Biznology

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

Everybody indeed wants a shortcut. I just wrote something about this in relation to building online social media communities over on the Huffington Post and so I thought I would extend the idea to online reputation management (ORM) as it’s practiced both in your own life (as the resulting splatter painting of your life online, over time, unintentionally) and as it’s managed by my company, Reputation.com.

Astroturfing 173

Astroturfing Merchandising Google Intent 173

Biznology

SEPTEMBER 25, 2012

Before you decide on a whim to register, activate, populate, respond, and promote your business or brand via Twitter , take a second to think this through. My first question is: why have you waited until now? My second is: why now? And finally: are you prepared to commit to actively tweeting in good times and in bad, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?

Business 172

Business Twitter Work Management Social Media 172

Biznology

MAY 29, 2012

There’s no reason to ever let your blog go fallow. Unlike leaving farmland unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility as part of a crop rotation, there’s no benefit in ignoring your blog. To be honest, it really doesn’t matter what you do to keep your blog running on a daily basis, but it’s essential that you don’t allow your blog to be categorized as “archived” by search engines, to say nothing of being forgotten by your readers.

Adsense 172

Adsense Allocation Google Verticals 172

Biznology

AUGUST 14, 2012

If you’re a serious businessman who’s business isn’t digital, you’re probably too busy making money to fart around on social media. Social media’s stupid, right? Just baby pictures, workout check-ins, adorable kittens, and the self-indulgent ramblings of under-employed folks too far to either the left or the right to amount to much.

Ning 171

Ning Best Practices Enterprise Management Social Media 171

Biznology

JUNE 5, 2012

I know you. You’re spending all of your social media marketing budget on promoting your brand, products, and services; that’s fine except you’ve either forgotten — or never knew — that social media is a two-way street. It is. And, something you also didn’t know: social media is two-thirds defense and monitoring — listening — and only one-third promotion and publicity — speaking.

Social Media 171

Social Media Social Marketing Media Marketing Management 171

Biznology

JULY 24, 2012

Image via CrunchBase. My recommendation for you individuals who are interested in just growing your experience, mastery, equity, and inclusion as deeply as you can in as many relevant and germane communities as possible, you will never be rewarded unless and until you really commit to reddit. I have been with reddit way over 5 years and I have yet to get any traction there.

A/B testing 170

A/B testing Communities Work Management Word of Mouth 170

Biznology

AUGUST 28, 2012

The way you feel now about all those photos of you at the beach, in your suit, body-proud, tanned and drinking — liberation and joy — may end up making you feel completely different in your near future — trapped and ashamed. No matter how young you may be, reading these words, you need to start thinking long-game when it comes to your online reputation.

Tagging 170

Tagging Google Curation Facebook 170

Biznology

JANUARY 17, 2012

Image via Wikipedia. I always tell clients that it is no longer enough to be beautiful when it comes to marketing online. The Internet has become more like an Oscar after-party than it is like the airport Ramada. Online, you’re never the lone beauty in the hotel lounge. Online, you’re surrounded by equal or greater beauties. What’s more, the most successful online social media barflies are aggressive in addition to gorgeous.

Social Media 170

Social Media Social Marketing Media Long Tail Marketing 170

Biznology

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

If you’re interested in protecting and controlling your own online reputation, one of the easiest things in the world you can do is register as many domain names as are available and try to back-order all the rest. And, don’t tell me how expensive that’ll be either, because it’ll surely end up being a lot cheaper than option B, C, D, or E — where option B is the thousands of dollars you’ll need to spend if someone else gets your domains first and is willing to

Domain 170

Domain Cross-Selling Blast Campaigns Keywords 170

Biznology

JULY 5, 2012

Photo credit: Wikipedia. Every time you turn around, a new “performance marketing” opportunity turns up for B-to-B marketers. What a treasure trove! And on the face of it, a real boon, because you only pay when your prospect takes the action you’re looking for—the click, the download, the purchase, whatever. But there are some potholes to consider.

