Greg Ness @ Sundog

Visual Sharing

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-08-31T19:52:25+00:00

We often think of content as primarily the written word, but an enormous amount of content that is shared each day via social networks and the Web is visual in nature. This type of content can take many different forms:

• Photos
• Videos
• Infographics
• Maps
• Charts
• Presentations
• Cartoons
• Art

Visual content is widespread. Almost eight billion photos are uploaded to Facebook each month. Over four billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube. Presentations uploaded to SlideShare get 130 million pageviews per month. The amount of visual content we are sharing with each other is staggering in scope and size.

Not only is visual content ubiquitous, but it can be tremendously effective too. We are bombarded by content – written, spoken, and otherwise – each day. Visual content often has a way of breaking through to get noticed. If you don’t have time to read a well-written story, article, brochure, white paper, etc., maybe a two-minute video will have to suffice. It’s easy to see what your friends did yesterday just by looking at photos they’ve uploaded to Instagram, Facebook or by checking out a foursquare map. Remember the adage: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Technology and the changing ways we are accessing social networks and websites can also favor visual content. Screen size is shrinking with the growing use of smart phones and tablets. It is one thing to read a well-crafted story on a 20-inch monitor, but that gets more difficult and less inviting on a four-inch smartphone screen. Conversely, a photo, video, map or graphic can still look inviting to view on your phone’s smaller screen. A recent Google study highlighted the fact that for over one billion people in this world, a smartphone is their primary means of accessing the Internet.

Written content has been, and will continue to be, an important part of good content strategy for any company, but it is only part of the focus in any complete content plan. Visual content is growing in use, and it can be tremendously powerful for differentiating your brand and driving important business objectives.

Social Olympics – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-07-31T23:04:41+00:00

The four-year cycle of the Olympics is one of those indelible events that can highlight how much has changed in a relatively short time span. In 2008, social media’s place in the Olympic Games was minimal. This year, social media is playing a significant role in conveying information about the 2012 Olympics to a worldwide audience.

This is underscored by the fact that in 2008 there were 100 million Facebook users. Today there are 900 million. In 2008, 300,000 tweets per day were sent. Today there are 400 million tweets per day.

With all this growth, social media is a bit like the Wild West. Olympic officials, athletes, sponsors, the media, governments, marketers, the public, and others are trying to figure out how social media should be utilized within the context of this global event. Social media has provided a new way for people to access and share information about the Olympics.

Of course, like any rapidly growing medium, there are a number of stories related to social media and the Olympics that have created quite a stir. With that in mind, here are some of the good, the bad, and the ugly headlines. It illustrates some of the opportunities (and problems) that social media brings into the mix.

There are many days left in the Olympic Games, so it will be interesting to see what other examples there will be in these three categories by the time the competition is concluded.

The Good

Olympians of smaller sports find fame on social media

Olympics: Social media 100 times bigger for 2012 vs 2008

Marketers to spend big in social media during Olympics

Mobile social media Olympic coverage is big

The Bad

Olympic-level social media growing pains

Twitter apologizes for mishandling of Guy Adams’ suspension

The #NBCFail Scale: How bad is the network’s Olympic coverage, really? [Related to above story]

London 2012 Olympics: Australian swimmer Emily Seebohm blames Twitter and Facebook for failure

The Ugly

Greek triple-jumper expelled from London for racist tweet

Swiss Olympic team expels player for racist tweet

British teen arrested for tweets threatening Olympic diver

Hope Solo, Brandi Chastain launch Twitter feud after U.S. soccer match

Marketing Execs Struggle To Keep Up With The Pace Of Change

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-03-01T18:16:09+00:00

Key marketing execs have had to cope with massive changes in the marketing ecosystem over the last decade or more. Most of the changes have been enabled by the Internet and related technologies. While this has provided wonderful new tools to fulfill marketing goals and objectives, keeping up with the amount of change, and the rate of change has been overwhelming for many marketers.

Life used to be so much easier in marketing. In the past, there were fewer options and change was easy for marketers to assimilate. No more. Marketing is now infused with technology and that has added a much higher level of complexity. All this information technology used to be the domain of the IT department, but now CMOs are feeling more like CIOs.

