A member using 10kWeb’s Partner Program receives a dollar ($1) every month for every referral who signs up to use 10kWeb’s services with the potential to earn upwards of $10,000 per month in passive income.

Members are not required to invite others to join in order to enjoy 10kWeb’s resources. Groups of members or “Teams” are developed regardless through the marketing efforts of 10kWeb’s staff and other members.

Individuals who use 10kWeb are given access to hundreds of web page formats, each of which can be customized to the tastes and preferences of the individual, guaranteeing that your blog or website will stand out among the millions already on the web.

Creative Ways Local Businesses Can Use Social Media

1.) Complete all of your profile/page information. This is the least creative idea I’ll give you, but the easiest to knock out of the park. As search gets more social, it’s more and more likely your social profile could show up in search results. Make sure you’ve filled it out with adequate information about who you are, what you do, where people can find you, and how to get in touch with you. Of all the social media networks to consider when leveraging an organic search presence, Google+ is currently at the top of the pile. With its consistent incorporation of Google+ profile and page information into search results, brand presence on Google+ is quickly becoming a social media must.

2.) Monitor social media mentions. Of your brand; of related products and services; of your competitors. When people are talking about these things, you should be the first to respond with a coupon, information about your product or service, or just a helpful answer to their question. People use social media for real-time information, and if you’re the one who provides the answer, you elevate yourself as a local thought leader. This tactic will help you generate new leads, close more deals, or just keep prospects, customers, and your community happy.

3.) Keep track of where your prospects and customers check in. Many local businesses leverage mobile check-ins via networks like Foursquare to encourage foot traffic. But you can also use it to identify potential affiliate opportunities. Where else are your customers checking in? If you know where they spend their time, you also know where you should be making your brand visible with things like guest blogging, paid advertising, referrals, and co-marketing opportunities.

4.) Do a little stalking. Check out your fans’ and followers’ profile information to see what they like, and edit adjust marketing activities and communications accordingly. This helps you create buyer personas, refine the style, tone, and content of your messaging, and ensure you’re talking about the things your audience likes to prompt more social engagement.

5.) Become a resource for local events in your industry. Keeping your ear to the ground on events — whether live or web-based — that your audience would like to attend makes you an indispensable resource. Aggregate everything that’s happening in your industry, and maintain groups on social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, or Circles on Google+ that keep interested parties up to date on can’t-miss activities. And be sure to show up to these events, too; your future customers will be there!

6.) Maintain your presence on local review sites. Sites like Yelp! often appear among the top results in search engines. How does your reputation look? Consumers hold peer reviews in high esteem, and it’s crucial that their first impression of you is positive. Plus, these sites help answer common questions for customers like addresses, hours of operation, and contact information that people are frequently checking on their mobile devices when on the go. You should be actively involved in maintaining your reputation on these sites by keeping your business information up to date, soliciting positive reviews from happy customers, and working to resolve issues with those who have posted negative reviews of your business.

7.) Ask your employees to use their social networks on your behalf. National companies may ask their employees to do this, but they won’t reap as much benefit unless their employees connect with people that are overwhelmingly interested in their industry. Fat chance, right? But you know what people tend to have in common with lots of their connections? Location! If their networks know their friend or family member works for a local company, you can be sure they’ll contact them the next time they need a local dentist, doctor, health food store, pet groomer, t-shirt maker, customized widget designer…well, you get the point.

8.) Connect with other local businesses and consumers. Get active in online conversations. Connect with people that live in your city and businesses who are doing cool things in your area (especially if they could act as a referrer of business!). It’s important to stay locally connected and network with people even if they’re not directly related to your industry; you never know when someone has a secret passion for something you offer or a need arises further down the line for your products and services. Local businesses can use social media to remain a fixture in their local online community and at their brick-and-mortal establishment.

How do you leverage social media to grow your local business? Share your creative tactics in the comments!

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31036/8-Creative-Social-Media-Tactics-to-Conquer-Local-Competitors.aspx#ixzz1lScMoJFT

Example 1: It’s Vocus’ Fault!

This pitch was just your regular, run-of-the-mill email. At the bottom, it read:

This press release was sent through the Vocus PR platform. Should you no longer wish to receive these communications, please unsubscribe through the link in the footer. If you do not want to be listed on the database, please contact Vocus directly to request for your details to be removed: [PHONE NUMBER]

Source: Bad Pitch Blog

How Can You Make It Better?

Sure, many public relations professionals use databases like Vocus or Cision to get in touch with media professionals. It is also a great resource to gather more information about a journalist and help you build a relationship. But it is also interpreted by many to be a way to spam a lot of journalists in a short period of time. When using software to gather a list of names and email addresses, put some additional thought and research into it. Gather more personalized information about the journalist. What has he or she written about in the past? It’s fine to use information you source from your software, but it’s still important to make it a personal pitch.