B to B 168

B to B Marketing Prospects Advertising Agencies Work Management 168

Biznology

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

While I concur with Vizzini , the Sicilian from the movie The Princess Bride , that one should “ never get involved in a land war in Asia ,” sometimes there’s no escape — and taking on Google’s search index , algorithmic prowess, and the natural results of organic search itself is, indeed, akin to getting involved in a land war in Asia.

Keywords 168

Keywords Google SEO Optimization 168

Biznology

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Photo credit: Wikipedia. Business marketers have much to gain from retention marketing. Business customers tend to be fewer and more valuable—meaning you can’t afford to lose even one. But how do you keep your customers active and buying from you, versus the competition? How do you prevent defection? Let’s look at the traditional approaches to retention marketing in B2B, plus some new developments in loyalty marketing being adopted by B2B marketers today, including social media and gamificat

Loyalty 168

Loyalty Enterprise Management B2B Marketing Work Management 168

Biznology

DECEMBER 26, 2012

Photo credit: Wikipedia. It’s that time of the year when observers can’t resist making predictions about developments on the horizon. I hereby take up that tradition, offering up four random prognostications for where B2B digital marketing is headed in 2013. My topics include Facebook, content marketing, personal branding, and data hygiene—certainly an eclectic mix.

B2B Marketing 167

B2B Marketing Data Hygiene Planning Paid Search Agency 167

Biznology

JULY 13, 2012

Photo credit: Wikipedia. Scared off by that blank white page you’re supposed to fill with content again and again and again? Don’t be. Generating content ideas is easier than you think if you follow a few basic ideas and work your way up from easier to more demanding – but rewarding! – techniques. If the idea of creating content for your content marketing efforts bring to mind pictures of a tortured artist, alone in a depressing, cold-water garret, begging the muse for in

Generation 167

Generation Content Marketing Aggregators Content 167

Biznology

OCTOBER 31, 2012

Photo credit: Wikipedia. It’s always a good to examine what beliefs we are operating under–if we have false beliefs that are not examined, then we continue to act on them. B2B marketing is no different–what are the myths that we might believe that are possibly guiding our actions in the wrong direction? With a tip of the hat to Bob Bly, whose June article in Target Marketing magazine dispels 7 B2B marketing myths, I’d like to tackle some myth-busting of my own. .

Sales Management 167

Sales Management B2B Marketing B2B Paid Search Agency 167

Biznology

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

Folks care more about how you made than what you made. Well, not really. If what you made isn’t good, they won’t be interested in you at all; however, if you have a modicum of success, then folks will want to know as much about your culture, gear, tools, vision, operating principals, habits, and process as possible. So, if you’re in business, you need to learn to make you and your business as attractive as possible.

Social Media 166

Social Media Process Product Media 166

Biznology

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Image via CrunchBase. In case you didn’t know, I am IBM’s representative to the Google Tech Council, a consortium of B2B tech search engine marketing (SEM) leaders. We meet quarterly at Google’s offices to share best practices and new innovations in SEM. The last time we met, I asked the group what their top pain point was. Resources, as in human resources , was the almost unanimous answer.

Paid Search Agency 166

Paid Search Agency SEO SEM Planning 166

Biznology

JUNE 28, 2012

Photo credit: Wikipedia. The other day, I posted about choosing the right social media listening tool for the right job. I usually don’t post again so quickly on the same subject, but I got so many questions that I thought I needed to. In my last post, I made the point that simple (and free) engagement tools (such as Hootsuite) work just fine if all you want to do is to monitor for crises (and you’re OK with watching many irrelevant results fly past as long as you eyeball the correct

Social Media 166

Social Media Tools Media API 166

Biznology

MAY 8, 2012

They always say that the parents who put in all the boring, taken-for-granted time are the very best. That it’s not even about quality time, it’s about persistent time, time spent. I don’t want to compare parenting to social media community development and management but I guess I just did. Folks tend to have the zeal of the newly-converted when they first adopt social media into their communications, sales, and marketing plan; however, the truth of being a “parent”

Social Media 166

Social Media Media Blogger Television marketing 166

Biznology

MARCH 13, 2012

Image via Wikipedia. The best thing about social media marketing is that you don’t have to be the most popular, have the most followers, or be the most sophisticated, you just have to do a better job than all your direct competitors. You don’t have to be the fastest, the biggest, or the strongest in order to win at social media, you just have to be faster than Mark.

