Client Spotlight

Successfully Use Your Website as the Foundation for All Marketing

Travis Horton, executive vice president for Ohio-based Riten Industries says, "What ThomasNet has done is give us a platform for customers to contact us whether it be through tradeshows, ads or other marketing activities… Our website activity has doubled." To view a video testimonial from Riten Industries, click here or ...

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Expert's Corner

Blog Basics...

by Jarad Krywicki, Manager of Community and Content, ThomasNet

I know, I know, blog is not the prettiest word. In fact, I didn’t think such a clunky abbreviation would stick. (In what world does web + log = blog? Not mine.) But the overwhelming popularity and raw journalistic power of the idea swept across the Internet before a decent marketing staff got their hands on it, and today, we can visit more than 110 million blogs online.

And what was the idea? At the most basic level, a blog is a regularly updated online column that offers readers a chance and area to comment. The nature of these “regular updates” varies wildly, spanning from diary entries, personal rants, and shameless self-promotion to hard-edged political and business news.

It's Time to Get Social [Media]!…

Industrial companies are ready to "get social" -- "social media," that is! According to a recent presentation by Laura Ramos, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester, social media will find its way into B2B marketers' marketing mix this year. More than 80% of the attendees at the "Social Media: Where Should B2B Marketers Start?" webinar said they were currently including "social media tactics" in their 2008 marketing plans, including:

∙ web-based events

∙ online video/rich media

∙ blogs, and

∙ online communities.

Now, it's time -- for industrial B2B marketers who haven't already done so -- to get in on the "social media action" (or should we say "interaction"?). During her presentation, Ramos quoted another Forrester study and said, "To adopt [social media], B2B marketers want proof Web 2.0 works."

B2B pioneers are finding marketing success with social media efforts. Ramos offered some "proof": businesses are using online video to make product demonstration "interesting, fun and viral"; podcasts are being integrated into a business' security blog; businesses are building online "idea exchange" communities; and more.

Ramos said B2B marketers should "…focus on what you want to accomplish with prospects and customers, not technology and tactics" and "use social media to listen to customers talk." Ramos also predicted, "Web 2.0 tools will shift marketing focus from lead generation to lead lifecycle management." This means we will be -- or we should be -- using social media to nurture and lengthen our relationships with our customers.

What 'Social Media' Really Means

What exactly are we talking about when we say "social media"? What's the buzz all about?

94

The percentage of editors who believe the word "leading" (when used as an adjective, as in "... a leading manufacturer...") is overused in news releases, company-authored articles, and other PR efforts.

Source: The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott, ©2007, p. 149.

News

Blogs Influence Journalists

Businesses Benefit on Facebook

Blogs are the New Trade Press

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