The chart here details some of the predominant sales and marketing methods used back in 1992, and contrasts it with some of the more common sales and marketing methods being utilized today – and this is by no means an exhaustive list! Not only are there many more possibilities today, but also many of these sales and marketing methods require considerable integration with websites, CRM, insight technologies, social media, lead activities, operational technologies, performance measurement, and The Cloud.

The CMO is still one of the most vulnerable of executive positions with an average turnover of a couple years. Certainly the pressure and difficulty of just keeping up to date in this metamorphic marketing era contributes to this instability. So what do you do if you not only want to survive in the new world of marketing, but also to prosper professionally? Here are five key steps:

Embrace change. This is not a time to dig your heels in and hang onto the past. Most of these new marketing activities are not fads – they represent real trends and changes. Go with flow, because in many ways these methodologies can help you achieve impressive results.
Data is your friend. Contemporary marketing is intertwined with the data that empowers it. However, it isn't just the data, it is having the ability to turn that data into knowledge and insights that you can use to improve your marketing results and develop even better strategies and tactics in the future.
Forge allies. You will need to build your power base to implement change. First, make sure you are aligned with the IT department within your organization. Without that alliance, it will be difficult to accomplish what you need to. Secondly, build your network. You can do that through LinkedIn groups, industry associations, relationships in your own executive group, and with those who can help you advance your knowledge.
If you can't build teams, you can't build your career. Because marketing is now so big and complex, you will need to create good teams that can work on various components of your marketing plans. You can't do it all, and you will need smart, dedicated people to assist you. This includes outside companies and resources too.
You are a student forever. Even if you delegate and have good teams and allies, you need to have a basic understanding of all these marketing components. You will need to access books, white papers, blogs, industry events, as well as view webinars to keep abreast of what is happening.

Doing the above will by no means guarantee senior marketers success in the contemporary world of marketing, but it should be an excellent foundation to ensure your company's growth and prosperity, and also advance your career.

Your Mom Was Right: It’s Best To Share (For Companies, Too)

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-02-21T04:37:34+00:00

Remember when your mom admonished you to always share? Share with your siblings, share with your friends, share with your classmates, and well, share with almost anyone who needs sharing.

Apparently, a lot of people took their mom's advice because we are now an ultra-sharing society. One way we do that is with content via blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Flickr, YouTube, Pinterest, forums, community pages, and a multitude of other online channels. We share as individuals and we share (or should share) as organizations.

If you represent an organization, the important thing to understand is that sharing now represents one of the best ways to showcase your company, people, brand, products and services. The days of telling, shouting, or trying to barge your message into peoples' minds is over.

The world is in love with sharing. It is confirmed through statistics such as these:

One in every eight minutes spent online is spent on Facebook.
We upload over 50 billion photos per year.
Every minute, 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube.
We share over 350 million tweets per day.
There are over 4 million blog posts each day.
Google+ is adding almost one million users per day.
We share our "resume" and thoughts with 135 million other users on LinkedIn.

This is the sharing economy, and if your company is not participating wholeheartedly in this active environment then chances are you are severely handicapping your opportunity for growth. This does not mean simply "covering your bases" by starting social media pages for your organization. That can be done easily. It means becoming an active and enthusiastic sharer of content. You can do it through a dedicated, consistent and thoughtful effort with blogs, social media pages, video, ebooks, photos, videos, articles, etc. You can also do it by curating relevant content from elsewhere. All the content you share doesn't have to be (and probably shouldn't be) solely content that you have created.

Think about what it means to share.

It doesn't mean simply posting self-serving information and then moving on. It doesn't mean just answering comments people leave on your blog or company Facebook and Twitter pages.

It means participating fully in the sharing economy. You can do that by engaging with people online in LinkedIn groups, sharing your opinions by commenting on other blogs, and interacting with other Twitter users. In other words, help your company become a true participant rather than a passive exploiter of this powerful communications trend.

The good news is that the sharing economy does not require the substantial investment that was prevalent in the past era dominated by Mad Men and paid media. However, it does require a new commitment to sharing content comprised of owned media, earned media and borrowed (curated) content from others containing proper attribution.

Take your mom's advice – it is good to share. And for companies, that advice is not only correct, but represents the soundest marketing advice for future growth.