Example 2: Acting Casual

i work with [XYZ] university school of
hospitality in miami,
a leading business school in the country specializing in the
hospitality and tourism industry
(with graduates living & working all over the world as business owners
- everything
from hotels, resorts, restaurants, catering operations, to special
events logistics companies
to department heads in major hospitality corporations- marriott, hilton, W- as
front and concierge desks, human resources, accounting, housekeeping,
beverage & revenue management departments, etc.)

and was hoping we could work together on a story
about what happens after graduation-

as you know, high schools & colleges are graduating a lot of students
come this april and may, and i would love to work with you on a story
that would
answer one of these 2 questions:

a). does an internship lead to a job? is it worth working for free?
b). what’s next- how to look for a job.

as you know, i work with [XYZ] School of Hospitality in Miami,
a leading hospitality school in the country,

a)
and i can introduce you to students who are interning,
and students who have gotten jobs as a result from their internship,

as well as employers who work with interns as well as with employers who
have hired their interns.

and one more option:
an interview with someone who got a job with another employer
as a result of a recommendation from the employer they interned for.

b). and if you wanted to work on the 2nd idea,
i can connect you with graduating seniors and academic advisor at
school about tips
she would have to land a job in this economy.

let me know your thoughts,
and we’ll get it done!

thanks much,
and i’ll speak w/u soon,

Source: Bad Pitch Blog

How Can You Make It Better?

Even if you have known a journalist for years, you should never be this casual in a pitch email. Pitches need to be professional and demonstrate your value as a resource. There should be no grammar, punctuation, or capitalization errors — especially not an entire, long-winded, rambling email full of them. Yes, bulleted or numbered lists to get your points across is a best practice, but it should be a concise, organized list. You may know everything about your company or cause, but the journalist does not. Make your pitch clear, succinct, and organized.

Example 3: Mail Merge

Hi FIRST NAME, I represent a major potato crisp brand that will launch an exciting new contest on Monday with a popular late night TV host. Readers of [your company] can win big including a chance to showcase their comedic talents and a trip to NYC. Our brand is as serious about blogger relations as we are about taste, so before sending you any details you could live without, our policy is to first ask for your opt-in. If youd like more information, just let me know and Ill shoot it your way Monday morning. Please let me know if you would like to hear more. Thanks!

Source: PRNewser

How Can You Make It Better?

Of course, the FIRST NAME error is obviously bad. But that’s not necessarily the main offense in this pitch. The problem here is lack of originality. The pitch is vague, and it doesn’t even include a compelling call-to-action. There is no reason why the reader of this email should opt-in to the offer, given he/she has no idea what it’s about. Even if you don’t want to reveal the full campaign, you need to give the journalist a reason to ask for more.

Example 4: Kind of a Stretch

Sinus Problems, Cancer Stand in the Way of Healthy Valentine Lips
Nation’s ENTs Urge Patients to Keep Lips Kissable

Alexandria, VA- What’s a Valentine’s Day without the kiss, and what’s a kiss without your lips? This year, the nation’s ear, nose, and throat doctors offer a reminder that healthy lips are the key to a memorable Valentine’s Day experience; unhealthy ones can indicate serious health conditions.

“Healthy lips are certainly important on Valentine’s Day,” said [Bob Smith], MD, member of the American Academy of [XYZ]. “Dry, cracked lips, which aren’t good for kissing, can be the result of sinus problems and nasal blockage from septal deviations and other causes. Those sinus problems can also result in snoring, which will take the romance right out of that Valentine’s night.”

Cracked lips can occur when a person with a blocked or stuffed nose is forced to breathe through his or her mouth. The flow of air decreases the moisture in the skin, and causes the lips to crack and peel. As a side effect of nasal congestion, stuffiness, or obstruction of nasal breathing, cracked lips add to the real discomfort of nasal congestion. The discomfort is one of the most common complaints seen by otolaryngologists.

“Cracked lips are just the tip of the iceberg when we discuss lip health,” Dr. [Smith] warned. “Perhaps most concerning is lip cancer, which can severely impact one’s quality of life, and in some cases, lead to death.”

Lip cancer usually appears as squamous cell cancer and/or malignant melanoma. Most squamous cell cancers occur on the lower lip, and can be caused by tobacco usage, UV exposure, or alcohol use. They may look like the more common, and less dangerous, basal cell cancers, and if caught early and properly treated, usually are not much more dangerous. If there is a sore on the lip or lower face that does not heal, consult a physician. Malignant melanoma classically produces dense blue-black or black discolorations of the skin. However, any mole that changes size, color, or begins to bleed may be trouble. A blackish spot on the lips, face, or neck, particularly if it changes size or shape, should be seen as soon as possible by a dermatologist, otolaryngologist/ear, nose, and throat surgeon, or at least by a primary care physician.

“Before you wind up with lip cancer, it might be a nice Valentine’s present to your loved one to give up those cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco,” [Smith] added. At the very least, make sure to protect your lips from sun exposure with a UV-rated sunblock, just as you do the rest of your skin, he said.

Source: Bad Pitch Blog

How Can You Make It Better?

It’s great when you can leverage the timeliness of a current event or holiday in your pitch, but it’s not great when that connection is unnatural and forced. Using Valentine’s Day as a way to talk about lip cancer will just make journalists feel uncomfortable, and it might even be offensive to some. Instead of talking about Valentine’s Day, research a few fundraisers for cancer that your business may be able to participate in. Sponsor a support group for cancer patients and their families. The key is figuring out other ways to connect your business to the cause. To top it off, this pitch is obviously just a press release, and it’s extremely long. Most journalists would’ve quit reading after the first sentence. Don’t just repurpose a press release as a pitch. Entice journalists with the interesting nuggets that get them asking for more information.

Example 5: Press Releases

Dear [Joe],

Please consider the press release below for publication in an upcoming issue, either on-line or in print.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Source: Bad Pitch Blog

How Can You Make It Better?

