#SMBMSP59: What You Need to Know about Location-Based Social Media for Business

#SMBMSP59: What You Need to Know about Location-Based Social Media for Business On Halloween you expect to see costumes, candy, spooky decorations and….bacon?! Yes you read that correctly. At this morning's Minneapolis and St. Paul Social Media Breakfast there was bacon. And bacon costumes. Several of the TopRank team opted for their own unique costumes like Gumby, Wayne (from Wayne’s World), a hunter, and Steve Jobs. With the surge in apps with location-enabled features—Foursquare, Facebook, Yelp, Instagram, and Twitter to name a few—it's no surprise that this month's breakfast delved into best practices for incorporating location-based (or location-aware) apps a part of your social media strategy. Presenter Christopher Lower of Sterling Cross Communications used case studies & success stories to offer advice to attendees. Here are 16 key takeaways our team gleaned from the presentation: Brian Larson: 1. Location based marketing is not simply checking-in on foursquare. Due to the sensitive nature of some services (e.g. medical related services), marketers can be more effective at driving engagement if they use their physical environment (e.g. waiting room) to interact with their target audience. 2. Robots are coming! 'Eye-See-You' mannequins which actually 'see' shoppers and can provide recommendations are already 'working' in select malls in Canada. So look twice next time you stroll through a department store. Ben Brausen: 3. The first ever swarm badge unlocked in Minnesota was at SMBMSP #24 – Social Media & Retail at the Rick Bronsen Comedy Gallery at the MOA. 4. Foursquare was far from the first location-based social app but it has been the most successful so far with over 40 million users worldwide and 4.5 billion check-ins. Nick Ehrenberg: 5. Augmented reality is the next trending technology, already demonstrated with apps like Layar and Google Glass. As the technology becomes more available and user-friendly, our mobile devices will simply become an extension of ourselves. 6. Search in Foursquare differs from regular Google or Yelp services, in that everyone gets different results based on their previous check-ins. There's nothing static about it. Jesse Pickrain: 7. When mobile users visit a standard site (non-mobile, no responsive design) and has a negative experience, 61% never come back and 40% go to a competitor's site. In other words, more businesses should be prioritizing mobile-friendly sites. 8. Are QR codes dead? Absolutely not – especially among 40 – 60 year olds, which is surprising. Marketers who have taken QR codes out of their arsenal should consider putting them back in. You can also get creative by rotating the back end to deliver a new customer experience each time a QR code is scanned. Eliza Steely: 9. Making sure you interact well and in relevant ways with your customers without creeping them out is key. Personalizing deals can help encourage them to make a purchase they'll enjoy. 10. My generation is a little lost: only 14% of the American population knows what the yellow pages are, only 1% uses it to find businesses….and people take selfies at funerals. Katie Bresnahan: 11. Retailers are making it a point to adapt to the world we live in – with more and more locations adding wi-fi capabilities in-store. This has not fared as well for retailer Barnes & Noble, where they have become a showcase for customers to view the book in-person, then check major online retailers such as Amazon for cheaper prices. 12. It's not just phones – social interaction and check-ins are now possible with Google Glass and Samsung Galaxy Gear Watches – soon we may see contacts (that go IN YOUR EYE) that are vision-responsive and in addition, our clothing could be capable of knowing where we are and how we're feeling! Emily Bacheller: 13. Did you know that Foursquare has robust back-end analytics? Use Foursquare to learn who your most valuable customers are, their favorite products and what your peak business hours are. 14. Remember in Minority Report when Tom Cruise walks into the Gap and the robert salesperson recommends products for him based his eye-scan? Yeah, that's now a real thing with mannequins programmed to do facial scans. Alexis Hall: 15. Location based apps like foursquare also serve as valuable search engines. 94% of websites are not mobile friendly. If a business does not have a mobile friendly website then they must leverage mobile apps in order to be found from a mobile device. 16. QR codes are immensely popular with the 40-60 year old demographic. So although marketers may be tired of talking about QR codes, consumers are very interested. Mix up the types of content delivered via a QR code scan in order to keep consumers scanning. The potential for an incentive, like a discount, can be a great way to drive sales in the hospitality industry. Essentially there are a few unique things location-based media can bring your business: Customer service opportunities that allow you to go above and beyond expectations and provide customers with deals (and experiences) they’ll use, remember, and rave about online Deep backend analytics to help you schedule happy hours, promotions, and maintain (or remove) items from your product list A big thank you to Christopher Lower and the audience members who asked such intriguing questions! As well as Mykl Roventine and the Social Media Breakfast MSP volunteers & sponsors. How have you used location-based social media to interact with customers?

How 5 Large Consumer and B2B Brands Are Using Vine

	How 5 Large Consumer and B2B Brands Are Using Vine This post is from one of TopRank’s social media strategists, Emily Bacheller. As companies look for examples of using different social media platforms, I asked her to find examples of major brands using Vine. Here’s what she found: There's been considerable debate in the marketing community as to whether or not Vine is a valuable social marketing tool for B2B brands.  While the six second video app has proved its worth to B2C organizations, B2B brands have lagged behind in testing this video platform. In this blog post, I hope to show that Vine videos have a number of useful applications for companies of all sizes that would like to diversify their content mix. The highly consumable and shareable nature of these short videos as well as the ability to embed them on any web page means that you don't necessarily need a large following on Vine itself to get major exposure. The five large B2B and consumer brands highlighted in this blog post demonstrate that Vine videos can be an engaging element of any marketer's social media toolkit. Philips – Share your Office Culture Consumers are more likely to trust brands that are able to demonstrate their humanity. Similarly, B2B brands want to engage in partnerships with companies that are engaging, innovative and staffed by intelligent individuals. Organizations that are reputed to have a great office culture also find it easier to recruit and retain excellent employees. There are major business benefits to having a healthy office culture and an exceptional staff. If your office is a great place to work, then you should let the world know. Vine videos are a great way to give clients and customers a glimpse into the inner workings of your organization. Featuring your staff, office space or a staff event in a Vine video is a great way to show that your organization has soul. Philips, the lighting and electronics giant, has created Vine videos that feature their staff and office building. These videos put a human face on an organization that might otherwise be too large or too technical to relate to. Cisco – Showcase your Creativity Creativity is an essential component of effective problem solving, project management, product creation and, of course, marketing. Creative thinking is necessary for distilling complex ideas, tackling entrenched problems and developing innovative solutions. Cisco, a networking services provider, recently developed a brand pillar called The Internet of Everything. The philosophy is so brainy that they needed to employ some creative content specialists to help them convey their new philosophy to the masses. Cisco launched a blog and multi-channel social media campaign to explore concepts related to The Internet of Everything. The Vine below is one artists' interpretation of The Internet of Everything. Although it's abstract, content like this is eye-catching, interesting and helps establish Cisco as a creative thought leader in an innovative new field. Adobe – Document Industry Events Industry events provide a great opportunity for brands to engage in "real-time" social media marketing. Supplementing your blog posts, photos and tweets from industry events with Vine videos gives your employees and fans insight into the events and your brand's role in the industry. Adobe software is a prime example of a company that has spiced up their event coverage with Vine videos that highlight their keynote speakers, branded displays and product presentations. Hewlett Packard – Promote Product Launches Use Vine videos to create anticipation for a new product launch, unveil the product to the public or to promote a new product. Hewlett Packard, the American information technology corporation, recently created a series of Vine videos promoting the new HP Officejet Pro X printer. The Vine series compares the speed of the printer to the fast pace of life in New York City, adding an element of regionalism to the campaign. General Electric – The King of Consistent, Buzz worthy Content In the marketing blogosphere, General Electric is consistently named one of the best branded users of Vine. This energy solutions provider proves that B2B businesses can leverage Vine just as well as any B2C brand. General Electric keeps their fans engaged by uploading a new Vine video every week. They also create themes like "6 Second Science Inspiration" and share their fans' best submissions as a way to reward participation and supplement their on-page content. Brands that want to succeed on Vine can follow General Electric's model of posting Vines regularly, following a theme or content plan and encouraging fan submissions. From demonstrating the brand personality and culture to getting creative with company news and industry participation, these 5 major B2B and consumer brands have found ways to use just 6 seconds of video in powerful ways. One important thing to understand about Vine is that the experience for your audience is not limited to one 6 second video. Think about Vine as a TV channel with 6 second episodes. The impact you can make by connecting your string of short videos will be far more impactful than random videos about various topics. Is your company using Vine? What are some tips you can share with our other readers?

