Webbiquity SMM

APRIL 19, 2011

There have been numerous posts written about the pitfalls of social media marketing (including helpful pieces from Online Social Networking , Sysomos , and one I wrote for HubSpot ). But the list below is a summary of the most common mistakes based on both my client experience and research for this recent presentation: How to Achieve B2B Social Media Success.

Social Media 193

Social Media Sysomos Case Study B2B 193

Webbiquity SMM

DECEMBER 13, 2011

Social networks are essential for expanding your web presence —not only for creating social signals now a key component in search engine rankings, which makes your website and blog easier to find in search, but also by giving you more places to be found online. Creating your profile on each of the major social networks is a first step, but just that.

Social Networking 190

Social Networking B2B Plaxo Marketing 190

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 10, 2011

The “ROI of social media&# (or lack thereof) is a hot, and still hotly contested, topic. I summarized arguments from both sides a few months ago in The Social Media ROI Debate. More recently, numerous writers including Olivier Blanchard , Neil Glassman and Mark Schaefer have tried to make the case that social media ROI is real, can be measured, and must be measured.

ROI 191

ROI Case Study Bazaarvoice Klout 191

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 23, 2011

Until recently, most social media case studies have focused on consumer brands. It’s not that B2B companies aren’t finding success in social media marketing, but more (in my experience at least) that they are less willing to publicly reveal their strategies for competitive reasons. Recently, that’s begun to change a bit as blogs like TopRank and Marketo have highlighted b2b social media success stories.

B2B 190

B2B Social Media Case Study Study 190

Webbiquity SMM

MARCH 18, 2011

An increasing number of companies are hiring for the relatively new role of “corporate social strategist&# (Jeremiah Owyang recently published a list of more than 260 corporate social strategists on the brand/buyer side , followed up by a Twitter edition of the same list here ) and there are thousands of self-proclaimed (and a few real) social media experts on Twitter.

Social Media 190

Social Media Retail Authentication Course 190

Webbiquity SMM

MARCH 28, 2011

Social media marketing has clearly been embraced by consumer brands. Pepsi famously dropped its Super Bowl advertising a year ago in favor of a social media campaign. Coke, Starbucks and Disney are among the top brands on Facebook , with millions of fans. SMR has developed a sophisticated methodology for continuously tracking the top brands on social media based on reach, satisfaction and other metrics.

B2B 190

B2B Social Media Comparison Discount 190

Webbiquity SMM

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

LinkedIn is firmly ensconced among the “big 3″ social networks for marketing and business purposes, and though its base of 80 million members is far smaller than the 600 million users of Facebook, its impact in B2B marketing is larger. According to recent research , 32% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to generate leads, versus just 16% who do so on Facebook.

LinkedIn 189

LinkedIn Tips B2B Findability 189

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 31, 2011

According to a recent presentation from HubSpot , “selling is 10X easier once you have established trust.&# Other than having something of value to offer, trust is the most essential element for business success. It removes psychological barriers and objections to buying, and makes people want to do business with you because they are comfortable.

Hubspot 188

Hubspot How To B2B Travel 188

Webbiquity SMM

JUNE 30, 2011

Personal branding is a hot topic for entrepreneurs and solo consultants, by does it matter to large enterprises? Oh yeah. Consultants and small business owners get the concept of personal branding , because in one-person or very small companies, one person is the “corporate&# brand. Having optimized profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook as well as personal profile / reputation management sites like Google Profile, Plaxo, LookupPage , VisualCV , PeoplePond and BusinessCard2 is crucial

Social Media 188

Social Media Brands Plaxo Insurance 188

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 7, 2011

Social media marketing has progressed from radical new idea to widely adopted practice in a remarkably short period of time. Just 5% of Americans said they were familiar with Twitter in 2008; by the fall of last year, that figure was 87%, and Twitter is now adding 300,000 new users per day. Facebook added more than 150 million new users in 2010. Three-quarters of b2b buyers use social media at some point during their purchase decision process, and marketers are responding with increased spending

Trends 187

Trends Social Media Marketing Technorati 187

Webbiquity SMM

AUGUST 23, 2011

Every blogger wants more traffic. How to get it? The key is a balanced strategy of search engine optimization (SEO), social media, syndication and guest posting. So where does blog traffic come from, and how does this change over time? Looking at data from the Webbiquity blog, several trends are apparent. This B2B blog isn’t necessarily representative of all blogs of course, but the trends likely aren’t much different for many business blogs.

