Beyond

Ghost blogging and the 'lunchbag let-down' effect

2010-08-12T07:44:26Z

I've been listening to a fascinating discussion via Mitch Joel's blog. He and Mark Schaefer have been at loggerheads over the issue of ghost blogging, and debating whether it can be justified in today's business world.

It is an intriguing debate that can be summarised as follows...

]]> The motion FOR ghost blogging
The case for ghost blogging [Mark] says that blogs are important channels that enable individuals - the argument centred on the example of CEO bloggers - to communicate directly with the people who buy the products. And to use those channels effectively, it helps to be a good writer. If the individual in question happens not to be a natural writer, why not enlist some help?

...and the motion against.
Mitch's response is that social media is all about personal connection. The world has changed and techniques like blogging are a natural consequence of the need for a more personal level of communication. Therefore it is fundamentally wrong for this to come from a third person.

Both guys argue their case very eloquently, and I have paraphrased their arguments for the sake of brevity here. I encourage you to listen to them in person on Mitch's podcast here.

Ghost blogging and B2B
But what about the world of B2B marketing that we occupy here on this blog? This argument is particularly relevant to the world of B2B because we arguably have a greater need to connect directly with customers [because there is a greater variety of customers who demand a greater variety of information] yet we are not good at it.

In my experience, the B2B world is full of organisations that believe in the power of social media as part of the marketing mix, but who lack the time/skills/resources to do it. And we, as an agency, are in the business of contributing external resources and skills to help them do it. So surely we come down in favour of ghost blogging?

Three important caveats
Inside every pragmatist there is probably an idealist trying to get out. So while I endorse the use of ghost-blogging, I also believe that personal connection and authenticity should be driving factors behind every social media initiative. So, for me, ghost blogging only works with the following caveats:

That you are not 'passing off'. That is to say, you are not pretending. This means that the message has to be from the 'signatory'. The way it is phrased can be down to the writer of course but the content must be genuine. Whether you acknowledge the existence of an editor/ghost writer is not the point - it is about where the original thought comes from. This has to be true throughout the dialogue, wherever it may take place. Managing comments on a blog, for example, without the involvement of the 'signatory' is a Bad Thing To Do.
You separate brands from people. The CEO is not the brand. The brand is represented online by a raft of people, from PR departments to sales teams to tech specialists. They need to make it clear who they are - that way people know what to expect from them. The brand experience is the cumulative effect.
That you have a long-term aim to become more self-sufficient. People prefer to connect directly. It was not viable until the social web came along, but now it is, companies need to adapt to it. Since it is not possible - and probably not even desirable - to change instantly, ghost writing has a valuable role to play in the near-term. But it is in the long-term interests of every brand to adapt to this new movement.

The nature of the social web is such that if you try to fool people, you will be found out eventually. And people will be disappointed. This is the "lunchbag let-down" effect that Mitch memorably refers to in his podcast. And when people are disappointed, they will tell each other, and all your effort will be undone.

Whether you agree with Mark or Mitch is up to you. Have a listen and make your mind up. But no one should think it is a good idea to pass themselves off as someone they are not.

We've got to be honest about this. Ghost blogging can be justified; ghost thinking cannot.

New B2B Marketing Daily Newspaper Launched

2010-08-05T08:06:09Z

At the risk of really annoying you, I have to admit that the above headline is not strictly true. The B2B Marketing Daily will not be on a newsstand near you anytime soon.

But it is online, and you can see today's issue here. By using a new tool called Paper.li I can offer B2B marketers a daily digest of all B2B news that has appeared on Twitter, beautifully laid out in a highly readable newspaper style. In fact, anyone can offer a daily newspaper on a subject of their choice just by choosing a hashtag and hitting the 'publish' button. If there is a hashtag in use, you can make your own newspaper.

Alternatively, you can create a newspaper based on Twitter stories carried by you and your followers. So if you don't have time in the day to follow everything happening in your tweet stream, simply use paper.li and relax with a cup of tea at the end of the day and see what's been happening.

Curation, not creation
It's a nice little tool, but I think it also has wider significance for marketers like us because it is an example of how we all need to be innovative when it comes to content. If you want to be seen as a thought leader, you need to keep producing good, original content. But content curation - the art of managing and repackaging information to suit your audience's needs - is also an essential part of content marketing. And Paper.li is just a great example of how it can be done.

Find out more at www.paper.li. Go on. Read all about it.

The evolving B2B marketing budget: what are you really paying for?

2010-07-19T11:23:04Z

How do you allocate your marketing budget?

There are of course many different ways, but I'm willing to bet that the most significant factor is precedent. Not only are we creatures of habit by nature, but we are also emerging from a particularly nasty dip in the world economy. Now is not the time to take big risks, so it's not surprising we like to stick with what worked in the past.

