The One Effective Use of Facebook for B2B Marketing
March 9, 2010You’ve seen the eye-popping statistics: Facebook now has more than 350 million active users. If it were a country, it would be the third most-populous on earth, behind only China and India. TechCrunch predicts that “by this summer (2010) well over half of all Internet users will likely visit Facebook each month.” It’s now the second most-visited site on the web, behind only Google.
Given that level of popularity and traffic, it’s no wonder that marketers have embraced Facebook in a big way. What’s curious, however, is that of the top 50 brands on Facebook according to Slate magazine, not one is a b2b vendor. Not even close. And as Mark Schaefer has noted, b2b Facebook success stories are notoriously hard to come by (he found one).
With a mammoth audience and the acceptance, even embrace, of brands there, why is Facebook success so elusive for b2b marketers? It isn’t demographics. Granted, the potential pool of customers for most b2b companies is minute compared to that for major consumer brands, but given the sheer size and ubiquity of Facebook, there are still a lot of b2b buyers using it.
The challenge rather lies in the way Facebook fan pages are used. I’ve heard countless people, within the b2b community, express the sentiment that “LinkedIn is for business, Facebook is for friends and family.” As such, it’s not surprisingly that many of the entries on Slate’s top Facebook list are lifestyle brands. If you buy a new Audi, you might use Facebook to show it off to your friends, but if you’re part if a buying team that just acquired a new enterprise software system—eh, not so much so. And as one more bit of anecdotal evidence, I have my Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook badges all displayed in the left column of this blog. I pick up a lot of new Twitter followers here, and a fair number of LinkedIn connection requests, but rarely a Facebook invitation.
Still, this doesn’t mean that Facebook can’t serve any purpose for b2b marketing. It can serve one helpful role: humanizing a company. As a very wise b2b sales executive said to me several years ago, “people don’t buy from companies. They buy from people.” With the emergence of social media as a marketing tool, that sentiment is arguably even more true today.
Because of the intimate, informal nature of Facebook, it is the ideal venue to showcase personal content related to your company that may not be appropriate on a corporate website or even a LinkedIn profile. Many employees within b2b companies have email communication with customers and prospects, but never actually talk to them. Or they have phone conversations but never meet face to face. Facebook provides an excellent means for sharing photos and even (limited) personal information, to help put a human face on an organization, and “put a face with the name” or voice of an employee for customers and prospects.
Just a few examples of content that work better on Facebook than in more formal settings are:
- • Photos of employees in casual office settings;
- • Photos of employees and customers interacting, or casual shots of a customer using a product (with permission, of course);
- • Trade show photos;
- • Pictures of employees working on community service projects;
- • Company executives speaking, accepting awards, meeting with VIPs, etc.;
- • Photos of production facilities (for manufactured products);
- • Photos taken with resellers or channel partners;
- • Informal or even humorous videos, such as HubSpot’s spoof of The Office or Resco’s “border battle” video shot before last season’s first Vikings-Packers game;
- • And of course, interaction! Most customers and prospects probably won’t want to interact with your brand on Facebook, but for those who do, it’s important to engage them through this channel.
In short, Facebook provides a place to show the human side of your company, to cut loose just a bit and have some fun. While it may produce a lead now and then, it isn’t a very effective lead generation vehicle. Instead, by humanizing your company and giving a glimpse inside, it’s business value lies primarily in lead nurturing—helping move leads through the buying process. It’s more about making current sales cycles more productive than about generating new potential business.
Because the ROI is likely to be difficult to measure with precision, it’s best to keep the “I” fairly modest. Still, with realistic expectations, using Facebook as a means to put a human face (or faces) on a B2B brand can be one effective component of an overall social media marketing strategy.
77 (of the) Best SEO Blog Posts and Articles of 2009
March 8, 2010Search engine optimization (SEO) can sometime seem like the province of quick-buck hucksters, particularly when well-regarded technology writers like John Dvorak refer to SEO proponents as “snake oil salesmen” (wrong as he is). This is particularly so for those on Twitter, which is infested with scammers and spammers: “Buy my miracle internet marketing kit and get thousands of clicks overnight!” Ugh. The advice I gave in Just Say No to Bad SEO still applies.
But while the sleazeballs are out there, most companies seeking SEO assistance understand that it’s a long-term investment, and most practitioners are honest, competent sorts doing their best to produce results through a mix of art, science and established, non-manipulative techniques. For that majority just trying to produce quality content and get it fairly ranked through legitimate practices, here are some of the best articles and blog posts from last year on various aspects of SEO.
