B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

B2B Marketing views, news and interviews.

The Gift of “Give to Get” in Social Media and Content Marketing

Give to Get

Me, Nazli & Konnie from Dell & Mark Schaefer at Dell World

“Pay it forward”, “Good karma”, “Give to get”.

There are many ways to express the notion of creating value for others before expecting something in return, but in the marketing world, such a perspective is contrary to the norm.

Many marketers still gravitate towards another expression, “What’s in it for me?”, that guides much of their approach to marketing with social networks. The image of a child stomping their feet in an entitled fit of frustration about not getting what they want for Christmas comes to mind.

Whether it’s pressure to revive falling sales or simply viewing social networks as another channel for pushing the brand agenda, the drive to monetize without creating mutual or long term value on social networks is an empty chase.


The Gift of “Give to Get” in Social Media and Content Marketing

How UFC Is Throwing Big Blows On Social Media

UFC NMX 2014Big sports are big business.  There are billions of dollars to be made and no sport is growing faster than the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).  Millions of viewers worldwide tune in to watch fighters pummel each other.  Jackie Poriadjian SVP/Strategic Marketing/PR & Distribution for UFC and Dave Taylor sat down and discussed How The UFC Rocks Social at NMX 2014.

The Stats

Lets take a look at some of the numbers that make the UFC a true heavyweight.

  • Largest PPV Event In The World – Bigger than the WWE, professional boxing, or any other pay-per-view event out there.  The UFC is the real king of the ring when it comes to transactional viewing events.
  • Broadcast In 28 languages – That’s just as many as the BBC, the world’s largest broadcaster.  That’s the big reach their fighters wish they had.

How UFC Is Throwing Big Blows On Social Media

Tips for Pictures That Generate Breakthrough Results in Social Media Marketing

Visuals in Social #SECHI

What picture of your brand are you painting in social? I don’t mean metaphorically, I mean what visuals are you using to represent what you do and what your audience cares about? Study and after study indicates that visual content is far more impactful in social than its text-only counterpart, and yet a majority of brands interacting in social aren’t adjusting their content mix accordingly.

Cliches are Cliches Cause They Work

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” We’ve all heard the phrase, and for good reason. Especially when it comes to engaging your audience in social. Laura Roth, of Incisive Media, moderates today’s session focused on ‘harnessing the power of visuals’ in social.


Tips for Pictures That Generate Breakthrough Results in Social Media Marketing

3 Tips For Effectively Growing & Managing Your Online Community

Online Community BuildingWe live in a world where shopping, dating, watching new films and networking can all be done online.  In fact, these actions (and many more) have become a part of our everyday life.  Many of us may experience buyers remorse for purchasing something online that wasn’t within budget, a desire to post a bad review after a terrible movie, or have a sense of regret after a bad date.

When it comes to networking for personal and more importantly business use, there are many benefits to be had and pitfalls to be avoided.  If you are able to effectively engage your online community you can experience many advantages including:

  • An introduction to someone such as a thought leader you might not otherwise have access to.

3 Tips For Effectively Growing & Managing Your Online Community

5 Social Media User Types and Tips For Marketers To Connect With Each One

5 social media user typesWhen I make new connections on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn I get excited because 9 times out of 10 I have either made a new friend with a similar interest or have found someone that I can either learn from, or help guide.

All too often we forget that the connections we make online are very similar to those we make offline.  If you are introduced to “Tim CEO”  in a business meeting and you can recognize that he doesn’t offer information freely and needs to be drawn out, then you’lllikely optimize your approach in a way that makes him at ease and gets him talking. Similarly, social media users with different personalities and proficiencies will require that little extra optimization to interact.


5 Social Media User Types and Tips For Marketers To Connect With Each One

5 Tips For Marketing Yourself & Your Team At A Networking Event

Grow your professional network both online and offline.

During the summer months it seems that there is always so much to do.  By the time the work day is done, meeting strangers and discussing what you do may be the farthest thing from your mind.  However, local networking events present a plethora of opportunities for individuals and organizations as a whole.

As of May 2012 Facebook had approximately 901 million active users on a monthly basis.  Think of your own Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn connections.  Of those connections how many of them are local?  On my own personal LinkedIn network for example roughly 65% of my contacts are local connections.  Many of which I hadn’t met in person until I started attending more local marketing events.


5 Tips For Marketing Yourself & Your Team At A Networking Event

Growing Social Networks for Business: 3 Essential Lessons

grow business social networksA lot of businesses, large and small, consumer and B2B focused, are grappling with how the social web will be a tool for their business. Research is actually showing asocial media CEOs are bad for business. I’ve even heard from executives at digital marketing agencies, “I really need to learn this stuff myself” about social media applications and networks. So they start.

