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Technorati Tags: content marketing, Customer Communication, customer engagement, inbound marketing, social media marketing

One of the biggest objections to launching a social media plan is concern about the investment of time and money.

Straightforward social media plans do not have to cost a lot of money. You can certainly spend a lot of money, but more expensive does not necessarily equate to more successful.

The largest component of any social media plan is time. Whether it’s your time, a team member’s time or a freelancer’s time, it takes time and lots of it.

There are a number of automation programs that can make social media more efficient: Hoot Suite, Hubspot, and Wildfire are three of the most popular. However, you don’t want to sacrifice engagement and building relationships for greater efficiency. Even the best automation plans require time spent on interaction with your community.

If you are one of the many companies that have been holding back from social media, here are the most important rules to optimize your investment of time.

• Make it consistent. Once you decide which of the many social media platforms are right for your product, create a schedule. A simple spreadsheet or calendar can help you schedule and monitor some of your posts. You might want to start small on one or two platforms. In order to build a community around your product or service, your future customers need to count on regular and predictable updates. You can do this manually or you can use an automation program to help with the heavy lifting.

• Make it valuable. Everybody is pressed for time. In order to build and sustain a viable community, you need to make those posts full of content that help people solve real problems. The more you can do that, the “stickier” your content will be and the larger your community.

• Make it easy. You don’t want to make it hard work to get access to your content. Be descriptive enough that folks will understand what they’re getting but enticing enough that they’re curious enough to click through. Also, test your URLs – nothing turns people off faster than dead links. If you’re linking to your website content, make sure you have social media share buttons for easy distribution of your content.

Don’t think that you are the last company to include social media in your marketing and customer communications plans. You are not. It’s a tried and true business strategy to hang back and see how other companies use new tactics before jumping in. If you’re still unsure, start small with either Facebook or Twitter. These are the two most common social media platforms with the largest number of users.

Fortunately, as you plan your campaign, there are plenty of great examples to follow. You can short cut your learning curve by studying competitor practices or checking out other market segments.

But, in the end, the only way to understand social media is to get in there and start. There’s no better time than today.

What other rules of the social media road would be helpful to companies just launching a social media strategy?

Other social media articles you might find interesting:

Insights from the 'zen of social media marketing' guru Shama Hyder Kabani

The difference between social media marketing and content marketing

Are you plugged in to your customers' conversations?

What are your customers and prospects talking about?

Image courtesy of Carlos Porto/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Technorati Tags: building community, customer engagement, Social Media, social media marketing

Right at the outset in the book’s introduction, Kabani points out the primary difficulty marketers have with social media. Their challenge is that they’re trying to apply traditional marketing rules to what essentially is a platform outside their control.

Therein, lies the most important lesson for companies struggling to understand social media marketing. The balance of power has shifted to consumers. By the time you become aware of your prospect, your prospect has already acquired massive amounts of information about you. Through search, social media, and recommendations from friends and colleagues, the consumer researches you and your company before you get a chance to say the first word.

The author describes the “Zen” of Zen Marketing as:

“…understanding the mind-set of people who are using social media and then using it to your advantage.”

Kabani’s point is that Zen marketing should flow naturally from authentic interactions with your customers and prospects. If not, you’re doing it wrong. No question you must first have a good brand story and be clear about the outcome and benefit to your customers. Then, you need to provide clear, generous, and helpful content that helps them solve real problems and attracts them back to you and your brand.

As with all things marketing, it’s important to manage the expectations of the tools and tactics we use. Many companies fundamentally misunderstand the role of social media.

“Social media marketing works best as a tool for attracting traffic and attention. It doesn’t work as well for converting strangers into clients. It’s better suited to converting strangers into consumers (blog readers or newsletter subscribers), if simply because “free” is an easy sell. Free works! And over time, it can and will lead to business.”

First we need to engage potential clients and customers on the social media platforms where they congregate. Then we attract them back to our sites with meaningful content in whatever form we have (blogs, newsletters, videos, ebooks, reports). By freely sharing our content, we engage our community and build our authority. Through authentic and authoritative thought leadership, we grow our customer base; but it is this new interim step of freely sharing our content that many traditional marketers find so difficult.

Why is social media so important to companies now? Because 49% to 90% of web users have purchased a product on recommendations they received through a social media site. Companies can’t afford not to use social media.

