MackCollier.com

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CMOs Say Social Media Spending Will Surge 46% in the Next Year

Catching up on feed-reading and I found a couple of articles I wanted to share.  The first was this one from Duke University that found that CMOs predict a healthy surge in Social Media spending over the next year, by 46%.  These same CMOs said that integrating social media into its existing marketing efforts is still a challenge.  More on this in a minute.

The second article came from the Wall-Street Journal, who interviewed Proctor and Gamble’s Chief of Global Marketing, Marc Pritchard.  Mr. Pritchard said that P&G is dangerously close to determining the true ROI of its social media efforts and that it involves defining “EGRPs [electronic gross rating point, a measure of audience reach]. You can look at what an impression from Google, or Facebook or Twitter is actually worth. Once we get that, we will start to get a common platform measurement…that the [Association of National Advertisers] is working on.”

There’s a reason why companies continue to struggle with finding the ROI of their Social Media efforts and in integrating them into existing Marketing efforts.  It’s because they are wanting to turn these personal communication channels into marketing channels.  They are attempting to measure their Social Media efforts through the lens of their existing marketing efforts and using the same metrics.

Social Media TODAY gives companies plenty of value that can be measured and extracted, but for most companies, it’s not the value they want.  Most companies want to turn their customers into marketers, and see Social Media as the channel in which to do this.

They are struggling with how to do this because, shockingly, most customers don’t want to be marketing mouthpieces for brands.

And yet, there are enormous opportunities for brands to leverage how their customers are using social media that many aren’t pursuing.  In the rush to figure out how to generate sales via Social Media by turning its customers into marketers, most brands are totally overlooking how their customers use Social Media can offer great potential for brands to save money.

For example, in 2008 Pitney Bowes created a User Forum for its customers so that they could help them with their customer service issues, and in turn, they could help each other.  By February of 2010, the company determined that at least $300,000 worth of calls to CS centers had been averted thanks to the user forum.

That’s a very basic example and it works cause Pitney Bowes in this case accepted how its customers were creating online content, instead of trying to force their customers’ actions with Social Media into a preconceived marketing funnel.

Social Media ROI, Customer service, Customer research

The issue isn’t that most companies don’t understand Social Media, it’s that they don’t understand their customers.

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Suck it Up, Buttercup: The World Does Not Owe You a Like or a ReTweet

“I won’t write those types of posts, they are beneath me”

“I don’t have all day to spend on Twitter, I have a real job”

“There’s no way he writes his own posts, can’t be”

“Did you hear what she charges to keynote? No way she deserves that much!”

“Yeah if I didn’t have any work to do I could probably spend all day on Facebook too”

 

The last four months of 2011 were my busiest ever since I started consulting on social media marketing in 2006.  I spoke at several major events, and did three Live #Blogchats in September alone.  In addition, I had regular consulting work for my clients plus a few other projects that were ongoing.

I was hella busy, but it was also the happiest I’ve been in years.  But around August of last year I made a choice which I now regret greatly.  I knew the last few months of the year were going to be insanely busy, so I decided to spend more time on my work and presentations, and less time on my blog and Twitter.

Big mistake.  While my work and speaking was very well received, not posting as often here or on Twitter meant my visibility suffered.  Referrals shrank, as did speaking and other opportunities.

But it was my choice.  Even if it was the wrong one, I have to own it and learn from it.  So after things calmed down a bit after Blog World last November, I began to realize that things were calming down TOO much.  That was when I decided that I needed to rededicate myself to my blogging efforts and time spent on Twitter in 2012.

So I got back in the swing of things in January then really kicked it up a notch last month.  Now, traffic is up, and I’m getting more referrals and work requests, even interviews.

The truth is, if I had my way I wouldn’t blog here everyday.  I’d write maybe a post a week, if that.  It wouldn’t be ‘5 Steps to….’ or ‘3 Reasons why…’, it would likely be ‘here’s what I think’.

But I don’t do that because I know that this blog is a tool I am using to build my business.  We are all responsible for our own actions.  This blog was in a bit of a tailspin in late 2011, and I own that, just as I am responsible for why it’s now doing better.