But it is interesting to look at a gradual evolution of marketing budgets over the years. Starting with the very origins of budget setting and the very first advertising model, I have taken a small - and quite unscientific - look at how marketing budgets have changed.

It is fascinating to see how this has changed because we stand on the edge of a further stage of evolution. We have to account for a very different marketing mix these days and it all starts when we sit down and work out where the money is going to go each quarter.

Let's start by recapping the last 100 years...

]]> A quick recap of the last 100 years

The Advertising Era: Originally, in the dim distant past, ad agencies were there just to book the media. It was only later that they realised they could make more money from supplying creative services at the same time. So the regular procedure was to give the agency a certain budget, from which the agency took a little for itself, offset by the fact that it got better rates from the publishers than the client could have done on its own. The agency produced creative work that made the media spend more effective and everyone was happy.

The Direct Era: Over the years, this model naturally became more complicated as additional marketing activity was required. Whether this consisted of producing collateral & sales tool, attending exhibitions, direct marketing or many other techniques, it all had to come out of the marketing budget. So, as a proportion, the media budget shrank to allow more funding for those activities [depending on how successful they are].

The Web Era: A similar effect occurred from the Nineties onwards, when the Internet came to the fore. A lot of the paper media spend became online media spend, but budgets now needed to accommodate ever more complex websites and online initiatives. The programmers and web designers had to be funded somehow, and this has put even more pressure on media budgets.

...and onto the present day

But now, as we enter the Social Media Era, it starts to get really interesting - because budget allocations now reflect the fact that marketers now need to work in a different way. They know that winning the trust of buyers depends on building relationships - and that can't be done with the same old outbound marketing tools. It is now about building a presence in the places where the buyers go for information. Content marketing and social media is getting bigger and bigger and I believe budget allocation will very soon reflect this. It is already moving in this direction, but I believe that, before long, we will see something like the crude but colourful diagram below.

A certain amount of funding still goes to agency to run creative and direct activities. But the need for content is so much greater, should it not have its own separate budget? It is the key tool for establishing the credibility of a brand in the complex world of B2B.

And then, what about media? This too has changed because it's not just about buying it; in social media circles you have to earn it. If you want to succeed in social media, you have to earn the respect and trust of the online communities you target and that takes time, training and technology. Companies are always saying that they need to engage in social media but don't have the time.

Surely the answer is simply to build it into the budget. If you want to reap the benefit of having a presence in the online world that is so important in shaping the buyers' perception of your brand, you should expect to pay for it. But instead of simply paying for the space into which you insert your ad, you need to invest in the time and the training required to have an active presence in social media. Pay for people to run your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your blogs, your online outreach in general. It's the same money - just a different way of allocating it.

With the wave of idealism that accompanied the arrival of social media a few years ago, many subscribed to the misguided belief that a social media presence would just happen. This simply doesn't work, because everyone else is doing it - and this includes competitors as well as the millions of citizen commentators who are getting involved. If you want that presence, you've got to pay.

In this world of social media and relationship building we like to think that we can 'friend' our way to riches. I don't think so. Sometimes, you just have to put your hand in your pocket and pay for the attention your brand needs, and if that means changing the way you think about allocating your budget, so be it.

Are you spending more on content creation? Do you have a specific budget for social media? Is your budget allocation changing? I'd be fascinated to know...

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Customer Experience But Were Afraid To Ask...

2010-07-05T14:30:40Z

The phrase "customer experience" is on everyone's lips these days, so we thought it was high time we ran a series of blogs to deal with how this issue is being dealt with in the B2B world. So, over the next few months, that is precisely what we aim to do.

But before you can answer the question of how to improve customer experience, I think it is useful to ask why it should suddenly be so important. After all, isn't all a bit obvious? We've known for some time that making customers happy is a better idea than pissing them off. But as with so much business thinking, there are some critical subtleties of meaning here. Look a little closer and you'll see why customer experience is actually a more complex issue than it first seems, and deserving of further analysis by B2B organisations.

Here are, I believe, the three main reasons that the concept of customer experience has risen up the business agenda.
  

]]> 1. The temples have fallen
The first reason can be seen in the tough economic times we live in. For years, we have built up trust in brands based on pure reputation, rather than capability. But brand heritage counts for less in a world recovering from a crisis where the big solid performers were shown to be paper-thin. The current customer experience is more important than a reputation based on what they did a generation ago.

IBM, for example, should be considered as a solid brand because of what they are doing now, and not because they were the pioneers of business computing. Why should the company that invented the mainframe be trusted with the multi-million dollar contract to plan and implement an IT strategy in 2010? The answer is that they prove consistently, by virtue of a well-managed customer experience, that they have the qualities to do the job.

