Best of MarketingProfs 2012: the top Articles that Influenced & Inspired

Contents

Introduction 1

How the Best B2B Marketers Think Like B2C Marketers: Five Strategies to Emulate 2

What’s Driving Pinterest’s Amazing Growth 6

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution 12

The 7 Ps of Customer Retention Marketing 21

Six Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid 24

Top B2B Firms Gaining 230% More Leads via Social Media Than Peers 27

Fortune 500 Social Media Adoption Surging in 2012 31

Facebook ‘Like’ Patterns Akin to Email Opt-In’s 37

Pinterest Now No. 3 US Social Network, Surpasses LinkedIn 40

CEO Communications: Five Phrases That Signal ‘BS’ 44

Personal Branding Trends for 2012 (Part 1) 46

Four Easy Tactics for Becoming a Must-Follow Account on Twitter 51

Connect with us 56

1©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Introduction

Before we fully embrace 2013, let’s take a moment to reflect on the year that was, shall we? At least, let’s wander through our Top 12 articles of 2012, based on the number of views via MarketingProfs.com as well as a measure of editorial sensibility. (No one needs 12 articles on Pinterest, right?)

Represented are the new and shiny (“What’s Driving Pinterest’s Amazing Growth” and “Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution”), signs of the maturation of some social platforms (“Facebook ‘Like’ Patterns Akin to Email Opt-In’s”), and just plain fun reads (“ CEO Communications: Five Phrases That Signal ‘BS’”).

For simplicity and focus, we’ve gathered only the most popular how-to articles and research summaries (and not, for example, our top seminars, infographics, podcasts, opinion pieces, and so on).

These are the Best of 2012 articles:1. How the Best B2B Marketers Think Like B2C Marketers: Five Strategies to Emulate2. What’s Driving Pinterest’s Amazing Growth3. Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution4. The 7 Ps of Customer Retention Marketing5. Six Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid6. Top B2B Firms Gaining 230% More Leads via Social Media Than Peers7. Fortune 500 Social Media Adoption Surging in 20128. Facebook ‘Like’ Patterns Akin to Email Opt-In’s9. Pinterest Now No. 3 US Social Network, Surpasses LinkedIn10. CEO Communications: Five Phrases That Signal ‘BS’11. Personal Branding Trends for 2012 (Part 1)12. Four Easy Tactics for Becoming a Must-Follow Account on Twitter

So, enjoy the articles that have sparked our imagination and fed our intellect this year. And we look forward to spending some time together in 2013!

2©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

How the Best B2B Marketers Think Like B2C Marketers: Five Strategies to Emulate

by Russell Glass

Business-to-business (B2B) marketers have one of the most difficult and underappreciated jobs on the planet. Their mission is to create memorable brands out of some downright “un-sexy” products. (Have you ever tried making software, manufacturing widgets, or chemicals look interesting?)

B2B marketers must educate extremely smart potential buyers, ensure that influencers are knowledgeable about their products, and ultimately convince people they should bet their jobs on choosing their products over those of competitors. Moreover, even while sticking to a limited marketing budget, B2B marketers must provide a hungry sales team with enough qualified leads to keep their pipelines full and their families fed.

How do they do it? The best B2B marketers are successful because they start with build-ing a brand. In other words, the best B2B marketers think like business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers.

think Like a B2C MarketerThe first step toward thinking like a B2C marketer is to create great brand recall. Let’s say you’re thirsty and you walk into a store that carries Coke and DMG-Cola. You immediately reach for the Coke because you know exactly how it will taste; it is the safe choice. However, if earlier that day you’d seen a banner ad that said “DMG-Cola—Tastes Like Coke, but 100% Organic!” you may well have tried the DMG-Cola. The DMG marketer who bought that banner ad had a simple goal—not to drive someone to make an immediate purchase but, rather, to create brand recall that would influence purchase decisions in the future.

Of course, applying this method to B2B marketing is more challenging, but it can work. First, to illustrate how much more complex the B2B marketer’s challenge is, let’s use the same example—but in a B2B context.

Your boss asked you to buy soda for a company party, so you go to the store and spot Coke and DMG-Cola on the shelf. Even if you had seen the banner ad marketing DMG-Cola, you’d still choose the Coke. Why? Simply because Coke is the less risky decision, and many purchase decisions in a business environment are made with the goal of minimizing risk. Nobody ever

3©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

How the Best B2B Marketers Think Like B2C Marketers: Five Strategies to Emulate

ruined a party by buying Coke, but if you showed up with DMG-Cola and your coworkers didn’t like it, you’d take the blame for making a poor decision that had a negative impact on the company party.

So, what would the DMG marketer have to do to convince you, as the business buyer, to choose DMG-Cola instead of Coke?

• First, she would have to build awareness of the DMG-Cola brand as in the above example.

• Then, she would have to provide examples and testimonials of others who had thrown successful company parties with DMG-Cola. She might create whitepapers and host webinars highlighting the advantages of DMG-Cola vs. Coke and other competitors.

• She would also have to influence executives at your company and your trusted peers outside the company, so they would recommend DMG-Cola around the water cooler.

• Finally, she would have to ensure this information stayed top of mind, so you wouldn’t fall back on the “safer path” of reaching for Coke next time you were tasked with plan-ning a company party.

smart B2B Marketing = B2C With a twistOf course, the previous example is simplistic, but that is essentially how B2B products are marketed and purchased every day.

The best B2B marketers think like B2C marketers—but with a twist. They understand building a memorable brand perception is critical, but they also understand...

• Exactly who the buyer is and who or what influences the buyer• The key elements of a purchase decision and how to create messaging that addresses

those elements• The content, best-practices, and case studies necessary to remove the risk of

the decision• How to distribute messages and content to targeted decision makers, influencers, and

peers with enough frequency to move the needle

And they do all that while staying within budget.

4©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

How the Best B2B Marketers Think Like B2C Marketers: Five Strategies to Emulate

What tips can B2B marketers follow to start thinking more like their B2C colleagues? Here are five strategies B2B marketers can implement right away.

1. Create great brand recallThe first step in any B2B marketing campaign is to create brand messages and campaigns that will “stick with” potential buyers long after they see the ads or marketing messages. Get creative and try new messages and slogans to make your brand stand out from the crowd and target them specifically to your audiences. Finally, always be branding! Creating brand recall isn’t a single campaign—it’s an always-on tactic.

2. Know your audienceThinking like a B2C marketer doesn’t mean treating your audience like general consumers. Your audience is made up of business professionals looking to make the most economical, risk-averse, and high-value purchases for their companies. Always keep their needs and risks in mind when considering marketing strategies.

3. Use visuals to sell your productPeople remember images long after they remember words. Make sure your campaigns are splashy, memorable, and interactive. Try using interactive banners, social ads, or videos to tell your brand story.

4. Maintain creative consistencyTrying new creative ideas is fine, but make sure they’re consistent across all your marketing campaigns, including paid ads, social media, sales sheets, webinars, whitepapers, and your website. Synch your messaging across all media activities as you move buyers down the marketing funnel.

5. Be humanYour audience may be businesspeople, but that doesn’t mean they are automatons who don’t enjoy a good laugh or a personal touch. Make sure all your marketing materials speak to the human side of the business world. In a world where most B2B campaigns are boring, a more human touch will make your campaigns stand out.

