Hopefully by now you have an account on LinkedIn, or at least plan on joining in the near future. LinkedIn is a professional online network that enables you to connect with classmates and colleagues, and then 6 degrees of separation later, connect with your connections’ connections.

LinkedIn’s main purpose is for business professionals to network with other business professionals. Other ways LinkedIn has become more interactive (and something you should look into) is to join groups, discussions happening within groups and what is really cool…LinkedIn Answers.

LinkedIn Answers is a great tool to showcase yourself as a thought leader in your industry, listen to what other people in your industry are talking about and find out answers to some questions you might have. I browse questions people have posted a few times a week and look for questions that pertain to BtoB marketing, lead gen, social media, etc. I will answer it or pass it along to someone in ReachForce that would be better qualified.

Recently I got our sales team on board to look and see what potential prospect’s questions are.  This gives them a chance to look like thought leaders as well and gain valuable insight into their prospects needs. When you ask a question, it shows on your profile so all of your connections can see it and you can interact with anyone that answers you.

Other proof of value? Got it. Last week on one of my browses, I came upon a question that ReachForce could be the solution and passed it along to sales and now they are talking. Also at a conference I attended, one of the speakers said he was asked to be a speaker because of his answer to a LinkedIn Question. Pretty cool, right?

How to find and get started with LinkedIn Answers:

• See “Answers” in the top header
• Once clicked, scroll down and browse the categories on the right (I usually look in Marketing and Sales category)
• Start scanning questions

Have you been using LinkedIn Answers? Any tips?

Monday’s Marketing Profs “Get to the Point” newsletter featured Mike Volpe’s 5 tips for starting search engine optimization. Mike is the VP of Marketing at HubSpot and blogger for HubSpot’s Internet Marketing Blog. These are great SEO tips and we wanted to be sure to share them  with the readers of  The B2B Lead.

5 tips you should be sure to include in your SEO strategy:

1. Pick good page titles. The words that appear at the top of the browser window are what a search engine looks at first as it evaluates that Web page. Use keywords and unique titles.
2. Be smart about URLs. If you’re using a URL like yourcompany.blogspot.com, then you’re building SEO power for blogspot.com, not your own company.
3. Start a blog. Blogs help in two ways. They provide new content (search engines prefer new over old). Plus, the more interesting blogs tend to generate lots of inbound links.
4. Leverage your PR program. Use press releases and externally distributed articles to drum up more inbound links. To maximize effectiveness, link back to your Web site from keywords.
5. Use social media to build links. Find out where your customers hang out online, and start participating there. Remember to add value. Don’t lead with a sales pitch.

Just returned from Brussels where I represented BreakingPoint at the Broadband World Forum (BBWF). Our  6 meter by 3 meter booth was quite a difference from my typical experience in a 30′ X 40′ Platinum booth at the show entrance.

As a startup and a new entrant in the market, we didn’t have the large Marketing budget to invest in a huge exhibit and it wouldn’t have made a good investment anyway. We also didn’t have the history to score a great booth location. Finally, to make things even more challenging, we didn’t have the $80,000 exhibit that our competitors had to stand out at the event. So, we had to rely on a superior product and a little ingenuity to get the most from our investment in the event. Here are a few tips for your next trade show:

1. Locate your exhibit right next to your hottest competitor. It’s a risky move, but if your product stands out and provides superior capabilities this strategy should help you attract a steady stream of qualified traffic. It also makes a bold statement about the confidence you have in your product.
2. Locate your exhibit next to your largest partner. This will also help you attract qualified traffic without the risk. Even better, your partner may actually recommend attendees visit your booth.
3. Make use of lots of plasma displays to tell your story without the need to invest in a costly booth or expensive graphics.
4. Promote and deliver presentations in your booth. Live presentations from subject matter experts attract significant crowds and helps position your company as a thought leader.
5. Produce a creative marketing campaign that stimulates word-of-mouth.
6. Use Twitter to spread the word about your exhibit.
7. Take your show on the road. At BBWF, I actually saw an exhibitor rolling a mobile demo stand around the show floor. Genius!

Just a few ideas to help your startup stand out at the next trade show. Wish we would have had the time and resources to leverage all of these ideas at BBWF. As it turned out, simply using idea #1, 5, and 6 were quite enough to drive very qualified traffic. Another interesting data point: our Twitter updates drove about as much traffic as our email blast. Neither of these techniques worked as well as parking right next door to our competitor, however. Big risk, big reward.

It’s the perfect storm – tough economic times … budget scrutiny … the Q4 numbers chase … budget planning for 2009. As Reachforce CEO Suaad Sait says, this Fall is a marketers ‘oh-crap’ moment when we start asking ourselves if there is enough fuel (or money to provide the fuel) in the lead generation engine to fulfill current year sales needs and fuel 2009 momentum.

