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Every successful conference around blogging, podcasting, social media, RSS and the like seems to bring up the inevitable comment 'why don't you have more B2B examples for us B2B marketers?'

Point taken. In fact, point very well taken. Take, for example, the concept of 'micro-celebrities', which was the recent topic of conversation for Robert Young and for Ed Batista at AttentionTrust.org. i think that we're so attuned as marketers to talking in terms of 'consumers' and thinking only of the B2C folks that we overlook the power of some of these tools within the B2B context.

Micro-celebrities is one of those things that I see as being even more powerful in B2B than on MySpace or anywhere else. Think about it, who are the micro-celebs in your industry? I bet you know them, have met them at a conference or can access them through journals or other industry trade pubs. Granted, often times these folks are either consultants or tied to your competitor, however, that's not always the case.

Let's take the example of 'micro-celebrities' on MySpace and turn it on its head for B2B.

When it comes to advertising in mass media, a big name is required since such campaigns are only effective if the viewer already knows who that celebrity is. But in a social network, micro-celebrities who are well known within their network of micro-communities could prove just as effective and potentially even more so, particularly if such campaigns are able to generate buzz, excitement and a cool-factor.

As for MySpace’s role in all this, they are in the unique position to know better than anyone (as the owner of the platform with all the user data) who the 'brand-safe' users are within its network.

Thus MySpace can effectively play the role of talent agent by aggregating a list of users who would be appropriate for advertisers within various categories. In fact, the incentive 'to be discovered' is likely to spur many users to express themselves in a manner that will position them favorably for consideration.

OK, so we're not going to be doing much B2B on MySpace, but we could leverage professional associations, organizations and conferences to do something like what KI just did with Healthcare Spaces author Roger Yee at the recent NeoCon 2006 show. Who the hell is Roger Yee, you might ask? Well, that's the right response. You probably shouldn't know...he wouldn't be a micro-celebrity if you did! However, for the healthcare furniture market or the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID), you know exactly who he is and a campaign targeted at your market would likely mean something to you. And you'd give it your attention! (after all, that's really all we have left - attention).

Getting after 'attention data' in B2B might be even less complicated than in B2C, and we could do it through the power of association(s). For example, if I'm a member of the DMA or AMA, and I attend their respective conferences, I am giving my attention to things like direct marketing or marketing research or something of the like. As a potential marketer to those folks, I need only to know a bit about the associations that they run with and the types of events they go to in order to more effectively target my marketing toward what my target base is paying attention to. It's still not the be-all-end-all for getting end-user attention data, but it's getting closer and it would seem easier to do with conference attendance and association membership because your target base is very actively self-selecting and directing their attention patterns.

Of course, smart marketers always want their customers to own their attention data, but I envision that we could see a major impact in B2B attention marketing if some of the larger associations were to promote services like the Attention Recorder.

Technorati Tags: attention, B2B + Marketing, micro+celebrity

Technorati Tags: agiletesting, marekj

Edelman vient de publier avec Intelliseek la seconde étude de sa série à propos du blogging en entreprise, "Talking from the inside out: The rise of Employee Bloggers".

Vous pouvez la télécharger chez Edelman ou Intelliseek. Un fichier pdf de 22 pages. Comme GuillaumeDuGardier, je n'ai pas encore pris le temps de l'imprimer pour la lire tranquillement, mais un premier aperçu rapide semble confirmer qu'elle est de la même qualité que la précédente.

Le communiqué de presse annonçant l'étude est disponible ici. Le truc marrant est de se retrouver cité, alors que je n'ai personnellement aucune affinité avec cette agence (même si j'ai eu l'occasion de pouvoir collaborer avec Rémy Ossard un des anciens dirigeants Edelmann Europe).

Technorati Tags: blogging survey, internal blogging, Edelman, Intelliseek

Source Guillaume PR Thoughts.

