Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Mon, Apr 12, 2010
"If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing..." - @
We've been ranked #8 in a list of 100 HubSpot All Stars - yahoo!
Hubspot is software & advice that helps your business get found online by more qualified visitors, convert more visitors into leads, and more efficiently close leads. But their inbound marketing community has 10,000+ marketers doing amazing things every day. How did we rank at #8?
According to Hubspot, All Star status reflects,
“the long-term viability and awesomeness of a customer's marketing programs. The higher the CHI score, the more traffic and leads are likely to be generated by that customer in the future. (Traffic and leads make customers happy, hence the name.)”
What is "awesome" when it comes to inbound marketing programs? Here's what worked for us:
- First principles: give reliable, ethical advice aimed at helping you move the needle. Have humility. Own mistakes. Learn daily.
- Awesome content is king: We strive to publish content you might actually want to read. But success with our published content didn’t happen over night. Our first ebook was on the dry side, for example. And I've written some lame blog articles (no, I won't entertain you by linking to them here!). With the help of my awesome team, we've published moderately successful stuff. Our ebook "Six Marketing Gotchas CEOs Can Avoid" has been the most popular.
- Close the loop! Using Hubspot's awesome analytics, over time we've learned more about which keywords are best to focus on, what content you like best, and how you are finding us. Take the Six Gotchas ebook as the example again. You commented and linked the most to articles that called out common marketing mistakes. We wrote an ebook in that vein, gave it a catchy headline, jammed in as much concrete advice and examples as we could muster, and showed on the cover an executive slipping on a banana peel - doh! (Hankering to see what's behind the cover page? Awesome...)
- Brains over cash: Pick cost-effective ways to promote content - like social media marketing and PR. We invest time just about daily in LinkedIn, and just about weekly in Twitter (@b2bcommunicate and @b2bjt). We follow and comment on relevant websites, blogs, LinkedIn questions, and tweets too. Hubspot's awesome Social Media Module makes it possible for mere mortals to stay on top of myriad social media accounts.
- Be clear about the next step. If you get our Gotchas ebook, for example, you'll also get a link to access a menu of services. It's our job to be clear about how to move along. You choose whether or not to take the next step.
High threshold for follow up
Because this whole system results in daily leads, we keep a very high threshold for follow up. For example, almost daily folks download our stuff, and/or click through from the follow up email to get more stuff like the 2010 Information Kit.
There is no way we can call all these folks, so we focus on keeping up with requests for services.
More resources
See all the great resources available in the Hubspot Service Marketplace.
Posted by Robert Celaschi on Mon, Dec 14, 2009
How to say it depends on where you say it
By Robert Celaschi
Pasting evil
There are lots of ways to get your message out these days in the course of business to business communications: press releases, blogs, podcasts, tweets, Facebook posts, etc.
It’s tempting to copy the words from one format and paste them into another. But don’t give in to that temptation. A style of business to business communications that’s ideal for one format might be disastrous for another.
Small town story
At a very small newspaper in a very small town where I once worked, we had a fairly simple writing test when people applied for reporting jobs. We’d give the candidate a sheet of paper with all the facts about a traffic accident, in random order. We wanted to see how well someone could pick out the most important facts and present them in a clear, straightforward style.
One applicant admitted that she had no training as a reporter. She was just a local resident who thought it might be an interesting job. We were willing to give her a shot at the test, because she probably knew more about the town than those of us who were transplants.
She struggled awhile at the typewriter (yeah, it was that long ago) and finally said she’d have to come back some other time.
After she had gone, curiosity got the better of me and I fished her sheet of copy paper out of the trash. Her first sentence read,
“It all started one day while I was out walking my dog...”
Now, here’s the thing: While that’s a horrible way to start a straight news story, it might have worked in a blog -- if there had been such a thing as a blog back in those days.
