How Pinterest Will Evolve for Business Marketing

Pinterest will be the hottest social media platform for business marketing…in a year from now. 

Despite the hype and the record-breaking growth rates, as it exists today, Pinterest is not ready for business marketers; the demographics are wrong, the categories are too consumer focused, and there are significant copyright and measurement issues to overcome.   

As it stands today, Pinterest is following the “next big social media thing” strategy of getting the audience first, and figuring out the business model later.  That audience for now is mostly women, who are, as Ryan Deshazer, VP of Search and Social at GSW Worldwide described in a recent post, doing “social scrapbooking.”  However, within that audience there are also business decision makers.

As Pinterest’s internal analytics capabilities evolve those business decision makers will become known, and when they do, the marketers will follow.   As a result, Pinterest could quickly become the best social platform available for business-to-business content marketers. 

While other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, are mostly content distributors (sharing), Pinterest’s platform has the potential to offer far more value as a content aggregation and curation tool, as well as a content destination and repository.   Here’s why:

• Scalability and Scanability – the rate of which new content is being added to the “www” is mind-boggling.  According to Hubspot, 70% of bloggers add new content weekly or daily, 500,000 new posts are added everyday alone on WordPress.com   As a result, it’s becoming more difficult to find high quality, relevant content.  The “internet” must evolve in order for audiences to navigate faster through this growing mass of content to find what they are looking for, which opens the door for Infographics and Pinterest.  By making content visual, it also makes it more scanable.  The average person reads between 200 to 300 words per minute, but visually it takes only 1/20th of a second to process an image.  Pinterest platform accelerates the process by aggregating and organize images by category or theme making it easy to search. 
• Valuing Content – business marketers are constantly wrestling with trying to understand the value of their content (relevancy, insight, utilization, etc.) based on how and when it’s consumed by various audience segments.  Lacking a closed loop system to provide feedback, it’s been difficult to know exactly what resonates, with what audience, and why. Curating content naturally within Pinterest provides marketers the opportunity to capture deeper insights into audience consumption habits.   For example, business marketers tend to organization content along the “buying process,” which is typically defined by steps within the sales process.  Marketers may find that business audiences within Pinterest organize and consume content by categories defined as “applications” -- how they intend to use the product, and not how they will buy it.  This insight could help define the real purchase path and key influences along that journey.    
• Audience Insight - lastly, and perhaps most interesting, will Pinterest have the ability to provide “affinity data”?  As Scott Bayer, CTO of Baynote wrote“individual pinning choices are interesting, but there is even greater opportunity to analyze segments of people who express an affinity for a product or category in aggregate.” 

If available, this information could allow marketers to create new segmentation clusters based on common interests, which could help improve messaging and targeting.  “Clustering” could identify brand advocates, key influencers and connectors, local “hot spots” and new ideas for reaching them.   

While we still have some time before Pinterest evolves there are few things to consider now:

1. Integrate “Pin it” button into your website - it will do nothing for conversions, but it may drive some traffic that could provide some insight.
2. Make your content more visual – if content marketing is part of your marketing plans,  experimenting using Infographics (visit Visual.lyfor a starting point).
3. Experiment – whether or not you’re a believer in social media platforms, the fact remains that Twitter and Facebook have impacted how we go to market.  Pinterest also holds the same potential to change the way we create, produce and consume content.  Start to brainstorm on what that change might be and/or what you might like to change given its functionality. 

I realize that there are skeptics out there, I might even be one, but as we’ve learned with other social media platforms, if you don’t think it’s valuable tool, then you’ll be right…it won’t.  Pinterest holds great potential for business marketers, but that “potential” will only realized by those who seek to define it by experimenting…or dare I say, “pin it.”  

10 Things You Need to Know about Selling to Business Owners

Large companies have long recognized the opportunity to address the needs of small business (26 million firms <99 FTE’s).  Over the years, companies like IBM, American Express and Google have spent millions to try to understand the segment and convince business owners that they have the products and services owners need.  

Yet, marketers still struggle to capture of the opportunity in this segment, for a number of reasons.  Despite their best efforts, they often fall back into their “big company” ways.  Speaking the wrong language, misaligning offers, and/or reinforce perception that Fortune 500 companies are too big to serve small businesses.  

Whether you work for a "big company" or an INC 500 firm, here are 10 key points to keep in mind when selling to the Small Business segment.  All Insights below are taken from various research reports produced by the Executive Council on Small Business. 