Jusqu'à présent blog et marketing n'avaient jamais vraiment fait bon ménage ! Mais la roue tourne et le blog n'est plus le seul domaine réservé des programmeurs et autres 'geeks sociaux'. Le business blogging se développe à une vitesse fulgurante et sort enfin outre-atlantique de son carcan d'adolescents et de techniciens !Le mouvement est amorcé.

Avec une estimation de 3 millions de blogs dans la blogosphère, plus de 10 000 blogs qui se créent quotidiennement, la récente arrivée des employés de Microsoft qui se transforment en porte-parole de la marque, la question n'est plus de savoir si l'entreprise doit bloguer ou ne pas bloguer, mais désormais de traiter le Comment Faire. Et en ce sens, les ressources pédagogiques issues tant des journalistes que des professionnels des relations publiques deviennent de plus en plus nombreuses et accessibles en ligne, prônant toutes l'honnêteté et l'intégrité.

Les blogs : nouveau phénomène marketing de l'internet ?

Cet article d'Information Week paru le 5 juillet 2004 délivre quelques clés et conseils sur les défis à relever pour votre société. L'auteur met l'accent sur la qualité et la pertinence du contenu pour gagner cette bataille qui se joue sur le long terme. Signalons aussi PSFK (un weblog) ravi de voir le monde des affaires se pencher sur le phénomène et publier à nouveau un guide bien construit sur le panorama du business blogging :  'How To' Guide for Business Blogging. Bien structuré et nourri d'exemples et d'erreurs à éviter, n'hésitez pas à le télécharger.

Hier c'était au tour du RedHerring d'y aller de son couplet avec un article titré 'How to build buzz on the blogs'. Une mise en garde pour les entrepreneurs qui ne verraient dans le weblog qu'une opportunité de se faire de la publicité à bon compte. L'auteur nous rappelle à juste titre qu'un weblog ne peut être construit uniquement pour faire de la publicité. Et que vous les aimiez ou que vous les haissiez, les weblogs peuvent vous aider dans votre stratégie marketing. L'argument restreignant le champ d'activité aux seules entreprises proche des technologies reste néanmoins plus discutable. L'auteur de l'article émet quelques recommandations pertinentes pour bien partir :

1. Prêtez un respect à ceux qui sont qualifiés de 'peer-influencers' ou de 'decision-makers' : ne l'oublions pas les blogueurs influencent les influenceurs
2. Gardez une trace de ce que les blogueurs racontent sur votre société. (http://www.technorati.com)
3. Faites-vous des amis en identifiant les 10 blogueurs qui veillent sur votre secteur d'activité et traitez-les comme vous le faites avec les journalistes
4. Souciez-vous de votre secteur d'activité et non uniquement de votre société. La plupart des blogueurs préfèrent se concentrer sur les technologies plutôt que sur les noms des sociétés.
5. Rejoignez-les en devenant un acteur dans la blogosphère : n'oubliez pas que les marchés sont des conversations. Parlez avec votre propre voix.
6. Attention à ne pas bloguer que pour la publicité ; les blogs et les relations publiques ne font pas toujours bon ménage.
7. Soyez vrai et restez honnête. Tout consiste à bâtir des relations à long terme.

Et en Francophonie ?

Malgré son développement fulgurant auprès des adolescents (forte contribution de SkyRock avec ses Skyblogs), le weblog reste encore jusqu'à preuve du contraire un outil très peu usité par les entrepreneurs francophones. Les articles de presse professionnelle communication sont rares. Et ne comptons pas trop sur les grands réseaux publicitaires et la vieille garde française des sociétés de relations publiques pour prescrire du weblog. La démarche est exigeante, longue et à faible rentabilité à court terme. Elle s'apparente plus à de la conduite du changement. Et à la limite de ce que j'ai pu pratiquer, les publicitaires ont toujours su se distinguer par une forte inertie à innover sur les micro-médias ? A mon humble opinion, je pense qu'il est encore inutile de compter sur leur potentiel de prescription à court terme.