My point is that there comes a time when we all need to stop worrying about what everyone else is doing or saying, and accept that we are the masters of our own path.  ‘I don’t have time for that…’ is an excuse.  You have the same 24 hours in this day that I do.  We both decide WHAT we will spend our time on, and we both own the results.  Whether they be good or bad.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison

If you don’t have as many blog readers or Twitter followers or BUSINESS as you want, you can either find a scapegoat, or you can roll up your sleeves and do something about it.

UPDATE: I had some fun with my pal Chris Brogan in the picture above, so I wanted to include one of his videos which really ties into the theme of this post:

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Two Critical Components of Successful Social Media Marketing That We Often Overlook

Successful Social Media MarketingBuilding and Sustaining Momentum.

Monday was the biggest traffic day for this blog in over a month with almost 1,000 visitors.  I really wanted to write a killer post yesterday that would build off the momentum created on Monday, and maybe even result in a bigger day on Tuesday.

But I couldn’t do it.  I hit a bit of a writer’s block, and instead wrote a bit of a ranty post based around the rumors that CNN might by Mashable.  While that’s a topic that was interesting to me, I knew it wasn’t going to be an incredibly successful post, and it wasn’t.

Yet the interesting part is this: Traffic on Tuesday was up about 33% over the previous Tuesday.  Why?  Because of the momentum I had built here on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Here’s the Top 10 posts here yesterday, ranked by pageviews:

Building blog traffic, social media marketing

Note that Monday’s post accounted for 21.6% of the pageviews here on Tuesday.  Also note that the TWO posts I wrote here yesterday didn’t have a third of the pageviews of Monday’s post.

Thankfully, Monday’s post on optimizing your blog posts for search engines AND social media sites was still popular yesterday, so much so that it was the most popular post here for the 2nd day in a row.  And it might make it 3 days in a row today.  But the point is that the momentum created by the popularity of Monday’s post was able to carry this blog yesterday, when neither of the posts I published were very popular, based on pageviews.

There is something to be said for building and sustaining momentum with your social media efforts.  I think this is probably more evident on our blogs than anywhere else.  Most of us know what it’s like to go a few days, or maybe even a few weeks without posting regularly.  Life gets in the way, business gets in the way.  We lose interest and inspiration.

Then we get to a point where we are ready to ‘get back in the saddle’.  The problem is, we’ve lost our momentum.  3 months ago when we were blogging 3 times a week like clockwork, we were getting comments on every post and traffic was steady or increasing every day.

Now, our audience has left us.  We’ve lost the momentum our blog had, and it really is like starting all over.  But that’s ok, because we’ll get it back.  For the next two weeks we’ll again post 3 new posts a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Heading into that 3rd week, our traffic will be up sharply, and our commenters will be back.  We’re starting to get several emails a day about our products again, whereas for the past few weeks they had fallen to 1 or 2 a week.  Hmmmm….

My problem in the past has always been that I build momentum here, and then I reach a point where I tell myself ‘Ok, now the blog is humming along, I need to turn my attention to something else…’  And that’s when the wheels fall off.  Race your winners, and rest your losers.

Are you building momentum with your social media efforts? And if you are, how are you going to sustain that momentum?

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Think Like a Rockstar (VIDEO)

I’m thrilled to share the following video from my Think Like a Rockstar talk at Bazaarvoice’s World Headquarters in Austin back in January.  This isn’t the complete presentation, it’s right at 9 mins, but I think it’s the best 9 mins 😉  This video gets to the heart of why I think Rockstars do such a better job of marketing than most companies do, and it all starts with their approach and who they are targeting (Hint: Most companies and marketers are doing it wrong).

And here’s the slides from this presentation:

Think Like A Rockstar

Thanks again to my friends at Bazaarvoice for filming the presentation, I hope you enjoy both the video and the deck!

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Social Media and the ‘Nobility’ of Making Money

Social Media, making moneyThe big rumor this week is that CNN is in talks to buy Mashable.  I had to chuckle when I read some of the comments:

“Nooooooooooooooo! Keep Mashable independent!”

“IMO, this would make Mashable much less awesome instantly. I would probably begin to question it’s objectivity much more; one of the things that makes it great. No thanks.”

“Cashmore, what a fitting name.”