Syndication 186

Syndication Data How To HootSuite 186

Webbiquity SMM

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Vocus and Cision are both powerful and popular PR monitoring and management systems. Both provide PR and social media professionals with extensive capabilities for tracking and growing media coverage of their organizations or clients. Among their features: • An extensive database of professional journalists and social media influencers, with biographical information. • Ability to monitor media coverage and brand mentions across a very wide range of sources. • Capability to set up monitoring prof

Vocus 185

Vocus Radian6 Tools comScore 185

Webbiquity SMM

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

WordPress is no longer just the leading blog platform , but is now the most popular open-source CMS (content management system) as well. Among the many reasons for the popularity of WordPress : it’s affordable, search engine-friendly, reasonably easy to use, and extensible through an incredible array of plugins. Discover some great sources for free and reasonably-priced themes, essential plugins you may not be aware of, SEO tips, and other interesting techniques and hacks here in a dozen o

WordPress 182

WordPress Content management systems Message Boards SEO 182

Webbiquity SMM

FEBRUARY 8, 2011

Blogging is often viewed as the core component of a B2B social media marketing strategy, and other than discussion forums, it’s the most mature component of social media. Facebook, Twitter and even newer tools like Quora may be sexier and get more attention, but blogs are the workhorses essential to making social media marketing work. Research from HubSpot shows that small businesses with blogs have twice as many Twitter followers as those who don’t.

Aggregage 181

Aggregage B2B Trends Hubspot 181

Webbiquity SMM

APRIL 11, 2011

Social media monitoring tools continue to proliferate in number and advance in functionality. The better tools not only show who’s talking about your company and where, but also display sentiment analysis, trends over time, competitive share-of-voice, measures of influence, engagement and more. But there’s one critical metric that remains elusive to measure.

Metrics 176

Metrics Social Media Adwords ROI 176

Webbiquity SMM

JULY 25, 2011

As online strategy increasingly is business strategy , web presence optimization (dominating the search results for your name and unique tagline) is now more important than ever. So I figured it was time to update my inaugural post on this blog, What is Webbiquity? How to Be Everywhere Online based on four questions that often come up: • Why is web presence optimization important?

Reputation 173

Reputation Directory Social Bookmarking Diagrams 173

Webbiquity SMM

APRIL 11, 2011

Social media monitoring tools continue to proliferate in number and advance in functionality. The better tools not only show who’s talking about your company and where, but also display sentiment analysis, trends over time, competitive share-of-voice, measures of influence, engagement and more. But there’s one critical metric that remains elusive to measure.

Metrics 167

Metrics Social Media Adwords ROI 167

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 14, 2011

A big part of the appeal of social media is its simplicity. Any teenager can set up a Facebook page and start sharing status updates with their friends. Any mom or dad can set one up to share pictures of their kids (and keep tabs on their teenagers). Anyone can record an event with a Flip and upload it to YouTube. Anyone can get on Twitter and follow Ashton or Oprah.

Social Media 167

Social Media How To Technorati StumbleUpon 167

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 5, 2011

The good news, particularly for the Minnesota-based Tweeters highlighted in The Nifty 50 Top Women of Twitter for 2011 , is that the list was highlighted in a morning news segment on WCCO, the Minneapolis CBS affiliate: On the other hand, the piece doesn’t actually cite the blog name (Webbiquity) or identify Cheryl Burgess or me (we are “well-known marketing bloggers&# which is flattering, but…).

