BarnRaisers

For any business seeking to attract and gather an audience, relevant content is an essential requirement.

But the creation of that content can understandably seem like a daunting task. Where do you start? What do you create? How much time does it take? Who do you bring to the table?

Content marketers use the phrase, “content curation,” to describe the development of content and and sharing of it in different forms such as articles, videos, pictures, tweets, songs or other pieces of digital content. A more relatable expression might be ”Thanksgiving leftovers.”

With a Thanksgiving celebration, you take the time to prepare a great meal and gather those you care about; then, the leftovers extend the specialness of the day for some time thereafter. Content marketing works in a similar way.

Many consider a blog a main dish of a content marketing program. Here are 21 ways blogs feed content marketing efforts.

1. BLOG POSTS: Are rich with content, serve as outreach for new consumers and are great for capturing the attention of search engines through keywords and regular updates that the search engines value. Relative to a Thanksgiving celebration, a blog is a main dish in any content marketing program. If your business blogs regularly, you WILL BE effective at content marketing if you WANT TO. Here’s how.
2. EMAILS: Can be a slight adaption of a blog post, perhaps with a different call to action, that goes to an predetermined list of consumers. It has the advantage of tracking exactly who reads your content.  (You have their e-mail addresses).
3. NEWLETTERS Are pretty versatile adaptations.  They can be print or digital.  You can distribute by mailing, handing out or e-mailing them.  You can have monthly, quarterly, or even yearly newsletters.  They can be 1 page, 5 pages or 10 pages long.  And finally, you can include all different types of articles – from how-tos, company news, and business trends to customer stories, FAQ’s or new product information.
4. EBOOK: Is an extension of your blog. Take that blog content, edit it, repurpose it, add value to it. String it together in a logical and coherent manner. Dress it up with pretty pictures and formatting. Lo and behold, you’ve got yourself an eBook.
5. WHITE PAPER: With a simple change in tone of your blog post to to educate readers and help people make decisions, you’re on your way to creating a white paper from your blog.
6. IMAGES: Used in any of items mentioned so far are indexed with the search engines. The more you use, the more they make your content more interesting and help your raise search rank.
7. INFOGRAPHICS: Are growing in popularity for companies hoping to build effective linking strategies as well as execute on viral campaigns because infographics are frequently downloaded and passed around for their visual impact and content.
8. VIDEO: In and outside a blog is a powerful tool for corporate content marketing strategies of any size. They are are boom for internally produced video projects and consumer-generated video alike.
9. LINKS: Everyone wants to know when someone is talking about them. So it is with content marketing. When people link to your site or blog, you can find out through tools like WordPress and Alexa, you can check out who linked to you and form good relationships and can links in return. The end result is you turn into an “authority” in your industry, one of the search engine’s most important criteria.
10. COMMENTS:  Getting noticed by industry bloggers and establishing a relationship with them over time can be beneficial to your business and your marketing efforts. The relationship can work both ways. Leaving comments that add to the conversation helps boost value of their blog post. Comments also establish links.
11. EVENTS: 56% or companies with content marketing programs use events to build face-to-face relationships (source: PulsePoint Group). And 74% and use social media. How’s how blogs help.
12. FACEBOOK: Distribute content from the blog, email or newsletter to your Facebook page and those who “Like” you and extend your influence among fans.
13. TWITTER: Tweet your content and Re-Tweet the content of others whose content you admire and you have one of the most powerful and cost effective outreach vehicle any company could want for content marketing. In fact, Twitter is defined as a micro-blogging platform.
14. LINKEDIN:  LinkedIn has 120 million-plus registered users. It couldn’t be easier to share an update with connections that links to your blog. Of those who use it, over two-thirds access it multiple times a week and is fast gaining in terms of share freqency with Facebook and Twitter.
15. GOOGLE+: Although still trailing behind Facebook and Twitter, every marketer will need a Google+ strategy. Through Google+, you see a photo of yourself in search and pull in metadata you’ve chosen for my Google+ profile.
16. PINTEREST: Is the fastest growing social network since Facebook, you can pin your images and interest to pinboards  (which also link to your Facebook page). If women are your target who make the purchase decision for 90% of all products, Pinterest is 70% female.
17. PODCASTS: Are an easy way to generate guest content and a quick-turnaround format, podcast can also transcribed to generated rich, written content.
18. WEBINARS: 46% of companies use webinars and 70% believe they are an effective marketing program. A way to make the most of them is to use your images and videos and make the content as interesting as possible (source: Content Marketing Institute_
19. SURVEYS: Use online surveys at the end of your blog to get to know your prospects, create a dialogue and lead them to your product or service.
20. CASE STUDIES: Take examples from your content to build case studies to show customers what in it for them. On this blog, we have over 100 case studies of the ROI of Social Media, Social commerce , Social CRM and SEO
21. USER GENERATED CONTENT: The best advocates for any business are customers themselves. Encourage user-generated content and video. It’s a boon for marketing purposes, particularly if you request submissions that fit into your overall content marketing strategy.