Keeping styles straight
Different business to business communications formats demand different styles. A straight news release should set out the facts and let them speak for themselves: “Niftycorp today introduced its new line of color-coded flamdoodles.” Don’t gum it up with how Niftycorp is a leading provider, or how excited the CEO is about the new product. (It’s the CEO’s duty to be excited about his products. No news there.)
Feeding the blog beast
Blogs are a different animal. They are conversational and interactive. You can get personal: “It’s always exciting to launch a new product, but our CEO was patting a lot of backs this week when the new color-coded flamdoodles came out.” You still need to give us some meat, of course. Tell us what’s new and different. Maybe it wasn’t so much the new product, but the way the product was introduced. Maybe you came up with a creative solution to a last-minute hurdle. Maybe a customer found a new way of using flamdoodles that even Niftycorp never thought of.
Blogs give you a lot of freedom to go beyond the plain-vanilla facts.
Tweeting in harmony
Twitter, on the other hand, forces you to say everything in 140-characters or less. You stick to the main point because you have no choice, and you point the reader to details posted elsewhere: “Amalgamated Fuddle found a clever way to use flamdoodles for inventory control. Watch the video at www.fuddle [dot] com/flamdoodles.”
Color-coded flamdoodles – the perfect podcast
The opposite of a Tweet might be a podcast. Here the tone should be even more conversational than your blog: “Welcome to the Niftycorp podcast for Feb. 30. Today we’ll talk about some of the creative ways our customers have been using our new color-coded flamdoodles. It’s always exciting to find out that our favorite product has possibilities we never imagined. With me today is Arthur Flern, head of the shipping department at Amalgamated Fuddle...”
Content’s second life
It may sound like a lot of extra work to tailor your message to each medium. In a sense, though, it gives you more freedom. Are you frustrated that your draft press release isn’t working? Take a second look. You might have some blog material there.
Your turn
Look over your company’s press releases, blogs, tweets and other forms of communication. If they all sound the same, it’s time for some rewrites.
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Robert has been a business journalist for 25 years, both as a reporter and an editor. He joined Business Communications Group in 2005.
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Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Wed, Oct 07, 2009
Visits and conversions by source for www.b2bcommunications.com Sept 7 to Oct 6 2009
By Rebekah E. Donaldson
Here is a screenshot showing the sources of our website traffic that converted to leads over the last month. Looking at the chart, I answer:
- What does this chart tell you about lead sources?
- How much did you invest to get the site working this way?
- We need to generate leads - what's the best way?
Visits and conversions by source (1 month)
This chart shows how different sources have driven visits, leads, and customers to www.b2bcommunications.com. The key on the right shows the sources tracked.
What does this chart tell you about lead sources?
To see our lead sources, we open our Hubspot account (more on this below) and go to the "Reports" tab and pick "Sources". There we have a chart showing visit to lead ratios by source:
Totals for Sep 7-Oct 7, 2009 |
|
|
|
Sources |
Visits |
Visit to Lead |
Leads |
Organic Search |
590 |
0.68% |
4 |
Referrals |
265 |
2.60% |
7 |
Paid Search |
0 |
0% |
0 |
Direct Traffic |
547 |
1.50% |
8 |
Email Marketing |
0 |
0% |
0 |
Social Media |
86 |
8.10% |
7 |
Other Campaigns |
0 |
0% |
0 |
Totals |
1,488 |
1.75% |
26 |
According to the chart, visitors from social media sources convert at the highest rate. A visit-to-lead conversion rate of 8.10% means that in the last month, eight out of ten visitors who came to the site via LinkedIn or other networking sites, responded. Visitors referred to our site from an article, blog, or website are the next most likely to respond.
How much did you invest to get these leads rolling in?
Hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars over several years. The site re-launched in 2007 and it's been an ongoing process to make it so visitors find what they need and take the next step. And there's still so much work to do! Meantime, we've been at blogging, search engine marketing, and social media marketing since 2007 - and public relations since 2001. We've tried to always close the loop (see below), so we know which B2B lead generation activities work and which to avoid.
What is Hubspot?