Et pourtant, ce n'est plus de l'anticipation mais bien une réalité : les marchés deviennent des conversations mondiales... vous racontera Doc Searls co-auteur du manifeste des évidences  revenu sur mon bureau depuis une semaine.

Poursuivons l'activisme !

Les intéressés par le développement du business-blog francophone ont tout simplement intérêt à avancer ensemble en coopétition pour poursuivre l'éducation et l'ouverture de ce marché naissant. Et surtout raconter nos trouvailles et histoires vécues à d'autres publics que des informaticiens ! Le business blog n'est plus un problème d'outil. A cette heure, le weblog n'est plus un problème d'informatique. Les outils sont fiables. Le défi est un défi humain et un défi de communication. Ciblons donc nos publics en portant  la 'bonne parole' aux chefs d'entreprises, responsables marketing-communication et toutes les autres catégories de prescripteurs proches des communicants... D'après quelques observations personnelles sur le développement du phénomène outre-atlantique, l'inertie est énorme entre la sensibilisation et l'adoption par les chefs d'entreprises. Aussi à nous tous de poursuivre nos efforts. Continuons à bloguer (parler sur le web), racontons nos expériences réussies de business blogging, publions des guides méthodologiques et construisons des formations adressées aux prescripteurs et aux nouvelles générations de conseils en relations publiques numériques. L'amorce du mouvement est en cours :

• Coup de chapeau à  l'excellent travail opéré par Loïc Le Meur, entrepreneur activiste et promoteur européen de la plate-forme d'hébergement TypePad. Loïc contribue plus que fortement à agiter le monde de la presse pour mieux faire connaître ce micro-média auprès des entrepreneurs et leaders d'opinion.
• On suivra aussi avec attention les premiers pas d'une agence conseil basée en suisse (b.spirit) dirigée par Olivier Tripet . 'Cumulant plus de dix ans d'expérience en tant qu'utilisateur et programmeur en systèmes d'information et outils collaboratifs ainsi qu'une solide expérience dans le domaine IT et télécommunications',  b.spirit se spécialise sur ce marché du 'blog-consulting'. A ma connaissance, c'est une première. Et je ne peux que recommander de lire attentivement leur offre remarquablement présentée.
• Pour finir encourageons Benoît Desavoye en cours de rédaction d'un livre sur le sujet qui a enfin trouvé un éditeur.... et m'a invité à ce titre à la rédaction une section sur le marketing et le business-blogging.

Vous êtes chef d'entreprise ? Qu'attendez-vous...

Qu'attendez-vous pour vous demander comment y aller ? Qu'attendez-vous pour y aller ? Qu'attendez-vous pour essayer modérément d'ouvrir votre blog personnel ? Vous pourriez vous laisser tenter de vous mettre dans le sillage de ces chefs d'entreprise exemplaires comme  Joel Spolsky  (fondateur de FogCreek, la start-up qui édite le CityDesk). Une stratégie marketing simple : quelques essais d'achats de mots-clés sur google. Mais surtout quelque investissement personnel dans l'écriture. Et les chiffres sont là : <!--StartFragment -->en juin 2004, son weblog personnel (http://joelonsoftware.com) a reçu 455 000 visiteurs uniques et produit 3,8 millions de pages vues et ce simplement pour la version en anglais ! Pour finir, qu'attendez-vous pour consulter un professionnel ?

