Posted by Samantha Coren on Wed, Aug 11, 2010
It seems like just about every day you hear news reporters taking aim at the most outlandish events in social media. With every infidelity or cyberbullying case uncovered on Facebook or Twitter there's always something you can take away when it comes to social media marketing for business.
Don't believe me? Let's take a look at some current events in social media rocking the newswires:
An Ohioan mother of two discovers that her husband has a second wife on Facebook. Now she fights for the custody of her sons and to prove that her original marriage was lawful.
Marketing Takeaway: Don't let someone find out your business screwed up big time via social networking sites. Represent the same set of values on and off line and you'll find yourself avoiding a whole bunch of unwanted drama.
Chris Peterson, head coach of Boise State's football team, has decided to ban his players from tweeting during the regular season. Why? He thinks it's a giant distraction.
Marketing Takeaway: HubSpot's VP Mike Volpe has a unique stance on social media policy (or lack thereof). Forbidding your employees from participating in social media is like shooting yourself in the online marketing foot. It shows that you don't trust your workers to use good judgement, and cuts away any sort of beneficial interaction with your connections of supporters.
Us PullnotPushers tweet constantly throughout the day on @PullnotPush and our personal accounts: @s_coren, @jeff_machado, @justincambria, @czwolf, @timstansky and @danronken.
Swiss Pharmaceutical giant Novartis rattled the Food and Drug Administration's cage with language describing a drug to treat a form of leukemia. Apparently the FDA believes that the copy generated by a "share more information widget" on Facebook didn't properly reflect the risks of taking the drug.
Marketing Takeaway: It's always a good idea to make sure you aren't breaking any state and federal regulations with the content you publish on social media (or else where for that matter). Not sure if what you're putting out is safe? Have someone proof your work and run the research who's qualified.
The Week of Crazy Ways to Quit Your Job
In other news this week, PullnotPush would like to give a special Magnet award for "Cleverest Way to Quit Your Job" to Steven Slater. Slater was a JetBlue attendent who lost his cool after getting fed up with rude passengers and slid down the escape slide to freedom. Now he has a Free Steven Slater Facebook page set up by fans with over 25,000 likes to fund his legal fees.
The runner up? The folks on reddit sure did love the girl who decided tell her company via e-mail she was quitting with a series of funny photographs and a whiteboard. Too bad it turned out to be a hoax by a struggling LA actress named Elyse Porterfield.
Marketing Takeaway: Never underestimate the impact of a remarkable story and social media users spreading the word...however it's way better when that remarkable story is true.
What are your thoughts on these bizzare, yet newsworthy items?
Posted by Samantha Coren on Mon, Jul 12, 2010
Pegasus Communications has been a HubSpot customer for over a year and has found tremendous success with inbound marketing. Every day the leads just keep rolling in from organic search and referring websites. How do they do it? By giving their visitors high value offerings on their website with a treasure trove of free systems thinking resources. In the world of inbound marketing content is king, and Pegasus certainly has no shortage of quality content.
Pegasus Communications specializes in publications and events on the topics of systems thinking and organizational learning - two subjects anyone can greatly benefit from exploring. People across a variety of industries have used Pegasus's free online materials to introduce them to a new way of understanding their issues. As a result of having well-optimized pages and an excellent systems thinking blog called Leverage Points you can continue to find Pegasus ranking highly in search engines for systems thinking related keywords.
Last week the PullnotPush crew visited the Pegasus offices in Waltham, MA. Mark Alpert, their president, took some time out from preparing for their annual Systems Thinking in Action conference to talk with us. Check out our video interview with Mark to learn more about Pegasus' inbound marketing experience with HubSpot and PullnotPush.
PullNotPush Interview with Mark Alpert - President, Pegasus Communications
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Posted by Dan Ronken on Fri, Mar 19, 2010
This is a letter of gratitude to the HubSpot Services Network for their continued commitment to ensure inbound marketers and their customers can (and will) be successful by taking advantage of the multitude of service offerings through this important program.
