This book is very inspirational as it explores how you need to do things that excite you and failure is OK as you can learn from that as much as success. Now isn't that the perfect recipe for any start-up?

Gary, in his book, talks a lot about passion which is absolutely critical for the success of any start-up. Because of the long hours and hard work you are going to need to put into making your company successful, you need to be doing what you are passionate about or it just won't take off.

Even though Gary, argues that you should do what you are passionate about, he does realizes there is the reality of life and that your family is still the most important thing. I believe this is another key message that start-up founders too often forget so it was a great reminder.

While not as important, for me, as the inspirational aspects of this book, Gary does look at the social media tools and techniques he used to build his family's wine business. This case study has been covered widely as Gary has become an online superstar but it's great to read about it from his experience. 

One concept that he covers, which I agree with wholeheartedly and have written about before, is the need to create great content. Gary sees choosing the right medium, choosing the right topic and telling a story as the keys to creating great content. I couldn't have said it better.

Don't get me wrong, you can definitely learn from the tools and techniques Gary uses to build your start-up, and you could view this book as a how-to guide but then you would be missing the key take-away. For me, the true inspiration found in this book is Gary's message that "passion is everything" and you can build a business that creates wealth with passion and hard work.

For that lesson alone, everyone should read this book. I know it inspired me. What was your key takeaway from Crush It!?

[Image courtesy of Gary Vaynerchuk's Crush It! Book website]

Marketing is one of the areas that is likely affected most by this predicament. I'm not saying for a minute that other groups in the company don't face this too but marketing can at the same time help grow the company while spending a lot of money to do it. For that reason, in this economy, companies are tending to grow their marketing spend more slowly although there are exceptions.

While many new social media tactics have allowed companies to generate awareness and build a brand without spending thousands or millions on advertising, you still need people to develop the strategy and run the programs. And for the program to be successful, you need people to generate content, build websites and blogs and do all the other things that need to be done.

Unfortunately, hiring a full marketing team is a luxury many start-ups don't have and may not have for quite some time. So what is a founder to do to kick-start the marketing efforts and put his product on the map? Or, what is the original marketing hire to do when the company wants to ramp up its efforts and you already work around the clock to get things done?

What I've found works quite well and gives you the biggest bang for the buck is to create a virtual team of marketing, communications, web, SEO, PR, and the list goes on, contractors. Basically, find the person who works out of their home and applies their specific skills for a number of companies rather than working full time for one. In some cases, it may be a small agency and small is the key word here as the larger the agency gets, the higher the rates they will charge which hurts the budget you don't have yet.

Initially it may be hard to find these people but they do exist and they are experts in their field while not charging what a large agency might bill you. The other huge advantage of going this route is that the person who pitches you to get your business is very likely, and in some cases definitely, the person doing the work.

Don't underestimate how important this is compared to the bait and switch you might get at the larger agencies. You know what I mean where you get the principals pitching you the business but the most junior person does the work, yet you pay the senior or at the very least inflated rates.

Now don't get me wrong, there will be a time and place where you need an agency and some larger agencies are better than others at servicing start-ups but now is not the time, or even possible, for you to spend large amounts of money.

The other option is to hire a "junior" person in house but the way I look at this is that in the early days do you really need a designer full time or do you need them part time or a few days a month? What about that web developer? You likely only need them full time at the start of the project and then part time as the site launches.

Well, the good news is that there are a lot of people who make a good living working for a number of companies doing something they are experts in. You get top notch talent without having to pay a full time salary for them. It's a win-win situation as they can also make more money as their day rate is higher than if they worked full-time.

Now, if you are the founder and have no one in marketing you will likely need a person in house to manage your virtual team as you have other things to do. If you can afford it that's the way to go. Look for someone who is more of a generalist and strategists rather than expert as they can fill in the blanks as needed and will know what specialists are needed and when.

Building a virtual team is not only a cost-effective way to do your marketing but it can also result in an extremely successful marketing program and put your start-up on the map in ways you can't imagine. You've got a team of free agent, all-stars who excel at specific marketing tactics all working for you. What could be better than that to get you started?

What can I say... life and work sometimes get in the way of side projects like this blog.