The posts and articles are divided into six categories: SEO Guides, Tips and Tactics; SEO Tools; SEO Link Building; SEO Keyword Research; SEO Keyword Tools; and Local Search Tips, Tactics and Tools.
SEO Guides, Tips and Tactics
Learn the Basics Before You Try Anything Fancy! by SEO.com
Dan Patterson
Performance-based Pricing for SEO won’t work by Conversation Marketing
Ian Lurie
SEOmoz’s Biennial Ranking Factors 2009 Released by SEOmoz
Rand Fishkin
Top Ten Ways To Get Banned From Google by High Position
Tobias Bowman
Top 5 Ranking Factors by SEOmoz
Rand Fishkin
Tips and tools for measuring your SEO strength by iMedia Connection
Grant Simmons
TopRank BIGLIST of 100+ Search Marketing Resources by TopRank Online Marketing Blog
Lee Odden
Google Caffeine Update: “Real-Time” Indexing Favors Fresh Content by All Virtual Marketing
Rebecca Murtagh
What should I do if I don’t know why I’m penalized? by YouTube
Matt Cutts (video)
Why Your Company Needs a Google Profile by Search Marketing Sage
Tad Miller
25 Link Building Tactics to Improve Blog Search Engine Rankings by TopRank Online Marketing Blog
Lee Odden
The Ultimate Fast Guide to SEO + Flash by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Rachel Moran
Social media offers SEO opportunities for dominating top 10 search terms by Brafton
The Importance of Business Blogging by SEO Wizardry
Pete Hollier
List of Best and Worst practices for designing a high traffic website by webconfs.com
The Truth About SEO by TopRank Online Marketing Blog
Lee Odden
Do It Yourself SEO by SEO Wizardry
Pete Hollier
SEO Tools
List of Free and Paid SEO Tools on the Internet by SEO & PPC Expert UK
Xenu’s Link Sleuth – Find broken links on web sites
Google Base Opens Up New Doors for Internet Marketers by Best Rank Search Engine Marketing
Ryan Frank
Crawl Your Site for Broken Links, Errors and Duplicate Content by Daily SEO Tips
Loren Baker
Google Insights for Search Just Got More Insightful by Find Resolution
Erica Barth
WordStream: Keywords Management Made Easy by Search Engine Journal
Mihaela Lica
BuzzStream – Link Building Tool
Google AdWords Traffic Estimator
101 Free SEO Tools by Investintech.com
Covario (formerly netconcepts) SEO Tools
Compare domain backlink history by Majestic SEO
KPMRS – Free Website Ranking Monitoring SEO Tool
Backlink Watch Free Backlink Checker
How to Do Keyword Research with OneLook Wildcard Search by Search Engine Journal
Ann Smarty
21 Free Keyword Density Analyzer tools to optimize your website by Kittu K
Aakanksha Kekan
List of Great Firefox Plugins for SEO by SEO.com
Dan Patterson
LinkExaminer: SEO Friendly Link Scanning Utility by Search Engine Journal
Ann Smarty
Free SEO Tools : 12 Absolutely Free Keyword Suggestion tools, Keyword Popularity tools by Kittu K
Aakanksha Kekan
Web Page Analyzer – 0.98 – from Website Optimization by Website Optimization
Small Business Guide to Tools that Help Your SEM by Search Engine Watch
Carrie Hill
Best Keyword Ranking Tools for SEO by WordStream Internet Marketing Blog
Ken Lyons
BLVD Status – Live Stats, Keyword Vitals Ranking Report and Custom Alerts
Analyze Link Popularity : 20 Free Backlink Checker Tools by Kittu K
Aakanksha Kekan
SEMRush – Advanced Keywords and Competitors Research Tool
SEO Link Building
Link Bartering by Search Engine People
Donna Fontenot
Link Building 101, Part 2 by Search Engine Watch (February)
Ron Jones
5 Ways to Optimize Your Existing Links for Maximum SEO Benefit by Winning The Web
Gyutae Park
The Perfect Link Request Email Template by Wiep.net
Wiep Knol
Online Forums: Marketing Muscle and SEO Strength by E-Commerce Times
Brandon Leibowitz
Link Building for Small eCommerce Sites by SEOmoz
Rob Ousbey
Linktive tries to end the SEO gaming with a social network for site links byTechCrunch Europe
Mike Butcher
Link Building from A to Z by SEOmoz
Wiep Knol
Link Building Tactics 101, Part 2 by Search Engine Watch (August)
Ron Jones
SEO Keyword Research
Peering into Match-Types: The Hidden Info Advantage of the Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool by The Acquisio Blog
Naoise Osborne
What Parts of Marketing Can’t be Automated? by SEO Book
Aaron Wall
SEO Keyword Tools
Do more with less – Part 3 of 3 by Indside AdWords
Amanda Kelly
An Insider’s Look At Google’s Search Based Keyword Tool by Search Engine Land
Josh Dreller
Free Keyword Suggestion Tools by Marketing ROI or Die
Rebekah Paul
Use Multiple Keyword Research Services with KeywordSmash by Search Engine Journal
Ann Smarty
4 tools for measuring your keyword strength by iMedia Connection
Bob Alperin
Improving Keyword Research by SEO Wizardry
Pete Hollier
Local Search Tips, Tactics and Tools
