#NextChat

A3. I still think it’s important for #GenY

best payday loans

to know how they can move up — a career plan with vision.#nextchat

— Lizzie Maldonado (@lizonomics) May 8, 2013

A4. The thing is, influence is no longer a hierarchy – it’s a conversation. Inside and outside the organization. #NextChat

— Matt Charney (@mattcharney) May 8, 2013

 

I co-hosted this week’s #NextChat with my friend Matt Charney. The topic was something that was actually pretty fascinating to me. Gen Y was a huge topic and you still hear radicals from both ends of the spectrum claiming that Gen Y has revolutionized the workplace and then those who believe Gen Y is a lazy bunch of asses. This week we discussed what Gen Y’s movement up the ranks at work means for the workplace. Check out the recap here.

How B2B Marketers Can Overcome Negative Online Brand Mentions

I published my first post on the marketing blog Business 2 Community yesterday — if you’re into B2B marketing and you want to find out what people say about your brand and where they say it, check it out.

Increase Traffic For Your Business Blog

I love having smart friends. I did a webinar with my friend Mary Ellen Slayter and her team at Reputation Capital. The topic was business blogging. You can watch the recording here if you blog for your business and you’re looking for some tips.

Do Work That You’re Good At And You’ll Be Happier

My new co-worker Lance Haun wrote a great plog post about how your job can be “a vehicle for making your passions happen.” Check it out.

Daniel Pink on Money

This quote from Daniel Pink on Explore:

“The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table: Pay people enough so that they’re not thinking about money and they’re thinking about the work. Once you do that, it turns out there are three factors that the science shows lead to better performance, not to mention personal satisfaction: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.”

That’s it for me. Back to the Vick’s Vapo.

I happily agreed to do a webinar with my friend Mary Ellen Slayter on attracting more traffic to your business blog a while ago.  For the past five days, however, I’ve been knocked completely on my ass by a nasty virus.  The webinar was yesterday.  I can’t tell you what personal pride I feel hearing very few audible symptoms of my cough or wheeze.  I’m a mute-button ninja.

Anyway, I think the webinar went well and if you run a business blog, I’m sure you’ll benefit from some of the tips we discussed.  If you want to check it out, I’ve embedded the video below, you can check out the #moretraffic hashtag on Twitter, or download the whitepaper here.

A couple of tips the panelists — Ian Greenleigh, Jesse Stanchak and I — offered to business bloggers are below:

• Leverage your email list by treating your subscribers well. Make your list signup process double opt-in, your content relevant, and unsubscribing easy and accessible for readers. Don’t hold your subscribers hostage.

• When you guest post on other blogs, treat the “host” well — submit a great, editorial-style piece of content on time, in the format they requested and be sure to follow the submission guidelines (if they exist). Don’t be an asshole. Be good to them, they’re giving you a voice.

For more, check out the recording of the webinar. Thanks!

Fan Mail

I work for an agency called The Starr Conspiracy — it was founded by Bret Starr. He wrote an awesome blog post this week about blog comments. You should read it. It’s called “Fan Mail.”

Try Ghost

My friend Nancy sent over the link to Ghost yesterday and I just about lost my cool. I’m fully aware of Medium, although I can’t try it yet, either. Check out what Ghost is doing — they received a freakish 358% (out of 100%) of the necessary stage one funding through Kickstarter — but they are in round two with a ways to go if you’re thinking of supporting the upcoming platform. The benefits for supporting are pretty convincing.

I’m pretty sure the founder (above) is gonna get his dream blogging platform. Look at him. He’s gonna be so excited when he finds out.

Little Dragon — “Twice”

I love Little Dragon. Give it a listen.

Hey, have a great weekend! 

Partly because I genuinely want to help you increase conversions and get some new leads.

If you’re a B2B marketer, chances are you’re using content marketing with a mix of webinars, white papers, research, infographics and a few other socialized content types mixed in. Content marketing relies on relevant content, design, effective multi-channel promotion, and kickass landing pages. Great content falls flat if it’s put behind a craptastic landing page.

Let’s look at the examples.

Example #1 — rdio Landing Page

rdio’s landing pages are simple, elegant and user-friendly. They sell a B2C service, obviously, but this landing page is still a good example of function in B2B. Pay attention to how they tell the story of social radio, instead of the story of just their particular solution.

