Well I’m on my way to SocialTech 2010 in San Jose, a conference put on by MarketingProfs. Almost Live from SocialTech 2010 is a post from: B2B Voices. promise a couple posts, possibly a video if the opportunity presents itself. She has a good blog at [link]. Hope to learn more about how they’ve advanced since then. .

Top marketers worldwide agree that digital will increase in 2010. 81% of the brand executives surveyed expected an increase in digital projects in 2010. This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Marketing Trends , Social Marketing. B-to-B Marketers: Social Networks Top Priority for 2010 [.]

TechCrunch predicts that “by this summer (2010) well over half of all Internet users will likely visit Facebook each month.&# You’ve seen the eye-popping statistics: Facebook now has more than 350 million active users. If it were a country, it would be the third most-populous on earth , behind only China and India. Not even close.

Twitter biographies might be the ultimate creative-writing challenge. You have 160 characters to spin your personal story!  Here are 20 great mini-biographies that caught my eye and stole my heart.  Enjoy! QueenRania. mum and a wife with a really cool day job…. Glinner. apologise in advance. oilman. TheMadHat. AllisonBatof. BittrBetty. maxxhendriks.

Your social media marketing will be far more effective if it begins with a well thought out strategy that looks further down the road and focuses on the bigger picture. Your social media marketing will be far more effective if it begins with a well thought out strategy that looks further down the road and focuses on the bigger picture.

I just saw a Tweet come through the stream from the Marketing Sherpa B2B Summit that reads: So if sending an email isn't nurturing what is? b2bsummit. Lead nurturing is about providing the right content at the right time that addresses a problem that a prospect is focused on (or at least considering)  solving. As can virtual events.

Earlier this week I participated in one of MarketingProfs’ TechChats (just do a Twitter search on the #TechChat hashtag to find the dialogue). It’s a warm-up for the great dialogues we’ll be having at MarketingProfs’ SocialTech conference later this month in San Jose, where I’ll be speaking about social media and the B2B buying process. can’t wait.

How long do you have to make an impression when you engage visitors online? Whether it's welcoming a visitor to your site or social presence, the answer seems "not very long at all". But, exactly how long do you have to make visitors “Think, Feel, Do”?!

Best of B2B Marketing for September 2010. Best Social PR Guides and Tips of 2010 (So Far) - Webbiquity , September 1, 2010 Social media has fundamentally altered the practice of public relations. B2B Voices , September 1, 2010 Image via CrunchBase. B2B Marketing Online , September 20, 2010 But surely it must be?

“What’s going to be the next Facebook?&#. love debating the implications of social media trends with my students and this question comes up a lot.   . My short answer is “There isn’t going to be one&# … a response which always results in surprised and confused faces! The psychology of Facebook. It’s a lifestyle.

Emotional Brand – it’s also important ( 13 July 2010 ) – A discussion on the increased importance of the emotional component of your brand. Strategy, Tactics and Flexibility ( 9 November 2010 ) – A frank discussion on how tactics and strategy work in marketing plan. Thanks for being here with us! Blogroll

items that should be in your 2010 email budget by BtoB Magazine. While social media is the flashy show horse of online marketing, email remains the solid workhorse. According to recent research , 92% of marketers consider email to be one of their “most important marketing tools” and 54% plan increased spending on it in the coming year.

Author: Chris Herbert, B2B Specialist & Founder of Mi6. Audience: Linkedin Group Managers, Linkedin Product Managers, Community Managers. In October 2009, Rick Stomphorst and I founded Silicon Halton a grassroots “ unassociation &# for Hitech entrepreneurs, companies and professionals in the Halton Region in Ontario, Canada.

Measurement and ROI are constant themes in the social media world.  How do you PROVE the value of Twitter?  Like most questions in business, the answer is, “it depends,&#   but I’d like to offer a couple practical ideas that might help you when this inevitably comes up at your company. First, let’s establish a crucial point.

Today Genius.com announced a free version of their Marketing Automation system. Only about a month ago, Loopfuse also started offering a free version of their Marketing Automation system. What does this mean for companies interested in adopting Marketing Automation? How Much Is Free? Genius.com. Users. unlimited. Emails / month. 5,000. 2,500. 2,500.

The importance of blogs in your B2B marketing mix can't be overlooked. Blogs are too important in keeping customers and future customers informed about your industry, your products and your company, driving people to your website, and generating leads. However, anyone that can open a.

