda/a: @pteshima #EE09 ?’s CMOs ask: What initiatives drive ROI, how does sales amp; mktg funnel look, r my strategies working, how do I benchmark?br /br /object height=”344″ width=”425″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/diXAaPYyiqAamp;hl=en_USamp;fs=1amp;”param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/diXAaPYyiqAamp;hl=en_USamp;fs=1amp;” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” height=”344″ width=”425″/embed/objecta href=”http://twitter.com/rhonda” target=”_blank”rhonda/a: #EE09 Scott Sheppard shares great ideas on rolling out lead scoring to your sales team: videos, distribute custom reports amp; driving adoptionbr /p/ph3Marketing Tactics/h3pIf you ask many marketers, one of the main reasons they came to Eloqua Experience was to pick up a few tips that they could take home with them and implement right away. This could mean learning how to clean your data so that it could be easy to segment off of or something simple as creating a control group that you send no marketing communication to and measuring how it fairs to the rest of the database. It’s very powerful when marketers themselves can share their results and let you know what is working and what isn’t.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/jill_rowley” target=”_blank”jill_rowley/a: @lauraramos - content needs to be about me and my needs, not you and your products, your awards. #EE09 #Eloquabr /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/JenPumpItUp” target=”_blank”JenPumpItUp/a: Session tip: How good is your lead scoring program? Only as good as your sales team buy-in. Make sure they’re a part from the start. #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/rhonda” target=”_blank”rhonda/a: #EE09 marketers shld work w/ the sales team to help define a qualified lead for scoring… But DON’T ask them to help you prioritize assets!br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/rhonda” target=”_blank”rhonda/a: #EE09 Incorporate time frame into ur scoring model to ensure recency is reflected in the “value” of the lead.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/rhonda” target=”_blank”rhonda/a: #EE09 Sales adoption of lead scoring is a paradigm shift-if rep reluctant, push adoption not just from top but via success of their peers.br /br /img style=”DISPLAY: block; FLOAT: none; MARGIN-LEFT: auto; MARGIN-RIGHT: auto” src=”http://www.rothytography.com/Eloqua/EE09-Campgrounds/DSC07780/704945822_Dd3rF-S.jpg” /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”lauraramos/a: #EE09: Omniture says realtime alerts increased contact ratios by to 100X and increased opportuntiies generated by 21X vs. no tools/process.br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/jfernandez” target=”_blank”jfernandez/a: I love the idea of misspellings within automated e-mails from Sales Rep to add a touch of authenticity. Brilliant stuff, @Omniture. #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/Eloqua” target=”_blank”Eloqua/a: Omniture: EVERY email must be personalized and relevant. #EE09br /br /img style=”DISPLAY: block; FLOAT: none; MARGIN-LEFT: auto; MARGIN-RIGHT: auto” src=”http://www.rothytography.com/Eloqua/EE09-Keynote-Sessions/DSC07651/704957780_Q8dXf-S.jpg” /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/gclarkmt” target=”_blank”gclarkmt/a: Mikel Chertudi says Omniture only saw a 3% drop in conversions with their really long contact form versus a short form. #EE09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/gregforrest” target=”_blank”gregforrest/a: Omniture says do less programs and make them better - get more out of them. #ee09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/tmcmullen” target=”_blank”tmcmullen/a: favorite idea of the day - create a control group when testing marketing campaigns/effectiveness #ee09br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/hallim” target=”_blank”hallim/a: #EE09 data cleansing - tactics to support the overall strategy of demand generation and qualified leads into the sales piplinebr /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/chadhorenfeldt” target=”_blank”chadhorenfeldt/a: a href=”http://twitpic.com/o5sq5″http://twitpic.com/o5sq5/a - Great Eloqua data quality dashboard in Eloqua by @gregforrest #EE09 #b2b #marketingbr /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/jill_rowley” target=”_blank”jill_rowley/a: Tony Jaros from SiriusDecisions says something like….Lead nurturing turns garbage into gold. #EE09 #Eloqua/ph3Until Eloqua Experience 2010…/h3pI hope you enjoyed some of these tweets as much as I did and if you were at Eloqua Experience, I hope these tweets bring back some good memories. To end this post, I want to highlight some of the true marketing rock stars that were at the event. These people were the finalists for the a href=”http://www.eloquaexperience.com/content/marketingawards” target=”_blank”Markie awards/a. Here is Tweet from the Markie awards ceremony celebrating the achievements of the finalists:br /br /a href=”http://twitter.com/stevewoods” target=”_blank”stevewoods/a: Was a fantastic evening! Congrats all! RT @chadhorenfeldt: a href=”http://twitpic.com/o7l7g”http://twitpic.com/o7l7g/a - The Eloqua Markies finalists #EE09br /br /For more information on the winners, see: a href=”http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/11/winners-of-2009-markie-awards.html” target=”_blank”Winners of the 2009 Markie Awards/a where you can learn more about the categories, the winners and why they won.br //ppBe sure to add comments on your favorite tweets or moments at EE09. Looking forward to Eloqua Experience 2010!br /br /Chad H. /ppa href=”http://www.twitter.com/chadhorenfeldt”@chadhorenfeldt/abr /br /PS: For videos from the event and some of the sessions I mentioned above, a href=”http://www.youtube.com/user/EloquaChannel#p/c/985BF0E3471C3109″ target=”_blank”check out the Eloqua YouTube Channel/a. For more pictures, Check out the a href=”http://www.facebook.com/eloqua”Eloqua Fanpage/a on Facebookbr /br /PPS: I would like to thank every tweeter at the event – you made this post possible. Believe me, it was hard choosing who to include! I would especially like to thank a href=”http://twitter.com/lauraramos” target=”_blank”@lauraramos/a, a href=”http://twitter.com/jocebrown” target=”_blank”@jocebrown/a and a href=”http://twitter.com/rhonda” target=”_blank”@rhonda/a who I used extensively.br /br /PPPS: I did mention that this post was not on the Eloqua technology but I did want to give a shout out to the a href=”http://www.pedowitzgroup.com/”Pedowitz Group/a and its a href=”http://eloqua.blogspot.com/2009/09/pedowitz-group-ties-in-twitter-activity.html”Sweet Platform/a that captured all of the tweets from the event in Eloqua and made it possible for me to analyze them. Very nice add-on and a big thank you./pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/25332113-2089114959921791189?l=anythinggoesmarketing.blogspot.com’ alt=” //divdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?a=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?a=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:63t7Ie-LG7Y”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?a=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:7Q72WNTAKBA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?d=7Q72WNTAKBA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?a=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?i=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?a=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?i=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?a=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:qj6IDK7rITs”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?d=qj6IDK7rITs” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?a=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:gIN9vFwOqvQ”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AnythingGoesMarketing?i=bna5KoGKuxo:mHiDHZ2eufU:gIN9vFwOqvQ” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AnythingGoesMarketing/~4/bna5KoGKuxo” height=”1″ width=”1″/