We started hinting at this in our last example, but let’s elaborate. In the past, a lot of journalists depended on press releases. What many people don’t realize is that, unless you accompany it with a compelling pitch, your press release will be ignored. Instead of sending something like the above, tell them some of the exciting news that your press release contains. Outline some of the main points into a list. Consider including information that the press release does not contain to show why it’s awesome. But do not rely solely on the press release.

What are other ways you can improve your public relations pitches?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31037/5-Real-Life-Examples-of-Awful-PR-Pitches.aspx#ixzz1lSbfecng

Turns out, there are some things that can get the little blue bird angry enough to shun you. When Twitter evaluates whether you should be removed from search results, what it’s really asking is whether you’re a spammer or a bot. Or, a human that acts like one. You may be a well intentioned but novice user of Twitter, or a marketer hell bent on getting visibility in quick and sneaky ways, but if you’re doing any of these things, you can bet you’ll soon find yourself removed from Twitter’s search results. Unless you’ve unknowingly been removed already.

6 Ways to Get Removed From Twitter’s Search Results

1.) Repeatedly posting the same link or tweet. Just like Google’s algorithm penalizes websites with duplicate content in search results, Twitter also penalizes tweeters who continue to post the same links or tweets in a misguided attempt to gain visibility.

2.) Aggressively following and unfollowing people. When you first sign up for Twitter, you probably (hopefully) find a bunch of people you want to follow. But you probably don’t find as many as a bot could. A best practice to avoid being blacklisted from Twitter’s search results for this offense is to maintain a logical follower:following ratio, or to simply amass your following accounts organically over time.

3.) Abusing trending topics or hashtags. These are words or phrases with a # sign in front on them that essentially allow you to tag your tweets. The growing popularity of Twitter chats with associated hashtags implies your overuse of a hashtag must be egregious to get you banned from search results, and it is likely also tied to the distribution of that hashtag’s usage across accounts.

4.) Sending automated tweets and replies. This behavior reeks of spam bots, but it’s still shocking to be on the receiving end of this behavior from time to time from marketers and business owners. If you’re using automated tweets and replies on Twitter, ditch it ASAP for a more personal response that won’t get you banned from Twitter search results and will likely garner you more social media success than this shoddy automation, anyway.

5.) Using bots or applications to post similar messages based on keywords. If you’re trying to get visibility in Twitter search around a specific keyword — and using bots or applications to do it — Twitter will interpret this as an attempt to game search results and dominate them with low quality content. The same rules apply on Twitter as on the rest of the web: content quality matters.

6.) Posting similar messages over multiple accounts. If you’re using a third party application to post tweets to multiple accounts, you may find this happening to you by accident. While some automation is great, make sure you’re putting in the time up front to ensure the content you select is unique to each account to prevent duplicate content and deliver more relevancy.

What to Do If You’re Removed From Twitter Search Results

If you find yourself an accidental offender and are removed from Twitter search, Twitter recommends you visit its help center to do some initial troubleshooting before contacting its support team. Some of the other reasons you might have no or low visibility in Twitter’s search results include:

1.) Your account hasn’t been indexed yet. If you just set up your account, it may take a few days to get indexed.

2.) Your profile is incomplete. Twitter gives search results preference to users with a complete name, username, and bio in their profile.

3.) You’re not interacting enough. Twitter considers those with the best reputations the most important ones to include in search results. And reputation, in Twitter’s eyes, is related to you tweeting with other users, mentioning their content, and getting mentioned in return. This can only happen with consistent and conscientious usage.

Until your visibility issue is resolved, your @replies to specific users will still be delivered to that user; they just won’t be visible in search results.

Like any online business, Twitter is trying to ensure a pleasant user experience for its tweeters. In the “Search problems” section of its Help Center, Twitter addresses relevancy, saying, “In order to keep your search results relevant, Twitter filters search results for quality. Material that jeopardizes search quality or creates a bad search experience for other users may be automatically removed from Twitter search.”

While the items listed above undoubtedly do jeopardize the quality of search and are concrete enough to algorithmically filter out, there are plenty of other things that can jeopardize user experience, too; namely, just being a jerk. There are been instances of vulgar content and harassment being filtered out of search results and some anecdotal accounts of people just being unsavory and getting nixed from search results, too.

If you’ve found instances of users being filtered out of Twitter search results who are not offenders of one of the items above, share it in the comments.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31062/6-Ways-to-Get-Booted-From-Twitter-s-Search-Results.aspx#ixzz1lSaFAyX4

Here Are 31 Fluffy Words Marketers Use Way Too Much:

1. Strategize: To create a plan-of-action to achieve a certain goal

2. Personalization: Alteration of a piece of content to fit a specific individual

3. Conversation: An exchange of words or ideas between two or more individuals

4. Impression: A single view of a piece of content on the internet; a set of eyeballs that saw something

5. Share-of-Voice: The percentage of people that a company owns for a specific topic or niche

6. Brand Equity: The value of a brand based on the public’s perception of it

7. Perception: A person’s personal opinion of something based on their own context

8. Positioning: The angle used for a specific piece of content

9. Engagement: Activity between a group of people around a company, concept, or each other

10. Listening: The act of consuming content or messages from others

11. Utilize: To use something….somehow

13. Effectiveness: A quality describing whether something or someone was able to complete a certain task or goal…or not

14. Efficiency: A quality describing whether something or someone was able to complete a certain task or goal based on the amount of effort the person planned to use