1. Don’t call them Small Business Owners – despite the fact that 60% of small businesses, as defined by the U.S Census Bureau 2008, have less than 5 employees, don’t call them a small business. 
2. There are 2 different types of business owners – one type of owner is focused on growing their business, the other surprisingly, is not. Know the difference when targeting this segment. “Satisfaction owners” represent 46% of all small business owners.  Also known as “lifestyle owners” they are older (>46) and more likely to have higher revenue businesses.  They are "in it" because they love what they do and enjoy the work-life balance ownership present. “Growth” owners (36%) are more likely to be in retail, and more likely to have owned or own more than one business (serial entrepreneurs). 
3. They are in the Service Business – for the most part small businesses are focused on providing services.  60% of small business are; professional services or other services.  
4. Speak THEIR language  – As you might have already picked up, this will be a reoccurring theme in the post.  3X as many business owners find a sales person more trustworthy if he/she discusses savings in dollarsrather than percentages.  To be credible give them specific details, contact information and testimonials for other business owners.
5. Small things are a BIG Deal – according to the research, a major purchase decision starts at $500.   Cash flow is the lifeblood of small business don’t under estimate your need to prove value or ROI on what you would consider small transactions.   If you’re talking about cost savings, express it in monthly terms rather than annual.   2X as many owners expressed seeing savings monthly rather than yearly.
6. Resources and Time are Tight - owners now make a purchase decision in less than a week for complex and simple products.  43% said that it now takes them less time to make a decision than it did 5 years ago.   They search online, visit your website, and then call to confirm what they’ve learned.   SEO is critical if you’re going to play in this segment, as you will see below. 
7. They Love to Search - Business owners purchase patterns have changed, instead of contracting it’s now expanding.   Rather than narrowing their list of vendors, 60% of owners now report expanding their consideration set through research.
8. And it’s Local – business owners search for a product or services by name, not a brand, and they include their local area (e.g. “internet providers in St Louis”).  They don’t include “small business.”  
9. Search is Important, but Social Isn’t – as you saw in the previous examples Search is critical for being considered, but interesting enough, Social Media is not.   The reason - small business owners view social media as a channel to speak about their businesses, rather than hear what suppliers have to say.
10. If You’re Not Relevant…You’re Not Relevant.  In today’s marketplace to resonate with audience content must be personalized.   A recent Forrester report showed that most sales forces are very capable of discussing their products and solution, and even the industry issues, but when it came down understanding the buyer’s role or situation they failed.  

Business owners in healthcare, construction and manufacturing want information specific to their industries.  Owners of professional services or retail want information specific to them. 

Satisfaction owners are looking for products and services that save them time savings and strengthen their relationship with customers.   With Growth Oriented owners talk ROI, and time to payback.

Summary – it’s OK to categorize your services or products as small business solutions, but don’t call the buyers small business owners.  Recognize that there are two different types business owners focused on two different goals - lifestyle vs. growth.  Both groups are interested in hearing your value proposition in terms of real dollars on a monthly basis, not over course of the year.

Business owners are heavy users of search for researching vendors, and they use social media to promote their business, but not for buying from vendors.   To be relevant your content must speak to their industry or similar size businesses. 

If you talk to them like you know them, show them you are committed to building a lasting relationship this dynamic market can power your organizations growth.      

The Best Digital Campaign of 2011

It’s that time of the year when the “best of” lists start coming out, so here’s another one to add to the group.  While I’m no authority on all things digital, working at an Agency provides me more exposure to campaigns than most folks.

The opinion for best digital campaign is my own and based on what I have seen this past year. I’m sure that I’ve missed a few, so please feel free to suggest your favorite in the comment section.   There is no “science” to the process.   The criteria for selection came down to four key components:

•  Boldness – How big was the objective of the campaign?  How significant was the insight?
• Innovation – How unique or innovative was the application of the technology
•  Value Proposition – How compelling?
•  Impact – Was it significant?  A Game changing?  Will it have a lasting impact on the industry, consumer and marketers? 

Overall, 2011 was good year. We saw companies becoming more humanly relevant with their messaging, like the Microsoft ad in my last post.  And the use of new digital technology was everywhere; Adidas and Hyundai wowed us with the use of 3D Building Projection Mapping. 

Intel launched their new Core i5 chip through a well-crafted video experience in the form of a short film highlighting the chip’s power for gaming and social media use.  And integrated social media campaigns, such as Volkswagen and Heineken became commonplace.

However, based on the criteria above, my vote for the digital campaign of the year goes to Tesco for a campaign executed in South Korea.  It had a big, bold and aspirational objective -- takeover the leadership position in the market from the domestic competitor with more retail stores.  And in its wake, left the retail industry rethinking the shopping experience.

But the part of the campaign that truly separated it from the competition was the compelling value proposition.  Using technology platforms to improve what I’ll call the “utility of time.”   For marketers, this is an unexplored gold mine of opportunity.  Finding and exploiting “unused or wasted” time by giving it purpose or utility, and going beyond just putting an ad in front of eyeballs to engaging consumers in a meaningful way. 

Home Life (Tesco) customers are, well, busy. South Korean productivity is near the highest in the world, so “freeing up time for them” is a true value-add. Tesco took commuters wait time for a train, and turned it into something useful…shopping for groceries; a task that is viewed as a chore and conducted during a consumer’s precious weekend time. 

