Inbound marketing masterminds and thought-leaders converged at the first Inbound Marketing Summit Sept. 8 at the Boston Marriott Cambridge, and the entire office of PR 20/20 was fortunate enough to be a part of it.

Hubspot, creator of the industry's leading inbound marketing system and WebsiteGrader.com, organized the event, garnering 300 guests in attendance and reaching nearly 100,000 people through social media connections.  Click here to visit the stream page with Summit activity throughout the Web. 

PR 20/20 joined a host of companies that sponsored the one-day event filled with educational presentations, networking opportunities, ideas exchange and more.

Highlighted by keynote speakers David Meerman Scott and Seth Godin in the morning and afternoon sessions respectively, PR 20/20 marketing consultants spent their day attending seminars, and sharing information and insights. Check out the full Flickr slideshow for pictures of the keynote speakers.

We'd highly recommend planning to attend a future Inbound Marketing Summit and checking out the resources available at www.InboundMarketingSummit.com.

Paul discussing a slide in his "Blogging for Business" presentation.

PR 20/20 consultants Keith and Lyndsey at the table during a session break. 

 

(Part 5 of a 5-part blog series on Selling to the Future)

Why walk when you can run, and why talk when you can text.  More and more, younger generations are focused on speed and results, and demand both…yesterday.

Whether it’s advancing in their career, having the highest speed Internet connections, or shopping on Websites that display personalized product selections pages.  This fast-paced, instant gratification-craving lifestyle helps explain the explosion of text messaging as a preferred communication tool. 

Consider the North Olmsted, Ohio teen currently working toward sending 18,300 text messages in one month.  A June 28 Cleveland Plain Dealer article interviews the seventeen-year-old Drew Acklin, who talks about his texting behaviors in the social context, as well as the possibility of establishing a Guiness World Record. 

The article states that as of December 2007, the U.S. telecommunications industry had handled 48.1 billion texts.  The article also refers to surveys from comScore M:Metrics, a Seattle audience-measurement company, that state of those 13 to 17 years old, 52 percent say they text daily, and the number jumps to 56 percent for 18- to 24-year-olds.

According to a March 2008 Pew Internet & American Life Project study, 58 percent of adult Americans have used a cell phone or PDA to conduct non-voice data activities like texting, emailing, pictures, mapping or video.

Of those ages 18 to 29 that have a cell phone or PDA, 85 percent send or receive text messages, 82 percent take photos, 38 percent play music and 31 percent access the Internet for news, sports or other information. 

With the world at our fingertips, it seems nothing is worth the wait.  Understand this and you may start to understand the popularity of the Twitter social network.  Twitter answers the question "What are you doing?" by keeping people connected through the exchange of short and frequent messages. 

When it comes to selling to the future, keep it simple, keep it relevant and keep it coming.

Part 1 - Connect to convert

Part 2 - Learn your XYZs

Part 3 - Facebook is life for college students and beyond

Part 4 - Blogging in business

Part 5 - Don't call us, we'll text u

(Part 4 of a 5-part blog series on Selling to the Future)  

Teenagers and young professionals of Generation Y are the true ambassadors of the blogosphere.  Not only are blogs vital for a strong inbound marketing campaign - increasing your search engine visibility through inbound links to your Websites – but also a great way to share content and create discussions.

A 2007 report, Teens and Social Media, highlights creative content sharing as a growing trend.  The report is based on a national phone survey of 935 youth ages 12-17 conducted in November 2006.

• Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64 percent of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57 percent of online teens in 2004
• 39 percent of online teens share their own artistic creations online such as artwork, photos stories or videos.
• 33 percent of online teens create or work on Web pages or blogs for others, including friends, groups they belong to or school assignments.
• 28 percent of online teens have created their own blog, up from 19 percent in 2004 - almost completely driven by the popularity of blogging among girls.
• 27 percent of online teens maintain their own webpage.
  

Making Blogs Work For You
Blogs thrive on two-way communication – publishing interesting content, and communicating directly through comments, linkbacks, and social bookmarking through StumbleUpon, digg and more.

In a Seth Godin blog post titled “The wealthy gardener,” he states:

“The best bloggers make money, but mostly as a side effect, not as a direct result of setting out to use a blog to make a profit…If it makes you happy (and your readers happy) it's a great place to start. Step by step you get better at it, and then you discover the ancillary benefits. But the benefits kick in best when you don't set out to achieve them...”

A great place to start is to search where your target markets are hanging out in the blogosphere by doing a blog search on Technorati or Google Blogs.  This will help you get a feel for what’s already being said and where you can fit in.  