15. Organic: The quality of something achieved without financial support or paid online efforts (meaning you got it without spending any cash money)

16. ROI: Also known as “return on investment”—another buzzword! How much you got for how much effort or money you put in

17. Campaign: A bundle of actions that work together to achieve a certain goal

18. Synergy: The combination of two actions or ideas in one effort (more scientifically known as the red + blue = purple effect)

19. Evaluate: To reflect on a certain action, hopefully using numbers, to decide if the action was effective (hehe) or not

20. Awareness: A “measurement” of the public’s knowledge of something—like a company, campaign, or person

21. Branding: The act of associating a certain feeling, image, or idea with a company. What do you think of when you think of HubSpot? 1, 2, 3…GO!

22. Buzz: The amount of chatter around a certain idea, company, etc. This can be in the form of social content or even in normal, everyday conversation.

23. Viral: The quality of content items that are naturally shared from person to person in rapid succession (’cause they just can’t help themselves!)

24. Empower: To inspire a person or group of people to do something on their own

25. Optimize: To improve an object’s ability to complete something, so that object can complete that action either harder, better, faster, or stronger

26. Streamline: To improve a series of processes so it takes less time or effort to complete the desired task

27. Messaging: The central concept or idea that a marketer wants a person to understand when consuming a piece of content

28. Alignment: The shared goals and coordinated efforts of two parties to make something happen (think SMarketing)

29. Transparent: Open about one’s intentions and inner-workings, as well as open to feedback and able to admit mistakes

30. Authentic: True to one’s nature instead of putting on a front or putting up a facade

31. Influencer: A person who is capable of convincing a group of people to think a particular way or perform particular actions. Now go share this blog post.

As a marketer, at the end of the day, being clear, direct, and thoughtful with our words is going to work best when communicating to others—in writing and in speech. So don’t get in a marketing vocabulary rut (even we’ll admit we’re sometimes guilty of it). Instead, say what you mean, and you will be rewarded with better results.

What other fluffy buzzwords can you think of?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31068/31-Fluffy-Buzzwords-Marketers-Overuse-and-Abuse.aspx#ixzz1lSZUH2G9

LinkedIn’s conversion rate also outranked social media as a channel overall. In other words, of all the traffic that came to these business’ websites via social media, .98% of that traffic converted into leads, compared to LinkedIn’s 2.74%.

So why might LinkedIn be the most efficient social channel for lead generation, and how can you use that to your advantage?

People join LinkedIn to showcase their career, work expertise, and find content and information to make their professional lives better. So businesses who target other businesses will naturally find a higher concentration of their target market on LinkedIn. Also, when someone visits LinkedIn, the person is most likely in a business-focused mindset, helping business’ content perform inherently better.

So what about B2C-focused businesses? Less content is generally posted to LinkedIn than to other social networks, which is probably because people almost exclusively post marketing-related content as opposed to their children’s photos or social “chatter.” This means there is less clutter on LinkedIn, making a person capable of consuming a higher percentage of the content that’s active on LinkedIn at any given time. In other words, a business’ marketing posts are more likely to be noticed on LinkedIn than somewhere else.

So what should you do when you find a specific social channel that’s a slam dunk for your business?

How to Leverage Your Business’ Top-Performing Social Network

1. Invest time and effort to grow that specific channel. The trick, however, will be trying to maintain a quality network as your community scales.

2. Post more of the targeted content that’s working. If you notice people are specifically really enjoying blog posts, webinars, or something else — keep offering it! How can you tell what content’s working? Monitor comments, likes, shares, and clicks.

3. Find more opportunities to post relevant CTAs. Can you sprinkle more lead generation opportunities throughout your social media updates? It’s quite a balancing act, but a solid mix of calls-to-action (CTAs) and other content is healthy.

4. Don’t take success for granted – keep learning. It’s easy to get comfortable when something is going well. Remember, there are always opportunities to improve. Keep testing, analyzing your data, and increasing results!

What type of conversion rates do you experience per network? Is the data similar to your own results?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30030/LinkedIn-277-More-Effective-for-Lead-Generation-Than-Facebook-Twitter-New-Data.aspx#ixzz1lSYfxVng

Why don’t marketers and business owners find time to blog even when they know how important it is to meeting their marketing goals? Because blogging takes time you don’t have; you don’t fancy yourself a great writer; you can’t think of good topics on a regular basis; or any of the other myriad reasons people don’t blog when they know they should.

That’s why more and more marketers are turning to hiring an employee dedicated solely to blogging in order to keep their blog fed with top-notch content on a consistent basis. The problem is, the job title “Blogger” is relatively new, and as such, it’s hard to know what exactly you should be looking for when hiring someone to blog for you. Luckily, we’ve hired more than one blogger in our day. So we thought it would be helpful to share the qualities to look for when hiring a blogger for your company — whether freelance, part time, contract, or full time.

Writing Ability

Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. A blogger should obviously be a great writer, but blogging is very different than writing a book, a grant, or even marketing copy. Your blogger must excel at explaining complex concepts through short form content, and be clear and concise so your audience finds the content helpful. While applicants who excel in other forms of content creation may also be fantastic bloggers, those qualifications don’t necessarily mean they can also blog.