Gamification as a Content Marketing Tactic – How Brands Are Engaging Consumers

	Gamification as a Content Marketing Tactic – How Brands Are Engaging Consumers From frequent flyer programs to unlocking badges in Foursquare, gamification is permanently embedded in our cultural DNA. Loyalty programs present the simplest examples of companies reinforcing consumer behavior they want repeated. Smart marketers are using the same mechanics that have hooked gamers to generate more business and, with advancements in technology, are doing so with greater creativity and complexity. For the record, gamification is not new. Charles 'Chuck' Coonrandt, identified as the 'grandfather' of gamification by Forbes, wrote The Game of Work in 1984, in part, to answer the charge that U.S. productivity was not world class. Fast forward 29 years – we see more and more companies embracing game elements and mechanics not only as a means to identify influencers and advocates internally, but also as a content marketing tactic to attract and engage consumers. The gaming principles Coonrandt's first used in the workplace to motivate workers has now become an accepted and recognizable way to win over customers visiting a website. Brands are applying game-design thinking to non-game applications to make their products more fun and engaging. Why does gamification work with consumers? "Immediate feedback is the secret sauce," says Coonrandt. The human psyche craves feedback; the badges and points are just methods. If brands play their cards right, game scores will translate to business goals. And many brands are getting on board. According to Gartner, 70% of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application by 2014. Pros In-depth engagement. Game mechanics provide more in-depth engagement than other forms of digital advertising due to its ‘additive experience’ for users. For example, one FarmVille advertiser is Green Giant frozen vegetables. Inherent motivation to return to the source of interaction. Achieving a certain level of status motivates consumers to engage frequently with the brand. Uses fun to embed brands in customers' lives. Cons Marketers provide no long-term value to users. Without a competitive 'me too' aspect, minimal levels of engagement could result in virtual ghost towns. Game-based marketing has the potential to disrupt traditional loyalty rewards programs when customers feel it takes too long to consider engaging worthwhile. Confusing 'free' with 'status'. Not understanding what it is about video games that engages consumers is a recipe for failure. What Industry Thought Leaders Are Saying… “Basically game mechanics are a way to get consumers addicted to things.” Tim Chang, principal at Norwest Venture Partners, which has backed many social mobile game companies. “Gaming has become ingrained in culture. The consumer has become more and more engaged, and [gaming] allows them to spend more and more time with your brand, and gives them incentive to do so.” Ann Mack, director of trend spotting for worldwide ad agency, JWT. “It’s the system that’s engaging, not the reward. That’s what game designers know really well, and this is what gamification is unveiling to the marketing world.” Gabe Zichermann, author of Game-Based Marketing. CA Technologies To help their globalized users get the most out of their technology investments and connect with one another, CA launched a comprehensive online community called MyCA. CA saw opportunities to improve user retention and progress visitors from lurking to actively participating. Their gamification and loyalty program enabled them to identify, measure and reward valuable collaborative behaviors, surface experts, and increase community member adoption and value. Using real-time feedback and championed expertise, CA Champions continues to drive engagement. CA Champions crowned experts and advocates, lowering support costs and increasing brand reach. Autodesk Due to the power and complexity of Autodesk’s 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, a user license can represent a significant investment, making software trials a critical component of a customer’s purchasing decision. Leveraging The Behavior Platform by Badgeville, Autodesk built powerful Game Mechanics into Undiscovered Territory, a new software experience for trial users of Autodesk 3ds Max. Their goal was to guide and on-board potential customers through the benefits and differentiators of the tool, increasing usage during the trial period. By engaging onboarding users through its trial products, Autodesk demonstrated clear value, e.g. 10% greater trial downloads and 40% higher trial usage. Bell Media While Bell Media’s MuchMusic received millions of visitors a year to its music and television website, many were inactive and their time-on-site varied with music video releases and season finale air dates. The MuchMusic team hoped to engage users and incentivize them to return regularly, contribute content, and advocate for their favorite Much artist or TV show. Bell created MuchCloser, a loyalty program that uses Reputation Mechanics to champion top fans and give them early access to exclusive content and privileges (like Skype chats with celebrities). The website saw a 33% increase in daily retention, a 21% increase in registered users and a 59% life in overall behaviors as a result. Tips to Keep Your Gamification Strategy on Track Take the best lessons from games and apply them to your specific business model; it's not about turning everything into a game or turning your business into a gaming company. Identify behaviors fans are already performing and reward them appropriately for those contributions. Offering free products is a quick win, but offering customers status above their peers has the potential to create more long-term brand loyalty. The key reward that marketers can offer consumers is status, followed by access to new content, power over their peers, and free stuff, according to Zichermann. In what ways has your business used game mechanics to drive customer engagement and brand awareness? Do you consider gamification as a content marketing tactic? Check out the full list of content marketing tactics in our series here. Photo credit: Shutterstock