2010 in Review! original on social media monitoring posted September 13, 2010) A vitally important part of achieving success with social media is responding when someone does reach out to you. We’re posting the best articles of the year to help you get 2011 off to the right start! Check for the Mentions stream under your profile.

2010 in Review! original on social media monitoring posted September 24, 2010). We’re posting the best articles from the year to help you get 2011 off to the right start! Keeping track of everything that’s going on can be a challenge — especially with social media which moves at the speed of light.

Infographics are all the rage: visual representations of data that are both beautiful and enlightening. From a marketer’s perspective, they’re a welcome addition to the communications arsenal – helping bring to life complicated and potentially dry content in a highly engaging way.        . Web trend map. CMO social landscape.  .

Diving into social media and mobile media can be quite daunting for B2Bs. After all, it's an entirely new way of marketing, communicating, engaging and selling. The tools may be easy, but the environment is complex. One-way messaging habits are now moot as these new media call for two-way (and multi-way) communications with our audiences.

In a previous post we looked at the top 25 industries using social media , as presented in the NetProspex Fall 2010 Social Business Report.  Resources: NetProspex Fall 2010 Social Business Report. Wendy Boyce. In that report, there is also a section on social media usage by job function. The proof is in the numbers.  Tweet This!

B2B marketers should not abandon linear marketing, but to make big strides in 2010 and beyond, they should try going lateral. These days, however, companies are running out of ways to cut costs and have reached the bare bones of personnel. So what’s next? suggest an exercise in lateral marketing. What is lateral marketing?

Over time, the top source of traffic for most blogs is search. The two keys to search success are great content and links. Assuming you’ve already got great content, there are many places to get links (e.g. social networking profiles, social bookmarking sites, other bloggers). charging for inclusion). Preparation: What You’ll Need First.

Last week I had the honor of presenting on both social media and mobile media at Optimization Summits in Dallas and I wanted to take this post to share the mobile marketing presentation I created for the event. as well as a groundbreaking mobile-marketing guide that aired last week from the team at 360i. or spread all over the globe.

One possible answer:   The Enterprise. No, no. Not the Star Trek kind of Enterprise (although that would be pretty cool). I mean using social media technologies internally, within the large company kind of enterprise. I’m often asked what I think the next big thing in social media might be.  Information sharing and education. Collaboration.

B2B marketers have relied on lead definitions to define their marketing programs for years. Some definitions are more complete than others. The biggest disconnect for companies is that a marketer's definition of a lead can often be quite different than how sales defines what they need to accept a lead as qualified for follow-up. Industry.

Chart: %age of TVs connected to the internet in US as of June 2010 (Source: Retrevo via/@eMarketer). Chart: Internet Connected TV global shipments 2010 & 2014 (source: DisplaySearch via/@eMarketer). Our goal is to provide you with a weekly overview of tweets that feature information you can use and act on. Monday. Tuesday. Mi6Tip.

You can’t help but be impressed by the “new marketing” thought leaders in the Boston area, our hosts for last week’s annual Inbound Marketing Summit (IMS). Their capacity for pushing new ideas is matched only by their spirit for sharing. ” • “You have to engage the people who will engage others.”

The B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn conducted a survey earlier this year to explore the rapidly changing landscape of social media in the context of B2B marketing. The survey generated over 270 responses from B2B marketers - and the results are in! What is your experience with social media in B2B

Price WaterhouseCoopers recently released their 13th annual Global CEO survey. Thanks for Arthur Clark of Clark Search Group for sharing it.) But my busy readers don’t have time to read the whole report, so I share the 4 key points here.  ’ You’ll get key take-aways quickly. Smarter Growth. Cost-Cutting. Managing Risk. Retrenching.

She asked a bunch of B2B marketing experts for their predictions for 2010. Hit the ground running in 2010. I recently was asked to participate in Ambal Balakrishnan's ( @ambal ) ebook, to be published at year'd end and then available from her blog, Connect the Docs. Do your bonuses share quota? Are you measuring everyting? Too bad.

In this special edition, we announce the winner of the 2010 Best B2B marketing idea. The Linkedin community has spoken too and they agree. Congratulations to our winner! Kinaxis with their remarkable series – SuiteMates.

2010 product of the year from ReadWriteWeb and eWeek. Highlights from the 2010 Dreamforce Keynote: The Cloud Computing Event of the Year was posted at Modern B2B Marketing - Marketo Best Practices Blog. | [link]. It just ended minutes ago, and it was #awesome.  Of course, we reviewed cloud computing.  Philanthropy was also a big topic. 

