Marketing 2014 – what are your looming challenges?

By Mark Helfen

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And now for something completely different…..

Most months, the SVForum Marketing and Social Media SIG has a knowledgeable speaker who gives a presentation on an important marketing topic.

This month you - the audience - will be the “speaker.”

In an abbreviated unconference style, the group will list the marketing issues they will face over the next year. We will break up into groups, and brainstorm ideas. Then see what ideas seem to come up most often. Finally, we can crowdsource some possible solutions from the many years and wide expertise of the marketing experts in the room. In a single evening I think we will just scratch the surface, but the discussion can continue on the MarketingSIG LinkedIn group over the next few weeks.

The meeting will be Monday, December 9, at our usual time and place. The Citrix Startup Accelerator, starting at 6:30.

The process will be managed by Kevin Cox, Vice President of Marketing, Yeti Data. He is an expert in digital marketing, awarded BtoB Magazine Top Digital Marketers 2012 & 2011, with 17 years international marketing experience.

The real list will be generated at the meeting. But to give people a few ideas to start their brains working, I polled the MarketingSIG co-chairs for their lists. Here, in no particular order, are some ideas to begin your thinking. I have taken the liberty of summarizing and paraphrasing the contributions, so I am to blame for any errors.

- Marketing technology requires more and more IT budget – possibly exceeding other IT spending. How will Marketing justify, acquire, and manage the systems, software or services used.

-  Social listening and sentiment measurement will become increasingly important. What are the best tools

- People are becoming ever more sensitized to privacy issues and how their data is stored and used. How can marketing programs both be effective and manage customer expectations.

- The rules for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keep changing. How to keep up.

= Is Facebook over? Do you need a presence on Google+? Is Instagram/Twitter/Pinterest the future or social marketing. What are the social media tools that will be useful for your marketing efforts in 2014.

- Marketing budgets are always tight. How to decide how to allocate your resources. How can you measure ROI for everything you do.

- Where should a new company start.

= Mobile continues to grow (or maybe explode.) News reports this last week talked about how much purchasing was done using mobile devices before Thanksgiving dinner was even over. How can your marketing program take advantage of mobile technology.

- Keeping up is a challenge – more technology, more social media channels, more options. Marketing is becoming more and more specialized. How can a marketing professional keep up. How broad versus deep should your expertise be.

- Communities are critical to success. How can you build communities, both for yourself, and for your customer base.


This is just a short list. Hopefully this will give you a place to start, to bring your own ideas to next Monday’s meeting.

And a big THANKS to the co-chairs for their help.

Be sure and sign up at the Marketing and Social Media Meetup site:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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You can pull a “PR-180,” engage highly influential people, and energize your content marketing strategy

By Mark Helfen

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What if you could engage with well-known and influential “thought leaders,” and in the process both develop a relationship and increase the credibility of your content production efforts. David Spark has a way. By pulling a “PR-180,” you can engage influencers, establish a relationship, and increase the reach and influence of your blog.

Spark is founder of Spark Media Solutions, a content production company. He describes himself as a “brand journalist,” and creates content of all kinds – video, written, podcasts, and more. He is about to produce his first e-book. His objective is building an editorial brand for his clients. Spark will be speaking on the topic Building Influencer Relations through Content at our next SVForum Marketing and Social Media meeting at 6:30 on Monday, November 11 at the Citrix Startup Accelerator, our usual time and location.

From Sparks perspective, content is an absolute requirement – see his post here. But attracting people who are well known influencers, who you might “never dream” could help you, increases your influence. In other words, you can create interesting content, increase its value, and develop relationships all at the same time.

The normal path is to contact the PR or media relations department at the company the influencer works for, and hope for an eventual interview. But Spark is more closely aligned to the Woody Allen quote – “Showing up is 80 percent of life.” So his interview strategy is to just show up. At trade shows, conferences, or wherever the person he wants to connect with will be found.

Of course, it not quite so simple. You need to be totally prepared. His example is a video interview, where you need to be able to have your equipment on and operating within 10 seconds, to show professionalism and competence.

An interview with an influencer posted on your blog or YouTube channel brings three values: It’s a great reason for engagement with the influencer; the credibility of your content goes up with the implied endorsement of the person being interviewed; and you can follow up and build a professional relationship.

I asked Sparks if this strategy is easily copied. Everyone does it and eventually the idea wears out its welcome. His reply was that after 7 years, “he’s still waiting for direct competition.”