* * *

5©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

How the Best B2B Marketers Think Like B2C Marketers: Five Strategies to Emulate

So, next time you meet with your B2B marketer, give him or her hug and say “I get it now!” B2B marketers have a rich, complex, and high-pressure job to do in a very dynamic and noisy world. Those who do it well are rewarded with outsized growth and shareholder value gains.

Russell Glass is the CEO of Bizo (www.bizo.com), a B2B-audience-targeting platform and advertis-ing network. Reach him via twitter: @glassruss.

6©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

What’s Driving Pinterest’s Amazing Growth

Pinterest is arguably the hottest social media site on the Internet—user traffic to the online social catalog has skyrocketed since mid-2011—but the website also boasts strong audience engagement, retention, and “virality” among its core demographic, according to a report by RJMetrics.

Based on data collected and analyzed by RJMetrics, key findings from the report include:

• Pinterest is retaining and engaging its users 2 to 3 times more efficiently, on average, than Twitter was at a similar time in its life cycle.

• “Pins” link to a huge array of websites. For example, Etsy is the most popular source of pin content, but it accounts for only 3% of pins.

• 80% of pins are “re-pins,” attesting the viral nature of the Pinterest community. By con-trast, at a similar point in Twitter’s life cycle, roughly 1.4% of all tweets were re-tweets, according to a study conducted by Hubspot in 2009.

• The “quality” of the typical new Pinterest user (where quality is defined by a user’s level of engagement and likelihood to remain active) is high, but declining. Users who have joined Pinterest in recent months are 2 to 3 times less active during their first month than users who joined before them.

Below, detailed findings from the RJMetrics report Pinterest Data Analysis: An Inside Look.

Pins Connect to a Vast Array of Web sourcesOn Pinterest, every pin (or linked image) ties back to an external link. Among a sample of roughly 1 million pins, more than 100,000 distinct source domains were found. Among those 100,000 domains, the following chart shows the top 20 sources. The most popular domain was Etsy, which powered just over 3% of pins. Google was a close second, though almost all Google links point to Google Image Search, which is technically misattributed content from other 3rd party domains, RJMetrics points out.

7©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

What’s Driving Pinterest’s Amazing Growth

Flickr (2.5%), Tumblr (1.1%), and weheartit (1.0%) round out the top 5, after which no domain represents more than 1% of pins.

the Viral Nature of Re-PinsThe analysis also broke out the population of pins by how those pins were posted to Pinterest.Remarkably, over 80% of pins are re-pins, demonstrating the impressive level of “virality” at work in the Pinterest community.

By contrast, a study conducted by Hubspot at a similar point in Twitter’s history found roughly 1.4% of tweets were retweets.

8©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

What’s Driving Pinterest’s Amazing Growth

Surprisingly, a low proportion of pins originate from pinmarklet, a browser bookmarklet that allows users to pin content from any website via one click.

User engagement: Cohort AnalysisCohort Analysis is a tool that allows marketers to study different groups of users at identical points in time in their lifecycles, regardless of when they actually joined the site.

In the following chart, each line represents a cohort, or a segment of users who made their first pin in a specific month. For example, the June 2011 cohort consists of users who made their first pin in June 2011. The line itself shows the “average cumulative pins made per cohort member.” So, the “Month 1” data-point for the June 2011 cohort shows us how many items were pinned in June 2011 among users who joined in June 2011. The “Month 2” data-point on that same line shows how many pins were made by the typical user in that cohort by the end of July 2011, and so forth.

Among most companies, even highly successful ones, similar cohort analyses show lines that steadily decay toward a more horizontal slope over time, RJMetrics points out. The effect occurs because there is some natural attrition, causing the incremental engagement of the typical user to drop off.

But that doesn’t appear to be the case with Pinterest. Instead, the lines show little to no decay whatsoever. Their slopes remain consistent, indicating a net attrition rate of close to 0%.

9©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

What’s Driving Pinterest’s Amazing Growth

Why no decay in engagement? The reason, according to the study, is possibly one of two factors: (1) no one who starts using Pinterest ever stops or, more likely (2) users who continue to use Pinterest become so much more engaged over time that their activities fully make up for those users who quit the site.

To explore the issue further, RJMetrics broke out the data on a weekly basis for the eight weeks ended December 18, 2011. The analysis found that between 40% and 60% of unique users were still actively returning back to the site to pin again in each of the first 8 weeks of their life cycle. Although that may seem like a steep drop-off, the results are exceptionally strong, particularly for a consumer Internet business, RJMetrics notes.

By contrast, when Twitter was at a similar point in its life cycle (late 2009) Twitter’s decay rate was twice that of Pinterest, with user activity (measured by tweets) rapidly plummeting to roughly 20% before stabilizing, according to a 2009 analysis of Twitter by RJMetrics, published by TechCrunch.

Growing Pains: Quality DecayAmong most fast-growing consumer startups, however, an increase in media coverage inevitably drives a big spike in the number of registered users and a drop-off in the quality

10©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

What’s Driving Pinterest’s Amazing Growth

of the typical user, RJMetrics points out. (Similarly, quality is defined in the study by levels of engagement and likelihood to remain active.)

Pinterest is no exception to that rule. The following chart shows how the typical new user who has joined Pinterest in November and December 2011 is using the site far less than their counterparts from previous months.

The drop off is likely caused by flocks of curious onlookers who are outside of Pinterest’s core audience who are registering accounts but failing to get engaged.

Growth statsIn order to put the RJMEtrics research in context, it’s interesting to note Pinterest’s growth trends, particularly over the past six months.

Below, some key Pinterest stats, according to separate research from Compete:

• Pinterest attracted 11,140,641 unique visitors to the site on January 20, 2011, up 815% from 1,217,935 visitors six months earlier.

• On a monthly basis, the number of unique visitors to Pinterest grew 54.6% in January over mid-December levels.

11©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

What’s Driving Pinterest’s Amazing Growth

• Over the past six months, traffic growth has averaged 63.7% month over month.• Ranked by numbers of unique visitors, Pinterest was ranked No. 119 in January by

Compete, up 87 spots from No. 206 one month earlier.

About the data: For the analysis, RJMetrics wrote various scripts to identify random users who joined Pinterest at different times in the company’s history, and to download their complete history of pins to conduct the cohort analysis. Several hundred thousand additional pins from the gen-eral user population were also compiled, amounting to a database of nearly one million pins, to represent the greater Pinterest population. Though the sample base is sizable, there is always a risk of sampling bias, the researchers note. In order to identify users and pins (because Pinterest does not use auto-incrementing IDs) the researchers identified user names based on common diction-ary words and then expanded to general-population pins by guessing at ID numbers in numeric proximity to the pins of those core users.

12©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution

by Nick Westergaard

As social media continues to evolve, one reality is coming into focus: Brands are becoming more visual.

One indication is the emergence of new kids on the block, such as the image-driven social network Pinterest. Another is the recent updates to more established social platforms, such as Facebook’s Timeline. What’s clear is that brands without a solid visual vocabulary will be left behind.

