Thought Leadership Times

B2B Social Media: Senior marketing executives need a sense of control and what I learned at #OMS10

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Mar 9 2010)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

However, the problem, from my perspective, is one of control. Who controls Social Media in the organization? Does it fall under Corporate Marketing or Marketing Communications? If Social Media ROI doesn’t deliver, as promised, who’s responsible, the eMarketing Manager or her boss? Finally, if an eMarketing or Social Media Manager positively impacts revenue growth, how does the firm properly reward that individual and encourage the rest of the organization to support that success? (Read Full Article)

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Relevance: The Key to a Successful B2B Social Media Strategy

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Mar 4 2010)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

B2B businesses are making significant social media efforts without generating business ROI. Our customers tell us that the amount of time and energy that goes into daily social media marketing seems obtuse; they work hard to share a lot of content on a lot of channels, but that content does not lead to more sales or more qualified prospects. So why invest in social media? Most businesses know they should, but do not know how to do so effectively. According to Dr. Neil Hair of the E. Philips Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology. (Read Full Article)

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One Tip for Online Brand Leadership

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Feb 18 2010)
by taariq

Many of our customers tell us that becoming the key industry resource online is a top priority that they fail to accomplish. This status is typically reserved for analysts, an industry association, an industry publication or a news website. But there is a competitive edge available to those companies who want their prospects to treat them as a key industry resource for a specific issue during and after the buying process. (Read Full Article)

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An easy tip to be the #1 industry resource for your customers

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Feb 13 2010)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

What company, brand, website, or information resource do your customers trust above all others to provide comprehensive insights? Many companies are at a disadvantage when asked. Usually, the answer will be an analyst, an industry association, tradepublication, or a news website.Companies, who ser (Read Full Article)

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Everyone Curates; It's Your Commitment That Counts

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Feb 12 2010)
by Doug

You may not realize it, but everything you do and everything you think comes down to curation. Our minds are programmed to do it; it’s how we survive and thrive. Making basic decisions like which restaurant to eat at or what pair of shoes to buy can be fun, and people enjoy the process of searching and picking, absorbing and critiquing. Well I’m here to tell you that curating content can be fun too; it’s just a matter of knowing the best you want and how to get it. (Read Full Article)

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Google Buzz: Content Curation for the Masses

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Feb 11 2010)
by Doug

On Tuesday, Google announced the release of its newest tool for the content curator: Google Buzz. Buzz allows users to share their best information, opinions and dialogues with friends through Gmail. While sites like Twitter are great engines for information sharing, Buzz helps individuals find the right information, integrate and automatically share that content with friends. Buzz also automatically syndicates content sourced through Blogger, Google Reader, Picasa and other tools. (Read Full Article)

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The Social Media Strategy

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Feb 10 2010)
by Doug

For many of us, social media is a blessing - guiding us toward the answers we seek by shortening search times, summarizing the big pictures and offering up quick analysis. As individuals, social media has allowed us to develop an online identity and share our views to an audience size that has typically been reserved for the rich and famous. But for businesses, social media can cripple communication efforts. In his article The Information Divide: The Socialization of News, Brian Solis stresses that information moves with or without businesses. Business communicators often have to choose between being accurate or immediate when distributing content online, and they do so not as an individual blogger or tweeter, but as a brand, with significantly more to lose. (Read Full Article)

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Validating PR Communication with Industry Education

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Feb 9 2010)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

Education supports communication. Wouldn't it be nice to receive a Press Release with all the relevant news, discussion, information and resources available to support the story? Recent business trends toward social media and inbound marketing show us that a company voice is no longer solely owned by that company. As marketers, we need to own the discussion, offering readers the sources behind our products, the communication around our brands, and the education surrounding our market. (Read Full Article)

Comment on Article Mentions: Social Media B2B Inbound Marketing
Product Launch Readiness: Get your brand ahead of the competition

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Feb 8 2010)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

Wendy Marx of Marx Communications as a quality presentation titled "How to Improve the ROI of your New Product Launch". In this presentation, Wendy outlines the five important product launch steps product teams should execute ensure a successful product launch meets its objectives. These steps are all good product launch essentials. I would also recommend that any new product launch team consider these as a foundation to a sensible PR strategy. However, if all your competitors are able to use the same strategies, where is the PR edge for a new product launch? Is there any way to increase the ROI on a new product launch? (Read Full Article)

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The age-old acronym “R&R”

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Feb 4 2010)
by Doug Spear

We all need Rest and Relaxation: It’s why we work hard; it’s our free time to collect and enjoy ourselves – to unwind. Real R&R comes with the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve done your homework; that you have earned your vacation. It is here that a new type of R&R: Relevance and Recurrence brings paralleled contentment to marketers by providing them with some needed time off. (Read Full Article)

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The Science of Google Rank. Ignore at your own risk

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Feb 3 2010)
by Bill MacKay

Every new technology since the beginning of mankind dissolves throughout globe with a life of its own changing production, developing new behaviors, creating scores of new problems as well as providing many solutions to old problems. Each development layering on top of the last leading us into new directions. The internet, a rather recent layer to the pile, has evolved and matured to a point where any business that is not a visible piece of its communicative force will left in the dark. Most businesses have enough wisdom to have realized that they need to be a part of this network, but the next task is to determine how to going about doing so. (Read Full Article)

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Thought Leadership will drive companies to become leading librarians in their categories: Part II

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Jan 31 2010)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

In Part I of this discussion, I discussed the concept of the mostly forgotten role of the Librarian, as information processor, in the marketing process. Exploring how librarians added value to organizations could highlight ways to managing the information deluge that currently encompasses B2B marketing executives. In Part II, I will explain how marketers, as Librarians, can curate information into manageable, relevant information resources for their prospects, customers and even their industry. (Read Full Article)