News 156

News Blogger Groups Groups 156

Webbiquity SMM

AUGUST 17, 2011

Several great new features were recently added to the B2B Marketing Zone and Social Media Informer by co-founder Tony Karrer. One of the most obvious is that posts now include images, making the sites more visually appealing than the former text-only design. Both of these sites bring together content from leading experts and companies like Brian Carroll , Paul Dunay , Ambal Balakrishnan , Harry Hoover , Gini Dietrich –really too many to list.

B2B 155

B2B Features Social Media Aggregator 155

Webbiquity SMM

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

Jeremiah Owyang recently published a fantastic List of Corporate Social Strategists for 2011 (Buyer/Brand Side) , an impressive compilation of individuals either holding the title or performing the role of corporate social strategist, defined by Jeremiah as “the business decision maker for social media programs – who provides leadership, roadmap definition, and governance; and directly influences the spending on technology vendors and service agencies.&#.

List 155

List Twitter Brands Microsoft 155

Webbiquity SMM

APRIL 5, 2011

A growing number of community colleges, vocational schools, online universities, technical colleges and even big-name universities are now offering social media certificate programs (Google this if you like, I don’t want to legitimize any of them with a link). It’s understandable why the purveyors offer them—unemployment is high, social media is a hot topic, the federal government is still willing to spend our great-great-grandchildren’s future taxes on questionable education g

Social Media 151

Social Media Microsoft Policies Cost 151

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 16, 2011

HubSpot last week released the Marketing Data Box , a 3.4 megabyte, 65-slide data dump of marketing facts and statistics from a variety of sources. While there is some excellent information here, the wide range of topics covered (B2B, B2C, consumer demographics, TV, online, mobile, print…) ensures that while almost every marketer will find some information of value in the report, each reader will also have to sift through a bunch of figures and charts they don’t give a flying ratR

B2B 150

B2B Smart Phone Data Hubspot 150

Webbiquity SMM

AUGUST 1, 2011

A few weeks back, I had a chance to get away for a few days “up nort&# as Minnesotans say, for some fishing and relaxing with the family. While there, my mother-in-law took us to the Woodtick Theater , a bluegrass music show in the huge metropolis of Akeley (population: 432). The show itself wasn’t really my kind of thing, but then again, I wasn’t the target demographic (see below).

Discount 147

Discount Metrics Compete Groups 147

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 26, 2011

I was writing some web copy for a client the other day when I accidentally typed “oursourcing&# instead of “outsourcing.&# Now, being that I don’t exactly type with the fluid grace of a classical pianist, I make typos all the time. But this one caught my eye. It seemed like it should be a word. I envision it meaning something beyond doing it yourself, but less formal than outsourcing and less chaotic than crowd-sourcing.

Committee 140

Committee Collaboration B2B Project 140

Webbiquity SMM

APRIL 26, 2011

The SeoQuake team, the group behind the SEMRush tools for SEO and keyword research, recently released a new tool to help SEM consultants and agencies find local clients. SEMRush Geo displays Google AdWords advertisers on a Google Maps background, enabling users to identify the businesses within any geographic area who are running AdWords campaigns. Clicking on any businesses opens a small pop-out with additional information (which is also displayed in the left sidebar).

Consultant 137

Consultant SEO Adwords Tools 137

Webbiquity SMM

JUNE 14, 2011

Last week’s Online Marketing Summi t in Minneapolis drew an intense crowd of local agency and corporate attendees focused on learning the latest strategies for SEO and search, conversion rate optimization (CRO), QR codes, PPC, social video marketing, integrated analytics, social media measurement and more. It was three days of drinking from a firehose of expertise from an impressive lineup of speakers, but did the conference deliver the goods?

B2B 164

B2B Sentiment SEO Klout 164

Webbiquity SMM

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

Social media marketing has gone well beyond the hype stage and is now mainstream business practice. Still, questions remain: how do I use social media most effectively across the enterprise? Which social media monitoring tools should I use? What should I monitor for? How do I use my time and resources most effectively? What social media developments and trends should I be watching?

