Pointing out interesting stuff

In his latest book titled Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki covers the principles that individuals and businesses can apply to achieve personal and professional success.

If you don’t have time to read the book, or are looking for a nice refresher, look no further. Here is a handy overview in the form of an Infographic: How to Achieve Enchantment.

Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, has provided inspiration to countless numbers of people since it was released over two decades ago. The seventh and final habit in the book focuses on continuous improvement, what Covey calls “sharpening the saw”.

What are the best ways for marketers to build and sustain their own expertise? Which books, which blogs, and which conferences, and which individuals drive us towards excellence?

Join us this Thursday for our next #B2Bchat event where we dive into these questions.

Q. What is the best marketing-related book you’ve read recently?

Q. How has social media changed the way marketers learn?

I’ve worked with several website designs and website redesigns over the years, and one thing that always strikes me about B2B sites is how much they all look the same. With a few exceptions, you’ll most often find a polished, sterile, brochure-like presence which is sure to appease the discerning B2B buyer. But is this what is really needed? Why do B2B websites follow a similar pattern, and are there opportunities to break the mould and still be successful?

Join us for our latest Twitter chat where we’ll discuss these questions and more. “Why are so many B2B website designs… Boring?” on #B2Bchat this Thursday, April 28 at 5:00pm Pacific. We look forward to your input!

Q. What are the first things that prospects look for on a B2B website?

Q. Does fun mean unprofessional? Which B2B companies have found the right balance?

Q. How often should a B2B site be redesigned?

Q. What is the fastest way to spice up your current B2B site?

Q. Who should give input into a site redesign?

Q. Are corporate websites losing out to the Facebook page?

I recently had the pleasure of reading Seth Godin’s latest book, Poke the Box. It’s a nice, light read and something that can be fit into an afternoon visit to your favorite coffee shop.

As with other Seth Godin books that I’ve read, the message first strikes you as self evident. “Of course this makes sense. Who wouldn’t know that?” But Seth has a way of taking the obvious, and using it as a means to teach a lesson.

I’d like to share some of the things that have stuck with me from this book. Incidentally, as I was reading it, Twitter provided a temporary outlet to tell the rest of the world what I was gleaning from the pages. There were a lot of bite-sized pieces of information, perfect for the 140 character limit on Twitter.

The basic premise of the book is that a lot of people are afraid of starting, of experimenting with new ideas, of ‘poking the box’ to see what happens.

“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth.
Not going all the way, and not starting.”
Siddhartha Gautama

The Starbucks story provides an example of how it’s ok to start, and be wrong at first. One of the founders, Jerry Baldwin, had a vision of a company that would sell coffee beans and tea leaves. His vision turned out to be wrong, and it was only after his business partner Howard Schultz visited Italy and developed a passion for espresso, that the company took the direction for which it is known today. Jerry Baldwin was wrong, but because he started, it allowed for the company to know it was wrong, then change direction.

The person who fails the most usually wins

Talk to any person who is successful and they will share with you their list of failures that helped bring them to where they are. If you fail only once, i.e. fail big, it’s game over. If you never fail, you’re either very lucky, or you’ve never tried succeeding. It is in allowing yourself multiple smaller failures, and learning from them, that you move forward to successes. Poke the box, figure out which ideas resonate, and then ship them.

Why is this message relevant now?

Today’s market is obsessed with novelty. In a world where information can spread quickly, the most remarkable ideas win.

You’ve heard it many times: Content is King. And in a world where B2B buyers go online to find answers to their questions, content marketing is central to any B2B marketer’s strategy.

How do we best create, and leverage content to reach our audiences? Join us for our next #B2Bchat where we dive in to everything related to B2B content marketing:

Q. What types of content are most effective in reaching a business audience? Video? Blog posts? Infographics? White papers?

Q. How do you make content more sharable?

Join us Thursday, April 7 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific. Follow #B2Bchat to join the conversation!

It was just over two months ago that Robert Scoble gave an implicit endorsement for Quora, asking the question: Is Quora the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years?.

Quora, made available to the public in June 2010, was co-founded by Facebook’s former CTO Adam D’Angleo, and at first glance appears similar to LinkedIn Answers, Wikipedia, Focus.com or Yahoo Answers. But do we need another Q&A site? And why is Quora getting so much attention lately?

B2B Marketers are starting to cross paths ever more frequently with this knowledge market site, whether it is a Quora listing on a Google search results page, or going to the site itself to exercise thought leadership.

In this Thursday’s B2Bchat, we dive into Quora’s role in B2B marketing.

Q. Which ‘knowledge market sites’ do B2B buyers go to for information?
Q. As a marketer, what is the best way to get involved with Quora or similar sites?
Q. Will Quora kill blogging?
Q. How can you manage brand reputation in the ‘knowledge market’?
Q. What is the future of Quora?

Join us on February 24 at 5:00pm Pacific for a live #B2Bchat on the relevance of Quora for B2B marketing!

Marketing and public relations departments tend to be the ones driving social media within companies. But what about Sales? How can they best contribute to carrying the brand message and communicating with prospective customers?

Join us for our upcoming #B2Bchat session on Thursday, December 16 at 5:00pm Pacific, where we’ll dive in to: Aligning B2B Sales and Marketing Efforts in Social Media.

Q. What are the do’s and don’t’s of posting for members of the sales team?
Q. What can marketing can do to help the sales team be more effective with social media?
Q. How much time should sales people spend on social? does the answer vary based on level of skill, experience or responsibilities?
Q. What guidelines, if any, are helpful for sales and marketing so each can become more effective in their use of social media?
Q. How can sales and marketing avoid conflict in their use of social that might negate each other’s efforts?
Q. What is “social CRM” and is it mostly a consumer thing or does it also apply to B2B?
Q. What is the dividing line between sales and marketing’s “ownership” or responsibility for a social relationship? Is it the hand-off of a qualified lead? does it have to be defined?

A big thanks to Steven Parker, @sparker9, for suggesting this topic and these questions!

Here is a new, must-see video for B2B marketers interested in social media. It has been prepared by our friends at Earnest Agency in the UK.

Of the stats presented, here some which are especially noteworthy:

1. CIO’s could well be the biggest blocker to social media adoption. Fifty-four percent of CIO’s prohibit use of social networking sites while at work.
2. The use of social media by B2B companies is validated by business purchasers. 93% of business buyers believe all companies should have a presence in social media.
3. If you think C-level executives aren’t active online, you’re sorely mistaken. The Internet is the C-Suites top information resource (74% of C-Level executives say it’s very valuable)
4. 89% of journalists make use of blogs while conducting their online research and 96% turn to corporate websites.

To read more on the data presented here, check out Earnest Agency’s accompanying blog post which contains further detail and sources:http://earnestagency.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/vital-statistics-for-every-b2b-marketer/.

How many social media sites do you update on a regular basis?

Perhaps it would be better to rephrase the question as: How many social media sites would you like to update on a regular basis?

Ping.fm is a useful aggregation service which allows you to do just that: post content simultaneously to a large group of social media sites. It covers dozens of sites and includes these better known social networks:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• WordPress
• Tumblr
• MySpace
• LinkedIn
• Delicious

With ping.fm, you can also direct an RSS blog feed to all of your social networks.

There are other services, such as the popular Twitter client Hootsuite, that allow you to post to the biggest social networks. But if your social media strategy involves reaching audiences on a diverse set of social networks, ping.fm is definitely worth a closer look.

I’d like to share this fantastic presentation by French consulting firm faberNovel, a study on how Apple has maneuvered itself successfully in the market against Microsoft and Google.