PullnotPush is not only a HubSpot customer, but is also a proud HubSpot Partner who has benefited greatly from the HubSpot Services Network which has resulted in
- Job creation - we are now up to four team members
- A reduction in customer churn - for HubSpot and PullnotPush
- Sharing of best practices amongst HubSpot Partners
- A shining beacon of light in a struggling economy
- Sustainability
Years ago, I remember reading the novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the author spent a vast amount of time trying to determine what exactly was meant by the term Quality (with a capital Q).
It's way beyond the scope of this blog post to go into it, but for all you deep thinkers out there, what determines whether something is of high or low Quality? If something is of a certain Quality, what does that really mean?
Ok, come back now. But within the context of the HubSpot Services Network, I choose to view the Customer Happiness Index (CHI) score to be synonymous with the word Quality.
HubSpot created this transparant scoring system to remove the guesswork for potential customers of HubSpot Partners. It's based on relevant metrics that determine whether or not the Partner is doing a good job for their clients. It's simply a numerical score from 1-100 (100 being best).
Scoring a 93, PullnotPush has been most fortunate to have gained many new clients and we are extremely grateful for the opportunity as a small marketing agency to continue to serve and help HubSpot clients manifest the promises of inbound marketing. Thank you HubSpot Services!
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Posted by Jeff Machado on Mon, Jan 25, 2010
**Please join me in welcoming Jeff (one of our new fabulous team members at PullnotPush) who will often grace us with his remarkable way with words, and enjoyable conversational style. Welcome aboard! - Dan Ronken**
As a new season of Bravo's Millionaire Matchmaker kicks off, I yet again realize that guilty pleasures have an odd way of piling up. I suppose I should have made it my New Year's Resolution to give some of them up but I'm just not at that level yet.
But even more importantly than my unwillingness to divert my attention elsewhere, Millionaire Matchmaker also makes me see how it's up to an inbound marketer to match clients with a plan that works for them. One size fits all just doesn't work when implementing a marketing strategy. And compatibility issues will always arise in the 'dating' game that is marketing.
That's why I'm now calling myself the Inbound Marketing Matchmaker. But what exactly makes an Inbound Marketing Matchmaker? I reveal my secrets below:
An Inbound Marketing Matchmaker Saves Years Of Time
What always shocks me about Patti Stanger (the matchmaking guru of Millionaire Matchmaker) and her ability to match millionaires up with the best person is that she probably saves them years of time trying to find the right person for them. Most of these men and women that come to Patti have been trapped in dating patterns that have not served them well. It usually comes down to them thinking they know what will work for them but it turns out they were wrong.
My approach to Inbound Marketing has always been "Do What Works, Do It Better, And Do It More." My favorite techniques such as article marketing and social bookmarking may not be glamorous or be included in all the buzz worthy headlines but they're effective. As someone who spends most of his time online, I can see how easy it is to get distracted by new bells and whistles appearing every minute.
After all, there is always a new technique to learn, a webinar to attend, or a tool that promises to let you earn money while you work from the beach. Without an Inbound Marketing Matchmaker at their side, most business owners could get easily trapped trying out techniques that don't work.
I like to think that clients save years of frustration by implementing Inbound Marketing strategies.
An Inbound Marketing Matchmaker Has To Cope With Doubts
On the latest episode of Millionaire Matchmaker, one of the millionaires had serious doubts about Patti's ability to perform her job. He was a natural skeptic. Business owners and those looking for love are used to scams that take advantage of their most basic desires for financial security and belonging.
That's why I've come to accept that there will always be some sort of resistance to Inbound Marketing even when it's easy to see how other companies have become hugely successful by using attraction rather than interruption strategies. With plenty of patience and coaching, clients usually come around to appreciate the simple brilliance that is Inbound Marketing.
An Inbound Marketing Matchmaker Guides People Through Change
Even millionaires who have had to adapt to the changing climate of business still fear change in their lives. Whether it's giving up their idea that taking a woman to haul junk as a date is a good idea or that they don't need a haircut, the stubbornness that made them successful in business doesn't work in helping them find love. And it's the same for marketing a business online. The same tactics that worked for marketing a business even just a few years ago have already become outdated.