Yet reputations based on heritage rather than present capability have a habit of persisting - until recently that is. As some of the world's leading financial institutions crumbled under the pressures of an economic crisis of their own making, business decision makers realised that reputations weren't what they used to be. A big name should count for nothing. What you need is a big experience.

2. The principle of secondary experience
The second reason that B2B marketers should be thinking about customer experience is that the way we seek information about potential suppliers has changed beyond recognition.

The influence of the Buyersphere - that is the self-contained world where buyers seek recommendations from each other, with the result that they have diminishing reliance on the promises of suppliers - is well documented. A recent survey of 500 business buyers in the Buyersphere Report showed that the four most influential 'channels' of information used when considering purchases at all stages of the buying cycle were word of mouth, Twitter, blogs and Facebook.

But then this should come as no surprise since social media tools can be viewed as little more than the enablers of electronic word of mouth. In the interest of fairness, I should add that these were not necessarily the most frequently used of the various information channels in the research, but their use was increasing. Studies of usage amongst different age groups showed that the use of social media to inform business purchases has been growing fast, and will continue to grow with the gradual arrival of the Facebook generation in decision-making positions.

The point is that a good customer experience is no longer just relevant to the person who receives it first-hand. It is now so easy to tell others of the experience you have received - and there is a huge global audience waiting to hear about it - that customer experience is no longer just a one-to-one, personal issue. We are vicariously experiencing brands through social media every day, whether by reading blogs or noting user ratings. The reported brand experience is here to stay.

3. The connected world
Another related factor that has added to the wave of interest in customer experience is that the term often refers to the 'service wrap-around' rather than to the product itself. The reason for this, in turn, is that as brands seek to differentiate themselves in near-commoditised markets, they seek refuge in service-oriented positioning statements. "We're the people behind the brand". "We care because you matter". "Understanding customer needs", etc.

And as mobile communications and social media channels mature there are more and more opportunities to interact with brands [or more importantly perhaps to interact with the 'people behind the brand'], which means there are many more opportunities every day to really make an impact on customers by offering unbelievable customer service.

But for every Rackspace [a hosting company that lives and breathes this philosophy, and owes its astonishing success to the fact that they really do offer unbelievable service, rather than just talking about it], there will also be a customer service disaster story somewhere about a company that conspicuously fails to walk the customer dedication walk. As always, there is a bell-curve distribution here and the customer service high-achievers are neatly balanced by the laggards. And as customers become more demanding, the bell curve moves slowly to the right, making it harder and harder to excel.

So customer experience really does matter, and the reason for its current popularity as an issue for B2B marketers to think about is a little more complex than many would think.

Presenting the Customer Experience blog series
But what can you do about it? This blog will host a series of six posts over the next three months focusing on what B2B brands should be doing to optimise the customer experience.

We will cover practical tips that go beyond answering the phone within ten rings and investigate the activities that are helping some B2B brands to provide a customer experience that is really setting them apart from the chasing pack. With references to real examples, the blog series will examine the issue of customer experience at the different stages of the B2B buying cycle, starting with the needs identification stage and moving on all the way through the sales funnel to the critical post-sales phase.

If you would like to learn more about how B2B marketers should be approaching customer service, come back here every couple of weeks. Better still use the RSS bookmark, or click here to request reminders by email. We'll even publish the whole series as a free whitepaper at the end.

In fact, we'll do all we can to keep you happy. But, dear prospective customer, isn't that the point?

The perils of a tarnished brand

2010-07-04T11:35:36Z

Today's FT carries an interesting spread on the difficulties large brands face when their reputation is somehow besmirched by public perceptions of accidents (BP's oil spill and safety record), financial impropriety (Goldman Sachs paying huge bonuses after being bailed out) or just getting too big for your boots (Starbucks global expansion). An article by Morgen Witzel and Ravi Mattu looks at perceptions of leading brands and the difficulties of Asian brands like Tata to transcend local boundaries.

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So while people interested in "branding" as a universal phenomenon always knew that a brand is a promise that only exists in the minds and perceptions of consumers and customers, we are cottoning on to the notion that people's perceptions are susceptible to influence. And, whereas in years BF (Before Facebook) influencers were limited to closed circles, the power of influence has multiplied at an exponential rate with the advent of social media channels. Therefore savvy companies are not only monitoring what is being said about them in social media sites, but actively engaging with bloggers and microbloggers because they understand the reputation enhancing possibilities of engaging with your critics and the reputation dangers if you do not.

But what the article doesn't address is that the need for this kind of engagement activity isn't just a consumer brand issue. The need is just as important in B2B brands because business buyers are consumers at work. It is worth noting that of the brands at "peril" Morgen Witzel and Ravi Mattu are citing, at least two of the five are B2B brands (BP and Goldmans) and Google is arguably as much B2B as consumer.