Subject Matter and Industry Expertise

In order to provide relevant content for your audience, your blogger must be an expert on the subject matter about which he or she is writing; therefore, it’s crucial to hire a blogger who is knowledgeable about your industry. Does your blogging candidate stay up to date on what your competitors are working on, what thought leaders are publishing, and what developments are happening in the news that they should be commenting on? During the interview process, ask them about what blogs, publications, and authors they read regularly. Then follow up with more detailed questions about which types of content they find most helpful from each source and why. This will give you insight into whether they are truly an active member in your industry’s community and passionate about the subjects that matter to your company.

Company Knowledge

A blogger should make active efforts to understand your company’s mission and integrate themselves with members of every department — sales, customer service, development, everyone. Working with other departments not only acts as helpful content fodder, but it also provides insight that’s crucial to bloggers’ ability to understand their audience and write content that addresses the issues they deal with on a daily basis. Couple that with really “getting” your company’s mission, and you’ll have content that consistently aligns with your thought leadership position, even on the most controversial issues. While this quality can only truly be sharpened once the candidate is hired, you can get a sense of whether your blogger understands its importance by the company knowledge he or she brings to the interview. Have they done their homework about your business? Do they bring up the importance of company knowledge as a blogging best practice?

Detail-Oriented

Now that’s a resume buzz word if I’ve ever heard one! But if you hire a blogger who pays close attention to detail, he or she will be able to take your blog from good to remarkable. So ask them — do they notice if text isn’t wrapping around an image correctly? Do they preview posts before publishing them to make sure there are no layout problems? Do they check links to ensure they aren’t broken or directing to the wrong page? This kind of due diligence should be second nature to them, and a great blogger will already have a process they use to ensure posts are buttoned up before they’re published.

Socially Active

Online, at least. Blogging and social media are two peas in a pod; as your social reach grows, so does your blog readership, and vice versa. Your blogger should take an active interest in growing blog readership through social media. Even if you have a social media manager dedicated to your growth on social networks, your blogger must understand the importance of social media and actively work to promote blog content on their own networks.

SEO Knowledge

Likely, one of the reasons you’re blogging is because of its SEO value. And whether you have a dedicated SEO manager or not, your blogger will be dealing with SEO concepts every day. The best bloggers not only understand SEO concepts and the part blogging plays in organic search success, but can also execute SEO initiatives in their blog content. That means they effectively internal link, write great anchor text, craft effective meta data, know which keywords to target in each blog post, and can create keyword-rich content without keyword stuffing.

Editor Extraordinaire

A great blogger is good at self-editing and editing others. Being a great editor means much more than just proofreading, too. They should be able to identify the difference between a good and bad topic, give critical and useful feedback to other blog contributors, and help make people better writers so the quality of the content on your blog is upheld.

Understands Effective Blog Layout

There’s more than one way to lay out a blog post and structure your business blog, but there are some best practices every professional blogger should know. Ask your blogging candidate to draw out what a good blog post looks like. Did they draw social sharing and follow buttons? What about a subscribe module? Does their post include an image and a call-to-action? How many lines of text do they allow at once? Have they used headers, bullets, and other formatting tools to visually break up text and make information digestible? If these concepts are second nature, you have a good blogger on your hands.

Diligent Researcher

No matter how much subject matter expertise your blogger has, he or she will have to write on subjects about which they need more education. It’s only natural; with new developments and natural inclinations toward certain topics over others, continual learning is just a part of life. But a good blogger won’t be intimidated by the prospect of learning new ideas and will know how to go about finding more information to help inform their content. Make sure the blogger you hire incorporates research and personal education in their day-to-day routine, and make a practice of hiring lifelong learners.

Metrics-Driven

Does your potential blogger know how to report on how many leads your blog drives? The inbound links you’re getting because of blog content? How much traffic your blog gets? Your business blogger should understand how to measure the effectiveness of a blog and consistently analyze the metrics that will let you improve your blog’s performance and meet your monthly marketing goals.

Totally Gets Blogging

Finally, ask yourself one question: do they *get* blogging? Sure, sure, blogging is really important and marketers should be doing it. But do they really believe that, or are they just touting what inbound marketers are saying? An exceptional blogging hire truly believes in the critical importance of blogging to reach your marketing goals and can explain that to any dissenters — whether internal or external. Candidates who are drunk off the blogging Kool-Aid will be the best gatekeepers for your blog, and they’ll be the ones who work tirelessly to make your blog even more amazing than it already is.

Have you hired a business blogger for your marketing team, or do you plan on hiring one this year? What qualities do you look for in a blogger?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31145/The-Rockstar-You-Need-to-Hire-to-Manage-Your-Blog.aspx#ixzz1lSXEgg1Y

Promote and Support Sales and Marketing Communication

The first step to get Sales and Marketing to collaborate is promoting constant and open communication. Encourage the sales team to give feedback on lead quality each month. This process will help marketers better understand which types of leads are most likely to close so they can generate better quality leads. Just be sure to back this up with data (more on that later).

You should also encourage marketers to sit in on sales calls and help close deals when called upon so everyone understands the value of each marketing generated lead. This action will make Sales and Marketing feel like they are fighting the same battle. Everyone in the organization should buy into this notion of alignment; the sales and marketing executives at your company should be meeting regularly to discuss the SMarketing strategy and communicate it to the rest of their teams.