“Visual” can be a loaded word. When we refer to a visual brand, do we just mean a brand with a good logo? Of course not, though it would be hard to imagine a visual brand that wasn’t anchored by strong imagery. Rather, a visual brand has a strong visual identity, a clear visual vocabulary, and an eye for visual storytelling.

What does that mean? And, more important, how can you be sure that beyond simply being social your brand is ready for the visual revolution as well?

social Media Changes that favor Visual Brands

First, consider the following updates and launches of social platforms over the past year that enable brands to make a significant visual impact.

13©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution

Pinterest

Depending on what you’ve read most recently, Pinterest is either one of the fastest-growing social networks (it grew 52% in February alone according to comScore)—or it’s just another shiny new thing. Regardless, Pinterest is a hot new platform with exceptional growth, and what makes it popular is the visual component. At its core, the network isn’t anything more than a social bookmarking system. What’s different is that it’s image-driven and visual.

14©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution

Instagram

Though not making nearly as many waves as Pinterest, Instagram is quickly becoming a cult favorite. In 2011, the photo-sharing application was named the App Store’s App of the Year. Although many dismiss the mobile-only, easy-photo-filter app as just a fun tool for hipsters to take funky photos, brands such as General Electric and Ben & Jerry’s are finding traction using the network as a visual storytelling platform.

15©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution

Facebook Timeline

Boasting the world’s third largest online population, Facebook is the 600-pound gorilla in any conversation about social brands. It’s no surprise, then, that the giant just sent a wave of visual updates down the beanstalk. With Facebook’s “Timeline” update, brands can enjoy several new features that rely heavily on bold graphics and visual storytelling: the cover photo, the timeline itself, and larger images on wall posts (RIP thumbnail graphics).

16©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution

17©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution

Twitter, Foursquare, and Google+

Though their changes are not as substantial as those of the previously noted social platforms, other networks are also jumping on the visual bandwagon. Recent updates on Twitter allow for Twitpics to display in-stream, and Foursquare boasts larger images for posts as well. Google+ also came out of the gate featuring larger images for links and photos than other networks (such as Facebook at the time).

18©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution

A Checklist for the Visual Revolution

Your brand’s visuals, then, are more important than ever. As Convince & Convert’s Jay Baer noted during a recent panel at SXSW, we are moving into a time when “content creators may not even have to be writers.” What does that mean for marketers?

Here’s a six-item checklist to ensure that your brand is ready for the coming visual revolution.

1. The basics still matter

Your visual vocabulary starts with a strong foundation—a solid logo and corporate identity. However, more than making sure that your letterhead and business cards match, your brand team needs to ensure that you have typography that can transcend platforms and a lexicon of app-friendly iconography as well. You also need to consider how your brand can flourish in a controlled ecosystem (e.g., your website) as well as offsite platforms (e.g., Facebook).

2. Have a plan

Though this tip may apply to any new social endeavor, it rings especially true here. Too often, those with visual savvy in organizations (the creatives!) are kept out and are brought in only after the fact—to “make things look pretty.” You need to bring in those visual thinkers at the initial stages of your campaigns to help you visualize your story across social channels.

In addition to personnel, you also need a plan for attacking various platforms. What are you pinning on Pinterest? How do you use Instagram?

3. Photography can’t be an afterthought

Many organizations have a couple of trusted photographers they contact in times of need, (e.g., for events or launches). That won’t suffice any more. You need a strategy for consistently creating more interesting imagery to feed the larger spaces on Facebook’s Timeline... and for creating the slices of life for visual storytelling on Instagram. (Fun fact: New Belgium Brewing, a Colorado brewery, shares Instagram responsibilities among five photographers for greater variety in its brand story.)

19©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution

4. Teach storytelling

Take some time to teach your team how to capture moments and tell stories visually. Consider bringing in a photographer to deliver a guest lecture for some Friday fun.

5. Understand the mechanics of ‘pinable’ images

Though Pinterest can be a powerful platform for a brand, using it still requires planning. That means including large, engaging photos that stand out in a sea of boards. You also need to

20©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Ways to Prepare Your Brand for Social Media’s Visual Revolution

be cognizant of the need to stand out when coding your site to ensure that your images are “seen” by Pinterest’s bookmarklets and other pinning tools.

6. Make your past as visual as your present and future

In addition to covering your visual bases from now on, make sure you digitize images from your brand’s past. Tools such as Facebook’s Timeline give tools to brands for telling their stories socially. Coke and Starbucks, for example, do a great job of that on their Facebook pages.

* * *

As the innovations outlined above remind us, the social Web is only getting more visual. A picture is, again, worth a thousand words. People can scan pictures much more quicker than they can scan thousands of words. Therefore, content in the form of images helps us feed our info-snacking culture. As brand builders, we need to make sure we are leaving appropriate visual snacks out for our audiences.

Is your social brand ready to get visual?

Nick Westergaard is a brand strategist and founder of Brand Driven Social, a social media strat-egy, training, and management firm that helps build social brands.

21©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

The 7 Ps of Customer Retention Marketing

by Karl Wirth

When we think of marketing, we often think of Marketing’s efforts to acquire customers. The world, however, is moving toward relationship-based business, including subscription services and subscription commerce—but also most other business.

Consider consumer packaged goods companies that used to have no direct relationship with customers, who bought in box stores. Many CPG companies are now using online and social mediums to build direct relationships with their customers.

In this world, customer retention is just as important as customer acquisition. So how do the 7 Ps of marketing apply to customer retention marketing?

1. People are the most important. Retaining customers is about building relationships, and relationships are about people. Treat your customer as a person, and not a customer; start by hiring people who show they care about others.

Compare how you behave driving in rush-hour traffic with how you drive down your own street past your neighbors. When you know you will see people again, or if you want to see them again, you treat them better.

The whole company needs to care about customers and customer retention, and one execu-tive must be responsible to ensure that’s so—hence the rise of the chief customer officer.

2. Product is a very close second in importance to “People.” If your product is off, you will have a difficult time with the rest of the Ps. However, if the product is on target, you will accomplish the rest of the Ps much more easily.

When designing your product or service for maximum customer retention, provide quick time to value, continued value over time, and high quality (those are what Apple does so well). Sometimes there is another P: Packaging. I include packaging as part of the product (or service), and the key to it is polish.

22©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

The 7 Ps of Customer Retention Marketing

3. Place obviously matters when you are figuring out where to put your physical store, but what about when you’re online? Does it matter there? Yes. If I am looking to communicate with my customer and offer them an upsell, I could send them an email or message them right while they are shopping, browsing, or working on my site. The first communication is out of context and has a low chance of response. The second is in context and has a higher likelihood of response. “Place” is context, and context matters.

4. Price. In any good relationship, people take care of each other. That is now the expectation in the customer-business relationship as well. Our customers assume that we will look after them. That is what they pay us to do. In an e-commerce business, that sort of relationship means providing deals for our recurring customers. In a subscription business, that means rolling new features (some, not all) into the service, over time, without charging more.

5. Promotion. How should you promote your product or service to customers to retain them, upsell to them... and keep them for the long haul? Quite differently from how you promote to a prospective customer. Why? Because the person is your customer. You know, or should know, him or her. You know what the customer bought from you or how he or she uses your service. You can use that information to message customers in a more targeted, appropriate, helpful, and effective way. Don’t spam them with the same generic info you send to everyone else. Send them targeted emails and in-context messages.

