Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I love SmartBriefs. Extremely smart newsletters on various industries - from consumer electronics to construction and real estate, from telecommunications to travel and hospitality - there’s likely a newsletter for your industry.

I subscribe to, and read (almost every day), IAB’s SmartBrief (see example here) on the interactive industry.

Dosage: delivered daily.

Cost: Free

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In an effort to show, rather than tell, I’m putting forth my personal Top 10 Marketing Tools in a series. I asked the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network’s marketing committee to send me a list of their top 10 tools, and will be posting about them over on the OEN Blog.

(It’s spring break, so I haven’t seen any of them yet… So here’s my second in the series, to inspire action when they return:)

Tool #2: A Smart Search Engine

I have to admit, I’ve used Google for traditional searces for years. But when I went out on my own, I discovered that a roving worklife meant I was never sure I would be at the same computer all day. I’ve long been a fan of SaaS technology (software as a service - where you go online and login to manage information) and iGoogle, the personal Google service, has saved my bacon many times.

They’ll tell you - when you type in “what is igoogle” to your google tool bar in your browser - which is fantastic in and of itself - that:

Google offers the ability to create a personalized iGoogle page that gives you at-a-glance access to key information from Google and across the web.

• Your latest Gmail messages
• Headlines from Google News and other top news sources
• Weather forecasts, stock quotes, and movie showtimes
• Bookmarks for quick access to your favorite sites from any computer
• Your own section with content you find from across the web

I don’t use it as a personal “portal” to all things online. I use it because:

• It gives me access to Google Docs and Spreadsheets, where I can set up living documents to capture and share notes, track action items and collaborate in meetings with clients. No matter where we are, we’re quite literally all on the same page.
• I used to be on a Dell with Outlook and a Blackberry, and could never get my calendar to synch with my PDA. (A great lead-in to Chapter 3) I kept my calendar online in Google’s calendar application, and while I wasn’t able to view my calendar (again, I’m not technical or patient enough to set it up correctly) from my blackberry, I could get to it from any computer connected to the internet. (A great selling point for SaaS) And, it would send alerts to my blackberry, which helped me get to meetings on time.

Beyond iGoogle (back to just plain Google for a bit), I use Google as a spelling tool and a dictionary. It goes like this:

You can’t get a fast read on whether you’re spelling a word correctly or not than to type it into your Google toolbar - take one of most commonly misspelled words - accomodate. If you’re unsure, in a flash you’ll know,

“Did you mean: accommodate?”

(While you’re at it, check out the results around the spelling correction in Google - you might see some smart search engine marketers trying to capture common misspellings for their clients.)

I use Google to quickly find sources for quotations - who knew John Heywood wrote: “Many hands make light work…” You can also find complete song lyrics in the same way.

But there are cooler things :

• like putting your UPS tracking number into Google to find out where your package is
• putting your flight number into Google to find out where the plane is…
• figuring out who called you by knowing where the 541 area code comes from… instantly
• …and don’t even get me started on Google maps - it’s the greatest thing for those of us who used to have to rely on CitySearch to find restaurant phone numbers… thank goodness for Google.

…those are the quick timesavers that make Google one of the Top 10 Marketing Tools I use.

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This week I’m going to “do as I say,” “walk the talk,” and (in doing so) get back into blogosphere basics…

It seems I’ve been spending more time on Twitter than blogging lately, which I’ve heard from several people recently. I have come to feel more interest and creativity in creating 140 character blurbs and following others recently, and blogging has seemed more like serious writing as a result.

But it’s time to get serious again, for many reasons.

Last week I challenged the members of our Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) marketing committee to help enliven the OEN blog and spread the wealth of knowledge by sending me the Top 10 Marketing Tools they use - and why.

We figured that entrepreneurs (and our colleagues) would probably appreciate a glimpse into the minds and habits of a bunch of smart marketers - learning about the tools they use. The ensuing conversation and collaboration inside the room was so enlightening that I can hardly wait to share what I learn!

I’m going to start my Top 10 Marketing Tools list with some of what I believe are “blocking and tackling” basic tools. Now, I’ve got a decidedly “online” bent so you’ll want to round out your tools by reading others’ lists - for sure.