Under old school marketing rules this storm would usually lead to 1 of 2 things … 1) slam on the breaks and try to hit NOP numbers by minimizing expense, or 2) a flurry of spray and pray direct marketing activities that seek elusive bluebirds against all odds. The big problem is that neither of these well worn paths does a very good job at motivating prospects who are in the middle of the funnel.

On this note, Josh Bernoff – Forrester’s Interactive Marketing expert – made a great point in his February 2, 2008 writing entitled “Strategies for Interactive Marketing in a Recession.” It’s more obvious to some than others, but most mid-funnel contacts are logically folks who are still in consideration mode or somehow on the fence about making a purchase. Mid-funnel contacts are not only abundant, they are literally bluebirds in waiting who just need to be earned.

Companies who opt to slam on the marketing brakes in an effort to save their way to success are essentially putting all of the pressure to motivate a purchase on their sales closers. This may work in certain instances, but it’s not very strategic, scalable or sustainable. Nor is motivating these people a matter of creating awareness with direct marketing. While consistent DM needs to be happening for sake of keeping the top of the funnel fed, it rarely has the sort of impact needed to push mid-funnel situations forward.

But social marketing applications like interactive webinars, e-communities, blogs and networking sites are an effective way to align B2B marketing’s work with the things that are most critical to driving mid-funnel situations to closure I.e. – establishing credibility, delivering proof points, deep-dive Q&A, earning “trusted partner” status and best of all – a structured, pragmatic way to capture, manage and execute against those issues/objections that most often create and add to mid-funnel traffic-jams.

In his easy to read, highly recommended article Bernoff points out three important social media attributes that help recession proof your marketing plan:

• Well-designed social applications are effective. Social programs leverage the voice of the customer to get messages carried further than ad impressions. If your message resonates with consumers, their word-of-mouth is a more effective medium than any of the traditional media.
•  They’re cheap. Advertising campaigns often run into millions of dollars. But Facebook pages and blogs are two examples of social programs that you can start for next to nothing. Even more sophisticated programs like a full-blown customer community typically don’t cost more than $50,000 to $300,000 to get going.
•  They motivate consumers in the middle of the funnel. Social applications like discussion forums are better than advertising at helping people in the consideration phase when they’re on the fence about purchasing. In a recession, improving consideration will be more cost-effective than blasting awareness messages at resistant consumers.

What’s your Google Rank? No, not your Google Page Rank, your personal Google Rank? That’s right, according to a story published by Business Week, Google has filed for a patent on technology for ranking the “influence” of people on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Much like Google’s approach to ranking web sites, the algorithm would calculate your influence rating based on how many “friends” you have, how influential your friends are, how frequently you blog, etc. The article speculates that this breakthrough could finally make ads on social networks relevant and profitable.

Not sure about that. Sounds a bit too much like TwitterGrader to me and you all now know how much I like that product.

A recent Wall Street Journal article based on a Forrester Research review of 90 enterprise blogs describes most B2B blogs as “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion.” A few highlights from the WSJ article:

• 74% rarely get comments
• 70% stuck to business or technical topics
• 56% simply regurgitated press releases or other already-public news
• 53% of B2B marketers say that blogging has marginal significance or is irrelevant to their strategies

I’ve written before about the success we had at NetQoS with www.networkperformancedaily.com. But what I’ve never talked about were the challenges we faced in the early stages of the blog’s development. At first, we struggled to make a network management blog interesting without the ability to rely on a technical thought leader. So, we took the unusual approach of hiring a full time blogger – a former journalist who could not only report on news but who could entertain and dig deep into stories. Something like an investigative reporter with a twisted sense of humor.

We positioned the blog as “anything and everything that affects network performance from the mundane to the bizzare” and published sometimes humorous, sometimes scandalous, and often educational content. We mixed in relevant company content and interviews with technologists on staff. The blog was an immediate success. One of the early stories our blogger broke netted inbound links/mentions from the Washington Post, Wired Magazine, etc. At its peak, the blog reached 10,000 monthly readers. The key to success was developing original, humorous content, fun videos, and digging deep into breaking news stories.

I am now the VP of Marketing for BreakingPoint and we just re-launched our blog/community. While we don’t have a full-time blogger, we are working with some of the more visible experts in the company including our CTO, Dennis Cox, and others experts in our BreakingPoint Labs research team including HD Moore to provide useful and entertaining posts and videos that are relevant to our target audience. We are just getting started but already have more than 350 subscribers and I’m looking forward to another blog success. One of the keys to driving readership is the use of Twitter and other social media sites to highlight new content on the site and attract new readers.

Looking for great tips on how to make your blog a success? Try The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog by Liz Strauss, one of the most influential relational blogger on the Internet.