Hubspot provides advice and software that helps businesses get found on the Internet by the right prospects and convert more of them into leads and customers. We use it to build landing pages, attract traffic, nurture contacts, track leads, and connect records about leads and sales with records about marketing efforts.
We need to generate leads - what's the best way?
Here are just two of many ways to get started. Do both or pick the one that work for you:
Get a 60 Minute Internet Marketing Planning Session.
Try Hubspot - Use all the powerful features of Hubspot for B2B lead generation. Free for 30 days.
NOTE: We are pitched weekly by companies looking for affiliates to rep their stuff. So far, we've partnered only with MarketingSherpa and Hubspot. In each case, we bought their stuff and recommended it to others before we were ever a partner. Now that we are a partner, we get a small % of sales we help generate. Just so you know.
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Rebekah E. Donaldson ("Red") has led Business Communications Group since 2001. More >> |
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Tue, Jun 30, 2009
By Rebekah E. Donaldson
Vendors and job applicants pitch B2B Communications each week. So far in 2009, about 1 in 4 indicate familiarity with social media. About 1 in 100 have engaged with us first through social media.
How can busy professionals get a grasp on marketing 2.0 — and start to engage and contribute? I recommend Inbound Marketing University as a foundation. After that, social media mentoring or coaching might be in order.
In 2008, after about the 100th pitch from a vendor who had no clue what a blog is, much less that we have one, I started taking note of how many vendors and job applicants use social media to demonstrate genuine interest in the companies they are courting.
Here are the numbers from Q1 and Q2 2009:
- Vendor/job applicant use of social media to engage with prospect 1%
- Vendor/job applicant social media experience 25%
- Percent of vendors/job applicants we hired who used social media to engage 100%
What does it mean to demonstrate interest using social media?
For example — if you’re starting from scratch:
- Click the button that says “Blog” on our home page.
- Enter a cogent comment about something (anything!).
- Look for me to reply. Reply thoughtfully to my reply.
Together we build knowledge and community.
Empowering marketers to get a footing with social media
What tools or help would really empower people to follow this advice, though?
In an effort to think constructively about this issue (instead of going bananas that job applicants and vendors are seemingly ignoring the “secret handshake” of social media), I asked colleagues in a Hubspot Forum and one of my LinkedIn groups about whether it seems useful, ethical, and practical to set up a B2B Communications Social Media Mentor Program.
Learning the social media secret handshake
Among the responsees received (attribution shown, if I got permission):
“…maybe the key is to embed somewhere in your blogs the way you prefer to be contacted for employment. That way if they really are interested in your company because they have looked through your posts to understand what you are about, then they will know the secret handshake, so to speak…” — Jim Lapic, DIYshutters.com
“Not sure you’re doing yourself favors by helping people “put on the right makeup“. Social media/blogging is nearly 15 years old now. It’s been a major marketing force for at least the last 5 years, and maybe more. Anyone who wants to work in communications and doesn’t get that, or can’t figure it out, doesn’t understand the medium. Is that the sort of person you want to hire?….”
“….The ones who actually are smart enough to try to engage you are the ones you should be interested in. They get it. I think at that point, your idea of giving them some direction and structure is great. Just make it clear whether they might wind up with a job (a giant carrot) or a reference (a mini carrot) at the end of your process. As long as you’re clear, you’ll wind up with some young folks who look at you and your company in a very positive light. And you never know where that good karma might get you. 
” Ann Blanchard, Blanchard Enterprises and Handirecords
“Wow! It sure sounds like it would be very helpful, the ethics seem clear to me in your description of the purpose and intent, I would wonder at the manageability….” Jerry Wilkinson, Green Frog Outdoor Furniture
“One suggestion, instead of a resume make it a contest to see who can be most creative with social media to submit their qualifications….” Geoff Sakala, Owner, Metro Media
“….Look at the Murphy-Goode campaign: http://www.areallygoodejob.com/video-thumbs.aspx… the campaign brought thousands of people to their site….” Bill Betz, Investor/ reverse engineer at Pavement Marking Technologies, Inc.