So while I agree wholeheartedly with their conclusions about social media and the need for Chief Executives to be brand champions I would argue that its as important in businesses that trade with other businesses as it is with consumer brands. And that the chief executives of B2B businesses that think brand management is beneath them and social media is just something their kids are into are steering their businesses into peril.

Beyond School: my final day

2010-07-02T15:05:40Z

Today is my final day at Base One. I have had a fun and varied week and I feel that my stay here has been very worthwhile.

Although I've only been here a week, I have tried out several different aspects of marketing including competitor research and a variety of tasks for the Search and Social media department. I briefly sampled design on Wednesday morning but then I remembered why I gave up Art and D&T at school! I quickly retreated back to the safety of a laptop computer, away from the gigantic Macs that the design team uses.

]]>

I have felt welcomed by the Base One family throughout the week and it has definitely furthered my interest in marketing. I am now even more convinced that this is the career for me. Although I have only experienced a small part of marketing, I am looking forward to getting to know a lot more about the industry once I've finished school

I hope to get a job in marketing after gaining a degree in geography. I believe that this will put me in good stead for the future, and hopefully make me stand out from those who have not gone to university. I would love a job at an agency like Base One as I believe that there is a perfect balance between fun and work in the Base One office.
I was positive about marketing before I came to Base One because it was my dad's profession and for the last couple of years I believed that marketing would be the job for me. I'm pleased to say that my opinion certainly hasn't changed.

I am happy to have been given the chance to experience the working world this week. I am even happier that I've been asked back for a few days next week to help organise the Base One fun day. So I better brush up on my Excel skills!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Base One for being so welcoming and making my week so enjoyable. I hope to see you all soon.

Cheers

Nick

Beyond School: interviewing the Base One gang

2010-07-01T09:23:53Z

From left to right: Mark, Dan, Me, Becks and Krupa

Hi, guys.

Today I thought I would try something different to a diary. I have been interviewing some of my co-workers and finding out what they think of Base One and what they think of themselves. Hopefully, it will give you a little flavour as to what it's like to work at Base One. Here's what they had to say.

]]> Dan has been at Base One for two years and is a copywriter within the services team. He has been helping me massively with writing and proofing the blogs I have posted thus far. He says his favourite bit about Base One is: "The great people. You can chat to everyone here - they're not just a clever bunch, they're a fun bunch, too."

Krupa is a search and social media consultant. On my first day I stole her seat because she was away watching Wimbledon - so I can feel like I have already sampled her job! She describes herself as "fiesty, down to earth and smiley." She says her favourite part about working at Base One is the family-like atmosphere.

Bex has been working here for three years and is a search-marketing manager. She claims she is "spontaneous, animated and eclectic". Just in case, like me, you are unaware of the meaning of eclectic, it means "selecting what seems best of various styles or ideas." Her favourite song is Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix) by Ellie Goulding.

Last but not least is Mark. He is a search-marketing consultant, too. He is jovial and, like Dan, he says his favourite bit about Base One is the people. "Everyone is professional about their work, knows how to have fun and is generally very happy." Although he wishes we had "leather chairs! And a chocolate fountain for our fresh fruit!" Although I believe the inclusion of a chocolate fountain would have us all struggling to fit through the door after just a week!

So that is a brief insight into the people I work with. I am pleased to declare that I have met some wonderful and fun co-workers with a good sense of humour. Not only have they kept me working hard throughout the week, they've also kept laughing, too.

Cheers,

Nick

Beyond School: Day two of my week at Base One

2010-06-30T16:01:06Z

Hi. I'm Nick. I'm 15, a student at Kingston Grammar School and doing a week's work experience at Base One. Throughout my time here I'll be writing a blog to tell you about all my new experiences as I sample the world of work for the first time. One of my new experiences will be writing a blog so I hope you enjoy reading about my unique perspective on the world of B2B marketing.

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Tuesday, June 29th

As I arrived for my second day at Base One, I was given the daunting task of taking what must have been 100 sheets of paper then converting their contents into my new-found friend, Microsoft Excel. Slowly I got to grips with it and the task did not take as long as I thought.

I was shown one of the many websites that Base One have designed and managed. There are three different layouts across the different sites. The content usually stays the same but the way it is visually delivered varies massively between each site. This gives variety and individuality across the dealer sites.

Sarah then asked me to do some proofreading - a slight problem, as I am dyslexic! I hope I pointed out some mistakes but I cannot promise anything!

I returned to keyword analysis, but I think Google are on to me as yet again I was blocked!

Several hours and five or six blocked proxies later, I was within 40 entries of finishing the entire spreadsheet. That was until disaster struck again and Google once again blocked me, so I handed the job back to Mark and started work on some competitor research.