A ce titre, si ça vous intéresse je viens de terminer la rédaction d'un plan de formation orientée plus largement sur la Networking Attitude dans l'entreprise. J'y aborde naturellement le weblog mais plus largement tous les outils et leurs enjeux pour la communication externe et interne de l'enteprise. Pour un montant de 1500 euros H.T.(à partager si vous êtes plusieurs !), je me propose ainsi de passer une journée avec vous (sous forme de formation intra ou inter-entreprises - maximum 6 personnes) pour vous faire découvrir les usages et bonnes pratiques du logiciel relationnel dans le monde des affaires. (weblog, wiki, messagerie instantanée, buzz marketing,...). Si cette offre vous intéresse, appelez-moi au 06 03 96 04 92 ou envoyez un email. Oooops le compteur de mon système affiche 1258 mots. Je m'arrête. Merci d'avoir lu jusque là !   -- christophe@elanceur.org

For entertaining advice join hosts, Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe, for a lively and informative two-hour discussion.

Co-host Brad Forsythe interview Brian Steinberg, the advertising columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Prior to being appointed to his current position in 2003, Mr. Steinberg was a special writer and the media business reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, the Company's realtime, electronic news division. As Newswires' lead media reporter, he covered many subjects and companies and edited "The Pitch," a weekly marketing column, which he originated with another reporter in September 1999. Mr. Steinberg joined Newswires in 1997 as a reporter covering the telecommunications industry. Mr. Steinberg was a business reporter and columnist for the Capital in Annapolis, Md., before joining Dow Jones. He has also worked as a news assistant in the Washington bureau of the New York Times and as an editorial assistant for Spy magazine. His freelance articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Weekend, Entrepreneur and Entertainment Weekly.

For entertaining advice join hosts, Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe, for a lively and informative two-hour discussion.

Co-host Brad Forsythe interviews Jeff Diskin, Senior Vice President of Brand Performance for Hilton Hotels.  In his position, Diskin is responsible for providing strategic brand direction for the Hilton full service brand, targeting market share growth, meeting revenue targets, overall brand positioning, brand marketing, and establishing and maintaining brand standards. Prior to his appointment as Senior Vice President, Diskin served as President, Chief Operating Officer – Hilton HHonors Worldwide, and was responsible for the worldwide marketing and operations of the award-winning Hilton HHonors hotel guest loyalty program. He joined Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1989 as Manager of Business Programs, and later was promoted to Director of Business Programs for the company. Prior to joining Hilton, Diskin held a variety of account service, customer service, and creative management positions at Marketing Performance & Innovation (MPI), a subsidiary of United Airlines.

For entertaining advice join hosts, Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe, for a lively and informative two-hour discussion.

Online visibility and online traffic are, quite naturally, of paramount importance to everyone and anyone marketing or conducting business online, period.

While RSS will not perform as your key tool to improve online visibility and generate more traffic, its importance for helping you do so cannot be disputed.

It will help you:

• increase your traditional search engine rankings;
• improve your online visibility by making your content available where people are increasingly searching for new content, such as RSS search engines and content aggregation sites;
• drive traffic from other websites covering your topic, by helping you make your content available at these websites more easily.

Deliver Your News to Where It's Searched For: Generate Traffic From RSS Search and Content Aggregation Sites

The fundamental media shift is not only happening between offline and online, but within online itself as well.

Just a few years ago the search engines, the largest portals and news sites, were more or less the central hub of where online users got their online information. They still are today, but are now challenged by the growth of new online search engine and content aggregation website categories.
It's quite simple.

Go to Google, Yahoo! or MSN and do a keyword search. What you get are somewhat the most relevant results for what you're looking for ? but without a timestamp. Search engines provide results based on universal relevancy and not on recentcy.

But what if you're looking for the latest relevant content, instead of just the most relevant content?

Enter the news engines, content aggregation sites and RSS search engines. Instead of providing results by universal relevancy, these sites provide results by actual recentcy, with of course a better or lower level of relevancy.

The point is that these websites are starting to become the central hub of searching for news online and latest content online.

Google and Yahoo! know it too ? their own news engines are among the top of breed.

But what if you don't want to search for specifically the latest news or the latest general content, but just want to search for the latest blog posts pertaining to your topic of interest?

Enter blog search engines, which will only return results from blogs. And Google has one as well, although this one is not on top.

And so on ?

Why this matters to you?

