If you're a successful inbound marketer, you know how generate leads online: Create content that interests and attracts your ideal customers.
If you're selling golf lessons, blog articles and videos filled with golf tips will pull potential customers into your website. The more content you create, the more people you attract; the more targeted that content is, the more the people you attract will turn into customers.
But here's a question: Once you get beyond industry-level targeting (golf content for golf academies), how do you fine-tune your targeting?
Turns out there are a lot of things you can do, particularly when it comes to Twitter. For example, research by HubSpotter Dan Zarrella shows that there is a significant difference between the type of content that woman and men share on Twitter.
If you're targeting a female audience, your content will spread more quickly if it's related to entertainment, products or instructional material. If you're targeting males, your content will do better with opinion.
Dan's research shows that a series of other factors -- time of day, number of retweets, content type and punctuation -- all have relationships with retweeting patterns. (If you're interested in retweets, Dan will be hosting a webinar on the topic this Friday.) For marketers on Twitter, an understanding of these patterns can accelerate the spread of your content across the web.
Your customers aren't on Twitter?
Fine, but there's no question your customers are online, sharing information on some sort of social network. As a marketer, you need to optimize your content for broadest possible distribution on social channels, regardless of the platforms you're using. Whatever network that is, you can learn from the basic lessons of sharing content on Twitter.
| Join Dan Zarrella, HubSpot's Social Media Scientist and author of the Social Media Marketing Book for a 30 minute overview of the Science of ReTweets! Date and time: Friday, March 19, 2010 at 1:00pm ET Reserve your spot now to learn what makes tweets contagious and how to create tweets that will go viral and increase your reach and authority..
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David Meerman Scott, author of the successful book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, at SXSW today led a discussion track with industry experts addressing different aspects of social business. Social business is a term to describe how the social web is transforming how all functions of business operate and are managed. Each speaker in the discussion had 15 minutes to share their expertise. The goal of the discussion was to explore the application of social media beyond marketing and pubic relations.
Marketing Goes Social
Scott started out with the example of Girls Fight Back, an organization designed to protect and empower women. When Erin Weed leads sessions for Girls Fight Back, she first asks attendees to put phones away, but at the end she encourages attendees to take pictures and video of training and self-defense moves. These pictures then get shared across the Web and have helped Weed train half a million women.
Scott then shared some new rules for marketing on the social web.
1. Marketing in Social Media is About Losing Control -- Scott talked about how the band Grateful Dead in the 60s gave up control and let fans record concerts, which led to sharing and contributed to the band becoming the most popular touring band of the decade.
2. Nobody Cares About Your Products Except for You -- Companies spend too much time using words and phrases that mean nothing. Scott offered examples of press releases from major corporations and stock images that don't showcase the mission of businesses.
3. Create Triggers That Encourage People To Share -- Scott invited people via Twitter to help launch his book by ringing the bell at the NASDAQ stock exchange, which resulted in millions of people learning about the book through media coverage of the event.
4. No Convincing Required -- You don't have to convince people to help you market your business; they will want to do it if you are doing compelling work. Instead, create triggers that help people to share.
Media Relations Goes Social
Captain Nathan Broshear of the United States Air Force took the stage next to discuss the impact of social media on public relations. Broshear said that every member of the Air Force who has an iPhone or a video camera is a spokesman for the organization. He pointed out that military is now letting service men and women publish pictures and content directly from their government computers.
The days of us calling the media is over. Broshear
says that he has not sent a press release in 8 years. Instead, they publish information via blogs and Twitter as a way to communicate with members of the media. Broshear was able to follow media reactions about landing in Hati to file flight plans and improve perception about the leadership of the Air Force during times of crisis.
Social communication cannot be about the public relations professionals; instead it is about connecting media with peer groups. Sharing experiences is more powerful than talking about yourself. He says that the military trusts 20 year-old men and women with 50 million dollar jets. Shouldn't they also be able to use a Facebook page?
Customer Service Goes Social
Melanie Baker from PostRank
took the stage next to address customer service on the social web. She opened by sharing examples that show the importance in providing customer service via channels that matter most to customers. Baker said that customers will do business with you how they want to, and we all make decisions in different ways. Businesses are responsible for the way customers talk about their products with other potential customers. While communication is important, understanding who is on the other end of the customer service conversation is critical.