Not everyone feels that they can walk up to someone they don’t know and ask to interview them.

“The first time is really uncomfortable,” he said. But you keep trying, and it gets easier. You learn to overcome what he refers to as the “the last three feet” problem approaching people at a trade show or meeting. You can also practice in a safe environment, with friends or within your own business.

So you can editorial brand value with the help of key influencers. Learn how next Monday night.



Be sure and sign up at the Marketing and Social Media Meetup site:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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YouTube has grown up – a tool for customer engagement

By Mark Helfen

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All the cute videos of puppies and babies are still on YouTube. Lady Gaga is still there too - in fact YouTube now is included in the Billboard top 100 music tracks. Hundreds of hours of video get uploaded every minute according to Google statistics, a mix of the weird, the personal, and the important.

But YouTube has also become a way to get customer and market engagement, for you, your brand, or your business. Both business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketing can benefit.

The audience is there, the analytical tools are there, and now you need to be there.

Or so says Matt Ballek, speaker at the Monday, October 14 SVForum Marketing and Social Media SIG meeting. The meeting will be at our usual time and place – 6:30 at the Citrix Startup Accelerator (map). Ballek is Director of Strategic Distribution for Magnet Media, and will be speaking on the topic Measuring Success and Engagement on YouTube. You can check out his YouTube channel here.

There are lots of people spending lots of time watching YouTube. Over 1 billion unique visitors show up every month and watch over 6 billion hours of video. Or as Google puts it, “that's almost an hour for every person on Earth, and 50% more than last year.” YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network.

Ballek points out that YouTube is now a major search engine, second only to Google’s web search. Watching his YouTube channel shows Ballek’s expertise in optimizing search results, analogous SEO for Google web search results. Similar to the web search, Google uses their own analytics to judge how much value and engagement their users place on a YouTube video and uses the results to decide search placement.

In addition to search optimization, he will talk about how to design and plan your YouTube marketing, and how to use the “excellent analytic tools” that Google provides to measure your results.

Like elsewhere, content is king. “You can’t optimize unengaging videos.”

Google measures video engagement by how long viewers watch them, how often people click through to a web page, and how often they subscribe and return. High engagement gets higher search engine placement. Because the video is actually on Google’s servers, crowdsourcing based on actual viewing can be factored in.

It’s cheap to start – your smartphone has the capability to produce a useful video, and the cost keeps decreasing. You don’t need high (and expensive) production values to engage customers. What you do need is to provide information that they find interesting or useful, and worth the time. And show up on a regular basis. One idea is to set up a schedule of status updates, so that then your business makes a major announcement your customers are already connected. You can also use YouTube’s search statistics to get an idea of what people are looking for, to give you suggestions for content.

Google+ may also be part of your YouTube engagement solution. Ballek describes Google+ as “the biggest social network you didn’t know you were already using.” Like other Google services, Google+ is getting ever more closely integrated with YouTube. It can help assure more meaningful conversations, and manage customer engagement.


Be sure and sign up at the Marketing and Social Media Meetup site:

 

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.
He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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The Science of Thought Leadership

By Mark Helfen

The words “thought leadership” may be overused, even cliché.

But Mitchell Levy has elevated the idea to a science as the first Thought Leadership Architect. In short, he is a thought leader on thought leadership.  Creating thought leaders in your business can help advance its marketing goals, increase ROI, and help compete effectively in a crowded market. Levy has the tools and strategy to help you become one.

Levy will be the speaker at the next SVForum Marketing and Social Media SIG meeting, Monday, September 9 speaking on Learn How to Turn Yourself from Expert to Thought Leader/Guru! The meeting will begin at 6:30 at our regular location, the Citrix Startup Accelerator, 4555 Great America Parkway 3rd Floor, Santa Clara. He commits that everyone who attends will gain at least on “aha moment” on promoting their business, or them self.

Mitchel is CEO of both ThinkAha, a consulting firm focused on thought leadership, and Happy About, a book publisher. The two activities are related, since publishing a book is one of the tools that he promotes to be recognized as a thought leader.

According to Levy, before your prospect ever contacts you, they have put 60 to 80 percent of their effort into internet research. There are a huge number of messages out there; a thought leader draws attention in a crowded space. They become the “go-to guy” (or girl) for reliable information, and show your business as the source of expertise.