div style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”div style=”display: block; float: right; height: 61px; margin: 0px 5px 5px; width: 50px;”script type=”text/javascript”tweetmeme_url = ‘http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com/2009/11/organic-marketing-takes-hold-social.html’;/scriptbr /script src=”http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js” type=”text/javascript”/scriptbr //divspan style=”font-size: small;”This week I had the honor of presenting with fellow consultant Kristina Dooley at the Independent Educational Consulting Association in Charlotte North Carolina. And one thing is for sure. These folks had social media on the brain! We had a great presentation filled with independent consultants, private secondary schools, and college administrators all wondering how they could use social media to improve their business./span/div/brbr /div style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”a href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5teyRpJfosk/Sv1Q600vYeI/AAAAAAAAC3I/wxYH-EX-8Kw/s1600-h/socialmedia.jpg” imageanchor=”1″ style=”clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;”img border=”0″ src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5teyRpJfosk/Sv1Q600vYeI/AAAAAAAAC3I/wxYH-EX-8Kw/s320/socialmedia.jpg” //aspan style=”font-size: small;”Whether you’re looking to generate traffic to your website or generate qualified leads of some kind, social media is where it’s at. Our presentation covered all aspects of social media using a new term we coined called “a href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/22505652/Organic-Marketing-IECA-2009″ target=”_blank”Organic Marketing/a”. I derived this concept of organic marketing after hearing Kristina talk about the impact that social media has on ones brand./span/div/brbr /div style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”What does your social media say about you? Have you done a Google search for your name, your business’s name, or institution? If you haven’t lately, I advise you to do so. When others are searching for you online what will they see? More often than not, many of your results will point to social media accounts if available. If not, then you have a great opportunity to shape your online brand.br //spanbr //divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”Take Kristina for example. Just Google here name a href=”http://tinyurl.com/yce5kdb”Kristina Dooley/a and you’ll find a linked in profile, and listing on Listorious, Facebook and other social media sites. Here’s a woman who knows how to manage her brand. Consider what impact you’re having using social media. Be proactive and shape your brand using the free social media sites that are out there.br //spanbr //divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”In addition to shaping your own brand consider your company’s brand. This Organic Marketing presentation provides everything you need - including some kick a$$ tools that can help you effectively manage multiple social media accounts. Good luck with your social media efforts and be sure to comment after viewing our a href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/22505652/Organic-Marketing-IECA-2009″ target=”_blank”IECA presentation/a on Organic Marketing!/spanbr /br //divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”For more free marketing advice, visit the a href=”http://www.marketingscoop.com”marketing experts/a at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30060900-1944742282199718135?l=marketing-expert.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