31 Top Marketers Agree: It's Time to Rethink Your Content Marketing – Free 214 Page eBook from Linkdex

	31 Top Marketers Agree: It's Time to Rethink Your Content Marketing – Free 214 Page eBook from Linkdex Post Sponsored by Linkdex Starting as a public relations firm with SEO skills in 2001, we’ve always had to create content for clients whether it was press releases, newsletters, case studies or graphics and diagrams for newsrooms and events. In 2008 we made a major shift to what I call “SEO Plus” and focused a lot more on content. In fact, we were named the #1 content marketing blog that year by Junta42 (now Content Marketing Institute). Fast forward to 2013 and the momentum of converged search, social media, public relations and content is unmistakable. SEO vendors and agencies are realizing marketing is the business we’re in, not just SEO. One of those companies, Linkdex, is a marketing SaaS platform that brings content, search, social and PR components together in one service to help companies perform better marketing. This applies to service models that want to evolve from SEO to SEO plus, from PR or content marketing agency to integrated marketing agency. The same goes for departments within a company that want a platform to help integrated components of search, social media, content and PR. To bring marketers and agencies the insights they need for this evolution towards more coordinated search, social, PR and content marketing, Matt Roberts and the Linkdex team reached out to 31 industry experts and created a 214 page eBook: ReThink Your Content Marketing. Sometimes eBooks like this include the same list of names and insights, but I think you’ll find this one pretty refreshing. You’ll see why when you check out the list of international search and content marketing experts as well as the titles of their contributions covering strategy to tactics to measurement: Joe Pulizzi (@joepulizzi) : Foreword Lee Odden (@leeodden) : The Speed of Change Bas van den Beld (@basvandenbeld) : The Role of Content in Modern Day Marketing Rick Ramos (@ricktramos) : 7 Reasons Why Content Marketing is the New Black Matt Roberts (@Linkdex_Matt) : Use Content to Supercharge Your Organic Marketing Rob Garner (@robgarner) : If You Have a Website, Then You Are Already a Real-Time Publisher Andrew Smith (@andismit) : What Can Content Marketing Learn from PR? And Vice Versa Danny Denhard (@dannydenhard) : Creating the Perfect Cocktail: Do PR, Social, SEO and Content Mix Well Together Nick Garner (@nickgarner) : Organic Marketing Driving Social Influence Phil Mackechnie (@akcamiwik) : Breaking Down Internal Silos Robert Rose (@Robert_Rose) : Be Remarkable or Fail Kevin Gibbons (@kevgibbo) : Creating a Multichannel Content Marketing Strategy Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer) : The Art and Science of Content Marketing Collide Michael Brito (@britopian) : Transforming Your Brand to the Next Media Company Ann Handley (@marketingprofs) : Does Your Content Convey Honest Empathy Darren Fell (@TeamCrunch) : With Content, You Reap What You Sow Hannah Smith (@Hannah_Bo_Banna) : Why You Need Great Content Stuart Tofts (@StuartTofts) : How to Use Content to Diversify and Strengthen Your Online Marketing Melissa Rach (@MelissaRach) : What Makes Content Great Sonja Jefferson and Sharon Tanton (@sonjajefferson – @sjtanton) : The Year That Content Grew Up Susan Genelius (@susangunelius) : Great Content is Shareworthy Content Suzanne Fanning (@SuzanneWOMMA) : Content is No Longer King Henneke Duistermaat (@HennekeD) : How to Write Great Content and Become an Influential Writer Avinash Kaushik (@avinash) : The See-Think-Do Framework Simon Penson (@simonpenson) : Content Strategy (Make Your Ideas Your Friends) Andreas Ramos (@Andreas_Ramos) : The Hub-and-Spoke Model of Content Chelsea Adams (ChelseAdams) : 5 Fresh Ways to Use Content Marketing as Lead Generation Jonathan Alderson (@jonoalderson) : Measuring the ROI of Content Marketing Stephen Lock (@stevejlock) : Frameworks to Audit, Measure & Maximise Content Marketing ROI Gerry McGovern (@gerrymcgovern) : Quality Content Means Measuring Outcomes, Not Inputs Kristjan Hauksson (@optimizeyourweb) : Content Impacts on a Global Scale I’d be surprised if you’ve seen a free eBook this substantial on the topic of content marketing from so many thought leaders and practitioners. This is a necessary read for a lot of online marketers, from SEOs who still think content marketing is a link building tactic and that “more is better” to public relations practitioners that really need to get on the digital marketing track fast and in a meaningful way. When you check out the ebook you can get a demo of Linkdex too if you like – totally up to you. Just make sure you dig in to the strategic to practical insights from all the search, social media, public relations and content marketing pros that contributed to the eBook. Then make sure you share it with your marketing and PR networks. Once you read this eBook, here are some of the next steps and key questions to ask that I recommend in Chapter 1, “The Speed of Change” What business goals could you solve with more useful and meaningful content? Who are the target audiences your business needs to connect with? What do they care about? What are their goals? Develop an editorial calendar that takes into account how each target customer segment discovers, consumes and acts on information during their buying cycle Build search, social media and media optimization best practices into your content planning and promotion efforts so your brand can “be the best answer” where ever customers are looking Continuously analyze key performance indicators and business outcomes to optimize the performance of your content marketing investment Once you make the shift from content as a tactic to content as useful and meaningful information designed for specific customer groups and objectives, you’ll be on your way to more efficient and effective online marketing programs. If you were going to contribute a short tip to a content marketing eBook like this, what would it be?  What’s one piece of advice you think is most important?

Online Marketing News: Google Banner Ads, 50 Tech Megatrends, Oracle Buys Compendium, The AP Sells Out

	Online Marketing News: Google Banner Ads, 50 Tech Megatrends, Oracle Buys Compendium, The AP Sells Out 50 Powerful Statistics About Tech Mega Trends Affecting Every Business – There are five mega trends impacting the IT departments of every company: Mobile, Social, Cloud, Apps and Big Data. In this presentation, Vala Afshar reveals ten startling stats for each mega trend. @ValaAfshar Oracle Buys Compendium, A Content Marketing Startup, To Build Up Its Arsenal Against Salesforce - Congratulations to Chris Baggott, founder of Compendium (and Exact Target) on the aquisition by Oracle, which also aquired Eloqua late 2012. The cloud markting space is heating up! TechCrunch 2014 B2C Content Marketing Research – 60% of B2C marketers expect their company's content marketing budget to increase over the next 12 months. Learn about more trends here. Content Marketing Institute Associated Press is the Latest News Organization to Try Sponsored Content – The roll out is expected in early 2014, with potential sponsorship deals centered around major events the AP is planning to cover, such as the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics and the Academy Awards. AdAge What Can We Expect From The Next Decade of Marketing? – Like it or not, we've entered a post-promotional paradigm. Marketers must focus on experiences, adaptive strategy and platforms that hold customers' attention. Forbes The Evolution of Content Marketing Software – Becoming a full-fledged segment was the result of a steep climb over fast-changing buyer behaviors and technology providers adapting to those shifts. Check out this great horizontal infographic chronicling this evolution from 1993 to present. Kapost Google Tests Banner-Like Ads in Search Results – Google confirmed that it has been experimenting with these visual search ads among a select group of desktop users in the United States, but in a very limited test in the U.S. Mashable Twitter Experiments With a Private Feed – Opting in to the experiments involves following two special Twitter accounts, which then send personalized messages using the service's direct message function. The experiments may provide a preview of how Twitter will further expand a service that started out simple but is now becoming more complex. Follow @MagicRecs and @eventparrot to experience it yourself. MIT Technology Review Twitter Now Offers Tweet Scheduling Function for Advertisers – Many marketers use third-party social media dashboards to schedule their tweets ahead of time. But Twitter advertisers may be able to give those tools a rest with Twitter's new scheduled tweets option. ClickZ 3 Hashtag Tools That Rock – This technology blogger reviewed three sweet hashtag tools, complete with screenshots, tips, and some practical takeaways. A must read for anyone wanting to improve visibility among influencers on Twitter. SteamFeed Study: New Algorithm Can Spot the Bots in Your Twitter Feed – Borrowing some tricks from computational neuroscience, coauthors Gabriela Tavares and Aldo Faisal have come up with an algorithm that can tell—with 85 percent accuracy—whether a Twitter account is home to a bot or (worse) a corporate shill instead of a regular person. Wired Study: Facebook Ad Profit a Staggering 1,790% More on iPhone than Android – More than 200 billion ads on Facebook says that mobile ads on iPhone generate 1,790 percent more return on investment than ads on Android. Even worse, advertising on Android actually costs more than it returns. Venture Beat Study: New Algorithm Can Spot the Bots in Your Twitter Feed – Borrowing some tricks from computational neuroscience, coauthors Gabriela Tavares and Aldo Faisal have come up with an algorithm that can tell—with 85 percent accuracy—whether a Twitter account is home to a bot or (worse) a corporate shill instead of a regular person. Wired 6 Seasonal Christmas Email Marketing Ideas – ‘Tis the season for marketing, so this is an ideal time to be planning your holiday promotions. Online retailers in particular can benefit from strategically planned cross-channel sales promotions. SUREFIRE Blog Report: Google+ Drives a Fraction of the Referral Traffic That Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter Do – According to Shareaholic, Google+ has consistently driven less than one-tenth of one percent (> 0.1%) of all referral traffic to its publishers over the past year. Statistics suggest that Google+ usage continues to grow, but critics point out that those numbers are "goosed" to some degree because Google has integrated Google+ features across its properties and activity on other properties can count as being "active" on Google+, too.  Marketing Land Millennials Want Technology to Invade Their Lives More Deeply – The survey of 12,000 people aged 18 and older in eight countries, commissioned by Intel Corporation, showed that 18- to 24-year-olds want technology to be more personal and know their habits, but also think technology makes people less human. Older women and those living in emerging markets are the most enthusiastic about the role technology can play in their lives. Are you optimized for that? The Globe & Mail Study: Facebook Delivering 152% ROI for Retailers in 2013 – E-commerce may not have taken off on Facebook, but a new study suggests that retailers can still use the social network to drive sales. Online Media Daily 41 Redundancies You Should Ditch – Have your ever experienced editor's block? Read this list of redundancies to cure you of these copy writing gaffes. The comments are worth a look too. Ragan's PR Daily Google Launches New Google Media Tools Site for Journalists – Whether it's refining your advanced search capabilities, improving audience engagement through Google+, or learning how to visualize data using Google Maps, this website is intended to guide you through all the resources Google offers to journalists. Google Think Social Media Is a Waste of Time? Don’t Give Up So Soon – Before you rush to judgment, give your effort an honest assessment against the following three basic criteria of effective social media. Marketing Profs Facebook Announces New "Stories To Share" Feature For Media Sites & Publishers – Stories to Share makes it even easier for media sites to find the most engaging content they might want to post on Facebook. Publishers can now easily post any of those suggestions to their page directly from their Insights Dashboard in their admin panel. This is currently a test starting with media organizations and publishers and is not available on all Pages. Facebook A Marketer's Guide to iBeacons and Bluetooth Low Energy – By combining the use of mobile apps and location-based services, marketers are able to reach out to their customers in the right place and at the right time to help increase engagement and drive conversions. Learn how here. eConsultancy 3 Analytic Tools to Improve Your Social Media Performance – It's important to analyze your social media efforts and try to improve results. These tools can help you do just that. SocialMedia Examiner 7 Big Recent Twitter Changes You Should Know About to Optimize Your Tweeting – The communication dynamics happening on Twitter could drastically change how customer support interacts with followers and the ability to direct message anyone will increase the velocity of newsworthy exchanges with PR and marketing pros. Buffer From the Online Community From "Digital Marketing Has Changed; What Are You Doing About It?," Luke Collins said, I agree that it is a necessity to use the right tools in order to reach customers, but it is no longer just about providing information regarding products and services, it is also about engaging in a conversation. Social media provides an opportunity to have a give and take between you and those that you are trying to reach. By producing content that encourages dialogue you are much more likely to get customers actively involved in your campaign. From "8 Things You Need to Know About Influencer Marketing," Ted Atwood said, Blogs are a great opportunity to share content – decentralize the control news papers and media outlets have on content and expose all angles of a story. Great way to define the science behind the success. What's Your Take? Have you been optimizing your Twitter feed? Are you optimizing for the Millennial Generation? Are you harnessing the power of mobile apps to engage with your customers at the right time and the right place? I guess we’re just in an “optimized” state of mind this week. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! Photo credit: Shutterstock