Finally, try scheduling a weekly SMarketing meeting to rally sales and marketing and celebrate their efforts as a joint group. Here are some examples of motivating SMarketing topics:

SMarketing wins: Be sure to celebrate big wins from both Sales and Marketing like creative upsells, customers you won over a competitor, and company coverage in important publications.
New product features: Have your product marketers share new product features with Sales to make them more knowledgeable about the product and stay up to date on the changes you’re making.
Lead flow and sales waterfall: Track both teams’ progress month to date, and share the results to ensure you both teams hit their numbers.
Final thought: Close the meeting with a motivating final thought that will keep both teams positive and inspired.
Measure and Hold Teams Accountable

Once you get the communication process going between Sales and Marketing, keep it moving in the right direction. In addition to working collaboratively, the teams should be encouraged to discuss any misalignment or frustrations in a constructive manner. One way to keep opinions valid is to make everyone support their claims with data. The tracking and discussion of these two critical data points help keep Sales and Marketing accountable for SMarketing success.

Lead flow: Be sure that Marketing is measured on the volume and quality of leads they hand off to sales. The quantity and quality of leads for which Marketing is accountable should grow month over month in order for the business to grow.
Percent of leads worked and close rates: The percent of leads worked will measure your sales organization’s productivity related to the leads Marketing provides. Sales should be working leads at a high and steady rate so the marketing team’s hard work isn’t for naught. As Sales works their leads, the close rates from lead to customer should also remain steady. If the worked rates and close rates decline, it may be an indicator of poor lead quality or lack of sufficient team members to handle the lead volume.
If Sales thinks the lead flow was light in the past month, give them the numbers from months prior so the discussion is based on data, not feelings. If Marketing thinks Sales isn’t working their leads, get lead data that shows the percentage of leads worked in a given month. All of this data will keep Sales and Marketing data-driven and accountable for their efforts while validating or disproving feelings and opinions.

Create a SMarketing Agreement

One of the best ways to hold your Marketing and Sales teams accountable is through a Service Level Agreement (SLA). In an SLA, the level of service is defined and agreed upon by both parties; in this case, the SLA is the agreement that Marketing will deliver a certain number of leads at a certain quality for Sales each month, and that Sales will work a certain number of leads the Marketing generates each month. This SLA can be tracked throughout the month so both Marketing and Sales can track their progress. Once the SLA is in place, Marketing is responsible for delivering and Sales has nothing to complain about if Marketing is meeting or exceeding the SLA goals. Be sure to consider the following when setting up your SLA.

When you create the SLA, be sure it’s in terms that are easy for both teams to understand. A points based SLA is typical, but the value of a point may not be understood by the entire team. Think about converting your SLA into dollar values so that it will better resonate with your organization.
Consider both the quality and quantity of the leads you deliver in the SLA. Higher quality leads — leads that are more likely to convert or close — should have a higher point or dollar value than low quality leads.
Once you’ve established the SLA, allow yourself some time to test it out before promoting it to the larger organization. You may need to make adjustments to your SLA once it’s implemented.
Integrate Your Sales and Marketing Software

As mentioned earlier, data can be the “truth glue” that holds your SMarketing efforts together. It keeps both sides honest with one another and solves for any conflict that may arise between the two teams. The best way to generate data between Sales and Marketing is to integrate your sales and marketing software. This integration benefits both sides with valuable data to improve their results. By integrating two systems such as HubSpot and Salesforce, you can see the entire lifecycle of visitor to a customer. With this closed-loop integration, Sales is able to track the online behaviors of their leads to make what would have been a cold call into a warm call. And Marketing can get a better understanding of where their best leads come from, meaning which types of leads will most likely convert into paying customers. Marketing can then better allocate their time and resources to maximize their ROI effectively.

How is your SMarketing relationship? What do you do to keep it harmonious, and what problems are you still experiencing?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31067/How-to-Align-Sales-and-Marketing-for-Results-Not-Just-Harmony.aspx#ixzz1lSWOYTDH

So what’s all the hulabaloo around Google’s privacy updates? There’s a lot of misinformation circling out there despite Google’s attempts to clear the air, so let’s break down what exactly Google has done with users’ information, why there is so much controversy around the privacy changes, and what marketers can learn about privacy, user data and information, and mitigating controversy from what has become a mildly dramatic news story.

What You Need to Know About the Google Privacy Updates

So what exactly did Google do? Well, because it has so many different products and features, Google had over 60 different privacy policies. So to clean things up a bit, Google decided to release a new privacy policy that condensed all of those individual policies into one shorter, easier to read document that will take effect on March 1, 2012. In the policy, Google explains what information they collect and why, how that information is used, how to access and update your information, and with whom that information is shared. Here’s a synopsis of what the new policy says, which you can read in full on Google’s Policies & Principles page.

The Information Google Collects: Google collects information in two ways. Either you give it to them when you sign up for a Google Account — like your name, email address, telephone number, or credit card number — or Google collects it when you use their services — like the websites you visit, how you interact with ads, the device you’re using, where you’re located, and search queries you’ve entered. You can view the full list of information they collect here.
How Google Uses That Information: The information Google collects is used to improve its products and services and deliver more relevant content. For example, Google may tailor search results and ads, record communications with Google to help contextualize future conversations, or record your language preferences for a consistent user experience across all products.
How to Access That Information: You can review and update your personal information by controlling the type of information tied to your Google Account, editing your ad preferences, adjusting how your Google Profile appears to others, controlling with whom you share information, removing your information from Google services, and setting your browser to block all cookies associated with Google services.
Who Sees That Information: Most people have to give Google consent to share your information with anyone outside of Google. The exceptions are if your Google Account is managed for you by a domain administrator like Google Apps, or if there are legal reasons your information must be shared with a third party. When Google uses affiliates or business partners to process information, they will have access to your data but must comply with Google’s Privacy Policy.
Why Is There Controversy?