Last week I authored a post suggesting that social scoring – determining your influence based on numbers of followers and other criteria — may have a growing impact on your personal effectiveness, your career, and how companies treat you as a customer in the future.  Bing: We do look at the so cial authority of a user. Bing : Yes.

Marketing Sherpa released this chart today about the processes B2B marketers are using to manage prospects across their buying cycles. What concerns me is the percentage of marketers who've labeled these processes as non-priority items and assigned them to purgatory. In my opinion, these marketers may well be the next to experience purgatory.

Summary: some published examples of "hard" ROI from social media. As part of the preparation for next Tuesday’s Webinar with 1to1 Media and Neolane (register here ), I poked around for some concrete examples of ROI from social media. Here’s what I found. also found plenty of insightful content that doesn’t include specific numbers.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 28, 2010 2:00 p.m. Don’t miss this complimentary webinar about turning webinar registrants and attendees into qualified, sales-ready leads. Webinar Leads Demystified: Best practices for leveraging both webinar registrants and attendees. EDT (11:00 a.m. nurturing best practices.

Friday, September 10, 2010 IT Budgets into 2011 - Robbing Peter to Pay Paul? in 2010, essentially flat in 2010. More good news is that 2010 is far better than 2009, with a weighted global average reduction in IT budgets of 8.1% Gartner reduces IT Spending Outlook for 2010, but. cut in operating budgets.

By Holger Schulze Major shifts are taking place in B2B marketing that started a few years ago but have accelerated in recent months – in the marketplace as well as inside vendor organizations. Prospects and customers are becoming more sophisticated and better informed than ever before. Customers are are in the driver’s seat today. Time to get read

This is the time of year when a lot of people make predictions. ll resist that urge, though, and instead present a plea: Let’s make 2011 the year we stop talking about “social media.”. It’s not that social media is no longer important. On the contrary, today there’s almost no media today that isn’t social. Stunning. Barnum, BTW).

The State of Social Media for Business 2010 report, released at the beginning of 2011, provides information on the biggest trends and challenges.  . The full State of Social Media for Business 2010 is available for sale from SmartBrief:  [link] and  includes: 145 pages. One-third of the respondents note they are not decision makers.

So, you've decided to launch a blog for your business. Congratulations! Welcome to the exciting worlds of content marketing and social media - all wrapped up into one bundle of bloggy joy that will require your nurturing attention for a long time to come. It's not exactly the same as giving birth, but it's not that different either. Got it?

Many B2B marketers advocate for companies to integrate emerging technologies into the marketing mix. Naturally, I count myself among them. My argument for integrating these media is rooted in what innovation really means, and why it makes all the difference in levels of ROI. articipation in these media keeps your brand relevant. Check! Check! Check!”

As B2B marketers invest more money and time in both thought leadership and social media, they risk missing a great deal of potential benefit they can achieve by bringing the two together in a holistic way. This all seems fine, but I think it's far too limited a view. Social tools make these collaborations far easier and more affordable to manage.

Marketing Sherpa last week released its 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark report. Among the key findings from the report: Despite the lingering economic malaise, companies across virtually all industries plan to increase budgets for social media marketing in 2010. The lessons? Share this on del.icio.us. Digg this! Tweet This!

SIGMA Marketing Group CEO, Kenyon Blunt, recently gazed into his crystal ball and posted a blog (10 Marketing Trends for 2011) identifying what he saw as some of the top marketing trends for 2011.

Great content is more than compelling words on a page. There are a lot of things that go creating content that your audience wants to read and forward, but one of the most critical factors is design. As the subtitle of the book states, the book is about "designing information for today's time and attention-challenged business reader."

In addition to starting the New Year with great optimism about the prospects for all of us marketers, I am excited and privileged to serve you as ReachForce’s new President.  Based on feedback from you, I plan to continue communicating within our present theme of lessons learned, insights and tips

Fast forward five decades for Peggy and 15 years for me and the 2010 marketing world is much different that the life either of us imagined for ourselves. I love Mad Men. The 60’s with all its amazing fashion and brewing social revolution. An agency on the cusp of the mass marketing revolution and the dawn of television advertising.