Would also love to hear from the rest of you on techniques for finding your blog “voice.”

This week’s focus on The B2B Lead seems to be social networking, not sure if we planned that or if it’s sheer coincidence.  Laura, Leigh Anne and I have been busy these past weeks building out our LinkedIn Profiles and making sure we are answering any of the LinkedIn Answers questions out there that apply to what we do on a daily basis.  So this chapter (19) is right on time for us.  Here’s a few new things we’re planning on doing or checking out in the coming weeks…

• Squidoo – Do you squidoo?  We don’t currently but we will be looking into it very soon.  If anyone is currently using Squidoo, we’d love to hear what you think?  Does it drive the right kinds of traffic?
• Max Pipeline – like Helga in the Volkswagen example – will be out there exploring the B2B Lead Generation world and will be sharing his findings right here on The B2B Lead.  Check him out on FaceBook and be sure to check back here for his updates.
• LinkedIn Groups – oh the possibilities here…

As you can see, we’re jumping in the social networking world with both feet.  If you’re just getting started or considering a social plan, here’s a few other tips David recommends to get the most out of your social networking sites:

• Target a specific audience – think niche market/long tail here
• Be a thought leader – provide valuable and useful information, remember this is not where you do company promotions
• Be authentic and transparent – just be yourself please
• Create lots of links – links “makes the web what it is”
• Encourage people to interact with you
• Participate – you can’t just put it out there and hope they’ll come, you have to engage with others in your space.
• Experiment – if what you’re doing isn’t working, try something new – there’s definitely enough choices out there.

What are you doing?  What have you learned?  Please share as this is a new world for most of us.  Making the leap can be scary but the benefits are there if you’re willing to work for them, right?

Written by Ellie Mirman, blogger at the HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog and Inbound Marketer at Internet Marketing company HubSpot.

So you’ve got a Facebook Business Page… Now what? Building a Business Page is one of the best ways to increase your presence and engage more potential customers on Facebook, but it’s more than just clicking “Create Page”. As you venture out into the social media world, here are a few tips to help you promote your Page and reach more of the 100 million Facebook users.

Create a Facebook Business Page worth becoming a fan of.

To quote David Meerman Scott, nobody cares about your products and services (except you). People care about how you can help them solve their problems. To extend that thought to Facebook, don’t use your Facebook Page to talk about your products all the time. People aren’t interested. Instead, create some interesting, useful content that people want to receive. This could be blog posts, whitepapers, or simply discussions.

Take advantage of the viral nature of Facebook.

Facebook provides great opportunities for viral marketing. Facebook creates a “News Feed” of your friends’ activities on Facebook, like posting photos, changing statuses, or becoming fans of a Page. What this means is that every time someone interacts with your Page in some way, that action is published across all of their friends’ News Feeds, giving you exposure to that person’s entire network. The best way to take advantage of this is to engage your users and give them more opportunities to interact with your Page, for example, by fostering discussions, inviting them to events, allowing them to post links. Leveraging the power of the News Feed is a critical part of establishing your presence on Facebook and building a fan base for spreading your messages.

Don’t forget to draw on your network.

All promotion does not need to take place within Facebook. Feel free to email your opt-in e-mail list, blog about your Page, and post a link to your Page on your company website. The best people to help you build up your fan base for your Business Page on Facebook are those people already subscribed to your blog or engaged with you in some way.

Optimize your Page for Facebook – and public – search.

Another way to get found and build your fan base is through Facebook’s search. Facebook – like all other search engines (Facebook was noted the most used people search engine) – has an undisclosed algorithm that ranks search results in a way that aims to return relevant and useful results to the searcher. The best think you can do to show up higher in these search results is to build a large following of your existing fans, because entities with a larger network tend to show up higher in search results. Also note that Facebook Business Pages are public and indexable by search engines. This potentially gives you exposure to those searching in broader search engines like Google. To make the most of this, start lots of engaging discussion threads on your Page, so that if someone is searching in Google on that very topic, they can stumble upon your Facebook Page and discussion thread.

Get an extra push with Facebook Ads.

If you want to give your Business Page an extra push at the beginning, you can also buy some advertising slots. Note that Facebook ads are much less effective than the viral marketing options on Facebook, and the click through rate for Facebook ads is notoriously low. Facebook advertisements show up on the sidebar as users browse through their friends’ profiles, groups, and so on. When you set up your ad, be sure to include “social ads” – these draw on a users’ network to see who in their network has already engaged with your Page and shows, for example, “Jim Smith is a fan of Company ABC” next to your ad, potentially improving your click through rate. Also, make sure that you give viewers a relevant reason to click on your ad by inviting them to connect with industry peers or offering a free whitepaper, for example. Also in this vein, note that you can target your ads by age, gender, interests, geography, and other factors, to reach users who may be more interested in your Business Page.