Search Engine Confidence Score Has A Google-Like Feel by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Laurie Sullivan
Gettin’ to Know GetListed.org by SEOmoz
Rebecca Kelley
3 Keys To Success For Local Search SEO by Search Engine Journal
Ryan Caldwell
How Citations Help with Local Search by ClickZ
Mary Bowling
Leveraging Reverse Search For Local SEO by Search Engine Land
Chris Silver Smith
A Framework for Thinking About Local Search Campaigns by Mihmorandum
David Mihm
Local Search Strengthens Move To Maps, Reviews by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Laurie Sullivan
Tools for Local Search by ClickZ
Mary Bowling
Local Search 101, Part 2 by Search Engine Watch
Ron Jones
A Closer Look At Local Search Ranking Factors by Search Engine Land
David Mihm
I Think Yahoo Neighbors Could Be Huge by Small Business Search Marketing
Matt McGee
Local Listing: An Attempt to Understand Rank Factors by SEOmoz
Tim Sorweid
Despite Assurances, Google Place Pages Now Showing In Search Results by Search EngineLand
Greg Sterling
Citysearch Rolls Out Twitter Integration On Business Listing Page by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Laurie Sullivan
When All Search Is Local by ClickZ
Mary Bowling
Book Review: The Truth About Search Engine Optimization
March 1, 2010Despite being a quick, almost breezy read (how often do you read that said about a book on SEO?), The Truth About Search Engine Optimization
What’s most notable about this book, however, is that it’s an SEO book written for a broad audience. Unlike typical “how to do SEO” tomes, this book is more about what SEO is and how it works, in plain business language. Though it certainly contains instructive content, it can be read by and provide value to everyone on a web development team: designers, copy writers and developers, along with the entire marketing team, as well as line of business managers who aren’t directly responsible for site optimization but can benefit from understanding how it works and why it’s important. Rebecca deftly weaves together all of the important elements of SEO, from keyword research and link building to the role of social media, without excessive insider jargon or getting into the weeds on topics like file naming conventions, PHP vs. Javascript, or canonicalization.
Why is it important for executives not directly involved in search to understand more about it? As Rebecca explains in the book’s foreword and introduction:
“SEO…is the foundation, the bedrock of online marketing. It isn’t just the foundation of search marketing; I submit to you that it is the foundation of all marketing. This is exactly because we live in a world where increasingly, Google dominates the search landscape and Google has taught people to love search…In the 12 years or so since search engine marketing has been in existence, we have learned this one truth: Al media, all marketing, and all communications have one thing in common—they all drive people to search. And in a recent study conducted by Jupiter Research, of all the people who were stimulated by an offline cause to go online and search, some 40 percent of them actually made a purchase…A well-optimized website, therefore, is something akin to the Holy Grail of marketing. It provides the right message to the right person at the right time…Search long ago became the second-largest online activity (after email). Search has evolved from merely providing answers to stated problems and queries. Today, it’s the way most people navigate the Web.”
In her chapter on “learning to do the Google Dance,” Rebecca notes the similarity between SEO and public relations: both can help you influence the information that prospects find about your company and its products or services, but not control that information. Maybe your news (or your website) will make the front page, or maybe it will be buried several pages in. As she notes, “If you want to guarantee that your message will appear (exactly)…the way you want it to and where you want it to be, buy an ad.” In other words, SEO, like PR, can be important in terms of influence, but it’s unreasonable to expect complete precision.
(Interestingly, on the topic of PR and SEO, Rebecca writes that “Although many PR professionals still don’t know about or understand the concept of SEO PR, a handful of SEO-savvy boutique PR agencies have sprung up recently. These PR agencies specialize in optimizing and releasing news for their clients with the goal of increasing search engine visibility.” Actually, KC Associates, the agency I work with, has been doing this for years, and though we focus on b2b technology clients, I’m not sure we qualify as “boutique.” And having been around since 1988, we certainly haven’t “sprung up recently!”)