His consulting focus is creating thought leaders larger businesses. Employees are going to be on-line anyway. With some training, they can become “activated” to be evangelists for the business. In addition to promoting your brand, you can use the thought leadership of some part of your key people to promote the company. The combined efforts of several employees will have a greater effect than just brand promotion.

Of course, not everyone can take this role. Only a selected subset of all your people might be thought leaders. But it’s also a valuable role to power other people to get recognized as experts.

Levy has several tools in his kit to get this done. Writing books, video, and blogging are three ideas. He is a big fan of LinkedIn (his profile is here: www.linkedin.com/in/mitchelllevy.) Also Google+ seems to be a rising force. 

You may not be part of a large organization, but he commits that everyone will get an “aha moment” during the evening, and come away with two or three ideas to put to use, either for themself or their business. If you want an early preview of his thinking, download a free copy of his ebooks on his web site, mitchelllevy.com.

In our conversation, Levy had an interesting take. “The thought leaders of tomorrow are curators of the data we are browsing today.” Come by on Monday and hear more.

Be sure and sign up at the Marketing and Social Media Meetup site:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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By itself, mobile technology isn’t all that interesting...

By Mark Helfen

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By itself, mobile technology isn’t all that interesting.

But take data from applications, big data analytics, IT, the cloud, and social networks, and cross all the silo boundaries. Then mix with the unique capabilities of mobile devices - geographic knowledge and “at hand” immediacy – and you can delight customers and give employees the tools of efficiency.

In other words, you can create a right time experience.

Or so says Maribel Lopez, speaker at next Monday’s meeting of the SVForum Marketing and Social Media SIG. Her presentation is titled Right Experience, Right Results: Improve Profits, Engagement w/Mobile & Big Data.

We will be at our now usual place, the Citrix Startup Accelerator, at 6:30.

Lopez is Principal and Founder of Lopez Research and describes her role as an industry analyst. Her work is helping enterprises understand what technology changes mean for them, and providing guidance on deploying the changes and transforming their operations.

While she covers using technology to improve marketing, Lopez also has an operational focus on how the company’s internal function can be improved.  She has the interesting view that you should “treat employees as customers,” so that new technology not only can improve the customer experience, but also improve the employee experience. The objective is always to increase efficiency and profits.

To look at mobile just as advertising is too limiting, not to mention that people will quickly tire of having ads on their phone. But by using all of the available data and context and making mobile interaction a right time experience, and you can delight customers.

As an example, a mobile app could know from your Google mail account that you have a flight leaving at a specific time, know your current location, check the traffic patterns on the route you usually use, know how long it takes to get through airport security at the time you will arrive, and remind you exactly when it’s time to leave for the airport.

Using location based real time information combined with data from multiple sources, the mobile device provides compelling, appropriate and relevant information – a right time experience.

That doesn’t exist, yet.

Another idea is to improve company operations. If your business uses Salesforce.com, by using the phones GPS location automatically show the appropriate Salesforce information by connecting to the cloud when the rep walks into the customer office. This makes the rep’s job easier and more efficient. After the rep leaves, ask for a call report.

The idea is that mobile technology has the potential of delivering “the holy grail” of insight, but only when the technology boundaries are crossed to get a right time experience.

So come by Monday, and learn how you use right time experience to delight customers, delight your own employees, and maybe delight your business bottom line.

Security requires all to pre-register. Please do it on Meetup here. Thanks

 


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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Your relationship with your customers may be the one competitive advantage that can’t be copied.

By Mark Helfen

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Your relationship with your customers may be the one competitive advantage that can’t be copied.

Or so says Linda Sharp, CEO of Religence, a “customer-focused performance management consulting firm specializing in Customer Relationship Intelligence” according to the company web site.

Sharp will be the speaker at the upcoming SVForum Marketing and Social Media SIG meeting, on June 10. The meeting will be held at our now regular location, the Citrix Startup Accelerator (map here.) The meeting is titled “The Money is in Retention. Start There. Harvest GOLD in the BIG Data Blizzard,” but after my conversation, I could shortcut that to “a better understanding of your customer relationships leads to more profits from you customers.”  As usual, meeting starts at 6:30.

Sharps method is to make measurement of customer relationships as close to a science as possible, creating a metric called “Relationship Value.” The atomic unit of the relationship is an interaction between you and your customer. An interaction can move the relationship forward or backward, but you will have no idea where things stand unless the information is tracked.