Social media marketing demonstrates its part of our DNA to find others with similar interests and bond with those who buy the same brands.  There have been destinations on the internet for this purpose since before there was Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Social networks accelerate this behavior.  What are the principles at work?  Here are 6 rules of engagement for social media markeing that prove ROI.

1.  ASK CUSTOMERS FOR HELP:  Traditional marketing is a monolgue but social media marketing is a conversation.  It’s ok in a dialogue to ask for help.  Starbucks was one of the first and biggest brands to turn to their customers for new product ideas.  MyStarbucksIdea.com was a major decision by the company to reach out to Starbucks lovers for new coffee drinks and experiences in-store.  The result:  ”It’s the difference between launching with many millions of dollars versus millions of fans,” says Chris Bruzzo, Vice President for Brand, Content and Online. 

2.  BUILD 1-TO-1 RELATIONSHIPS: Foiled Cupcakes Founder Mari Luangrath came up with the idea for her gourmet cupcakes trying to find some in Chicago for her son’s birthday.  When she couldn’t find a dozen for less than $100, she realized there was a business opportunity.  To deliver a better product for less money, she decided to sell cupcakes by creating a company internet site instead of renting a storefront in Chicago.  A major snafu occurred when the internet developer off-shored the labor for the company website and ran into Pay-Pal problems.  The cupcakes were ready but the website wasn’t.  With nowhere else to turn, Mari launched Foiled Cupcakes on Facebook and Twitter and built personal relationships with every fan and follower.  The result: Foiled Cupcakes revenues were 6X greater than goal and, even though they now have a website, 93% of customers still come from Facebook and Twitter.      

3.  KEEP CONSUMERS INTERESTED WITH FAMILIAR TOPICS: If you’re a Harley fan and go to HDTalking.com, you’re likely to come back because you can engage in multiples discussions, all organized by the following clearly defined topics:

• Forums, Announcements, News
• General Harley Davidson Talking
• Harley Davidson Motorcycles
• General Tech Harley Davidson
• Self Help Information and Tips
• Manufacturers Product – Official Support
• Chit Chat
• Market Place
• Regional Harley Davidson Riders
• Other

The result: There are 33,839 treads, 340,790 posts and 43,301 members on HDTalking.com.  The are all generated by customers with minimal investment from the company.

4. ENCOURAGE ORIGINAL CONTENT: My first client experience with social marketing was for Shell and their motor oil, Pennzoil.  They spent rougly  25% of their marketing budget on a NASCAR sponsorhip  but couldn’t figure out if it delivered any ROI.  We created a brand community that was an insider’s view into their No. 29 car and race car driver, Kevin Harvick.  The NASCAR sponsorship included content from the race team, so we published stories from the crew, Kevin and his family and web cam footage not available anywhere else.  We were looking to attract autoracing fans that were heavy gasoline and motor oil purchasers to give Shell a return to make a NASCAR investment worthwhile: The result: We attracted fans who purchased 3X more gasoline and motor oil and they told friends who were just like them.  