If you are in an emerging market segment or if you have a new solution in an existing category, your content marketing initiatives and coordinating landing pages should promote the category and the product in general, as well as why your solution is different. Using rdio as an example, if you as a user don’t know what social, streaming radio is and you landed on rdio’s website where it highlighted the differentiators between rdio and Spotify, you would be too confused to follow through with a free trial or download.

Example #2 — Statusboard Landing Page

This landing page from 37 Signals (creators of Basecamp) Supersteil for Statusboard tells the story of what Statusboard will do for you. Because it’s an add-on for Basecamp, they don’t have to tell the story for why you need a traffic or project management tool in the first place. Instead, they link you back to Basecamp where they tell that story. This landing page is just highlighting the added benefits of combining Statusboard and Basecamp.

Example #3 — SmartRecruiters Landing Page

For B2B and especially in HR technology marketing, I reference this SmartRecruiters landing page design on a regular basis. The call to action is prominent, requires minimal fields for signup, features are in bullets and give you a comprehensive sense of what the product will give you, and they display a preview of the product next to the CTA. If you never scrolled down, you wouldn’t need more information than that to sign up.

Just in case you do need more — they include a quality list of clients, the “why” behind recruiting software in general, and why SmartRecruiters is different (free, hire on Facebook, etc.). As far as B2B landing pages go, this is my favorite example landing page in terms of functionality.

What do you think? Do you have some good landing page examples bookmarked? Share them below and I’ll check em out.

Landing pages and B2B content marketing go together like ramalamalama ke dingadedingdedong. 68 percent of B2B marketers rely on landing pages to gain new sales leads, but only 48 percent of marketers build a new landing page for each marketing campaign.

B2B marketers these days have to feel pulled in 1,000 directions — their company websites have to be mobile-first, their social media strategy has to be thoughtful and flawlessly executed, they have to have a sustainable cycle of content marketing with engaging visuals … they need video, relationships with influencers, email marketing best practices, landing pages that convert and keep fickle interest with effective sales processes to handle incoming leads. That’s a helluva lot of ducks to get in a row for small marketing teams.

When it comes to landing pages, you can narrow down the hundreds of tips, best practices and guides into five tips — because it’s not that hard to get content marketing right. I think there’s just a bunch of jerks trying to overcomplicate everything.

1. Keep It Consistent — Make sure the messaging on your landing page is consistent with the message (display ad, tweet, email drop, etc) that got them there. Aside from the messaging, make sure there’s visual consistency between your brand, your landing page, and the display ad or message they interacted with.

2. Simple and Concise — Your landing pages need to have a single CTA (call to action) and goal. If you have more than one offer, you need more than one landing page. Your messaging needs to be succinct and you can use bullets to keep yourself from getting too wordy.

3. People are Visual — Some studies say video can improve conversion rates up to 80 percent. The brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than it processes text. If you don’t have a particularly visual product (B2B services and some tech), create visuals by featuring customer testimonials or “social proof” and make sure your e-books, webinars, and other lead gen content is designed by a pro with previews visible on each landing page.

4. Strong, Visible Call to Action — Your CTA needs to be the focal point of your landing page. You might be proud of that video you created, but make sure you don’t use visuals that compete with the main feature.

5. Lean Into the Data — If you’ve got the basics down with your landing page design, A/B test your pages and let your audience decide which messages they prefer. Study conversion referrals from social media, display campaigns, email drops, etc. to understand what messages and medium performed the best in your campaign.

If you’re a B2B marketer, you have a lot to think about these days. Keep your landing pages simple, elegant, and engaging and you can check something that directly affects the bottom line off your list.

Then you can get back to over-researching and panicking about all of the other things you’re supposed to be perfect at.

My main motivation for blogging, I would say, is to get search referral traffic so I can study the search terms that lead people to the weird selection of things I like to write about.

That’s mostly a joke.

But really, if you write a blog, take a look at what keywords lead people to find your blog and get ready to be amazed.

This week, for example, someone found this here classy blog by searching for “asshole party.”

They might have been looking for this curated list of books from the “Asshole Party” genre on goodreads. Maybe they were looking for the Spring Hill, Florida thrash metal band Asshole Party. I guess I hope they were looking for this rant on something called Trollplay Forums, where the author eloquently wrote, “I’m looking at you, me from two hours ago. Get your hands out of your pants you raging bulgemunch!”

Ah, research. 