Tesco creates the opportunity for commuters to use “low value” wait time, for what they believe to be a “low value” task, in the process freeing up “high valued” personal time to be used at their discretion. 

Earlier this month, Pew Research Center released the results of a study that tracked young adults online behavior over the last 11 years.   In 2000, 16 percent of young adults went online for amusement or to “pass the time.” 

On any given day in 2011, 53% of young adults, and a third of adults, said that they went online for “no particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time.”  The takeaway for marketers is that people are looking to fill their time, so give them something useful and meaningful to do with it.

And don’t settle for the safe and small next year; push your teams to go beyond Facebook “likes” as a metric.  Aim high, go after what might seem unattainable, and dream big.  Dare to change your industry, redefine the buyer journey, and/or challenge the conventional wisdom.  

Have a great holiday season and go BIG in 2012! 

Guest Article: Using Search and Social to Win Business

The following post is written by gyro client Jeff Vail of Siemens Enterprise Communication.  

When I started at Siemens Enterprise Communications, we took broad-brush strokes with search and social advertising for “impression” purposes. This approach tended to align with the traditional view of search and social marketing that served as an awareness and consideration builder for top-of-the-funnel activities. However, as a field marketer who owns search, I was interested in using it for more tangible results.

To put this idea into action, Siemens Enterprise Communications turned to the experts at gyro to develop and execute the plan to push search and social “down the funnel” and align it against supporting an identified opportunity. Instead of focusing on getting in the consideration set, we set our sights on developing a program to help influence decision-makers at the point of purchase.

Driving Search Down the Funnel

Click here to continue.

Click Here for a Social Media ROI

Everybody knows – or thinks they know intuitively – that social elements add value to marketing. But just how, exactly?

Like anything in business, it comes down to return on investment. Social media is not a strategy and it’s not an end in itself. Unless your business objective (and I’d check with your shareholders on this) is only about gaining page views and follows, marketers need to understand how social adds value to everything else in your toolkit.

So how do you find the “sweetspot” for developing an ROI for social media?  Well, start by viewing the tools at their most basic level, as vehicles for sharing; photo’s, thoughts, content, etc.  Consider them “levers” for improving the performance of known activities that have produced a ROI. 

Years ago, we assessed the effectiveness of demand generation campaigns for a client.  Because the firm was in the hi-tech industry they had a heavily reliance on content marketing for their campaigns.  They spent months designing and building them, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in execution only to see diminishing results. 

The audit revealed that their campaign effectiveness (related to lead production) lasted roughly 36 hours after launch (see below).  Meaning that the majority of the leads were being created within the first three days of launch, regardless of how long they left the campaign in the market (this is not uncommon). 

Today, social media has the potential to create a long tail effect, extending the life of expensive campaigns, ultimately improving ROI, and along the way creating and deepening the relationship with the audience. 

I’ll use myself as an example: A blog post of mine titled, The End of Blogs (and Websites) as We Know Them recently ran on Forbes CMO Network (see below).  It received no special promotion; in fact, you could say the deck was stacked against it.  Posted on a Friday, the slowest traffic day of the workweek, at midnight (EST) when most of the blog readers at home or are in bed.  By prime blog viewing time (10 am) it had almost dipped below the fold.

But on the following Monday it took off, almost doubling the views of Friday, and continued to build momentum ending the week as the 3^rd most popular post of the day.  The following week it was the most popular post on Wednesday.  So what happened? 

Social took over. Without a significant additional investment in promoting it, social sharing accelerated and extended the life of the post, even as it fell off the first, second and third page of the site.  Readers engaged and went from passive viewers to active promoters.

Readers were tweeting their own thoughts and comments about their insights, not just retweeting the post title.  They placed it into Linkedin groups and added their comments on the impact of the technology (the topic of the post) to their particular area of interest or role.  They were actively engaging in sharing their “discover” with others. 

That is the power and the value of social media for content marketing.  

The post no longer needed to be pushed because it was being endorsed, and in some ways validated by readers -- the most trusted source of information.  

The potential of social media is intriguing, but to determine its true value, companies will need to experiment.  Using social media to support your content marketing efforts is a prudent choice, but keep this in mind: It will only be effective if the audience/community finds value in the content and part of that value is defined by those who pass it along. 

This post appears today on the Forbes CMO Network.  

The End of Blogs (and Maybe Websites) as We Know It

I started this blog five years ago as an experiment.  Over the years, I built a decent following, got listed on a few “best of’s”, and built up a solid bank of content.  I never wrote a post for money or allowed advertising; I was in full control of the site and the content.

That changed last week when Blogger rolled out its new Dynamic Views template. Almost instantly, I saw the future and it was an eye opener.  The new technology is a “game changer” and has the potential for causing a SIGNIFICANT “rethink” for marketers.  There are two features in particular that make this innovation noteworthy. 

The first is that you, the reader, can change the layout of the site.  Although dynamic content and websites have been around for years, this is the first tool that I’ve seen that has the potential to turn complete control of the user experience to the visitor.   It allows readers to organize the blog in seven different layouts (click on the tabs above).