As with anything, there is a right way and a wrong way to do social media. Kabani’s book and her website provide real-world, practical, and easy-to-understand strategies for creating a successful social media marketing plan for your organization.

I highly recommend this book, a social media roadmap essentially, to those who are either at the initial steps of creating a social media plan or those who are unhappy with the ROI of their social media marketing.

What are some of your social marketing insights?

Read on for more articles on social media marketing:

Grow Your Business with Professional Online Learning Communities

The Difference between Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing

Social Proof: What is It and Why do Educational Marketers Want It?

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Technorati Tags: building community, Customer Communication, customer engagement, Social Media, social media marketing

However, in public education Wilhelm muses, we have lost our way as "the currency of education is no longer in the question – education currency is in the answer." In fact, we have organized ourselves around a system where success is defined as the highest total of correct answers.

In his talk, Wilhelm explores the idea that we, as adults, are asking the wrong question of our children. Instead of asking, "how intelligent are you?," we should be asking, "how are you intelligent?"

Watch the video below, and if you think it's valuable, please share it with a friend directly or post it to your networks.

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Technorati Tags: K-12 Education, K-12 Publishing, K-12 schools, K-12 Thought Leadership, Presentations

I'm no different, which is why it's been since late May since my last blog post. I have perfectly good reasons. Most of us do. A family wedding, a funeral, a conference, travel, a summer cold and VOILA!! More than a month has passed without a blog post.

If I were one of my own clients, this is what I'd say:

Regular and consistent blogging (on whatever frequency) is the #1 rule.

Why?

Because once you begin building an audience, they depend on you to be there – to provide information or guidance or inspiration – whatever it is that you are sharing on your blog. Once you're gone, they'll find others to fill this need and you'll be left to start over.

AND, you've lost the primary funnel of new content that keeps the search engines happy and allows people to discover you – increasing your discoverability is one of the primary benefits of content marketing.

So, now that it's happened, what's the best thing to do about a neglected blog?

First, you need to write a post to put the blog back on the map–for your readers, your SEO and your content marketing strategy. Because another primary goal of blogging is to be authentic and transparent (not PERFECT), it's fine to share with your readers what happened. People understand when life interferes with our plans.

Second, reclaim your social media strategy by promoting and pushing that content out on your networks to let your readers know you're back. Will you get them all back? Unlikely, but you will get some back.

Third, you need to find a way to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

• commit to a blogging schedule that is reasonable for you.
• write an evergreen post each week to build a library of blog posts so that you can schedule these for when your life keeps you from writing on a regular schedule.
• arrange for some guest blogging from folks who have meaningful information to share with your readers.
• curate some content to share from other sources that your readers will find helpful.

The next time you need to take a break from your blog (and we all do), let your readers know. If they know what to expect, they'll continue to check back until you return. Try not to leave them hanging.

Any other strategies that work well for you in keeping yourself to a writing schedule?

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Technorati Tags: Blog, Blogging, content marketing, Customer Communication, customer engagement, Social Media

Smart companies understand that everyone in their organization is in the customer service business and everyone helps market the business through their daily interactions with customers and prospects. So, the end goal of marketing has not changed. We are still in the business of connecting the right people with the right product or service.

While some of the basic units of effective marketing are the same, the strategy and process of getting to the end goal are a bit different. And of course, we're calling it something new.

We have a new overarching strategy called Inbound Marketing and we use every channel available to us to create an attraction marketing strategy that pulls our customers and prospects to us through sharing valuable content that helps them solve real problems. In the process, we use some new tools to accomplish our goals like social media.

In a Forbes article this week on Inbound marketing, writer Steve Olenski shared a concise definition of inbound marketing from Trust Media:

“Inbound Marketing is a marketing strategy where businesses implement tactics to ‘get found’ by customers. Inbound Marketing involves creating and providing valuable content for your customers, promoting your remarkable content, building customer relationships, and overall ‘pulling’ the customer toward you. Inbound Marketing strategies create brand awareness, improve Search Engine Optimization, create thought leadership, develop valuable customer relationships, establish credibility, and build trustworthy reputations.”

In my mind, the easy way to think about the inter-relationship of inbound marketing, content marketing and social media marketing is this:

Inbound Marketing is the strategy that utilizes both content and social media to accomplish its goals.