Tracking, managing, and improving your customer relationship value requires a person who has this as their primary responsibility, and Sharp recommends making relationship management a separate function and assigning someone the job – a customer relationship manager. This person makes tracking relationships a deliberate and proactive responsibility. 

The task is made easier by widespread adoption of social media, along with more traditional internet connections like email. Where customer interactions were once ephemeral, possibly not recorded at all, they now form a “blizzard” of stored information, just needing that relationship manager and big data techniques to analyze and characterize all of the now collected digital data.

“The behavior of profitable customers is very different than the behavior of customers who aren’t,” said Sharp. But unless you start measuring the interactions, it’s hard to separate out the two. You may not get a precise numerical answer, but even a relative measurement can be enough. And just asking the right question can affect the value of your customer to you.

The outcome is a better understanding of your customer relationship. Analyzing interaction data can help identify patterns of behavior. Some patterns can indicate a customer that is interested in a close relationship. A different pattern can be an early warning of problems in the relationship.

Sharp has an interesting view of how relationship management, and tracking relationship value, affects marketing getting their “rightful place at the management table”: In analyzing the competitive advantages of a business, control of resources is managed by finance. The businesses economy of scale is owned by operations. Technology advantage is owned by Information Technology. But if marketing owns the customer relationship – a competitive advantage that can’t be copied – they take a full seat at the table.

So come by Monday, and learn how customer relationship data can increase your customer retention and profitability. 





Please sign up at:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Email is still the “linchpin” of your marketing strategy.

By Mark Helfen

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Email is still the “linchpin” of your marketing strategy.

Or so says Elyse Tager, West Coast Regional Development Director at
Constant Contact. Tager will be the speaker at the May 13 SVForum Marketing and Social Media SIG meeting. (Remember we are now at a new location -  Citrix Startup Accelerator at 4555 Great America Parkway.)

A key part of Tager’s business development role is delivering educational seminars – specifically helping entrepreneurs and small businesses develop an effective marketing program. Given the limited time and money available, efficiency and effectiveness with a limited budget is key.

Her thinking seems well plugged in to this small business reality. Constant Contact focuses on small and mid-sized companies, including non-profits. Enterprise sized companies aren’t their target.

“It’s no surprise, most small businesses don’t know how to market,” said Tager. People who are dentists, lawyers (or software developers) “didn’t wake up in the morning to be marketers.” They spend their time on their specialty, the thing that makes their business successful, and need tools to help develop a marketing program. 

If the basics of marketing aren’t difficult enough, new communication channels keep appearing. Some may be useful, some not. A marketer needs to “keep their radar open” to see how the environment is changing, while building an effective program.

Tager’s presentation will give a top level review of the growing number of options. From her perspective, mobile is “here yesterday” and should already be part of your marketing mix. Video, Pinterest, Instagram could all be useful. At the same time, you shouldn’t be “seduced” by all of the “crazy stuff” that is appearing.

“Were not all wearing Google Glasses.” Yet.

The old style of marketing – sending out messages to your customers, needs to be replaced. The new social tools need to engage customers and prospects in a two-way conversation.

Tager views email as the core of an engagement strategy – the linchpin. Combined with social tools, it forms a loop that “exponentially increases your reach and engagement.”  Social tools like Facebook are a way of attracting people, but email is under your control, and allows you to control communications. All of this counts on creating content that is compelling and interesting to your current and future customers.

So come by Monday, learn how your small business can develop and effective marketing program within your limits of time and money.

BTW, if you occasionally slip and refer to Constant Contact (the cloud based marketing company) as Constant Comment (the flavored tea) as I did once in my interview, you will be forgiven. Tager said this has happened to her a few times…

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Sign up on:

Everything you’re doing today is wrong - come by the April Marketing and Social Media SIG and learn why

By Mark Helfen

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When it comes to your customers digital experience, “everything you’re doing today is wrong.”

Or so says Kelly Dempski, speaker at the Monday, April 8 SVForum Marketing and Social Media SIG .

NOTE – we are again at our new home, Citrix, the same as our March meeting, but a change from recent months:

Citrix Startup Accelerator
Map
4555 Great America Parkway 3rd Floor, Santa Clara
http://citrixstartupaccelerator.com/find-us/

Dempski is Managing Director for Accenture Technology Labs, Silicon Valley. He has one foot in the latest innovations in the valley, and the other in explaining the future to Fortune 50 companies who usually move at a different speed. His lab looks three years into the future, with the objective of both optimizing and enhancing change – from his perspective the more of his clients that adopt new technologies, the faster they will develop. He helps his client companies, buried in the avalanche of technology information, distinguish between what is just a “shiny object” and what is a valuable trend that needs action.