The past couple of years I made a resolution to do more blogging only to not quite live up to what I had hoped to accomplish. This time I thought I would wait until February to make that commitment and see if it turns out better. Kidding...

Working more on this blog is still a priority for me and I'll try to find more time to do it. However, during my absence I was also trying to figure out what this blog is really all about. I talk a lot about focus when it comes to marketing and messaging so why don't I apply that here.

The more I thought about things I realized that what I really want this blog to do is help start-ups use marketing to be successful. I believe it's a critical piece and there are many things start-ups can do on the marketing front whether they have a large or small budget. That's what I'm passionate about when it comes to marketing and has been the focus of what I do for much of my career.

So, the more focused Dude, It's Marketing will look at all the different strategies and tactics that can be used to put your start-up on the map. I won't tend to go into any one area too deeply as there are many great blogs that go really deep into specifics of certains areas like blogging, social media, demand generation, etc.

I will touch on all of these areas and more but what I plan to focus on in this blog is what marketing can do for your start-up, show you what works and what doesn't work and help you launch your company so you find yourself on the wave to success.

This blog is for many different people from the founders of a new start-up looking to kick-start their marketing program to the first marketing hire at company, who is trying to do everything with no resources and sometimes just needs a place to find new ideas or confirm what they are doing makes sense. I've been in first marketing hire at a few companies so trust me I know how it feels.

My goal since I started blogging is to share what I've learned from my past and ongoing experiences, explore new ideas with you, learn from your ideas and be a sounding board for your thoughts. So let me know what questions you have or issues you face and we can discuss in the weeks ahead.  

First off, you need to decide who is the best person to become a thought leader. In some cases, it's the CEO of your company. But in many cases it's the founder, the CTO or some technical expert with many years of experience. In addition to knowledge though, this person needs writing and presentation skills along with a lot of time (more on this later) and true dedication to making the industry better. This role is not for someone who is going to fake it or is not willing to give everything they have to help people so choose carefully.

Finding the right person is not easy but that's only the beginning. Not surprisingly, creating valuable content, the strategy I wrote about previously, is a major step in helping you become a thought leader. In fact, creating new, relevant and useful content is the key to being a thought leader so the two are very intertwined. 

In addition to creating and publishing this content, you need to get out there and share your knowledge within your industry. You can speak at conferences, write articles or columns for industry publications, become involved in industry consortium or organizations, write a book or industry-focused blog, or become a go-to person for editors and get quoted in articles. All of these tactics help spread your content more widely and raise your profile with your target audience.

The important point with all of this is that you need to communicate how to solve your market's problems in new and compelling way so you will get calls from editors, get invited to speak at conferences, or get other opportunities to share your knowledge and content. No one is going to call if you only talk about your product.

Essentially, you need to build a personal brand as a respected expert on your industry's trends, with a deep understanding of the problems your target audience faces, and simple, clear solutions to these problems. There are many great example of individuals that have built strong, personal brands and helped their companies become credible through their thought leadership. 

One last consideration which I alluded to earlier - if you think this strategy is easy to implement and that you, or the person you selected, has the desire to succeed and the knowledge to share, you must realize that becoming a thought leader and building your personal brand takes an insane amount of time and effort.

You'll need to continually develope new content to tight deadlines so you get a book published, create a successful blog or write a column in a key publication. You need to travel to many conferences, in some not so exciting locales, not to mention the time it takes to develop the presentation you deliver. You may be interviewed multiple times about a certain topic and only have a small part of that interview appear in the article. It's all of these tasks and more in addition to your day job, as rarely is the thought leadership role a job in and of itself.

So before you embark on any of the tactics listed above for becoming a thought leader, you need to ask yourself long and hard to see if you have the right person. You need to make sure they have the time, dedication and patience to become a thought leader. If the right person is you, then look in the mirror long and hard to make sure you can handle it.

In the end, being a thought leader is not as glamorous as it first seems but it will bring many rewards for you and your company including making your marketing more credible. And, to all the thought leaders out there that we all learn from, you have my utmost respect and admiration. You make your industry better as a result of your dedication so thank you and please tell us your stories in the comments below.