What's the content in content marketing then? It can include things you've always done like customer newsletters, catalogs, direct mail and events. It can also include new tools such as robust, optimized websites, landing pages, video, white papers, online communities, blogs, and other social media.

Content marketing is the way in which you organize and deploy these information assets to build community and bring value to your customers and prospects whether or not they have actually purchased from you.

One of the big shifts here is the front-loading of information into the relationship. By the time you become aware of the prospect, they have already determined your potential value in solving their problems through their research of potential solutions.

Inbound marketing is a strategic response to the change in how people acquire information. In order to be "found" companies need to be present in all available channels with content that is actionable and conveys the value of the product or service being sold.

Instead of companies finding customers, customers are now finding companies.

The interruption marketing model no longer works efficiently and has been replaced by the attraction model of inbound marketing.

In order to transition, we begin with a content audit that literally inventories the information assets you already have available. And most companies have more than they think. We'll discuss content audits next time.

How are you using the information assets at your disposal to transition to best utilize an Inbound Marketing strategy?

Other articles/posts of interest on this topic:

Why Content is the Secret Sauce in Your Marketing Mix

3 Terrific Resources to Learn More about Content Marketing

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Technorati Tags: attraction marketing, content marketing, Customer Relationships, inbound marketing

Turns out that a lot of people felt that you weren't a legitimate writer unless you wrote fiction. Aside from the fact that journalists routinely win Pulitzer prizes and some of the best writing in our culture is nonfiction such as biography, essays and memoir, there has always been a hierarchy of writers with fiction writers at the top of the pyramid.

And business or corporate writing? That was considered beneath notice of "real" writers. It was commercial – as if selling novels, newspapers and magazines were not?

Thankfully this bias has mostly been eliminated, in part, because most of what we read as adults is nonfiction. Also the packages of writing are shifting. Books are evolving into eBooks. Magazines into eZines. Newspapers into websites. But there is also a new awareness that no matter where it occurs – in an essay or a direct mail piece, persuasive writing is real writing.

At its heart, all good writing is storytelling. We have been telling each other stories to make sense of our world since the dawn of time. So whether you call it corporate writing, persuasive writing, copywriting or content marketing, telling stories to persuade someone to a point of view is real writing.

To be successful content marketing must make what I call a heart connection. If you're sharing a case study, the reader needs to see themselves in that story for it to emotionally connect. If you're writing a direct mail piece, it only succeeds in being a call to action if the story is compelling to the reader.

One of the goals of content marketing is to build a community around whatever topic you're writing about. That requires all of the basics that a good novel requires such as authenticity, resonance and compelling storytelling.

After more than 25 years of writing everything from catalog copy to websites, white papers to direct mail campaigns, interviews to corporate biographies, I am finally comfortable calling myself a writer without apology and without a disclaimer.

And as a professional writer (one who gets paid for writing), I am proud to say that content marketing is real writing and I consider myself lucky to make my living this way.

Do you agree or disagree with my perspective? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Technorati Tags: content marketing, Marketing, writer, writing

One of the most common ways to demonstrate product efficacy or to tell a product story in the K-12 industry is through a case study or a customer success story. Case studies are an important component of your content marketing strategy in pushing out content of interest to your community of prospects.

While the general structure of a case study is basically the same across all industries, K-12 stories are usually quite compelling because they strike at the heart of two things our culture holds most dear – kids and education.

Case studies have a four-part basic structure:

Statement of the problem or challenge - provide context and clearly state which student group (K-3 or ELL for examples) is having the challenge, and be specific about what it is.

Product solution - without sales language and in plain English explain how the product addresses the problem and why it was selected by the school or district.

Implementation of solution - how was the product or program implemented. What metrics are being used to determine efficacy.

Successful Outcome - what results they were surprised by as well as results they expected.

Why are case studies important?

A well-told story is always compelling but even more so if it is inspirational in some way. As we know, educators trust the opinion and reccomendation of other educators more than any other influence on a potential purchase. Educators also relate to the "higher good" of a story in which a student discovers, perhaps for the first time, the joy of learning. Sales people love to share case studies with potential customers because it allows schools and districts to see themselves and their own potential success in the stories of their peers.

For those companies who do not yet have scientifically based research (SBR), or their particularly product cannot support the significant investment of SBR, case studies are an accepted way to share results of successful implementations of the product or service.