To put the challenge of SEO into perspective for marketers, PR professionals and line of business managers who may not appreciate its difficulties, the author notes that “with hundreds of billions of sites out there—and more every day—no matter how obscure or arcane your website is, chances are you have more than a healthy amount of competition. Heck, more than 2 million page in Google’s index are about beekeeping.”
Though the book doesn’t specifically address web presence optimization, it does touch on elements important to SEO beyond meta tags and directory links. For example, email can play an important role (through maintaining an online archive of search-friendly archived newsletter content), as can personal and corporate reputation management, online advertising (ads are links!) and social media activities.
There is a wealth of wisdom packed into this compact book: search is something to consider from the very start of a website project, not as an afterthought. Companies can no longer afford to build static “brochureware” websites—to be successful in search, sites must “now be ever-growing, changing, and evolving platforms for publishing content, news, and information about products and services.” Search is no longer simply even about website content, but has fragmented into local search, video search, blog search, image search and news search among other categories. Search is an ongoing activity, not a one-time event: results aren’t achieved overnight, and developing quality links in particular is a process that happens over time. Although, as noted, the book isn’t overly technical, the importance of technology isn’t ignored: the author touches on the importance of being careful with drop-down menus, using CSS in place of tables where possible, maintaining a relatively flat file structure and utilizing breadcrumb navigation to help both search engines and human users better understand your site’s layout.
From a pure how-to standpoint, Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets
Still, these are minor quibbles. Overall, The Truth About Search Engine Optimization
NOTE: Still with me? Thanks! Here’s a reward: the publisher sent me an extra copy of this excellent book, so I will give it away to first person who tweets this review. Your tweet MUST include @TomPick, ad I’ll be the sole judge of the winner based on what shows up in my Twitter #replies feed. I’ll even pay the postage to send it you.
Best Business Blogging Tips of 2009, Part 2
February 23, 2010How can you develop a steady stream of new topic ideas to write about on your blog? Attract more blog traffic? Which WordPress plugins are most essential? Which highly successful blogs should you emulate, and what can you learn from them? What common blogging mistakes should you avoid? How do blogging and other “real time” activities like social media posting affect Google search results?
Discover the answers to these questions and others here in the final batch of the best articles and blog posts on business blogging from 2009.
5 outstanding corporate blogs by iMedia Connection
Defining an outstanding corporate blog as “one that accomplishes the clearly articulated goals of the organization,” Chris Baggott provides five examples, including Carhartt’s Tough Jobs blog (focused on user-generated content) and the Alerding Castor blog, targeted at attracting high-value clients.
58 ways to build a better blog by How to Make My Blog
Marko Saric presents a huge collection of tips for maximizing business blog success, ranging from the basics (get your own domain name, think of a catchy title, be SEO-friendly) to the less obvious (make your blog tough to hack, “declutter” your blog, don’t make assumptions about your readers, and include a media kit for potential advertisers).
101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger by Lifehack
If those 58 tips in the post above weren’t enough for you, Kim Roach provides more than a hundred more suggestions for improving your blog, broken into categories like must-have plugins for WordPress, ways to monetize a blog, and writing tips.
9 Useful Twitter Retweet Button Scripts For Blogs by Cheth Studios
Noting that Cheth Studios gets 40% of its blog traffic from Twitter alone, this post reviews nine scripts, tools and plugins to make your blog content easily tweetable, from TweetMeme (my favorite) TwittLink to Retweet.com and BackType.
The Most Important Blogging Analysis Ever by ViperChill
Noting that blogs grow by having their content shared, Glen Allsopp studies “the most linked-to blog posts on four of the most popular blogs in the world and analyse(s) what made them so popular.” Not surprisingly, resource posts and techniques for solving specific, common problems top the list of how to make your content spread.
5 Simple Tips for Creating a Content Culture at Your Company by Hubspot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
A common challenge for corporate blogs is maintaining a steady stream of fresh content. To help, Adrian Mott provides recommendations ranging from implementing an “idea bucket” (an application that makes it easy for folks to submit their ideas about your products or services) to looking “at your analytics everyday and see what’s working and what’s not,” then analyzing why certain posts became popular and replicating that success. Another noteworthy post from HubSpot is 10 Ways Blogging Will Simplify Your Marketing Program, in which Rick Burnes outlines several beneficial results of blogging, from improved SEO and social media traffic to establishing thought leadership and brand building.
The best 50 blogging ideas to choose from by Future Perfect
Still wondering what to write about? Aswani Srivastava provides an outstanding list of topic ideas sure to jumpstart your muse, such as special events, news, book reviews, product reviews, “top tips,” definitions of terms specific to your industry, interviews, beginner’s guides, and if all else fails—soliciting guest posts.