Over the next few weeks I want to look at each of these strategies in more detail so you can pick the best ones for your start-up. The first strategy I want to explore is around creating valuable content.

It's no secret that being found is crucial and search loves fresh content. A lot has been written about this topic by the various experts in search, content marketing and inbound marketing. But creating valuable content is not a new strategy.

Content that your audience finds helpful and educational will, and always has, made your marketing more credible. At the same time, content is the cornerstone of all successful marketing campaigns. Prospects will continue to engage with you if they see you as a valuable and trustworthy resource.

What is news is the number of different tactics and content types you can create and how this content can be disseminated to your audience and help you get found.

Previously, your options for creating content were limited to different types of marketing collateral like white papers and application notes plus the content that was posted on your website. Increasingly, more content moved online and webcasts became important along with video and podcasts. 

Now, with social media platforms from Twitter to blogs and YouTube to Facebook, the ability to create and share content is easier than ever. This has clearly led to an explosion of content in different media types with some content being more compelling than others.

And that's what you need to capitalize on to make your marketing more credible. You need to create valuable content. It's not about the platform or the media type.

You need to create content that is more compelling to your target audience because it is educational not promotional, easy to understand not full of jargon, and helps your customer solve their problems. That valuable content can then be easily adapted to the different media types and spread across the different platforms.

Without compelling content, your marketing will not be credible, your company won't be found and you won't have successful marketing campaigns. Creating valuable content is THE key to your marketing success and a strategy you don't want to ignore.

For those that aren't familiar with the concept of "whuffie", it's the social capital you earn and can then use as currency in the online world. While the term was new to me as well, Tara did a good job of explaining it and then used it as a theme throughout the book which helped to tie it all together. 

I really liked the chapter called "Find Your Higher Purpose" and in particular the section on "Think Customer-Centrically". Tara lists a number of items, including doing everything to keep your customers on your website to thinking you don't have any competitors, that signal your company is not thinking customer-centrically. I wrote about the need to understand your competition recently as well.

As I read the list, I realized that most if not all of us would be hard pressed to admit we have not done at least one of these items in the past. In many cases, you may even be still doing them. Continuing to follow this flawed strategy will definitely not lead to more whuffie.

Tara then goes on to give examples of companies including Southwest and 30 Boxes that take a very customer-centric approach. She then builds a compelling list of signals that demonstrate you are more customer-centric and explains that if you are doing these things you likely have a strong whuffie account.

Of course, there are many other great insights and lists in this chapter and the book, including a summary at the end of how to get started and raise your Whuffie Factor.

My one complaint was that the start of the book was somewhat repetitive with others as it used examples that are very similar to those used in other books and articles on social networks. Then again, if this is the first book you've read on this topic they would be new to you. As well, I may be finding them more repetitive because this is an area I've been reading about a lot lately. I do appreciate new examples and this book had those too.  

I definitely recommend reading this book for great lessons from a number of different companies on how to build better communities and have meaningful conversations with your customers. I know I learned many things I can apply and also look forward to finding ways to achieve my higher purpose. Thanks Tara.

[Image courtesy of Tara Hunt''s The Whuffie Factor website]

In this and other upcoming blog posts, I want to explore some strategies and ideas for how you can make your marketing credible.

Create Valuable Content
Being found is crucial and search loves fresh content. But content that your audience finds helpful and educational will also make your marketing more credible. Prospects will continue to engage with you if they see you as a valuable and trustworthy resource.

Be a Thought Leader
Creating valuable content will also help you become a thought leader in your industry. You can speak at conferences or get quoted in articles to help raise your profile with your target audience. Focus on communicating how you can help solve your market's problems in a compelling way so you will calls from editors to be quoted and invited to speak by conference organizers.

Win Awards from a Third-party
There are clearly different types of awards, but winning one that has been judged by a panel of experts, quickly raises the awareness of your company and provides strong third-party validation of your products or services. Promote these awards to increase your credibility.

Associate Yourself with Trusted Brands
There is a certain truth in the saying that you are judged by the company that you keep. Developing strong partnerships with trusted brands will not only increase your credibility but will also lead to sales opportunities with customers that may not have considered your offerings before.