I had a look at some insurance brokers' websites and I have to admit that I didn't particularly like using them. It seemed to me that their websites are dull and poorly made, which surprised me as these companies are worth millions.

So that's my second day. I have had another eventful and enjoyable time - I could really get used to working at Base One.

Cheers

Nick

Beyond School: My week at Base One

2010-06-30T13:22:18Z

]]>

Monday-June 28th-2010

I arrived at Base One at about 9:30 this morning for my first day of work experience. I was not sure what to expect and how the office would look. I was shown around the office and its various departments and sections by Sarah, the chief account handler at Base One.

Sarah talked me through the various processes that the company goes through and how Base One go from brief to the start date of the campaign. I can already say I understand a considerable amount more than I did this morning about how B2B companies work, although I am told that Base One is not a traditionally run B2B marketing company. We talked about how most decisions the consumer makes are emotional and these are heavily influenced by marketing and advertising that we (the consumer) will see in our normal day.

I was then introduced to the Social Media team. Search consultant Rebecca introduced me to the "Don't Turn Up" campaign which advertises the B2B Awards 2010. The face of the campaign is Harry Basterd, who sounds a bit like Facejacker's "Terry Tibbs" and threatens us not to turn up. "That award's already mine!" he repeats.

I was handed over the controls to the Facebook and Twitter pages controlling the campaign and today I made my first Tweet to the world. I declared that the 25th November (the day of the awards) was my day. I was given control of Harry's "Don't Turn Up" Facebook page and spent the rest of the morning researching the attending companies and posting a message on their walls to get them interested in the work we are doing on Facebook. Eventually, Facebook told me to stop spamming and wanted to verify if I was human!

Another search consultant, Mark, showed me how to perform keyword analysis. This consists of a very large Excel document and a lot of copying and pasting. Eventually, Google came up with a message telling me I was partaking in activities they did not like so I was banned from Google for a while - which has never happened to me before! Next up was link-building, which is where I promote a website by posting it on multiple sites to help create interest in the page, increasing its ranking on Google.

I posted four successful URLs and had another four turned down on the various sites I tried. So I have hopefully had some sort of influence on the ranking of this site.

I have really enjoyed my first day of work experience. I am glad I am sampling the line of work that interests me and so far I'm sure this is the kind of job I would like to get after university. I like the great variety in marketing and I am really enjoying the laid-back office with the comfy seats. I have even been listening to XFM all day on my inherited pink headphones. So I will say goodbye for now and update you tomorrow about my second day at Base One.

Cheers

Nick

A Campaign In A Day: An Account of the Great Content Marketing Experiment

2010-06-23T08:43:27Z

There are a lot of people talking about content marketing these days - and so they should be. But amongst all the talk about how content marketing is perfect in principle for the modern business world, it's nice to see some concrete examples.

That was one of the ideas behind the Great Content Marketing Experiment, conducted on 19th May this year in London. To put the principles of content marketing to the test by doing a campaign in a day. To create and distribute useful content and to measure its effect within a targeted audience.

The whole experiment has now been summarised in the document below. If you are considering using content marketing, it is a fascinating insight into how it can work in practice - albeit in a 24-hour period! Please feel free to download and distribute - if you find it useful content, that's what it's all about after all.

Download the full story here >> content_marketing_experiment.pdf

PS: And while I'm here, a big thanks to all those who helped make it happen - amongst others Jo King, Lindsay Davies, Mark Schaefer, Michele Linn, Jamie-Lee Wallace, Ardath Albee, Barry and all at #SMMo, Giff, Krupa, and the content marketing community in general.

The Great Content Marketing Experiment - Live Blog

2010-05-17T16:01:55Z

FINAL UPDATE:

Thursday 13:31 BST

Now that the dust has settled I can report back on the whole experiment... The final count, including pdf and video views, was 570 downloads - and while I'm a little disappointed we didn't make 1,000, I'm still delighted that the experiment worked by proving clearly how content can spread if it is interesting.

570 people voluntarily accessed a piece of information - a fact that one member of my audience put into context by saying that it would cost thousands of media dollars to achieve the same effect by interruptive advertising.

The presentations at the conference yesterday were fascinating - made all the more lively by the fact that we were trying to demonstrate the power of content marketing live while the session was going on.

I will publish a document soon that recounts how the whole thing worked, and maybe create a graph of traffic over time, showing the effects of key retweets, blogs etc as far as it is possible with the analytics data to hand.

In short though, we also had 443 visits to the live blog [here], as well as 3 retweets

So we didn't get the 1,000 clicks but - if an experiment is judged by whether it demonstrates a point, I think it was a resounding success and I thank you all for helping make it work!

So what should we do as a follow-up? If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Thanks again

John

15:34 BST

391 downloads.