Case studies, then, are an opportunity for K-12 companies to showcase their ability to solve problems for the school or district in a format that has context and proof of performance.

Does a case study have the same persuasive value of hard metrics? No, but if the case study documents specific outcomes with some reasonable measures, they are enough to get a company in the door. After that, it's up to the sales person. A good sales person uses case studies as opportunity to tell the product story with passion and conviction.

Even relatively new companies can provide the documentation of a case study. Most create case study opportunities by piloting their products in selected K-12 schools and districts. Using specific research data about the challenge in general, or about the school's challenge in particular is the general background for the story. Adding in the impact of successfully implementing a particular program told through the experience of one student, one teacher, one classroom or one school is usually enough material for an experienced case study writer to create a compelling case study.

What particular guidelines does your company use in creating case studies?

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Technorati Tags: case studies, content marketing, K-12 industry, sales support

When developing a marketing mix for a new campaign, not only do we need to ensure that each channel's tactics complements the others, but they also need to stand on their own to move the prospect forward to the next step in the process.

Our marketing mix should include every available channel that makes sense for the product. We can choose from: direct marketing (including email, phone, print), search marketing, social media marketing, advertising, public relations and mobile marketing.

Different products require a different marketing mix, but no matter what channels we use, each should lead the prospect to the product website which is "brand central." It's there that we get to tell our story in detail and prove our authentic intention to help customers solve their problems.

It is our use of content that determines success or failure in this process. Successful content marketing focuses on:

• being discoverable
• building authentic relationships
• helping people solve their problems

Every part of the marketing mix should be developed with these goals in mind. Obviously we want to generate sales and build customer value, but the path to this goal requires expertise in content marketing to accomplish our objectives.

So, what does this mean as a practical matter? In order to get and keep the prospect's attention, we must give away some of our valuable content for free to demonstrate that we know what we're talking about (establishing our authority) and that our primary goal is to help them find solutions. We have to prove ourselves worthy of their attention before we have the opportunity to sell them anything.

It is the value of the content that makes content marketing successful or not, and the prospect is the one determining the value. Once a prospect becomes aware of us through one or more of the channels mentioned above, they go to their personal social networks to check us out. The goal of content marketing is to meet prospects wherever they are and engage them there with useful content that establishes intention to help them solve their problems.

Therefore, content = secret sauce.

The balance of power in the marketing and sales process has shifted to the consumer. They are the ones who initiate the sales process by determining whether our content meets their threshold of value.

The more robust and valuable our content, the more likely we are to engage the customer. The value of our products have always been the proof of success, but the process by which we get to demonstrate our value has changed.

This is why the content of our content marketing programs is the secret sauce that determines our success. It has to be of real value and helpful in a measurable way so we earn their trust.

How are your using content as your secret sauce to achieve marketing success?

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Technorati Tags: content marketing, marketing mix

Everyone in the education industry has experienced it. Those who leave the industry eventually come back because they miss it. Competitors sit on panels together and share what they know because of it. Most associations depend on it to stir their memberships into active engagement, and every school has teachers and administrators that live and breathe it every day.

No matter where we work inside the industry – educator, vendor, policy makers or advocates, we share a passion for learning that propels us to make a difference for today’s students.

Although there are certainly people and companies that become wealthy in the K-12 world, accumulating wealth is not the driving force that brings us together nor keeps our interest over the course of a career.

We want to light a fire inside students and help them develop a love of learning that carries them throughout their lives. This desire to create positive outcomes for students exceeds our desire to make a living. If it didn’t, we’d all be doing something different, because the challenges are mighty.

But, of course, the rewards are huge. There is nothing more exciting then seeing students take responsibility for their own learning, develop their road maps and tool kits and set out on their own personal journeys ready to make a contribution to the world.

Do we want this for all students? Absolutely. Is it achievable? Because we believe in the power of education, we carry the hope that we can impact their lives early enough; in as robust a way as possible to set them on the path of continued learning. Are we 100% successful? No. But it is the hope that we can successfully influence most students that we take to work every day.

This passion and commitment to make a difference in students’ lives, is the thing that binds us together – no matter what role we play in the K-12 world.

What is it that gets you up every day and brings meaning to your life in education?

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Technorati Tags: continued learning, k-12 world, life long learning, passion for learnng, students