building your fan base with content and social tools
DESCRIPTION
PreCon presentation for Digital East 2012 on using content to grow and engage your fan base.TRANSCRIPT
Overwhelmed by “experts”
Practical Approach for Success
1. Offer value with content and knowledge
2. Share and engage (links)3. Build reach – grow audience4. Generate leads5. Sales and Conversions6. Measure performance7. Tweak and repeat
Success on the social web
The importance of reach
SharingContent
Sharing Content
60%Links to third party content
10%Direct promotions
30%Links to company
content
Links, Reach & SEO• SEO-driven leads have the highest lead-to-close rate
(15%) among common lead generation sources. Paid search leads average a 7% rate, while outbound marketing leads (e.g., direct mail, telemarketing) close at a 2% rate. (Econsultancy)
• B2B marketers believe social media is critical to organic search success. Marketers rate social media as the second-most important factor (64%) in search, behind only strong content (82%). (BtoB Magazine)
• 57% of B2B marketers say SEO has the biggest impact on their lead generation goals. (Mindjumpers)
Build your network• Search on key phrases in each
network, and in Google• Look for highly engaged people,
pages, and groups• Use listening tools to find influencers• Find creative ways to connect, share,
follow – engage!
Maintain an Online Influencer list Blog/Publication/Organization First Last Type Beat/Focus URL Twitter Linkedin Facebook
Facebook Group: "Cloud Computing" FB Group Cloud Computinghttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_8450870046
LinkedIn Group: "Cloud Computing" LI Group Cloud Computinghttp://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=61513&mostPopular=&trk=tyah
Cloud Computing Blog: "Chaotic Flow" Joel York Blog Cloud Computing http://chaotic-flow.com/ chaoticflow Cloud Computing Blog: "Cloud Computing" Chirag Mehta Blog Cloud Computing http://cloudcomputing.blogspot.com/ chirag_mehta Cloud Computing Blog: "Cloud CTweaks" Blog Cloud Computing http://www.cloudtweaks.com/ cloudtweaks
Cloud Computing Blog: "Infoworld Cloud Computing Blog" David Linthicum Blog Cloud Computinghttp://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/blogs DavidLinthicum
Cloud Computing Blog: "SaaS Blog" Blog Cloud Computing http://www.saasblogs.com/ datamation Cloud Computing Blog: "Smooth Span" Bob Warfield Blog Cloud Computing http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/ BobWarfield Cloud Computing Blog: "Software as Services" Phil Wainewright Blog Cloud Computing http://www.zdnet.com/blog/saas zdnet, pchilww Twitter: @Health_IT TW Healthcare IT health_it Twitter: @HITNewsTweet TW HealthcareIT hitnewstweet
Facebook Page: "Healthcare IT News" FB Group HealthcareIThttp://www.facebook.com/healthcareitnews
LinkedIn Group: "Health Informatics Technology (HIT)" LI Group Healthcare IThttp://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=40096&mostPopular=&trk=tyahLinkedIn
LinkedIn Group: "Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society" LI Group Healthcare IT
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=93115&mostPopular=&trk=tyah
Facebook Page: "National Cyber Security Alliance" FB Group Cybersecurity http://www.facebook.com/staysafeonline
LinkedIn Group: "Information Security Community" LI Group Cybersecurityhttp://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=38412&mostPopular=&trk=tyah
Twitter: @cybersecure TW Cybersecurity Twitter: @msftsecresponse TW Cybersecurity
LinkedIn Group: "IT Specialist" LI Group General IT
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-Specialist-Group-37485?gid=37485&mostPopular=&trk=tyah
Use content & knowledge to engage
60% of the sales cycle is over before the buyer even talks to your salesperson
Corporate Executive Board
You are a SubjectMatterExpert!
You know your customers best
LinkedIn: Information Security Group
It’s not about you
Remember, no matter what type of content you are sharing – it’s about your customers, not you!
Exercise 1
Write down three customer/audience pain points or priorities.
What do they care about?
Curating Content
• Internal: Make an inventory, organize by customer pain points, etc.
• Third party content: Scan consistently
• User-generated content: Engagement & content at the same time
Internal Content
• Whitepapers• eBooks• Presentations• Articles• Blog posts• Research
reports/summaries• Event video• Photos
• Infographics• Charts/graphs• 90 sec interviews• How-to video using
screen capture with voice-over
• Quick-start guides• Webinar recordings• Product demos
Third Party Content
• Industry publications• Video channels• Twitter feeds• Blogs• Articles• Podcasts• Books
• Photos/images• Infographics• Research• eBooks• Webinars• Tutorials
User-Generated Content
• Guest bloggers• Video from contest
submissions• Photos/images
• Customer curated content, Pinterest boards, blogrolls
• Best industry blog contest
Exercise 2
Pick one of the pain-points from the first exercise and make a list of content assets you have that could be valuable.
Layering content
ResearchReport
Exercise 3
Pick one of the content assets from Exercise 2 and make a list of new items to create.
Use a Social Content Calendar
Use a content dashboard
Use a Blog
Organize your content around customer priorities
Put CTA’s everywhere
Blogs and customer acquisition
Increased frequency of blogging correlates with increased customer acquisition. (Marketing Charts)
> than 1x per day 1x per month < 1x per month0%
10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
100%
% of bloggers who acquire customers via blog activity
Blogs: The single most important inbound marketing tool
• B2B companies with blogs generate 67% more leads per month on average than non-blogging firms. (Social Media B2B)
• When asked to rank the importance of the services they use, 25% of users rated their company blog as critical to their business, while a further 56% considered them either important (34%) or useful (22%) for a total of 81%. (Marketing Charts)
Engage with content
Case Study: CompTIA A+ Facebook Page
Exercise 4
Pick a customer pain-point/content asset from your list. Write down some ideas for engagement.
Reward engagement
• Listen• Be responsive• Make it all about people
Combine online efforts with in-person activities
Example: Pitch-it Contest
BIO Convention
Monitoring
Measurement & Analytics
Measure, learn, improve…and repeat
What business are we really in?
“Some say we should think like
publishers. I would add that we
are in the knowledge business.”
Tools
• Content Tools: Blog, Slideshare, Flickr, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram
• Content Dashboards: Google Reader, Netvibes• Analytics Tools: Argyle Social, Sprout Social,
Radian6, Socialmention.com, Hubspot• Facebook Contest Tools: Wildfire, Pagemodo
Be an industry Superhero