“Mashable will be mashed. CNN is fine, but they will certainly take the excitement and independence out of Mashable and just make it another site to find info you can get a thousand other places. A waste of money for CNN, but the Mashable owners can go straight to the bank.”

The Social Media space, for whatever reason, gets extremely jealous and snippy whenever there’s ANY talk of someone making money off their efforts.

For example, I’m thinking of two ‘thought leaders’ in this space.  Their identities really don’t matter.  What’s interesting to me is that these two people have a lot of similarities:

  • They are both avid content creators, covering similar topics, Social Media for business, Social Business, etc.
  • They both speak multiple times a month, all over the world.
  • They both work with similar clients (from what I can tell)
  • They make comparable incomes (from what I can tell)

Any yet, one of these people is routinely criticized in this space, and the other almost never is.  Even though they both create the same type of content, and do the same type of work for the same type of clients while speaking on the same type of topics at the same type of events.

The difference is:  One person is an independent consultant and the other is employed by a large company.  So while the consultant is frequently selling their services and publicizing products and services they are offering for sale, the other person doesn’t do that because they get a salary from their employer.

It seems that when we publicly talk about making money, even if it’s just to offer something for sale, that people go crazy.  No one seemed to mind the millions that Mashable has likely been making all along in ad sales, sponsorships, etc, but as soon as there’s a public rumor that CNN might buy them, the haters come out of the woodwork.

Why does this happen?  I suppose it’s human nature but it still aggravates me every time I see someone complaining about the money someone is making or that they think someone is making.

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How to Write Better Blog Posts That Both Google and Twitter Will Love

writing better blog posts, google, twitter, how to get more retweetsThere is a definite art form to writing blog posts that can give you both the short-term gain of being shareable on Social Media sites, and the long-term gain of ranking well with search engines.  Mainly, because you’re trying to reach two different audiences at the same time.  Content that’s shared on Social Media sites typically has a lifespan of a few minutes at best as it is quickly replaced on the person’s timeline/stream with additional items.  But with search engines, content is cataloged and then retrieved later when a relevant search is made.

So let’s think about the differences in those audiences, and how we reach each:

1 – Social Media sites – Blog post title needs to be catchy and attention-grabbing.  An interesting photo that grabs attention also helps for content shared on Facebook and Plus.  But the idea is, how can you grab the person’s attention for even a few seconds so you can convince them to click your link?

2 – Search Engine – Here, we need to write content that’s consistent with the search query.  You can already see a potential conflict with writing for Social Media sites in that we need that catchy, attention-grabbing title and blog post, but both also have to be CONSISTENT with the content of the blog post.  IOW, if we have a cute and sparkly title, but the blog post is crap/inconsistent with blog post title, it not only won’t be Liked, RTed and +1ed, it won’t rank well in search results either.

So we need to write a blog post that has both a catchy title that immediately grabs your attention PLUS one that will include content consistent with the blog post title that will also rank well in search engines.  Whew, glad we didn’t make it tough on ourselves 😉

Let’s tackle the blog post title first.  As I’ve blogged about before, when writing blog post titles the cardinal sin you can make is to simply summarize the post.  I think a lot of bloggers do that because they view the blog post title as an almost ‘throwaway’ item.  But the reality is, if your blog post title stinks, it kills the chance that anyone will click to read the post.

For example, let’s say you wanted to write a post about a recent study you had done on what type of tweets get retweeted on Twitter.  Let’s also say your research determined that there were 5 specific ways to increase the number of RTs you get.

So if we wanted to write a blog post title that simply summarized the blog post, we might go with ‘How to Get More Retweets’.  Because that’s a summary in the post in just a few words.

But Dan Zarrella actually did the study.  Look at the blog post title he chose: [Infographic]: 5 Scientifically Proven Ways to Get More ReTweets.  Isn’t that a great title?  Here’s what I like about the title:

1 – It makes a specific claim that the blog post backs up.  Dan’s research found 5 specific ways to get RTs, so that’s in the title.  Instantly makes it clickable.

2 – It solves a problem.  Want to know how to get more RTs?  Here’s 5 proven ways to do so.  This makes the blog post not only more clickable on social media sites, but also it helps with search engine results.  Now the one caveat to this approach is that by including an infographic, Dan isn’t including many words in the post, so that might hurt its ability to rank in search results versus a blog post someone else writes on how to get more retweets.