“….If you treat your intern with respect, trust, and include him/her in the decision making process, you will create a professional you’ll be proud to recommend or one day call a colleague. Plus their work will reflect that empowerment.” — Jenny Koreny, Online Learning & Multimedia Designer
A foundation for social media coaching and mentoring
I would be happy to engage with vendors and job applicants through social media… if everyone is on the same page about marketing best practices.
Just look at how useful it can be. The people named above (and others) helped me think through an issue – without payment or quid pro quo… without my traveling anywhere… on their own time. That made me want to help them back (see links above).
It’s all good because we’re all on the same page about the value of social media marketing and how to go about it.
Learn the ”secret handshake” at Inbound Marketing University
I recommend Inbound Marketing University for learning the social media “secret handshake.”
The IMU program includes webinars by thoughtleaders in the social media, internet marketing and lead generation industries and culminates in an inbound marketing certification exam.
Learn more about IMU >>
Social Media Coaching from B2B Communications
I offer a 90 minute social media coaching session focused on your social media marketing needs and questions.
Learn more about my social media coaching >>
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Fri, Jun 19, 2009
By Rebekah E. Donaldson
I talked with Sacramento Business Journal senior reporter Kathy Robertson this week about the return on investment from the Red On Marketing Blog. Her questions got me thinking about why I do it, and this post is the result.
To ground things in real world and tangible results, you’ll see a screenshot showing where our website traffic and leads came from this week.
I’ve written the Red On Marketing Blog since Fall 2007. Yes, one reason I started it was to market our company. Another is that we help our clients with staying at the top of certain search results in Google, and social media (which includes blogging) is part of how we do it. We need to walk the walk.
We track everything with lead management software. Social media has tangibly helped us. Leads are up 400% this quarter over the same period last year. We have new leads every day – many from our website. So social media might sound like a fad or B.S. to some CEOs. But it’s moved the needle for our company.
Referrers — week of June 15 2009
Of our current clients, most found us online. For example, one Sacramento CEO found us when he searched “Sacramento search engine optimization”; another when he searched in LinkedIn for “B2B marketing Sacramento”; and so on.
Blogging is part of Social Media
The Red On Marketing Blog is intertwined with other efforts. It doesn’t stand alone. I’m active on LinkedIn – mostly I try to answer questions – and on Twitter. Sometimes, helping in those forums means pointing to B2B marketing articles, and other B2B Communications resources.
One realization I’ve had is that a marketer’s mindset can backfire with a blog or other social media participation. When I started blogging, I thought about it in terms of
1) Make a calendar of article topics.
2) Chip away at the calendar.
But that can lead to really boring blog posts. And everyone hates boring.
You Said WHAT?
Before starting the blog I’d been reading other people’s blogs for a couple of years. People like Josh Bernoff and David Meerman Scott publish edgy stuff that gets people talking (and pisses off some readers – a cost of being interesting).
The threads of comments after they post are crazy – dozens and dozens of smart people write in to respond.
I really wanted to do that.
Stirring Things Up
Fortunately, I have strong opinions — especially when it comes to cases of marketers getting things terribly wrong.
When I gave stronger opinions, you (readers) did too. Example: “From the Shocking Marketing No Nos Department.” When I published that piece, our blog lit up with comments and backlinks. It was referenced in many more places online. The lesson to me was: Speak up! Call it like you see it!
So after that I co-wrote an ebook. It took 9 months and was like having a third baby. Kind colleagues promoted it with social media (thank you Dianna Huff, David Meerman Scott, Peter Kim, Peter Caputa, and other colleagues).
Behind the Scenes Battles
One behind-the-scenes struggle I have is over topics appropriate for the blog. On the one hand, there is value in publishing about basic marketing techniques and issues. In fact, my colleagues at B2B Communications keeps reminding me that some of you may want intro material . But I fear you’re bored with the same old stuff like ”segment your audience!” “get the word out!” It seems like recycled, regurgitated truisms. (Who’s right? Please comment.)