Coming off of a week away from the social media buzz and babble, I find that I'm starting 2010 with a greater sense of clarity about the kind of work I want to do and the way I want to do it. After a week off, it's back to the grind stone for this Savvy Sister. Schaefer entitled "Does Amanda Chapel Matter?" More posts by Jamie

As many of you would expect, Green Leads consumes prospect lists at a rate that far exceeds most outbound marketing efforts. With over 30 clients running their appointment setting programs through us, having volumes of accurate contact names is essential to our business. We love them all and use them all in parallel. Smashmouth Rating: Thumbs Up!

Oftentimes, when your content doesn't perform well, it's not because it isn't useful, but it's because you aren't marketing the piece well. To help, here are 12 ideas on how you can promote your white paper and eBook (I refer to eBooks below, but these ideas apply to white papers as well). Including on any appropriate resource pages.

The last day of the BMA Engage 2010 conference in Chicago last week began on a high note, with Chris Brogan delivering a rousing keynote. His easy glibness, dry wit and a delightful proclivity for tangents delivered valuable insights into B2B and the social media world. He even gave the scribbled book away as a gift. Be there before the sale.

Share: Read more from Social Media B2B Marketing , Social Media 7 Comments Post a comment Paige ONeill Jun 9 2010 Great post, Michael. Michael Brenner Jun 9 2010 Thanks Paige. Claire Chapman Aug 26 2010 An interesting post and I like the analogy of the B2B dance. Michael Brenner Dec 22 2010 I appreciate the inclusion.

We talk a lot about content creation, but content promotion is equally important. When you want to promote your latest eBook, white paper or any other offer, there are several things to consider. Discover a 7-step framework for developing a promotional strategy for B2B content.

Twitter came of age in 2010, growing at a scorching pace —from 75 million users at the beginning of the year to more than 190 million by the end of December. Best of 2010: 14 Ways Every Business Should Be Using Twitter by Inkling Media. All You Need to Know About Twitter in 2010 [Infographic] by Mediabistro. by Ask Aaron Lee.

The Best B2B Marketing Ideas of 2010 A guest post by Jeff Ogden , president of Find New Customers Although companies like Marketo, Eloqua and Kinaxis have produced terrific written content in blogs, e-books, etc., 19 , 2010, the marketing take-away I shared was “Think Different.&# 19, 2010. Thanks. Did we miss any?

Here are 10 concrete ways I think the environment in which BtoB Marketers operate will evolve in 2010. predict you will see Facebook surpass Google by Valentines day 2010. Recession or not Social Media was on a roll ignited by the visibility of events like Obama’s win and Iran’s election protests. Enjoy! Mark it down people. Digg this!

What do you do whenever someone says, "Don't do that" or "You need to."? "? If you're anything like me, you go try to do what you've been told not to or you refuse to do whatever it is someone has said you "need to do." In fact, I bet—depending on the source—that many of us still react that way today.

How’s this for a definition of B2B marketing automation? The use of technology to generate, nurture, score and qualify leads, and drive sales, using customized, multi-touch marketing communications tailored for each contact’s profile, level of interest, behavior or place in the buying process. What do you think?

If you are a B2B marketer, or are responsible for B2B lead generation, do not miss this half-day seminar on March 3, 2010 at the Westin Grand hotel in Washington, DC. This all new for 2010 session of B2B marketing University is focused on helping you stay ahead of the curve and excel in the changing B2B marketing environment.

Copyright © 2010 Tiecas, Inc. Typically, that means understanding the prospect’s pain and then offering a solution for relief. Sounds simple, right? But not easy to execute because there usually is a disconnect between what your prospect wants to hear and what you want to say about your company and its products and services. Resources

This blog post will be written this month. Send your suggestions to jeff.ogden at findnewcustomers.com. thanks. Filed under: Demand Generation. Demand Generation

2010 has been an exciting year for digital and database marketers. In keeping with that, here are the ten most read blog posts on Fifth Gear Analytics from 2010. It's an interesting mix of articles, but you can see by the list below, B2B social media and web analytics seem to be a priority

More and more B2B marketers are turning to lead scoring as a way of optimizing lead management. Many of us will remember when we used to process raw Excel lists, handing over hundreds of names with job titles and companies to our sales department, only to find that leads weren’t being followed up on. What is lead scoring?

Commenting on the survey results, Alterian CEO, David Eldridge, said, “2010 marks the start of the digital decade for marketing. So what are your plans for 2010? This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Marketing Trends , Social Marketing. Are you going to embrace social media?