Customer Empathy Plus Brand Leadership FTW at Social Brand Forum

Customer Empathy Plus Brand Leadership FTW at Social Brand Forum “Win More, Suck Less – How to Optimize Your Social, Search, & Content Marketing” That’s the title of a presentation I’ll be giving today in Coralville, Iowa at Social Brand Forum a conference run by Nick Westergaard. Other speakers include Jay Baer, Gini Dietrich, DJ Waldow, Marcus Sheridan, Laura Fitton and more. The cool thing about my presentation title is, I didn’t decide what it would be. Our Facebook community did. I’ve also run a survey of our community to share their smarts in other ways. Some of that will end up in the presentation too. That’s the beauty of social networks:  The ability to connect with a group of like minded people in an ongoing transfer of knowledge, ideas and feedback. Even though all the tools and advice are there for the taking, many companies still see social networks purely as distribution channels. Of those, most treat their social network accounts like a RSS feed with a steady stream of “all about us” updates. Below is an example of a Fortune 50 company self promoting and retweeting most of their own tweets: Does this look like winning on the social web? It could be worse, they might not publish anything at all or rely entirely on automated tweets. The reality is that there are plenty of good brands choosing to approach social content with minimal and unprepared resources. The result? Social content that isn’t read by anyone and certainly isn’t acted on. Why do so many companies STILL suck at social media content? That’s where the “Win More, Suck Less” title of my presentation comes from. That’s what I’ll be presenting on at Social Brand Forum to about 250 folks looking for insights on better social media marketing. Here’s sort of a summary and you can let me know if it resonates in the comments. Silos Suck It doesn’t take too many smarts to realize that many marketing organizations are resource challenged. On top of that there are dots that are not being connected between paid, owned, earned and shared media. When siloed off, marketing, PR and advertising are severely challenged to build a cohesive and congruent customer experience with social content. This is still a serious problem: Way too many marketers look at media as isolated tactics. They’re so focused on their own areas of expertise vs. what it will take to create online marketing plans that actually touch customers on their terms, that the marketing suffers. One of the major shifts happening around content marketing is that it’s being used as a vehicle to connect with customers in a meaningful way that is specific to their needs, not just the brand. While this is a trend, a LOT of companies haven’t caught on yet in practice. Brand content is also becoming more entertaining. A great example of this is the project-tp.com collaboration between Cheetos (a rare guilty pleasure) and Google this week. A microsite collects an address in a search box and Google Maps displays it as a target to be TP’d, Halloween prank style. The outcome? Below is the hotel where I’m presenting tomorrow after being TP’d by the Chester Cheetah. Is that Winning?  It’s a bit early to tell, but the campaign is certainly interesting, and interactive. It creates a fun experience the target audience can relate to that’s personalized (or creepy) and is easily and invitingly sharable. It also puts the product in front of the user in a subtle way, making customers think about it while doing something fun. Like TPing your hotel. One of the B2B examples of content integrated with search and social that I like to share are the eBooks we do at TopRank Online Marketing. You can view a few examples of them here, here and here.  The content is packaged in an interesting way, is easily shared and continue to attract thousands of views from search visitors. There are also some great integrated B2B content marketing campaign case studies with social media components here. I think that’s what a lot of marketers need to do more of:  Think with more empathy towards the customer situation. What topics will interest them? What emotions can you connect with? What are the things that happen that cause a person to need what you do? What motivates buyers to make the choices they do? What is it like to buy from your brand? Map that customer journey and preferences out and architect a content plan to provide targeted customer segments the information they need to be engaged and inspired to move along the sales cycle. The sales cycle isn’t a linear experience, so to connect in a more relevant way when and where customers need your brand’s information, marketers should aspire to being “the best answer“. In that way, you’ll be accountable to a higher standard of content quality and usefulness as well as visibility wherever a customer might be looking or influenced. Customers don’t care whether you’re a good content or social media marketer. They have a problem and they’re going to look for solutions where it strikes them. They’ll look where it’s convenient (mobile for example) and where there’s the most likelihood of success (search or a trusted group of friends on a forum or social network). Social is for discovery, search is for validation. Imagine a situation where a customer might ask a friend for advice and then search that recommendation on Google. Then they might visit a review site and go back to friends on a social network, finally using Google to find a site to transact. All along that journey, customers will interact with multiple touch points involving content. It’s either going to be your brand that’s the best answer during those interactions or someone else. Optimization is a continuous effort at improving performance. Armed with knowledge about what your customer wants, you can create content experiences to connect and engage with the intent of inspiring action. Data collection during these content and social media efforts will surface insights that allow for refinements and improvements to optimize performance. This cycle never stops and the longer highly quality content is created, networks are engaged and marketing tactics are optimized, the better the performance without scaling up of costs. Here are two important perspectives worth considering with social media content: 1. Customer empathy – Think about how your company can be the best answer for the solutions customers seek. Especially for customers that know what they want. Knowing customer’s pain and goals allows for planning, creation and targeted promotion of content that is specifically optimized and socialized for attraction – pull or inbound marketing. 2. Taking a leadership position and stand for something to become a beacon for those customers that don’t know exactly what they want. Even though the solution is not well defined in the mind of the customer, the problem they’re having is – and your business can serve (or save) them. Be authoritative for the overall category for which your business is focused and you’ll create all new demand. The bottom line is, if you want to win more and suck less with content on the search and social web, it’s essential to focus more on what is driving customers as well as taking a leadership position for whatever it is that your brand stands for. Then find a balance between that customer and brand centric focus in your content marketing strategy.  Balance is important, because if we only focus on customer interests, we’ll pay the price in less innovation and long term growth gains. Henry Ford: If I listened to my customers, we’d still be riding horses.