3 – It has the shiny word INFOGRAPHIC in the title!  This doesn’t really help with search engines, but does make the blog post do better when shared on social media sites.

 

Now I had to do a bit of revising to the title for this post.  Originally, I was going to go with ‘How to Write Posts That Google and Twitter Will Love’.  That’s ok, but then I realized that it wasn’t specific enough, and it was leaning a bit toward simply summarizing.  So I changed it to ‘How to Write BETTER BLOG Posts That Google and Twitter Will Love’.

Why the change?  Think about it, what are most people more likely to search for ‘how do I write better blog posts’ or ‘how do I write posts’?  So by adding ‘better’ and ‘blog’ to posts, I make the title more descriptive, and more search-friendly.

But I also need to make sure that the content of the post actually backs up the title, plus it helps if the same terms in the title, are in the post.  Note how many times the phrase ‘blog post’ is in this post?  Several times, and especially near the beginning of this blog post (see there it is again!).  That’s a cue to Google that the content of the blog post is consistent with the title.

So if you are wanting to optimize your blog posts for both search engines and social media, keep these tips in mind:

1 – Pick a catchy blog post title that’s also relevant to the blog post.  You want something that immediately grabs the attention of the reader because on social media sites, you’ll probably only have a few seconds to grab the reader’s attention before they move onto the next tweet.

2 – Focus on relevant keywords and phrases in the blog post title as well as the blog post itself.  Note that the term ‘blog post’ is in the title as well as the post, several times.  That’s a keyword phrase that I am focusing on because I want this blog post to rank well when someone searches for this term.

3 – Putting ‘Twitter’ in your blog post title gets you more retweets.  Dan proved this in his blog post linked above 😉

 

UPDATE: To prove the point that Social Media traffic (especially Twitter) can be fleeting, 20 mins ago Dan Zarrella RTed this post, and within 5 minutes there were 60 people online here, according to Google Analytics. That’s a record for this blog.  15 mins later, that number had fallen all the way to 8.

Traffic from Twitter is fleeting, if you are only optimizing your posts to grab traffic from Twitter, you can get a short-term bang, but you might miss the long-term views.  It’s best to optimize for both Search and Social.

NOTHER UPDATE: I just did a Google search for the exact phrase ‘How to Write Better Blog Posts’.  This post was published about 5 hours ago, and already it’s the #3 result on the internet for this term, out of over 50,000.  Not too shabby and with Dan’s RTing example above shows that this post is doing well for both Search and Social.

How to write better blog posts

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Blogs or Twitter: Which Tool is Better For Building Awareness? #Blogchat

Blogs, Twitter, Building Awareness

Last Sunday Brian Solis joined us and led a fabulous discussion on using blogs as tools to build influence. His #Blogchat was extremely popular, and based on impressions, was the biggest #Blogchat ever at over 30 Million impressions generated last Sunday night alone.

One of the points Brian made during the conversation was that blogs were better tools to build influence than Twitter was.  The basis of his reasoning was simple: Blogs give you a place to catalog your thoughts and opinions that will remain, whereas the lifespan of your tweets is usually a few seconds at best.

At first I totally agreed with Brian.  I mean, if you want to google my thoughts on how companies should use Twitter, you’re going to find the blog posts I have written on the topic, not my tweets.

But, I think there is something to be said for how Twitter allows us to build influence and awareness on an individual level.  5 years ago, I discovered smart people via the blogosphere, but today I find them via Twitter.  I think it also depends on how we best convey our ideas.  Do we need 500 words in a blog post to give our thoughts justice, or can we break them up into 140 chars on Twitter?

I am on the fence when it comes to deciding which tool is better for building awareness.  I think there are a few factors at play:

1 – How do we best communicate?  Do we prefer ‘real-time’ interactions with multiple people, or do we prefer to have time to think about our thoughts and put them down all at once in long-form?

2 – Do we let input from others shape our ideas, or do we prefer to share our ideas with others?  For example, I think this is why Seth doesn’t use Twitter.  Because he doesn’t want to have to ‘explain’ his ideas and debate them with dozens of people at once.  He would rather put his ideas out there, then the rest of us can have a conversation about them.  Or not.  Personally, I find that interacting with others usually helps me bring clarity and strength to my ideas.  But not always.

