Marketing Automation Weekly Wrap-up - 2009/10/2

I was thrilled to see an extremely kind accolade from Pete Jakob on his B2B Marketing blog about these updates, so hopefully this week's selections don't disappoint. The pressure is on now, I realize.

A few of this week's best posts tackled topics around word-of-mouth marketing. Who is most likely to be influenced to recommend you, and some new technology announcements that will change how we have to think about word of mouth, comments, and influencers.



Jim Novo on the Marketing Productivity Blog had an interesting post with some counter-intuitive thoughts on who in your audience can actually be positively influenced to recommend you more. It might have some significant implications for B2B marketers thinking about social media and influence:
http://blog.jimnovo.com/2009/09/23/awareness-versus-persuasion/


Interleado, on their company blog, wrote a good article on the importance of internal links (within your own web properties) to how the search engines see and rank you. Worth considering, as it is very much in your control:
http://www.interleado.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/01/internal-links-why-are-they-important-5-tips-for-improvement/


Louis Gray looked at Twitter's recent announcement on their Lists capability. This will likely have some significant implications to understanding who people *really* follow vs just having in thier follower list. Very interesting implications to understanding true influence:
http://www.louisgray.com/live/2009/09/twitter-readying-public-lists-extending.html


C. Edward Brice at Marketing Gimbal looks at Google’s new SideWiki and its ability to bring the social element and word of mouth to any web page. A wake up call for marketers to engage with SideWiki, if nothing else but to understand it and listen to the conversation:
http://marketinggimbal.typepad.com/marketinggimbal/2009/09/marketers-wake-up-googles-sidewiki-brings-new-social-dimensions-to-your-companies-digital-doorstep.html


Scott Gillum from MarketBridge looks at some good techniques for embedding social media discussions into a live B2B event. Admittedly, this was a social media event, but the ideas are good for borrowing:
http://b2bknowledgesharing.blogspot.com/2009/09/insights-and-epiphanies-from-recent-b2b.html


Josh Stailey at the Pursuit Group takes on the myth of sales velocity. The buying process is slow and steady. You can influence it but not push it. A very cutting analogy with car manufacturers' deep discount policy and how it stole from future demand drives the point home:
http://blog.thepursuitgroup.com/Blog/bid/10631/The-myth-of-sales-velocity


Michele Linn at Savvy B2B talks about the SEO effects of FAQ pages (and other benefits), which makes a great starting point in thinknig about content marketing and SEO:
http://savvyb2bmarketing.com/blog/entry/279141/5-reasons-to-include-faqs-in-your-content-marketing-strategy


Dennis Dayman on Deliverability.com looks at privacy policies, fine print, and disclosure; where the letter of the law may not be enough. In today's world, any disconnect between your brand promise, and what your brand delivers, will be quickly exposed, both legally and socially. Fine print will not make up for that:
http://blog.deliverability.com/2009/09/privacy-policy-not-.html


Mike Damphousse on Smashmouth Marketing publishes some interesting data on the best time to call – not at lunch time – in continuation of last week's theme of the resurgence of the strategic relevance of the inside sales function:
http://www.damphousse.org/2009/09/lead-generation-tip-take-3-hour-lunches.html



Another great week, with lots of interesting posts. I hope you enjoy this week's selection of the best from B2B marketing and marketing automation writers.