His talk is titled SLoPe (Social, Local & Personal) as the New SoLoMo. SoLoMo is a widely used acronym standing for Social, Local, and Mobile – a new way of relating to customers. Dempski chose his contrasting version to emphasize that it’s not mobile (the technology) that counts, its personalization – the unique connection with the individual that makes the difference.

The objective of SLoPe is to “craft more engaging, useful, and pleasant” digital experiences that are “deeply personal.” His presentation will “deconstruct” current practices, which focus on “social media mechanics” – the specific tool or platform like Facebook or Twitter, over connecting, communicating, personalizing and influencing consumers.

He has an interesting take on mobile. The point isn’t that devices are mobile. After all, your laptop is mobile. The idea is that handheld devices are always within a few feet, connected, powered on, and available for use. It’s less about the mechanics of a mobile device, and more about digital experience and engagement using a ubiquitous device that’s always at hand.

The digital world is limited by old design choices. Like the phone systems which still works with people dialing ten digits. The system of TV channels was designed in the 50s. If it was redone today, it would be entirely different. Businesses need to break out of the mold

Dempski’s viewpoint gives a unique bridge connecting the high speed innovation of the valley tempered by the reality of how fast large companies can move. You may view your small startup as moving at a light speed, but in the end you need to sell your products to someone, and large businesses can be good customers.

So come by Monday night, and learn why “everything you’re doing today is wrong” – at least in terms of digital interaction with your customers.





Please sign up at:

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Get ahead of 99% of social media and on-line marketers at next Mondays SVForum MarketingSIG.

By Mark Helfen

With some on-line education, you can be ahead of 99 percent of other marketers in effective social media and on-line marketing. Or so says Aaron Kahlow, CEO and Founder of the Online Marketing Institute and speaker at the March 11 SVForum MarketingSIG.

And SIG attendees can get their first week of education free.

NOTE – starting with the March meeting will be at a new location (again!)
Citrix Startup Accelerator
4555 Great America Parkway 3rd Floor, Santa Clara


Kahlow started out around 15 years ago in the back of a dental office as a digital ad agency, designing web pages and optimizing search results. The Institute is now a $10 million a year business that specializes in bridging the education gap between traditional marketing and newer models of social, video, and on-line. The sound of drilling is long gone.

At Monday’s presentation, he will talk about a philosophy of social marketing – how to think about your marketing strategy. His talk will include real-world, global stories of strategies that worked. Kahlow is big on analytics and attribution – having a clear understanding of which social channel actually brings in business, and using this data to guide future investment.

And to prove his belief an attribution, the stories will include links to original materials that were the basis of his examples.

While social means Facebook, Kahlow also emphasizes video. There is more time spent each day watching video than on Facebook, and a “good video strategy” is critical.

The Online Marketing Institute is a subscription based service with classes in social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing and many others. Kahlow described the courses as having “high value and high impact,” and agreed to give MarketingSIG attendees a free week of access.

OMI also offers certificates in a variety of social media marketing. These are recognized by major marketing associations - DMA and IAB were two examples named by Kahlow. By completing the certificate, you will “have a clear differentiation from other people” who do digital marketing, and will know more than 99 percent of them.

True to his social media nature, he invites connections, on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Just search for his name.

So come by next Monday, and start your social media education.

Sign up on 


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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen


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The New A-B-Cs

By Mark Lewis


In sales lingo A-B-C means, “Always Be Closing”.  For those not in sales, the new A-B-Cs should stand for “Always Be Connecting”.  I am always surprised by the unexpected things that come from connecting with people.  And I hear so many people say, “…you never know…”.  That is more true today than in the past, you never know where your next lead, deal, opportunity, etc will come from. 

The challenge that so many people have is that they know they should be doing a better job with networking and connecting with people – with existing contacts as well as making new ones.  They don’t however make it a regular practice until they need something.  I won’t say that then “it’s too late” because people are generally helpful especially if they have been a close contact in the past but it is certainly easier on everyone if it is a contact that has been nurtured in some way.  Email and even social media are all fine ways to keep in touch with someone and at least stay on each other’s radar.  Phone and in-person are by far better.