Another video has been added to the IDM YouTube channel, an interview with Joel Harrison of B2B Marketing Magazine talking about his views on the opportunities and threats of Social Media.

Larry Kuntz, re your question: I will check with John who produced the document and let you know as soon as he's finished presenting!

15:00 BST

Session 2 starts, and we are now at 364 downloads. The highlight of session one was a question from the floor: wouldn't we get more downloads if John Bottom dressed up in a pink rabbit suit and was videod pleading for them? Frivolous maybe, but a little bit of drama is never a bad thing with this kind of campaign...

We have been asked how this can be an experiment when we have spent some of our time asking people to tweet about it. Well that's the real challenge with any Social Media campaign: you have to start by seeding them. We have generated going on 200 tweets so far. We have probably contacted 20 people.

If you haven't yet downloaded the white paper: Opportunities & Threats - the future of Social Media as viewed by senior marketers, then click here.

14:15 BST

Session one of two starts, and we are at 334 downloads. John Bottom shows us how research shows that Social Media is more influential for the under 30's than the over 30's.

We've also just uploaded our first video interview to YouTube - Opportunities & Threats, video stylee!

If you haven't done so yet, please click here to download the paper.

12:30 BST

Very interesting presentation from David Chalmers of Cisco, especially highlighting the power of Twitter, which they use extremely well as a messaging and recruitment tool for events, and also the importance of influencers. Here he gave an interesting example which I find runs very true: you may find your influencers on-line, but the best way to engage them is still off-line, in the pub, with beer!

One point I wasn't 100% on was regarding Facebook. David said he still regarded Facebook as a 'personal' network and not relevant, but that recent conversations with them suggested that they are going to change this. It's true that Facebook doesn't work for all businesses, but this is changing of its own accord.

Anyway, back to the experiment. We're now up to 245 downloads, so a big increase over the last hour and a quarter. The US is waking up (thank you friends from across the pond), and some selective messaging of influencers is proving fruitful. Still, we're hoping for a bigger boos during the experiment itself. One more update before it, though.

If you haven't done so yet, please download the Opportunities and Threats paper here.

11:15 BST

It's coffee time at the IDM B2B Conference, followed by a much anticipated session on 'Riding the hype of Social Media for B2B marketing' presented by David Chalmers of Cisco. We're hoping to ride some of that hype ourselves as we build momentum:

- 60 tweets to date using hashtag #GCME
- Document being posted to slideshare
- Discussions on various LinkedIn groups
- Video interviews with some of those quoted in the Opportunities & Threats paper will shortly be posted to YouTube

153 downloads in total, so 34 in the last hour. A good build-up till the actual sessions, running from 2.00 - 2.30 pm and 2.45 - 3.15pm.

10:15 BST

The conference is under way and the word is already getting out on today's experiment. We're up to 119 downloads of the Opportunities & Threats paper. Thanks for all those already helping with the push. More to follow....

Wednesday 19th May, 06:43 BST

It's a beautiful early morning in London, and the experiment starts here. On way to venue. Notice that the current download count of the Opportunities & Threats paper is already at 82, which is encouraging since we only really started at midnight. Lots more work today to get to 1,000 hits. If you haven't read it yourself, take a look.

Monday 17th May, 17:10 BST

There are just 2 days to go. Wednesday 19th May is the date of the Great Content Marketing Experiment. I will be blogging live from the annual IDM B2B Marketing Conference on the 28th floor of the Millbank Tower in Central London.

Just to recap, the aim is to prove the viability of content marketing in a live experiment. We therefore not only have my colleague John Bottom talking about the theory of content marketing in his presentation, but a larger team will be busy putting it all into practice by doing all we can to achieve 1,000 downloads of this document. Find out more about it and how it was created for the event here.

Look out for live updates on the day, and if you're on Twitter, follow the hash tag #GCME.

The Great Content Marketing Experiment: London 19th May 2010

2010-05-04T13:13:36Z

Can you prove that content marketing works?

More specifically, is it possible to create a piece of business content, from scratch in a day and use it to gain 1,000 clicks?

I don't mean funny videos or viral games. We're talking business content, and we have no ready-made Twitter following of millions. We're trying to do it the hard way - and we're trying to do it live in front of 150 senior marketers at the IDM B2B Marketing Conference on 19th May 2010.

Let me explain and, at the same time, let me invite you to get involved...

]]> The Conference
The IDM B2B Conference is a prestigious event in its 7th year that attracts many leading senior UK marketers. It is a paid event [and a reasonably expensive one at that], held in a very select location somewhere in London, UK. This year, the theme is "Change Is Good".