That's why an Inbound Marketing Matchmaker serves as an accountability partner, not just someone who guides you in what marketing techniques to implement. After all, the challenges to seeing results from Inbound Marketing are usually internal and related to fear of failing rather than inadequate techniques.
What are the other roles of an Inbound Marketing Matchmaker that you can see? Leave a comment below and let's get the conversation going!
Posted by dan ronken on Sun, Nov 29, 2009
Wow! 82% growth in participation from our first to second 'Meeting of the HubSpot Partner Minds' conference call - we HubSpot Partners like to measure stuff. Here is a brief overview of what was discussed on the call, and some of the suggestions afterward.
Updated Spreadsheet
The ultimate goal of inbound marketing is to generate the highest return on investment (ROI) for your marketing dollars. Some key metrics to look at are how many website visitors convert to leads, and from those leads, how many leads turn into sales - aka closed loop marketing. A few months ago, Pete Caputa, HubSpot's Partner Program manager, created a free worksheet on how to determine your internet marketing plan based on revenue goals. The spreadsheet was a valuable tool, but he also tells us it may have been too complex to be easily understood by someone new to inbound marketing. Chris Hafner made a great suggestion that we may want to embellish this worksheet, and use our collective intelligence as agencies to introduce new ideas from the field into this form with the help of HubSpot.
Collaborate and Communicate Between Calls
Why wait until the next monthly meeting to share and collaborate? That may have been what was going through the mind of Daniel Lynton when he recommended we create a Google Group because "we can post messages, files, and create pages or wikis there." This is a fantastic idea and we also have Google Wave as well. It's still in beta and not many folks have much experience with it plus there's a learning curve involved. However, there are already real life Google Wave success stories so it may be wise for us to explore this further since we live on the cutting edge of technology.
Troy Sheer graciously offered 10 invites (invites are in high demand because it is currently the only way to begin participating in Google Wave) for those who were interested. Strangely enough, I was just granted an additional 8 invites a couple of days ago. It seems we may have all of the partners covered, so if you're reading this and would like an invite, simply leave a comment.
Distribute Agenda Prior to Meeting / Open Chat Window
Claudia Hafner made a good point that we should distribute the agenda for the call before we meet, so there's ample time to ponder the questions and then share our thoughts on the call. My friends Murray Sye and Dale Berkebile were victims of some technical difficulties, e.g., audio issues, no chat window, etc. Sorry guys. It was especially disappointing that Murray could not get on since he provided a majority of the topics for the call.
One partner joked that 'Murray just might be a figment of my imagination because I repeatedly stated throughout the call, Murray? Are you there? I see you but I cannot hear you. Murray?" I've done my fair share of 'GoTo Meetings,' but this was my first 'GoTo Webinar' so I have some things to learn as well for streamlining communication for this special hour. Thank you to all who participated and we're excited to see more growth on the next call in Mid December (TBA in the next few days).
Posted by dan ronken on Mon, Nov 09, 2009
The first 'unofficial' meeting of the HubSpot Partner Minds conference call took place last week and it feels like it's going to be the start of something big.
This first call was more representative of quality and not quantity -- I affectionately say that because there were just two of us on the initial call (myself, and the upcoming star partner, Murray Sye of Whitespace).
We didn't have a chance to reach out to all partners to invite them on the call, please consider this post an official invite for all existing (and potential) HubSpot partners who are interested in taking their inbound marketing agency to the next level. Our next call is scheduled for Tuesday 11/24/09 from 12PM to 1PM EST.
Collaboration certainly appears to be the wisest route to take when building a successful inbound marketing agency. I just saw a tweet yesterday from the original Trust Agent Chris Brogan stating, "Collaboration opportunities and personal network effectiveness are two goals to pursue 2nd only to your main business." We can kill both birds with this stone (disclaimer, no actual animals were harmed during the writing of this post, nor will there be any injured on the partner's call).