The first phase seems to focus on getting to know social applications as a user and the “rules” both explicit and implicit within social communities.  When to use @ and when to use RT for example. Or that you don’t mass follow/friend people you don’t know or make explicit sales pitches to people who you’ve not developed a connection with.


Growing Social Networks for Business: 3 Essential Lessons

Marketo Summit Session: Destroying the 7 Myths of B2B Social Media by Jay Baer

Jay Baer's Session at 2012 Marketo Summit

Jay Baer Keynotes Wednesday Lunch Session at 2012 Marketo Summit

There has long been a widely held (and incorrect) belief that social media is a B2C sandbox. ‘Stay out B2B marketers, this social thing has nothing to do with you.’ Of course, there have been countless studies that have documented B2B marketers successes in driving results in social.

With the notion that social is only for B2C debunked, in its place now are new myths. Each chalked-full of misinformation and hyperbole regarding B2B’s ability to implement, engage and monitor social. Jay Baer, President of Convince & Convert, lead a high-impact and high-energy presentation at the Marketo Summit aimed to call-out and ‘destroy’ some of the more prevalent myths.

The session was titled ‘Destroying the 7 Myths of B2B Social Media‘, and here are the 7 myths Jay shared.


Marketo Summit Session: Destroying the 7 Myths of B2B Social Media by Jay Baer

What Are the Most Important Social Networks for Business?

Top Social Networks for BusinessIf you’ve been involved with marketing on the web for 10 years or more, could you have imagined what the web looks like today back in 2002? Considering the changes over the past year between Google, Facebook, Pinterest and Mobile, looking ahead just 12 months can be a challenge.  The state of constant change requires an adaptable approach. One that involves a cyclical process of planning, implementation, scale and refinement.

During that process of continuous optimization, it’s important to take the temperature of trends for your specific target market as well as at a broad level. I’d like to use this post to take your general social media temperature when it comes to the most important social networks for business. This is a gut feeling check for how you perceive the list below of social media/network properties that companies are currently using for business purposes.


What Are the Most Important Social Networks for Business?

Optimize Your Social Media Schedule: 4 Tips for Avoiding the Social Media Time Suck

optimize social media time

Making the time to execute on a social media strategy can rattle even the most experienced marketers.  Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing can present many different challenges and distractions.  According to a study by eMarketer 73% of marketers say finding the time to create content as their biggest marketing challenge.

I recently ran a poll of @TopRank Twitter followers to get a sense of how they spend their time online.  I asked “If you had only 20 minutes a day to spend on social media what would you focus on?”  Some of the answers we received were:

  • @henryroominates – “I would try to connect with powerful Twitter users and Tweet content from my blog.”
  • @SebastianX – “I’d read my Twitter Followanyday List.”

Optimize Your Social Media Schedule: 4 Tips for Avoiding the Social Media Time Suck

4 Things Lady Gaga Can Teach Us About Social Media PR & Online Influence

Lady Gaga with one of her Little Monsters

Photo Credit: Flickr gjkooijman

Lady Gaga is the definition of an influencer offline and online; her music, fashion sense, and passion for social causes have spread around the world in only a few short years.  Love her, like her or hate her, you know who she is and you’ve probably heard more than one of her songs.

When searching for a way to improve your online PR strategy, increase your social reach or build a better influencer marketing strategy, who better to learn from than one of the most influential celebrities in the world and on the web?

Social Media is Going Gaga

  • Lady Gaga Facebook Fan Page Followers – 46,608,220
  • @LadyGaga Twitter Followers – 18,198,577
  • Lady Gaga Google+ Followers – 20,852 (only 4 days after signing up)

4 Things Lady Gaga Can Teach Us About Social Media PR & Online Influence

Technology Marketing: Is Your B2B Social Media Strategy Sending Mixed Signals?

social media marketing

Is your social media strategy sending your customers mixed signals?

As a B2B organization with a focus on technology, you may believe that you are facing additional obstacles that your B2C counterparts are not.

Many of you have tried to implement social media in the past without much success.  However, you may still believe that B2C companies have it easier because they have a direct line to their consumers.  The good news is, you do too!  In fact, 58% of IT buyers use social media to make tech buying decisions.

Getting in front of the proper decision makers and influencers when selling SaaS, IT, or any other technology is not as hard as you may think.  It is imperative that you follow a series of social media best practices directed at finding, engaging, and motivating your social network to take action.


Technology Marketing: Is Your B2B Social Media Strategy Sending Mixed Signals?