div style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”div style=”display: block; float: right; height: 61px; margin: 0px 5px 5px; width: 50px;”script type=”text/javascript”tweetmeme_url = ‘http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com/2009/11/organic-marketing-takes-hold-social.html’;/scriptbr /script src=”http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js” type=”text/javascript”/scriptbr //divspan style=”font-size: small;”This week I had the honor of presenting with fellow consultant Kristina Dooley at the Independent Educational Consulting Association in Charlotte North Carolina. And one thing is for sure. These folks had social media on the brain! We had a great presentation filled with independent consultants, private secondary schools, and college administrators all wondering how they could use social media to improve their business./span/div/brbr /div style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”a href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5teyRpJfosk/Sv1Q600vYeI/AAAAAAAAC3I/wxYH-EX-8Kw/s1600-h/socialmedia.jpg” imageanchor=”1″ style=”clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;”img border=”0″ src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5teyRpJfosk/Sv1Q600vYeI/AAAAAAAAC3I/wxYH-EX-8Kw/s320/socialmedia.jpg” //aspan style=”font-size: small;”Whether you’re looking to generate traffic to your website or generate qualified leads of some kind, social media is where it’s at. Our presentation covered all aspects of social media using a new term we coined called “a href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/22505652/Organic-Marketing-IECA-2009″ target=”_blank”Organic Marketing/a”. I derived this concept of organic marketing after hearing Kristina talk about the impact that social media has on ones brand./span/div/brbr /div style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”What does your social media say about you? Have you done a Google search for your name, your business’s name, or institution? If you haven’t lately, I advise you to do so. When others are searching for you online what will they see? More often than not, many of your results will point to social media accounts if available. If not, then you have a great opportunity to shape your online brand.br //spanbr //divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”Take Kristina for example. Just Google here name a href=”http://tinyurl.com/yce5kdb”Kristina Dooley/a and you’ll find a linked in profile, and listing on Listorious, Facebook and other social media sites. Here’s a woman who knows how to manage her brand. Consider what impact you’re having using social media. Be proactive and shape your brand using the free social media sites that are out there.br //spanbr //divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”In addition to shaping your own brand consider your company’s brand. This Organic Marketing presentation provides everything you need - including some kick a$$ tools that can help you effectively manage multiple social media accounts. Good luck with your social media efforts and be sure to comment after viewing our a href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/22505652/Organic-Marketing-IECA-2009″ target=”_blank”IECA presentation/a on Organic Marketing!/spanbr /br //divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”For more free marketing advice, visit the a href=”http://www.marketingscoop.com”marketing experts/a at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30060900-1944742282199718135?l=marketing-expert.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