6. Processes. To succeed in all of the previous Ps, and for this success to be more than a one-time fluke, you need good processes, such as monitoring social media and engaging customers there, surveying customers for satisfaction, and implementing marketing automation. My company uses its own customer engagement solution to understand how each customer is engaging with the business. We look for positive or negative patterns and respond accordingly, sometimes by person or email but often right in our application with a targeted message based on behavior.

7. Positioning. If you want to retain your customers, you have to know who you are and communicate that clearly and repeatedly to them so they know who you are as well.Foremost, however, is this: Your actions must communicate your positioning. Those actions are showcased in the people you hire, the product you ship or service you deliver, the price you charge and the discounts you provide, the place and promotions you choose, and the processes you put in place.

23©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

The 7 Ps of Customer Retention Marketing

Combined, your words and actions say “This is who we are and what you can expect of us.”

* * *By acting on the 7 Ps of Customer Retention Marketing, you can keep your customers; make their interactions with your business successful; and in so doing make your business more successful.

Karl Wirth is the CEO and a co-founder of Apptegic, a customer intelligence and marketing automation solution that enables online businesses to understand each customer and respond in real time.

24©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

by Janelle Johnson

Email might not be as shiny as social media and other emerging marketing channels, but it’s still arguably the most powerful marketing tool around.

A recent study asked consumers which channel they prefer for receiving permission-based promotional messages. A whopping 77% said email. No other channel even scored in the double digits; only 4% of respondents said Facebook, with Twitter and mobile apps both scoring a mere 1%. That’s a very clear message about how your leads and contacts want to hear from you.

So how do you maximize this old workhorse for new gains?

Sometimes the best way to learn what to do right is to consider what not to do. In that spirit, here are six common email marketing mistakes... and guidance on avoiding them.

Mistake No. 1: Neglecting Buyer NeedsDoes the CEO of a major corporation in California have the same needs as a small marketing team in the Midwest? Probably not. Moreover, retail email volume increased 61% from 2007 to 2011, making for a very noisy environment. To slice through the clutter, ‘you need to speak directly to your buyer.

Use segmentation strategies to target campaigns to specific buyers’ specific needs, particularly their “pain points.” By doing so, you’ll position your company as a friendly one that’s paying attention.

Mistake No. 2: Blasting the same Message to All ContactsChances are, your interactions with prospects are not all the same. Some prospects may already be fans who follow you on social media; others may have never heard of your company before. What’s more, you may well have more than one product or service to offer.Email marketing is wonderfully customizable. Segment your lead list into different groups and customize your messaging to each. You’ll see higher click-through rates—and more-engaged customers.

25©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake No. 3: failing to Adapt MessagingYou’ve heard insanity defined as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results? Start paying attention to your response rates, and you’ll prevent some of the expensive insanity that can result from a bad email marketing strategy.

Split-testing allows you to test copy and other variables so you can adapt your messaging, timing, and so forth based on response rates. Doing so boosts your open rates, making for more efficient campaigns.

Mistake No. 4: Not Linking to Your WebsiteYou send out marketing emails to increase sales by increasing traffic to your website, right? So don’t forget to include links to your website and to specific product pages in the actual email. In fact, research shows that the more links you include, the higher your click-through rate.That said, we don’t advocate loading your emails with irrelevant links in hopes of more click-throughs. Too many links will turn off prospects. Determine the right number by gradually adding more links until you hit the sweet spot that provides the highest return.

Mistake No. 5: Ignoring Mobile email ReadersA recent Return Path study revealed an explosive 81% growth in mobile email viewership from October 2010 to March 2011. You can’t ignore this trend. No matter how great your content is, if your prospects can’t read it on a smartphone or tablet, it’s not going to be read.

Making your email mobile-friendly is a bit tricky: You have to optimize it for multiple mobile operating systems (iOS, Android, Windows, etc.), all which have different requirements. But the mobile trend is unstoppable, so it’s well worth taking that extra step now.

Remember that most mobile email readers will not automatically load images; even if they do load them, you have no guarantee that the images will display properly. So, design just as for non-mobile email: Use HTML text, use alternative text for images, and don’t forget to include a plain-text version.

Mistake No. 6: Not Having a strategy in PlaceThe No. 1 reason people unsubscribe from an email list is that they receive emails too frequently. Put an email marketing plan in place that strategically lays out when emails will be sent to each segmented group. If you see a spike in the number of people unsubscribing from your emails, the cause may well be that you flooded their inboxes. Look at the frequency of

26©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Six Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

previous emails and compare unsubscribe rates; you’ll most likely see a pretty clear window of time when you can email again.

Janelle Johnson is manager of marketing operations at Act-On Software, provider of a cloud-based integrated marketing platform for marketing automation.

27©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Top B2B Firms Gaining 230% More Leads via Social Media Than Peers

Best-in-Class B2B companies generate on average 17% of their leads from social media channels, roughly 230% more marketing-generated leads than other companies (5%), according to a new report by Aberdeen Group, which examines the social marketing strategies of top-performing B2B companies.

In the new report, titled “B2B Social Meeting Marketing: Are We There Yet?” Aberdeen uses four key performance criteria to distinguish the Best-in-Class (top 20% of aggregate performers) from the Industry Average (middle 50%) and Laggard (bottom 30%) organizations.

The top 20% of companies (i.e., Best-in-Class) have achieved the following performance metrics:

1. Average annual company revenue growth of 20%, compared with 8% for Industry Average and -3% for Laggard firms.

2. 10% average year-over-year improvement of marketing leads resulting in closed business, compared with 3% for the Industry Average and -1% for Laggard firms.

3. 44% of sales-forecasted pipeline generated by marketing, compared with 10% for Industry Average and 5% for Laggard firms.

4. 73% annual customer retention rate, compared with 27% for Industry Average and 7% for Laggard firms.

5. Overall, 84% of all surveyed B2B companies are using social marketing in some form. However, Best-in-Class companies are more likely to use social media primarily for lead-generation purposes, and more likely to integrate social marketing with other core channels and processes, the study found.

Below, additional findings from Aberdeen Group.

the Diminishing Influence of the traditional sales CycleDigital and social media have created an asymmetrical relationship between buyers and sell-ers, according to Aberdeen.

28©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Top B2B Firms Gaining 230% More Leads via Social Media Than Peers

In this new environment, buyers have more information at their disposal than ever before as they discover and evaluate products. Aberdeen refers to this notion as the “hidden sales cycle.”Best-in-Class companies are combating the effects of the hidden sales cycle by listening to and engaging with would-be buyers across social media channels—and generating leads via social engagement.

• 47% of Best-in-Class companies cite expanding lead generation as their primary strategy with social media marketing efforts, and 13% cite generating leads as their secondary strategy.

• 23% of Best-in-Class companies cite developing clear business processes for social marketing as their top strategy, and 8% cite process development as a secondary strategy.

Best-in-Class companies are also more actively engaged in social marketing: 80% say they are somewhat or actively involved in social media marketing, compared with 73% of Industry-Average firms and 60% of Laggards.

Integration With other Marketing ChannelsBest-in-Class companies are far more likely to integrate social media with other multi-channel marketing efforts.