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The Cure for Content Marketing: Curation

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Jan 18 2010)
by Pawan Deshpande

Content marketing is a win-win. It's about a brand producing valuable content, and prospects being educated with that content. It's valuable, it work's and it's not going away. The only problem is that soon everyone will be at this block party. First it was the analysts and trade publications. (Read Full Article)

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Thought Leadership and the return of Librarian. Part I

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Jan 17 2010)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

The deluge of online content available for B2B products and service buyers continues to explode as marketing processes shift from an outbound to an inbound marketing model. The Internet makes it easy to share content with prospects and customers. Searching for relevant information is just a few clicks away. However, against this rising deluge of content is the fixed time available for prospects and customers to search, digest and understand this information. Thus, there is a unique opportunity for Thought Leaders to take on an old role that many consider redundant in the Search Age: The Librarian. (Read Full Article)

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The Value of Surveys in Generating Awareness and Leads

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Jan 8 2010)
by Bernie Thiel and Susan Buddenbaum and Sam Brown

Surveys have become one of the most important items in a professional services marketer’s toolkit. When done right, surveys can provide extremely valuable content for marketing programs that helps firms demonstrate their insights on important business topics and generate awareness of the firm overall. Yet many firms struggle to create surveys that provide sufficient return on investment. Some firms cannot get sufficient responses to their survey despite having the research in the field for several months. Others are able to generate volumes of survey data but have trouble finding anything compelling in the research. Still others believe their surveys provide interesting insights but are roundly ignored by the media and clients and prospects. What separates firms whose surveys are powerful lead and awareness generators and those whose surveys fall flat? In our experience, the answer lies in several key areas of survey ... (Read Full Article)

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2010 Thought Leadership predictions: More automation please!

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Dec 27 2009)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

Wouldn’t it be great if your Thought Leadership Marketing initiatives continued to get more relevant, over time, with LESS human intervention? Imagine your day in which you wouldn’t have to chase keywords and contract-writers to deliver compelling content around those keywords or topics? What would your day as a Marketing Executive look like? (Read Full Article)

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Lessons from the Recession: How to Mute the Impact of the Next Downturn by Investing in Marketing Intelligently Today

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Dec 16 2009)
by Bernie Thiel and Sam Brown and Susan Buddenbaum

Our research further found that these companies had distinctly different marketing practices and priorities than professional services companies whose revenue declined in the past year. In this white paper, we discuss the lessons professional services marketers can learn from the recent recession and what they can do to build a solid marketing foundation for future success, regardless of economic circumstances. (Read Full Article)

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Thought Leadership Science: Sampling, measuring, and optimizing your industry conversation relevance

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Dec 9 2009)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

How relevant is any of the content your B2B marketing team publishes in any outbound brand marketing channel? Sure, you may know a few of the keywords that define your products or your industry. You may also be able to look at Google Adwords or Google Suggest to measure keyword popularity. However, is your marketing voice optimally aligned with as much of the industry conversation as possible? Do you speak as a leader? (Read Full Article)

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Thought Leadership as Brand Awareness: Take our 3 minute survey

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Nov 29 2009)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

Does thought leadership equal brand awareness online? This week, I put together a brief survey on brand awareness in the online channel. The survey consists of 3 main question and should take no longer than 3 minutes.The survey can be accessed here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MWVCMQN. (Read Full Article)

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Marketers can learn from HuffPo and Drudge

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Nov 22 2009)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

I recently received an email from the Manager of Sales & Marketing for a leading Clinical Research Organization and HiveFire partner. She began with the following quote: “I was thinking…that an established, high profile example of what your company [HiveFire] does (without knowing it or not) is The Huffington Post. Do you agree?” (Read Full Article)

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Thought Leadership Times: News media authority can deliver credibility that drives more quality leads

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Nov 17 2009)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

“We get visits to our blog after all our energy and effort putting our best content online. However, the people who visit aren’t buying or can’t buy!” Does this sound familiar? The company blog project is a success. With the right tools, your team created an SEO optimized, content-relevant, online community that features your company’s information and insights on the industry. However, where are the buyers you want, especially those who have budget power to purchase your product? (Read Full Article)

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Thought leadership marketing and news media consumption

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Nov 8 2009)
by Taariq Lewis (taariq)

When speaking with a prospect of HiveFire, I received and noted the following objection from a Chief Marketing Officer: “What’s the point? Why would we ever want to have our customers or prospects read industry news from us? They already get their news from all the same sources we read and there’s just so much noise, anyway.” That statement is fair and reflects most marketing professionals view of industry news information: Everyone reads the same industry news and much of is just noise However, given that there’s so much noise, I believe that marketers are missing an opportunity by asking a critical question: How do we harness the media noise to increase our influence and trust with customers and prospects? (Read Full Article)

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The Disappearing Twitter Account

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Oct 20 2009)
by Kevin Chevalier

It's a very common phenomenon. Someone creates an account on Twitter, excitedly tweets about the days' activities for a few weeks, and then loses interest in the social media outlet. The tweets become less and less frequent. It even happens to the heads of multimillion dollar operations. B (Read Full Article)

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Content Marketing is not equal to Thought Leadership

Explore Article Thought Leadership Times Blog (Oct 14 2009)
by Pawan Deshpande

Comment "Content marketing and SEO of a company's content can be very important for driving a thought leadership position for that ..." - cbadings

If you are not familiar with content marketing, the concept is pretty simple. Basically a brand will generate valuable content that will drive customers and prospects to action. By contrast, proponents of content marketing say traditional marketing such as banner or TV advertisements provide little or no value to users and instead interrupt and potentially annoy users. I agree with this assessment that content marketing done right can help organizations become thought leaders and influence consumers while providing legitimate value back to the consumer. (Read Full Article)

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