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A New Way To Connect Twitter To Lead Generation

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B2B marketers are so anxious to generate leads from social media they are turning Twitter into a list for cold calls and mass email blasts.

In the last couple weeks, two companies have emailed or called me because I follow influential sales and marketing accounts on Twitter.

There is nothing social about this! Marketers are just turning social into a source of email or telemarketing lists for mass outbound marketing.

Here is a better way, along with actual results, that companies can use to drive leads through social media. [Read more…]

The Thin Line Between Social Media Marketing and Spam

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You can share. You can publish. You can broadcast. You can spam.

Today, communication is more accessible than ever before. Anyone with an internet connection can email or Tweet.

With more people publishing and more competition for our attention, free and easy-to-use communication channels lead to spam. Even well-intentioned individuals, marketers and publishers can fall into the spam trap. [Read more…]

The Pledge Twitter Needs to Make to Users

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You cannot please everyone all the time.

One of the places this truth is on stark display is when media companies attempt to balance the demands and expectations of advertisers and users.

As Twitter evolves from a technology company that was focused on serving users to a media company (at least in its business model) attempting to balance the demands of both marketers and users, the conflict is in full view.

I am both a Twitter user and an advertising buyer. As someone with a perspective from both sides, I believe Twitter is in a position to overcome this challenge by making a pledge that protects the experience for users while allowing them to develop effective offerings for marketers. [Read more…]

10 Ways to Kickstart Your Inbound Marketing Program

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You are creating great content and your website delivers a great experience with a strong conversion rate. Your initial inbound marketing results are promising, but you need more.

Inbound marketing represents a major investment for B2B marketers. Not only do you still need to create content to capture leads, nurture prospects and support sales, you need to create sharable and discoverable content also and then patiently wait before you see the return on this new investment.

Traditional B2B marketers face a challenge. You have a proven marketing formula that includes investments in acquiring new contacts (or lead generation) and in nurturing those contacts. You want to change, but investing in inbound ahead of significant results throws a wrench in your budgeting and planning. [Read more…]

Is Focusing On Your Audience Getting In Your Way?

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St Petersburg Pier as seen through rear view mirrorOf course not! As B2B marketers, focusing on your audience is absolutely critical.

However, you must look forward, at where your audience will be. Research and observation tell you where your audience has been and what they have been interested in. But what will they be interested in and using in 6, 12 or 24 months?

If you are focused on what your B2B target audience has done in the past or is doing today, you will miss new opportunities like the Internet (2000), Twitter (2009) or Pinterest (2011) to connect with your audience. [Read more…]

Social Sleuthing: Who is Sharing Your Content: Twitter & LinkedIn Edition

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shadow detective servicesHave you ever wondered who is sharing your blog posts or other content on social media sites but don’t have access to expensive social media monitoring applications that can tell you? Here are ways you can find out who is sharing your content, and in some cases how much traffic each share is driving, on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Some of the approaches here use Google Analytics or WordPress statistics, the measurement solutions I use here on B2B Digital Marketing. [Read more…]

B2B Social Media Opportunities [#B2Bchat Recap]

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Join #B2BChat on Twitter every Thursday at 8:00 PM EasternIn our most recent #B2Bchat discussion, we looked at a number of social networks and how B2B marketers can take advantage of them, and once again I was pleased to have the opportunity to moderate the lively discussion.

Rather than a deep dive into a single network or objective, the discussion quickly touched on a number of social networks or platforms.

Participants identified a number of specific opportunities, however what was most apparent throughout the discussion is that social media is moving quickly. B2B marketers need to stay on top of the market if they are to identify and take advantage of new opportunities. [Read more…]

#NewNewTwitter: A New Opportunity for Marketers

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Twitter announced a new interface, rolling out over the next few weeks, this morning. You can preview the interface and the new features at fly.twitter.com.

Compared to this change, the previous change to New Twitter (the current interface) was minor. This is a major change and for marketers, it is a far more interesting change. New brand pages give marketers a new home, but the changes to everyone’s stream is where the real opportunities are. [Read more…]

Social Media Sleuthing: A-List Traffic and bit.ly Tricks

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Ever wonder how much traffic social media A-listers and publishers drive with their own Twitter stream? Using bit.ly, you can often see this as well as a wealth of other information, such as what content someone shares and even what accounts they manage.

If you know me, you probably know that I am part analyst, part geek, and looking to peel back one more layer of the onion whenever I have time. In this occasional series, I will be sharing some of the ways I have learned to use social media and marketing tools to peel back one more layer.

Here is some of the information you can discover with a few minutes on Twitter and bitly. [Read more…]

Buyers to Marketers: Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You

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“Why do you want my email and phone number again? So your sales consultant can contact me? No thanks, I’ll pass.”

Boonville Missing Bucky Walter PhoneMost B2B marketers are still fixated on capturing registration data, and no wonder. The marketing automation machine lives on a diet of email and your sales process is built on the telephone.

The problem is, your buyer’s process is not built on your email or your phone. According to research, buyers only engage with companies directly during the last 40% of their research process.

When you insist on registration, you are in effect telling prospects:

  • We don’t want to be involved in the first half of your research.
  • We are only willing to engage with you on our terms and timetable.

[Read more…]