Katie Meurin, of Komarketing Associates, an SEO firm, posted a stat that I found interesting in her post, “15 Content Marketing and Social Media Takeaways from the B2B Marketing Summit.”

Of the 79% of B2B marketers using social media, only 28% use a blog.

If you’re a B2B company using social media, including Twitter, FB or LinkedIn, then a blog should definitely be part of your strategy. Why do I say this?

Simply put, a blog is how you easily, quickly and cost-effectively create fresh content on a regular basis. And if you’re using social media anyway, why not use these tools to get people back to your Website via this content?

Unlike an e-newsletter, which has its own specific format and publication schedule (generally once or twice a month), a blog gives you a number of benefits as it allows you to:

1. Respond to news and industry events as they happen — This is especially good if you work in an industry where timely response can position you as a thought leader and/or expert. I had one prospect say, for example, “Yeah, we wish we had a blog because so much has been happening in our space. We need to write about it.” A once-a-month newsletter, while good, doesn’t give you this timeliness.

2. Post customer stories / pictures — If you manufacture products and then install them at customer sites, you can take photos and post these to your blog along with a testimonial. In many cases, these photos and testimonials are much easier to obtain (and cheaper, too), than a case study.

3. Answer customers’ questions — If you’re like many small business owners or marketers, you probably hear the same questions repeatedly. You can write blog posts answering these questions. Or, consider using one of your engineers or product specialists and creating an “Ask Bob,” type of column where Bob answers technical or other types of questions. (Bob doesn’t have to actually write it — you, the marketer, can write it but get the info from him.)

Tip: Go through your Google Analytics keyword report to see what types of “How to” searches you’re getting and create “Ask Bob” posts from those, too.

4. Publicize your reports, case studies, company news, etc. — A blog is a great place to post your new content as people can link to it, retweet it, etc. Also mix in news about your company, including tradeshows you’re attending, new products, and anytime your company is featured in a mainstream or industry publication.

5. Show your personality — The one thing I love about working with small companies is the fact that they have so much personality. Once I get to know the owners and/or marketers, I hear all kinds of neat stories about the company and the owners themselves.

These stories make great blog posts. Why? Because people do business with people they trust. As you post more about the people inside your company, the people who read your blog get to know you. As they get to know you, they build trust in you so that when they’re ready to do business with you, they already feel as if they know you.

So instead of posting pictures of your building (zzzzzzzzz) or sticking with safe but really boring bios of your management team on the “About Us” page, let your hair down a little bit and post what’s happening inside your company. That’s the stuff people like to read — and keeps them coming back for more.

Notice I didn’t say that having a blog helps your content show up in the search engines. Yes, yes, yes, that’s a benefit, but it’s not the main reason you should write one. Writing for search engines means you’re writing for a bot, not people, and bot-driven, keyword dense content is pretty yucky, in my opinion.

What other benefits can a small B2B company derive from having a well-written blog? Leave your comments below.

Edited to add: Just read this great article by Robert Rose in the Chief Content Officer Magazine, “Best Practices . . . mediocre results” about why focusing on ROI can suffocate your “escape from the herd” thinking. He gives a great example of how this type of thinking killed what was going to be a great company blog.

I would definitely attend the Publicity Club of New England’s October 19, 2011 program, “Blogger Relations for PR Pros,” even if I weren’t on the panel. That’s because I’m on the receiving end of a lot of really bad pitches.

I’m really glad that the Publicity Club asked me to be on the panel, however, because I have quite a bit to say about the topic.

I don’t bill myself as a PR pro, but I’ve had to do my fair share of PR for clients. Just two weeks ago, for example, I had to contact editors and reporters of trade publications to invite them to my client’s tradeshow booth (hint: I had better luck with the phone than I did email). So trust me, I know how hard your job is.

If you are a PR pro, and you want to know how to get the attention of a blogger like me, my number one piece of advice is this:

STOP SEEING ME AS A FRICKEN NEWS AGENCY.

Ok, whew. I’m glad I got that off my chest.