The old adage is partially true, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.  Certainly you still have to know something but it is definitely true that who you know is important.

Get out there and re-connect with people that are in your network then branch out to connecting with new people – wherever you are remember the A-B-Cs; Always Be Connecting.

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Mark Lewis is a marketing executive with hands-on experience across the marketing mix.  He can be found at linkedin.com/in/markelewis/ and he is always interested in connecting with new people.




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Content marketing turns your customer acquisition strategy around 180 degrees

By Mark Helfen

NOTE NEW MEETING LOCATION-
We are now meeting at:
Silicon Valley Innovation Center
3200 Coronado Drive. Santa Clara, CA 95051
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/qE7Xl


Content marketing turns your customer acquisition strategy around 180 degrees. Instead of using advertising to find customers, create valuable content so customers will find you.

Or so says Barry Feldman, speaker at Monday’s SVForum MarketingSIG, February 11. Feldman “creates compelling content by telling stories” at his eponymous business, Feldman Creative. The idea is that by creating content of value to your future customers, they will start down the path of being current customers.

The dynamics of marketing communication have changed, putting customers in control, making an advertising strategy much harder. People don’t like being sold to.

“We all have our media filters on,” said Feldman. “We consume as little advertising as possible.”  In creating web contents, you need to “ditch the pitch,” treat the reader as a friend, and create content that is valuable. He recommends a “journalistic approach.”

Some people have described content marketing as a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. By having “real” content using lots of the right words, search engines (meaning Google) will consider your page as valuable to their search customers, and it will appear higher in Google’s results.

But Feldman recommends against this, saying is compromises the quality of your content. Don’t write for a robot - create value for your customers. You need to be aware of how Google ranks pages, but it can’t be the driver. Besides, as Google’s engineers keep improving their ranking it’s getting harder and harder to fool their search algorithms.

So, are you ready to create invaluable content? The presentation will include a 7-step list for getting started, including a number of potential topics to cover in your writing.

Feldman practices what he preaches, and is clearly a prolific writer. You can see examples of his work here:

Your Site is the Mousetrap, Your Content is the Cheese

Why You Shouldn’t Do Content Marketing

Do You Have the Skills to Cut It in Content Marketing?

And most recently:

Only Birdbrains Bet $4,000,000 on the Super Bowl

And for some more help in getting started, Feldman recently published an ebook:

The Plan to Grow Your Business with Effective Online Marketing available here.

But maybe you don’t think you’re a writer at all. Some people are “writer phobic,” caused in some cases by “perfection paralysis.”

Well, you don’t need to be a great writer, as long as you’re knowledgeable on your subject and understand what your customers want. But if you can’t write, speak (or as Feldman puts it, “yakk”.) Talk into a camera, telling a compelling story using your knowledge and enthusiasm, and use the resulting words as a basis for you or someone else to write content based on what you say.

So come by Monday, and get started with getting your customers to come to you.




Please sign up on our meetup page:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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LinkedIn Endorsements – Decide how to use them

by Mark Lewis 

There has been a lot of talk about the new LinkedIn Endorsements.  Most of the discussions have included some healthy skepticism about the new feature that started to appear in Beta around September of 2012.  Certainly there is room for the skepticism; I have heard of plenty of examples of people getting endorsements from connections that have no idea about their expertise in that particular skill.  In addition, there is an presumption of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.  Personally I think that is a self-imposed perception; people generally want to be helpful so they feel compelled to endorse their endorser, if you do that - do it right.

Endorsements are the social media version of recommendations.  We have all trained ourselves to have short attention spans in the way we read and the way we interact with each other.  LinkedIn has just made it easy to support people for the work that they have done.  And let’s face it, endorsements drive a lot of traffic back to LinkedIn and that is good for…LinkedIn.

We all have a responsibility to maintain the integrity of endorsements.  You can choose not to show an endorsement from someone that you don’t feel really knows you possess those skills.  Don’t let your endorsements section get bloated with these endorsements.  You can in turn only endorse people for skills that you can legitimately say they have.  Look at it this way, if a hiring manager were to call you for a reference based on the skills you endorsed for someone, could you give them examples of how that person demonstrated those skills?
I have a statement in the summary of my profile that addresses endorsements.  It is as follows:

“Endorsements:
I appreciate the genuine endorsements I have received from my close connections who know and value my work. In turn I endorse others whose work I can personally recommend. I view endorsements as a quicker and easier way to recommend someone but I treat them with the same integrity as a recommendation.”

