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Every week as I write this post, a theme begins to emerge among the five stories. This week as I read each article, taking notes and identifying lessons, I felt no theme surface. Although each piece is valuable in its own way, there is no obvious connection as in past weeks.
And maybe this is the theme in itself.
There is an abundance of quality information and advice at our fingertips every day, but it is up to us to take those pieces and make them a cohesive whole. It is up to us to glean knowledge from dozens and hundreds of resources and use that knowledge to be the most effective marketers we can be.
So, this week's takeaway from Inbound Marketing.com? Craft your own theme.
Author: Dan Ronken
Attending marketing and communications conferences and seminars are a great way to learn more about the industry, meet new people and share information. Dan Ronken writes about his takeaways from a recent conference, Podcamp Boston.
According to Ronken, some of the best perks are the accessibility of industry bigwigs for personal conversations, the varying motivations to learn of the participants and the "authentic and caring feedback." For Ronken, it was a weekend that "reinforced the importance of connecting with people and feeling a sense of community. "
Lesson: Connect Offline to Be Effective Online
Author: SEOmoz Blog
As the interest in Twitter grows and more companies join the ranks of Tweeters everywhere, one question continuously pops up. How can my company get our information retweeted? Having other Twitter users retweet you can help significantly in attracting more followers or driving traffic to a link.
Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz suggests a few ways to optimize how you send your tweets. According to Fishkin, shorter tweets are better, the prime time to send out a tweet is between 9 AM and 3 PM, phrasing matters, and images will be more of a draw than a reading intensive article.
Lesson: Content Is Important, But So Is Context
Author: Jennifer Breazeale
Public relations was a topic that was only briefly mentioned in the first Inbound Marketing University. This time around, Todd Defren of SHIFT Communications devoted an hour to explain how public relations has evolved, and Breazeale gives a detailed recap and analysis.
Long gone is the time of public relations "corporate-speak-gobbledy-gook," Breazeale recaps. It's now the time to start a dialogue, make your content relevant and easy to find, and distribute your content and message to the right people.
Lesson: Forget What You Remember/Gobbledy-Gook Be Gone
Author: David Armano
Social media and new technologies have become abundant in today's world- some companies have jumped on the bandwagon while others are far from ready to take the leap. In his post, Armano discusses a few of the challenges he believes businesses may encounter as these new technologies transform the business world.
Companies will need to learn how to integrate the new technologies into their structure, deal with potentially delicate online situations, learn how to truly engage and participate and finally, find ways to measure the effectiveness and ROI of different online business strategies.
Lesson: Change Is Inevitable, So Plan For It
Author: Vera Raposo
Customer testimonials are an interesting topic. Used in the wrong way, you might actually annoy potential customers by over-promoting yourself. But when used correctly, customer testimonials are a great way to give your company credibility, says Raposo in her article.
Raposo states that a good rule of thumb when considering adding customer testimonials to your website or other materials is to make sure that 80% of the copy is informational, and only 20% is promotional. She also suggests highlighting testimonials from notable personalities or industry experts, setting aside a separate page of your website for testimonials or "success stories" and saving the most glowing reviews for your homepage.
Lesson: Promote, But Don't Gloat
Photo Credit: Markus Rodder
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