Here’s the skinny, PR pros. Spend just a minute or two on my blog and you’ll see that it’s part of my Website. Click around on my site and you’ll see — in about 10 seconds — that I’m a B2B Web marketing consultant. Heck, it even says that in my header of my site.

What does this mean? It means that I make a living as a consultant / copywriter doing billable work for clients.

It means I’m not Reuters, the AP, or Mashable where I post “breaking news” and content all day every day. All you have to do is look at how often I post (like two to three times a month) to know this about me.

Because I’m a consultant, and because I’m great at what I do, I’m crazy busy. And, like most everyone these days, I’m overwhelmed with email. When your untargeted, poorly written email hits my overflowing inbox, I delete it immediately — without reading it — as I can usually tell by the subject line whether or not you’ve even looked at my blog.

If you are a PR pro, perhaps you can tell me why I was sent a pitch concerning Xtract Research, which is a company that deals in research for financial institutions (I think).

Does the company know what the PR pro is doing on its behalf? And, how does this PR person report his / her results of such poorly targeted pitching?

If you’re a PR Pro who wants great results for your clients, I’ve got a few tips for how you can reach a busy blogger like me:

1. Do your homework.

It shouldn’t take you very long to see what I write about: B2B Web marketing, SEO and social media. I don’t post much industry news as lots of other bloggers already do that. So I’m not really interested in news, products or content that doesn’t relate to what I write about.

2. Get to know me.

As you can see by my comment stream, those who read my blog are pretty engaged. I do make a concerted effort to get to know the “regulars” who leave comments. I follow them on Twitter or G+, have added their blogs to my blog roll and as time permits, read their stuff. You can become part of my community by leaving a thoughtful comment or two. I’ll notice this way more than your email pitch.

3. Help me do my job better.

I blog because I love it, not because I’m trying to be an industry publication or to get my content in the search engines for particular keywords. I’m pretty busy — and as you can surmise from my irregular posting schedule, I post when I have the time.

You can help me by emailing me topics or tidbits that I and — this is key — MY READERS might find interesting. Two or three sentences will do. But before you do this, be sure and read points #1 and #2 again.

If you’ve gotten this far reading my rant, thank you for listening. If you’re a PR pro in the Boston area and want to learn how to reach stressed and/or cranky bloggers, be sure to attend the Publicity Club of New England’s program. And if you do read my blog and you’re attending the meeting, be sure to introduce yourself to me. I’d love to meet you.

You can also follow me on Facebook — I’ve started posting “Blogger Relations” tips.

I went into business the same year that Apple went into near-bankruptcy. Because of this, I made the decision to go PC, even though I loved Apple computers and had used one at my corporate job. It seemed like the smart thing to do.

I spent the next 12 1/2 years cursing Windows, Microsoft and PCs and spent way too much time battling viruses, computer crashes and lots of other things I don’t care to remember.

Then one day about a year ago, malware took over my PC — and my printer and scanner, too. “That’s it,” I said. “I’ve had it.” My son and I already had a date to buy him a MacBook; instead, I bought two. The second one, for me, was a total impulse purchase I made in about three minutes. I’ve never looked back.

I love my MacBook not because it works — which it does, every single god damned day — but because it’s beautiful. I run my hands over its sleek body. My fingers move quickly over the keys that don’t clack. Even crappy Websites look good on the high resolution screen. With my Mac I can work anywhere — from my bed to Starbucks — and do what I do best: create. Steve gave me and others that gift.

Good bye, Steve. Thank you designing beautiful products and for your service here on earth.

I started reading Getting Past Ok: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don’t Need Help, by Richard Brodie last week. I picked it up not because I need help (in fact, I’ve sworn off self-help books and instead am relying on my own judgment) but because Richard Brodie is a name regularly bandied about in our home. Brodie, in case you don’t know, wrote the first version of MS Word and retired rich.

Family friends of ours are friends with Brodie and due to this connection, my son, who is a total geek, was able to meet the famous Brodie at their house one night when he spent the night. He and Brodie took an instant liking to each other. (My son attracts intelligent adults the way his bedroom floor attracts his dirty clothes — like a magnet. It’s rather amazing.)