You can see how I incorporated it into my profile on my LinkedIn page here:  linkedin.com/in/markelewis/

Of course a full recommendation of someone is always better and you should eagerly write those recommendations when asked.

Endorsements are not going away so you should decide now how you want to treat them.  I recommend taking the high road and maintaining the value of this feature for everyone.

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Mark Lewis is a marketing executive with hands-on experience across the marketing mix.  He can be found at linkedin.com/in/markelewis/ and he is always interested in connecting with new people.

Creating Deeper Relationships in Your Network

Networking has been around ever since people realized that they get help from people they have a relationship with.  It used to happen at the saloon, or the open markets or at the club, (and it still does).  Today however we often think of networking as adding someone new to our LinkedIn profile or maybe commenting on someone's post.  In the world of social media and with the ease of connecting electronically and being visible, we get lazy and we rely on clicks instead of good, old-fashioned, face-to-face conversation.  It takes work to maintain any relationship; when you put it on auto-pilot that's when it begins to wither and die.

Call it goal setting or a new year's resolution or whatever makes you take action but begin the work of creating deeper relationships in your network.  Making an emotional connection with someone can’t be done (as easily) on the internet or even on the phone.  Set up coffee or lunch or some other reason to sit down, look someone in the eye and ask them what is new in their life, what is keeping them up at night, how can you help them?  I guarantee they will in turn ask you the same thing.  That is your opportunity open up with more detail than you would online.  Take control of your message and your brand and establish deeper ties.

Make it a point to reach out to someone that is (or was) important to you that you have not seen for some time.  Pick your own frequency; once a week, once a month or whatever you can manage.  Put a list together of all those people and start to invite them – it’s a process and with as busy as everyone is it will take some work but it is worth it.  They will appreciate it and respect you for your initiative as well as your thoughtfulness.  Make your network more than just the number of people that you are connected to electronically.


Mark Lewis is a marketing executive with broad experience across the marketing mix.  He can be found at linkedin.com/in/markelewis/ he would be happy to connect with you but be prepared, he will probably ask you to meet him in person.

Be bold – and create your personal brand

Be bold – and create your personal brand

By Mark Helfen

NOTE NEW MEETING LOCATION:
This month we begin meeting at a new location:
Silicon Valley Innovation Center
3200 Coronado Drive. Santa Clara, CA 95051
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/qE7Xl
(Don’t go to our old place – you’ll miss the pizza!)

Your personal brand – the description of your unique talents, capabilities and ability to make a difference, is no longer a nice to have - it’s a requirement. To develop an effective personal brand you need to “be bold,” something most people find hard to do. Or so says Karen Kang, speaker at the January 14 SVForum Marketing and Social Media SIG.

Kang is founder and CEO of Branding Pays, a consulting firm that specializes in both corporate and personal branding, and executive coaching. She is also the author of a recently released book BrandingPays: The Five-Step System to Reinvent Your Personal Brand, and will have copies available at her presentation including two copies to raffle for free.

The starting point for developing your personal brand is to have a strategic plan – a vision of the unique way you create value for others. And a message that your market wants to hear.

Many strategic executives understand (or think they understand) the idea of creating a corporate brand. But a personal brand can also help your business succeed, for example by better allowing your talents and skills to be seen and used within the company. Not to mention that in the rapidly changing economy we live in, your personal brand goes with you, even when you’re business changes (or disappears). A personal brand also helps your visibility across virtual and geographic distances, as business becomes global, remote, and connections are formed over social media.

Besides, if you don’t create your own personal brand, you run the risk of someone else creating it for you. Which might not be in your best interest.

As you think about your personal brand, you need to think about how you “provide value in a different and better way.” You need to provide evidence, proof, or endorsements that you can deliver on your promise. This could be a personal website with examples of your work. A blog could demonstrate your strategic thinking capability. Or even Linkedin, where endorsements from others can help validate your capabilities, and your brand.

But what might be the hardest part is Kang’s instruction to “be bold” – what big ideas will you be known for, what unique, differentiated value will you add, how you can be a change agent.

Bold might be outside your comfort zone. So come my Monday, and see if you can’t get a shot of courage to help in developing your personal brand.


Please sign up on Meetup:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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