A while ago I talked with Jim Sterne about his latest book Social Media Metrics , a must for everyone that wants to have a measured and valuable social media marketing approach. In a short interview I asked Jim what metrics and KPIs marketers should take into account regarding social media marketing. What can be measured and what can’t? Measure.

Facebook have been dipping its toe into micro payments in 2010 by giving out free credits to help condition customers use the new credit system. It’s traditional to make predictions for the upcoming year but I hate being traditional.  Yet … it’s just too irresistible — so much happening! But we already know that.

Tags: B2B Web Strategy the lenskold group’s 2010 b2b lead generation marketing roi study conclusions matthew draws highest profit potential lies traditional non financial metrics nurturing download and apply numerous insights survey result of 231 marketers significantly large include roi metrics boost confidence – post schwartz

A recent research study by IBM indicates that micro-blogging sites like Twitter can be a powerful internal workplace communications tool. The study analyzed more than 5,000 microblog posts from a group of IBM employees who used both a proprietary internal tool to post and Twitter to post externally. BlueTwit was also used for social purposes.

In August 2010, 29 charts were shared which were viewed 6,775 times. The mi6 chart toppers, aug 2010. Author: Teresa Herbert. Audience: Senior Executives, Marketing and Sales Professionals. Each month Chris Herbert, founder and CMO of Mi6 shares charts from various sources with his network.

Published by Hubspot, May 2010. Published by Radian 6, September 2010. Published by: Business.com, September 2010. Published by Marketo, June 2010. Published by Microsoft, February 2010. Published by B2Bento, February 2010. Published by HiveFire, March 2010. Published by Business.com, November 2010.

I have one of the world’s best points of brand differentiation — I’m the only business blogger you know old enough to have a daughter-blogger! Lauren is entering her senior year as a journalism major and has been having some intriguing social media experiences. Hope you have all been doing well. But my hiatus is beside the point.

This short video is more fun than a sackful of presents and tells the story of social media’s impact on our world much better than I ever could.  Enjoy this Social Media Christmas! Many thanks to all of the wonderful people who make {grow} go!  May you have a joyous and restful Holiday Season! My warmest wishes, Mark.

Every company wishes for brand loyalists like Apple attracts. Airlines use frequent flier programs to try to increase loyalty. Local restaurants and coffee shops use stamp cards (buy 10 and get one free). Social media can also be used to increase brand loyalty if we first identify what makes someone loyal to a brand. Probably not.

November 30, 2010 Infographic: The History of the Internet t Al Gore invent the Internet? Below are selected tweets that were sent out by Chris Herbert, Founder of Mi6 through his @B2Bspecialist twitter account and his @mi6agency twitter account. Monday. Chart: Top 5 Social Media Goals for US Companies (Source: SmartBrief via@eMarketer).

If you look around the web, there is so much advice about blogging it’s not funny. Still, I’ve learned a few lessons that might help if you’re a beginner blogger and I thought I would give you the inside scoop.   . 1) The biggest obstacle to blogging is … not what you think. It’s not writing skill or time or ideas.

How Business Owners Can Benefit From LinkedIn’s Features , this week’s featured guest post, by Carol Tice, Make a Living Writing blog. LinkedIn is a highly useful social-media site for business owners looking to connect with prospective customers, suppliers, partners, or other businesses in their town. The blog tool. The jobs.

Tony Zambito is the founder, president and CEO of Goal Centric , a strategy consulting organization with a focus in buyer insight and buyer persona development. Here Tony and I discuss the concept of and misperceptions about buyer personas, and what it takes to extract full value from them. What prompted you to develop the buyer persona methodology?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 14th, 2010 at 9:05 am and is filed under Communication , Content Marketing , Marketing Planning , Marketing Strategy , Online Marketing. First of all, what is this summit? Sometimes we just need to be reminded of the obvious so that we can focus on the essential. Like Be the first to like this post.

Search marketing to drive internet ad expenditures: Highlighting the importance of B2B online marketing, ZenithOpt… Dematic Recognized in DemandGen Report’s 2010 Sales & Marketing Alignment Awards: The Annuitas Group is the leadin… Tuesday. Monday. This is in addition to the ones I send manually. Think SPOC! Some tips.

Forecasts : Annual growth in US B2B online marketing spend is forecast at 8% in 2010 and is set to reach 14% by 2012. of their marketing budgets on social media in February 2010, and B2B services marketers were spending 6.5%. in 2010. of B2B marketers say they plan to boost their marketing budgets in 2010, 47.5% Source ).