Social Media 166

Social Media Media Wikipedia Twitter 166

Biznology

NOVEMBER 16, 2012

Tweet Photo credit: s_falkow. For those of you who have never been in sales, I would like to take you through a sales process (or some aspects of one) from the sales representative’s point of view. In sales, we are trained to look at situations as if we were sitting in the prospect’s chair. The reason for that is that it makes it easier for a sales person to recognize what is REALLY important to the prospect.

Training 165

Training Efficiency Course Personalization 165

Biznology

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

Photo credit: Wikipedia. As companies go through their social business journey, there are several “truths” about their use of social media that are not necessarily observed in real life, but still get treated as dogma, as if social technologies were so special and enigmatic that deserve a quasi-religious status. In this post, I’ll elect my top 5 social business myths, but of course, lists shouldn’t be dogmatic either: the intent of this post is just to raise awareness tha

Wikipedia 165

Wikipedia Business Social Media Distribution 165

Biznology

DECEMBER 20, 2012

Photo credit: Wikipedia. As the year winds down, many of us have been highlighting the top trends for 2013. For some reason, while trends can be interesting at any time of year, when the end of the year is within hailing distance, we somehow ratchet up the trend analysis–that’s a trend you can count on every December. But one trend for 2013 seems to be hiding in plain sight.

Trends 164

Trends Planning Youtube Wikipedia 164

Biznology

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

Photo credit: s_falkow. Business marketers have embraced social media with enthusiasm. One of the reasons social media is working so well in B2B, in my opinion, is that business marketers tend to wear their direct marketing hats when they strategize and plan how to apply social media to their marketing objectives. So they get a lot of measurable value from social media, and they pull it into their programs as a full-fledged member of the integrated marketing mix.

Social Media 164

Social Media Direct Marketing Social Marketing B2B Marketing 164

Biznology

AUGUST 3, 2012

Image via CrunchBase. I am not sure if I am really old (I hear my kids saying, “Duh, dad”) or if it is just being in the youth-oriented business of Internet marketing, but I am noticing lots of 50-something people out of work right now. Maybe I am noticing it because they are constantly reaching out to me–sometimes people that I don’t know and sometimes people that I do know but haven’t heard from in a long time.

Linkedin 164

Linkedin Network Marketing Internet Marketing Consulting 164

Biznology

OCTOBER 1, 2012

Photo credit: John_Scone. If you think that a scrum is the main reason you’ll never play rugby, you might be right, but you are also missing a type a scrum much more related to marketing. Scrum meetings are cross-functional gatherings that can resemble a free-for-all to an outsider, but that make huge progress in reaching the team’s goal.

Planning 164

Planning Work Management Clickthrough Marketing Management 164

Biznology

SEPTEMBER 14, 2012

Photo credit: Rubber Dragon. An entire SEO campaign is based on the keywords that are chosen since they should be incorporated into every piece of content that is published as part of an online marketing campaign. Incorporating keywords naturally into the actual website content in order to improve rankings is really only one small part of the overall strategy.

Keywords 164

Keywords SEO Long Tail Marketing Amazon 164

Biznology

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Photo credit: Danard Vincente. “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up someplace else,” said Laurence Peter. For any brand doing business on the internet, to get where you want to go, an understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is required. The reasons why are simple. 80% of people who visit a website get there from typing a keyword in the query box of a search engine. 46% click on the website in the first position on first page. 90% c

Cost Per Click 163

Cost Per Click SEO CPC Marketing Analytics Tools 163

Biznology

OCTOBER 18, 2012

Image via CrunchBase. Some of you might have a high opinion of SEO people. (C’mon, aren’t there a couple of you out there?) If you have that high opinion, then don’t read this story, because there a few people who are less than ethical out there. Google had an announcement this week that has been a long time coming–you can now disavow links to your site.