5.  CREATE SUB-COMMUNITIES:  Many people think social media is for B2C businesses.  Actually, the opposite is true.  Social Media Examiner and Hubspot report 52% of the businesses that use social media are B2B.  IBM is one.  IBM doesn’t have a corporate blog.  Instead, they have a site where their engineers and employees are encouraged to blog with colleagues around the world about ideas for new products and innovations.  IBM set up sub-communities from A to Z.  The result:  Employees have set up 17,000 blogs; 100,000 regularly participate and the number grows to 500,000 when there are “crowdsourcing ‘jams.’”  IBM funded $100 million for product innovations from their employess.  It generated $100 billion in revenues for a 10-to-1 ROI with a 44.1% gross profit margin.

6.  LISTEN:  Because social media marketing is a conversational medium, one of its biggest benefits happen from listening.  Fiskars is a 300 year old Finnish arts and crafts company best known for producing scissors with orange handles.  Many of its retailers are hard to reach specialty arts and crafts stores.   To create awareness for them and to communicate directly with customers, Fiskars created Fiskateers, a brand community and forum where customers could learn about new products, offers, talk with other Fiskars users and contribute ideas.  The result: Fiskateers increased sales 3X.  There are now over 6,000+ members.  The community helps drive company innovation and greatly reduces the cost of focus group research.  

Social media requires time and dedication but, as these case studies show, the results are worth it.  If you need further proof, Social Media Examiner says, in their 2011 Social Media Marketing Report, over 50% of companies with 1 to 3 years experience and over 65% of companies with 3+ years report overall marketing costs drop when social media marketing is integrated into their marketing plans.

Do these rules of engagement help explain why?

A picture tells a 1000 words, and the chart below says social media is here to stay.  It’s from Google Trends and measures search volume for the term, social media.

Some more facts to reinforce social media staying power and show what’s now needed are:

• 74% of companies in 2011 say they have a social media program
• 54% are investing in social media as a customer service channel
• Only 14% of these programs measure return on investment
• #1 social media need for companies is a knowledgeable staff

(Sources: eMarketer, eConsultancy, Sherpa)

Where should a company go for this knowledge? PR? Advertising? Digital? Consultants? Maybe they should look to themselves. In our experience, the fastest adopters and the ones who experience the most success are  those who know their business and customers best.

I’m excited to be teaching a course called Social Media Marketing GPS with Toby Bloomberg to help companies learn and see results with social media through programs they execute for themselves.

Social Media Marketing GPS is a live, online 8-session course with instruction and ”hands-on” training to give any business a roadmap for social media success.  It occurs through a new, online learning platform, LiveMind, to deliver 1-on-1 “hands-on” training without you having to leave your office.

7 “hands-on” knowledge skills you’ll learn as you go from development of a strategy to a customized social media plan generating real results are how to:

1. Determine success, accountability and the right allocation of time and resources
2. Create social media initiatives that support branding, customer care or business development objectives and culturally align the enterprise
3. Use social network tools of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to their maximum effectiveness and in line with best practices
4. Develop blogs that build business and customer relations
5. Determine what transparency and authenticity, two important social media values, means to your company
6. Understand content valuation
7. Measure and track social media return on investment (ROI)

Toby and I are partnering because we’ve helped companies large and small, B2C and B2B, profit and non-profit, achieve success with social media.

Toby, a former board member of the American Marketing Association, does workshop for the AMA all over the country.  Recognized by Forbes as one of the country’s foremost blogger, she is the author of the e-book, Social Media Marketing GPS.  The book, viewable below, is the genesis for the course and has been downloaded 10K+ time all over the world.

I teach as part of a Social Media MBA faculty at Rutgers University, one of the first universities in the country to offer a Social Media Mini-MBA.  I also do “hands-on” social media business training with the U.S. Small Business Administration and PRSA (Public Relations Society of America).

We begin online training on March 15 at 1 pm ET (Tuesday).  You can find the details here.

Know someone who might benefit?  Please pass this on. After all, it’s called social media for a reason.

As a sign social media is coming of age, two blogposts on social media measurement have made a strong impression.  They were written years ago.

One was in January 2009.  Chris Brogan encouraged us to Grow Bigger Ears.  The point: Use social media measurement tools to build business as well as measure it, by listening.  In November 2009, David Berkowitz wrote 100 Ways to Measure Social Media.  It proved to even skeptical viewpoints social media was indeed very measurable.

