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.

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!

The Web, of course, has made getting in touch with the media much easier. However has anyone had luck with emailing a journalist (you don’t know) a story and actually get published? If so, what is your secret? In most cases however, (in the words of David) “PR people are spamming journalists with unsolicited and unrelenting commercial messages in the form of news releases and untargeted broadcast pitches.”

Don’t worry, David is here to help with The New Rules of Media Relations:

• Nontargeted, broadcast pitches are spam.
• News releases sent to reporters in subject areas they do not cover are spam.
• Reporters who don’t know you yet are looking for organizations like yours and products like yours-make sure they will find you on sites such as Google and Technorati.
• If you blog, reporters who cover the space will find you.
• Pitch bloggers, because being covered in important blogs will get you noticed by mainstream media.
• When was the last news release you sent? Make sure your organization is “busy.”
• Journalists want a great online media room!
• Some (but not all) reporters love RSS feeds.
• Personal relationships with reporters are important.
• Dont’ tell journalists what your product does. Tell them how you solve customer problems.
• Does the reporter have a blog? Read it. Comment on it. Track back to it (send a message whenever you blog on a subject that the reporter blogged about first).
• Before you pitch, read (or listen to or watch) the publication (or radio program or TV show) you’ll be pitching to!
• Once you know what a reporter is interested in, send her an individualized pitch crafted especially for her needs.

Now your rate of getting noticed will hopefully be much more successful when you use these tips. And now let’s fast forward a bit, you have used the New Rules and started building relationships. How do you pitch to these journalists now? David has a few tips on this as well…woo hoo!

• Target one reporter at a time.
• Help the journalist to understand the big picture.
• Explain how customers use your product or work with your organization.
• Don’t send e-mail attachments unless asked.
• Follow up promptly with potential contacts.
• Don’t forget, it’s a two-way street-journalists need you to pitch them!

Mainstream media is still very important and hopefully you will follow the New Rules and tactics to start getting noticed. To close the same way David did, “you need to be smart how you tell your story on the Web-and about how you tell your story to journalists.”

Next week we will cover chapters 17 and 18 on Blogging to Reach Your Buyers and Podcasting and Video Made, Well, as Easy as Possible.

In a good example of “better late than never,” LinkedIn finally added group discussion functionality to its professional networking network. Here on The B2B Lead I wrote about how much I was looking forward to LinkedIn going social and why I believe it will be so important for B2B marketers.

While commenters on the TechCrunch blog were quick to cry “inadequate,” we at BreakingPoint are happy with the early results and look forward to using the functionality to grow the group and make new connections. BreakingPoint’s Director of Marketing and Engage in PR blogger Kyle Flaherty got the party started right away in the BreakingPoint Application, Network Performance & Security Testing group. He produced this handy video tour of the new features.

So those are the new features. What are the benefits? Well, for week one, I can sum it up with the words: connections, market research, and web traffic. While our LinkedIn group is still very new, membership has grown to 60+ qualified professionals interested in testing tools. We’ve already connected with several influential buyers, shared helpful resources, conducted research, and benefited from a small burst of web traffic. LinkedIn jumped into our top 10 web site traffic referrers in the week following the introduction of user discussions. Notice I didn’t mention closed a few deals?

On the Lessons Learned front, I advise readers of The B2B Lead to set up the rules for behavior on the group right away. Kyle clearly established our group as a Sales- and Marketing-free zone after one newbie launched into a blatant sales pitch. Blasphemy, you say? This is The B2B Lead, after all. Why create a group at all if you aren’t going to use it to market to your customers?

If you are asking yourself these questions, then I recommend you read more of Kyle’s blog. While I sometime tease Kyle about being a social media purist (OK, I actually use the word “boy scout”), Kyle is a perfect example of how to build relationships with potential customers and the community at large by actually engaging in online conversations, providing value, and earning trust. In a recent post he wrote called “Seeking Inspiration” Kyle wrote:

“Inspiration comes down to a measure of trust, which comes from a solidly built relationship.  The same goes for your marketing.  A trusted brand has an easier time inspiring because they have created a relationship with you over a period of time. When a company enters social media they, of course, need a strategy, but the idea of building trust must be in conjunction with building relationships.”

And, when Marketers take this approach, the benefits will follow. If you are looking for real tangible ideas for leveraging social media and want to see exactly how serving your community can deliver big results, have a look at Kyle’s 3 part case study on BreakingPoint’s social media programs.

Here on The B2B Lead I’ll be posting about how we integrated social media into our overall programs along with our laser-targeted direct outreach. Look forward to your first hand experiences with LinkedIn and other community building efforts. Do tell.

This chapter couldn’t have come at a better time.  Leigh Anne and I were just talking about this.  We need to update our ‘News’ page on our site.  It feels so old school and is really due a 2.0 update.

