For several years now the highly entertaining Marta Kagan has been packaging up and producing a slide show titled What the F**k is Social Media. Its an excellent insight into the latest figures around the phenomenal rise of social media and networks.

And in the spirit of social media, Marta has allowed us to embed her presentation for all to share and see. Enjoy.

Gavin Heaton has posted an excellent piece about the Three Ages of Content Management Systems which goes a long way to explaining how the web has evolved and how organisations and the systems they use may or may not have progressed. Its a great read and I urge you to take 5 minutes to see what Gavin has to say.

We now live in the sharing web age

The 3 ages Gavin talks about are:

• The Age of Waving

• The Age of Shouting

• The Age of Sharing

Clearly, given the ubiquity of social media now, we are in The Age of Sharing. Organisations who realise this and have moved to ensure their web presence reflects it are the ones who are benefiting. The content on their websites is being passed around, searched and now generates considerably more traffic than many of their contemporaries who still live in The Age of Shouting.

Unfortunately many people treat the web the same way as they treat their traditional advertising. They see it purely as a broadcasting media. They haven’t heard of the Age of Conversation and they haven’t heard of the 1000 True Fans theory. They are still yelling at an audience that isn’t necessarily listening.

At a more technical level, as Gavin points out, this is reflected in their Content Management Systems. The odds are that if a company has on old-fashioned, hard to use CMS then they are probably Shouting from their website. Its simply too hard to update information so they publish their content once and leave it. Or perhaps they spend a small fortune on Banner ads and Adwords to drive traffic to their static sites.

We constantly advise clients to take the Sharing route. Create innovative websites on easy-to-use CMS systems that are SEO and social media-friendly. It encourages a solid, long-term approach to marketing than generates much greater loyalty than shouting ever will. It results in increased traffic from multiple sources, like social networks and organic search, that is substantially more cost-effective than broadcast style advertising.

The question is, which web age do you live in?

This week I have been at the Connect Now conference in Sydney. It has had a stellar line-up of speakers including Gavin Heaton @servantofchaos, Katie Chatfield @katiechatfield, Tara Hunt @missrogue, Brian Solis @briansolis, Laurel Papworth @silkcharm, Jim Stewart @jimboot, Darren Rowse @problogger, Gary Vaynerchuk @garyvee, Debs Schultz @debs, Stephen Johnson @huxley, Fi Bendall @fibendall, Simon Mainwaring @simonmainwaring, Natalie Hofsteede @givealittle, Simon and Marie Young @audaciousgloop and Chris Noble @worldnomads.

While much of the information and advice might not be new to those already operating in the social media space, it has been extremely beneficial for the vast majority of people who are beginning to use inbound marketing and social media in their businesses instead traditional marketing techniques.

But as someone who attends a lot of new media conferences in Australia and the USA, I was still struck by a few of the key messages at Connect Now.

The biggest take home for me was that authenticity is crucial. While businesses are flooding into social media to take advantage of its burgeoning popularity, very few are succeeding, and that is likely because they lack an authentic voice.

But those who are succeeding are really showing the way forward with their truly authentic attitudes.

Consider Gary Vaynerchuk. The founder of Wine Library TV has enjoyed explosive popularity and a booming business empire without any traditional marketing or advertising. Gary video blogs daily and speaks with amazing passion and authenticity. Its the sort of thing than cannot be scripted or contrived, its 100% genuine.

Gary implores us to forget about the technology and fancy dressing of lighting, graphics and heavy editing. The message is the key for Gary. He concentrates on pushing out his content then takes the time to interact with his audience.

Gary says you must love your audience in order to succeed in social media. He claims that in the early days when he was building Wine Library TV he spent 30 minutes a day creating content then 14 hours in the community.

Gary urges people not to just talk about it, but to live it and its very clear that he does. His passion and authenticity is rocket fuel for his business.

Darren Rowse is one of the world’s most popular bloggers. Blogging is a business for him but you don’t think of Darren in a traditional business sense. His blogging is helpful, passionate and authentic first and foremost. He works hard on content and community and as a result his business thrives.

Gavin Heaton’s success in social media is not defined by sales but through his considerable “social equity”. One of Australia’s leading marketing bloggers, Gavin is a connector for many people who now operate in the space.

