discussion you start on a LinkedIn group or industry forum where you know your persona hangs out that points to a blog post to back up your premise gets no clicks or comments. One of the mandates bandied about lately is that B2B marketers need to become listeners. They should set up listening posts and they must listen first, before launching marketing programs. You're told listening is a requisite for establishing 2-way dialogue and sustaining relationships across the buying process. Anyone who's married or in a relationship can relate to "listening." How about 10? MORE >>

Are they following your company on LinkedIn? I'm tired of seeing so many concepts that should be being used to evolve content marketing applied to vague notions or traditional practices that just serve to confuse marketers and cause a lot of semantic arguments across the space. I'll be writing a few posts about buzzwords that are making me a bit nuts. Feel free to jump in with your thoughts. think it would be great if we can bring some clarity and new thinking. Let's start with the term ENGAGEMENT. What does engagement mean? It's about longevity and sustained attention. MORE >>

Start a discussion in a LinkedIn group that will appreciate the topic. Also submit it to events on LinkedIn. Last week I was part of the panel for the Marketing Superhero webinar hosted by OnPath where we discussed how to create demand generation strategies for 2012. chose to make my tip about Content Hubs. Content Hub is a content marketing program that takes full advantage of a bigger content asset to combine lead generation with lead nurturing and gain optimal value from your investment in content development. Promote through social media. Hold the event. MORE >>

dare you to go pull 50 leads from a segment of your database and do the following: Look up the contact in LinkedIn. Look at any social media accounts the contact uses (often listed in LinkedIn). A database is a beautiful thing — especially if it's built from contacts who've opted in rather than purchased lists. But, the problem I see repeatedly is that once a contact goes in, the database doors swing shut like a steel trap, with B2B marketers never exercising their visitation rights. With the rate of change in the business environment, this can be a risky practice. or 10%. MORE >>

Someone posts a question to a LinkedIn group and provides a link to a blog post or article on the topic. Everywhere I look, I see B2B marketing that spouts "join the conversation," "get in the conversation," and other references to the word that skew it's meaning into the equivalent of "talk to the hand." " In my last post, I wrote about debunking the B2B buzzword, engagement. In the same vein, I'm wondering what the heck happened to the art of conversation? Requires 2 or more people). without the need for two active (human) participants. MORE >>