David opens the chapter with a very important message – “…all kinds of people visit your online media room, not just journalists.  Your buyers are snooping around your organization by visiting media pages on your Web site.  Your current customers, partners, investors, suppliers and employees all visit those pages.”  He goes on to say, people go to the online media room to know what’s current about the organization.  I totally agree.  If there’s no updated news does that mean the company isn’t doing well or is stagnant?  Maybe.

As we are about to take on a site overhaul, here’s some of the best practices David suggests that we’ll be implementing:

• Needs Analysis – Before the reconstruction begins we’ll be identifying persona of the people visiting this new media room.  Once identified we will then be sure to include content that meets the needs of each persona.
• Optimized news releases for searching and browsing – gone are the days of the aged list of press release headlines.  When updating we must always consider SEO best practices.  This spot has a wealth of good information, we’ll be sure to leverage this.
• Background Information that Helps Journalists Write Stories – This is often called a press kit and typically includes – company history, executive bios, investor profiles, board of directors, product and service information, analysts information/coverage and links to recent media coverage.
• Multimedia content – some like to listen, some like to read, some like to watch and listen.  We want to make sure we have what their looking for.
• List Executive appearances, conferences and tradeshow participation – we want to be sure the journalists know where we’ve been, where we’re at and where we’re going.
• Don’t forget the bloggers – all news releases going forward will include bloggers distribution lists as well.
• Avoid Jargon, Acronyms and Industry Speak – we’ve covered this in an earlier chapter.  Everyone sees through it and would appreciate us all just speaking in common terms we all understand.

Are we forgetting anything here?  All of these ideas are great, right?  For more ideas for a great media room, check out Hubspot’s Press Room.

In Chapter 5 we learned the New Rules of News Releases and how news releases should be written for your buyers. Building off of the New Rules, after you have written for your buyers, now you need to reach them. David gives tips on how to develop a news release strategy in order to reach buyers directly.

Here are some of his tips:

Write about pretty much anything that your organization is doing.

• Have a new take on an old problem?
• Serve a unique marketplace?
• Have interesting information to share?
• CEO speaking at a conference?
• Win an award?
• Add a product feature?
• Win a new customer?
• Publish a whitepaper?

Publish news releases through a distribution service.

• Business Wire
• Market Wire
• PrimeNewswire
• PR Newswire
• PRWeb

We have been using PRWeb for our latest news releases and have gotten descent response. What service have you had success using?

Use RSS feeds.

• Many distribution services provide this to make your news release available to other sites, blogs, journalists and individuals.

Simultaneously publish news releases on your web site.

Link wherever possible.

Focus on the keywords and phrases your buyers use.

• Think about your buyer personas.

Include social media tags.

• Like Technorati, DIGG and del.icio.us

Tell the media, your clients and your prospects.

• Repurpose content for all audiences.
• Example: Tweak content for use in company newsletter.

I’ll close with what David said about the importance of reaching your buyers.

“Implementing a news release strategy to reach buyers directly is like publishing an online news service – you are providing your buyers with information that they need in order to find your organization online and then learn more about you.”

We’ve talked a lot about writing best practices here on The B2B Lead.  B2B Marketers out there, pay special attention to this chapter.  Gobbledygook words – that’s what David calls jargon-laden phrases.  Words like groundbreaking, industry-stand, and cutting edge are good examples of gobbledygook words.  David goes on to say that business-to-business technology marketers are the worst offenders.

Here are some interesting findings from a study David highlighted in this chapter.

388,000 press releases were analyzed over a 9 month period.
74,000 of them had gobbledygook words
9895 of them used the words next generation
over 5000 of them used words like flexible, robust, world class, scalable, easy to use
between 2,000 and 5,000 used words like cutting edge, mission critical, market leading, industry standard, turnkey and groundbreaking

WOW!  And isn’t the goal of doing a news release to stand out in the crowd?  Well we’re not if we’re using these words.

Here’s a few more tips – another study highlighted in this chapter, this time a survey of general business and trade editors.  These are these people that we sent out announcements to.  Are you using these words?

• “Leading” (used as an adjective) – 94% of editors feel it is overused
• “We’re excited about…” – 76% of editors feel it is overused
• “Solutions” – 68% of editors feel it is overused
• “…a wide range of…” – 64% of editors feel it is overused
• “Unparalleled” – 62% of editors feel it is overused
• “Unsurpassed” – 53% of editors feel it is overused

David does a great job of summarizing the importance of writing for our buyers, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to steal a couple of lines for the book to close this as well.

“Your online and offline marketing content is meant to drive action, which requires a focus on buyer problems.  Your buyers want this in their own words, and then they want proof.  Every time you write, you have an opportunity to communicate and to convince.  At each stage of the sales process, well-written materials combined with effective marketing programs will lead your buyers to understand how your company can help them.”

If you’re worried about your use or overuse of gobbledygook words in your news releases, check out Hubspot’s Press Release Grader.  This free tool helps you make sure you are getting the most out of every news release you write.