Top Posts from Our First Year
Since it’s a slow period between Christmas and the New Year, now is a good time to take a look back at the first year of posts on The Distributed Marketing Blog. Our mission is to publish industry news, best practices, tips and techniques for marketing professionals who work in distributed multi-channel marketing organizations. Our primary audience works in highly regulated industries such as insurance, financial services, biopharmaceutical and health care, but our readers come from a wide range of disciplines. A look at the 12 posts that attracted the most visitors, pick-ups by the media or other blogs, and social Read More
Studies say LinkedIn Beats Twitter, Ad Spending Shifts
Several year-end studies point out a gap in lead generation performance among social media sites plus significant changes ahead for social media advertisers and the websites that rely on social advertising revenue. According to a new study published in the Media Bistro blog, 91% of business to business marketers use Twitter, but LinkedIn generates twice as many leads. Facebook ranked #2 in terms of leads, followed by company blogs, the story reports, while Twitter came in fourth. The survey results arrived at the same time that two different companies announced new lead generation tools for LinkedIn. One, according to the Digital Journal, Read More
5 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid
If there are any marketers out there who don’t have social media marketing on their 2012 marketing plan, they’re a definite minority. Nearly everyone agrees that it’s among the most cost-effective tools available to us. But there are five common social media mistakes that can be quite costly – so make sure that you plan now to avoid them in 2012. Posting sporadically or inconsistently. Social media, like blogging, is a marathon – not a sprint. Even if your very first blog post or tweet gets tons of clicks, there’s no guarantee that the next one will do the same. Measurable Read More
Harnessing the Power of Word-of-Mouse
We often promote this blog through press releases and advance copy sent to other bloggers and journalists. Last week, Forbes.com columnist David Coursey surprised us by a draft blog post that quoted him and submitting it to Forbes.com as a guest post. “I had planned to write something about the topic myself, and link back to your blog as the source for some of the information, but I couldn’t think of anything to write except what you’d already put together,” Coursey said. Before we knew it, our blog post was featured on the top “promo bar” on Forbes.com. And instead Read More
Who Owns Your LinkedIn Contacts?
Who owns your LinkedIn profile? (Hint: it might not be you.) That was the headline on a post on this blog back in June, 2011 — and the answer we arrived at with help from a number of legal and compliance experts was, “It depends.” That leads us to a related question: who owns LinkedIn contacts — an employer or the employee? A court in England has issued an order that requires an employee who resigned to start his own consulting business to turn over all of his LinkedIn contacts to his former employer – along with receipts and contracts proving that Read More
Become a Marketing Legend
By Deb McAlister-Holland Once upon a time, there was a brave knight who rode into battle and (a) slew the dragon (b) rescued the princess and (c) earned fame and fortune, becoming a legend for his many deeds. At least that’s how the story goes. In real life, deeds of derring-do are rare but it’s possible to accomplish great things by following the example of a modern-day knight in shining armor. What can a marketer learn from a knight-in-shining armor? Quite a lot, as it turns out. I know this because I happen to have my very own knight-in-shining armor Read More
Four “Old-fashioned” Marketing Tools That Distributed Marketing Still Needs
There’s been so much buzz lately about QR codes and social media that it’s easy to forget about some tried and true – even “old fashioned” marketing tools. But here are four that research shows should still be at or near the top of your distributed marketing checklist. Why? Because they work! Adding these four “old-fashioned” tools to your multi-channel distributed marketing mix may just be the lucky four-leaf clover you need to generate more leads and sell more products. Targeted advertising. Advertising was the #1 channel for marketers in decades past, and it’s still a vital lead generation tool for most companies. Read More
What to Do When Customer Service Meets Social Media: 5 Basic Lessons
In June 1984, the first online customer support forum for computer users sponsored by a computer maker opened its virtual doors on CompuServe on a Tuesday morning. Around noon on Thursday, the volume of inquiries was running about five times what the company planners had projected, and by the end of the day on Friday, it was over 8 times the anticipated volume. Although the volume has been going up steadily ever since, less than 20% of customer service inquiries were submitted digitally before 1998, and as recently as 2005, just 45% of technical support inquiries were submitted via email or landing page. Read More
Drawing the Line Online: Recorded Webinar & Presentation
This morning’s webinar with Distribion, Socialware, and LIMRA went beautifully! If you missed it, you can download the presentation here, and view the recorded webinar here. There were so many questions that panelists Chad Bockius, Edgar Rodriguez, and Stephen Selby didn’t get to all of them, so the organizers are preparing a downloadable Q&A for those that weren’t answered during the webcast. A link will be posted here as soon as that is available. Registration is now available for the next webinar in the 5-part series the three organizations are sponsoring. Reaching Your Audience Effectively: The 5W’s of Digital & Read More
Last Call: Register Now for Tomorrow’s Webinar on Social Media Compliance
Drawing the Line Online: Personal vs. Professional Speech is shaping up to be the hottest webinar of the summer with practical advice and clear explanations that will help anyone who works in a regulated industry harness the growing power of social media — without regulatory compliance headaches. The session starts tomorrow, Thursday – July 14, 2011 – at 11 a.m. Central Daylight Time. Registration is free, but space is limited and we’re rapidly approaching our cut-off. Reserve your space now by clicking here. Who should attend: Marketing, compliance, HR, legal, and PR executives in Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Hospitality or Casino Read More