What would you wear to an asshole party anyway? Affliction? A fedora? Both? I think this manual from Cj de Silva has some tips:

Anyway, I hope this little guy is there:

Remember when the internet held the promise of access to academic research? How it claimed to connect people to their families and loved ones? Instead, I think the reality of the usage breakdown is something like 60% porn, 20% connecting with family and loved ones, 10% academic research and 10% weird Google searches like “asshole party.”

This is why we blog, people. This is why we study search engine optimization. This is what we’re working for.

Not really. I’m sure you’re here on business. You’re very important, I know, so I’ll make it quick. It is my joy and duty to formally welcome to the asshole party.

Thanks for showing up, regardless of what you searched to get here.

That being said, we’re gonna use the term infographic for today and not think too much about whether or not all of these make the mark — like the rest of the internet. You dig?

Social Media in Ireland

I’m not gonna lie … sometimes I forget about Ireland. Like, that it exists. Despite my mom’s maiden name of Conway and my alleged Irish heritage, I just don’t remember Ireland unless I’m watching something about gangs (”Boondock Saints,” “Gangs of New York”), it’s St. Patrick’s day or I’m listening to Liam Neeson try to pull off an American accent.

To make up for that, I found this infographic on social media usage in Ireland to be pretty interesting. I like the simple design and I also have to credit the piece with reminding me that Ireland is a thing. I can’t remember the last time I felt the wonder and moving experience of rediscovering a country while looking at an infographic — but that’s really a personal problem.

Social Media’s Impact on Shopping

81 percent of shoppers surveyed said posts from their friends on social media directly influenced their purchase decision. That’s pretty awesome news. Guess this social media thing’s stickin’ it out for the long haul.

Check out this infographic from Bigcommerce about what influences purchase decisions to learn more.

The Internet in a Day

I love the style of this infographic. Purely for entertainment value to understand the internet in terms of volume.

Verified Twitter Accounts

The Starr Conspiracy’s Twitter account is verified. So is TSC founder’s (Bret Starr). We get frequent messages on Twitter asking how we got our verified status. 0.005 percent of Twitter profiles are verified. I didn’t realize how rare it was. This infographic from PeerReach offers an analysis of all verified Twitter profiles. Pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Social Media Personalities

I just dig the design of this infographic, to be totally honest. Which social media personality are you? Engagement experts first direct break down the various digital personas.

SXSWi Simplified

I was in Austin during SXSWi, but I wasn’t able to attend any of the sessions. I’ve been eatin’ up SXSW breakdowns (even though it’s the end of the April) and this infographic from OPEN Forum is pretty exhaustive.

The Social Marketer’s Urban Twictionary

This infographic from Marketo is pretty rad — here are a couple of gems:

Repeatatweet: A tweet that is sent several times because the composer believes the message is especially marketable.

Twantrum: An especially annoying rant or tantrum thrown via Twitter.

Hey, have a great weekend!

I’m a huge fan of Facebook for B2B marketing. I’ve recently heard from a few marketers that have dismissed Facebook in their B2B social strategy and have cited LinkedIn and Twitter as the networks they invest the most in. There was a recent study featured on mediabistro’s All Twitter that found 82 percent of B2B leads generated through social media come from Twitter. The study reported Twitter outperforms Facebook and LinkedIn 9 to 1 in terms of lead generation.

That’s pretty cool. Luckily, I bet on both horses — I’m a huge fan of Twitter as well. But when I hear B2B marketers saying they dismissed Facebook because of perceptions that it underperforms, I wonder if Facebook has really been given a fair shot.

The idea that Facebook should be dismissed because it doesn’t outperform a competing network in demand generation is flawed as well — there is more to be gained from social than leads.

Why Facebook?

With 800 million + active users, Facebook is still the top social network. 50 percent of active users log in at least once per day and the average user spends 11.7 hours per month on Facebook.

For B2B brands, there are 5 reasons to participate in Facebook’s ecosystem:

• Brand Integrity: Facebook gives brands the highest level of customization thanks to the minimal timeline design, cover photo, apps and website integration. Your Facebook page can be a cohesive extension of your digital presence.

• Research: Brands can conduct informal research by listening to their fan base about what elements of the brand or specific messages resonate with them. Facebook ads can also offer affordable insight into what messages perform the best with your target market because Facebook promotes the messages within your campaign that are the most engaging to your audience.

• Advertising Platform: Facebook’s ad platform offers an effective, low-cost opportunity to get your brand and products in front of a highly targeted audience.

• Analytics: Facebook’s Insights platform is the most robust, intuitive analytics program that exists within a social network. Most of the networks make you use a 3rd party measurement dashboard to track progress in your social media activity.