Developing A Successful Lead Generation Program Takes Time

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-02-16T09:51:32+00:00

The good news: If you want to start creating more qualified leads for your business, there are wonderful new methodologies and tools to make it happen. The bad news: It isn't an instant fix.

If you are an organization that needs a steady influx of relevant leads to grow your company, there are many proven techniques and solutions available. However, it will take a long-term commitment to implement one of these solutions to make it happen. If you are ready to make that commitment, chances are you can create some impressive results over the next year. What kind of results should you expect? This chart from one solution provider – HubSpot – shows the average gain in leads over a 15-month period after commencing a lead-generation program.

This example is for a company that might get 1-5 leads per month off their website. If your company gets more leads now, simply scale the results up. As you can see, the rise in leads is exponential. There is a certain critical mass that needs to be achieved before leads begin accelerating. HubSpot's results are impressive, but you will probably find similar statistics with companies that focus more on marketing automation – such as Marketo, or targeted email marketing companies – such as ExactTarget.

Again, there are many good solutions, but before any of these solutions can be implemented and begin producing impressive results, key marketing commitments have to be made. One thing that most of these different solutions (HubSpot, Marketo, ExactTarget, et al.) have in common is a reliance on good content to drive interest and results. If lead generation is critical to your mission, it would pay you to explore the many possibilities out there to ramp this up for your organization.

Get Set For The Millennials: Are You Ready For A Sea Of Change In The Working Population?

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-02-14T04:43:59+00:00

It is easy to get complacent about demographics. When most strategists think of “demographics” the very word almost shouts s-l-o-w change. However, there is a quiet and swift generational turnover in this country that will likely take many companies by surprise. The millennials are arriving in force!

Millennials are people born between 1980-2001. They are also referred to as Gen Y, Echo Boomers and the Net Generation. They are a lot different than the Baby Boomers or Gen Xers, and that is why marketers need to pay attention. Currently, Millennials make up 33 percent of the workforce and by 2018 this number will rise to 50 percent.

What makes Millennials so different from other generational groups? There are five important differentiators to keep in mind:

Millennials are “digital natives.”They grew up with the Web and it is thoroughly interwoven into their lives. It is their preferred way of interacting and getting information. They are never far from technology. The takeaway: Your marketing had better be thoroughly integrated with communication technology and the important data that can be mined from this interaction.
They dislike friction and “middlemen.” They are used to going direct to get what they want. They don’t like obstacles such as limited hours, locations, or having to go through intermediaries to buy things or get information. The takeaway: Streamline your business model. If you don’t eliminate impediments or inefficiencies to buying, Millennials will eliminate your products or services from their consideration.
Pricing isn’t as important as service and transparency. Costs are always part of the equation, but keep in mind that this is a generation that is used to easily finding what things cost and comparing different sources. However, Millennials often make a purchase decision based on other factors such as brand reputation, good service, and responsible, transparent business practices. The takeaway: Don’t price the product; price the whole package so you can meet the needs of Millennials before, during and after the sale.
They trust their “community.”By community here we mean a much broader concept of community than previous generations. To Millennials, community includes a larger “social” community that they are used to interacting with on a daily basis: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Flickr, etc. The takeaway: The era of the social enterprise has arrived. Your business needs to be thoroughly integrated with how this group utilizes social media.
They want a unique, customized experience. They expect to interact with businesses on an individual basis. They want one-to-one interaction with brands, and they want to be heard in voicing their expectations and needs. This is not a quiet generation, and marketers need to use social tools to interface with Millennials before, during and after a sale. The takeaway: Utilize data to build a customized experience for Millennials, and develop your marketing strategy around that one-to-one relationship.

In the next six years, Millennials will become the predominant generation in the workforce. The time for marketers to start adjusting to this change is now.

1-2-3 Friday: How To Simplify Marketing (if only for a little while)

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-02-11T02:58:43+00:00

Marketing has been a large and strategic function at almost every company, but now it’s getting even bigger and more complicated. That isn’t going to change. Today, it’s infused with an incredible array of new channels, technology and analytic tools – that’s a good thing – but it makes the job of getting your arms around this sea of change daunting to say the least.