29©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Top B2B Firms Gaining 230% More Leads via Social Media Than Peers

• Best-in-Class companies are 27% times more likely than Industry-Average firms to integrate email with social media (65% vs. 51%), and they are 33% more likely than Laggards to do so (65% vs. 49%).

• Best-in-Class companies are 24% times more likely than Industry-Average firms to integrate SEO with social media (61% vs. 49%), and they are 69% more likely than Laggards to do so (61% vs.36%).

Best-in-Class companies also stand out in their adoption of various social technologies:

• 51% of Best-in-Class companies use website social sharing tools, compared with 36% of Industry-Average firms.

• 49% of Best-in-Class companies use keyword-based social media monitoring, compared with 39% of Industry-Average firms.

• 21% of Best-in-Class companies use social sign-in, compared with 8% of Industry-Average firms.

Adopting Best Practices Now Matters More than experience“Best-in-Class” performance in social media marketing is based on the execution of best practices now, rather than years of experience, Aberdeen found.

30©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Top B2B Firms Gaining 230% More Leads via Social Media Than Peers

On average, Best-in-Class companies have been using social marketing for 2 years, only slightly longer than Industry-Average firms (1.7 years).

About the data: Findings from “B2B Social Media Marketing: Are We There Yet? “ are based on a survey of 500 B2B companies, conducted by Aberdeen Group in sponsorship with Silverpop and Eloqua, October to December 2011.

31©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Fortune 500 Social Media Adoption Surging in 2012

The use of blogging, Facebook, and Twitter among the nation’s largest companies—those listed on the 2012 Fortune 500—has surged in 2012, according to a new study by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth:

• 73% now use twitter (have an official corporate account with tweet activity in the previous month), up 11 percentage points (or 17.7%) from the 62% that did so in 2011.

• 66% have a corporate facebook page, up 8 points (or 13.8%) from the 58% that did so a year earlier.

• 28% have a corporate public-facing blog from the primary corporation with posts in the previous 12 months, up 5 points (or 21.7%) from the 23% that did so in 2011.

Below, other findings from The Social Media Surge by the 2012 Fortune 500, issued by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

twitter AdoptionSome 365 (73%) of the 2012 F500 have a corporate Twitter account with a tweet in the previous thirty days; among them, the 10 largest companies (Exxon, Wal-Mart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, General Motors, General Electric, Berkshire Hathaway, Fannie Mae, Ford Motors and Hewlett-Packard) consistently post to their Twitter accounts.

twitter Accounts by IndustryThe F500 companies with Twitter accounts come from a cross section of industries.

The food consumer products industry has the highest Twitter penetration with 93%, followed by the specialty retail and aerospace industries, each with 86%.

32©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Fortune 500 Social Media Adoption Surging in 2012

A partial list (below) shows those industries with the greatest presence on Twitter:

Corporate twitter followersGoogle has the highest number of followers on Twitter among the F500 with 4,795,987, followed by Whole Foods Market (2,666,439), Starbucks (2,546,244), and Southwest Airlines (1,305,938). Walt Disney recorded the largest year-over-year increase, from 206,843 Twitter followers in 2011, to 1,289,222 in 2012.

facebook PagesSome 332 (66%) of the 2012 F500 now have a corporate Facebook page; among them, 8 of the 10 largest companies (Wal-Mart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, General Motors, General Electric, Fannie Mae, Ford Motors, and Hewlett-Packard) have a Facebook Page. Exxon and Berkshire Hathaway do not use Facebook.

33©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Fortune 500 Social Media Adoption Surging in 2012

facebook Pages by IndustryCompanies in the specialty retail industry have the highest Facebook penetration with 89%, followed by consumer food products and telecom, with 86% and 80%, respectively.A partial list (below) shows those industries with the greatest presence on Facebook:

Those industries with no Facebook presence are tobacco and diversified outsourcing services, the study found.

Corporate facebook fansFor the second year in a row, Coca-Cola has the biggest Facebook fan base with 42.2 million fans. Walt Disney follows with 32.0 million. Walt Disney’s and Intel’s (10.4 million) fan bases have more than quadrupled year over year, while Yahoo’s (9.6 million) and Google’s (9.7 million) have more than doubled.

34©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Fortune 500 Social Media Adoption Surging in 2012

Corporate BlogsSome 139 F500 companies (28%) have a corporate blog. Two of the largest five corporations (Exxon and Wal-Mart) are included in that group, whereas the other three (Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Berkshire Hathaway) do not have a corporate facing blog.

Blogs by IndustryThe 139 corporations with blogs come from 54 of the 71 industries represented in the F500.Companies in the telecom industry are most likely to have a corporate blog: 40% do.

Commercial banks follow with 30%, followed by utilities with 27% and specialty retail with 25%.

By contrast, only one F500 company in the Aerospace industry has a corporate blog.A partial list is presented below showing those industries with the greatest presence in the F500.

35©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Fortune 500 Social Media Adoption Surging in 2012

Blogs by RankCorporations ranked in the top 200 of the F500 tend to blog far more than those in the bottom 200.

More than one-half (54%) of all F500 blogs are published by the top 200 corporations, whereas 28% are published by companies ranked 300 to 500 on the list.

Since 2008, rank has influenced the adoption of blogging among the F500, whereas rank plays a smaller role in Facebook and Twitter adoption, the study found.

Comparison With the Inc. 500Over the past few years, the F500 companies have typically blogged at a lower rate than other business groups, specifically the Inc. 500. The Inc. 500 list is composed of the fastest-growing, private companies in the US, whereas the F500 is based on total revenue (not growth) and may include public and private companies.

In 2011, 37% of the Inc. 500 had corporate blog (a 13% decline from 2010). With 28% of the F500 companies publishing a corporate blog in 2012, that gap appears to be closing.

36©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Fortune 500 Social Media Adoption Surging in 2012

About the data: Findings are from The Social Media Surge by the 2012 Fortune 500, by Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D., Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts at Dart-mouth. Data was collected in July and August 2012.

37©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Facebook ‘Like’ Patterns Akin to Email Opt-In’s

People want great offers. That’s the primary reason they opt-in for permission-based communications from brands, whether in the form of “liking” a brand on Facebook or subscribing to an email list, according to a new survey from Constant Contact and Chadwick Martin Bailey.

Among email users surveyed, the top reasons to subscribe to an organization’s email list are to receive discounts (58%) and special promotions (39%), whereas motivations such as receiving exclusive content (26%), staying informed (26%), and showing support (25%) are less important.

Similarly, Facebook users cite receiving discounts (41%) and promotional offers (28%) as their top reasons for “liking” a brand on Facebook.

Roughly one-quarter (27%) of Facebook users like brands to support them (27%), and 22% do so to demonstrate that support to others.

38©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Facebook ‘Like’ Patterns Akin to Email Opt-In’s

Below, additional findings from the study titled “10 Facts About Why and How Consumers ‘Like’ and Subscribe.”

‘Unliking’ and opt-out Patterns Also ConsistentProducing content that is not relevant (42%) and over-communicating (42%) are the top reasons brands drive consumers away from their Facebook pages.

