SocialTech 2010

The Official Pre-Game Blog for MarketingProfs' SocialTech 2010 Conference, October 26, San Jose, CA

7 Reasons You'll Love SocialTech

While we're busy putting the finishing touches on SocialTech, we started to think about why the conference is different than other online marketing conferences, and came up with these 7 reasons we think know you'll love SocialTech: 

1. It Features Real, Actionable Case Studies from Brand-Side Marketers
Each session features actionable case studies from marketers at companies like Motorola, Cisco Systems, SAP and more. You'll discover exactly how they are using social media to drive real, measurable business results.

2. It's Uniquely Focused on B2B Marketing at Companies in the High-Tech Industry
SocialTech is the first conference focused specifically on social media marketing for companies in the high-tech space. You'll learn how to successfully market high-tech products and services via social media, and solve the unique challenges faced by B2B marketers today.

3. Scoble, Kawasaki, and Owyang—All in One Day
Where else can you get inspired by tech leaders like Guy Kawasaki, Jeremiah Owyang and Robert Scoble all in one day?

4. We've Hand Picked Content without Pitches
Each keynote and speaker has been carefully vetted to ensure a high-quality, actionable presentation without any pitch or persuasion.

5. You Can Attend In Person OR Online
We must admit—we'd love to see your gorgeous face in person. But we understand that you may not be able to travel all the way to San Jose, so we're streaming all of the keynotes and sessions for virtual attendees.

6. It's Short, but to the Point
While we'd love to spend a few days getting to know you, we know that busy marketers like yourself don't always have the time to set aside 3 or 4 days to attend a conference. So we've packed a year's worth of advice and learning into a single day in San Jose.

7. Great Networking and Tasty Food
Like all MarketingProfs events, we've made sure to set aside time to eat, drink, and be merry with your marketing peers from companies like Intel, Adobe and Intuit.

4 Ways Content Builds Relationships with Prospects

A guest post by Maria Pergolino, Director of Marketing, Marketo.

Engaging B2B content can improve search rankings, conversion rates, lead generation and even overall revenue, but it also builds relationships. When you read great content, aren’t you compelled to comment or share it? That’s the beginning of building a relationship.

Instead of direct selling to prospects, begin to build a relationship with them; forge trust; find out their needs and recommend the right solution for them—prospects buy from people they trust.

Ready to know more about building relationships with content? Here are 4 ways that B2B content helps build relationships.

1. Guest posting: Writing blog posts on other B2B blogs in your industry is a powerful way to position your brand in front of a new audience. By getting in front of other established blog’s readers, you have the potential to build relationships with many readers. To start a conversation with those readers, do such things as invite readers to comment on your post and reply to those comments in a timely manner.Relations aren’t built without effort—you need to encourage readers to engage with you. By delivering helpful, relevant information in your guest post and invite interaction, you open the door to a relationship with that reader.

2. Commenting: Whether it’s on a post from your B2B blog, a guest post or going out and commenting on other blogs in your industry, commenting is a small but powerful way to start conversations. Start building relationships with readers by finding outside blogs or B2B forums, and see what others are talking about and then add to the conversation by adding your own comments. By providing value to the conversation, this expands the audience you are trying to reach and starts building relationships.

3. Social media: B2B social media puts you in touch with prospects in a more personal way—engaging on a personal level with prospects helps build relationships and builds up trust with your prospects. Using B2B social media, you have the opportunity to easily monitor and engage with others on issues in your industry. Also look to monitor social traffic for mentions of your brand, both good and bad. By becoming a resource for them and solving their problems, you can build and repair relationships with potential prospects.

4. Links: You may have heard to be cautious when linking away from your site and it’s true—you should be cautious. However, to get link love, you have to share link love , especially when it’s providing your audience with value. There will be times when the benefits to sending links away from your site outweigh the negatives. By linking out to others, it’s a signal that you value their content. This can be an effective strategy for beginning a relationship with others in the industry and may even result in a link back to you.

Great content not only informs and sells; it also builds relationships with prospects and influencers in your industry—an example of a great B2B blog is this Marketing Profs blog.

When you leverage powerful B2B content from blogs, social networks and even content sharing through links, you start to build the right relationships that will be valuable now and in the future.

Top 10 B2B Blogging Tips

Last week, MarketingProfs hosted a killer #TechChat with special guest, @MackCollier. The topic was B2B blogging. And we’re so grateful for all of the advice Mack shared during the chat!

From last week's chat, here are the top 10 B2B blogging tips from last week's #TechChat with Mack Collier.

1. “Focus on your subject matter experts, then teach them social tools. You can be the evangelist your biz needs.” (@carissao)

2. “Blogging is like learning to ride a bike—use training wheels, get balance, then go for it! Same applies to Social Media.” (@susanbeebe)

3. “Don’t forget to have a blog promotion plan along with posting/publishing plan.” (@pushingsocial)

4. “Your blog can’t just be a sales pitch, that is going to get old VERY quickly. Related to the industry you’re in w/o being ’salesy.’” (@mikulaja)

5. “Content about your customers draws more customers than content about your product.” (@robpetersen)

6. “I think blogging is the polar opposite of advertising if it’s done well. Don’t post press releases.” (@RLMadMan)

7. “Anyone who thinks a blog isn’t work, time, and investment is selling something. Or clueless.” (@AmberCadabra)

8. “Blogging goals should always stem from overall strategic goals and brand voice.” (@joey_strawn)

9. “B2B blogging allows you to educate prospective and current customers in your field.” (@DavidSpinks)

10. “I believe that every business blog takes on a life of its own, no two should be alike.” (@Michael_Evanko)