Filed under: Social Media Optimization by Stuntdubl SEO at 3:23 pm, 6/26/2007
B2B folks tend to struggle with social media marketing. After repeatedly being asked the question of how b2b folks can use social media marketing, I’ve come up with a handful of rules that apply. If you’re not willing to comply, chances are you should stick to direct marketing and cold calling people.
1. Get on the Clue Train
There is no good for having not yet read the Clue Train Manifesto. Don’t even attempt a campaign until you’ve read this. At bare minimum read the 95 Thesis points. Social media marketing is just the cluetrain come to fruition with some new technology. The logic and process remains the same. As much as AJAX, gradients, and mirror effects are really cool - that’s about all that’s different. This is now prerequisite reading for all social media marketing (if it wasn’t already). The concepts are not new, and their is very little real process.
2. Don’t be "that guy"
You know who I’m talking about. The wanker that is always trying to impress people telling them how cool he is. Cool people don’t tell you how cool they are. He’s the same guy trying to put a press release on digg, or wondering why his "industry news" isn’t compelling enough to garner traffic and links. Don’t be an idiot blogger. Just because you win a game of whip it out, doesn’t mean people will like you.
3. Don’t be "professional"
This is what we love about blogs and the internet. Despite sitting in front of a computer all day it makes us feel more human. We can experience emotions from people we barely even know, and it sure as hell isn’t from a "professionally" written memo that we could read in the corporate propoganda. It’s from humor, shared experiences, stories, and HUMAN emotions. Not from some corporate zombie wearing a suit, trying to figure out how to game the internet for higher quarterly earnings.
4. Have a personality
No - not a personality according to the company bylaws and mission statement. A REAL personality. Even large corporate websites had a personality in 1996 - the personality of the one person in the company that could build them. How come when MORE people were added to the mix, the sites got LESS personality? Don’t be the CEO that doesn’t get the web, and is scared to experiment. What’s wrong with a little corporate punk?
5. There’s No Magic Bullet
Social media applies to everyone. Yes, even b2b folks. The question is how? The answer is - in speaking to your customers/clients/vendors/partners/friends on a one-to-many basis. The magic bullet is in figuring out how to do that. There is no process. There is no direct correlation to productivity or efficiency. There is no solution that will raise revenue in a quantitive fashion for next quarter. What there *IS* - is the opportunity to speak to other humans like humans, and have them appreciate you doing so.
There is not a process for social media marketing. There is only opportunities. How you approach and execute on the opportunities will determine your success. How well you understand linkbaiting will determine how many links you get.
6. Pander to the mind of your audience
Great marketers know this. It’s not really rocket science. Speak to your audience. Don’t TALK AT THEM. Talk WITH them. Give them something to talk about. Speak to them on a personal level. Entertain them. Cater to their egos. There’s not much that is more powerful than the ego hook.
Remember also - you are pandering to TWO audiences - 1. The audience that is your distribution point (digg, reddit, netscape, myspace, facebook, etc. etc.) and 2. Your usual audience. You have to get through audience number 1 to effectively get to audience number 2. Make sure to know BOTH audiences, and craft your campaigns to be effective to BOTH groups, and the crossover between them. This, as well as a lack of creativity (and willingness to stretch relevance) are the two top reasons that I have seen people fail at social media marketing.
7. Don’t be afraid of failure
If you sit around debating every decision in a committee meeting, your little competitor is going to kick your ass. That’s the beauty of the web (at least right now) - it’s small, it’s fast, it’s efficient, and it gives the little guys a fighting chance to compete on big playing field if they use these assets to their advantage.
If you’re worried about getting fired - you’re never going to create anything cool. If your company is always worried about offending someone, or what the legal team say - you’re dead, and you’re likely on a long, painful decline.
8. Stretch the relevance
This should probably be number 1, as it’s the most important, but I wanted to make sure you were paying attention. I have a good friend who could really stretch the relevance of a link. Not too many people could think that a fish oil link would be relevant to a motor oil page, but when you’re thinking laterally, this is the type of results that you will get. It worked for anchor text, and though it was a stretch, there was some marginal relevance there. Think to this extreme, then scale it back - but only a little.