Similarly, too many emails (69%) and irrelevant content (56%) are the top reasons people cite for unsubscribing to email lists, followed by email content that wasn’t relevant to begin with (51%) and simply no longer being a customer or supporter (48%).Interestingly, among Facebook users and email consumers alike, excessive communications and irrelevant content are even bigger turnoffs than bad customer experiences (32% and 42%, respectively).

Why People open emailEmail users say the most important factor in opening an email is the sender’s identity (i.e., who the email is from)—64%—followed by the subject line (47%) and promotional offers (26%).Lack of interest (61%) and over-sending (45%) are the top two reasons consumers do not open emails from an organization, followed by receiving too many emails overall (32%).

39©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Facebook ‘Like’ Patterns Akin to Email Opt-In’s

Other key findings:

• Local preferences: 25% of consumers prefer to opt in to local businesses over national businesses via email and Facebook.

• Mobile email: Despite the widespread use of mobile devices, 84% of consumers primarily access email from their computers, and 14% access email primarily via mobile device.

• facebook via mobile: Though 30% of consumers access Facebook via mobile device, 82% access Facebook primarily via computer, and 15% do so primarily via mobile.

• About the data: The Constant Contact and Chadwick Martin Bailey findings are based on a survey of 1,481 US consumers age 18+ via the Research Now online panel. The survey was fielded in the fourth quarter of 2011.

40©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Pinterest Now No. 3 US Social Network, Surpasses LinkedIn

Pinterest is now the third most popular social networking site in the US, behind Facebook and Twitter, according to a new report by Experian Hitwise.

Web traffic to Pinterest traffic surged 50% from January to February of 2012, enabling the invitation-only site to overtake LinkedIn, Tagged, and Google+ in total monthly visits, Experian reports.

Moreover, visits to Pinterest reached nearly 21.5 million during the week ended January 28, 2012, almost 30 times the number of total visits recorded six months earlier (week ended July 30, 2011).

Pinterest continued to outpace its closest competitor LinkedIn by a healthy margin in March 2012.

Below, the top 10 social sites in Experian Hitwise’s Social Networking & Forums category, ranked by total visits* in March:

41©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Pinterest Now No. 3 US Social Network, Surpasses LinkedIn

1. Facebook: 7.0 billion2. Twitter: 182.2 million3. Pinterest: 104.4 million4. LinkedIn: 85.7 million5. Tagged: 72.5 million6. Google+: 61.0 million7. MySpace: 43.3 million8. MyYearbook: 38.1 million9. MyLife: 29.7 million10. Tumblr: 29.6 million

Below, other selected findings from Experian’s 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report.

Pinterest site DemographicsVisitors to the site in the 12 rolling weeks ended January 28 skewed female (60%) and between the age of 25 and 44 (55%).

However, Pinterest visitors have a different geographic profile compared with visitors of other social sites such as Facebook and YouTube.

Pinterest and the Social Networking & Forums category both attract the greatest share of their visits from California and Texas. However, the Social Networking category as a whole over-indexes on share of visits from Northeastern states, whereas Pinterest over-indexes on visits from the states in the Midwest, Northwest, and Southeast.

42©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Pinterest Now No. 3 US Social Network, Surpasses LinkedIn

Hobbies and CraftsPinterest tend to attracts people interested in home crafts and hobbies: 19 of the US states where Pinterest visitors over-index against the online population also over-index for the Hobbies and Crafts category.

Boomers and young adults (Boomerangs) were the groups most likely to visit Pinterest and sites in the Hobbies and Crafts category during the 12 weeks ended January 28. Such visitors (heavy Web users who spend time on house and garden, sports and fitness, and family-oriented websites) accounted for more than 7% of visits to Pinterest and 3% to the Hobbies and Crafts category during the period.

43©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Pinterest Now No. 3 US Social Network, Surpasses LinkedIn

*March 2012 traffic data were provided to MarketingProfs by Experian Hitwise for this article. Figures exclude mobile traffic.

About the data: Findings are from The 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report, by Experian Hitwise, issued in April 2012.

44©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

CEO Communications: Five Phrases That Signal ‘BS’

Leading business bloggers say the perceived authenticity of a CEO plays a critical role in how they assess a leader’s abilities and performance overall, according to interviews conducted by the 10 company and Gotham Research Group.

CEOs who are perceived as inauthentic are viewed as not only less likeable than authentic CEOs but also less capable and less effective leaders, the interviews found.

Below, other findings from The Value of Authenticity: Managing Bloggers’ Perceptions of the CEO, a report based on in-depth interviews with 10 institutional bloggers who cover corporate and business news for top-tier national, regional, and trade news outlets.

CEOs in the financial and banking industry were consistently rated by the interviewed bloggers as “less likely to be authentic.”

Bloggers’ observations of high-profile CEOs in that industry (as well as their perceptions of the culture in the financial sector in general) lead them to believe that such CEOs tend to be “tone deaf and scripted,” according to the report.

The interviewed bloggers most often rated the following CEOs as authentic:

• Warren Buffett (“He’s a straight shooter.”)• steve Jobs (“He was always himself, even if it rubbed people the wrong way.”)• Ray Kroc (“He wasn’t in some Ivory Tower; he was out in the field all the time.”)• Herb Kelleher (“His door was always open—I think he ate with lunch with his

employees every day.”)

Asked to name the top 5 phrases that raise concerns about a lack of authenticity, the bloggers cited the following:

1. “this deal is a win-win.” Bloggers commented that few business deals, if any, are really a win-win—particularly in the current economic climate.

45©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

CEO Communications: Five Phrases That Signal ‘BS’

2. “thinking/working/planning outside the box.” That phrase is viewed as classic corporate-speak, according to the interviewed bloggers.

3. “We’re not here to talk about the past.” That expression is viewed as a clichéd, not-so-clever diversionary tactic designed to avoid an unpleasant topic.

4. “We are an innovative company.” Innovation has become an empty promise—some-thing many companies say they stand for, but few, if any, can actually deliver, accord-ing to the report.

5. “executive X is stepping down to spend more time with his family.” Among blog-gers interviewed, that expression is code for an executive who is being forced out of a job.

Bloggers agreed that CEOs who exhibit any of the following traits are not authentic:

• Lack of courage. Bloggers say CEOs are too tightly handled and scripted and, as a result, too tentative not only in their public statements but also in their actions.

• failure to engage in unscripted “give and take.” Bloggers say they should have an opportunity—even if only once a year—to ask questions, preferably in person, and get a glimpse of the real person inside the CEO.

• failure to acknowledge and discuss their company’s challenges. Bloggers, who are usually looking out for potential problems that can undermine the companies they cover, say a CEO who is not similarly vigilant is suspicious.

“The bloggers we surveyed expressed a desire for CEOs—particularly those in the financial sector—to explicitly acknowledge the corporate excesses of the last several years, even if their companies were blameless,” said Dr. Jeff Levine, founder of Gotham Research Group.

“There’s something more authentic and relatable about a leader who can admit that mistakes were made.”

About the survey: The report is based on findings from 10 one-on-one in-depth interviews with institutional bloggers who cover corporate and business news for top-tier national, regional, and trade news outlets. The interviews were conducted in December 2011 by the 10 company and Go-tham Research Group. Each blogger participated in a 30-45-minute interview designed primarily to assess their views of CEOs and the C-Suite at large public companies.