In a world of social media, customer support is in constant demand. Who covers for a community manager when he/she goes on vacation? It is reasonable to expect that everyone in a company should be able to do customer service if needed? In a world of social media where everyone can be a customer service representative, it is important that companies hire smarter people and create programs to educate employees. Building strong internal communities within organizations helps to build better customer service.
Additionally, employees are going to need tools to help them understand what information to pay attention to on the Web. Along with tools, a monitoring strategy will help employees understand how to best react to customer situations. Anticipating the communication needs of customers allows you to plan potential communications platforms that will better serve your customers.
Hiring and Recruitment Goes Social
Jeff Berger, of KODA, said that online job recruitment is an $8 billion industry. However, he said that this market is suffering from a lack of innovation, specifically when it come to communicating with Generation Y. It used to be that a newspaper and a letter were the job application process, then Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com took over. When it comes to online jobs, 80% of applicants never hear back from companies when they apply online. Job boards are one of the last hold outs of Web 1.0, he said.
This disconnect creates two problems. People in their 20s are overwhelmed by job boards, and they do not yet have professional networks. This disconnect makes it more difficult for recruiters to connect with applicants. The business problem to this situation is that the rate of retirement is increasing, and we are moving into an applicant-driven market. Companies are moving past job boards and toward platforms like Twitter and Facebook to hire new employees.
Social recruiting brings together social networks and job boards. The resume is an outdated tool; social job sites help people better showcase their skills and are becoming more and more important.
Workplace Collaboration Goes Social
Glen Lubbert of Mojo Interactive was up next to speak about workplace collaboration. He explained that social media means real-time learning and evolution from each other through decentralized information. He explained that his business started a program that allowed employees to choose their own ceiling tiles for their offices to make the office a better place and allow staff to share with each other. This exercise, he explained, helped to give perspective of the different personalities of each team member. This turned the office into an art show and gave employees new reasons to talk to each other. He described that his staff also used Yammer to communicate about the project.
Mojo also shows all of its employees' Twitter streams on the careers page of the company Web site in order to extend its brand to potential employees. This gives new hires a value of the culture when they join the business. Lubbert mentioned that, as CEO, he uses Facebook
as an important tool as a cheat sheet to get a better understanding of his staff and their lives outside of work. This helps him show that he really cares about his employees.
Corporate Culture Goes Social
Bert Dumars of Newell Rubbermaid closed the session with a discussion about changing an old brand. Driving change in an organization is not an easy thing to do. Rubbermaid has been doing social media for 2 years, but had been focused on customers, not consumers. This approach put the business too far away from consumers. Now social media at Rubbermaid is about giving consumers a direct voice to the organization to help drive product decisions.
Dumars
pointed to customer reviews on the Rubbermaid Web site in regard to the company's produce saver review. The company reached out to negative reviewers who were using the product without reading the instructions, and as a result, the brand team wrote a blog post explaining how the product works. Consumer-generated product reviews are now created every day for Rubbermaid.
When Rubbermaid listens and acknowledges consumers, they create advocates and gain a better understanding about product development. People want to feel like they made a difference, and it is important for businesses to move from listening to responding and acting, said Dumars. Social media can save companies money and frustration.
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On Saturday of South By South West Interactive, HubSpot's own Dharmesh Shah took the stage to provide attendees with information about the business applications of inbound marketing.
He shared insights from his book, Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs, that he co-wrote with HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan.
Check out video of his SXSW presentation below.
Hungry for more content from SXSW? Check out our HubSpot at SXSW content feed at http://blog.hubspot.com/sxsw.
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This is a guest article written by Ilya Mirman, VP Marketing at Cilk Arts, a HubSpot friend and customer. You can follow Ilya on Twitter @IlyaMirman.
The "Your Next Record" contest has all the makings of an absolutely kick-ass idea. Submit your band's songs, promote it using viral marketing tools and techniques, and you have a shot at the greatest prize in the universe: Slash (the legendary guitarist from Guns N' Roses) will write, record and perform your single.