The second, and most concerning, is the “Flipcard” view (click that tab).  In a sense, it allows you to “flatten” my website.  Suddenly, the majority of my content (good and bad) is visible above the fold and can be scanned in about 8 seconds (the average time spent to view a web page).  Readers can quickly sort through thumbnail images or blog titles searching for relevant content. 

This new disruptive innovation arrives at a time when corporations are just now beginning to appreciate and understand the value of content marketing and blogging.

According to Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing report, nearly 40% of US companies are now using blogs for marketing purposes.  And for good reason, B2B companies that blog generate 55% more traffic, and 67% more leads per month than those who do not.

Those blogs are reaching an ever-growing population of readers.  The global population of readers grew 65% last year, according to Hubspot.   And they are consuming more, 46% said that they were reading blogs more than one a day. 

To keep pace, more content is being produced.  Emarketer reports that there are 31% more bloggers today than there were three years ago, creating an estimated 160 million blogs on the Internet at the end of 2010. 

What does this mean for the content marketer?

The speed at which audiences move around online will get faster.  They will be more difficult to connect with, engage and keep.  Further we are going to have to be prepared to give control to readers in order to be successful.  Based on my experience, here are a few things marketers need to consider:

• Flag post  – An average reader spends 86 seconds on a blog.  To “stop” a visitor who is on the express train to “contentville,” we will have to rethink the titles and images used in posts, and we’ll probably have to live with higher bounce rates.  Suddenly, getting the reader’s attention is just as important as getting them to engage.  
• Relevancy - Turning control of the site over to the visitor also comes with the reality that we are now writing content the visitor wants to read and not, necessarily, just espousing our opinions or services.  Communicating the company point of view is still important, but now it has to be done using the audience’s language.
• Understanding the reader - Google Analytics gives us the demographics but that longer will be enough.   We’ll need to understand what appeals to the reader by monitoring comments, how they’re sharing links, and where they’ve come from, and where they are headed.  We’re merely a morning stop along the way and to get to engage we have to know how to get their attention. 
• Content production – Producing good quality content has long been a challenge.  Now with the ability to flatten sites the lack of content will be visible in an instant. Marketers will have to create a content calendar and rely on trustworthy sources for output. 
• Timing – According to Hubspot research, link-sharing among blog readers reaches a peak at 7 am.   Comments on blogs top out at 8 am, and by 10 am blog reading begins to decline.  As the data suggest, when content is posted and distributed matters.  New internal processes will have to catch up with external audience preferences. 

The real “game changer” is that this technology will quickly make its way into corporate website design.   And for years we have tried to figure out the “user experience.” Visitors can now create their own unique experience, actually seven of them, and do it in real time.  It is a great opportunity, as well as a great challenge, and it’s one that Marketers can’t afford to miss.

This post appears today on Forbes.com.

Top 5 Ways PR Can Support Sales

This post was also featured on PR News. 
For the most part, sales and marketing view PR/Corporate Communications’ role to be high in the funnel. Some would even say that its focus is on “above the funnel” activities.  But if used strategically, PR activities can be very effective in playing a critical role in supporting sales.  Below are five ways PR can help the sales organization:      

1. Creating an impression – Typically thought of as a primary role of PR, but the ability to create a perception that the company plays in a “space” gets the company in the consideration set and the sales force in the door.  A few years ago, we did some research on the key consideration drivers in Tech.  The research showed that relationship with the rep was not a driver…meaning, if the customer perception is that you don’t have product/solution for their need, the rep is not getting a call. 
2. Damage control – As “they” say, “things happen”, and how the company handles it may be the difference between losing and retaining a customer.  PR can help get out in front of an issue, explain the company’s position, and help the sales force navigate what can be a difficult conversation.  Ford’s handling of the corporate bailout was masterful.  As Alan Mullaly’s peers from GM and Chrysler were taking their corporate jets to Washington to ask for a hand out, he and his team were driving from Detroit.  They said “no” to the handout and walked out with consumer confidence, which later turned into market share gains.  
3. Checking a competitor – A huge concern for sales is having a competitor leapfrog ahead with a new solution or product.  PR can create the impression that the company has a similar product or solution when in reality it may not.  Large established companies, like GE and Cisco, turn up the noise to drown out fast moving smaller competitors. 
4. Building momentum– There’s nothing better for a salesperson than a product that “sells itself.”  Creating excitement in the market for a product or solution helps generate inbound leads, which have the highest close rates.  Do you really think that the new IPhone 5 went missing…again?  It’s all about creating a buzz.
5. Enabling and managing Social Media – In certain industries, such as hi-tech, Social Media is owned by PR/Corporate Communication. This important channel for engaging with customers can provide sales with new insights into customer behaviors, needs, and motivations, but that insight has to be carefully managed as to how it is used. 