Whether this comes as a surprise to you or sounds like pretty standard stuff, I think the controversy stems from three feelings.

1.) Once Burned, Twice Shy – In the ongoing controversy around online privacy, Facebook is often cited as an offender because of its habit of quietly changing privacy settings, opting people into less private settings that makes pieces of profile information suddenly public, and then forcing users to navigate a less-than-intuitive interface to regain control of their privacy. When you combine this history with a Google user base in the hundreds of millions — not all of whom understand the intricacies of cookies, IP addresses, and server logs — the worst case scenario is bound to be assumed. Congress even wrote a letter to Google asking the company for further clarification on its collection and usage of private information, and the security measures Google has in place to ensure that information is securely encrypted.

2.) It Is Kind of Creepy – Sure, it’s not like Google is collecting any information about us that it didn’t already know. Google just did a better job explaining it with this new, concise, and jargon-free privacy policy, and they are going to use the information more effectively to ensure a consistent user experience across all Google products and services. But to some people, the extent of Google’s insight into our lives is just plain creepy, and the big brother potential gets imaginations going. Google even released a video speculating this new use of information across multiple products and services “may even mean we’ll be able to tell you when you’ll be late for a meeting.”

Bottom line is, more people get how their information is collected and used that might not have understood it before. While some people see this as something that will make their online lives more efficient and personalized, others interpret it as just plain creepy.

3.) Having Control Over Your Privacy Is a Stretch – Google is publicizing this privacy update as one that gives you more control over what information you share, and what information you keep private. But the truth is the only way to fully opt out of sharing your information isn’t a viable option at all — because you have to stop using Google and its products almost entirely. It’s a fair clause; you have to agree to the privacy policies of the other companies with which you do business. But when your product or service is an integral part of the everyday lives of millions (if not billions) of people, opting out is a reach, making personal privacy a myth.

What Marketers Can Learn From Google’s Approach

Whether you think the privacy update is no big deal or the beginning of the end of privacy on the internet, there are some lessons marketers can learn from the privacy controversy Google is navigating.

Google had until February 16th to respond to Congress’ letter of concern, but it had its ducks in a row and got back to them immediately. Google understood that the sooner questions are answered, the sooner we can all move on to another controversy.
Google’s reliance on valuable user data is just like ours. The lead intelligence marketers gather based on visitor site behaviors is a crucial part of lead nurturing success, and contributes directly to our bottom line. It would be foolish not to use the information you have about your users to improve their experience with your product or service.
Google knew this change would face some criticism, but it mitigated backlash by being extremely clear and public about the updates. Along with email communication about the change, every time I use a Google product or service, I see this:

So instead of hiding its changes like Facebook did, Google took the time to make these changes visible across all of its products, and provided more than a month’s notice before the changes go live so any questions can be answered and concerns alleviated.

Google used different content formats to make this information more easily palatable. It created an FAQ for those who don’t have time to read Google’s entire privacy policy (short as it may be), a glossary for those who don’t understand some of the little jargon it used in the new document, and even created a video that explains the changes and the benefits it provides the user.
Finally, a consistent and convenient user experience is something all businesses should strive for. From your website, to your product or service, to your messaging and communications, your prospects and customers should feel like less of a number, and more of a person. If we’re in an age where information is everywhere, what level of privacy do users expect? And how much are they willing to sacrifice a great user experience for control over their personal information? I suspect as with most updates of this nature, the controversy will die down once users realize that not only will Google move forward with these updates, but Google is too intricately tied into their day-to-day lives to extricate themselves from usage.

Do you think Google’s privacy update means something dangerous for the state of privacy on the internet?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31183/What-in-the-Heck-Is-Going-on-With-Privacy-at-Google.aspx#ixzz1lSVo6J9X

This week, some of the most intense shots yet were fired in the battle for the eyes and mind of the world. Stop. Listen for a second. Do you hear the cries and confusion? Those are the cries of the publishing and broadcast executives.

As a marketer, you should be cheering.

Amazon’s Unwavering Assault on the Publishing Industry

Brick and mortar bookseller Barnes and Noble announced this week that it would no longer stock books published by the digital book juggernaut, Amazon.com. “What’s that?” you ask? “Amazon publishes books? But I thought they only sold them.” That’s right — Amazon is a book distributor AND publisher.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Amazon said it sold millions of Kindle electronic reading devices, but the business still came in a billion dollars in revenue below Wall Street expectations.

But Amazon doesn’t care.

As reported by the New York Times, Amazon published 122 books in the fall of 2011. This number is seemingly insignificant when compared to the total number of books published by all publishers during the same time period. But what doesn’t matter, because a secret about the publishing industry is that it makes most of its money from a small group of best-selling books and authors. Amazon understands this and seems willing to lose money in order to take the best and brightest writers away from traditional publishing houses. And with more than $6 billion in the bank, it can.