Harnessing the Power of Social Media at @Dell #SMaC2013 UnConference

	Harnessing the Power of Social Media at @Dell #SMaC2013 UnConference Companies large and small continue to evolve and even grapple with how to scale meaningful connections with prospects, customers, the media, potential employees and many other constituents. One of the most valuable and overlooked resources for social engagement with the public are the people within a company. Looking beyond the corporate communications and marketing department, companies like Dell (a TopRank client) are making major investments in time and resources to recruit, train and support their employees to be brand ambassadors on the social web. Getting SMaC’d at Dell: So far, 10,000 Dell employees have become social media certified by the Dell SMaC initiative. The goal is much larger than that though – Dell has 100,000 employees world-wide. One way Dell is energizing social media education and communications of the larger vision is through an UnConference, where employees create and deliver the agenda themselves. I was invited to participate on an opening panel at this week’s Dell SMaC 2013 UnConference with over 200 Dell employees and marketing leaders. Me with Dell North America Marketing VP Bryan Jones and a photo bomb from the amazing Jackie Huba In addition to the 200 participants from Dell across marketing, customer service, sales, PR, IT, analytics, CSR, and many other departments, there was some serious star power with Dell marketing leadership present including Bryan Jones, Vice President, North America Marketing, Karen Quintos, Senior Vice President and CMO, Richard Margetic, Director, Global Social Media, and Connie Bensen, Senior Manager, Inbound Marketing Strategy. The conference opened up with remarks from Bryan and a “fireside chat” with Dell CMO, Karen Quintos about the strategic vision Dell has in regards to the role social media is playing with Dell’s future as a business. Click on the image above to see a short video of their discussion. Next up was the panel moderated by Social Media “OG” Richard Margetic and included one of the people I’ve been following since I started working in the social media space, Jackie Huba, who was named one of the 10 most influential online marketers and is the author of multiple books including here latest: Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics. Also on the panel was Adam Helweh, a digital design guru and CEO of Secret Sushi. And there was me. We fielded a variety of questions from Richard and the audience on everything from the role of paid social to how one should best exit a social account they started to the worst things companies are doing on the social web. The focus was really centered on social media for business vs. social media in general. You can follow that dialog using the #SMaC2013 hashtag on Twitter using tchat.io. Also, here’s a graph of social activity during the UnConference from Keyhole. Now on to the good stuff. The UnConference. I’ve never been to or presented at an UnConference before so this was a very new experience. After the call for topics, people rushed to pick a topic and time slot. There were 5 session times with 8 tracks each. In all, there were nearly 40 different sessions and topics to choose from. Each session had an official note taker/liveblogger so the smart discussions could be recorded and consumed later. Topics during the UnConference included a diverse array of subjects from content to social platforms to data/analytics to customer focused engagement. Here are many of them: Cool content to share Content across websites – what, when, where The road to become a social media influencer What do you do with all that raw data? Don’t let unhappy customers scare you. SOS to the rescue! Enable SMEs Subject Matter Experts How do I start with social? What’s next with Direct2Dell corporate blog? Social SEO Building personal value and the Dell brand in social media. Are they the same? #DellLove How to thank customers and turn them into fans Create awesome content How to effectively build community Making Vine and Instavideo work How do I build a sincere social brand with multiple people contributing? How do you help generate and inspire loyalty in social media? How do determine topics for your social media content strategy Social Insight @Dell – what’s possible, what’s coming Blogger Relations: Is it PR or Marketing? Looking past Facebook and Twitter into the future of social media Marketing and Big Data: How to grow our footprint beyond CTOs, CIOs Using Internal social media Leverage analytics (internal/external) to develop relevant thought leadership Google Plus Best practices in igniting viral How to authentically connect with a B2B audience Enable your loyal supporters How to grow thought leadership with content and social Big data, social analytics, digital analytics, CRM: How do they all come together? Can you imagine attending a conference where all these topics were address by practitioners and a peer discussion? Personally, I have never seen another company do something like this and it’s a testament to both the leadership and vision of Dell marketing leaders as well as the Dell team members in attendance. In all, this UnConference was a fantastic venue to hear directly from business leaders about strategic vision of the company, to learn from and share with peers on very practical, actionable topics. It was also a great way for people working in different parts of the organization to network. There were many new ideas formed, connections made and brains inspired to take next steps. I appreciate the opportunity to participate in such an event with a company that is clearly focused on customers, employees and doing the best job they can. What a great way to tap into the vast resources of knowledge within an organization that might otherwise not have a platform to reach so many people. Thank you to Connie Bensen for inviting me and Bryan Jones for sponsoring the event. I’m looking forward to seeing the social momentum grow even more within the overall Dell organization and what that means for the business. Has your company used the UnConference format to pull together subject matter experts and other employees with knowledge to share? I am curious what your experience is. My take is that you don’t need to be a big company to pull something like this off in way where everybody wins.

Digital Marketing Has Changed. What Are You Doing About It?