And for a bonus example – Virtual Coverage - years ago, I conducted research on how well a medical equipment company was covering small customers.  The results showed that their sales force visited customers about once every three months while a competitive sales force came by about twice as much. 
The company couldn't afford to increase the field sales force but could ramp up corporate communications.  A year later when we did the same research, this time customers said that the reps were showing up twice as often.  They weren't, but the increased communication resulted in the perception that they were seeing the reps more often.  

The Social Media Squeeze in Hi-Tech

After much internal debate and in-fighting among departments you finally decide to put Social Media in  PR.  Well, don’t get too comfortable.  The risk, according to recent research on the technology industry, is that PR may get pressured to turn a vehicle for engaging in genuine conversations into a broadcast channel for generating leads.  

According to research from ExactTarget, close to 40% of Facebook users said that they “like” a brand to share their support of that brand with friends.

Why users “like” brands:

•  40% to receive discounts and promotions


• 39% to show my support for the company to others


•  36% to get a “freebie”


•  34% to stay informed about the activities of the company


•  33% to get updates on future products 

63% of FB users reported that they would “unlike” a brand if postings become excessive, and in particular, if they are too promotional or repetitive.  52% of Twitters users would stop following a brand if their tweets became repetitive or boring.  This is where the danger for hi-tech marketers exists.  

In a report titled Tech Marketers Pursue Antiquated Marketing Strategies, Forrester found that 42% of hi-tech companies have handed over Social Media to PR and Corporate Marketing. 

The research also showed that 76% hi-tech marketers say that lead generation was one of the two most important priorities for marketing compared to 53% of non-tech companies.   Non-tech companies also list customer relationship management to be a priority at 52% versus only 22% of tech companies. 

Because of the pressure for leads, tech has a tendency to want to turn any interaction into a sales conversation, by doing so it risk alienating what could be its best sales voice, the brand advocate.  It doesn't mean that PR organizations in tech can’t successfully execute social media programs, in fact, many of the best practices come from the industry.  But if not carefully monitored and controlled, PR and MarCom will be under pressure to use social media as a one way outbound spam machine aimed at anyone who hints at liking a technology brand.  

That squeeze will come from the product organization, which has P&L targets that will be made or missed according to the marketing team’s ability to produce leads. Forrester found that Product Development and Engineering (35%) has the most influence of any business function in the hi-tech industry. 

To put that into perspective, only 4% answered Marketing.  So you can expect Product to bring the heat.

Where should social media sit? 

The Forrester report went on to say that other industry respondents believe social media plays an important part in other marketing activities, as a result, it could be owned by a corporate marketing/PR (24%), web/interactive group (22%) or a brand or product marketing group (16%).

If you are in hi-tech and PR manages social media remember this - the top measurable benefit of social media, according to a recent McKinsey survey, is that it increases the speed to access knowledge; specifically, to understand the external environment, find new ideas, and experts which has resulted in improved marketing effectiveness.   Note that these activities are collecting information, not distributing. 

Social is Intriguing, However Search is Proven

It’s tough to know anything for certain nowadays; there are so many sources of the “truth.”  Questions abound about the value of social media and how much to invest time and resources.   You would think that having a “sure thing” would be a welcome relief.   So here it is….

Recent research by Base One, 2011 Annual Survey of B2B Buyer Behavior, as well as others, continues to show that although social media adoption and usage will continue to grow, no absolute conclusions can be made as to its effectiveness in B2B marketing efforts.

The real insight in the report is the growth in importance/usefulness of what they referred to as "Traditional online" in the buying process.  Search and Corporate (Supplier) Websites “Traditional online,” will grow 2-3X in comparison with "New online/social media."  And that growth is seen at each stage of the buying process.

"The nearer the buyer gets to signing on the dotted line, the more influential the information sources become."

The conclusion, social media warrants experimentation.  And I suspect to understand it’s true value companies will have to discover their own “killer application” just like they’ve done with other new technologies.  

However, with limited time and money, business marketers need to cover off the basics, and that is “traditional online.”  Don’t let social media distract the focus from getting your corporate website, and search, both organic (SEO) and paid (PPC), optimized.  Social may pay off in the future, but Search is a sure bet today. 

The World's Most Famous Press Release

Post was featured on Forbes.com on July 4th. 
It was written over 230 years ago, 200-300 copies were printed for towns up and down the east coast, and a few made their way to Europe. Contrary to popular belief it contained no signatures and what it promoted was completely unique, new, and flawed.

The Declaration of Independence is arguably the “world’s most famous press release”, according the curator at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where it was written and approved in its final form (unsigned) on July 4^th, 1776.  The signed copy we are familiar with was created in August for ceremonial purposes.  

I found it interesting to hear one of the world’s most famous and important documents being referred to as a “press release” during a class field trip with my son.  The curator used the analogy because he said that there is confusion regarding the purpose of the Declaration; “...the goal of the document was to only articulate “What” and “Why,” not “How.”