The Challenge
I was asked to present a session on content marketing, and I originally offered to talk through "7 steps to better content marketing" - where I planned to cover topics such as tips on creating good content, repurposing, distribution channels etc. But then I realised that the audience probably wanted to see it all working in practice... This is not a technical audience. In fact, we are talking about some fairly sceptical people who have yet to fully embrace the world of social media. So we decided instead to put content marketing theory to the test, and to show how social media marketing - if sensibly applied - can work on a business level.

So we gave ourselves the task of actually creating our own content and doing it live on the day - and aiming for 1,000 clicks by the end of the day.

The Content
First of all, as an example of how content marketing should work, we needed to create some interesting content. And with over 100 senior marketers from big brands in attendance, it made sense to use their expertise. So I asked them all a question: "What is the single biggest benefit of social media to your brand, and what is the single biggest obstacle to achieving it." It's a question I always ask, and it's one that always provokes an interesting answer. I am taking the responses and putting them into an e-book entitled "Threats & Opportunities: the Future of Social Media as viewed by the UK's most Senior Marketers." This is the content that I want to make available to the online marketing community - proving the validity of content marketing. [below is what the cover will look like!]

Can you help me get 1,000 downloads of this doc? Download it now!

The Complications
We're not just creating written content. Because we would like to make the point about how important it is to use different formats for your content, we will also be filming delegates and putting their answers on YouTube, Vimeo etc. On top of this, we will of course be tweeting enthusiastically about the event, with the aim of letting lots of people know about the ebook and videos and - we hope - approaching our target of 1,000 clicks.

The Community
But, of course, the main point is to convince traditional marketers that content marketing can work. We want them to see that putting honest, informative information out onto the social networks is better than using them as broadcast channels for sales messages.

And we also want to show them that creating good content is not about big budgets, professional polish and high production values - it's about the content.

This is where I need your help!

This is why I would be deeply indebted to you if you would help spread the message by linking to the content on the day [next Wednesday, 19th May]. The link is here. I will also be blogging from here on the day and will add other links to videos etc on the day.

With your help - via Twitter, blogging or any social media route you think will help - we can get the 1,000 clicks we need, and also publicise how content marketing is a viable form of marketing [albeit, in this case buoyed by the community that believes in it!]

I really hope you will be able to join in and help convince the audience on the day that content marketing does work!

I thank you all in advance and will report back after the event.

The Social Media Identity Crisis: marketing to the online Jekyll & Hyde

2010-04-29T08:04:38Z

Are there two sides to your character?

Is there a nice 'you' and a 'nasty' you? A 'professional' you and a 'weekend' you?

To an extent, we all exhibit these tendencies. It is human nature and it starting to show up on social media.

New research suggests that the development of social media - and the people who use it - has reached a point where we are doing this more and there is an excellent reason for it.

]]> Some recent figures by Pew Research shows that people are increasingly fragmenting their social networking experience - a majority of those who use social networking sites (52%) say they have two or more different profiles. That is up from 42% who had multiple profiles in May 2009.

A small increase, but indicative of a general principle that we need to understand as marketers is we want to use social media effectively to target potential customers.

Simplicity v complexity

Like everything on social media, it all boils down to human nature.

When a complex or far-reaching new technology comes along, we tend to simplify it so we can understand it. Whether we are talking about the very first PC, the first use of the web or the first adoption of social media, it is the same. We start off simple, because otherwise we have no chance at all.

So, to start with, we take small, uncertain steps. We sign up to Facebook. We sign up to Twitter, but we're not sure where it's going, so we don't go too fast.

But here is the problem. We are not simple creatures. We are, by nature, enormously complex, and we lead complex lives. We are driven by sophisticated needs, ranging from the requirement for basic subsistence to our advanced social desires for fulfilment, belonging, esteem and so on. We are torn between emotional and rational considerations. Add to this the constant, churning complexity of the business demands made on the modern worker and we have something that is far from simple.

So we have a mismatch. Complex needs that have, so far, only been met with a simple, one-dimensional use of social media. The complexity we need, hopelessly out of kilter with the simplicity delivered by our initial grasp of social media.

But it is changing fast, and the increasing adoption of multiple online personalities is a symptom of this change. It shows we are learning fast because we realise that we want to do more.

Social media mirrors real life

We need our social media platforms to reflect how we live our lives. And that means we need them to allow us to show complex behaviour patterns - which means being different things to different people. It may sound duplicitous, but it's what we do.

The point is that people have a need to say some things, in one way - then at other times they need to say other things in another way. We cannot fit everything we want to do into a single online persona - so, as we get more adept at managing our online profiles, we are increasingly deciding to maintain more than one.

What does this mean to marketers?

As marketers, the more we understand the behaviour of our audience, the better we can engage with them and, ultimately, do business with them. I have gone into the implications of the this split-personality principle in the Social Media Jekyll & Hyde whitepaper.

It shows the different personas that people use in different places and suggests how we might adapt our communications to cater for these personalities - even though they are the same person.