This is THE most important part of social media marketing. You MUST stand out. It’s scary - you make yourself and your company vulnerable, but it works. And when it works great, it is an amazing thing. When it doesn’t work, most the time nobody notices most times, and you might only end up offending 3 of the people you didn’t like anyways.
Example of stretching the relevance:
You need to attract engineers to your website since they are the decision makers. You build a trebuchet builder. Whoever pitched that project deserves a huge raise because they have giant brass balls. I can picture the meeting now as they describe building a flash game that will generate zero revenue, but "be really cool" for engineers. The fact that it was produced and launched is truly a miracle. The results in links alone speak to it’s success for those that understand their value. I can only imagine how many engineers sent it to their buddies and wasted hours at work on it instead of playing tetris or doing ACTUAL work.
Summary:
You will kill all your creativity if you second guess, and put everything through committees. If you have no creativity, you will fail at social media marketing. You could always pay a consultant to come in and do it for you if your scared, or need someone to blame the fallout on (I’ve got broad shoulders, or friends with great ideas - we generally work in our bathrobes - though I do have a few suits for meetings, I still prefer jeans and retro jordans).
1. Get on the Clue Train
2. Don’t be "that guy"
3. Don’t be "professional"
4. Have a personality
5. There’s No Magic Bullet
6. Pander to the mind of your audience
7. Don’t be afraid of failure
8. Stretch the relevance
Other good articles on B2B Marketing:
Filed under: Friday favorites by Stuntdubl SEO at 12:12 pm, 6/25/2007
Yes - I realize it’s monday, but hey - it’s summer and I like to relax a bit. I’ve missed the last few weeks, so I thought I’d get this up here now.
What were your favorite recent articles that I missed?
Filed under: Book Reviews by Stuntdubl SEO at 12:34 pm, 6/13/2007
Book: Confessions of an Advertising Man by: David Ogilvy
Here’s the scoop: A good friend of mine, and fellow search marketer who spent many years on Madison Avenue has convinced me to educate myself further about "old school" advertising, and has provided me with a great reading list, which I’m now one book through. If the rest are anything like this one, it should be pretty easy to get through them.
Interpreted Thesis: More so than a thesis - there is a purpose behind this book. David Ogilvy wrote this book for three reasons - 1. To attract more business. 2. To demonstrate value for a public offering 3. To make himself better known in the business world. These three were in his own words, and I have a lot of respect for people who can admit to their own self serving motives. This book has no doubt educated a multitude of folks interested in advertising for many years as well. It really reminds me in many ways of a the motives for what a blog SHOULD be. It is highly specific to what he was knowledgeable about, and he stuck to that topic to educate others, and had no qualms about admitting that the writing was fueled by ego and self serving motives.
Contents
I. How to Manage an Advertising Agency
II. How to Get Clients
III. How to Keep Clients
IV. How to Be a Good Client
V. How to Build Great Campaigns
VI. How to Write Potent Copy
VII. How to Illustrate Advertisements and Posters
VIII. How to Make Good Television Commercials
IX. How to Make Good Campaigns for Food Products, Tourist Destinations, and Proprietary Medicines
X. How to Rise to the Top of the Tree - Advice to the Young
XI. Should Advertising be Abolished
Key Terminology
Quotes from dog-eared pages:
The creative process requires more than reason. Most original thinking isn’t even verbal. It requires "a groping experimentation with ideas, governed by intuitive hunches and inspired by the unconcious."
There is one stratagem which seems to work in almost every case: get the prospect to do most of the talking. The more you listen, the wiser he thinks you are.
Amateurs do it by cajoling a group of agencies into submitting free campaigns, on speculation. The agencies which win these contests are the ones which use their best brains for soliciting new accounts; they relegate their clients to their second-best brains. If I were a manufacturere, I would look for an agency which had no new-business department. The best agencies don’t need them; they get all the business they can handle without preparing speculative campaigns.
(1) What You Say Is More Important Than How You Say It
Once upon a time I was riding on the top of a Fifth Avenue bus, when I heard a mythical housewife say to another, "Molly, my dear, I would have bought that new brand of toilet soap if only they hadn’t set the body copy in ten point Garamond."