In addition to using blogs to connect with customers, corporations are also seeing the benefits of internal blogs as employee communication tools.  

How organizations are using blogs in business

• Establish professionals as experts, thought leaders and innovators.
• Educate employees, customers, prospects and the media.
• Manage crisis situations.
• Optimize Websites for improved search engine rankings.
• Publish company news, information.
  

Not sure if blogging is right for your business?

Check out the Corporate Blog Creative Brief posted on the PR 20/20 Blog, or contact a PR 20/20 Internet marketing consultant today.

With 1.4 blogs created each second, and 22 of the top 100 Websites being blogs, maybe it’s time your business thought about blogging.

Part 1 - Connect to convert

Part 2 - Learn your XYZs

Part 3 - Facebook is life for college students and beyond

Part 4 - Blogging in business

Part 5 - Don't call us, we'll text u (coming soon)

(Part 3 of a 5-part blog series on Selling to the Future) 

Supporting the instinctive trait of gathering in groups, Facebook is a social utility and virtual society complete with social hierarchy, friendship, competition, and user-generated online groups, events and applications.  

To a marketer, it’s a demographically and psychographically obvious place to target efforts.

Facebook also has more than 600 million searches per month making it one of the top 20 search engines.

According to a January 2008 HubSpot.com webinar, “Facebook for Businesses,” Facebook has more than 59 million active users, averaging 250,000 new users each day since January 2007.  More than half are out of college with the fastest growing demographic 25 or older. More than half of active users return daily.

Business Uses for Facebook

• Create a profile, recruit friends
• Create a business group, recruit fans
• Use News feeds to make announcements, show activity, gain friends/fans
• Buy Facebook social ads
• Conduct Facebooks polls
• Participate in the Marketplace
• Schedule and promote events, invite attendees
• Build your profile and make connections with consumers
• Viral marketing, generating traffic and creating links
  

Facebook Marketing

• Facebook has a virtual shop of graphic gifts to purchase and send to friends.  Companies have harnessed this gift-giving power to promote brands, Website products, events, film and TV releases and more, usually offering free gifts as opposed to the typical $1 cost.

• This prom season, Sears used Facebook for friends to share fashions and recreate the dress shopping experience online.  Sears supported the effort to recreate the mall experience for today’s social networking teen through Facebook ads and retail signage. Click here for full article.
  

• According to an article on The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur Website, 41 percent of the teens that use MySpace, Facebook or other social network sites say they send messages to friends via those sites every day. 
  

The first step is to visit the site and build from there. The very life of your future Internet marketing strategy may depend on it.

Social Networking Continued

Facebook is currently the number two social networking site behind MySpace, but the landscape of social networking is constantly evolving and segmenting.  Google has recently entered the ring with its beta “Friend Connect,” which lets the sites of musicians, political campaigns and others incorporate profile data from several social networks.  And you can’t overlook the wildly popular, and recently $1 billion valuated,  LinkedIn for professionals social networking site.  Plus, Ning allows you to create your own free social network!

Keep a pulse on what’s next in social networking and who’s ahead in the fight for top social status.  

Sources: Facebook.com, Hubspot.com, Thebabyboomerentreprenuer.com, retailmarketingblog.com, Wikipedia.com, Google.com

Part 1 - Connect to convert

Part 2 - Learn your XYZs

Part 3 - Facebook is life for college students and beyond

Part 4 - Blogging in business (coming soon)

Part 5 - Don't call us, we'll text u (coming soon)

(Part 2 of a 5-part blog series on Selling to the Future)

Tools such as search engine optimization, pay-per-click campaigns, online ads and viral marketing are important elements of a company’s Internet marketing strategy. 

However, the emergence of social media, including forums, blogs, social networking, wikis and more, has given businesses the chance for dialogue — in the figurative online sense — with both current and potential customers. 

But for your voice to be heard with online generations, first understand whom you’re talking to.

GENERATION X (Born 1965-1982)

• The MTV generation of divorce, social problems and economic strain
• The generation between the baby boomers and their children
• Digital adaptives — technologies began to emerge (in a mass sense) largely during the teen years of Generation X 

GENERATION Y (born 1980-1994)

• The Net Generation, The “Millennials” of the work place
• Represents more than 70 million consumers in the U.S.
• Peer oriented and seek instant gratification
• Heavy users of Internet forums, email, Wikipedia, search engines, social networking sites, etc.
  

  

In a survey of 7,705 college students:

• 97% own a computer
• 94% own a cell phone
• 34% use websites as their primary source of news
• 28% own a blog
• 44% read blogs
  

Generation Y is a prime target for Internet marketing. According to the online article, “Why Gen Y is going to Change the Web,” Generation Y doesn’t care about advertising: they care what their friends think.