You'll also get:
- A 3-song extended play, produced by producer Mike Clink (of Guns N' Roses, Megadeth, Mötley Crüe)
- A $10,000 Guitar Center shopping spree
- $10,000 in new gear and endorsement deals from Ernie Ball Music Man
- The opening slot on Slash's Monster Energy Bash
- An editorial feature on your band in Guitar World magazine
Well, I've been a huge Slash fan since I first heard GNR in L.A. in 1987. Over the years, I've dressed up as Slash for Halloween (alongside a beautiful Axl), photographed him in venues large and small, and attempted to play with the world's most fun GNR tribute band, Mr. Brownstone.
Filthy Knuckle is Born
So when I heard about the contest, I thought it'd be a blast to participate. With a couple friends, I formed the "supergroup" Filthy Knuckle, and we wrote/recorded/mixed three songs in an evening. (Two of them suck, but one has actually grown on me: "Motel Detroit." I think it's sloppy, but has an arc...)
And then it was off to the races: use all the things HubSpot has taught us about turning our band page into a magnet for traffic, inbound links, viral interest and ultimately conversions (votes in our case). In fact, the contest organizers gave some great advice on how to promote your band in the age of the Internet -- network, embed, drive press, etc., -- and they've come up with "Buzz Factor," a metric based on band views, plays, etc.
The Speed Bump
BUT: The contest organizers -- perhaps unwittingly -- added a HUGE speed-bump into the mix. In order to vote, fans must first REGISTER, answering all sorts of questions and sharing data they might not want to share just yet (e.g. their contact info, demographics, etc.). The result is that this inevitably reduces the pass-along value. Rather than viral spreading (with each person voting and then telling at least one other potential voter about it), we now have a dramatic reduction filter of 95-98% at each connection, given that the vast majority would not bother to register. So for all the work and investment Guitar Center and Slash put into promoting this, building widgets for people to share via Facebook and MySpace, every visit when that hurdle is in place represents a missed opportunity.
And while some friends have certainly helped spread the word about Filthy Knuckle, I know the hurdle has cost us at least one substantial endorsement: that of my brother, comedian Eugene Mirman. No, it's not because he still holds a grudge for his broken thumb or stitches on both eyebrows acquired during the decade that I was bigger than him. Rather, he didn't want to impose on his 26,000 Twitter followers to go through the contest registration hassle.
Many of the bands have figured this out and have found a bit of a way to game the flawed system: since we are all registered, it's far easier for us to vote for each other than to get unregistered friends (and their friends) to vote. As a result, we are seeing bands offering to trade votes, become each others' fans, etc. The top band has 15 fans...we have 11. WTF?!
(By the way -- how's Filthy Knuckle doing? Ridiculously awesome, for some strange reason. With a Buzz Factor of 99.59, we are in the top 20 out of the 3,500 bands. I seriously can't figure that out, because these are real musicians, many with a great sound.)
What to do NOW?
The good news is that the contest will go on for several more weeks. So, I have three suggestions:
1. Guitar Center: Remove the "need to register in order to vote" hurdle. You'll be glad you did. There will be a ton more traffic and votes, which will further help separate the wheat from the chaff. (And yes, I'll be first to admit that "Motel Detroit" is chaff.)
2. HubSpot blog readers: Vote for Filthy Knuckle! (Seriously -- there's no better way to communicate the problem with the registration hurdle than hijacking the contest in a fun direction.)
3. Slash: Let's jam?! DM me.
Photo courtesy of Tim Griffin.
| Join Dan Zarrella, HubSpot's Social Media Scientist and author of the Social Media Marketing Book for a 30 minute overview of the Science of ReTweets! Date and time: Friday, March 19, 2010 at 1:00pm ET Reserve your spot now to learn what makes tweets contagious and how to create tweets that will go viral and increase your reach and authority..
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Times are tough for social media skeptics -- and today they got tougher.
Hitwise, a web analytics firm, announced today that in the week ending March, 13, 2010, Facebook surpassed Google to become the most visited website in the U.S.
Yes, you read it right: Google, the monolithic search engine that spreads traffic across the web like Congress spreads stimulus funds, now gets less traffic than that stupid website you joined so you could see what your kids are doing when they're not home.
Of course, smart marketers know that neither of those characterization is correct anymore.
Google is still a huge source of traffic, but the web is now bigger than just Google. And while Facebook may have started on college campuses it long since graduated.
Hitwise's numbers reflect this change. According to their report, the market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week from the same week in 2009. And Google? Well, they grew, but only 9%.
Marketers, ignore Facebook at your own peril.
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