The InfoCommerce Group just wrapped up their annual “Data Content” conference. In their weekly email, a list of new key words for the online database industry was offered up:

• Embedment
• Aggregation
• Good Enough
• Curation
• Platforms
• Humans

At the end of that list was this zinger:

“There are other keywords that came out of DC09, but, surprisingly, one keyword was barely heard at all:

Google .

While anything but irrelevant, Google has ceased to be an existential threat to the industry. Data publishers have largely made their peace with Google, and it doesn’t dominate their thoughts the way it once did. Google is a tool that can be profitably leveraged, and Google is no longer the enemy. This is likely due in no small part to Google maturing as a business enterprise, and its recent focus on opportunities far less threatening to those of us in the data business.”

It’s been four years since I was at InfoCommerce’s event as a speaker, with the talk Google Rules, Directories Drool . So the data/content world has adjusted to the scary monster that Google was then. Now, the relationship is more symbiotic.

What does this mean to B2B marketers?
Now we, as clients of data/content/directory services, should be looking beyond the threat to these services posed by Google, and be looking on how they might be delivering on those new key words I started this post with:

• Embedment-are they a part of our way of doing business.
• Aggregation- how deep is their info, how specialized?
• Good Enough- data is hard to keep current, how well are they doing?
• Curation- are they avoiding overloading their audience?
• Platforms- are they leveraging popular platforms (google, salesforce, facebook, etc.)
• Humans- are they using people to ensure quality content?

It’s a new ruler for the database people. How well are your suppliers doing?

The InfoCommerce Group just wrapped up their annual “Data Content” conference. In their weekly email, a list of new key words for the online database industry was offered up:

• Embedment
• Aggregation
• Good Enough
• Curation
• Platforms
• Humans

At the end of that list was this zinger:

“There are other keywords that came out of DC09, but, surprisingly, one keyword was barely heard at all:

Google .

While anything but irrelevant, Google has ceased to be an existential threat to the industry. Data publishers have largely made their peace with Google, and it doesn’t dominate their thoughts the way it once did. Google is a tool that can be profitably leveraged, and Google is no longer the enemy. This is likely due in no small part to Google maturing as a business enterprise, and its recent focus on opportunities far less threatening to those of us in the data business.”

It’s been four years since I was at InfoCommerce’s event as a speaker, with the talk Google Rules, Directories Drool . So the data/content world has adjusted to the scary monster that Google was then. Now, the relationship is more symbiotic.

What does this mean to B2B marketers?
Now we, as clients of data/content/directory services, should be looking beyond the threat to these services posed by Google, and be looking on how they might be delivering on those new key words I started this post with:

• Embedment-are they a part of our way of doing business.
• Aggregation- how deep is their info, how specialized?
• Good Enough- data is hard to keep current, how well are they doing?
• Curation- are they avoiding overloading their audience?
• Platforms- are they leveraging popular platforms (google, salesforce, facebook, etc.)
• Humans- are they using people to ensure quality content?

It’s a new ruler for the database people. How well are your suppliers doing?

Lots of people want to be leaders. A lot fewer people want to be followers. Being a follower isn’t sexy. No one will invite you to speak at a conference or write a book about how to be a good follower.

But followers help drive most organizations. A leader can’t be a leader unless they have followers.

Most people aren’t leaders or followers – they’re admirers.