Bonus Tip: Measure your results.

Once you’ve built up your Facebook Page it’s good to measure what you’re actually getting out of your social media program. Some metrics you may want to measure are:  number of fans, page views, and unique users. Facebook’s “Insights” provide some of these metrics, including demographic data. You’ll also want to track actions beyond your Facebook Page, namely, website traffic, leads, and sales that come from Facebook. Hopefully some of these tips will help you get your Facebook Business Page off the ground and build it into a valuable channel for reaching your potential customers.

All this said, social media, including Facebook, is by no means static. It is constantly changing and we, as marketers, are constantly learning the right way to leverage these channels for marketing. If you want to see what we at HubSpot have done, you can become a fan of our Page at http://facebook.hubspot.com. And, if you’re looking to network with other marketers on Facebook, you may be interested in the Facebook Pro Marketers group, a group for marketers passionate about marketing. Perhaps there we can continue discussing ideas for marketing on Facebook.

Wikipedia’s definition of Facebook – a social networking site where users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves.

I got on Facebook when I was in college (when only college students could be members), and used it to keep up with hometown friends, keep up with other students I had met, join groups that I cared about, send messages to friends and post fun pictures and wall posts reminiscing from the weekend before. Now that I am out of college and working, I still use Facebook to keep up with friends (maybe a few less pictures and groups), but I also use it now for networking and more business purposes. My personal and professional life are definitely colliding!

Facebook has made itself easier for professionals to use with groups, discussions and ads, but I think the best thing you can do for your business on Facebook is Facebook Pages. Facebook Pages help to build a business presence and engage with customers, co-workers, partners and fans on Facebook. Users can express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on your wall, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. You can send updates to your fans regularly — or just with special news or offers. Add applications to your Page and engage your users with videos, reviews, flash content, and more. More importantly, it is free and easy!

To get started:

• You need to be a member on Facebook
• Go to facebook.com/business/?pages (or go the bottom of the page and click “advertising”)
• Click “create a Facebook Page” and follow the directions
• Upload a picture (best to use your logo for this)
• Fill in company information
• Take it from there…add photos, discussions, notes, video, etc. (you should see all the categories to edit right there on the page or if not click “edit page”)
• Click “more applications” if you would like to browse what other applications are out there (like RSS Feeds) – you can look or type in the search box
• Publish the Page (in red lettering at the top of the page)
• Ask co-workers and customers to become fans and start getting the word out

Now you know how to get started with a Facebook Page, how do you manage it? We over here at ReachForce just put up our own page, and are still working to get the word out. Luckily, our friend Ellie Mirman from HubSpot has some experience. Look for a post from her soon on how to manage your page and get fans. HubSpot already has 797 fans!

Podcasting and video can be very scary to use…buying new equipment and software, and then learning how to use it all. The procedure might be a little more difficult than just writing text, but the outcome of engaging your audience is worth it. And if that doesn’t sell you, then what David has to say about it will. It sold me!

“The potential to deliver information to buyers in new and surprising ways is greater when you use a new medium. And while your competition is still trying to figure out ‘that blogging thing,’ you can leverage your existing blog into the new worlds of audio and video and leave the competition way behind.”

Who doesn’t like to watch a short video (mostly if it is funny) while reading a blog post? I won’t speak for everyone, but I am willing to bet the majority does. And it might seem scary at first, but putting a podcast or short video together really is not all that hard. Luckily, David has some tips for us to use as well:

For Podcasting

• Show preparation -gather ideas and create a script
• Recording when you are near your computer -use a microphone that delivers audio into your computer (need software here)
• Mobile recording gear – is required if you are going to be moving around interviewing people at different places
• Phone interviews – require a digital recording switch device that connects to your telephone
• Editing your audio files – optional
• Postproduction editing – sometimes includes running a noise-reduction program and sound compression
• Tagging the audio -adding text-based information about the audio to make it easier for people to find
• Hosting and distribution – so people can easily obtain your podcasts
• Promotion – you must provide links to your show
• A companion blog – to discuss the content of each show, and will also help to be indexed by search engines

For Video

• Posting to video-sharing sites – like YouTube, just shoot and upload
• Developing an online video channel – usually used with a unique URL
• Attempting stealth insertions to YouTube – dangerous, YouTube will find inauthentic video
• Vlogging – “video blogging” by embedding a video into a blog post
• Vodcasting – a podcast with video tied to a syndication component
• Inviting your customer communities to submit video – to help generate viral marketing interest

Our friends over at HubSpot recently posted a really funny video about imbound vs. outbound marketing that was a real success. They told us it only took an afternoon to come up with idea, write it, shoot it an edit it. See…worth it!