Dorie Clark Archives - B2B Marketing Blog

88 Expert Content Marketing Posts Worth Another Read

January 5, 2016 by Tom Pick

As noted here previously, content marketing is now ubiquitous, with 93% of all marketers saying they do content marketing. All of those marketers are creating an enormous amount of content, which is making it difficult to stand out and rise above the noise.

How much visual content is created every minuute?

Image credit: HubSpot

To help marketers address that challenge (and others), content marketing experts are also creating an enormous amount of content—about content marketing. These writers face the same challenge.

So what are the secrets to developing content that gets read, shared, and compels action? Here are 88 posts that have risen above the noise, designed to answer that question. Some date back a year or more but remain timely and helpful.

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10 Top Marketing Thought Leaders in Social Media

May 21, 2015 by Tom Pick

If you were asked to name the top thought leaders in marketing today–the 10 marketers you’d definitely advise others to follow on social media–how would you proceed?

You’d probably start by looking at those you’re connected with on the major social networks, then do some additional research. Perhaps you’d look at existing “top” lists from other sites. You’d develop a “long list” of worthy experts, then gradually narrow it down based on followers, level of engagement, quality of posts, and other factors. You’d carefully develop your final list, possibly using a method like pairwise ranking.

But—what if you had to answer on the spot? What if you had to respond immediately, or within just a few minutes? You’d forget some important names, of course, but your answers would reveal those you keep top of mind.

If you’re up for it, try this now; spend no more than five minutes listing your top 10—then come back to this post.

This recently happened to me. Below is my list in response to the question:

“Tell me the top ten marketing people you would follow on social media, those people that you think are the top ‘thought leaders’ in the marketing space today?”

Cheryl Burgess would unquestionably be on the list. In addition to being an expert on enterprise b2b marketing, she’s the co-author (with Mark Burgess) of The Social Employee, and the authority on how to inspire employee social media advocacy inside large organizations.

Ann Smarty knows SEO inside and out, and is the guru-ess of online tools. She also hosts the highly popular weekly Viral Content Buzz Twitter chat.

Meghan M. Biro is an acknowledged thought leader at the intersection of HR, social media and marketing.

Carla Johnson is one of the top experts on enterprise content marketing. Plus, she went to grade school in a one-room schoolhouse, making her ascent all the more impressive (or perhaps that just explains it?).

Robert Rose is another top resource on enterprise content marketing, co-author with Carla Johnson of Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing, and an original member of the Lebron team.

Jeff Bullas — does anyone know more about blogging than Jeff? He’s one of those guys who seems to defy the laws of time and space by being able to consistently churn out bookmark-worthy blog posts, speak at events all over the planet, write ebooks, and still engage actively and prolifically on social media.

Glen Gilmore has long been known as an author and expert on the intersection of social media and the law. But not content with that, he’s more recently emerged as a top authority on the Internet of Things (IoT) as well.

J-P De Clerck is a “digital business and marketing strategist” whose expertise stands in the crossroads of content, search, and social media. Plus he’s from Belgium, so along with Jeff Bullas (Australia) he keeps this list from being too U.S.-centric.

Gini Dietrich is a top PR pro, author of Spin Sucks and co-author of Marketing in the Round (incidentally a great primer on building a team to execute a web presence optimization strategy), and tweeter of consistently good stuff.

Wendy Marx is a brilliant b2b PR strategist whose B2B PR Sense blog is a must-read for any marketing or PR pro seeking wisdom and insights into b2b content marketing and social media.

In the moments after rattling off this list, my first thought was: not bad, for a group quickly compiled off the top of my head.

But my second thought was: wow, I missed a lot of important and worthy names!

How could I have left off some of the most engaging social media marketing and PR pros like Harry Hoover, Judy Bellem and Jayme Soulati?

Or within just the PR realm, thought leaders and key influencers like Deb Weinstein, Lisa Buyer, Jeff Domansky and Arik Hanson?

In the realm of content marketing, Michael Brenner, Neal Schaffer, Rebecca Lieb, Heidi Cohen and Ann Handley are certainly worthy additions. As are, getting more granular, experts in developing b2b buyer personas, like Ardath Albee and Tony Zambito.

Closer to home, I could have highlighted the fact that some of the smartest people in social media marketing are fellow Minnesotans, including Lee Odden, Marty Weintraub and Angie Schottmuller.

How about CMOs and others focused on leadership, like Patrick Strother, Tony Karrer, Chris Schenk, Kent Huffman, Eric Fletcher, and Margaret Molloy?

Or leaders in academics on social media, such as Gary Schirr, Mike Johansson and Dorie Clark?

Even at that, there are deserving names left off the list.

If I’m ever again asked to name a list of the top 10 social media marketers, I think I’ll answer—I can’t name 10. But I can give you 75 or so.

Who’s on your “top of mind” top 10 list?

Social Media ROI: Mythic or Measurable? Six Experts Weigh In

February 4, 2014 by Tom Pick

Though social media marketing has now become almost a universal practice, the question of whether or not its value can be quantified with any precision remains open.