The article continues: “Because they are immersed in media, both online and off, Gen Y'ers are marketed to left and right. But when it comes to making decisions, Gen Y tends to rely on their network of friends and their recommendations, not traditional ads…They're also somewhat distrusting of ads, which is why grassroots efforts can also work.”

Source: Wikipedia reference - Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today's Students, Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa (2007).

GENERATION Z (born 1995-present)

• Today’s children and students, and tomorrow’s employees and leaders
• History's first 21st Century generation
• The digital natives, the dot com kids, Generation Media
• The 'Multichannel Teens' — super-communicators who have a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends
  

Sources: Wikipedia.com; Marketingvox.com, Marketingcharts.com

Where the wealthy are

According to The Luxury Institute’s latest WealthSurvey, “The Wealthy and Web 2.0,” the participation of wealthy online consumers (average of $287,000 income) in social networks dramatically increased to 60 percent in 2008, from 27 percent in 2007.  The wealthy average membership in 2.8 social networks, with an average of 110 connections.

Selling to the Future Blog Series Links

Part 1 - Connecting with Younger Audiences

Part 2 - Learn your XYZs

Part 3 - Facebook is life for college students and beyond (coming soon)

Part 4 - Blogging in business (coming soon)

Part 5 - Don't call us, we'll text u (coming soon)

(Part 1 of a 5-part blog series on Selling to the Future)

As time marches on inside Web 2.0, the future looks bright for marketing to younger audiences. Everyday, more opportunities are presented to reach multiple generations online, and the more segmented social networks become, the better chances you have to connect with consumers in niche markets, and convert them into sales leads. 

Establishing a clear Internet marketing strategy is essential to remain competitive: it’s all about communicating the right things, to the right audiences, in the right places.  All with the speed and accuracy that younger generations demand. 

To market to your future consumers, treat them as a friend, share knowledge, give advice, seek opinions, and most importantly, speak their language. 

Stay tuned for a series of posts on Selling to the Future:

Part 2 - Learn your XYZs

Part 3 - Facebook is life for college students and beyond (coming soon)

Part 4 - Blogging in business (coming soon)

Part 5 - Don't call us, we'll text u (coming soon)

Earlier this month, the Treasury Department began its distribution of nearly $100 billion in economic stimulus payments to more than 130 million households.  
 
But long before the checks came rolling in, marketing professionals were planning ways to capture consumer attention and grab a share of the windfall.  

The challenge was two-fold: 1) convince consumers that they should spend instead of save, and 2) make them spend it on their company’s goods and services.
 
The following NY Times article outlines several examples of companies pitching consumers on where to best spend, and stretch, their checks.
 
As Stimulus Rebates Go Out, Stores Want the Whole Check
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD and MICHAEL BARBARO, May 10, 2008
 
“…The government wants the checks to spur the economy through consumer spending. But the oxymoronic nature of the marketing campaigns — spend money to save money — has prompted finger-wagging from some corners, particularly about offers that require consumers to spend hundreds of dollars at only one store…” Full article

Where's It Really Going?

Measuring the success of these campaigns may be easier than planned, as consumers are volunteering details on the things they are paying for with their stimulus checks through news articles, online forums and even blogs, such as How I Spent My Stimulus.
 

Bestselling author and entrepreneur Seth Godin has an uncanny ability to illustrate the simplest of marketing concepts in ways that really drive home the point.

In a recent blog post “The bad table,” he gives a first-hand account of receiving the “bad table” at the back of a restaurant, and the marketing challenge that ensued:

“Hence the marketing dilemma: who should get your best effort? Should it be the new customer who you just might be able to convert into a long-term customer? Or should it be the loyal customer who is already valuable?  Sorry, but the answer is this: you can't have a bad table.”

He continues to explain how no one wants second-rate service, products or salespeople – and that there are creative ways to turn bad tables into good tables.

He concluded with, “Treat different people differently. But don't treat anyone worse.”

In this world of Web 2.0, consumers have the ability to share opinions and influence behavior like never before, leaving no room in business for a bad table.

As public relations and marketing consultants, we have the responsibility to make sure our clients are providing only good tables to their customers, and in turn, every one of our clients, no matter how small the account, has a seat at the good table.

Bad Tables Turned Good

Whether through pricing, promotions or positioning, organizations are constantly finding ways to alter perceptions and make their bad tables look good (think baseball bleacher seats).

Every organization needs to take a critical look at its products, services and employees, and find creative solutions to change perceptions, strengthen customer loyalty and grow their business.