Girl’s Dream Comes True
One thing that surprised me was that our blog helped us become a MarketingSherpa Affiliate. (MarketingSherpa is like Consumer Reports for marketers – loads of objective data that helps you make good decisions.) I think we’re the only one in Sacramento, California and surrounding regions. It gives us a lot of credibility – most marketers really admire Sherpa – as well as access to their material and the ability to pass along discounts.
One of their big decision criteria was around the quality of guidance we provide through our blog. They looked and said we were doing a great job. So the blog helped us stand out among much bigger agencies. It’s also led to interviews, invitations to speak, and other exposure with organizations like Forrester Research and Hubspot. Each of those organizations reaches tens of thousands of subscribers with their updates. The blog is also one of our top sources of search engine traffic and exposure for our services.
Most importantly, it’s sparked interactions with hundreds of small business owners and business to business marketers.
Keeping it Real
Still, even if we didn’t get the business benefits I’ve listed, knowing what I know now, I would still write a blog. Blogging helps keep things real. It makes me stay abreast of new data and ideas, instead of throwing up my hands because there’s too much. It makes me a better thinker, a better listener, a better writer, and a better salesperson.
Your turn
My hope is that, if you’re one of those business folks who has been blogging, but doesn’t know if it’s worth it, or you’ve held off because you don’t think anyone wants to read a blog written by you, maybe hearing about my experience will help you keep at it or get started.
Do you blog? Why or why not?
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Fri, Apr 03, 2009
It’s no secret that social media have become part of the mainstream culture: blogs, YouTube, online forums, networking sites and so on. We’ve been writing about the topic for a while, such as the impact of social media on B2B marketing and tipping points for business participation.
The secret is how to master these new tools for B2B marketing. There are few success stories out there, and copying others doesn’t work, according to Forrester Research Inc.
Finding your prospects’ venues
A sensible starting point: learn who is showing up at these new venues and why. To get the answers for one slice of the business world, Forrester Research surveyed more than 1,200 business technology buyers and packaged the findings in a report titled “The Social Technographics Of Business Buyers.”
A full report is accessible to Forrester clients, or access a free replay of Laura Ramos’ talk on the subject.
One of the first things you’ll notice in their findings is that, regardless of how involved they are with social media, this audience is still overwhelmingly male. The “creatives” among them, the ones who publish their own blogs, video and music, are 83 percent men.
Making sure social media efforts are integrated
If you are trying to reach these folks through social media, make sure the effort is integrated with the rest of your marketing. Forrester discovered that while most of them view social media very favorably, they still fall back on more traditional marketing materials when deciding what to buy.
For example, word-of-mouth has a big impact, but they tend to pay attention to their colleagues at work much more than their counterparts online.
Social participation doesn’t automatically give you influence
In other words, business buying is still complex, Forrester says, and social participation doesn’t automatically give you influence.
Does that mean we should give up on it for marketing purposes? Not a bit. In fact, it means just the opposite.
B2B buyers believe social media will be a bigger part of decision making
The survey results show that in the coming year, buyers believe that forums, virtual trade shows, and online reviews will be a bigger part of their decision-making. These are the social media options that most closely resemble the user conferences, exhibitions, and buyer guides that these buyers have been relying on for years, without requiring them to physically be there.
Question: B2B buyers believe social media will be a bigger part of their decision making. Do you?
Learning more
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Wed, Dec 31, 2008
It was hard to pick just a few ‘best’ tweets from this fall. I started with dozens of favorites. Here are 10 that killed me.
10. @nick: Just got an invite confirming that anything described as “INCREDIBLE” is not. As in, “an INCREDIBLE tech/social media summit.”
9. @ilinap: My son says Cheesus instead of Jesus. Now Chuck E Cheese’s commercial on TV really has him confused. What does Chuck have to do w/ Cheesus?
8. @InsoOutso: I could nap on so many horizontal surfaces in this office.
