Google, Plus Your World was rolled out just over a week ago, and the online world has adopted the rallying call to get onto Google+ for the SEO benefits. Multiple articles point to brand pages as the solution. Publications from mainstream (Mashable wrote “ get your Google+ brand page into as many influential people’s circles as possible “) to niche (HelloBloggerz.com wrote “ brands need to invest more time into promoting their Google Plus brand pages “) are misleading marketers. The problem is, Google+ Brand Pages are not the ticket to SEO success. Brands are not people. MORE >>

Tweet Let’s say you’re dining out, and you order chicken pad thai. The waiter immediately trots out with a raw chicken breast, a bunch of whole carrots, a pile of bean sprouts, a handful of peanuts and some rice noodles, dumps them in front of you, and then walks away. You wouldn’t think much of the chef, yes? Frankly, you could rightfully draw the same conclusion if you extended that analogy to marketers. Unbelievably, most are still sending only raw leads to Sales, and they aren’t making an effort to bring those leads to a place where they’re ready for Sales to bite into. MORE >>

I’ve just ended my six month tour as VP Optimization at LeftBrain DGA, and am now returning full time to my usual consulting, writing, and general shenanigans. It was fun to work again as a hands-on marketer. Here are some insights based on the experience. lots of content. We all know that content is king, but sometimes forget the king has a voracious appetite. serious demand generation program might move contacts through half dozen stages with several levels within each stage and several messages within each level. That takes another massive content collection.) - content isn’t everything. MORE >>

I am a sucker for a great infographic just as much as the next guy or gal. My best post of 2012 so far (and by far) is 8 great marketing infographics to inspire you in 2012. With more than 2,400 Retweets, 650 “pins,” 200 LinkedIn shares, 47 “likes” and 45 Google+ shares and 25 comments, I was truly astonished by the amount of support and interest. So in the next week, I will share 2 additional infographics to help inspire your efforts, to focus on your customers and to drive better results in 2012. 27% of those are smart phones. 75% are SMS-enabled. Americans average 2.7 MORE >>

The 2012 Customer Engagement Study , conducted by IDG Enterprise and released at the end of September, focused on learning more about the role content plays in an IT Decision Maker's buying process. validation for the role of content: Enterprise IT Decision Makers engage with an average of 10 content assets during their buying process. When I first read this, I nodded my head and thought, yes, this justifies the need for increasing the volume of content, as well as the quality of that content. Eight? That brings up which stage you need to influence the most. " 2. MORE >>