As a marketing guy in the audience, I found this history lesson to be an interesting “best practice” from the founding fathers; focus on effectively communicating ONLY “what “and “why.”  How many times have you written and/or read a press release that tried to say too much, and/or lacked clarity on its intended objective?

Another interesting point gathered during our visit was the struggle to form a new federal government (the “How”) under the Articles of Confederation.  At the time, the new federal government had no revenue source (taxation), and no real authority over the states.  

The states operated as their own “countries” deciding on their own currency, religion, and diplomacy with other countries.  Again the marketer in me saw the similarity to the power struggle between corporate marketing and other sales/marketing organizations (Product, Field, Region, etc.).  Would history provide another lesson for marketers?

Congress struggled with governing under the Articles.  Instead of revising the existing document, the Federal Convention decided to draft an entirely new frame of government.  According to the curator, three key issues hung up the approval of the Articles; 

1. Religion
2. Slavery  
3. The power given to the federal government, which many saw coming at the expense of the states. 

Addressing the religious issue was easy; they left it out of the U.S. Constitution.  It was later covered under the Bill of Rights.  On slavery, they reached a compromise by outlawing slave trade in 1808, twenty years in the future.  But the single most important change was the shift from states to the individual in granting the federal government its power.

“We the people…do ordain and establish the Constitution of the United States.”  The federal government now answered to citizens and not the states.  State representatives and congressman now represented the views and best interests of the people within their districts.  By putting citizens first, the founding fathers established a focal point that transcended state interest.  

Could this be the time for a B2B marketing revolution?  With the rise in social media adoption, marketers can now better gauge the needs and desires of their customers.  Customers for their part are showing a willingness to engage like never before.  

As a result, marketers are now presented with an opportunity to shift focus from solely addressing and satisfying internal “states” needs to anticipating, engaging, and serving the needs of customers.

Although I'm a proud Virginian, I'm no Patrick Henry but I say marketers, it's time for our own declaration...marketing by the people, for the people! 

Using Content Curation Tools for B2B Thought Leadership

Years ago, I ran marketing for a professional services firm.   As with most consulting firms, our demand generation efforts were based on thought leadership.  Getting the content for those programs was a long and painful process, worse than pulling teeth because, most of the time we had to fabricate the teeth and then pull them out. 

One would think that with the rise of social media and the focus at the corporate level on blogging, that content creation would not be a problem. However, according to a recent HiveFire research poll, the challenges I encountered ten years ago still exist today; finding, developing and producing high quality content.  Could the latest content curation tools be the answer?  

Content Curation tools like Scoop.it, and Storify, are the next generation digital content tools having evolved from content aggregation (gathering links, like Google News) and social bookmarketing tools (like Delicious and Digg). The key difference in this evolution being the human “curator.”  To this point, those tools have been aimed at consumers to help them manage and sort through the vast spaces of web content.  

The latest version of these tools, Curata (a HiveFire company, the sponsor of the research) and Curation Station are aimed at B2B.  With a value proposition focused on their ability to drive awareness by improving organic search, and providing organizations with an opportunity to build thought leadership.  

The curator is an editor who sorts through the content to find the information relevant to them and/or their audience.   They are not content creators.  And this is where I think the challenge lies in using the tools for thought leadership.

First, creating a content farm on a “hot” topic will not improve a company’s organic search results (Google has already figured this out).  It also will not establish an organization “thought leadership” in a area on its own.  

As the survey referenced, Marketers stated that “Creating Original Content” was the number one challenge; companies must establish a point of view, not just aggregated content on a particular subject.  So what value do these new tools offer?

To understand that it's helpful to first understand how thought leadership content is developed.  For example, the process I used in the past involved five steps:

1. Deciding on a issues set
2. Developing a point of view
3. Conducting research to validate the POV
4. Summarizing the research and drawing out insights
5. Writing and publishing a content piece  

Challenges related to this process involved:

• Limited time and/or resources…often both
• Limited view on the issue – often our only perspective was through our existing clients lenses
• Drawing out insights – sometimes the research didn’t reveal anything new and/or enlightening
• Distributing content – after all the effort the distribution of the content often fell short of expectations
• Maintaining the program – continuing to create content beyond the initial launch

By taking these opportunities and challenges into light, we can begin to see where the tools provide value.  Using this as a framework, the tools can add value by:

• Reducing the time required to collect research for developing the issue set
• Providing a real-time, broad view into top issues and/or hotpoints on a subject area
• Integrating multiple content formats (tweets, video, etc.)
• Creating leverage for staff on content creation and management
• Being a ready made vehicle for distributing and measuring content

Content curation tools are enablers, not end solutions. To fully realize their potential, they will need the human elements of curation and creation.   It will require staff (#4 on the challenge list), and time (#2 on the list).  The good news is with these tools it will require less of it to be successful.

Keep in mind, thought leadership must be established.  It’s not a campaign...it is a program.  It’s also not something you say you have, but rather something others recognize that you provide.  