	Digital Marketing Has Changed. What Are You Doing About It? Ubiquitous internet connectivity and information overload have changed the landscape of brand and customer communications forever. For stats fans, that translates to 10 billion connected devices now and 90% of the world’s data was created in the past 2 years. How does this change digital marketing in 2014? First of all, the evolution of social technologies and the impact on consumer behavior has led to different expectations. Consumers expect to find answers to their questions on search engines and social networks alike. They also expect to interact with what they find – commenting, sharing, rating and contributing. And transacting. Is your brand meeting those expectations? Do you know if they exist for your specific customers?  Search is the “Mack Daddy” of answering questions and that’s why paid and organic search are so powerful. For companies that know their customers’ needs and can implement search ads and organic content accordingly, it’s the perfect moment to be exactly where buyers are looking. You know, it’s the ZMOT (Zero Moment of Truth). The New Face of SEO  After Google announced the Hummingbird update (a month after it was implemented) there’s been a flurry of Hummingbird optimization advice.  If those folks new something was different, they’d have been pontificating a month earlier. That said, there’s some good news for content based marketers that leverage social networks, media relations and customer experience optimization tactics. Understanding the context for why your buyers need certain topics or categories of information and the questions they’re asking is core to content marketing strategy. Content mapped to stages of the buying cycle and useful information that engages along the way from awareness to purchase to advocacy sounds like the kind of optimization Google can get on board with. Add in topically themed, third party signals of credibility from industry publications that cover your brand editorially as well as robust social network activity and I think we’re on to something. Let’s call it SEO 5.0. Search & Answers Aren’t Enough.  While very powerful, providing basic answers to customers’ questions is not enough. To stand out, successful brands are creating more engaging and “infotaining” experiences through rich media and storytelling like the examples I shared in last week’s B2B marketing post. They’re creating these experiences with content across channels and enabling the discovery of that rich content with optimized, socialized and paid media. The result? Becoming the “best answer” wherever it is that buyers are looking. To be, or not to be (the best answer) The most fundamental integrated online marketing advice I could give for 2014:  Focus on being the best answer for whatever it is that your customers care about most when they need your product or service. Be credible and be easy to find, buy and share across all channels that matter to your customers. If you’re not the best answer, how will you stand out? How will you ever get prospects to care about you? How companies are evolving integrated online marketing Singular channel promotions (let’s run AdWords or let’s send out an email blast) have given way to muti-channel channel marketing where consumers can discover, consume and act on brand information on a variety of platforms. That’s not to say multi-channel is new, but there are a lot more channels to deal with now and more companies are trying to be present on more of them. Some brands are taking it a step further and coordinating the kind of multichannel marketing efforts that create congruent and complementary customer experiences across different platforms. Retail marketers call it “omni-channel” marketing. Such coordinated, multi-channel efforts are more complex, but supporting “the brand story” and customer experience consistently across paid, owned, earned and shared media is an idea many progressive brand marketers are embracing. I think it will be even more of a hot spot in 2014. Discover, Consume, Act The challenge for brands to become the best answer and a great experience, is to understand the relationship between the consumer and information that helps them achieve their goals, satisfy interests and meet their needs. It’s important that brands understand this relationship in terms of how consumers discover, consume and act on information as they experience the brand engagement lifecycle from awareness to purchase to advocacy. Think about it: Are you the best answer wherever customers are looking? Is your brand meeting customer expectations in terms of useful, engaging content experiences? By understanding, planning and optimizing for the customer experience, brands can better engage with information in a meaningful way that supports both customer and business objectives. Optimization for the customer journey means content planning, creation, socialization, promotion and measurement are accountable to three key elements: attract, engage and convert. Attract – How will will this content attract the right customers? Engage – What stories and information experience will we offer that matters most to customers? Convert – What action will we offer the customer as a next step? (It doesn’t need to be a lead or monetary transaction conversion) Hold yourself accountable to developing content experiences that support being the best answer for what your brand stands for and what customers care about. Understand how your distinct customer segments discover, consume and act on information so you can plan an optimized and socialized content marketing strategy that attracts, engages and converts across the entire customer journey. Now the question is, how will your online marketing efforts be integrated and optimized for 2014?

Online Marketing News: Forbes Cashing in on Native Ads, Google Ads Starring You, Top Tech Trends for 2014

	Online Marketing News: Forbes Cashing in on Native Ads, Google Ads Starring You, Top Tech Trends for 2014 Birthday Emails #Infographic –This email client solution provider conducted research involving more than 180 B2C brands—including retailers, restaurants, manufacturers, travel and hospitality, and nonprofits—shows that there's plenty of opportunity for brands to delight subscribers with best wishes on their special day. Check out the stats and tactics below to learn the who, what, when, why and how of birthday emails. Exact Target Can Cameo Make Two-minute Movies as Addictive as Vines? – With Cameo, your movies can be two minutes long, but no shot can last for longer than six seconds. The principle is inspired by Vine, and the lessons it learned early on: that the attention span of the average person is pretty short. The Verge IBM Researcher Can Build a Detailed Personality Profile of You Based on 200 Tweets – The breakdown is based on "psycholinguistics," or analysis of word choice, and includes 41 traits. Business Insider Top Content Marketing Tactics for 2014 – B2B marketers’ confidence in content marketing continues to grow; content marketing usage rates are up from last year; and, not surprisingly, marketers with a documented content strategy are having the greatest success, according to just-released research. Read how marketers rate Social Media, On-site Articles, Blogs, Events, Case Studies, Videos and more. MarketingProfs Oracle Adds Leading Content Marketing Platform Compendium to Eloqua Marketing Cloud – Compendium's data-driven approach aligns relevant content with customer data and profiles to help companies more effectively attract prospects, engage buyers, accelerate conversion of prospects to opportunities, increase adoption, and drive revenue growth. Oracle Forbes BrandVoice Accounts for 20% of Total Ad Revenue – BrandVoice, which launched three years ago as AdVoice, is a big-ticket service that allows brands to contribute ad-labeled content that, if it works right, behaves the same way editorial content does. It appears in the same content streams and gets bumped to ‘most popular’ content modules and social trending lists if it performs well. Folio Google’s New Ad Star: You – The search giant will soon have individual names and profile photos pitching products, across its sites as "shared endorsements." The move encourages word-of-mouth marketing but is already raising privacy alarms. You can easily opt out, however. The Wall Street Journal Content Marketing Director: Top Marketing Job of 2014 – And, according to HubSpot's 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report, companies that clearly define marketing and sales roles in relation to content marketing, experience a significantly lower customer acquisition cost than those that don't have this in place. CommPRO Gartner: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2014 – Mobile devices, mobile apps and the Internet of everything. Forbes Five Examples of Brands That are Nailing Pinterest – Three year-old social site Pinterest has over 70m users, and according to a study by Shareaholic, Pinterest is driving more traffic to publishers than Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit and Google+ combined. Check out these retailers getting it right. eConsultancy The Complete Guide to Twitter Etiquette – A comprehensive guide to Twitter etiquette (or Twetiquette), so you can look your best on social media. Mashable BtoB to Merge with AdAge in 2014 – The move reflects the growing overlap between B2B and consumer strategies as both grow more focused on targeting and engaging specific customer groups. BtoB Want To Find Brand Ambassadors? Start With Your Employees – The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, a trust and credibility survey that collects data from more than 30,000 people, found that regular rank-and-file company employees have more credibility than executives. This news represents a fantastic opportunity for employees with direct contact to your company's customer base to become vocal advocates. Forbes 5 Provocative and Daring Marketing Campaigns in 2013 – More and more companies are starting to embrace multi-channel marketing, touching consumers on many levels at once. The best modern marketing campaigns make use of current events, popular culture, and emotions. Let's look at 5 of our favorite boundary-pushing marketing campaigns from 2013. Marketo 14 Google Tools You Didn’t Know Existed – Now that the industry has written eulogies for Google Reader, it’s a good time to remember that Google has an abundance of other resources that may not be as popular but still deserve a spotlight. Mashable Interesting Partnership Between Bing and Klout – Search is one of the most common ways that information about you is discovered by other people. "Snapshots" on Bing enables anyone who signs up on Klout to verify and manage how they appear in Bing search results, based on their public social network profiles. Search Engine Land Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear In Retailers – Retailers used to think they had customers in the bag, coaxing them inside stores by enticing them with specials. Now, thanks to mobile shopping programs, competitors can match or beat a store’s prices—even as customers are standing in its aisles. Check out Lee's post about it. The Wall Street Journal Survey: 100 Most Beloved Brands – APCO surveyed 70,000 consumers in 15 major international markets about 600 of the world's biggest brands to arrive at its top 100 rankings. Interestingly, the Washington, D.C., firm's study measured eight emotional feelings people have toward brands: understanding, approachability, relevance, admiration, curiosity, identification, empowerment, and pride. Do you agree with brands that made the cut? Marketing Pilgrim From the Online Community On “Marketing Automation Essentials for Small Businesses,” Stefan Krafft said "I really do like this post and a fully agree that the time has come for SMB companies to take advantage of the technology behind it. The obstacle is, as you clearly pointed out producing relevant content. However I recommend everyone to get started right away even though they only have got one or two pieces of good content. Why? Because you learn will you´re taking your first baby steps in this field and that will give more knowledge about how your audiences respond to your content. From there, it´s much easier to take the next step. There is one solution out there which actually allows Marketers to get started with Marketing Automation without any cost what so ever." On “8 Questions About B2B Content Marketing You Really Need the Answers To,” Matthew White said, "Good point about content objects/assets vs outcomes and experience. Repeatedly, I’m surprised by how much timeliness and relevance trump quantity and sometimes even quality, as with images. Keeping existing content – including those images – up-to-date and engaging is becoming more and more important. "If you’re not focused on outcome and experience, it’s easy to count content assets with tally marks." On “Content Marketing Tactics That Work: eBooks,” Barbara Mckinney said, "Great insight. Thanks for sharing these tips. If done right, eBooks can be key tool in your painless prospecting efforts." What’s Your Take? Are Google Sponsored Endorsements a big deal? Are your employees your number one brand ambassadors? What do your tweets say about you? Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