Tool #1 - A Smart RSS Reader

Any marketer interested in making their lives easier in collecting information about their own reputations, their products’ reputations, their brand reputations and their competitors’ reputations must have a smart RSS reader in their toolbox.

Why do something manually when you can have a FREE product do it for you?

I define “Smart” as a reader that will do more than deliver persistent search results into your mailbox - although if you have to start somewhere, start with Google Alerts, which will do just that.

I use Attensa’s RSS products. They’re clients, many of the employees there are colleagues, and I’ve always appreciated the work they do in terms of their consistent interface design across platforms, smart enhancements and well-programmed applications.

To me, as Smart RSS Reader will:

1. Search multiple engines in addition to the major search engines and deliver content so you can have another view of where your conversations are happening. It’s nice to have a view (beyond what your SEM tools tell you) of engagement levels on del.icio.us tags vs. Technorati tags, for example.
2. Allow you to ‘train’ the reader as to where you’re spending your attention - so it will filter high-attention results right to the top of your feeds, and the low-attention results will appear down your results lists. That way, your most reader will help prioritize your feed results for you.
3. Let you get your work done beyond simply reading feeds within the application. For example (I’ve blogged about this before), I can comment on blog posts from within Attensa - while my attention is focused on the subject at hand. I can tag articles within Attensa, and it’ll post my tags to my del.icio.us account for me as well - maximizing my work efforts.

Any time you can find a tool that will work for you, learn from you, and enhance your productivity (AND it’s free to boot…), what’s there not to love?

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In a fascinating article in Fortune - “Welcome to Conference 2.0″ - Dan Fost reported on a SXSW interview that was completely disrupted by backchannel via Twitter. His description of the pandemonium that erupted was most excellent:

“Consider author Sarah Lacy’s disastrous interview of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival here. Lacy, a Business Week columnist and author of a forthcoming book on Zuckerberg and other Web 2.0 titans, drew the crowd’s wrath by asking Zuckerberg too many questions about his age and his company’s outrageous $15 billion valuation and not enough questions about issues more fundamental to how Facebook operates - things like trust, privacy, and accessibility to software developers. On top of that, Lacy interrupted Zuckerberg, seemed to flirt with him, and then grew hostile as the crowd turned against her.

And did it ever turn. Many in the audience started posting their thoughts on Twitter, a service that broadcasts instant messages, and the ire built. The crowd began hooting and jeering, and finally, when she opened the mike to questions, the first person asked Zuckerberg: “Other than rough interviews, what are some of the biggest challenges Facebook faces?” Lacy turned to Zuckerberg, asked, “Has this been a rough interview?” and the audience member said, “I wasn’t asking you, I was asking Mark.” The crowd went wild.”

I’ve been blogging conferences live for years. It’s a great way to share the love with folks who aren’t able to attend…. but what I’ve been doing is spreading what’s largely been a one-way conversation, barely brushing the collaborative (and yes, sometimes disruptive) potential that new social media tools can unleash.

At SEMpdx on Monday, I listened to people who said they Twittered their notes in conferences, and I actually enjoy watching what people are thinking as they’re listening to speakers (the beauty of the immediacy of Twitter) - I was fascinated by the accounts of SXSW discussions I read on Twitter myself.

But facilitating disruption in the room? It underscores for me as a speaker and panelist, that I’m going to be held even more accountable to the audience in providing solid, factual, and (yes) entertaining information EVERY time I step on stage. That’s good for me, and great for conference attendees everywhere.

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Here are the notes from my SEMpdx afternoon. I wasn’t able to get connected to wireless to live blog or tweet the notes, so you’ll get ‘em here, delayed but useful, nonetheless, I hope. Certainly I’m not going to format, but if anyone has questions, ask away!

Marketing with Social Media -

Hallie - Anvil Media - Moderator
Paul Colligan - paulcolligan.com
Sandra Ponce de Leon - BuzzLogic
Dan Harbison - Portland Trail Blazers

Buzzlogic ranks #1 (over Wikipedia - quite a feat) in definition for “what is social media?”