I’ve actually had Brodie’s book for a while, but due to the aforementioned ban on self-help books, it was gathering dust on my shelf. Another friend had passed along the URL to Randy Gages’ e-book, Accept Your Abundance, where Gages mentions Brodie in passing. I had no clue Brodie’s tentacles reached so far and wide, so I started reading his book.

In the book, Brodie talks about what makes up our truths and belief systems and how memes — pieces of information that get replicated — become the basis of our belief systems. (If you’re short on time, you can bypass his whole book and just follow his advice in the last sentence of the first chapter: trust yourself. You don’t need a self-help guru to tell you what’s right and wrong.)

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been on a social media hiatus, which started when G+ came out. I remember thinking at the time, “You know what? I’m a little overwhelmed with social media and need a break.” So I took one — without telling anyone even though a social media “truth” is that you’re supposed to tell everyone when you’re taking a break.

This break gave me time to think through the memes that I’ve bought into with regard to social media.

• “Because I’m in marketing, I have to be a social media expert.”
• “I have to produce content on a regular basis.”
• “I have to be ‘on’ 24/7.”
• “I have to be a thought-leader.”
• “My content isn’t that great if it’s not getting retweeted or reposted all the time.”
• “I need to read all the experts out there and keep abreast of all the new trends.”

After thinking about these memes and how they’ve upended my business and personal life, I came up with some new truths:

• “Social media has been fantastic for my business but I don’t need to be connected to it 24/7.”
• “It’s ok to do social media my way versus how I’m being told to do it by the experts.”
• “Less is more: More time, better quality work, more business.”
• “Tuning out the social media hype has allowed me to focus what’s really important to me: building the type of business that reflects who I am and my values.”
• “Social media is based on the old-fashioned value of forming caring, trusting connections and relationships with others.”
• “Forming relationships and connections is not new. I’ve been doing it since before social media and indeed, the Internet, came into existence.”
• “I’ve made some real connections with people that I highly value and these connections have absolutely nothing to do with scores, or numbers of followers or RTs or any of that stuff.”
• “My strongest connections are with those people I’ve connected with offline and with whom I’ve built trusting, solid relationships.”
• “Many of these people have become clients; all of them have become friends.”

Someone I’m following on G+ posted a link to an article about how social media is driving the publication of too much content, much of which isn’t very good. I found myself nodding in agreement.

During my hiatus, I found myself vowing to stop posting so much stuff in order to meet someone’s definition of a social media “truth.” Instead, I’ll post when I have something to say — and that I think you might find interesting. This means I’ll be posting irregularly — versus regularly, which is another one of those memes we’ve all bought into. I’d like to spark more discussion and hopefully, more connection.

What do you think? Are you overwhelmed by social media? Have you taken a break? Do you find yourself doing more of it or less? What are your social media truths and are they yours or someone else’s? Leave your comments below.

In the old days, monitoring the media meant you’d read various print and trade publications (which usually were a finite number) and get to know reporters and editors. You met these people at trade shows or they’d come to your facility if they were in the area.

You had cocktails together and got to know each other. You developed a relationship and then when you had a new product to announce or a story topic, the reporter or editor -– who knew you by name and face –- was inclined to take your call and talk to you.

Those days are long gone.

“With over two billion voices on the Web,” says Gary Lee, CEO of mBLAST, “it’s almost a fulltime job monitoring what’s being said in your industry (or your clients’ industries) across hundreds of blogs, industry sites, online publications and various social networks.”

According to Gary, monitoring alone is no longer enough. To do it right, you have to leave comments on blogs, Tweet out content, and slowly develop relationships with people in your various networks –- people you know only as a face on an avatar or through tweets and blog posts.

If you’re lucky, you may meet a few people at conferences or workshops. I say “lucky,” because let me tell you, you’re not going to reach these people through email. (Want to know how many emails I delete each day from PR “professionals” who send me untargeted press releases?)

The folks at mBLAST understand this pain and have created two terrific tools to address it, My mPACT and mPACT PRO.

