So far this month I have attended two events, Chris Brogan's New Marketing Experience and Ad:Tech, both in San Francisco. It's a busy Spring, event-wise, as I am also running a round table on marketing technology at a brand new social media event (SocialBiz 2010 in Petaluma, CA) and Demandbase is a sponsor at the Sirius Decisions B2B Marketing Summit in Scottsdale, AZ May 12th-14th.
The Marketing Cloud is putting on a webinar with Chris Brogan on Tuesday April 27th called Understanding Thought Leadership Marketing and the Power of Trust.
Social Media is still trending hot, with monitoring and reporting tools starting up faster than marketing automation vendors in 2005. Ad:Tech seems to be improving year over year (from a B2B perspective, though, it still needs work) — but for the second year in a row New Marketing Labs put on a great show.
Here are some tidbits from various speakers at the event (I will try to credit the quotes when possible but won't always have the name of the speaker):
- 67% of social media efforts at the enterprise level start at as guerilla efforts….classic examples of asking forgiveness not permission
- B2B is more quality than quantity. It doesn’t matter how many Twitter followers or Facebook fans you have, it matters who they are.
- The phrase "Join the Conversation!" is getting old, but it doesn't change the fact that the conversation is happening regardless as to whether or not you are there
or not - Use social media to find your competitors customers by searching on who is talking about them
- ABH (Always Be Helping) is the new ABC (Always Be Closing)
- Edison Research
shared that 48% of Americans have social network profiles, half of which check their profile at least once per day. - Slightly more than half of social network users are “status updaters” – meaning they are “contributing content” to the networks, and 1 in three do it via mobile phone.
- Don’t be afraid of asking questions when you are listening and participating, but make it consistent. Figure out your question and ask it the same way every time.
- Mike Damphousse (really cool guy!) from GreenLeads had a great observation about the similarity between email and telesales/prospecting: 10 seconds to get your attention. Another 30 seconds to establish credibility. Then maybe 2 minutes of commitment tops. Use it wisely.
- Tweet from @Sue_Anne: It's not just about the technology. Expertise is valuable.
What are you buying – technology or expertise? - Tweet from @respres: Good content starts with "What do they want to know? Not
what do I want to say?" -
Consider moving your unsubscribe link to the top of your email instead of the bottom.
You might get more unsubscribes, but you will likely also get fewer Spam complaints which have a direct impact on email deliverability - Personal Brand vs. Corporate Brand. At what point do your twitter followers become
an asset? Have people been receiving resumes with number of twitter
followers or facebook friends listed as an accomplishment or asset?
My one key takeaway was this: Inbound marketing (creation of good content to drive traffic) and social media still
rely on an outbound component. "If you build it they will come" is
great in theory, but in order to close business you will likely still be
sending email or making phone calls so don't shut down your outbound
efforts.
For example, Hubspot is fantastic at creating relevant content
that I regularly view or read, but I still get lots of emails and the
occasional phone call from them (as I should).
I even got a phone call from Chris Brogan's company regarding this event, which is actually what got me to come!
Phone calls seem to make social media people people shiver, but you need
to understand that is what works sometimes. If you are selling to old
school businesses then sometimes old school techniques work the best. Don't be afraid to try them.