3 – Are we talking about an individual trying to build awareness and draw attention to themselves, or a company?  I think Twitter can be a better tool for individuals to build attention for their ideas.  But if it’s a group, I think a blog can be more effective.

 

What do YOU think?  If you could only pick one tool to use to build awareness for yourself and/or your company, would it be blogs or Twitter?  What are the advantages and disadvantages to choosing one over the other?

That’s what I’d like to discuss with y’all tomorrow night during #Blogchat!  We’ll start at 8pm Central as we always do!  And as you are getting ready, please feel free to share your personal experiences and which tool you think works better for you!

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It’s 2012 and the Idea that ‘Content is King’ is Still Total Bull****

Content marketing, blogging strategy

Yesterday’s post on how Seth approaches blogging drew a big response from y’all.  I got comments, emails, even phone calls about the post.  Some people agreed with me, others disagreed, but a nice and robust conversation resulted, which is all I could hope for.

Part of the reason why I wanted to write that post was to address a long-held belief in the blogging community that ‘Content is King’, and that if you create good content, blogging fame, numbers and riches will eventually come your way.  Just write good stuff, put it out there, and the blogging world is yours.

In my experience, this thinking is total bullshit.

Granted, creating valuable content is critical to your blogging strategy’s success.  But creating great content alone is NOT enough.  We have too many sources vying for our attention.  If you want to get your blog noticed, you have to first create content that I find value in, but second you have to make sure I notice it.

This is the main reason why I say that community is more important than content when it comes to being a successful blogger.  Simply writing amazing content isn’t enough for 99% of us.  We still need to engage with others in order to not only help that content get noticed, but engaging with others also improves that quality of the content we DO create.

When I first started blogging in 2005, I literally had no idea what I was doing.  So I started blogging, just writing posts every day.  And honestly, I think some of those posts were my best work.

But the problem was, no one was noticing them.  For weeks I wrote every day, and no one visited the blog.  No traffic, no comments, nothing.  I was beginning to think I wasn’t cut out for blogging.

At this same time, I was reading all the ‘top’ blogs.  I wanted to see what the ‘best’ bloggers were doing, in the hope that I could learn from their success, and apply it to my own efforts.  I didn’t really crack the blogging code, but along the way, I found a lot of interesting blogs, and began to comment on them every day.

So I kept blogging along, every day, creating (what I thought were) great blog posts, that got zero response.  Then suddenly after a few weeks, I started getting comments.  First a couple, then after a few days, every new post I would write would get comments!  At the same time, traffic went up, and incoming links started pouring in!  I loved the fact that I was suddenly getting comments and traffic, but had no idea where they were coming from.

Then one day a reader left a comment on a post and mentioned that they were commenting on my blog because they found my comment on their blog.  I went back and checked, and almost all of the comments I was getting, as well as the links, were coming from bloggers and blogs that I had visited first, and commented on.

I learned a very valuable blogging lesson that day: All the great content in the world is meaningless if no one sees it.

By reading and participating on other blogs, I was giving those bloggers and their readers an incentive to come check out my content on my blog.  And in doing so, I was getting comments on my content, as well as links.

And if you still want to say that you believe that Content IS King, that’s fine.  Because while Content may be King, Community is the Queen and SHE runs the castle 😉

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Seth Godin is a Very Smart Marketer and a Very Average Blogger

Seth Godin, blogging, marketing

Last night I saw where Kristy had linked to this post by Seth, where Seth points us to a list of 12 blogging mistakes you can make from SEOMoz.  Seth proudly acknowledges that he breaks at least 7 of these rules, and closes his post with this pearl of wisdom:

I’m not writing to maximize my SEO or conversion or even my readership. I’m writing to do justice to the things I notice, to the ideas in my head and to the people who choose to read my work.

The interesting lesson: One way to work the system is to work the system. The other way is to refuse to work it.

Seth has found a blogging strategy that works wonderfully well for him.  The problem is, it’s total crap for 99% of the rest of us.

Seth is blogging the way he wants to because he can afford to.  He had a huge audience BEFORE he started blogging.  That’s the key.  He already had a large group of people that were actively devouring any content with his name on it.  So when he launched his blog, it was an instant hit, and nearly a decade later it’s still going strong.