My mPACT –- Scores you on your own “thought leadership”

“This free tool,” says Gary, “allows people to look at themselves and what they talk about.” I can look at my profile for example, and see which keywords I’m using in my posts. I can also tell at a glance — via a tag cloud — what I’m talking about. (Note to self: do a better job of staying on topic about B2B Web marketing.)

The cool thing about mBlast is that the company indexes thousands of blogs, articles and social data and then matches this content to keywords. Do a search on “B2B marketing,” for example, and I get a list of the top people writing about this topic.

What I like about this tool is that it allows me to click on people’s names to see their profiles, the publications for which they write, their topic keywords, and links to the last three articles they’ve written. I can also see the top influencers for any given topic.

My only quibble with My mPACT is that it uses your personal Facebook profile versus your Facebook Page. I purposely keep my personal FB profile locked down and super private and thus don’t post business-related stuff to it. So my mPACT profile is seen as being incomplete as it’s not linked to FB.

My mPACT also doesn’t include Google+ since Google hasn’t yet made an API available — which is a pity as I’m finding I’m using a Google+ more than Twitter these days. (I think it’s because I have so few people in my Circles it’s just much easier to follow the really cool people I’ve found in Twitter.)

At any rate, I like this tool and plan on using it much more to help me see what others are writing about –- and keep myself on topic, too.

mPACT PRO — For the hardcore PR or marketing pro

“mPACT PRO is for people who do PR and marketing all day long,” says Gary. “It’s a really powerful tool that allows you, the PR person, to find influential people in a space and view all their posts and tweets. It also allows you see how much ‘authority’ or influence a person has because you can see if the person’s posts and tweets are getting picked up.”

The tool combines the old clipping services of yore (if you’re of a certain age, you remember paper-based clip files) with powerful social media monitoring. Using mPACT PRO, you can track article coverage of your company or CEO, how your brand is being perceived, and what your voice is in the marketplace.

As soon as Gary gave me a demo of this tool, I instantly “got” it. It automates a lot of the grunt work associated with PR and marketing. And, instead of giving you a generic score, the way Klout does, it shows you, via graphs and other information, just how influential people are on given topics.

mPACT PRO starts at $50 a month or $495 a year for a single subscription and goes up from there. I’m really impressed with both tools. Be sure to give My mPACT a whirl. You can also try mPACT PRO for 14 days without charge.

Full disclosure: I was not paid to write this review.

Developed specifically for small and mid-sized business owners and marketers in the MA – NH Merrimack Valley!

If you’re a small or mid-sized business owner or marketer who is completely overwhelmed by the Web, Facebook, search engine optimization or anything else Web related, I’ve developed a new series of low-cost Web marketing seminars just for you.

In the first of six sessions, Jim Somers of Sonora DesignWorks (Newburyport, MA), will cover the top Web design and hosting mistakes he sees small and mid-sized companies making.

Jim will give tips on how to avoid expensive design mistakes as well as share his expertise on some of the “red flags” business owners and marketers should be aware of when choosing Web design and hosting companies.

You’ll learn how to use the Web to market and grow your business and will walk away with practical, hype-free information that you can put to use immediately.

Bring your lunch, something to take notes with, and business cards for networking.

For the full list of seminars and dates, visit my Web Marketing Seminars page.

SEMINAR DETAILS
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
12:30 – 1:30 PM
Atkinson Community Center
4 Main Street (Rte. 121)
Atkinson, NH

Cost: $35 per person payable in advance or at the door

RSVP
Dianna Huff
DH Communications, Inc.
603-382-8093
email: seminars@dhcommunications.com

I hope to see you on Wednesday!

For months now I’ve been watching how I and others use mobile devices. I see iPads everywhere I go: one mom I know, for example, answers her email and reads online magazines while at our kids’ fencing lessons. One of my clients is now using hers for mobile banking. I even heard one story of a symphony conductor who put his sheet music on his iPad!

And, as I’ve posted before, I use my iPhone for everything but a phone.

When I read Christina “CK” Kerley’s report about the Mobile Revolution and B2B, and then heard Pauline Jakober of Group Twenty Seven say that she’s now targeting PPC campaigns for mobile, everything “clicked.” (It was one of those “goosebumps” kind of moments when you know you’ve hit a good story.)