8 Questions About B2B Content Marketing You Really Need the Answers To

	8 Questions About B2B Content Marketing You Really Need the Answers To If you work in the B2B marketing world, content is one of the most important tools you have to create awareness, nurture and convert prospects to customers. For proof, look no further than the recent CMI & MarketingProfs industry survey for 2014 that reports 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing. Part of gaining confidence in the right direction for your B2B content marketing efforts means asking and answering the right questions. Not just for your potential customers, but internal questions to open doors of consideration for your content marketing strategy. Here are 5 essential questions many marketers are facing now and my answers to consider. I invite you to think of your own answers and share them in the comments. What are some common misconceptions about content marketing? Many companies still think of content marketing solely in terms of creating more content. In the SEO community, content marketing is a very hot topic, but most SEOs think of it as a link building tactic: Create and promote great content to attract links. Another limitation people impose on content marketing is to think of it only in terms of content objects, iike webinars, white papers and infographics vs. in terms of outcomes or experiences. When I’m planning content for a client or for TopRank Online Marketing, not only do I think about the accuracy and compelling aspects of the story, but I also think about how that content can contribute to the overall consumer experience with the brand. How will it make a reader feel? The B’s in BtoB marketing are people too and some types of content are more than appropriate for connecting emotionally with the buyer. A great example of B2B storytelling that contributes significantly to an experience is GE’s Datalandia Another is Suitemates from Kinaxis What kind of resources do you need to build a successful content marketing program? Many companies considering resources for a content marketing program are not in a position to start hiring dedicated staff, so these suggestions could be considered as additional responsibilities in some cases. Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose cover content marketing organizational structure pretty well in their book, Managing Content Marketing. Since we’re in the thick of providing content marketing services for mid-market companies like Strongview and LinkedIn as well as large companies like McKesson and Dell, I’ve been able to get a good picture of what the essential resources need to be – for any company size. Content leadership – A person who will champion the content cause in the organization. Larger companies will need executive sponsorship for the initiative and this role. For mid market and small companies, this role might be an Editor in Chief hired from the publishing industry. Experience with a media publisher and newsroom is essential as is managing or working with a team of writers, creatives and the business side of publishing. This editorial oversight serves as a steward for the voice of the brand For a small or medium business, a Content Marketing Manager often fills this role with experience in corporate communications, publishing and marketing. Content creators – From a brand journalist to copywriters, front end web developers/designers and creative design, the production team is the bread and butter for a content marketing effort. Companies large and small are scaling their content creation efforts not by hiring more pro writers beyond a core team, but by tapping into internal subject matter experts. Additionally, companies that integrate their content marketing and social media community efforts will be able to connect with external resources for content creation as well. Some of these external resources will be fans and advocates and some will be paid writers and contributors that can create high quality content and share it with their own networks. A great example of the output of this mix of internal and external content creation resources is Dell’s Tech Page One (Disclosure: Dell is a TopRank client) Another great example of this is IBM’s Midsize Insider program. Content Promoters – Great content isn’t great unless people can easily find, consume, share and act on it. That means having the people resources to promote the content being created, whether it’s traditional fare like white papers, eBooks and infographics or interactive social media content. Content Amplification is something that should be factored in at the content planning level. We encourage our content creators to promote the content they’re producing and offer some performance metrics so they can see evidence of their work having impact. This feedback loop is critical for ongoing content performance optimization and can be highly motivating for content producers. Organic amplification can be accomplished through SEO, social networks, blogger outreach and media relations. Paid amplification can be accomplished through PPC ads, social network ads, sponsored content and native advertising and other paid placement. Monitoring and Analytics – From social media monitoring to web analytics, the performance of content can’t be left simply to page views and search engine rankings.  While it may make sense for a company to have dedicated analytics and monitoring resources, we believe in cross training content and account staff on these skills. For example, Eliza Steely, Ben Brausen and Steven Zahurones from our team recently become Google Analytics certified. Congratulations! If you have social media specialists, it only makes sense that they provide reports and recommendations using social media monitoring software. Same for SEO, PPC and other Inbound Marketing specialists to bring web analytics expertise in support of the content marketing effort. What does it take to build a sustainable content marketing program? People, process and tools – from planning, to management to measurement that supports a feedback loop so you can optimize performance. Also, and most importantly, a community. When content marketing efforts are integrated with community building and networks, a brand will have a never ending supply of content ideas and amplification resources. A strong vision for what content marketing is supposed to accomplish for customers and for the brand is also essential for a sustainable program. You have to be able to to show progress towards a goal and contribution to the business besides just being able to create content over a long period of time. We’ll be celebrating our 10th year of blogging this December, which is a great example of a single content marketing tactic that has sustained and succeeded over a long period of time. Where do I start if I am starting from zero? It’s like eating an elephant. One piece at a time. And with a plan. Decide where to start and focus specifically on that area. No one goes from zero to hero by trying to be all things to all people. It’s also important when starting to have a clear idea of what success looks like. More leads? Lower marketing costs? Shorter sales cycles? Retained customers? More referrals? More industry media coverage? Additional monetization channels? If you start specifically, you can become a really meaningful and important resource on that one thing and then expand into other areas with far more credibility than trying to be all things to all buyers from the start. For example, when we started working with Marketo before they launched their product, the singular focus for content was around “marketing automation”. From there, it expanded to a wide variety of relevant topics expressed through a variety of content and media types. Where do you get ideas for your content? Ideas for content should come from knowing your brand, and customers. A content marketing strategy that identifies customer segments and their buying journey will reveal many content ideas – basically, the questions that need to be answered in order for your customers to move through the sales cycle. Think about what your brand stands for and what do your customers care about? Where do those interests intersect? The answer is a gold mine of meaningful content ideas. Beyond that, the best or more unique ideas often come from community participation, experiences with customers, the industry, and with employees at your company that have regular, direct content with prospects and customers. You can also get good ideas from answer sites like Quora, mining trending social media topics and the search queries from historical web analytics data or your on-site search engine. Why do most content marketing programs fail? Lack of vision, planning, commitment. Unrealistic goals or forecasting of resources. Not being realistic about how competitive an industry is, not tapping into what information buyers want and focusing more on what the brand wants to put out there. Empathy with your community of customers, smart planning, strong vision of success and commitment are the keys to not failing. What's the role of search? Does architecting content for SEO play a larger or smaller role than in the past? Not making it easy for buyers to find your content is a bad user experience. Ideally, the role of SEO and content should really be aligned with the opportunity for search to drive awareness and attraction for your topics and customer community. Are the topics you want to be known for in demand when it comes to search? Is it achievable for your brand to become the best answer for those topics? Because of my long experience with search and seeing the impact on client marketing programs, I am biased that search should play an essential role with any kind of content that can be indexed and presented in search results. Achieving search visibility now or in the future means your brand solutions are presented at the exact moment the buyer wants or needs that information. However, search is just one channel and one touchpoint during a typical B2B buyer experience. It has to fit with the rest of your digital marketing plan. What's the next level of content marketing? Infotainment. More creative, more storytelling.  As brand content marketing initiatives become more sophisticated, they’ll actually become competitive in some ways with industry publications. Also, there is a growing shift from multichannel to omnichannel and content marketing that is better integrated with public relations, social media SEO and other communications channels. As brands become publishers and more publishers become marketers, I think we’ll see a lot more owned media efforts that look like “in-house earned”. As an example, think about the disruption of Netflix creating it’s own shows as a way to understand how brands will evolve their content marketing efforts. More earned will become owned and that opens up a whole new world of monetization opportunities and marketing efficiencies. What about you? What are your answers to some of these critical questions for companies that want to succeed with content marketing?

