Marketing with Mike

This is a clever video that the creator sent to me.  I think it is a great summary of the concept of inbound marketing, specifically for the recruiting industry.

Let me know how we did on this one.

Hat tip to Brian Thorne and Amy Burrill for starring, Rebecca Corliss for filming and editing, and me (for the script).

A new question: What are the marketing goals of blogging?  I think some of the goals for launching a blog are:

• Improve SEO performance - blog articles help with SEO a lot by increasing your presence on the web and attracting more links into your website
• Build thought leadership and bradn - if your blog has interesting content, it can build your brand as a thought leader in the market
• Increase social media performance - you are a lot more interesting in social media if you are writing and then promoting interesting blog articles (instead of telling people what you had for lunch)
• Get more leads and sales - by adding calls to action to your blog, you can get blog visitors to convert into leads and customers for your business

Download video for iPhone and iPod

When a free service stops working, what do you do?  What if you rely on it for personal or business purposes?  Who do you turn to for support on a free service?

Yesterday I have had real problems with a couple free services.  First, something is messed up between Blip.tv and Feedburner and iTunes for the www.HubSpot.tv podcast.  Somewhere along the way, the feed is broken, so iTunes does not have the most recent episodes.  Second, my Twitter account got "suspended" for some reason.  No more Twitter.  Goodbye 9,000+ friends and lots of conversations...  boo.  Lucky for me, it got mysteriously reinstated about an hour later.

The problem is not that things break.  That happens.  The problem is what do you do to fix it.  With all of them, you can submit a request and wait (Twitter can take up to 30 days!) or search for answers other people have posted in forums or on blogs.  but there is no way to solve your problem now with a back and forth with a live human.  You need to use email (slow) or find your own answer (hard).

All I want is an 800# where I can call and someone will fix my problem, live with me on the line.  I would even pay for it.  Maybe $25 or $50... just for this one problem.

What do you think?  Have you had challenges with free services?

Often people ask me which is more effective, Twitter or a blog.  As you can see in the video, a blog is much more effective because it has a lot of benefits over Twitter.

• Blog articles help you be more interesting on Twitter - it is hard to be interesting in 140 characters, it is much easier with a link to a blog article
• Blog articles perform well in SEO (search engine optimization)
• Everyone can read blogs, not many people use Twitter

Download video for iPod or iPhone

I'm participating in a new webinar series with Eloqua, OneSource and On24 targeted at marketing executives at medium and large sized companies that are trying to understand the new marketing landscape.  This is a different audience and topic from my usual webinars.  We expect a smaller audience, and the topics will be more "thought and theory" than "how to".

"Join marketing executives from HubSpot, Eloqua, OneSource and ON24 for one or more events in the "Insight2Action" webinar series. These focused 45 minute sessions will offer practical insights on gathering, analyzing and using marketing data to drive decisions about your marketing programs--optimizing ROI and lead generation. At the end of each session there will be a question & answer/discussion period where you can share thoughts with the panelists and your peers"

Register now --> 

A big topic on Twitter today related to the Iran Elections was the #NYTfail topic accusing the New York Times of subjecting Iranian demonstrators to potential danger by "exposing" the usernames of people on Twitter and tweeting from Iran.

For example, this tweet was really popular: "Please RT! NYT publishing sensitive names of Iranians on Twitter. Get them to stop! #NYTfail #iranelection"

Really?  Someone's Twitter username is a secure piece of data?  Isn't Twitter totally public and open? (Yes, it is!)  Your Twitter username is no less public than your website URL or LinkedIn profile.  Your tweets are broadcast around the world, indexed by Google, stored in lots of databases.  Your followers names are public and easily accessible, as are all of your tweets and the people you follow.  If you want to remain anonymous, you need to use an anonymous name and be careful not to mention anything personally identifiable.

So, as far as the #NYTfail #iranelection thing... get over it!  The New York Times did nothing wrong, and probably did a lot right by publishing the story and spreading more light on what is happening in Iran.

Twitter users need to use their brain.  Twitter is a fast moving and quite viral medium, which is good and bad.  News travels fast.  I have seen Amber Alerts spread fast on Twitter - a good thing.  But today the #NYTfail "news" that was completely false and misleading became a hot topic because of hysteria and a herd mentality.  Please... if you are on Twitter, use your brain before just blindly retweeting other messages.

Photo credit: michaelbrittain

If you have heard me speak before, you know I believe that content is an important part of inbound marketing.  Not the only part, but an essential part of it.  Here are a couple case study slides from a presentation I am doing this morning.

I am speaking today at the O'Reilly Twitter Bootcamp in New York City.  Here are my slides that talk about the ROI of Twitter.

Download in PowerPoint (PPT) format or click through the slides below.

And of course... follow me on Twitter.

An article on AZ Central (sent to me by Dan Tyre) talks about a man who sent status updates to Twitter and Facebook and believes those led to his home being robbed - because it was clear he was going to be away for some time.  Read the full article.

How to protect yourself from social media robbery:

1. Get a monitored alarm system so the police will get called if you have a break in.
2. Keep your home address as private as possible - don't publish it on any of your profiles.
3. Try to keep your travel plans mysterious so it is unclear when you will come home.  Maybe just post your photos after you have come home, not during the trip.

Other ideas?  What do you think?