How to find topics for your blog posts by My Blog
Mike Consol takes a different approach to coming up with new topics for blog posts. He looks at the headlines of some of the top posts on Google’s corporate blog (one of the most successful in existence) and reviews each to see how its subject matter might be applied to other blogs. Among the topics he ferrets out using this process: recent product or service enhancements, new partnerships, good causes supported, helpful tips and insights, or recent industry research.
A few mistakes that beginning bloggers should be aware of by Blog Design Studio
A brief but helpful list of common blogging mistakes new bloggers should avoid, including poor design, boring posts and ignoring SEO.
Real Time Search and It’s effect on Corporate Blogging by Chris Baggot’s Guide to Blogging
After stating that “the introduction of Real Time Search is yet another major signal that Social Media is an SEO tool more than anything else,” Chris Baggott proceeds to dissect Google’s approach to integrating “recency” signals from blogs and social networks into its search results.
10 Reasons I Won’t Follow You on Twitter
February 22, 2010Before I start this rant, let me make it clear that I love gaining new followers on Twitter and I’m honored by (almost) every one—I’m grateful that you want to hear what I have to say! Also, as indicated by my high ratio of following to followers (currently 87%), my default rule is to follow back. Twitter is social media, not a broadcast platform; if you’ve taken an interest in what I tweet, I want to read yours as well, and hopefully we can learn from each other.
But, all of that said, there are only so many hours in a day, and not all tweet streams are worth following. Here are some indicators in your last 20-40 tweets that may prevent me (and others) from hitting that “follow back” button.
1. There are no RT’s in your tweet stream. Really—you follow 5,000 people, and not one of them has posted anything worth retweeting over the last several days? How sad.
2. Your tweets are a series of blatant sales pitches. Okay, we all need to eat, and there’s nothing wrong with occasionally promoting your content, product or service on Twitter. However, if that’s all you are doing, it’s boring. It’s like fast-forwarding through a TV show on TiVo and watching only the commercials.
3. Your tweets are obviously automated. If the time stamps on your tweets are 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00…, it’s clear you aren’t actually interacting on Twitter, you’re just broadcasting. It’s unlikely you’ll ever even see my tweets (or those of others you are following), so why should I bother?
4. Your posts are completely off topic from my interests. My posts are primarily focused on b2b marketing, but I’m not one-dimensional; I have a variety of interests including politics, football, faith, local (Minnesota) news, technology, American Idol (only because my kids watch it, of course), economics and more. But if all of your posts are about vitamins, the real estate market in Massachusetts, the antics of your cat, or some other topic I’ve never tweeted about, sorry, I have only so much attention to give, and grateful as I am for your attention, I’m not sure why you chose to follow me first.
5. Your profile is blank. If you want others to follow you, it’s best to reveal a little bit about yourself. Following others while not disclosing your location, providing any info in Twitter’s 160-character bio field, or linking to an online profile, landing page, website, blog, or anything else you consider important, is a little creepy.
6. You’re promoting the latest “get rich quick” scheme. There is no “secret” to success: find out what you’re really good at, develop your talent, and then work your tail off—for a long time. The only people who make any money on get-rich-quick scams are those selling them (and even many who try that route fail). If these schemes really worked, we’d all be rich and poverty would be eradicated. But such schemes have been investigated over and over, and they accomplish nothing other than the transfer of wealth from the gullible to the dishonest.
7. You quote Jim Rohn. Before you flame me, I mean no disrespect to the recently departed; I know that Jim Rohn was an inspirational and widely admired speaker and writer with a compelling life story. And I’m not suggesting that everyone who quotes him is pushing the latest scam (see #6 above) or other questionable business enterprise, only that there seems to be a high correlation. There are obvious exceptions to this rule, such as @jonrognerud, a smart, helpful and worthwhile Twitterer who, via Twitter, respectfully acknowledged Rohn’s death, without in any way diminishing his legacy. But this is often a strong indicator of spam.
8. Your tweet stream contains nothing retweetable. I hope that those who follow me find my tweets occasionally worth retweeting, and I like to find links to great content from those I’m following that I can in turn retweet. But if there’s nothing in your most recent 20 or 40 tweets that appears worthy of sharing (“just got back from the gym”…”I’m at the coffee shop at 4th and Main”…”Get 1,000s of Twitter followers instantly!”…), I probably won’t bother following.
9. You’ve protected your tweets. WTF?
10. You’re inviting me to “look at my naughty pictures online.” This often leads to malware or phishing scams, and never to anything good. No thanks.
Am I wrong? Leave a comment and tell me why.
