I recently returned from a vacation to NY, PA and CN (pics here) when I remembered I volunteered to write this blog. It put a bit of a damper on my post-vacation euphoria. As my first blog in several years I really wanted to kick it off with a bang. My previous blog (slog?) started around the time when anyone and everyone who could fog a glass held under their nose was blogging because they all felt they had something important to say (could be the case now perhaps?). So that blog lasted all of 6 posts and two months before I ditched it. I didn’t get any emails asking if I’d reconsider my decision. Since then the whole blog thing has been in the back of my mind.
As a B2B marketer, I’ve always thought about blogging as an important tactic to break through the marketing clutter and to develop thought leadership to position yourself and your company as experts. This was driven home by Lee Odden on Business Blog Consulting, where blogging was listed as the top digital marketing tactic that B2B marketers said they were using in 2009. Here’s the rest of the list:
• Blogging (34%) • Microblogging (Twitter) (29%) • Search engine optimization (28%) • Social network participation (Facebook, LinkedIn) (26%) • Email marketing (17%) • Social media monitoring & outreach (17%) • Pay per click (14%) • Blogger relations (12%) • Video marketing (10%) • Social media advertising (7%)
Okay, so Twitter is listed second. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that, in some parts of the the B2B world, especially those industries with long sales cycles and complex sales, there may (MAY) be an inverse relationship between the level of person you’re trying to reach and their use of Twitter. In other words, the execs at a company may not be following Twitter as much as managers or others are. Why? Because sales to these types requires more information than can be related in 140 character bursts, and execs want to get the whole enchilada without waiting for the main course. This is just a hunch and I’d like to hear from others about this.
That’s it. I’m done with my first post. Gosh I’m actually looking forward to the next one.
Keith’s been involved in B2B marketing for more than 20 years, in such areas as product marketing, international, branding and demand generation. He blogs about marketing in general, and specifically likes to discuss how marketing can be better utilized to drive sales. This makes sense since he currently helps companies increase revenue by improving their demand generation, lead nurturing and lead scoring at www.keithfinger.com. Besides thinking about and discussing marketing, Keith enjoys searching out little-known ethnic restaurants, especially Thai, Indian and other Asian cuisines. He’s an avid photographer who’s traveled on business and pleasure to more than 20 countries in Europe and Asia. You may also catch him running up the hills in his neighborhood, where he lives with his family.