7. @joshdmorg: There is a single fly in my office – he mocks me
6. @laughingsquid: Free giant squid on Craigslist, I would take it in, but I’m not sure if it would get along with our cats
5. @marklisanti: Pretty sure that Blagojevich believed that when he put on his enchanted hair-helmet, no one could eavesdrop on his corrupt thoughts
4. @marklisanti: Oh, darn! A bag full of loose turkey innards again! Guess I was on the naughty list. Thought I might find a new train set this year
3. @mriggen: My family’s emergency preparedness plan involves not just one but two trips to the liquor store
2. @nick: It’s the year 2008. Can’t they design pasta that screams just as it gets al dente?
1. @nick: How are there still typos on the Wikipedia page for meth?
And if you’re craving more… check out:
To learn more, check out:
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Mon, Dec 29, 2008
Here’s a countdown of 10 toons, articles, and videos I can’t stop laughing over.
Oh, business humor, if I had more chutzpah (and you’d think I have a headstart on that, with the ‘kah’ in my name), I’d make you myself.
But at least I’m doing the next best thing… collecting the most entertaining things I run across at work. Not all are about business. But all of them have been useful while doing business.
Sorry to post links rather than images. I know it’s not very sexy. But I don’t want folks with traditional copyrights (versus Creative Commons copyrights) to yell at me.
10. “…[whereas] the run-of-the-mill Amazon bracelet provides no special protection.” — Wikipedia entry revealing details of Wonder Woman’s bracelet technology http://tinyurl.com/78zldt
9. “Dude, Cold Calling Is For Losers” – Hubspot video http://tinyurl.com/42w3jl
8. “You should invest all of your money in diseased livestock…” – Dilbert cartoon http://i35.tinypic.com/2liwwvn.jpg
7. “Free giant squid on Craigslist. I would take it in, but I’m not sure if it would get along with our cats.” – LaughingSquid tweet (ok, I snuck in one tweet!) http://tinyurl.com/9xzprh
6. “Let me see the first one again.” – Tom Cheney cartoon http://tinyurl.com/74lguz7
5. “Twitter in Real Life – the Follow Back” – Hubspot cartoon http://tinyurl.com/6ru58j
4. “How about never? Is never good for you?” – Robert Mankoff cartoon http://tinyurl.com/howboutnever
3. “Just build these features into your web site. They’re like an internet marketing mullet.” – Conversation Marketing article http://tinyurl.com/4sqbbo
2. “Work-chair with a giant no-distraction hood.” – BoingBoing http://tinyurl.com/5lkmdu
1. “I love market analysis, Fred, but my heart’s with the World Wrestling Federation.” – Leo Cullum cartoon http://tinyurl.com/6buvdg
I’m pretty sure I’ve violated the “Do Not Make Fun of Your Industry” rule set out by Brad Shorr in “The 5 Rules of Business Humor“… probably several times. But I think people can handle it. And there’s good reason to think so… the New Yorker Store gets $125 for a framed print of each of their cartoons!
So… what’d I miss?
Next up: 10 tweets that kill me
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Thu, Dec 25, 2008
It’s standard practice for marketers to plan their companies’ newsletter communications using an editorial calendar. Marketers should back off that sort of approach when it comes to a company wading into Twitter. In fact, Johnny Cash is great inspiration if you’re thinking of using Twitter for business. He’s authentic – ugly, even, up close. And his revelations are anything but boring.
Imagine: would Johnny Cash use Twitter for business… that is, to plug his albums? Probably not! But if he did, he wouldn’t conform to his manager’s orchestrations.
If Johnny Cash were to tweet, he’d be more likely to admit to being tired of being cornered by fans. To feeling old. To feeling an addiction tug at him. To daydreaming about one of his many affairs — or battling his immoral impulses, as in the Walk the Line lyrics.
And we’d cheer for him. We’d follow him like mad. Because Johnny Cash was a package deal, warts and all, and that made him real… and really interesting.
What’s the problem?
On LinkedIn I recently read a post that said (paraphrasing):
“I’m planning to start using Twitter on Dec 1st 2009. I’ll be writing about x, y, and z.”