Paul Colligan - bring social media into your marketing mix in a smart way, using:

Social News - digg, reddit
Photo Sharing - flickr
Video Sharing - YouTube
Bookmarking - del.icio.us
Social Networks - Facebook, LinkedIN
Answer Services - Ask.com
WIKIs - AboutUs.org

But remember the “one eared mickey mouse” - don’t let social media try to stand alone for your brand, be sure to integrate social media into your greater media strategy.

S3 Internet Marketing
Strategy - figure this out first
Search - make your keywords work (and URLs) for you from the start
Social Media - utilize these tools in the following ways:
- social media tools: don’t do the work of a computer, let the tools work for you
- subscription mindset: quality content will drive people to subscribe to your thoughts
- strategically delivered: with the brand in mind

ubersyndication - Paul googled define: ubersyndication on thursday last week, 0 results - today 85 results via microblogging techniques
Consider what makes good “spider food” - on your web site and other sites like Twitter, etc.
Use multimedia - podcasts, video, etc.

Brand your Twitterpage
- encourage your twitter followers to Twitter about your ideas…

Subscription mindset - push not pull…

Strategically delivered, SEO friendly

He’s gotten higher CTR on his best tweets than his best email lists

Twitter application on Facebook - Twice message and reach - no need to visit twitter
TwitterSearch.com - who’s saying what?
SocialPoster.com - uberposting tool

twitter your notes rather than blogging them, making it easy… all done.

::

dan h. - make your product fans do your marketing for you…
fans have opinions - their passion is what drives them to you and on your behalf

Blazer Fan site:
- started with video testimonials
- linked it to a marketing strategy for engagement and passionate fans
- taking the voice from a few to many
- enable a contagious environment
- integrated it with a ticketing component - people could form groups and get a discount

Successfully sold season tickets to rabid fans (bringing college basketball attitude to pro basketball) +100 season tickets for a special section + got a title sponsor for the community (Blazer Maniacs)

augments their traditional, 1:1 marketing - especially in email
integrates with their main, Trailblazers.com website

Recommends integrating social media with your business online and offline to further real connections and conversations in all spaces

uses Twitter - first around the draft debate - realtime updates
YouTube channels are there
Facebook and MySpace
Fan Toolbox - place for widgets, arm fans with photos, etc.

All of this generates content that can be indexed - “spider food” spread across myspace and twitter, elsewhere - pushing to multiple sites, linking back to your sites
RSS pushes get spidered and indexed much more quickly than traditional updates
mobile integration is coming - struggle now is consistency across all mobile channels

::
Sandra - BuzzLogic
IDs influential discussions online
“Conversation Targeting” - to drive ad performance
- think of psychology of users
- metrics - traditional do apply, but engagement measurements (passing along, comments)
- copy - read up and find out how bloggers are talking about your topic
- creative - how will you get their attention??

Blog reach rivals media
57M reading - 60% access blogs to get opinions, 65% go to blogs to make decisions
Who’s influential on any topic, who’s following the conversation?

BuzzLogic socially map conversations - show link direction, whther on, or off topic, whether popular, who’s influencer?

Reach pockets of engaged audiences
Brand is lifted linking to new media influencers
Linking can tell you about your customers,
Conversational nature can aid in advertising

Question from audience: Tools to monitor social media?

Feedburner - for RSS feeds - ensure they’re clean, shows subscriber rates and clickthru rates
- use yourbrand feature - www.you.com - brand your domain name not feedburner - it’s free
- as an insurance policy leverage your feed and brand
Flock - browser - built on Firefox engine, uses plugins for Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, your RSS feeds, etc.
Buzzlogic - helps interest influencer

Track your domain name - through any social media method utilize your domain names and track them

Alternative ROIs for social media ? sponsorship, advertising, content syndication, attention
don’t try to do too much with your social network engagement - phase it in.

ning and kickapps - free tools to get your feet wet, but your brand should be hosted on your URL…

One interactive agency put their culture up on twitter - got business from their twitter feeds

jott.com - killer twitter tool - who do you want to jot? audio recording goes through transcription - adding text to your voice… put a speed dial on your phone and verbally update your twitter account.

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