Does social media marketing produce measurable ROI—and if so, how does one measure it? Or is social media marketing just a required practice because of its value for content marketing, customer service, market engagement, web presence optimization, and SEO—whether its ROI can be determined with any accuracy or not?

Despite well-crafted arguments from sources like John Heggestuen on Business Insider that social media ROI is a myth, and Angie Schottmuller on Search Engine Watch making the opposite case (and providing more than two dozen formulas for measuring the return on social media efforts), the social media ROI debate rages on.

Six experts continue the argument below, three on each side of the issue. What do you think?

You can’t calculate ROI from social media…

Analyze This: A Social Media Measurement Process by FeedBlitz

Yvette Pistorio shares tips from Jay Baer on social media measurement, such as the importance of selecting the right social media marketing metrics to track, and doing so as early as possible in the social marketing process. She contends that calculating the ROI of social media “can be difficult with social media so you may want to take a look at how your efforts tie to business success over the long haul.”

The Death Of Social ROI — Companies Are Starting To Drop The Idea That They Can Track Social Media’s Dollar Value by Business Insider

Are brands moving away from trying to quantify the ROI of social media marketing? Yes, writes John Heggestuen, who reports that “Between 2010 and 2013, the percentage of marketers using a revenue-per-customer metric on social media went from 17% to 9%, according to the February 2013 CMO survey.” Brands are instead focusing on reach, engagement and sentiment metrics.

CMOs On Social Media – Where’s The ROI? by Forbes

Dorie Clark reports on a survey of CMOs which found that “Almost half (49%) said they aren’t able to quantify whether social media has made a difference for their companies, while 36% said they had a good sense of qualitative – though not quantitative – results. Only a meager 15% said they’ve seen a proven quantitative impact.” Lack of a clear strategy often contributes to the inability to quantify results.

…of course you can! And here’s how.

Social Media ROI: 11 FREE Tools for Measuring Social Media Success by Search Engine Watch

Can the ROI of social media marketing be measured? Chuck Price reports that Nicole Harrison is “adamant that social media done correctly will deliver results and recommended the following list of 11 free tools for measuring both ROI and social media success,” including SocialMention, TweetReach and Keyhole.

10 Examples of Social Media ROI [INFOGRAPHIC] by Social Media Today

Contrary to the story above, Pam Dyer presents an infographic which illustrates 10 real-world examples of social media ROI for brands, such as Kraft’s “National Thank You Day” campaign for Toblerone, which drove half a million website visits and increased sales of Toblerone by 132%.

Calculating ROI from Social Media – Problems, Pitfalls & Breaking all the things… by Distilled
***** 5 STARS

Contending that “ROI is a woefully poor measure of the success or failure of social media activity…(not a bad metric but) it’s misunderstood and often misappropriated,” Hannah Smith proceeds to explain the calculation, uses and limitations of ROI analysis, and suggests other metrics (related to brand perceptions and reputation management) that may be more suitable for measuring the value of social media initiatives.

The Top #Nifty50 Women Writers on Twitter for 2013

October 28, 2013 by Tom Pick

Each year, the #Nifty50 awards honor 50 men and 50 women who actively engage on Twitter. 2011 was the inaugural year. In 2012, the #Nifty50 recognized the top men and women on Twitter in the technology realm.

The purpose of the award is to acknowledge the contributions of honorees to their fields, as well as their level of engagement on Twitter; to encourage interaction with these leaders; and to expand social networks. When the timing is right, the #Nifty50 will be expanded to include an element of social good—the #Nifty50 Kids project, which will provide access to advanced technologies for low-income children.

This year’s #Nifty50 highlights men and women who write—more specifically, who regularly produce some form of business-related online content (blog posts, news articles, videos, infographics, etc.)—and who actively engage on Twitter. The honorees include both full-time (e.g., journalists, authors, or PR professionals) and part-time writers (e.g., bloggers).

Since the first awards, the #Nifty50 hashtag has been tweeted and retweeted nearly 7,000 times, with a total exposure of more than 50 million people, according to Topsy. The #Nifty50 was also featured in the new book by Mark (@mnburgess) and Cheryl Burgess (@ckburgess), The Social Employee (McGraw-Hill, August 2013) How Great Companies Make Social Media Work – Success Lessons from IBM, AT&T, Dell, Cisco, Southwest Airlines, Adobe, and Domo on building a social culture.

For 2013, we’re pleased to honor 50 women (below) and 50 men (in a post on the Blue Focus Marketing Blog) who are both outstanding writers and content producers and active social media connectors and engagers. Beyond their professional lives, the interests of these women range from the fairly conventional (travel, food, wine, health, fashion, family) to the unexpected (Star Wars, Milk Duds, beer, Swedish fish).

We’re proud to acknowledge these 50 women from 48 different organizations as the top #Nifty50 women writers on Twitter for 2013. You can find and subscribe to or follow the entire list on Twitter here.

(Editor’s note: Though I’d be proud to claim her as a member of my extended clan, I’m fairly certain that Marissa Pick and I have no familial relationship.)

Jennifer Aaker
@Aaker