For more information on the subject, Susan McKittrick has written an excellent white paper on the subject. 

The Missing Social Platform?

On the flight to LA the other day I read an article about Evan Williams, cofounder of Twitter and Blogger.com.  In the article, Williams was asked what the difference was between Twitter and Facebook.  He said, “Twitter has information about what’s going on in the world that you care about and that’s different from Facebook’s value proposition, which is a way to stay in touch with people you know.”  Coincidently, The Social Network was the in-flight movie.

As I thought about those comments, and the movie, it exposed an area of our lives that seems to be missing from social platforms.  If Facebook connects us with our friends and family, and Twitter to “the world we care about,” what connects us in our daily lives?  I’m talking about our local area, city and neighborhood, our offline community, the world in which we live everyday. 

The more I thought about the need the more it seems like it’s not as much a social platform as it is a functional tool or in other words, an enabler; how can a platform make our lives easier by linking our social network with practical and time saving tools.

For example, my wife is a “room mother” at one of our child’s schools.  Her role is to plan, organization and host class events…and chase other parents to contribute time, money, food or all of the above.  She uses old Web 1.0 tools like email, a group mailing list, and the phone to accomplish her tasks. 

In addition, our kids are active in sports, which requires carpooling, registrations, getting directions to games, status updates on field conditions all done via separate web sites or portals.  On top of that our lives - thanks to mobile devices - now mix personal and business hours all throughout the day, and they often collide.  

So my hope for Web 3.0 is that it will evolve as specific applications of Web 2.0 tools that provide efficiency.  These applications will be developed through the greater understanding of how we live our daily lives.  The paradigm shift is moving from investing time online to maintain our presence (through FB, etc.) to having online tools that enable us to be more present in our offline world.  

What might that platform look like?  It’s mobile, and it could include any or all of the following:

• Reviews become Recommendations – components of Yelp, Tripadvisors, etc. for local restaurants and merchant, but also, reviews, recommendations and contact information for teachers, coaches, babysitters, etc.
• Groups become Communities – like a Linked-in or Facebook group organized around local groups/clubs you participate in, including church, school, athletic teams, etc.  Communities are built automatically when you register to join. 
• Discounts & Loyalty Programs become Active– a Groupon.com like application for local merchants, GPS and mobile enabled to pop offers in the store and automatically tracks your spend.   Additionally it would allow us to pool and direct our points to local groups (see above).
• GPS locator becomes an Status Alert  –  a mash up of GPS and Foursquare, alerting us to movement and activity of family members (especially teenagers) at any moment.
• Lists with Automated Fulfillment – this is a big one, a digital list builder that sync’s with Peapod (or other Grocery Store home delivery service), with a shopping cart threshold that will automate trip deliveries and credit coupons.
• Reminders become Personal Assistants – voice activated and controlled, adds and reads calendars.  Helping us remember school plays, play dates, birthdays and especially anniversaries. 

In the movie, Zuckerburg asked Sean Parker (co-founder of Napster) his advice about monetizing the site by selling advertising.   Sean tells him not to because FB has a coolness factor about it and advertising would kill; “like going to a really great party and telling everyone it ends at 11 pm.”

I’m sure that if I spent enough time on IGoogle or looking in various Apps stores, I could configure solution for my need, but that would take time, rather than give it.  What we “35-50 years olds” want is a time machine.   Hell, it could include advertising and it would still be cool.   Now that’s a great party…and we might even have the time now to attend.     

Sales and Marketing Integration Post Recession and Social Media Adoption

For the last few months, I've been leaking sections of an upcoming white paper we've been writing.   Well, it is now ready for prime time and available for download.   To complete the tease, I'm giving the ending away.
OUTLOOK //
With smaller marketing budgets and aggressive user adoption of Web 2.0 tools, social media will continue to make progress on the fringes of the sales process (see Figure 7). Companies will find new application of social media for increasing awareness and opportunity creation with targeted audiences and continue to deploy tools to listen, interact and support customers.

As a result, sales and marketing teams need each other more than ever: Sales needs the customer insight and connection that marketing captures to accelerate the buying process; and marketing needs sales results to be able to show measureable evidence to defend and expand social media deployment and activities.

GETTING STARTED //

Buyer behavior has shifted permanently, and a result, companies need to adapt to this change. Research shows that 70% of companies will increase their social media investments in 2010 and 61% of marketers do not know how to get started . Included below are seven recommendations to consider while responding to the latest economic and technological changes:

1. Recognize that a permanent change has occurred. 

Social media and the effects of the recession are not going away any time soon. Customers are now more likely to start their buying process on a social media site than a company site, and that trend will only continue. Budgets will remain tight and customers will need to know that they are making the best decisions for their respective organization. As a result, they will continue to rely on objective third party experience with products and services.