So does that mean that Seth’s interesting lesson has any relevance for you as a new blogger?  Sure….assuming that you have 2 million people on your email list, or just sold your company to Yahoo!, or have already written several successful marketing books.  And having a bald head helps, I guess.

Otherwise, you probably need to follow (or at least consider following) the blogging best practices that Seth so openly breaks.  Because you aren’t Seth Godin.

Which takes me back to the reason for this post.  Kristy’s right, millions of people all across the country AND world look up to Seth and treasure his advice on any topic.  And they typically do so with good reason.  But honestly, when Seth starts giving blogging advice, he’s typically outkicked his coverage.

Seth almost never adds pictures to his posts.

Seth writes horrible post titles.

Seth doesn’t allow comments on his posts.

Seth pays little to no attention to SEO.

And Seth can proudly do all these things, because his name is Seth Godin.  If his name was Bob Smith and he launched a marketing blog following his own blogging strategy, it would likely be a complete flop.  It would be a blog full of short posts with some great marketing advice that no one would likely ever find, because Seth wasn’t following any of the rules for building an audience and making his content more discoverable.

Here’s another interesting lesson: It’s a helluva lot easier to move an existing audience to a new place than it is to build one from scratch.

If you are a blogger that’s trying to build an audience for your blog, then there’s certain things you need to do to help your cause:

You need to pay attention to your post titles.

You need to think about what keywords you’ll work into your title and post.

You need to focus on SEO.

You need to include relevant pictures in as many posts as possible.

You need to seriously consider letting readers comment on your blog.

You need to do these things because your name is NOT Seth Godin, and in this case, what works for his blog probably won’t work for yours.

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Do We Own Our Failures?

failure

A few days ago I heard a fascinating interview that Paul Finebaum did with sports writer Don Yeager.  Yeager said that years ago when he started his career, his dad realized he would be in a position to interview a lot of great athletes, so he told Don that during every interview he should ask that athlete a question that he could learn from.  Even if their answer didn’t make it into the interview.  Over the years, Don explained that he made a habit of asking the athletes he talked to what made them great.  Why did they think they were able to consistently win, when other athletes that may have had more talent, could not.

He said that the most common reason that the great athletes he interviewed gave for their high level of success was that they personalized failures.  If their team lost, they didn’t blame the refs, they didn’t blame their teammates, they saw the failure as a result of THEIR actions.  As a result, these athletes learned to hate losing more than they enjoyed winning.  Other athletes that didn’t or couldn’t do this might have one game or season where they won big, but they usually couldn’t replicate this success.  Because they didn’t expect to win, and they were happy and even content with their success.

There are many different ways to look at this mentality:

  • It seems a bit depressing.  Because the athletes and coaches really can’t enjoy their success, because they are always pushing themselves to win the next game, because they feel they can’t afford to stop and celebrate the current victory (and in many ways, they are probably right).
  • If you have the right mindset, this approach can be incredibly liberating and empowering.  If you knew and accepted that your success was due to your own actions, then that can be incredibly inspiring.  There’s an age-old adage that great athletes always want the ball in their hands when the game is on the line.  They want the responsibility to make the play that will win the game.
  • On the other side, if you consistently fail, believing it’s completely your fault could have a detrimental effect.  Perhaps this explains why athletes get in slumps?

In a business context, how does owning failure translate into future success?  I think back to Dell Hell in 2005.  At first, Dell seemed to ignore Jeff Jarvis, and even at the time had a stated policy that they don’t respond to bloggers.  Over time, the company not only realized it made a mistake in how it handled Dell Hell, but seemed to use that episode as a catalyst to become far more progressive in using blogs and social media to connect with its customers.  The very tools that it shunned at first.  Owning their failure in the Dell Hell episode put Dell in a position to be the social media case study that they are today.

But on a personal level, do we always own our failures?  Should we?  I could see a downside to this, what if a manager puts more blame on her shoulders than she’s due?  Perhaps out of a sense or loyalty to her team?  For some, owning failure could spur them on to future success, but what if the failures became a weight that sapped their self-confidence and in a way became a self-fulfilling prophecy?

How do you handle your failures?