During the Q&A session on day 2 of Connect Now Gavin nailed it when he said “we now operate in a economy of generosity, the more generous you are, the bigger your potential”.

The implications are clear. Those who join social media to sell, sell, sell without making any attempt to engage, listen and help will not succeed.

Debs Schultz supported this feeling by saying “there’s no such thing as a social media campaign.” Debs says that you should start small, keep testing, success takes time. Join the lives of people rather than interrupting them. If you help users participate the benefits will flow later.

Inbound marketing relies on this fundamental shift in marketing thinking. But its also quite real. As Debs Schultz says, “The customer is not elusive, they’re annoyed”. We need to stop broadcasting, stop interrupting and start engaging.

And the best way to engage is with authenticity.

Does your web designer understand internet marketing?

In the early days of the Web the imperative was upon having a website and as a result an industry was born, and boomed, creating websites. Good, bad or ugly, it didn’t really seem to matter a long as you were part of the the new wave online.

These days however its a lot different. Everyone has a website and a substantial portion of the population uses the web to shop, search research, chat, meet, discuss, review…well you get the point, we’re online a lot. In fact a recent study revealed that 97% of clients purchasing decisions were influenced by websites.

Now, amid the clutter and competition online, mere web existence isn’t good enough. Now professional internet marketing is crucial. You don’t just build a website, you build a web presence.

Search engine optimisation, social media, conversion strategies, data analysis, geo-targeting, the mobile web, real time search. They’re all part of a sophisticated internet marketing plan that enable you to compete and thrive online.

Unfortunately, many web designers are still just building websites.

Check if your designer understands internet marketing by asking:

• Can you optimise the website for multiple search terms?

• Can you easily integrate social media sharing sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, LinkedIn, FriendFeed and more?

• Can you tell me how many people were searching for our products and services online last month?

• Can you create a local search plan?

• Can you test various conversion strategies and help lift conversion rates?

• Can you help me grow my online audience?

If the answer is NO, then you might end up with a website, but will have done very little to enhance your marketing.

Still not taking social media seriously as a significant contender for consumer attention?

A recent Nielsen survey reports that Australia led the world in average time spent per person on social media sites in December 2009.

When narrowed by individual country, with 142.1 million unique visitors the United States had the largest number of social media and blog users in December, followed by Japan, which had 46.6 million unique visitors during the month. Australia led in average time per person spent, with the average Australian spending nearly 7 hours on social media sites in December. The United States and the United Kingdom came in a close second and third, with 6 hours and 9 minutes and 6 hours and 8 minutes, respectively.

Almost seven hours per person per month spent on social media. That’s a lot. Especially when you consider another Nielsen survey in 2009 revealed that long-established traditional media like newspapers and magazines are only gaining our attention for an average of 8 to 12 hours per month.

Australian’s now spend an average of 16.1 hours per week online and 3.7 hours per week on mobiles. The booming smartphone and about-to-explode iPad market will only see our online engagement continue to climb.

Once again, the question is….does your marketing reflect the new hierarchy of media consumption or are you still casting your bait where the fish no longer bite?

Most organisations approach web marketing the wrong way. For years the conventional wisdom was to get a cool URL and build a hot site in the hope that potential customers will flock to them online. Unfortunately we still see this thinking every time we sit down to design a website for a client. Too much time is spent on the colour, the font, the logo or some very random but apparently “cool” idea.

As inbound marketers we believe that websites should be treated very differently. Yes, its important to get the layout, look and feel right…but its more important to get the content and conversion right. And above all, its important to get the INBOUND part of your web presence right. This is what will bring visitors to your site, not the hot graphics and Flash animations.

Start thinking about your total web presence and think of your website as the landing pages. If you want to attract qualified traffic to your site you need to start spending time where your prospects are: social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, industry blogs and networks like LinkedIn and Foursquare. Crucially, you need to be found on the first page of Google, Bing and Yahoo for relevant searches.

Finally, you need to start producing compelling content for your organisation. It could be distributed via YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr or numerous other outlets, even your website or blog. Great content has a multiplier effect because it attracts people and will be shared with others. A simple re-tweet by someone with a decent number of Twitter followers could generate a lot more traffic for your website than that hot graphic you’re trying to agree on.