Despite the proliferation of mobile, too often content is very un-mobile friendly. A site either doesn’t lend itself to the small screen and the content is very hard to read, the clueless company is still using Flash (rolling my eyes), or I can’t “expand” the page in order to view the copy in a larger font.

For these reasons and more, I installed the nifty WPTouch Plugin for WordPress. This plugin makes your WordPress site and/or blog mobile friendly. I love it!

This is what my home page looks like on the iPhone using the plugin. (The plugin allows users to turn the mobile theme off — you just scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the option.)

But after hearing Pauline talk about mobile, I realized I needed to go one step further: I added a “mobile friendly version” link to my e-newsletter which went out July 1. I placed it at the top of the newsletter so that those people reading it on a smart phone would see it first thing. Here’s how it looked on the iPhone:

If you click the link, you get this nice mobile-friendly version:

When I checked my e-newsletter stats, I was pleasantly surprised to see that of the people who opened my e-newsletter, 28.6% clicked through to the mobile-friendly version. This made me go “hmmmmmm.”

What are the key take-aways?

You must seriously consider how your content looks on mobile devices — My bank, for example, doesn’t have a mobile friendly site, and when I lost my debit card, I had to wait over an hour until I was back at home as I couldn’t access their site or phone numbers from my phone. Grrrrrrrr.

Building your site in Flash is totally stupid and a complete waste of money — I had a small business call with the typical, “I’m not getting any leads from my site” complaint. Well, duh. One of your problems is that it’s in Flash. You can’t view it on Apple mobile devices nor can you optimize it.

Tablet use is soaring — You can track which mobile devices people are using via Google Analytics. Click the “Visitors” report, then Mobile, then Mobile Devices. For my site, iPad use outstrips smart phone use. That makes me go “hmmmmmmm,” too.

What’s your experience with mobile-friendly — or not so mobile-friendly — content? What are you doing to ensure people can access and read your content?

(iPhone images courtesy of my Geek Son. He has the iPhone 4 while I’m still stuck with the lowly 3GS. )

Bloggers (well-known and not so well-known) are prime influencers in your market. Although a blogger may not use your product or service, he or she may track influential trends, companies and events. Get on a blogger’s radar — and follow a few simple rules — and you can easily build a relationship and garner some favorable press.

So how do you win the ear of influential bloggers in your market? I put this question to Mary Sullivan of SHIFT Communications, a PR firm with offices in Boston, San Francisco and New York.

Sullivan is a senior account executive with the firm and the only PR person whose emails land in my Gmail Priority Inbox — which is saying a lot. I receive dozens of pitches each week, all of which end up in the “everything else” part of my inbox, which is basically the “delete without reading” section.

(Priority Inbox is Gmail’s relatively new tool that sorts your emails, separating the most important from the rest, based on your usage patterns. It’s what has motivated me to provide quality, targeted content — but that’s another post!)

According to Sullivan, your messages have to be targeted and genuine to get a blogger’s attention — as most of us are great BS detectors and can spot a “dash and blast” email a mile away. Sullivan recommends that you use whatever tools you have to customize each message to each individual blogger.

Yes, this means you actually have to get to know individual bloggers.

Because individual pitches take more time, Sullivan makes sure she’s cultivating the right bloggers. In deciding whom to pitch, she reads each blogger’s most recent posts and selects (or not) based on what she sees.

When she finds a blogger she wants to engage, her account team follows the blogger’s posts and looks for opportunities to comment and add value. Over time, she and the blogger develop a mutually beneficial relationship: She adds value to the blog by engaging in conversation, providing information, and even (indirectly) generating blog topic ideas. In return, the blogger learns more about the products or services Sullivan promotes and may choose to write about them.

Sullivan prefers Twitter, blogs and LinkedIn as relationship building tools for her B2B clients over Facebook.

What methods have you tried to win the attention of bloggers? What’s worked and what hasn’t? Leave your comment below.

Full disclosure: Neither Mary Sullivan or SHIFT Communications asked me to write this article nor was I paid to do so. Eloqua is SHIFT’s client. I have written and Tweeted about Eloqua’s content in the past because I think they produce content that’s relevant and helpful to marketers. (Especially loved their Wikipedia Grande Guide.)