I am going to start with the assumption that you have marketing goals because if you don’t, there isn’t much sense in doing anything. That being said here is a 1-2-3 approach to simplify marketing in your organization:

Only do what you can do well. There is so much to learn in marketing and it seems like there is more to assimilate every day. Most days, don’t focus on what else you need to do, focus on what you can do well. For example, you might be far better off doing Facebook or LinkedIn well, before you move on to Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, Tumblr, Pinterest or other social channels. There is always more you can do. Fight the temptation to try to do too much if you can’t do it well.
Get help. Chances are if you want to do certain components of marketing well, you will need help both inside and outside your company to get it done. You need access to expertise and a passion for marketing strategy, channels, and tools . Nobody can do it all – whether you are a small or larger organization. You need to build a team to accomplish things. It doesn’t matter if that team is inside your company, outside your company, or most likely: both. The key word here is team, because, more than ever, that is the key to marketing success.
Repeat 1 & 2 above for a new marketing opportunity only if you can continue doing well that which you have already started.

Your goals and the level of your competition will help you decide how fast you have to move on all three of the above, but never let competition or zeal drive you to do something faster than competence or expertise allow.

Content Marketing Continues To Accelerate for B2B

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-02-09T11:42:45+00:00

Content marketing continues to be a hot topic for all marketers, but B2B companies are leading the way. Over 60% of B2B marketers say they will increase their content marketing efforts in 2012.

According to a recent study, 90% of B2B marketers do some form of content marketing. The study also reports, "On average, B2B marketers employ eight different content marketing tactics to achieve their goals. Here are the top 10 marketing tactics used by B2B companies:

Articles
Social Media
Blogs
eNewsletters
Case Studies
In-person Events
Videos
White Papers
Webinars
Microsites

Another growing trend is outsourcing. Almost two-thirds of B2B marketers are now outsourcing content. That is up from 55% last year. Content marketing is effective, but like most good marketing it takes dedicated and consistent effort and increasingly, B2B companies are looking for outside help to get it done.

There were four top goals for content marketing that were all running neck and neck in popularity: 1) Brand Awareness, 2) Customer Acquisition, 3) Lead Generation, and 4) Customer Retention/Loyalty. Increasing website traffic also ranked high on the list.

An excellent infographic – The Content Marketing Explosion – by BlueGlass Interactive does a nice job of summarizing the rise of content marketing.

It does not look like content marketing's momentum will slow down anytime soon. Social media, inbound marketing, and marketing automation are also increasing in usage at a rapid rate, and content marketing is a kingpin for all of these other marketing methods.

6 Steps To Turn Your Website and Social Presence Into A Sales Engine

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-02-07T03:32:21+00:00

For many companies, the most powerful and effective salesperson isn't a person at all – it is your website (traditional and mobile) and your social media pages. Good salespeople are a top asset for any company to have, but think of your website and social pages as the ultimate sales machine that can keep selling 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year to every corner of the country and globe.

When determining how to make your website and social presence a more powerful selling platform, think about what makes individual salespeople successful. Now apply those same success factors to your website and social media presence. Here are six things to consider:

1) Good salespeople benefit from good marketing. Marketing and sales are meant to work together to create success. How can salespeople be expected to make a sale considering the following: 1) nobody knows about your company or products, 2) nobody knows why you are a better option than your competition, and 3) there are few prospects to sell to in the first place?

? Now apply that to your website and social presence. Marketing is needed to create relevance, attention, interest, and desire (or at least curiosity) in the first place. There are so many ways to do that, but it all revolves around marketing. There are many "flavors" of marketing today. Take your pick: content marketing, B2B marketing, inbound marketing, marketing automation, social media marketing, and more. Better yet, use them all. The days of a website being static and unchanging "brochureware" are over. Every company now has the ability to act as publisher, media company, and high-powered marketing machine. Capitalize on this powerful new marketing reality and use your website and social presence to create leads and interest in your company, brand, products and services.

2) Good salespeople are networked. A common fact among great salespeople is that they are networked. They are well-connected.