10 Content Marketing Tools for Creation, Distribution and Analytics

10 Content Marketing Tools for Creation, Distribution and Analytics Tools are essential for ensuring quality, consistency and enabling scale when it comes to just about any kind of digital marketing. Content Marketing is no different. There are a variety of content marketing tools, services and applications available, each promising to save the day for everything from persona development to editorial planning to content management, amplification and measurement. When I was at Content Marketing World a few weeks ago, I moderated a presentation by last year’s “Content Marketer of the Year”, Joe Chernov from Kinvey, who presented on a substantial project he undertook regarding content marketing tools. The presentation and accompanying slide deck possessed several key characteristics of the most successful content: Thoughtful, structured, empathetic with the audience, uniquely and creatively packaged. It also includes case studies for each tool. Joe made a point to not focus on the most popular content marketing tools like, Outbrain, Zuberance, InboundWriter, Kapost, Compendium, SkyWord or Curata. Rather, he focused on a collection of tools that warrant attention outside of the mainstream content marketing mix. Researching tools is something every marketer appreciates but few actually do it in a meaningful way. I reached out to Joe about this: Very few people do the honest analysis you did with the tools included in your presentation. Do you have a model or process for evaluating new tools? (Especially for companies with limited resources.) I pay for pain-killers; I make my own vitamins. For example, I work at a start-up and we don’t (yet) have a critical-mass of influencers who are aware of us. So for me, engaging with relevant influencers is a pain. So to cure that, I’d invest in something like Little Bird (fortunately, as an advisor, I can use the tool for free). Conversely, while it would be nice to be able to dip into a marketplace of writers and use a simple system for managing production and payment, at our size, that’s a luxury — or a “vitamin” — that I don’t need to pay for. Instead, I’ll manage that process myself. For a larger company that already has a significant following a more efficient system for sourcing and managing freelance writers might be a pain-killer. So for them, investing in a platform like Contently might be the higher priority. The importance and demand of tools for helping digital marketers make more of an impact with their content marketing is rising at light speed. To help meet that demand for information, I’ve taken some what Joe shared in his presentation and combined it with a few of my own findings for each of the 10 tools he reviewed. Enjoy. Percolate What it is: Real time content marketing platform. Percolate sources, curates and schedules content for brands to share on the social web. Also uses insights to suggest new content creation. Through Percolate, a brand can publish content for and engage with audiences on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, and Drupal-based .com. A tool like Percolate is useful for community managers at big corporate brands who are often overwhelmed with finding content to share across divisions, business units, geography.  After a “calibration” period of identifying a brand’s key interests, visual guidelines and events, Percolate indexes owned assets globally. Percolate supports a "cradle to grave to reincarnation" approach to content creation that helps companies identify the topics of interest for a target audience and then promote that social content across social channels. Case Studies: IBM, Stella Artois, MasterCard, Samsung LookBookHQ What it is: A visual storytelling platform. LookBookHQ is not unlike Pinterest and Slideshare in that you assemble content (original and curated) including web pages, files, images and video that then become ”embeddble” and sharable on social networks. Essentially, LookBookHQ is a way to make your content marketing more visual. Content is displayed in what looks like a Pinterest board. You can annotate images within it and connect them to each other. Some of the content behind the tiles can be gated while other content is open access. Analytics are available to measure engagement and you can integrate with leading marketing automation and CRM solutions. Example: 20 Women Who Rock Content Marketing 2013 ÜberFlip What it is:  Like Flipboard or Slideshare on your own domain name. Uberflip is responsive-design curator feature for content in just about every format from video to social to PDF that can be published as a hub. Conversion functionality is built into the hub, with customized call to actions. This is a great example of a platform that will help a brand create a “best answer” hub for a topic they want to be known for. Case Study: The C100 Contently What it is: A Journalist Marketplace Connects brands with access to a large pool of newspaper and magazine journalists including management tools for content creation, workflow and payment.  Offers a freelancers a place to catch extra work and brands a combination of talent network, content creation tools, workflow tools, publishing, sponsorship and distribution features. Case Study: Rackspace (gated) Little Bird What it is: Influencer and Content Discovery, Engagement Little Bird is a platform that helps companies find, engage and subscribe to real influencers on any given topic. Tour: Video PaperShare What it is: A real-time content distribution and engagement platform Shifts conversion from the brand site to the content itself using an upload once, share anywhere approach.  Includes a dashboard that offers channel specific analytics that let you know who is reading your content, which channels they came from, what else they have read and any insights they share. Also includes an engagement dashboard for nurturing and direct interaction. Case Study: Intel (social login gated) Addvocate What it is: Facilitates Employee Sharing of Content Standardizes, prioritizes content and messaging and offers employee level analytics.  Identifies who is representing the brand on the social web, supports content suggestions to employees for sharing and analytics for performance optimization. Helps alleviate employee concerns about what to share, what to say and whether what they’re doing has impact. Influitive What it is: Platform for Recruiting, Mobilizing, And Recognizing Brand Advocates Platform for building an advocate community though ramification: customers complete challenges to earn points and recognition. Integrates with CRM, social networks and marketing automation platforms. Case Study: Act-On Optimizely What it is: A/B and Multivariate Testing Tool Very easy to use testing tool. Test anything from button colors to order of assets, offer copy and many other variables. Track engagement, clicks, conversions, sign ups, or anything else. No coding abilities needed but if you have them, it can be customized even further. Case Studies: EA, Liftopia, ZAGG, USTREAM, TrackMaven What it is:  Competitive Intelligence Platform For a Competitors Ads and Content TrackMaven shows how each piece of content is performing across paid, owned, earned media in real time. Create alerts, easy competitor tracking set up, provides one feed for every one of your competitor’s content marketing channels. You can track display ads, SEO, PPC. traffic data, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, RSS Content, news and press. Compare your marketing stats with competitors for benchmarking. Here’s the full deck Joe presented at Content Marketing World organized by category. 10 Rocking Content Marketing Products from Joe Chernov If you’d like to learn more about content marketing tools and successful content marketing, you’ll really want to be at MarketingProfs B2B Forum this week in Boston. Among many other outstanding presentations from top B2B brands and industry thought leaders, Joe Chernov and I will join Joe Pulizzi from the Content Marketing Institute, Ann Handley from MarketingProfs and Michelle Kessler from Qualcomm Spark for an afternoon panel discussion “Content All Stars Share Their Secrets“. Follow along on Twitter using the hashtag: #mpb2b This is by no means a comprehensive list of content marketing tools, so please share: Which tools do you rely on in your content marketing planning, implementation and measurement? Top image: Shutterstock