Build or Participate in a Community
Prospects trust what their peers and/or friends say most of all. You need to find the relevant communities where these conversations are taking place and then listen and participate in a helpful way. In industries where there is no focused community, you could start one and invite other companies to join you as well.

The good news is that you don't need to execute on all of these strategies to increase your credibility. You need to pick the ones that will have the greatest impact with your audience. The even better news is that with the multitude of tactics and tools available to marketers you can definitely implement many with a limited budget.

This post contains some of the initial strategies that you should consider to make your marketing more credible. I will continue to add to the list and explore how to execute on them in more detail over coming weeks. In the meantime, let me know what you would do or have done to make your marketing more credible.

I was reading an article recently called Twelve Ways to Ace a Product Demo–or at Least Avoid Flopping by Harry McCracken where he lists one of the twelve ways as "Don’t claim you have no direct competitors." This reminded me of how often I hear that phrase so I thought I'd talk about it further even though I alluded to that point when I talked about the need to Differentiate Your Message.

So often, when I'm developing messages for a company or prepping someone for a media interview, I ask  who is their competition and more often than it really should happen, especially with an early stage company, the answer is that there is no competition because there product is new and so innovative.

The reality is if that was actually true this would also mean there is no market and if I was an investor I would thank them for their time and move on. Do you really think these entrepreneurs believe there is no market for their product? That seems unlikely so why do they believe there is no competition?

What I think most people do mean, when asked this question, is that there is no one doing exactly what they do in the same way they do it. That may be the case, but you need to look at how other offerings  solve a similar problem as that's how your audience or market will judge your product. You need to identify these indirect competitors, as some call it, so you can use them as a frame of reference but clearly differentiate from them.

Because it's all about how you solve a given problem, I can safely say if you have no competition you also have no market since that would mean there is no problem to solve and I challenge you to show me a successful product that doesn't solve a problem. I guess in some extreme scenarios you may be solving a problem that people don't know they have but that presents a whole new set of issues as you need to educate and convince your target market that they have the problem in the first place then. In the end, it's better to see your competitors for who they are and spend your efforts in differentiating your solution.

As McCraken goes on to say in the context of product demos, "claiming you have no competitors makes you look clueless, or full of misplaced hubris, or both." No one wants to look like that so the simplest way to avoid it is to make sure you clearly answer the question with how you solve the problem in a unique way than these would be competitors.

Don't fight the reality here, identify your competitors and create a compelling message that differentiates you and communicates how you are better. Your next product demo and all you marketing will be better for it.

This is not a book about how to use Twitter or how to create a social media strategy which is exactly what sets it apart.There are already books like that you can read and they say many of the same things.

By taking the approach of telling the story of Twitterville through the eyes of those that have used it successfully gave me a lot of ideas and ways to apply it myself. That to me is the sign of a good marketing book. I want to be inspired and challenged when I read and that happened here.

Shel looked at the early days of Twitter both from how the tool got started to how companies started to use it. This is an interesting background especially when you see how certain companies thought they would use it one way only to evolve their usage and then see the benefits the organization received.

He then looks at a lot of different case studies from many different vertical markets including small business, B2B, healthcare, non-profits and even newspapers which many have given up for dead. Shel gives them some suggestions for becoming more relevant in the social media age.

Throughout these case studies you would be surprised at how much you can learn from industries that appear to be very removed from your own. For example, if a hospital allows tweeting during a surgery is there really any reason your company should be concerned about joining Twitterville? I think we can all use that example if there is any question about whether it makes sense for your organization. 

I did disagree with Shel in one area and I'm not the only one as he points out in the book. Shel doesn't think that companies should tweet as brands but should tweet as a person from that company. While I agree that you need to be transparent about who is tweeting, there are many reasons that it makes sense to use the brand or company name as the Twitter handle including continuity, consistency and the need to separate personal from business in some cases.

Regardless of whether you agree with Shel's position or mine on company Twitter accounts, there are lots of lessons for you to learn from companies and people who have used Twitter successfully to reach their goals. Kudos go to Shel for putting these together in a book that should be part of any social media library.

I encourage you to read this book and let me know what you think. You won't be disappointed.

[Image courtesy of Shel Israel's Twitterville website]