? That is what you need for your website and social media presence, too. How do you get "well-connected?" It isn't difficult, but just like individual salespeople, it takes dedication, time and diligent, consistent work. You get well-connected on your website (and social pages) by employing good SEO practices. That includes good on-page SEO and developing quality, inbound links (connections). The more you work at SEO, the more connections you will have. This will bring more prospects and customers to your website and social pages and help you grow even more. That is why SEO is critical. It is also why it is important to grow fans, followers, etc. on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. All of this increases your network effect and your chance to reach more people and tell your story.

3) Good salespeople know how to qualify leads. Sales – especially in the B2B world and for high-involvement products – takes a lot of time. Chasing poor leads is counter-productive. Good salespeople know how to qualify leads to make sure time and other resources are being used wisely to work with prospects that are more likely to buy.

? The same is true for your website and your social media pages. The content on your website can help qualify the people visiting you online, as well as identify those people (with their permission), and decide when it is time to take the next step in moving them through the decision process (sales funnel). In B2B sales, most prospects don't want to interface with someone on your sales team when they are only in the research phase. Websites, and other tools, can now be designed to utilize content – as well as responses to that content – to let you know when it is best to help somebody with a buying decision and suggest things that may help facilitate a purchase of your products and services.

4) Good salespeople are persistent. Good salespeople are tenacious, but in a helpful way. They sense when somebody is getting closer to making a purchase. They are there to answer questions, overcome objections and move a prospect closer to being a customer.

? Your website and social presence should be persistent, too. How? By delivering relevant and timely information about your products and services to a vast potential audience. This can be assisted with a dedication to content and inbound marketing. Another powerful ally for persistence is marketing automation. Marketing automation is always permission based and it helps ensure you are regularly in front of potential customers with information that is useful to their buying process.

5) Good salespeople are insight driven. The best salespeople know how to give the right information and answers at the right time. Good salespeople know that the selling process is usually not neat and linear. It is often emotion based. Good salespeople help navigate prospects through the buying journey because they understand people's concerns or hesitations and are ready to provide answers.

? The key to an effective website, mobile site, and social media success is to make sure you have great insights, so you can effectively improve your efforts. There are many ways you can obtain insights into prospects and buyers, but it takes a dedicated effort and reliable data and information gathered with the use of powerful insight tools. Some of these are free. Others have a cost involved, but if used well, they can pay back your investment many times over. Examples include Google Analytics, Radian 6, Facebook Insights and the analytics tools that are part of Hubspot, Marketo, and ExactTarget. There are scores of other good analytic tools, also. You can't improve your marketing unless you learn from your marketing efforts and that is exactly what many of these tools provide.

6) Good salespeople never forget. No, good salespeople don't have some memory secret, but they do have powerful CRM tools that – if used correctly – can help them efficiently and effectively manage the sales process.

? To realize the full potential of your website, mobile site and social media efforts, it is important that marketing tools and analytic tools all tie back to a powerful CRM system so you never forget who your prospects (and customers) are, and what is important to them. Cloud-based CRM platforms, such as Salesforce, offer a powerful ability to do this (disclosure – we are a Salesforce Consulting Partner). In fact, Salesforce now embraces Social CRM, which integrates many of your social media and inbound marketing efforts into their CRM platform. In addition, there are many other cloud-based or private-cloud CRM vendors that also offer powerful solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics and Oracle Fusion.

If you want to improve the effectiveness and revenue potential from your online presence, think about it in terms of what empowers a good salesperson. It starts by considering the six points above. Apply the power of contemporary marketing and good sales principles to your website, mobile strategy and social media efforts. This will help you more quickly achieve important business goals.

The Digital Abyss

greg.ness@sundog.net (Greg Ness) — 2012-02-06T08:55:32+00:00

Most of the time we talk about all the wonderful things the Internet makes possible, and it does! However, there are still too many people in this world who don't have access to the Internet.

Economist Aleph Molinari, gives a powerful TED Talk about ways to bring the Internet to nearly five billion people who are without Internet access now.

Molinari talks about the Digital Abyss: a great divide separating 30% of the world that has Internet access from the almost 70% who don't. According to Molinari, the key is the Learning and Innovation Network (RIA in Spanish), a network of community centers that bring education through the use of technology.

It is a compelling talk, and an important topic if we are going to help poorer or remote areas of the world find a way to improve their economies and the lives of their citizens.