Barnes and Noble, citing the lack of ability to sell ebooks from Amazon’s published works, has decided to return the favor by not selling the print versions of those Amazon-published books in its stores. This marks a continued battle for control over distributing the words of the world.

The Third Wave of Media

Salar Kamangar, CEO of YouTube, believes that we are in a third wave of media. At an event in California this week Kamangar said, “The first wave was the broadcast networks. The second wave was cable networks. Now, it’s about giving people exactly what they want to watch today.”

Mashable reports that YouTube has invested more than $100 million into premium content channels around niche topics including food, fashion, pets, and fitness, making it clear that YouTube is willing to spend money to be a major player in this third wave of media. This week, YouTube hired Bruce Seidel, who oversaw shows on the Food Network and Cooking Channel, to lead programming for YouTube’s new food-focused channel. According to a New York Times article, Seidel hopes to “discover new stars and galvanize the niches that are driving the internet food conversation.”

User Experience and the Third Wave of Media

Since the early beginning of the internet, pundits have discussed the rise of internet-based entertainment, but the fact of the matter is that online video has never really made it into the living room. One core barrier that is too frequently ignored is the user experience of watching online video compared to watching television. People watch television to relax, and having to click a new video to watch on YouTube every three minutes is not relaxing. Plus, you have the added anxiety that, for many people, the computer equals a device, and devices subsequently mean stress.

It is the deficiency of user experience that third wave media companies have to overcome in order to infiltrate the living room. But Kamangar, who plans to launch 100 niche content channels on YouTube this year, says, “The idea is that you’ll subscribe to a channel, and you’ll go and just keep watching.”

Niche AND Quality

The knock against many ebooks and online video shows is quality. The fact of the matter is that because anyone with a computer or video camera can create an ebook or online show, the quality and production value in many cases is much lower than that of traditional publishing houses and cable networks. That’s why Amazon is signing top-quality authors and YouTube is hiring some of the best minds in cable programming. Both of these companies understand that, to take over the living room, the core content has to be remarkable.

The idea of remarkable content isn’t anything new. However, content has the potential to become even more remarkable when it is applied to a niche. And that niche factor is the leverage third wave media companies have over the first and second wave media companies. Imagine if 100 new cable networks launched this year to cover niche topics. It simply wouldn’t happen. Online video providers and ebook authors’ best shot at disruption comes from a laser focus on increasing content quality standards while still serving and representing niche communities currently underserved by cable networks.

Change Is Hard: AKA Why This Hasn’t Already Happened

The fact that the world is constantly changing isn’t news to any of us. We write it off as a fact of life. Despite this constant change, we are at a paradox. Change is easy to hate, especially major disruption to our daily routines and habits. And it’s not that we as people or as a society don’t want to change. It’s the simple fact that change is exhausting.

Chip and Dan Heath explain this idea perfectly in their book, Switch. The Heath brothers write: “Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that’s the second surprise about change: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.”

The way we read, watch, and consume information is changing at the pace of a rapid turtle. This means that you won’t blink and suddenly live in a world where no publishers exist, but every couple of months, a stack of small changes starts to become noticeable, and the media world becomes slightly different. Before you know it, a few years have passed, and the media world is completely different.

Marketing in a Transitional Media World

It’s time to find your niche. The way information is distributed is gradually yet radically changing around us, which means you can’t wake up years from now and decide that it’s time to change. It’d be too late. Instead, you need to take action now to be an active part of this transitional media world.

Start executing on these four action items today to not only survive, but also succeed in the next generation of media.

1. Find Your Niche – Your niche isn’t the product you sell. Rather, your niche is the subject matter that is of greatest interest to your prospective customers. If you sell supplies to auto body shop owners, then your niche is content about operating a successful auto body shop in every facet of the business, even those for which you don’t have products to sell.

2. Balance Quality and Velocity of Content – The challenge of content in the online media landscape is that content has to be high quality enough to stand out, but also be agile enough not to be out of date the moment it’s published. The only real way to know what a good quality/velocity balance is for your business is to test different options to understand what works the best for your niche. You can do this by changing the frequency in which you publish blog posts and other content. Do you get more leads and engagement when publish a blog post every day, or once a week? Do blog posts that you spend more time polishing and improving generate more traffic and leads than other posts? These are the elements to test as part of your marketing content.

3. Have a Personality – Don’t be bland. Look at the text or videos that capture your attention. They probably have a clear point of view and an interesting tone. Don’t be afraid to be fun, sarcastic, edgy, or any other tone that aligns with your brand and products.

4. Start Planning Beyond the Desktop Computer Screen – For most of us, we still think of a computer as the device that sits on our desk with a big screen that isn’t touch-sensitive. But from the Kindle, Nook, and iPads to iPhone and Andriod smartphones, the definition of a computer has changed. Yes, these changing devices will impact your marketing content. And it isn’t just about their size, but it’s also that they all have one key element in common: touch. Start thinking about what your content looks like in a world without mice (the computer kind). It will have a huge impact on how we design our content and collect information from our leads.

Success of digital-only magazines like the Daily demonstrate that consumers are willing to not only consume but also pay for touchable content that is personalized for their devices. Survey your target audience, and understand what devices they are using to consume information. Then make sure your content works well on the most popular devices.

Change is here.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31182/How-the-Third-Wave-of-Media-Is-Transforming-Marketing-Content.aspx#ixzz1lSUl2diT