(11) Don’t be a copy cat
Rudyard Kipling wrote a long poem about a self-made shipping tycoon called Sir Anthony Gloster. On his death bed the old man reviews the course of his life for the benefit of his son, and refers contempuously to his competitors:
They copied all they could follow, but they couldn’t copy my mind,
And I left ‘em sweating and stealing, a year and a half behind.
(4) Other words and phrases which work wonders are:
How to, Suddenly, Now, Announcing, Introducing, It’s Here, Just Arrived, Important Development, Improvement, Amazing, Sensational, Remarkable, Revolutionary, Startling, Miracle, Magic, Offer, Quick, Easy, Wanted, Callenge, Advice to, The Truth About, Compare, Bargain, Hurry, Last Chance
If you need very long copy, there are several devices which are known to increase its readership:
(1) A display subhead of two or three lines, between your headline and your body copy, will heighten the reader’s appetite for feast to come.
(2) If you start your body copy with a large initial letter, you will increase readership by an average of 13 per cent.
-More quotes from David Ogilvy
Application to Search
It is not all to surprising that many of the same principles from ad agencies should apply to new SEM agencies. It was, however, good to see insight into how a TOP agency is run. The same principles of attracting and keeping clients, of being a good client, and on advertising seems to parallel a lot of what I’ve said in my top posts in the past as advice to SEO agencies, clients, and individual SEO’s (new school advertisers).
I definitely have a love/hate relationship with the attitudes of old school advertising. I love the confidence they have in some great concepts they have set forth. I also hate the rigidity in thinking that the same confidence creates. I think being stubborn, and having this confidence is a prerequisite for creating any type of marketing, and knowing that your ideas will succeed when everyone else says they won’t.
Aside to the folks at Ogilvy:
I can only imagine the internal political warfare taking place with the NEO Ogilvy folks and their traditional breathren. I understand that the "cobbler’s kids sometimes has no shoes", but there’s still no excuse for still using frames and few titles on your site in 2007. Just click through on search results to see one of many reasons why. It may not be priority, but there is still no excuse for oversights like these. I’ll be happy to refer several people that could help. Quit letting the lawyers and politicians win the battles.
It is also reassuring to see that these same top agencies, are still so worried about the old principles, or something else, that they are oblivious to search as a new ad medium. I know that it may not be a priority, but that is still no excuse for not utilizing title tags. I tried to demonstrate title tags to anyone who cared to listen a year and a half ago - ironically, at the time of this post - that post ranks #4 for "top ad agencies". I think David Ogilvy is probably rolling over in his grave now that he can see what a "web headline" (IE: title tag) is - and how underutilized it is at his agency and others. Can you imagine any ad agency not spending the proper amount of time crafting an effective headline?!? I can only hope he’s rooting for the new little guys to get bigger before the large agencies truly start to figure it out.
Closing Notes
This is definitely a book worth reading if you are blurring the lines between SEM and advertising, have clients, or even ARE a client of an SEM firm or ad agency. David Ogilvy had a proven track record of success, and has become a name synonymous with successful advertising. He lays out his knowledge in an offering that I’m sure his competitors and friends were quite thankful for.
Filed under: SEO Training by Stuntdubl SEO at 11:38 am, 6/12/2007
In case you missed the official announcement, SEO Class will now be partnering with WebmasterWorld, Inc. to create SEO Class hosted by Pubcon. The first of several dates to be announced is July 30th and 31st in Manhattan. We’re proud to have Brett Tabke and Joe Laratro joining as speakers to up the ante of the quality of information provided. Check out the speaker bios, and register early for a discount.
We’ll also be featuring the “SEO Bullpen” - which is essentially some hands on time to look at your website, and make recommendations. Think lightning round site audit for a fraction of the price. In my experience, 80% of site audit recommendations are made from observations made in the first 1/2 hour or so of looking at a site - so you can really glean a lot in a short period of observation. We had some great feedback on just the presentations, and question and answer portions of our first conference, so I think having the specific hands on actionable information will continue to raise the level of value for attendees.