There has been a long held tradition of companies keeping their experiences locked away behind intellectual property protection. Now I'm not suggesting that companies should share their secret sauce, e.g., Google's (or HubSpot's) algorithms, Coke's recipe, Chia Pet's mysteriously miraculous growth formula, etc.
But what I do believe is that sharing best practices and insights amongst your peers in the field will make you all stronger and provide you with more tools to help serve your clients in the best way possible. And with that mindset, everybody wins.
Join us on Tuesday 11/24/09 at 12PM EST. Please leave a comment if you would like more details and I'll reach out to you. Thanks!
Photo Credit: Derek Schaefer
Posted by Dan Ronken on Fri, Sep 11, 2009
The Boston Cool Twitter Conference was in town recently at the Harvard 
Club. It was a more intimate gathering than I expected, so it presented us with a great opportunity for everyone to get to know one another. I'll be reviewing three of the speakers from this event which I found to be most intriguing. I may do a follow up post because the the other speakers were certainly post worthy as well. Just follow (me) along.
Dharmesh Shah
Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, an inbound marketing firm, was the keynote for this event. He claims not to be a public speaker, but I beg to differ. Just take a look at this photo of him during his presentation. His energy is palpable right through the computer screen. Can you feel it?
This man is passionate and takes measuring social media marketing for business to a level unlike anything I've ever seen. That's right folks; it all about metrics you can measure. And that's a beautiful thing because HubSpot is teaching business owners how to succeed by improving their return on investment (ROI) for their marketing dollars and how to properly engage in social media. *Disclaimer, I'm a HubSpot partner and customer. But this is separate from their awesomeness.*
Dharmesh begins the talk by stating, "Don't worry about interrupting me during my talk, it won't distract my train of thought, because there is no train of thought." He speaks fast and inserts some quick witted 'one liners' throughout the presentation, and you'll miss them, if your not careful.
This man is up at 3 am writing sick code and creating super tools such as Twitter Grader which helps out the Twitter community by by grading Twitter users on a scale from 1 - 100 (higher is better) . I don't know about you, but this seems like an invaluble tool to help me weed out some of the spammers or just people that I would prefer not to follow.
It was a very enjoyable talk, and he ended on with some humor saying, "by the way, I do have another speed at which I talk, and that's much faster." *Hands Clapping*
Dan Zarella
Following Dharmesh is another Hubspotter named Dan Zarella. Dan is a 'Social Media and Viral Marketing Scientist.' A what?? Keep reading and you'll see why. If the audience was planning on giving their brain a little break, 
they were sorely mistaken. Dan is also up at 3 am working on projects such as analyzing millions of Twitter accounts (using Excel) or having fun grinding away on one of his many other projects, like
Tweetpsych. His presentation was on a practical twitter topic; the science of ReTweets. Here are a few pointers:
- Use bit.ly or owl.ly for you URL shortener
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Minimize slang (lol, hey, gotta, etc)
-
Hyphens, periods, and colons, are most ReTweetable punctuation (Dan was hoping the use of exclamation points would lower the number of ReTweets, but nope, they work pretty good, too).
Dan was gentle with us though, and I'm sure that everyone appreciated that, because we just finished lunch and needed some time for the blood to get back into our brains from our bellies.
Michael Bourne
Michael Bourne, VP of PR and Social Influence for Mullen Agency (I just love the new job titles I'm seeing these days) and he's also the man behind Bourne Social. His talk was very entertaining as 
he shared personal stories like how he used to play in a rock band in Berkeley, CA with this guy named 'Tom.' You probably know Tom, too. Well, you do if you've ever had a MySpace account. He was your first friend whether you liked it or not; the friend you never knew you had.
Then Michael transitioned into a story about their client, Olympus, and how they decided to launched their new E-P1 camera solely through social media.
By reaching out the Blendtech (the company behind the wildly popular 'will it blend videos'), they were able to create a clever little video of their own. The end result was an empty warehouse. That's right folks, they sold out of these E-P1's!!