46©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Personal Branding Trends for 2012 (Part 1)

In 2011, my company Reach Personal Branding turned 10. In the early years of the business, personal branding was seen as a luxury—reserved for CEOs and entrepreneurs. As personal branding became a little more visible and better understood, marketers jumped on the “brandwagon.”

Today, professionals in all job functions view personal branding as a proven technique for enabling career success and personal fulfillment. The philosophy has remained the same, but the way we build our brands and the workplace trends related to personal branding are evolving. Each year, I compile those trends for you early-adopter marketers so you can stay ahead of your peers as you build and express your brand.

Here are the first six of my 12 personal branding trends for 2012.

1. Headshots everywhereThere was a time when only actors, models, and senior executives had professional photos of themselves taken regularly. Well, thanks to personal branding, the need for virtual visibility, and the universal desire to connect a face with a name—the professional photography business is booming! We now expect to see a photo alongside a blog post, on a social network profile, and accompanying an online article.

People are less likely to click on a LinkedIn profile if it is missing a photo and are less inclined to believe Web-based content if the contributor’s photo is missing. Yet many people are still reluctant to post their photo. Some fear age discrimination or harassment, and others just haven’t invested in high-quality photos. (Have you seen really weird avatars or photos that clearly were taken at someone’s party—after a few too many cocktails?)

Social media companies realize the importance of connecting a face with a name and are developing apps to make that easier. For example, Plaxo now allows you to take any contact’s photo and view it in your Outlook and iPhone contacts. Many more apps will offer similar capabilities. And the next frontier—face recognition—will add a whole new twist to Google image searches!

by William Arruda

47©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Personal Branding Trends for 2012 (Part 1)

What does this mean for you?If you haven’t done so already, get professional headshots and upload them to your Flickr account (remember to name the images with your name so they appear in a Google search). Take a series of photos with different clothes and poses because your photo will appear in many places, from your Google profile to your YouTube channel or your Flavors.me page. You don’t want someone doing a Google image search to see 20 copies of the same photo of you. As the old adage goes, first impressions last. Make sure your headshots are of high quality and express your personal brand.

2. Personalization of WorkWhen I worked at Lotus, a software company that is now a division of IBM, we did a lot of research on consumer preferences related to IT and learned that people wanted to use the same hardware and software they use every day at work... at home.

Today, that concept is turned on its head. People, especially Gen-Yers, want to use their own technology—what they use regularly at home—at the office. I call that trend “the personalization of work.” More and more, the imaginary line that separates work and life is disappearing. Over the past decades, work has invaded life (e.g., checking work email on the weekends, having conference calls with Asia at midnight, and so on). Now, we’re seeing the reverse happen.

Many years ago, Tom Peters and Dan Pink wrote that we would all be free agents, moving from project to project, or role to role—much like consultants and solopreneurs do today. The personalization of work is a trend that supports that new paradigm, in which you are a one-person brand with all the tools and resources you need to do your job (even if you are working inside a company).

What does this mean for you?employees: Your tools—everything you use, touch, carry, and surround yourself with—are part of your brand. They send a little message to those around you about who you are. Choose tools that are consistent with your brand, and help reinforce what you want people to know about you.

employers: If you want competitive advantage in hiring the best and the brightest, meet candidates where they are. Ensure that your IT and legal departments are ready to have employees show up on day one with their iPads or other preferred devices. Think of other

48©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Personal Branding Trends for 2012 (Part 1)

ways your employees would want to bring their lives into work, and understand how to make that work for the company and the employees.

3. Personal PublishingBlogs and other online portals have allowed more people to get their work published or to self-publish articles and content. Newspaper and magazine editors are no longer the exclusive gatekeepers to the information we read. Now, book publishing is going the same way. Sure, credibility comes along with being published by John Wiley & Sons or Random House, but readers rarely actually look at the imprint.

Book publishing has changed forever. When I interviewed bestselling author Seth Godin for the Reach Personal Branding Interview Series, he told me about The Domino Project. Although he has published dozens of books with major publishing houses, he has decided to forgo the “middle man” and work directly with Amazon.com—the distributor.

The Domino Project will get relevant books to market faster and more cost-effectively. My company is going to launch our own publishing arm in 2012, and it will produce and release books written in conjunction with our Reach-certified strategists. That is part of an irreversible trend.

Amazon.com sold more e-books in 2011 than books made from trees, making it even easier for you to publish. With e-books, you don’t have to worry about the messy multi-step printing process to get your book in the hands of (or in front of the eyes of ) those you seek to influence with your message.

What does this mean for you?If you have been thinking about writing a book, there’s no better time than now to put pen to paper or finger to key. The fear of publisher or agent rejection does not have to be a factor. Numerous services are available to support all steps of the book-development and distribution process. A book is one of the best tools for demonstrating thought leadership and extending your personal brand.

4. Crowdsourcing for ProfessionalsYou’re only as good as the collective opinions of others. Independent contractors have always understood the value of client feedback and testimonials. Now, with the ease of requesting

49©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Personal Branding Trends for 2012 (Part 1)

and providing recommendations, careerists must also be mindful of the importance of external reviews.

Virtually every new social network or app allows users to request and showcase reviews. LinkedIn (the first to have that feature) calls them recommendations. BranchOut and BeKnown call them endorsements. Honestly.com calls them reviews. Regardless of what you call them, such reviews are becoming increasingly important to those who are making decisions about you. A Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey found that 90% of consumers trust peer reviews. Although no research (to my knowledge) has been done about that topic as it relates to people, I predict we will quickly become accustomed to using crowdsourcing to make decisions about professionals.

What does this mean for you?Get out there, and get testimonials, recommendations, and endorsements. Make those endorsements visible via various social media sites and via your own website. People will be doubtful of those without any external recommendations. And remember, people who evaluate your performance will have more and more opportunities to share their experience, so always deliver your best, on-brand work.

5. Personal QR CodesQuick response (QR) codes are taking off in all kinds of ways that weren’t originally anticipated. For example, according to brandchanel.com, it’s now possible to place extremely large QR codes on the tops of buildings that will be photographed by the satellites that feed Google Maps and Google Earth. Those QR codes will be digested by Google’s mapping systems and will cause companies’ logos to appear when someone looks at their building’s images. Though you may not put a giant QR code on the top of your house, as a career-minded professional or entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to use QR codes to point others to your websites, blogs, and other relevant career marketing content. I have seen QR codes on resumes, on business cards, and on networking name badges.

What does this mean for you?You have a great opportunity to direct people to the content you want them to see. Especially if one of your brand attributes is “innovative,” think about how you can use QR codes to direct people to what you want them to know about you.

50©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Personal Branding Trends for 2012 (Part 1)

6. Personal LogosTiger Woods has his TW logo. Oprah Winfrey has her ‘O.’ And someday, you will have yours, too—a stylized version of your name. Thanks to websites like 99Designs.com and crowdSPRING.com, it’s easy and inexpensive to create your personal logo. In previous trend lists, I discussed having your own personal brand identity system (PBIS)—font, images, color, etc.

Your logo is an important part of the visual vocabulary of your brand. As we move closer and closer to the free agent nation, you’ll need a way to represent your personal brand via a logo. Your logo can be used on your website or Web portal (about.me, flavors.me), your resume, your stationary, or your thank-you notes—anywhere you’re looking to express your brand.