Figure 7

2. Do not ignore the opportunity. 

The value of social media is not that it fills an existing gap, or breaks new ground, as much as it is an enhancement to something that already exists—for B2B organizations social media enhances word of mouth, customer engagement, and relationship management. To determine the value of social media, business leaders have to experiment with applying social media to those three areas. According to the Marketing Leadership Council, CMO’s who advocate for and lead social media efforts are three times as likely to drive business results as those who do not.

3. Understand the difference between inbound and outbound. 

Customers may share information with other customers, as well as employees in the organization that are not their Account Manager. Enabling the organization to digitally listen to customer conversations can provide the sales force with a whole new view into customer preferences and opinions.

4. Plan and coordinate the Customer Experience. 

Social media offers a host of new channels for customers to interact with the organization and with other customers. Companies will need to determine how they will interpret, filter and aggregate inbound information, and if, how, and where they will respond. According to recent research, the customer experience has four times more impact on preference and intent to repurchase than does the quality of individual touch points.

5. Make it about them. 

Business executives primarily use social media to stay current on news, network with other peers, and to advance their careers. As a result, organizations need to understand how to meet this need, and how facilitating this interaction can help them better understand customer’s behaviors, interests, and motivators. Sales and marketing should work together to determine how the organization’s products and services could support and enhance the customer in their role.

6. Demonstrate the value to sales. 

The sales organization will want to understand how social media activities will create a tangible business impact on leads, sales, and retention. Marketing will have to translate how customer engagement can have an impact—current research will further this aim as leading work is already demonstrating a strong link between engagement levels and retention.

7. Think about Relationship Management 2.0. 

Moving forward, sales,marketing, service and customer communities may all play a role in managing certain components of customer relationships. As a result, organizations should segment and map customer buying behavior and channel preferences on a regular basis, which may challenge the way organizations currently cover and manage their customers.

To download the full report click here.  

Best of the Blog 2010

Last year I put up a “best of” post to buy some time on a career change.   It’s now become one of my favorite post to write.  It gives me a chance to look back over the year and reflect…and it’s been a very interesting year. 

The transition from being a management consultant to an agency guy, caused about half my audience to disappear within the first two months.   Even though I ended the year with slightly more visitors than last year, much of that audience is new (77%).   As new visitors explored the content, time on the site almost double from 1:19 minutes to 2:30 minutes (the average blog visitors stays 1:15 mins.).  Pageviews also increased significantly as well. 

Top blog posts for the year included topics that had social media and customer experience themes.
The Top 6:

1. B2B Social Media and the Upside Funnel – also named as one of the Top B2B Social Media  post of year.
2. The Price/Value Equation and the $1 Razor – a classic, written in April 9, 2009 in the midst of the recession.  It’s also the #1 search term for the blog.
3. Inside the Ritz Customer Experience Model – the most fun I’ve ever had researching a post.
4. Channel Strategy and the Recession – seems to have hit a nerve. 
5. Top 10 Laziest Sales Tactics  - by far the most fun to write.  
6. The Social Manifesto – my “Jerry McQuire” moment, despite being written in December, it managed to make the TOP 6, by having the highest first day and first week views. 

This year I’m using multiple sources of data, and as a result, I've seen the shortcomings of using Google Analytics, more on that later.   My new favorite tool is Post Rank Analytics which ranks the post based on visitor engagement.

Referral sites played a much bigger role, including a media site based in Russia.  The number of visitors from the US declined, but large increases from Europe, especially in Norway and Germany, has pushed up page views up (over 40,000) from the previous year. 

What I’ve learned this year:

• Personal stories and "frameworks" - I assume readers relate to my situation or the fact that I writing on real world experiences.  Stories where I provide a "framework"or an "approach" also do well.  
• Perception matters - for the past four years I was a management consultant writing a blog, but I changed my career.  I'm still the same person, with the same experiences, but what I do has changed, and for a portion of my audience that matters.  
• Commercialization – this is my biggest concern for bloggers, and for the medium as a whole.  Agencies and companies realize the power and influence of blogs, and are out to get involved.  Although bloggers have been approach by these groups in the past to endorse products, new services, like Business 2 Blogger are bringing scale to the “blog for cash” business.   And in this case, you don’t even have to endorse the product and/or have a target audience to get paid.  They just want you to mention the product. 
• Analytic issues – the blog service I use now offers analytics, and as I mentioned I’ve started to use Post Rank.  For the other bloggers in the audience, triangulate your results data.   Google Analytics under represents page views, especially from those visitors using an Opera browser, in particular visitors from Nordic countries. 

Along the way the blog has received some additional recognition in the B2B space.  In addition to recognition for the Upside Down funnel post, it was named to a Top 15 list, and added to the B2B Social Media landscape, although I have no idea where it is on the map.

One of my goals last year was to pick up a reader in Wyoming, and despite getting new visitors from Macedonia and Mongolia, that goal still remains elusive.   Maybe it’s an analytics issues, perhaps Opera is the preferred browser in that state.  Oh well, maybe this year.