Marketing: Why it's a Waltz vs. a Tango

Spoiler Alert: I'm not going to tell you anything that you don't already know in this post. I'm just reinforcing something that I was reminded of last night as I was helping my wife ramp up for her new job which is to do a little social media marketing for an online publication/content hub.

To be honest, it's always easier to market a company that has great content and fortunately the company she is working for has great content in spades. It's also makes it easy when a company hands you the reigns (with some guidance of course) but doesn't give you eight billion rules and regulations that you need to follow (I know, I know... I worked in financial services for nine years... some companies need to be strict about how they market... but still).

Here comes the roll up the sleeves part. Yup, the part where I tell you why it's the waltz versus the tango. As my wife was going through her company's Twitter account we started talking about ways to engage their audience. By the way, as of yesterday, there had been seven status updates and seven followers and that's not a knock against GC -- hell, they at least had the self-awareness to know that they needed help -- just a little background on the task at hand.

The easy thing to do might be to rush out and follow a list of 500 mommy bloggers. Or find a bunch of companies/people that auto-follow everyone back. That would certainly help with the optics around the follow/follower ratio. But would it do anything for the engagement level? Hardly. The first order of business was to reach out to a few of the seven followers and engage them in conversation (seeing some "@'s" in a company's Twitter stream is the second thing I look for after a decent follow/follower ratio).

Twelve hours later, the number of followers on her company's Twitter account had gone from seven to forty one. That may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things but now all of a sudden, her company has some content (a dozen new tweets) and a little groundswell (the new followers) at its back. Yes, they have a long way to go because realistically, they need to be closer to 4,000 or even 40,000 followers before they start to see some meaningful ROI. But as they say, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Content Marketing Webinar FTW

Wow! Really looking forward to moderating next week's content marketing webinar with rock stars, Lionel Menchaca of Dell, Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 and our very own, Natanya Anderson of Powered. Based on the dry run we did (with Simon Salt filling the roll that Joe will play on this webinar), we're going to cover some exciting territory.

Here is the write up:

In an age where more and more consumers are taking a “search and click” approach to buying new products, it’s becoming harder for brands to differentiate themselves from the pack.  As continued pricing pressures continue to mount, companies are turning to great content as a way to drive ongoing, active engagement with their brands and products, which can ultimately create deeper loyalty with their customers.  Creating user-centric content that puts the customer’s needs first instead of focusing on brand and product messaging requires a paradigm shift and development of new ways of communicating. 

Here what three content and community experts have to say about:

• How to bootstrap your online community with professional content
• The best practices and case studies of companies that are seeing measurable results
• Content that spans the brand content continuum: lifestyle, category and productHow to turn prospects into buyers with great content

Register to attend!

Content Marketing FTW

This morning, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel on content marketing at Bryan Person's Social Media Breakfast. I was fortunate enough to have three very smart, eloquent and experienced individuals in Lionel Menchaca, chief blogger at Dell Inc., Simon Salt, ceo and founder of Incslingers and Natanya Anderson, VP of content strategy and development at Powered (yup, she's my colleague).

The premise of today's talk was that as consumers continue with their “search and click” approach to buying new products, it’s becoming harder for brands to differentiate themselves from the pack. As continued pricing pressures continue to mount, these same companies are turning to great content as a way to drive ongoing, active engagement with their brands and products, which can ultimately create deeper loyalty with their customers. Creating this type of "user-centric" content that puts the customer’s needs first instead of focusing on brand and product messaging requires a paradigm shift and development of new ways of communicating.

Because I was the moderator, I wasn't able to take many notes but due to the power of Twitter and hashtagging, I was able to go back and read through many of the nuggets captured during the session. Here are my ten favorite:

MisssK: Best content focuses on what other ppl need/want 2 hear, not what u want 2 say...gr8 take on push vs pull/outbnd vs inbnd mktg #SMBAustin

kpearlson: There are only 26 letters in the English alphabet how hard is it to write? Same goes for creating content. Not all of it is good #smbaustin

ThomasUmstattd: As your product becomes a comodity you must compete on relationship. What kind of relationship do you have with your readers? #smbaustin

charlienb: When a company engages with customers they also should be committed to real org change too. @lionelatdell #smbaustin

Stalelife: The closer you get to getting advocates to produce social content, the less time you spend on it yourself. #smbaustin

iamseanmcdonald: ever sesne a company trying to force tongue down your throat? thx to @aaronstrout for that visual #smbaustin

Stalelife: Most brands are not Disney? Not a passion brand. Content can be the proxy for the brand. #smbaustin

TWalk: "Always start with the audience." @natanyap's closing thought at#smbaustin

Stalelife: You don't own your brand. Make content sharable. #smbaustin

LiveWorld: Great line from @NatanyaP at this morning's Social Media Breakfast Austin 7 (#SMBAustin): "The best content is in service of others."

Here is the full stream of tweets from Social Media Breakfast 7 (in Austin).

Is your company creating great, engaging content? Are they engagine in "social" content that Simon Salt mention is so important creating engagement?