If you want your latest content to be found where people are actually searching for the latest news and other latest content, even video and audio content, you need to start using these new search and aggregation site categories to increase your reach and attract new traffic ? traffic that is interested in what you have to say right now.

And the RSS connection?

Most of these new services, although not all, rely on RSS to receive the latest content just as it becomes available and then offer it to their visitors.

In many cases, RSS is the key tool that will get you indexed and then found and read, being used to get your content from your website to the service, which will then make it available to the world.

And additionally, you can expect to receive extra traffic from RSS directories, used by people who are proactively searching for new RSS feeds to subscribe to.

It’s been 11 days since I started my Google experiment, and I’m ready to declare it a success on all fronts. Not only did Gmail, Calendar, Finance, Search (and my browser of choice, Camino) live up to expectations, but I discovered some features and found the whole experience liberating and efficient.

Here’s a recap — tool by tool, again.

Camino

This little sharp-shooter didn’t miss a beat as my home base for email, calendering, stock quotes, and other daily information needs. In addition to the Google products that I was officially evaluating during this experiment, I ended up leaving Basecamp (for work) and Backpack open in Camino most of the time too. It was nice to have all of this information in one spot.

(Techie sidebar: Unlike Firefox and Safari, Camino’s memory footprint stayed nice and small over the course of the week. Even now, after running non-stop for 11 days, it’s using 581 MB of virtual memory and 85 MB of real memory. Not bad!)

Gmail

Did you know that Gmail has keyboard shortcuts? I didn’t. Other pleasant surprises include smart reply behavior, excellent handling of attachments and great built-in search (okay, that’s not a surprise, but it is pleasant!).

Perhaps the only downside to Gmail was getting weird looks from my co-workers. (Them: “You’re one of those now?”) Guess I’ll have to get used to it, because I’m fully converted! So long, Mail.app; it’s been fun.

Google Calendar

All around, Google Calendar feels like a nice step up from 30boxes. I barely used the Quick Add feature, instead opting to drag my events into place the “old-fashioned” way. I also appreciate the custom view (mine’s five days), Gmail integration and snappy performance at all times of the day and night.

Everything else

• I ended up using Google Local/Maps a lot more than anticipated. One handy feature is the ability to send business info (from Google Local) to your phone.
• Speaking of Maps — I used a couple of Google Maps Mashups a lot in the past week. Gmaps Pedometer is an oldie but goodie for figuring out how far I rode, and Yelp’s Maptastic is killer for finding a place to eat in a certain part of town.

All in all, a resounding success. Bravo Google! Imagine if they could apply this kind of innovation and quality to their advertising business… then they’d have something. (Kidding.)

For those of you playing along at home — how did it go? Any grand successes or failures?

Myth #1 - "It's easy, just put up a website and you're set for success"

Many perceive the sheer numbers of people online equates to enough of them coming to your site and making it consistently profitable. It doesn't quite work that way because if your site is out of sight, out of mind, then nobody knows it even exists.

Remember, when you search for something online, you go to a search engine, type in your phrase and you get pages of results. This is exactly what your customers do! Not only do you need to register on search engines, you need to be prominently registered - aiming for top ranking or at the least, second page results. Anything less will considerably diminish your chances of being found.

Now if you don't even register on the search engine radar, how will your customers find you?

Myth #2 - "Anybody can do it"

Very few people can do it right.

Attempting website promotion services on your own is disastrous. It is extremely time consuming and will greatly frustrate and disappoint if not done correctly. A lot is involved - the entire website promotion process is composed of several components that must fit together in a synchronised way in order for it to work properly.

Let's take just three of the many aspects of website promotion to illustrate this myth:

1. Keyword research
2. Copywriting
3. SEO Marketing

These form the backbone of any website promotion strategy, but how will you devise effective techniques for each of these when this area is not your company's expertise? Where will your company begin to research for keywords? Are they the correct ones? At what optimum density levels should they be used?

