Inbound Industry Report: July 16, 2012

Top marketing news, articles and tips from the second week of July 2012.

Social Business

It takes a significant time and resource commitment to do social right, which can be intimidating for professi

onals at any level—let alone executives. With a strategy in place, getting on board with social is manageable, yet CEOs are doing a huge disservice to themselves and their companies by not personally embracing social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. In fact, an overwhelming majority (70%) of CEOs have no presence on social media at all.

In addition to execs gaining visibility externally, Kristin Burnham's (@kmburnham) interview with author Jacob Morgan (@jacobm) details the importance of organizations embracing internal social networks to improve collaboration and culture.

With social at the core of the business, organizations can tackle common business obstacles head-on, as explained by Amber Naslund (@ambercadabra).

Lead Generation & Sales

B2B marketing and sales leaders go back to basics, and share their thoughts on lead generation skills that still need mastering with Kristin Hambelton (@KMHambelton). Some of the expert advice that hit home:

• “Show your prospects why the way they’re doing things today should be improved. Tell your bigger story.”—Trish Bertuzzi (@bridgegroupinc)
• “Only 5 percent of prospects are ready to buy immediately; however, those who say ‘no’ represent 80 percent of your future sales… Capture these sales by demonstrating your value. So don’t discard them, nurture them.”—Brian J. Carroll (@brianjcarroll)
• “Instead of getting comfortable [with things we have mastered], B2B marketers need to view every aspect of their lead generation programs as an area for potential improvement.”—Eric Wittlake (@wittlake)

With solid lead nurturing programs in place, make sure your sales team is fit to close when leads are deemed “sale ready.” HubSpot’s VP of sales, Mark Roberge (@markroberge), shares his mission statement (“scalable, predictable revenue growth”) and the tactics he uses to build and manage an all-star sales team.

Future of Facebook

Facebook is on the verge of decreasing social anonymity, and increasing digital accountability by now showing whether and when members of a group have read a message. Are you a “fan” of changes like these, or do you prefer a passive social presence?

Digital marketer Shiv Singh (@shivsingh) shares some predictions for Facebook’s future domination in online advertising. But first, it has to prove itself to marketers, he says. Here are some of Singh’s thoughts:

1. Ramp up insights functionality for real-time measurement.
2. Invest in platform measurement for real ROI.
3. Make public metrics more credible, instead of reliant on paid media.

Company News & Updates

• Entertainment mediums continue to converge, as shown by the collaboration of NBC and Facebook for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The companies partnered to spark social conversation around the Games, offer exclusive content, show hot topics, and use online conversation data to create stories.
• Apple users can now use Google+ on their iPads with the newly released G+ app, which includes sleek visual features. And, more good news for G+ users: you can merge your personal and work profiles if you have one set up for each. (Avid engagers note that the transfer can take up to a week, leaving you without profile access).
• Bitly, the link-shortening and tracking service, raised $15 million in a round of funding led by Khosla Ventures, which will be used to hire and grow the company.
• Ad retargeting firm AdRoll also secured $15 million in funding, led by venture capital firm Foundation Capital.
• While Bitly and AdRoll are rolling in major cash, Digg, the content-sharing site once valued at $160 million, was acquired by Betaworks for just $500,000.
• Amazon has a plan in the works to make the seemingly impossible happen: same-day delivery. While this may have consumers jumping for joy, local retailers could be shaking in their boots.

Stats & Studies

• According to a recent AdAge survey, almost half (45.9%) of marketers said that their main focus of Facebook ads is to build awareness and sentiment for their brands over accumulating fans and likes, and lead generation.
• The Fournaise Marketing Group reports that 80% of surveyed CEOs admit they do not trust Marketers, while 90% of the same CEOs do trust and value the opinion and work of CFOs and CIOs.

SEO Resources: Bookmarks of the Week

• SEOmoz’s compilation of SEO tools that will help you get more done extends into the comment section for an expansive resource to keep handy.
• Another helpful piece from SEOmoz: The State of SEO in 2012. The resource includes a series of interviews on topics such as, SEO: Tech or Marketing?, to snapshot the current state of the search industry.
• For more on the basics for global companies, check out HubSpot’s infographic: SEO Essentials for International Marketing.

What articles made your top list last week? We'd like to hear your opinions in the comments.

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