Spend less time on the web design process and more time generating content, joining conversations and participating where your customers are.

If you’d like to find out how Inbound Marketing capable your website is, submit it for a free report at NLYZR

Forrester Research put out a great report on US Interactive Marketing Spend recently showing where marketers believe effectiveness will increase and decrease in the next three years.

The three biggest expected INCREASES were in Created social media, Online video and Search engine optimisation (SEO).

The areas predicted to have the biggest DECREASE in marketing effectiveness were Newspapers, Yellow Pages, Telemarketing and Radio.

(information sourced from SEOMOZ)

Marketers see greater potential in interactive channels

]]> http://www.getsticky.com.au/marketers-see-most-potential-in-social-media-video-seo/feed/ 0 http://www.getsticky.com.au/connectnow-conference-a-must-see-for-aspiring-inbound-marketers/ http://www.getsticky.com.au/connectnow-conference-a-must-see-for-aspiring-inbound-marketers/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:25:07 +0000 craig http://www.getsticky.com.au/?p=1140

Aspiring inbound marketers should start booking seats for the ConnectNow conference to be held in Sydney 7-9 April, 2010. The line-up of speakers includes Gary Vaynerchuk, Brian Solis, Darren Rowse, Tara Hunt and Debs Shultz.

About the conference:
ConnectNow is a marketing and communications conference focusing on the convergence of social media, emerging technologies and enterprise. The three-day event brings together visionaries and specialists in the field of new media marketing, community management and social technologies covering the latest strategies, tools and best practices in marketing innovation.

Topics will include innovative trends such as online/offline integration, geo-tagging and location-based services, mobile’s growing dominance, augmented reality, ubiquitous computing, social search, SEO and the importance of trust and social capital in relationship marketing.

Some of the presentations of particular interest to inbound marketers will be:

• Gavin Heaton – lead generation, community management and ROI

• Tara Hunt – social capital and the whuffle factor

• Brian Solis – the human network and social economy

• Jim Stewart – video for SEO and inbound marketing

• Gary Vaynerchuk – Crush It!

• Debs Shultz – its the people, stupid

I have seen Gary, Brian and Gavin present before and know that they’ll inspire and inform. This should be one of the best events for online marketers in Australia in 2010.

Inbound marketing is like a magnet for your company

Basically there are two forms of marketing:

Outbound marketing- where you spend money trying to interrupt your potential customers with your message

Inbound marketing – where your potential customers find you and decide to find out more

Outbound marketing is like a shotgun. Inbound marketing is like a magnet.

You are probably already doing Outbound marketing, so here are 8 reasons why you should be turn your marketing Inbound in 2010:

1. Outbound is becoming less effective. Consumer’s are flooded with choice and have the ability to block your message. They increasingly resent interruptive marketing.

2. Australians now spend more time online than with any other media. The average Australian spends 16.1 hours per week online (2009 Nielsen Annual Internet and Technology Report). Shouldn’t you be fishing where the fish are?

3. Over 90% of people begin their online search for a product or service using a search engine.

4. Good search engine optimisation, great content and a social media strategy all help you get found online.

5. Inbound marketing leads and inquiries are highly qualified and motivated, therefore improving your conversion potential.

6. Inbound marketing is investment in your organisation’s future. Effective SEO and great content has a lasting effect, unlike Outbound which stops as soon as your budget runs out.

7. Inbound marketing is extremely cost-effective and totally mesaurable. Your CEO will love your ROI reports.

8. Most of your competitors haven’t discovered Inbound Marketing or aren’t doing it well….yet. Now’s your chance to get a head start on them and own a new space.

If you’re frustrated by the diminishing returns from your existing marketing plans, maybe you should investigate moving part of your 2010 marketing towards an effective Inbound Marketing plan. You can take the first step by testing your website’s marketing effectiveness with NLYZR.

Tired of achieving diminishing returns from outbound marketing? Worried your marketing is being lost in the clutter? Looking for a better ROI from your marketing department?

Welcome to socialnomics. This very entertaining 4 minute video cleverly illustrates how many successful organisations are using social media to create effective Inbound Marketing. Most of the examples are from the US but can easily be applied to the Australian market.

Hat tip to Gavin Heaton for finding this.