I wrote back that I think it’s great they guy is getting engaged in Twitter, but that I think it would be difficult to plan great tweets.
Planning what you’ll tweet about is not like planning a newsletter’s editorial calendar. Contributions need to be shaped in part by what’s happening in the network. They need to be inspired. And some or most need to be connected in some way to other people and ideas.
It’s standard practice for marketers to plan their companies’ newsletter communications using an editorial calendar. Marketers should back off that sort of approach when it comes to a company wading into Twitter.
As I tweeted as @b2bcommunicate on Dec 8th: in October, I wondered whether B2B marketing might go obsolete because of social media. It won’t. The thing to fear is being boring. And I suspect that nothing is more boring than a history of perfect tweets.
Thoughts?
Are you thriving on Twitter with a carefully planned approach?
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Great people to watch/read/listen to when it comes to Twitter for business:
Nicole Nicolay (for ProBlogger Blog Tips): Make a Tweet Plan to Get the Most from Twitter
Chris Brogan: Using Twitter for Business
Duct Tape Marketing: Twitter for Business
Hubspot: How to Use Twitter for Marketing & PR
David Meerman Scott: Marketers: Stop Abusing Twitter
Laura Fitton at Pistachio: Twitter for Business
Darren Rose: Twitter for Beginners
Tom Pick: Twitter Twaddle
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Tue, Dec 23, 2008
I’m working on a list of action items I have for our main website. Meantime, a thought struck me: is my site obsolete?
My web team may kill me for writing this. And for good reason. They’ve got blood and sweat in that nav, content and tags. So am I nuts? And which articles on this am I overlooking? I’m sure there are many good ones.
Since launching our business blog in early 2008, I’ve tended to steer fresh content to our blog instead of posting it to our main company website. I favor the blog vs the main site. Why?
B2B blog content vs B2B website content — a theory about why what goes where
- I really want to have a two-way communication with visitors. But, sans public comments feature on our main site, we’re encouraging… listening. That is, I don’t think that offering a response form with a field for entering comments counts as fostering dialogue; that mechanism sends a private communication to the site owner. What fires people up is playing a part… impacting through contributing.
- My perception is that reader/visitor expectations are different for the main site and the blog. And as the author, publishing to the blog is lower stress. The blog posts are supposed to be authentic. It’s not the end of the world if I leave out a word. It’s ok if I don’t know the answer to a question. As long as I’m not squandering your time or committing other heinous acts on Tom Pick’s memorable list, ”The 7 Deadly Sins of Blogging“.
- Because of (2), publishing to the blog is quicker. It feels gratifying to get an idea ‘out’. Making something new is creative. These days, it’s the closest I ever get to making art.
I’m not suggesting that our main corporate website be a wiki. Or that it’s not worthwhile at all without a public comment feature. I am, though, observing that blog infrastructure invites public dialogue; a traditional website does not. And wondering if that is ok in the long term.
So in the vein of the hard-hitting “reality bites” Forrester telecon I helped Laura Ramos with on Oct 29th – I wonder: are traditional websites without comments, obsolete?
Traditional website + public comments = all the usual social media benefits and challenges?
To walk the walk regarding participation, could we invite comments using a form at least on B2B Central pages where we lay out ideas/approaches most likely to spark reader feedback?
At the simplest level, we could manually post people’s comments to the page as they are submitted… or get fancier and automate it. The online Business Journal websites, for example, has space for comments under each online article now. (Note: to my knowledge, no reporter or editor has responded to any comment I’ve posted at a bizjournals.com site.)
However we rig up the technology, I feel there’s still the question about why a business would maintain a main website and a blog separately.
- Perhaps it has to do with separating personal opinion from corporate policy.
- Perhaps it’s because buyers still expect a company to have a company website that looks like a company website.
- Perhaps it’s because a company needs to convey respect for visitors by presenting a polished online presence – not one created with haste or inattention to detail.