This conference was a great opportunity to explore the different ways people are using Twitter. Uses ranged from customer service software for teachers, police department best practices, to a couple of cool kids from Cape Cod making their mark in the music business. Exciting times, indeed!
How do you use Twitter? What are your favorite tools? Share your experience with us and leave a comment and don't be afraid to Re Tweet this article if you found it interesting. It's easy. Just click on the Twitter link at the top of this post. Thanks for stopping by.
Posted by dan ronken on Mon, Sep 07, 2009
Man I appreciate Boston and all of the wonderful people involved in this social media gathering. Last time I went to an 'official' networking meeting was probably ten years ago when I lived in Denver, CO. You know the ones I'm talking about. A group of professionals getting together once a week in the early mornings on a weekday or during lunch.
But yesterday, I attended Boston Media Makers for the first time and times have changed, indeed. This event was created by Steve Garfield, video blogging expert and author of the upcoming book Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business. *I gladly provide that link to Amazon because he's a great dude who really knows video!* This was the most fun I've had at a 'networking' (that's not even the right word, felt more like a gathering of friends) meeting I've ever attended.
It was a very special gathering yesterday because it was specifically promoted as a family friendly event and everyone was encouraged to bring along the kids, and anything else they wanted to donate (no, they were not donating the kids; just donating items for a raffle). So the energy in the room fueled me up for the duration of a wonderful Labor Day Weekend.
Here where it gets interesting. In my former life, as a sales manager at a telecommunications company, I would end up leaving networking meetings with a handful of business cards, and would possibly hear from one or two people from throughout the week who had a lead (some meetings had a set minimum number of leads you were required to give each week).
I also remember there were times when I would be scrambling to try and get a lead, just so I would not show up to the meeting empty handed. I doubt I was the only one who went through a similar experience.
But Boston Media Makers is nothing like that. Our 'three minute' introduction consisted not of sales pitches , but was more about sharing valuable information or asking for advice.
Members of the group were then sending 'real time messages' via Twitter to their extended networks which has an immediate effect of reaching an audience of potentially thousands of people in a matter of seconds. I already knew that blogging generates business, but this is real time communication I'm talking about here. Last week I spoke about leverage, but this situation takes it to a whole other level.
I want to emphasis, this is NOT about sales pitches, it's about connecting with, and helping people. Times are changing and if you utilize technological tools (such as those that allow you to share real time information), your efforts to help others can exponentially. And that my friends, it truly powerful.
How do you network these days? Is it mostly online or do you have special gathering as well? Please leave a comment and let us know what's working for you.
Photo Credit: SteveGarfield
Posted by Dan Ronken on Thu, Aug 20, 2009
If you are a small business owner interested in marketing (actually, these sites are very interesting to a lot of readers even if you're not in marketing), I wanted to share some of my favorite people on the web. These folks have been a wonderful influence in my life and I'm happy to express my gratitude and share them with you today. They are categorized for your scanning pleasure.
Blogging
Darren Rowse of Problogger. My first experiential introduction to how the new era of marketing is going to be conducted. Darren's free '31 Day to Build a Better Blog' was a living example of how those who are generous with their knowlege and share their experience with others will continue to be the thought leaders on the web. This is one cool Aussie with a humble background.
Personal Design for Living
Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. This gentleman lives in Guam and is married with six kids. He provides excellent advice on topics ranging from how to create a less stressful computer experience to concepts on simple productivity. Reading his posts are a highpoint in my day and he offers many new perspectives on life in general.
Video
Steve Garfield is the author of the soon to be released, 'Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business.' He was one of the first video bloggers on the internet and has been at it for over five years. A valuable resource for anything related to creating and publishing videos on the internet. A really nice guy too!
General Marketing
Seth Godin is the author of New York Times best seller 'Purple Cow: How to Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable' as well as many other fascinating reads. What I appreciate most is his blog, which is aptly titled, Seth's Blog. He is able to accomplish so much with so few words by writing short, concise, lesson oriented, blog posts that you can confidently subscribe to and make it part of your daily reads.