Check out the site for more information on the SEO Class
Filed under: conferences by Stuntdubl SEO at 11:25 am,
As usual, I’m quite a bit behind, but I figured it’d give me a chance to showcase the best roundups of the show, and give my shoutout list the proper attention that it deserves, now that I’m almost done wading through email. I’m pretty laid back at the conferences, and generally just go to see some friends, and eat and drink well. Business is kind of a bonus to having a good time I suppose. I’m pretty crappy at taking notes, and I surely don’t have near the skills that some of the amazing live bloggers have. I presented with Neil Patel, Rand Fishkin, and Cindy Krum on SEO meet SMM, and either people were just being polite after it, or it really was a great session. Some of the better coverage was provided by the infamous live bloggers Tamar, Lisa, Rhea, and Jordan (who I think cheated watching the videos - she even got my opening quote right!)
Special thanks to all the Mozzers of SEO (Rand, Geraldine, Gillian, Scott, Matt, Rebecca, Jane, and Jeff) for being great hosts, and throwing a fantastic party, and to Danny (as well as Chris, Karen, and the rest of the Third Door Posse) for putting on an incredible conference
I got to hang out with some of my favorite people, and meet some new folks as well. I’m always amazed at the quality of the conversation. I appreciated the company of RC, Rumbas, Andrew, MrMackin, Carlos, Chris, Brent, Lindsay, Ben, Matt, Paul, Paul, Mike, Jon, Curtis, Jeffrey, Mary, Jay, Paul, Noah, Robert, Dixon, Scott, Hooley, Anna, Snoop, David, Craig, Dustin, Matt, Ken, Hal, Guillame, Jay, Julie, Lisa, Ekky, Rob, Martel, Matt, Matt, Tim, Scott, Alex, Neil, Cameron, Patrick, Becky, Abhilash, Truman, Greg, Barbara, Dax, Caesar, Aaron, Giovanna, Michael, Ken, Todd, Todd, Jim, Jim, John, Mona, Cshel, David, Mike, Christine, Tom, Matt, Bruce, Jonathan, Brad, Leslie, Eric, Mikkel, Andy, Barry, Stephan, PJ, Mike, Karl, Shimrit, Jill, Augustine, Gord, Ciarran, and plenty of other fine folks whose names currently elude me.
Anyone not linked - feel free to send me a site if you’d like it linked. Anyone I forgot - you were kind of a jerk (kidding - please leave comments, so I can remember the next time, and make me pay in shame). It was really a great time, and lookin’ forward to seeing everyone at the next one. It’s always nice to have contact details, so feel free to add me on facebook or linkedin. It’s much easier to remember faces for the next time - and for cryin’ out loud - put an about page on your site.
For more information, roundups and such, see also:
Feel free to post your roundups, or pictures in the comments.
Filed under: Friday favorites by Stuntdubl SEO at 12:54 pm, 6/1/2007
- Bill Slawski is a genius, and he takes a lot of time to write great stuff (mainly derived from actual patents) like these on user query intent, personalized re-rankings, large scale machine learning, historical data followup, and mindmapping for keyword development. Fantastic stuff. More links below
- Check out the new SEO Chicks site - these are some damn smart ladies, so there’s bound to be some great stuff here
- Jim has re-rounded up has best posts, and is givin’ stuff away
- Smash magazine on the golden rules of linkbaiting
- Must read - Measuring Link Value - thanks Rand, I’ve been meaning to rewrite this post for a while - now I can continue to be lazy - Link strategy for enterprise sites is a goodie too.
- Search Engine People has an SEO lyrics contest going - fun stuff
- A couple throwbacks on Michael Gray’s site for fun - if google ran the world, sandbox is not the trustbox, and the newer can you make a living at blogging
- Do I hear sharks jumping?
- Shimon on why buying a second domain is a good strategy
- DIY PR on Guy’s site
- Shoemoney’s got some ideas for site audit tools
- Filed under "good to know" - people hate black jelly beans more than SEO’s
- Michael Jensen gives away all my anchor text secrets
- 100 billion cookies and no one is listening
Filed under: conferences by Stuntdubl SEO at 12:51 pm,
I’m getting into Seattle Sunday afternoon, and leaving Wednesday. I’ll be speaking with Neil, Rand, and Cindy Krum on SEO meet SMM. Looking forward to an interesting panel. Here’s my conference tips and tricks post for those just getting acclimated. Dustin has some nice tips on the conference as well. It should be a great show. Be sure to come up and say hello.