What does this mean for you?Determine if having a stylized way of using your name is right for you, and then think about what emotions you want your logo to evoke and what message you want it to send. Once you have your logo, use it consistently to create recognition and memorability.

William Arruda is founder of Reach Personal Branding, author of Career Distinction, and curator at Personal Branding TV, a premier multi-media resource for professionals interested in building their personal brand.

51©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Four Easy Tactics for Becoming a Must-Follow Account on Twitter

As a smart marketer or business owner, you are likely aware of the benefits of blogging and publishing helpful content on a regular basis. Doing so establishes you as a thought leader, allows you to rank well for relevant search keywords, and, as a result, brings more traffic to your site, which generates more leads. The classic inbound marketing example!

But how about social media, and Twitter in particular? How do you get more followers to spread your message to lots of people?

Sorry to disappoint... you really don’t. Save that for the outbound. But here’s what you can do on Twitter:

• Connect with and listen to your customers and prospects.• Get new ideas for blog posts, products/services, etc.• Help others, and answer their questions.• Promote others’ material/products.• Give credit to others.• Establish your Twitter account as a must-follow in the industry.• Promote your products/services. (Yes, it can be done after all! But do the other sugges-

tions continually, at least 80% of the time.)

If you’re new to Twitter and have yet to gain a following, you can do many things today to become a “must-follow account” in the future. Here are four tactics to get you started.

1. Use twitter’s search to connect with prospectsDo you ever wonder how many people talk about your services every day on Twitter? What exactly are they talking about, and what question do they ask? Finding the answer is easy; just use Twitter search.

Go to http://twitter.com/search, and use the following advanced search operators:

• Use near:”city” to find local results (e.g., tennis near:”new york” or near:”albany, ny”).

by Slavik Volinsky

52©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Four Easy Tactics for Becoming a Must-Follow Account on Twitter

• Use within:25mi, for example, to narrow down your search range by distance, in miles, to the city you’ve selected.

• Use -http (minus sign http) to make sure that none of the tweets contain links.• Use ? (question mark) to show only tweets with a question.• Use “tennis lessons” (in quotation marks) to search for an exact phrase.• Use oR to find tweets that have any of the words in your search query (e.g., why OR

what OR how OR where).

Mix and match any of those search operators, and you might end up with a search query similar to the following: tennis ? -http near:”new york” within:45mi. You’ll see tweets that include the word “tennis,” have a question mark, contain no links, and come from somebody within 45 miles of New York City.

What now?Let’s say you provide tennis lessons and do tennis partner-matching in New York. Here’s your action list:

Action: Answer the question, then follow this user and add her to the Twitter list “nyc tennis players.” You’re likely to be followed back.

Action: Follow these users and add them to the “nyc tennis players” and “nyc tennis matching” lists. If you have time, offer to play! They are potential customers of your partner-matching program, so use your time wisely. Or, simply send them to the tennis-matching part of your site (if they are able to find a partner instantly) or recommend a partner from your “nyc tennis matching” list.

53©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Four Easy Tactics for Becoming a Must-Follow Account on Twitter

Action: Follow this account, add it to your list “nyc tennis influencers,” and engage! The account is likely to follow you back. You’ll get more exposure for your upcoming tweets, blog posts, announcements, etc.

Action: You have to be in! Standard procedure: reply to the user, follow her, and add her to the list. Attend the event, and connect with a number of potential customers.

2. find content ideas for your blog via a twitter searchDelete “near” and “within” from your search, and you’ll see a much more lively list of tweets. Learn what people are asking and what kind of information will help them. Take note, and do one of the following:

• Answer with a tweet or two (if it’s short enough), and open conversation.• Send links to useful articles (written by somebody else).• Send links to your blog.

If you do not currently have any blog posts related to a question, check Google’s Keyword Tool to see the estimated monthly search volume. If the topic is popular enough or is highly relevant to your business, write a new post and use the best keywords to attract more traffic! Next time anybody asks a related question, you know where to send them.

3. Be the best local resource for industry twitter listsEvery time you spot local users talking about services/products related to your business, add them to the list. Depending on what they say, you can add them to a private list, a public list, or both.

54©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Four Easy Tactics for Becoming a Must-Follow Account on Twitter

The following are four best-practices for creating Twitter lists:

1. Customers (private). Make sure to read that list regularly. It’s a great way to learn what customers are up to and to gain their loyalty.

2. Prospects (private). Every time somebody follows or mentions you, ask yourself if she is a right fit for your services. Is she likely to become a customer? Remember to check her location.

3. Influencers or (industry) influencers (public). This list should include journalists, popular bloggers, and celebrities within your industry.

4. Location-based lists. These are lists of locals (and not necessarily those related to your business).

Add lists related to your business, products, and services. Coming back to the example of tennis lessons and the tennis partner-matching program, consider the following lists:

• NYC Tennis Players• NYC Tennis Matching• Tennis Courts/Clubs in Brooklyn... or Queens, Uptown, etc.• NYC Tennis Coaches• NYC Tennis Stores

Others on Twitter can access and follow your public lists, and you can refer people to the lists: They add value! It’s important to note that you can now stay on top of everything that’s going on locally. That is sure to create new connections, ideas for blog posts, or even business development deals!

4. Become a must-follow person in your industryBy monitoring what’s being said, engaging, re-tweeting, and following others, you will start gaining followers yourself. But you won’t achieve overnight success! Use Twitter to convey how passionate you are about your business and to genuinely help others; they will notice you and will want to do business with you. They’ll even start promoting your services for you.One big mistake that companies continue to make is that they “push” messages and treat Twitter as another outbound marketing channel. For instance, recently @ragusauce angered some dads by spamming them on Twitter, and when dads replied... nothing happened. That was a horrible use of Twitter: @ragusauce had a chance to open a conversation and connect

55©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Four Easy Tactics for Becoming a Must-Follow Account on Twitter

to prospects. Instead, small business owner TJ Gallivans used the opportunity in his favor, showing big brands how social media should be used.

Another example is L’Oreal, which realized that it needed to participate in social media. But instead of doing just that, it created a fake blog, praising its own products. Pushing your own product is always easier than earning the attention, of course; but, needless to say, people always find out about it. To quote Gary Vaynerchuk, “People have awesome ‘bulls**t detectors.’”

As you gain Twitter followers, use your opportunity to reach others wisely and genuinely— by posting relevant articles, reviews, and—following that 80/20 rule: promoting your own services at a level that’s less than 20% of your overall participation.Good luck, and share your success stories with others!

slavik Volinsky is an online marketer at AmsterdamPrinting.com, a promotional products com-pany. Slavik blogs about inbound marketing and related fields. Follow him on Twitter via @svolinsky or subscribe to the Promo & Marketing Wall blog.

56©2012 MarketingProfs LLC • All rights reserved.

Ann Handley twitter.com/marketingprofs Managed by Chief Content Officer Ann Handley

MarketingProfs Wire twitter.com/mprofswire A feed of all of our daily articles, blog posts, and other content to help you be a smarter marketer

MarketingProfs events twitter.com/mprofsevents All about our seminars, conferences, and events

MarketingProfs on facebook http://www.facebook.com/marketingprofs

MarketingProfs on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=100106

Connect with us