Twitter
@pistachio. Her name is Laura Fitton and she is the co-author of Twitter for Dummies. She recently presented a webinar on the business uses of Twitter and I was very impressed! Remarkably talented and a joy to follow. Be sure to check her out for the latest and greatest information on Twitter and much more.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Rand Fishkin and the folks at Seomoz sure know their stuff when it comes to trying to unravel the mysteries of search engines such as Google, Bing/Yahoo. If you are into search marketing, this site is a must read. Of course if you are already into search marketing, you probably already know of this talented bunch.
Social Media
Unless you've been offline for the last, say....five years, you've undoubtedly read an article or two from Pete Cashmore's king social media site, Mashable. They are all things social media and much more. With seemingly endless resources, they could keep you busy reading for months!
And Finally...
For the Spritually Un-Enlightened
Introducing Bob Tzu. He may not do much to help your business, however, I wouldn't be surprised if reading his stuff didn't change you a little bit, and increase your belly laugh count. He is the long- lost American cousin of the Chinese, Lao Tzu and his site is Duhism. Hands down one of the wittiest and most entertaining guys I've ever come across. So if you're into clever tweets, and/or one liners, he is a must follow.
And Finally, Finally...
Nope. Sorry. That's it for this post. Of course there are many more but they'll have to hang tight for now. Hope you get something out of these links and be sure come back and let me know what you've learned.
One of the best ways to remember is for you to hit the subscribe button in the upper right hand corner and that way, a few of my (hopefully) valuable posts will find you well.
Photo Credit: Elvire.R.
Posted by dan ronken on Sun, Aug 09, 2009
I'm slowly coming down from a big 'high' due to an amazing three day event named Podcamp Boston.
The only hangover from this party will be organizing and implementing the awesome ideas shared by some of the biggest thought leaders in social media for business and technology.
Although there are countless technological takeaways from this event, the following three were the most meaningful to me so I'll keep it simple.
Accessible Industry Titans
I've attended many conferences and I've found Podcamp to be most comfortable. I'm originally from Minneapolis and one of the 'unfair stereotypes' about people from the east coast is they are too hard and fast paced. It's true that folks may be more direct here on the east coast, but that does not equate to being too tough or less thoughtful of other people's feelings. Nope, not at all. A good example is Jeff Pulver. Here's a guy who is arguably one of the world leaders as a futurist in the field of communications technology. I found him to be extremely humble and appreciated his talk titled, "The State of Now." It was a very casual and comfortable presentation. He touched on where we're headed for the future and re-emphasized how 'time and space' and the democratization of 'real time' information is creating another opportunity for someone to become the next billion dollar information architect. He was totally approachable throughout the weekend as well.
Keeping Things Simple
Another great experience was sitting in on a presentation from Mike Langford of Tweetworks. He has 'mad skills' when it comes to developing twitter applications which can simplify and create manageable discussions and communities on Twitter. The most memorable moment for me was when a gentle grandmother raised her hand and said, "I need to get plugged in because I heard there were like 500 pictures of my little grandson out there on the internet that I have not seen!" Now if that's not a big motivator to get online, I don't know what is. We all have our own reasons why we want to 'get on board' in web 2.0.
Authentic and Caring Feedback
It's always a beautiful thing to witness random acts of kindness. Especially, when I see this happen in a group of business savvy folks. It really warms my heart and reinforces my belief in the goodness in human nature. While attending yet another fascinating group discussion led by Leslie Poston, a gentleman named Chris Abraham genuinely expressed the value that another attendee brought (by simply being herself and sharing her creativity) with the world. My perception is that she experienced an emotional shift that will continue to pay dividends in more than just the monetary sense of the word.
Of course my list could have could have been much longer than three main points, I just wanted to share this joyful weekend which reinforced the importance of connecting with people and feeling a sense of community.
Next post will be the conclusion from last week on the '12 Steps for Small Business Owners. Please Stop the Denial.' Thanks for reading friends, and don't be shy. Go ahead and leave a comment on how you think social media and technology is affecting humanity.