Your copywriting is crucial as is your SEO marketing. Who will write compelling and effective content to capture search engines, rankings and sales?

These are just three of the many components. All it takes is just one aspect to be done incorrectly and it can retard the whole process.

Myth #3 - "Presentation Is Everything"

In website promotion services, this couldn't be further from the truth. Content is what makes or breaks a site's effectiveness. If you put up a site with nothing except amazing graphics and flash, you have zero chance of selling anything. But if you put up a site with nothing but sales-pulling copy and rich content, you have every chance of securing business.

Presentation is part of the process; it's not the process itself. There's a fine balance that must be struck between visual appeal and effective copy. Professionals know how to integrate the two at just the right levels.

Myth #4 - "Sending Your URL to Thousands of Search Engines Is A Good Way To Get Business"

It's actually a good way to have your site banned or de-listed from search engines. Any company that offers to blast your site to thousands of search engines is a company worth putting on your blacklist. Unfortunately many businesses register thinking this technique works. All you are doing is spamming the search engines and they don't like it at all.

The best way to get business is having a results proven company put together a well planned website promotion campaign using the best experts available.

Myth #5 - "Website promotion is fast and yields quick results"

Whilst some aspects of website promotion are relatively quick, most of it is an extended process that takes time to research, develop, test and implement. It's not about getting a quick sale. Building trust and credibility with your customers takes time and often results in longer term relationships. Results are always contingent on the quality of the website promotion program. Naturally, profitable programs will yield much higher results over the same time period as mediocre programs.

The Author has put together a resource website strictly to educate potential and current business owners about website promotion. You can visit it at http://www.1web-site-promotion.com.

When you start out a home based business it's a common mistake to start off advertising your website. If you have a website with lots of things for sale on it you'll probably just end up confusing your potential customer. They may or may not be able to determine what it is that's for sale. Here are a few reasons why it's better to advertise a Splash Page/Squeeze Page vs. a Website.

1. If you're using Google Adwords to drive people to your site then you'll want to get sales for your advertising dollar. If you're paying for people to come to your website and they are confused about what it is that's for sale, chances are that they will click on through. If a splash/squeeze page is used then you can capture names, email addresses and a whole lot more useful information. By using the splash page/squeeze page you will at least get some information in which you can use for a sale down the road. Having a newsletter sign up on the splash page/squeeze Page will accomplish this.

2. If your using Traffic Exchanges for your advertising then you'll want to make sure that your surfing is all for not. Using a Splash/Squeeze Page to capture leads for your business is what people are doing more and more now. The splash/squeeze Page forces the surfer to put in info by using a method like: "If you join now I'll give you this free.....", or "Join up now before it's too late". By using this method the seller accomplishes two things; they obtain info on the potential customer and give away probably some sort of viral e-book/software etc... This method of advertising is becoming more and more popular. Why? Because it produces results.

3. Joining Ad forums/groups is another yet not as effective way to advertise yet the same thing applies here as well. By using a well thought out ad and using a splash page/squeeze page to obtain information you will accomplish some results. If you just advertise your website, again people will tend not to take your offer up because they get confused about what's for sale.

By using a splash/squeeze page you will obtain very important information on your potential customer which will give you an opportunity to repeatedly give you chances to sell what ever it is you're selling. The whole idea of Internet Marketing is to have buyers for your products and to be able to have repeat customers is what the splash page/squeeze page is all about. If you just advertise your website then you risk the customer clicking through and not ever seeing them again.

About the Author

To find the Best Home Based Business Ideas and Opportunities Visit: http://www.siriusfreehomebiz.com/blog

Tina Valiedi is the Executive of Marketing and Chief Editor of MPStrategies Firm,a company whose breakthrough service unleashes the power of the internet to drive hidden potential clients to your site. For more marketing how to information visit: http://www.mpstrategiesfirm.com

Search engine marketing, internet marketing, google, yahoo.