Google 163

Google SEO Ethics Opinions 163

Biznology

NOVEMBER 1, 2012

Photo credit: eric.delcroix. I’m old. 30 years ago, I learned how IBM qualified leads for sales. At the time, I know now, it was unusual to even have a process for such a thing, but that is how IBM worked (and still does). Most B2B businesses did not have such a process and the ones who did probably did not follow them as religiously as IBM did, but even if you don’t know you have a process, you do.

B2B Sales 163

B2B Sales Process Sales Qualified Leads B2B 163

Biznology

JUNE 20, 2012

(Photo credit: Christopher S. Penn). A few days ago, our fearless leader noted “nobody needs both Pinterest and LinkedIn.” And, generally, Mike’s absolutely right. Too many guys in black turtlenecks and very cool eyeglasses try to fit their standard portfolio of tricks and tips to your business, without really considering how to various social channels fit your brand’s needs.

Linkedin 163

Linkedin Psychographics PR Segmentation 163

Biznology

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

Photo credit: Wikipedia. The GPS for a website and any brand’s online effort is Google Analytics. If you have a website and don’t regularly review analytics, it’s the same as getting into a car to drive someplace without knowing where you’re going. When Google Analytics was released in 2005, it was a watershed event for any brand doing business on the internet.

Marketing Analytics Tools 163

Marketing Analytics Tools Analytics Google Planning 163

Biznology

DECEMBER 4, 2012

Image via CrunchBase. At the end of the day, none of us own anything we do on Facebook, Twitter , Pinterest, Google +. What we do own is our own properties. No matter how many hours I spend at the Java Shack or Peregrine Espresso, I am just a customer. Social media and its social networks may feel like a home to some of us, but they’re really just private public spaces, similar to coffee shops, the Politics & Prose reading area, or the conference or ballroom at the Rosslyn Marriott.

Social Media 163

Social Media Paid Search Agency CMS Development Advertising Agencies 163

Biznology

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife. I have a stock answer whenever I’m asked why I’m good at PR: “It’s all about the relationships.” In PR, your success or failure is 90% driven by the types of relationships that you have with the media. Cultivating those relationships takes up a fair amount of your time and represents one of the greatest intangibles, which is what makes PR so hard to quantify.

Media 162

Media PR Communities SMS 162

Biznology

OCTOBER 22, 2012

Photo credit: Paul Jacobson. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” said Peter Drucker. Social media measurement tools are one of the fast-growing areas of analytics and venture funding. But, did you know, among businesses that purchase them, only 34% are “happy;” 60% say they are merely “okay” and 6% are so frustrated they are ready to switch (source: KISSmetrics )?

Social Media 162

Social Media Social Marketing Marketing Analytics Tools Media 162

Biznology

DECEMBER 25, 2012

Photo credit: ELTMAN. Edelman recruited me because I blogged about Wal-Mart ; Rosetta Stone invited me to blog for them because I blogged about learning German; AdAge invited me to write for their DigtialNext andGlobal News blogs; blogging about social media marketing resulted in being invited by Socialmedia.biz and this blog, Biznology , to blog for them; and in the fervor of the presidential elections, I pursued column inches in The Huffington Post.

Barriers 162

Barriers Public Relations Paid Search Agency Differentiation 162

Biznology

OCTOBER 26, 2012

Photo credit: tellatic. I have discussed the importance of being educated regarding the online marketing space in the past. As you may have guessed, I haven’t changed my stance and, in fact, I have turned up the volume on this mantra of mine for one simple reason: I am back in a more traditional sales role with the Edgeworks Group. So what you ask?

Trust Marketing 161

Trust Marketing Internet Marketing Paid Search Agency Training 161