Admirers sit on the sidelines. They do what they’re told, and they punch out at 5. They don’t think about how to make things better, just about how to avoid screwing up. They worry more about politics and who’s getting ahead, and don’t spend much time doing the hard work of making their company better.

Followers get their hands dirty – they co-create the future with the leader. They work with the leader to develop the strategy, to execute it, to see it made manifest in the world. And while they might not share in the public glory, they have the satisfaction that only comes from working hard and seeing it pay off.

If you choose to be a follower and not simply an admirer, you probably won’t make more money, won’t have a better title, might not have more responsibility – at least not at first. But what you will have is the opportunity to develop discipline, focus, problem solving.

If you choose, you can have more than a job – you can have an apprenticeship. You can embrace your role in creating your organization’s future, and use it as a training ground to create bold ideas and make them happen. And by making your boss look good, you earn their trust.

Someday in the future, when you’re a leader yourself, you’ll remember the days you spent following, and will be grateful you weren’t simply an admirer. And you’ll be extremely thankful for the followers that now work and stretch and achieve for you.

If you want to be a leader, learn to be a follower first. Admirers who become leaders are the folks people hate working for – the folks who steal ideas, hate giving credit, play games to get ahead. They might have the title and trappings of a leader, but they’re simply an admirer with a better suit.

Followers who become leaders are the people you love to work for – they’re creative, share responsibility, give their team opportunities to grow and learn, and love to see their people succeed.

Great followers make amazing leaders. Admirers just make more expensive admirers.

Lots of people want to be leaders. A lot fewer people want to be followers. Being a follower isn’t sexy. No one will invite you to speak at a conference or write a book about how to be a good follower.

But followers help drive most organizations. A leader can’t be a leader unless they have followers.

Most people aren’t leaders or followers – they’re admirers.

Admirers sit on the sidelines. They do what they’re told, and they punch out at 5. They don’t think about how to make things better, just about how to avoid screwing up. They worry more about politics and who’s getting ahead, and don’t spend much time doing the hard work of making their company better.

Followers get their hands dirty – they co-create the future with the leader. They work with the leader to develop the strategy, to execute it, to see it made manifest in the world. And while they might not share in the public glory, they have the satisfaction that only comes from working hard and seeing it pay off.

If you choose to be a follower and not simply an admirer, you probably won’t make more money, won’t have a better title, might not have more responsibility – at least not at first. But what you will have is the opportunity to develop discipline, focus, problem solving.

If you choose, you can have more than a job – you can have an apprenticeship. You can embrace your role in creating your organization’s future, and use it as a training ground to create bold ideas and make them happen. And by making your boss look good, you earn their trust.

Someday in the future, when you’re a leader yourself, you’ll remember the days you spent following, and will be grateful you weren’t simply an admirer. And you’ll be extremely thankful for the followers that now work and stretch and achieve for you.

If you want to be a leader, learn to be a follower first. Admirers who become leaders are the folks people hate working for – the folks who steal ideas, hate giving credit, play games to get ahead. They might have the title and trappings of a leader, but they’re simply an admirer with a better suit.

Followers who become leaders are the people you love to work for – they’re creative, share responsibility, give their team opportunities to grow and learn, and love to see their people succeed.

Great followers make amazing leaders. Admirers just make more expensive admirers.

Facebook and Vivox To Reprise GAB Lines - opusresearch.net 09/15/2009 Massachusetts-based VoIP service provider Vivox is promoting a Facebook application that will be the basis for “Voice Chat” through the popular social media site. We first wrote about Vivox back in May when the company announced that it was the VoIP carrier responsible for hooking up Second Life denizens for over 1 billion minutes each month. Yet Vivox’s specialty had been providing the voice channel through which mul

div xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”span style=”font-family: Trebuchet MS;”/spanspan style=”font-family: Trebuchet MS;”As a consultant working with many brands on social media strategy and efforts, I hear a lot of perceptions about social media. Extended out to the conferences that I attend and sometimes speak at, it is surprising how often I hear the same myths about social media. These are not things that brands are just using as reasons to not engage … they often come from brands and marketing teams that are actively using social media as well. /spanspan style=”font-family: Trebuchet MS;”The following is a selection of some of the myths that I hear most often, as well as some thoughts on why they are simply myths and what your brand can do to get past them:/spanbrol lispan style=”font-family: Trebuchet MS;”strongYou need to give up control./strong By far the most common myth, giving up control is a defeatist way of looking at social media. It means that anyone can say anything about your brand and there is nothing you can do and no input you can have. The truth is actually that control in the best of cases is shared. You have a point of view and your customers do as well. To effectively create a dialogue, you need to be willing to share some of the control with those people conversing online … but keep some for yourself as well./span/li lispan style=”font-family: Trebuchet MS;”strongIt is all about going viral./strong Starting out with social media with the intention of creating a viral success or getting “X” number of subscribers, followers, friends or fans is a sure recipe to focus on the wrong things. The point of most social media programs is not that they may reach millions of people blindly, but a smaller subset strategically. To that end, focusing on creating something engaging is far more important that just trying to get volume or go viral for its own sake./span/li lispan style=”font-family: Trebuchet MS;”strongSomeone needs to be managing it full time. /strongResourcing can often be a huge roadblock - in part because of the perception that if you don’t have someone ready to make social media their full time job, then you are not prepared. The truth is that you can manage social media effectively by making it a core part of someone’s job. You do need to identify someone who will take the lead, but this doesn’t have to be a 24/7 job./span/li lispan style=”font-family: Trebuchet MS;”strongemEverything /emhas to be open, transparent and public. /strongThere is a lot of talk about openness and transparency, which often forgets one of the most powerful things about social media: that it has huge potential to foster internal dialogue, enable better collaboration and allow more efficiency. In these cases, you might want to use social media more for something that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) belong in the public. This is not about hiding information (and you do still need to assume that some or all of it could end up online) - but sometimes the easiest place to start using social media is internally … and in private./span/li lispan style=”font-family: Trebuchet MS;”strongMeasurement just involves “soft” metrics./strong Every day marketers are learning that social media doesn’t just have to be about awareness or influencing perception. Depending on the strategy, you can use social media for everything from direct sales to generating real relationships online which lead to revenue generation. Our own team at Ogilvy has created a metric model called a href=”http://blog.ogilvypr.com/2009/06/introducing-conversation-impact-social-media-measurement-for-marketers/” target=”_blank”Conversation Impact/a that goes far beyond the soft metrics to prove the real value of social media to the brands we work with. /span/li /ol span style=”font-family: Trebuchet MS;”/span/divdiv class=”feedflare” a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/rohitbhargava?a=X3Ro0tfSM3k:jEC1u9mvJpw:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/rohitbhargava?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/rohitbhargava?a=X3Ro0tfSM3k:jEC1u9mvJpw:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/rohitbhargava?i=X3Ro0tfSM3k:jEC1u9mvJpw:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/rohitbhargava?a=X3Ro0tfSM3k:jEC1u9mvJpw:qj6IDK7rITs”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/rohitbhargava?d=qj6IDK7rITs” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/rohitbhargava?a=X3Ro0tfSM3k:jEC1u9mvJpw:gIN9vFwOqvQ”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/rohitbhargava?i=X3Ro0tfSM3k:jEC1u9mvJpw:gIN9vFwOqvQ” border=”0″/img/a /divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rohitbhargava/~4/X3Ro0tfSM3k” height=”1″ width=”1″/

Monday, September 14th, 2009 by Steven 0 Add a CommentIt’s a brand new week, which means it’s time for Mashable’s guide to upcoming social media and web events, parties, and conferences. For more upcoming event listings, check out Mashable’s Events section.Is your event not on this list? Contact us and let’s establish a media partnership.Mashable’s Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.September 14-17, 2009, Chicago,