Tags: BI 2010 Winter Olympics curling data visualization figure skating hockey infographics medals Tufte

Last week I talked about a study by Boston-based Cone that shows how scarce and precious brand loyalty on social media really is. Cone found that people on average only followed 4.6 brands on so-called “new media” and, more importantly, that it’s not easy to get a loyal “follower” or “fan”, and certainly to keep him. These findings are not shocking.

Fast-forward to 2010. And bloggers do talk about brands: according to Technorati’s latest State Of Blogosphere report (edition 2010, released earlier this month), 42% of respondents say they blog about brands they love or…hate. In 2006 Debbie Weil’s successful “The Corporate Blogging Book” was published.

In part one of our segmentation series , we discussed the importance of and rationale behind market segmentation. Let's take a closer look at actual implementation of market segmentation. Focusing on WHO a buyer is makes for more easily observable and actionable data that can be used to define segments and their boundaries. Regulatory drivers?

While Google finally allowed Gmail users to have images in their signatures, there still isn’t a way to automatically update your signature with a link to your latest blog post, for example. Or have a random quote. Or show your latest tweet. Customize Your Signature. Social Network Icons. Easily remove, add and change the order. IM Icons.

Interested in learning more about B2B marketing automation and how it may benefit your company? What B2B marketing automation is all about, and why you should care. Presented by AcquireB2B, a division of Mac McIntosh, Inc. Date: June 29th. Time: 8:30 am to 10:00 am. Location: Waltham, MA. Information and Registration. And only do what works.

We’ve seen these before—meaningless, over-used goobledygook buzzwords in press releases—but here Adam Sherk provides an updated list for 2010, topped by “leading,&# “unique,&# “solution&# and “innovator&# and proceeding through “customer-centric,&# “outside the box&# and “peak performance.&#

Marketing segmentation is about subdividing markets into segments of customers that have similar needs and behaviors. This way, vendors can optimize their product offering, marketing, and sales approach to meet the specific requirements of the segment better and more cost efficiently than the competition. In short, they are more profitable.

10 BtoB Marketers Predictions for 2010 Around this time last year I wrote about some Predictions. At the end of the last decade we saw Amazon snap up Zappos for $928 Million. Combining two of the most customer focused organizations I am aware of on the web and making one of the most powerful customer centric companies out there. Tweet This!

A lead is a lead, right? Depends – are you in marketing or in sales? SAL – Sales Accepted Leads is the bridge between Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQL). No, I am not splitting hairs nor am I indulging in semantics. Quantitative lead definitions reduce the friction between sales and marketing. Defining qualified leads.

Last week Steve Farnsworth sent out an invitation to join him in writing a small series of 4 posts on the same topic. According to Steve as an opportunity to see what smart practices we share in common, and more importantly, what fresh perspectives and insights can we collectively learn from. Today the first post in this series: [.].

Below are selected tweets that were sent out by Chris Herbert, Founder of Mi6 through his @B2Bspecialist twitter account. Our goal is to provide you with a weekly overview of tweets that feature information you can use and act on. Monday. Chart: Build Your Own Interactive Charts! Tuesday. Facebook vs @Linkedin groups? Who wins in #B2B? Wednesday.

Old Spice has turned their “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like&# ad campaign into a viral sensation by having the “Old Spice guy&# respond to people’s comments and tweets via videos which were posted on YouTube (click on the response videos on the right) — my favorite is below. Mentions & Brand Awareness. Takeoff.

If you want your content marketing messages to be remembered, you must engage the emotional memories of your readers. Memory formation happens in two ways: A new memory is formed when it hits the amygdala and makes an emotional connection. Everything we retain in memory is because it’s gained an emotional place in our brain. Stories are key.

Free Download: 2010 Online Marketing Blueprint. Editor's Note : An updated version of this article has been published here: " Inbound Marketing and the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web ". call these methods "outbound marketing" where a marketer pushes his message out far and wide hoping that it resonates with that needle in the haystack.

Vocus has released their 2011 Planning Survey and there are some very interesting findings and stats highlighted in the report. Take a good look at your corporate culture and consider if you really are an active participant in the social media channel and all the others which today’s cross-channel consumers thrive in.

My bike ride started me thinking about the importance of building social media momentum. Here’s what I mean. My wife and I recently completed a lengthy mountain biking adventure.  At the end of the trail, there was quaint yellow cottage offering sandwiches, ice cream and drinks. Hidden farther down the trail was another bistro. What??