Now there are many social media measurements, software solutions, proprietary algorithms and companies whose reason for being is to provide measurement solutions.

Here are 7 that have stood the test of time to measure social media and build brands by listening.

1.  INDUSTRY OVERVIEW (GOOGLE TRENDS):  Google.com/trends examines topics from a few perspectives.  By typing a subject, industry, brand or keyword in the search box, a 7 year trend is graphed of: 1) Search queries, 2) references in the news and 3) top news stories.  You can see if interest is increasing or decreasing and the most relevant content for influencing the situation in your  favor.  Multiple topics can be displayed at once.  It’s a quick and valuable industry snapshot.

2. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE (COMPETE):  Compete.com tracks viewship of multiple websites over time.  You can examine your competitive set and see how events, promotions or PR might have effected web traffic with year-to-year change.  You see the search keywords and referring sites that drive traffic; all of which can put to use to increase web traffic for your business, perhaps at the expense of competitors.

3.  KEY INFLUENCERS (TECHNORATI AND ALLTOP):  Technorati and Alltop, blog search engines, let you know who’s writing about the topics that matter most and quantifies how authoritative their opinion is.  You can click on blogs and engage with the writers through comments.  I’ve been able to connect with celebrities, company heads and advocates with influencial followings using these tools.

4. BUZZ (BOOSHAKA): If you want to measure the buzz about a particular topic or location on Facebook, type it into the search box on Booshaka.com.  Posts and recency are shown.  You have the opportunity to discuss, share, like or tweet what was said.  It’s the most direct way to know, measure and engage in what people are saying about a topic that matters to you in social media.

5. TARGETING AND GEO-TARGETING (TWEEPZ): This is a precise measurement and geo-targeting tool.  If you want to find people on Twitter with relevant interests or that live in an area where you do business, you can find them on Tweepz.com.  You can also know the size of their following and how often they tweet before you start a conversation.

6.  VIDEO ENGAGEMENT (YOUTUBE):  Videos increase viewer involvement by 38%.  Most people don’t think of using YouTube for analytics but, since Google owns YouTube, the analytics are very similar.  You can measure where veiwership comes from, by day, by length.  Nothing explains a video better than a video.  Here is a brief tutorial.

7. LINKEDIN (LINKEDIN GROUPS): LinkedIn groups gives you the chance to see how often discussion occurs among people who share interests that are important to you.  It is also a very direct form of engagement that is truly 1-to-1.  I know a lot of people who have been able to connect with core targets, have important discussions and save a lot of money.

Measurement tools are only as good as the learning and the actions taken from them.  I hope these are of value to you.  Are they?  Just listening.

Last year, Deloitte reported on how Americans find deals during the holiday season. They said:

• 40% turn to print
• 29% look at flyers
• 27% check out websites focused on holiday deals
• 24% go to retailers’ websites

Although they did point out a number of retailers’ website had Facebook and Twitter pages, Deloitte didn’t mention social media.  The number weren’t large enough to merit a statistical reference.

This year, here are 5 statistics on Black Friday that might change their mind. There were:

1. 145,000,000 Black Friday deals listed on Facebook
2. 59,300,000 blog posts written about Black Friday
3. 43,900,00 videos about Black Friday posted on YouTube
4. 8,670,000 tweets about Black Friday deals on Twitter
5. 3,120,000 people posted Black Friday questions on LinkedIn groups

Source: Google

These are the absolute numbers and it’s just the beginning of holiday shopping season. They do not include the number of passalongs, shares, e-mails to a friend, Likes and Re-tweets that most likely accompany each listing making these numbers much bigger.

Here are two graphs from Google Trends.  They show how search for Black Friday information and social media has rapidly accelerated.  But social media has increased at an even faster rate.  In fact, interest in social media is almost double what it was last year at this time (highlighted by the two Christmas stars).  Note the little spike on the Social Media Graph around Black Friday.

• 90% of all purchase decisions begin online
• 75% of consumers shop online before they buy offline
• 85% are looking for an independent review
• 78% of people trust the recommendations of other people
• They have an average of 130 friends online
• 14% of people trust advertising

Source: comScore, eMarketer, Nielsen

Do you think someone should tell the people at Deloitte?