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...

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.

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

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.

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...

This is the third in a series of blogs based on research conducted by IDG Connect - and made available exclusively through Base One - into a fascinating area: the discrepancy between how marketers and prospective buyers view email communications. The findings, published this January, examine different perceptions of the drivers for engagement, intensity and open rates. Part three investigates the type of information buyers say they want...

Which grabs your attention first: 'New report published 24th March 2010', or 'Educational report from June 2009'? I think it's safe to say most people would opt for the former. Especially as rapid changes in technology, media and communication mean that all aspects of business are constantly evolving. But while it may sound obvious the research from IDG Connect shows that many marketers underestimate the need for topicality in their email communications...

There's a proliferation of research into how, as B2B marketers, we are planning to leverage Social Media to grow our brands (Cyance / ABBA) and with some variations they tell a familiar story. Apparently we are all increasing spend on web based media, on Google and on social media whilst at the same time reducing our investment in advertising and direct mail. We are using email more and we rely on our websites for an increasing proportion of our leads. Some of us are also investing in Lead Management Automation and other automation tools in our bid to increase efficiency and ROI.

But how many of us can honestly say that this diversion of effort and spend is in reaction to any quantifiable change in our buyers' behaviour. Have all our buyers changed how they buy? Are they all buying in the same way? Is the rate of change the same for all our audiences and markets? The fact is, currently, we just don't know.

Since it's our job to advise on how to adapt to the challenges and opportunities of the Digital Age we decided it was down to us to help inform these decisions. Thus the research we are about to publish which looks at "The Buyersphere" in detail in an attempt to identify the differences and similarities in behaviour across sectors, ages and different types of purchase. This first wave focuses on B2B buying in the UK and we'll be looking at global and regional differences later this year.

The report is still being finalized but I can say that the data looks very interesting. Having looked at some of the early findings it is likely that some of us have been too keen to assume that our buyers are no longer influenced by traditional media having switched almost entirely to the Social world. I could also name a few that are missing tremendous opportunities as their audiences are the ones who have embraced the Digital Age.

One thing is clear, as predicted, there is a generational wave coming and if, as I believe we should, we use this information to help us plan around our audiences not around our own prejudices there is a tremendous opportunity for the B2B marketers that are ready to listen and react.

If you'd like to receive an early copy of the report let me know.

This is the second in a series of blogs based on research conducted by IDG Connect - and made available exclusively through Base One - into a fascinating area: the discrepancy between how marketers and prospective buyers view email communications. The findings, published this January, examine different perceptions of the drivers for engagement, intensity and open rates. Part two addresses the thorny issue of spamming…

This is the first in a short series of blogs based on research conducted by IDG Connect - and made available exclusively through Base One - into a fascinating area: the discrepancy between how marketers and prospective buyers view email communications. The findings, published this January, examine different perceptions of the drivers for engagement, intensity and open rates. Part one addresses the difficulties of B2B communication...

Opinion seems to be divided on blogging. Some marketers see it as a fading influence, yesterday's technology that is being fast eclipsed in importance by newer social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter etc. After all, blogging has been around for years - there must be something better by now?

But others recognise that a blog is still a great marketing tool if used correctly. It gives a brand a voice that connects personally with customers. It is versatile and cheap to implement. It has great SEO impact and can be used to create brand preference as well as driving traffic by giving people another reason to come to your site.

But, as always, if you don't have the right content you are doomed. Blogging may be the right strategy, but you do you have the content? Do you have the people to produce it? Do you have time to produce it?

These were question facing CWJobs, the leading IT recruitment specialist, when we started talking to them about heir social media strategy 18 months ago. Together we found a solution that has more than met their objectives - read all about it here:

B2B_social_media_case_study_CWJobs.pdf.