Social Media 257

Social Media Trendrr SM2 Alterian 257

Webbiquity SMM

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Over the last decade, business blogs have gone from being a novelty to a leading-edge practice to an essential element for any company seeking to optimize its presence on the web. According to Small Business Trends and HubSpot , the percentage of businesses with blogs has increased from less than half in 2009 to nearly two out of three in 2011. Why are so many companies now embracing blogging?

WordPress 185

WordPress Hubspot URL Widget 185

Webbiquity SMM

MARCH 23, 2011

Social media monitoring tools are increasing essential for companies of all sizes as the explosion of social media content renders manual monitoring efforts hopeless. But how do you choose one? With almost 200 social monitoring tools (and new entrants still coming to market), available at a range of price levels from free to if-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it, how does an organization select the right social monitoring tool for its needs?

Tools 193

Tools Social Media Sysomos Vocus 193

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 10, 2011

It’s hard to overstate the impact of Facebook. Having long ago passed MySpace as the most popular social network, Facebook recently replaced Google as the most-visited website in the U.S. It started 2010 with roughly 350 million users and is now on its way to 600 million. Founder Mark Zuckerberg was TIME magazine’s person of the year , was interviewed on 60 Minutes simultaneously with new features being rolled out on the platform, and had a movie made about him and Facebook’s

Facebook 210

Facebook B2B Privacy MySpace 210

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 3, 2011

How can you improve your blog’s position in search engines? Grow your audience? Effectively generate content contributions from subject matter experts in your organization? Produce more stylish and readable content? Find free, high-quality images to add visual appeal to your posts? Avoid common mistakes that can cost you traffic and goodwill? Discover the answers to all of these questions and more here in the final selection of the best guides and tips for business blogging from the past y

Tips 176

Tips Sysomos SEO WordPress 176

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 19, 2011

Web presence optimization (WPO)—using tactics like SEO, PPC, online PR, social media, content marketing and reputation management in a coordinated fashion to maximize your online visibility and business results—is the core theme of this blog. It’s also frequently written about in popular blogs and online publications, though strangely almost no one uses the term.

Tips 179

Tips Press Release Reputation B2B 179

Webbiquity SMM

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

If 2009 was the year many marketers puzzled over, poked at and pondered incorporating social media into their marketing mix, 2010 was the year of diving in. Adoption soared. According to a HubSpot study, 71% of marketers viewed Twitter as a useful marketing tool last year, up from just 39% in 2009. Facebook added more than 200 million users last year, and Twitter more than doubled in size, adding 115 million. 85% of Inc. 500 companies now call social media “very&# or “somewhat&# impo

Social Media 198

Social Media Tools Tips ROI 198

Webbiquity SMM

MARCH 31, 2011

When it comes to writing a social media policy , who should decide what goes into it? A) Marketing. B) Public Relations. C) Human Resources. D) Information Technology. E) Customer Support. F) Product Management. G) Legal. H) All of the above. The policy could end up looking very different, depending on the answer. After all, various functional groups each likely have very different views of what it should say.

Policies 167

Policies Social Media Groups Groups 167

Webbiquity SMM

DECEMBER 27, 2011

You know the statistics : Facebook is the most popular method for sharing online content. It’s approaching one billion users worldwide. 85% of B2B journalists are on Facebook. 61 of the world’s 100 largest companies maintain Facebook brand pages, as do 71% of B2B firms. Three-quarters of North American advertising agencies say their clients run PPC campaigns on Facebook.

Tools 195

Tools Tips Facebook Real Estate 195

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 31, 2011

Twitter came of age in 2010, growing at a scorching pace —from 75 million users at the beginning of the year to more than 190 million by the end of December. Twitter is used (officially) in 65 of the Fortune 100 companies , 63% of small to midsized businesses, and nearly half of all B2B enterprises. As adoption skyrockets, marketers are striving to optimize their use of the world’s most popular microblogging platform.

Tools 193

Tools Twitter Tips Hubspot 193