Tech Marketers, Take Note of this “ProBook”

August 15, 2011

Just over a week ago I met with Joe Chernov, VP of Content Marketing for Eloqua, to talk about (ironically) content marketing, influencers and social media.  We had a great chat about different trends and tactics we were seeing while comparing notes about the upcoming summer gathering at Boston-based VCs.  Joe was getting ready to head up north to attend Flybridge’s annual event and I was gearing up to head to my firm’s summer offsite.  Towards the end of our conversation Joe mentioned an ebook Eloqua recently released that I somehow missed.

The Social Media ProBook features 20 experts in social marketing stemming from agencies, brands, analyst firms, and other industry professionals including Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group, Jamie Grenney of Salesforce.com, and Scott Monty of Ford.  The ProBook is a great resource for B2C and B2B marketing professionals alike, covering the following topics:

  • How to scale your social media strategy
  • Tips for working with influencers
  • 10 best practices for creating infographics
  • And many more

The full ebook is definitely worth the read, but if you don’t have time, here are my favorite 3 pieces of advice tech marketers can implement TODAY:

  1. Measuring the value of social media – Nearly every tech company I have come across is active on social media in one way or another.  Over time I have quite a few folks utter the words “there is no value in social media” or “the ROI is impossible to track”.  Impossible, no.  Challenging, yes.  David Armano, EVP of Digital Global Innovation and Integration at Edelman Digital, offers some insight around social media metrics and how measuring the metrics is more than just tallying up your “likes” on Facebook.  He suggests to create a measurement framework and always analyze.  Specifically align your goals to KPIs or metrics.  For example, Armano explains if you are interested in increasing your visibility you should track Google page rank.
  2. Create and stick to a routine – Listen, I know you are busy.  We all are.  In order to fit social media into your day-to-day, Sarah Evans of Sevans Strategy offers a sample routine you should mimic!  Here it is:
    1. Review follower list and identify people to follow back (one time, daily)
    2. Review lists you’ve been added to, decide whether or not to follow (one time, daily)
    3. Respond to those you mentioned or those who replied to you (two to three times, daily)
    4. Check and respond to direct messages (two times, daily)
    5. Read “home” stream and identify people to retweet and/or respond (two times daily)
    6. Identify new people to follow (two to three times weekly)
  3. Become an influencer – I write a lot about influencer marketing, specifically on how tech companies can effectively market to their influencers in order to achieve a number of goals.  Now I am spreading the word about Joe Chernov and Leslie Bradshaw and encouraging you to become an influencer, or a “reliable, honest source of information on the social web”.   To do this, Chernov and Bradshaw encourage you to shift your thinking from “what can you do for me?” to “what can I do for you?”  So, how can you get started today on becoming a reliable source of info?  Here are the tips:
    1. Blog interesting, valuable content.  Don’t phone in a blog post just to get something posted
    2. Tweet and share your content on social networks
    3. Comment on others’ blog posts and social channels
    4. Write a book or an ebook
    5. Seek out speaking engagements
    6. Seek out guest article placements or syndications on popular websites or blogs

Download the full ebook here.

Have you seen the ProBook?  What are your favorite tips or ideas?

Content Marketing Director

<strong>Amanda Maksymiw</strong> worked at OpenView from 2008 until 2012, where she focused on developing marketing and PR strategies for both OpenView and its portfolio companies. Today she is the Content Marketing Director at <a href="https://www.fuze.com/">Fuze</a>.