One of the big mistakes I see companies make with Web content is using the wrong font size and color.

I’m referring specifically to fonts that are small, a very light color, reversed out, or placed on a tinted background — as these screen shots show. (Note: I randomly chose these examples by doing a search for “mission statement customer service.”)

An example of small, gray type

An example of colored type on a tinted background

An example of reversed out type

What’s the problem with using these types of font sizes and colors?

They lower reader comprehension. In plain English, it means that people have a hard time reading your message.

The late Colin Wheildon did groundbreaking research into which typefaces and page layouts reduce or improve reader comprehension with regard to print. This research, which you can find in the book, Type and Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes, also applies to the Web.

Wheildon proved, for example, that text printed in black received a 70% level of comprehension and that a muted color (such as grey) received only a 10% level of comprehension.

Wheildon also tested comprehension with regard to printing text on colored backgrounds. He ran a number of tests using different colors and tints, but generally, results proved that the lighter the background tint and the darker the type (e.g. black), the higher the level of comprehension.

As stated in the book, “designers often claim that reversed out type . . . grabs readers’ attention and forces them to read the text.” Wheildon’s research showed the exact opposite. “When type was reversed, comprehension levels plummeted.”

Text printed black on white had a 70% comprehension level. White text printed on black had a zero level of comprehension. In fact, 80% of study participants said that reversed out type “vibrated . . . which made the lines of type seem to move and merge into one another.” (Reminds me of motion sickness — ugh!)

What does all this research mean? It means that if people can’t read or comprehend your message, they won’t understand what you’re offering. In effect, you’re making it twice as hard for people to take the next step in the buying process.

I’m not saying that your Web pages should be devoid of graphical elements or that you should never use color or reversed out text. What I am saying is that you should consider formatting your pages to make them easy to read:

• Use white backgrounds and black text to significantly improve reader comprehension.
• Use a font size of 9 or above — Remember, not everyone knows how to adjust font size using browser tools.
• Increase “leading” — Leading refers to the space between lines of type. A little more leading makes things easier to read. As you can see right here, the leading in these bullet points is less than the leading in the paragraphs above. Which is a little easier to read?
• Avoid large blocks of text — Reading text online is exhausting and hard on the eyes. Make it easy for people to skim by breaking up large blocks of text into smaller chunks. Sub-heads, bullets, bolding and smaller paragraphs improve readability.

Edmond Arnold, the father of newspaper design, said to “start with good typography — the kind that best suits the reader.” What works best for print also works best for the Web.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree and why?

I first came across San Jose Plumbing when I was part of a Twitter Follow Friday. I tweeted about their social media approach, they featured my tweet on their Facebook page, and soon after Carol Stephen, the voice behind San Jose Plumbing, and I connected by phone.

San Jose Plumbing got on my radar because of the content being posted: lots of relevant how-to stuff.

Owner and plumber Robie Dobkins started the business in 2007, focusing on commercial properties and re-piping services. Like many small business owners, Dobkins soon realized he would rather focus on his trade than tweets. As his business grew, he hired Carol Stephen of Your Social Media Works to manage his company’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and to develop a social media marketing strategy.

What I like about Stephen’s approach is that she’s emphasized research over content creation. She searches the web for interesting links and adds a San Jose Plumbing twist — keeping the content fresh and interesting.

For example, I love this Facebook post, with an accompanying video, about how to change a shower head. (Video posted below.)

Thanks to Stephen’s efforts, San Jose Plumbing’s Facebook page and Twitter account (@sanjoseplumbing) are a watering hole for contractors, businesses and clients. It’s a source of information on plumbing, household maintenance and repair, and company news. Throughout, Stephen’s sense of humor keeps it light and fun.

Their unique approach has won them many Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers, and they were especially excited when renovation and repair expert Bob Vila (@BobVila) started following them on Twitter.

San Jose Plumbing’s Facebook post caught my attention because I need a new shower head and couldn’t figure out how to remove the old one. Secret tip: use a towel!