And of course social media is still in its infancy. Online users will become more sophisticated, and as they do, they can give fuller vent to their real inner selves, which will in turn give marketers like us extra problems. But of course, for those who do it right, a problem is no more than an opportunity to move ahead of the competition...

Read more in the whitepaper here: The Social Media Jekyll & Hyde Principle2.pdf

Like the coffee, nothing is black or white any more

2010-04-08T13:00:49Z

I'm lucky to be surrounded by a lot of smart people in my work, be they clients or colleagues. So it makes it all the more amazing when I see examples of complete lack of vision when it comes to marketing - in this case, nurturing customer loyalty.

]]>
It's complicated, but the sophisticated marketers of today know that their activities need to be geared up to suit potential customers at all stages of the buying process. The top of the buying funnels gapes wider than ever and, at the other end of the scale, we are increasingly conscious of the subtleties of brand perception as a tool to improve customer retention.

So I find myself annoyed at the activities of my local Costa coffee shop, which has begun, in accordance with company-wide policy, insisting on payment for use of the wireless internet: a £2.50 purchase for one hour, to be precise. [It's not the expense that annoys me, by the way, but the inflexibility.]

The shocking thing, however, is the attitude of the area manager, which appears to be to assume that the new scheme is working because people [myself included] are still buying coffee and working on their laptops.

This is where the black and white comes in. They are not half the customers they were. They pay as much money. Possibly even more. But as soon as a better alternative comes along, they are more likely to go and use it.

No serious marketer would suggest that sales are the only measure of the strength of a brand - particularly in the short term - but that seems to be their view. These days we need to know who are the advocates, who are the churners, who are the likely converts. We need to deal in shades of grey because - outside Costa Coffee at least - things don't just come in black and white.

Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer: The Buyersphere Report is launched

2010-04-07T16:43:36Z

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY NOW

Everyone's talking social media. But are buyers really listening? The Base One B2B Marketing Buyersphere Report - launched today - lifts the lid on the channels that different buyers really use for information and what this means for B2B marketers.

The impact of the digital revolution and the rapid proliferation of marketing channels, tools and techniques is having a profound impact on how B2B brands talk to their audiences. But whilst the likes of blogging, social media, online video etc. are very exciting opportunities to potentially engage your customers, how much do buyers really use them? And how does this compare with more traditional forms of media?

These are amongst the questions that the Buyersphere Report, developed by Base One and B2B Marketing, set out to establish.

The report - which can be downloaded here - is based on a survey of 503 business buyers who have been involved in a purchase worth at least £20,000 in the last 12 months. The survey was carried out by Toluna, with analysis of the results by Base One, McCallum Layton and B2B Marketing.

The report maps the influence and frequency of use of key information channels at three different stages of the buying process: need definition, supplier identification and supplier selection. In doing so, it has unearthed some key patterns that will help marketers plan more effective buyer communications...

]]> Buyers seek personal recommendation

The most influential channels, across all stages, were Twitter, Facebook, blogs and word of mouth. These channels provide a personal recommendation, which is clearly valued by business buyers, whether those recommendations are delivered face-to-face or enabled by social media.

But the report also maps usage as well as influence, showing that fewer business buyers were likely to use these emerging social media channels - although it was highly influential to those who did. Analysis of the under 30s age group shows increasing usage of these channels, suggesting that overall preference for them will only grow, as the Facebook generation enters the professional mainstream.

Websites must focus on issues

There is a notable decrease in the influence of supplier websites after the early stages of the buying process. At the need identification stage 57% described websites as influential or very influential, a figure that dropped to 42% by the final supplier selection stage - whereas most other information sources remained constant. Does your website contain issue-based content aimed at the needs identification stage, or does it focus on products? If not, you and many other B2B marketers are missing an opportunity.

Decision makers and influencers act differently

Blogs, Twitter and Facebook were considered significantly more influential by 'main drivers' than they were by 'influencers'; passive channels, on the other hand, such as press advertising were equally influential for both. This suggests that decision-makers feel a need to actively search social media channels for information to support their actions. Not only that, they also value the reassurance of first-hand, peer-to-peer experience, since they are shouldering the responsibility and wish to reduce their risk.

The pros and cons of social media

Over half of respondents (54%) cited benefits to using social media (across all age groups). These were factors like being able to learn from other people's experiences, being able to easily access a wide range of information and the facility to interact with others in a two-way dialogue. At the same time, 59% suggested any weaknesses or difficulties (more likely to be older respondents), including doubts over the extent to which information obtained by these means may be biased or otherwise unreliable and that there can be such a wealth of information out there these days it can be very time-consuming to pick through it.

Want to see the rest of the report? Download it here:
Buyersphere_report.pdf