Obviously I’m a big fan of social media. I’ve devoted an entire blog to it after all.

I use Facebook obsessively.  Twitter, LinkedIn, professional and personal blogs . . . I’m in with them all.  And, not only do I use these channels, I enjoy using them. I see tremendous value in the connections I have made –and continue to make each day –on social media networks.

But, I have a confession to make. I don’t feel the same way about location-based services. And, that’s why, I have to admit, I turned my nose up at this week’s long-anticipated news about Facebook Places.

Don’t get me wrong. I completely understand how valuable services such as Foursquare, Gowalla and now Places can be to a company’s marketing strategy—especially a B2C company. These platforms offer enormous potential for mobile targeted advertising and search, and I’m sure that over the next year, we’ll see an explosion of new apps and services tied to location-based approaches. And why not? The audience for location-based services is continuing to grow.

I’m just saying that although I’m an early adopter of new technologies, these LB services have left me flat thus far, and even turned me off in cases like the oft-referred to “#boresquare”, which clogs up my tweetstream with useless updates about people sitting in coffee shops in Boise and becoming the mayor of Burlingame Bakery.  Are you kidding me??? Who CARES???

I have no desire to “check in” wherever I go, and I don’t really care where you are, either.  As Adrian Chen so artfully points out at Gawker, I most definitely don’t want to be “tagged” by someone who happens to be momentarily sharing a location with me, either.

Does that mean I’ll miss out on a merchant’s coupon, news of a friend who’s just around the corner, or one of Foursquare’s coveted badges? I guess so.  The only thing that bums me out is missing the coupon.  I’d love to get a notice while walking by Bloomingdales that Manolo’s are on sale. I’ve been promised that coupon since 2000 when talk of mobile apps first burst onto the scene.  I’m still waiting…

It’s going to be interesting to see how location-based services evolve now that Facebook has joined the mix (and some think Google is soon to follow). I plan to follow these developments closely and blog on them frequently. When I do so, I’ll be writing to you, quite contentedly, from a location that –even though it’s far from secret –will remain “undisclosed.”

Don’t count on it. ROI in advertising and marketing was even a concept back in the 1960’s – the period that AMC’s hit series Mad Men takes place.

It’s a popular show because Mad Men strikes a chord with viewers for being factually correct with bad manners prevalent for the period: womanizing, especially by Sterling Cooper’s Don Draper; desk side chain smoking; lunch cocktails and office parties; and, the agency’s struggle with how to harness the power of the newest marketing channel: color television.

All dietary preferences aside, what I’m talking about here is planting, nurturing and tending your relationships rather than going for the quick kill. And that’s crucial in order to be taken seriously in the new “trust economy”.

People are bombarded with social media content and social media advertising these days.  From celebrities and sports stars to companies and organizations, having a Facebook page is de rigueur, tweeting the latest activity standard operating procedure.  Your audience has very tiny slivers of attention available for what you have to say, so you’d better make it count. Make it relevant and personal, and worthwhile, too, or you’re dead in the cyberwater.

You can start by being a real person. You’re not your product or service. You’re a living, breathing human being with real interests and opinions to share. Let them be known, and let yourself come through as a person. People can spot a marketing pitch a mile away, and they will block you out as fast as you can say ROI.

People turn to others whose opinions they trust when it comes time to consider a product or service. So you need to learn the skill of identifying the influencers, and develop those relationships. As Chris Brogan and Julien Smith say in Trust Economies: Investigations into the New ROI of the Web:

“The goal isn’t to roam around on social networks handpicking friends. Instead, get involved with communities of interest, and grow these experiences and relationships BEFORE you need them.”

So think long term here, people. If you’re building relationships strictly for business, they will be short-lived. But if you have a genuine interest in ongoing relationships with people, the customer part will follow. Find those people that have something to do with your product and ask them about their own interests – their projects, problems and challenges. And paramount here, you must be honest. If they have something negative to say about your product, respond and take measures to improve it. That’s establishing trust, rather than fishing around for good comments about what you’re selling. They are looking for better ways to do things...not marketing automation.  Start the relationship by listening and learning.

