Tony Zambito, Founder of Goal Centric and an expert in buyer personas, agrees that "in the social age it is even more important to consider the buying experiences of all the potential persona types." Social Consumer or Business Persona: Active social participants. Social? Creating a Remarkable "Social Customer" Experience Today's guest blogger, Bob Thompson, is CEO of CustomerThink Corp. Imagine going into bank to open up a checking account with a few dollars you've managed to scrape together. What do you do when you leave that bank? Improved? MORE >>

Many C-level decision makers have not yet embraced—and may never—the role of self-education via social media. Companies providing complex, high-investment solutions are facing a significant risk management issue in light of Sirius Decisions and others finding that B2B buyers are self-educating and moving through as much as 70% of the sales funnel before connecting with sales. For me, risk management has always been about assessing business exposure and taking proactive steps to improve a situation rather than remaining reactive when there is downside potential. MORE >>

Jeff is the authority on making social media sell, adjunct faculty at Loyola University business school, a social selling speaker and author of, Off the Hook Marketing: How to make social media sell. For years now, there's been a steady drum beat coming from content marketing experts who say producing engaging content on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and other social media is the key to success. In the end, businesses who DO create leads and sales using social selling know something the rest of us don’t. Today's guest blogger is Jeff Molander. It does. MORE >>

Social media is at the top of nearly every B2B marketer’s priority list. What drives social media engagement? I recently had the opportunity to interview Ardath Albee about the importance of lead nurturing and I think you’ll be interested to read some of the valuable feedback she provided. PC: Ardath, you’ve written a lot about the importance of using lead nurturing to engage leads across the entirety of the buying process. Yet B2B marketers seem to be more focused on lead generation than the rest of the process. Is that a problem? AA: Yes. AA: Absolutely. MORE >>

Yes, the web and social media provide metrics and, that enables marketing to show results, ROI and possibly gain value with regard to the marketing mix that use these media. 'Andy Gray is a senior marketing professional with proven expertise in directing, centralizing, and strengthening how customers are acquired and retained as well as how companies are positioned through marketing strategies, demand generation, sales support and enablement programs, market research and product development. You can connect with Andy on LinkedIn or via email. Yet, not all companies get marketing. MORE >>