B2B websites — why not abandon ship?
Now, why not? That is, why not just do what comes naturally and keep posting all the fresh content to our blog?
Again, I fear my web team is going to absolutely kill me. And for good reason! For one thing, this blog is not optimized, and it shows. It doesn’t ’sell’ our company. It is about ideas, persepctive… connecting with others.
The main site, by contrast, was designed to make our business case. It shows we know our best customers are savvy consumers seeking not just a likeable or hip consultant but a pro wearing the scars and medals that indicate trustworthiness. There are testimonials. Pages telling our skills and services and experience. Press releases noting our successes.
And it’s more usable — content is ‘chunked’ up. It has calls to action. It shows we’ve got some Skills. It’s like wearing business attire for a Friday client meeting.
And I can just hear David Meerman Scott now, thundering “Nobody Cares About Your Products and Services!” I mostly agree David, I mostly agree!
Applying Peter Kim*
Peter Kim’s thinking about Social networking and the ego trap may be applicable here. Kim writes,
Social networks are valuable for building and maintaining relationships. Updates and status feeds preserve the signal strength of current ties and boost the signal of weak ones. But adding connections with low relevance and connection result in static, increasing in annoyance as one’s network grows. Useful social networks require a high signal-to-noise ratio.
Extending this idea: could it be that, while a high volume of comments is gratifying, the ”signal-to-noise” ratio will worsen overall?
His thinking about the scalability of social media bears mention too. In Social media marketing’s scalability problem he writes,
People don’t scale, either. Frank at Comcast does a great job, but he’s only one person. Dell has 17+ people on Twitter, like Amie Paxton. Scott Monty is a new kind of leader, but he’s only one person…
…From my last post asking if social media matters, the commenting consensus seems to agree, with its impact in awareness, consideration, and preference.
But if social media marketing matters, then does it scale?
I don’t think so. I think the technologies scale. But the programs – especially those with a labor-intensive component – don’t.
What if our main site did have a public comments feature and 50 thoughtful visitors weighed in tomorrow? I’d need to surf that wave, rather than drown in it. And that might require Brogan-ish Social Media Skills.
Other website doomsdayers
Others have written about this – some an impressively long time ago! But while their headlines grabbed me in the Google results, their beefs seem to be different. Here are some examples:
In a 2002 article in Digital Web Magazine Jeffrey Zeldman writes in 99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete that,
“…In off-brand browsers, in screen readers used by people with disabilities, and in increasingly popular non-traditional devices from Palm Pilots(TM) to web-enabled cell phones, many of these sites have never worked and still don’t, while others function marginally at best…. Peel the skin of any major site, from Amazon to Microsoft.com, from Sony to ZDNet. Examine their tortuous non-standard markup, their proprietary ActiveX and JavaScript (often including broken detection scripts), and ill-conceived use of Cascading Style Sheets-when they use CSS at all. It’s a wonder such sites work in any browser.”
Someone called Titus Hoskins of bizwaremagic.com writes, in Are Websites Obsolete Already? Will they go the way of the DoDo?, a seemingly orphaned blog post dated 2005:
“…we see the start of such a direction in the blurring of sites that are not exactly a blog or a website — but a cross between the two. People are building complete websites in rss/xml coding so they can feed them directly to their site’s customers or patrons…”
Now – I noticed some months ago that a couple of industry leaders don’t have separate blogs and corporate sites. Their blog IS their corporate site. It has pages for Services and About… but the main area one lands at when you use their root URL, is their latest post and its comments.
This is interesting to me because it’s an acknowledgement of the way b2b conversations need to happen now… two way, less formal, less preachy, more authentic, more inclusive, more timely, more shaped by the community of players and ideas of which it is one part.
Thoughts?
What do you think? Is trying to structure all corporate communications to be interactive an ego trap… and too hard to support? Or is it silly and shortsighted to get stuck on those issues… in the same sort of way that it’d be silly to not use email because there’s so much of it to keep on top of?
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* A far cry from Being Peter Kim