Everyone’s filters are on high alert these days, and it takes time and careful tending to grow your trust base. Don’t squander this opportunity to have it flourish by pressing your marketing agenda.  Get your overalls on and start farming.

Keeping up with one area of online marketing can be a tall order. Trying to stay abreast with every facet of interactive marketing can seem like an impossible task for humans.

But it is being done by people just like us.

B2B marketers, like myself, seem to be slow to utilize some social media tactics like YouTube, but for a handful of B2B marketers the results of using social media advertising are well worth the effort.

One of my favorite B2B social media advertising videos on YouTube would have to be Mr. W, the story of windpower.

It would seem getting wide-spread appeal and putting a personality to an abstract concept like windpower would be nearly impossible, but German-based Epuron nailed it with this video.

Epuron gained international interest for this YouTube clip.  The video has has been watched nearly two million times. So, before you think YouTube is not a viable social media outlet for your B2B product, you might learn something from Mr. W.   



 

• Interactive Marketing Campaigns - Replace email blasts that don't work with campaigns that run continuously (24/7), serving up variable highly personalized content in the form of email messages, offers, inbound forms/surveys, microsites (PURLs), etc -- based on an individuals off and online behavior.
• Creative Control - Give Marketers an easy-to-use HTML designer that lets them create professional-quality marketing content for their online communication vehicles while protecting brand standards with templates and reusable content blocks.
• New Communication Devices (e.g., microsites, PURLs) - Reduce dependence on corporate web site team, and allow Marketers to create powerful "weblets" within a campaign to improve customer engagement outcomes
• Demand Generation - Provide controls to manage online marketing tactics or tools  that "sit outside" the 1:1 marketing campaign, but directly affect the outcomes such as search engine management, web analytics, web alerts, and banner ad management. 

So what's the big deal here? Well, here's what we know - as interactive marketers, we ...
 

• already use a collection of tools to manage paid search, search engine optimization, banner advertising, commercial email, triggered email, social media marketing, microsites, website traffic, lead management and the like.  Basically a bunch of execution tools.  Separate tools.  Disconnected tools.  And you (yes, it's safe to admit it) are the person responsible for meshing all this digital data and  producing intelligent insights (ahh yes, the elusive dashboard). 
   
• live in isolation from the rest of our marketing organization, in part because we're so different (and cutting edge) and in part because we're focused on the new stuff - the online world. 

Now let's be honest with ourselves.  As interactive marketers, we ...
 

• know it's impossible to integrate all these point tools and your customer's experience is falling short of it's potential.

• don't really want to operate as an island disconnected from our marketing mothership, as we fully realize that our online marketing activities have much greater impact when weaved into our offline marketing campaigns (and vice versa) - creating a seamless customer experience.

Yep, I agree it's a big deal - a really big deal!  So let's do something about it.  I invite you to learn about a new and truly innovative solution for managing your world of interactive marketing.  Visit aprimo.com/marketingstudio.  It's interactive.  It's integrated.  It's intelligent.  More importantly, I think it'll make our life a lot more enjoyable and bring a WOW factor to your online marketing. 

When I network with most marketing professionals these days, there is a lot of discussion about how to effectively populate the sales funnel.  Conventional wisdom includes such initiatives as  telemarketing, online advertising, cold calling, email blasts, webinars, tradeshows, etc.  But, with all the messages that are hitting people today (over 2000 every day), we're all figuring out ways to "stop the clutter."    So, how do we effectively get our messages out? 

Look at supplementing your outbound marketing initiatives with inbound techniques, so that your potential customers come looking for you!  Build organic search with key words, get your thought leaders out on the social media sites and get them talking about what they know best.  Build an online reputation that draws in your prospects.

How do you and your company balance inbound and outbound initiatives?  What's working, what isn't?


 

• Integrated marketing communications
• Integrated marketing planning
• Integrated marketing operations
• Integrated online marketing