• Engagement: Facebook is the most content marketing-friendly network. Post pop-up-era marketers who genuinely want to connect their brand to fans and advocates are rewarded. Beautiful design is rewarded. Creative copywriting is rewarded. Facebook helped change the game of marketing from interrupting to engaging. As a marketer, that makes me challenge the quality of social content while thinking of target audiences and all of that. As a user, I’m glad I don’t see ads for late night phone sex and erectile dysfunction ads. I’m glad I get to have a “vote” in how brands market to people like me. I think most users feel that way. Facebook pushes brands to create engaging content so users have a superior experience. Win-win.

Whatever you think about Facebook, just don’t dismiss it from your B2B social media strategy before you give it a chance. Sheesh.

The recent Cone Business Study on social media reported 93 percent of customers expected companies to have a presence on social media. 85 percent expected companies to interact with them through social media.

Most B2B companies are active on social media — but some of those who aren’t have asked me why they should be marketing through social. I think it’s a bogus reason to say “because everyone is doing it” (even with stats) or “people expect you to be there” (see above).

I’m a social media skeptic. I believe in marketing and I’m a fan of social media marketing for a lot of reasons — but I’m always willing to scrutinize.

Social usage by the (approximate) numbers:

• 150 million LinkedIn users

• 800 million Facebook users

• 140 million active Twitter users

What does B2B really have to gain through social?

• Brand Awareness: Deliver messages to audiences you wouldn’t otherwise reach, drive traffic to your other channels from social, and affect functional association and brand lift with potentially low-cost campaigns.

• Open Two-Way Communication: I hear this a lot — people say B2B should get social so they can participate in the conversation that’s already happening around their brand. In all seriousness, though, most B2B companies don’t have a ton of buzz happening on social channels. Some of the outliers do, but the promise of real-time feedback and instant conversations with customers doesn’t do most marketers any favors. Don’t get me wrong — you should be responding to any brand mentions online quickly — and maybe your reputation will start to precede you online and people will rely on your social channels for customer service … just don’t expect it. Most brands don’t just sign on Twitter for the first day and see a flood of incoming messages about them. As a B2B marketer, the more likely situation is that you’ll have to create conversation through social.

• Drive Traffic: This is mostly self-explanatory, but make sure you’re measuring conversions and referral traffic from social media as well as clicks, impressions, etc. from the social-specific side. Learn more here.

• Thought Leadership: Establish and nurture your company’s thought leadership positioning by generating exposure and conversation around content generation initiatives — like white papers, webinars, infographics, e-books, etc. There are a lot of ways you can impact positioning through social — we’ll stick with exposure for content for now and revisit this in the future.

• Community Building: People are all about curation these days — seeing the things they want to see — my friend Kate called it an “echo chamber” in a recent presentation. If you’re able to see the bigger picture of your brand and the value you provide your audience, you can create a sustainable community of customers, prospects, employees, suspects, stakeholders and fans. For example, if your company provides marketing automation software — your primary community should be all about becoming a better marketer. You can also use social to build internal communities for customer support, employee engagement, and a gathering place for influencers in your space.

• Lead Generation: Your primary goals when marketing through social media should be brand awareness and audience engagement. But social can be a very effective way to drive leads. You can’t expect to send a single tweet about a white paper and reap in a dozen leads. F’real. It’s all about the relevance of your community, quality of your message, and effectiveness of your inbound marketing program and sales infrastructure.

What do you gain from social media? Am I missing anything?

I’m fascinated by employer branding. I work for an agency that has unlimited PTO, ping pong, a fully-stocked liquor cart and flexible work schedules and our employer brand still isn’t defined by perks. I believe company culture is a living, breathing thing that changes with company growth, new hires, personal growth of the team, etc.

There was a lot involved with building our culture in terms of providing employees with the things they need and want from their employer — ex. great health insurance and benefits, flexibility and a workplace that promotes trust and autonomy. But the culture in terms of personality is always evolving.

I put together this quick presentation on Slideshare as part of a “thing” I’m trying — I want to put together one presentation per week just to help myself learn and process and provide insight (if I can) to others. I could see my life getting overtaken quickly by this, so I set a time limit of one hour for research, writing and design for each presentation. This is the first in the set. If you’re interested in how social media plays a role in employer branding — you can learn more here.

If you’re on Slideshare, leave your URL below and I’d love to connect with you. I’m here: http://www.slideshare.net/lizonomics/