The Gravity Strategy

We are pleased to introduce a new video we produced to go along with The Gravity Strategy eBook and blog posts. We are excited about this concept because it makes it super easy to explain Inbound Marketing and it’s benefits for your business. Enjoy!

(more…)

Author Rank + Plus: Google’s Secret Weapon To Beat Facebook

Author RankWant to know how Google is going to get users to leave Facebook and use Google Plus?  They are going to pay them to do it (indirectly).

Author Rank is only being talked about in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing circles at the moment, but the effects of the coming SEO earthquake it causes could be felt by everybody before it is over.  It is not just a tool to improve their search engine.  It is an asset they intend to use to take over social media. I’ll explain . . .

If you’ve followed social media over the last few years, you’ve seen Google launch round after round of social platforms, each with a characteristic belly-flop ending — Friend Connect, Lively, Wave, Buzz, and Plus.  But slow down. Maybe we’ve written Plus off too quickly.

A Bunch Looked, The Geeks Stayed

Plus launched in 2011 and didn’t gain a lot of marketshare.  The tool itself seems to be excellent, but there wasn’t a good enough reason to leave Facebook and Twitter for the (more…)

How To Build Links And Influence People

How To Win FriendsAre you looking to get some momentum with web traffic?  Trying to figure out how to build links and bring in more customers?  This post is for you.

I’ve been listening to that lavishly written classic on human relations “How To Win Friends And Influence People” while jogging lately.  What a powerful book.  This is probably my fourth time through the audio version.  It will not be my last.

It got me thinking about how building web traffic (link building, SEO, social media) is basically winning friends and influencing people online.  So it makes sense that we can take what Dale Carnegie said back in the 30s and tweak and update it some to implement his techniques on the web.

There is a great deal to be learned here for content and inbound marketers.  The outline below is verbatim from Dale’s book with his statements in bold and my comments following each.  Some of the points deal with winning friends (and getting links), while others deal with influencing people (converting visitors into customers).  Parts 1 through 3 of the book relate to content marketing, while Part 4 is about leadership which doesn’t apply here.  These comments are through Part 3 only.

How To Build Links And Influence People

Part One

Fundamental Techniques In Handling People

  1. Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.  In all online interactions, keep on the sunny side. This is especially true with the use of sarcasm, which never plays well in text form.  Stay light years away from negativity, whining, and sarcasm. (more…)

Your Website Is Like Bilbo’s Ring

A Hobbit Hole built 20 minutes from our office in Flag Pond, TN.

The Hobbit opens a week from today.  Not only is it one of my favorite tales, I’ve grown to admire Martin Freeman, who plays Bilbo.  (He is near-perfect as Dr. Watson in BBC’s Sherlock.)

If you know nothing of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, feel free to check back in later.  This post will make absolutely no sense.

I’ve been re-reading The Hobbit and LOTR lately and it occurs to me that there are some similarities between The One Ring and your website.  So kick your chair back, prop up your furry-toed feet, light a pipe-ful of Old Tobey, and let’s jump right in with un-Ent-like haste . . .

It Controls The Other Rings

You might recall that Bilbo’s ring is the one master ring that controls the others.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, (more…)

Shift of Power to the Consumer

Shift of Power to the Consumer

My nephew Oliver illustrates the new found power of the consumer.

I am 4 pages into writing a new eBook.  We’re working on an accompanying InfoGraphic as well.  Stay tuned.  I’m having a blast writing it.

In some of my research, I came across what I think is one of the best statements of the tectonic shift away from Outbound and toward Inbound Marketing that I have ever read.  And it is not from a company that has anything to benefit from promoting Inbound.  Here you go . . .

Shift of Power to the Consumer

Euromonitor International published a study in January titled “Online Travel: Shift of Power to Consumers” with the following synopsis . . .

The online travel revolution which has taken place in the last 10 years has led to substantial changes in the travel industry’s competitive environment. These are so significant to force companies to re-think their business models. In particular, consumers now play a much more central and active role, while technology players have become essential partners for travel companies. Customer knowledge and social interaction are key requirements to compete successfully in this new environment. (emphasis ours)

Those are heavy words.  Revolution. Substantial. Significant. Force. Re-think. Essential. (more…)

How Gender Targeting Will Make Twitter Better

Fail WhaleTwitter has come a long way since the days of the Fail Whale.  It’s more than a garage start-up, it’s like a legitimate, bona fide business, with a real revenue model.

Twitter turned on “Promoted Tweets” and “Promoted Accounts” last year and have been putting those options in front of potential advertisers with more frequency of late.  It gets better for marketers.  Late last week, Twitter announced “gender-targeting” for advertisers.  That’s a strange option, it would seem, as Twitter does not ask for the user’s gender as Facebook does.  Here’s how Twitter explains it.

“We’re able to understand gender by taking public signals users offer on Twitter, such as user profile names or the accounts she or he follows. We have strong confidence in this approach.”

They claim this method is 90% accurate and that should be good enough for marketers to pull the trigger on gender-specific promotions.  I’m expecting AARP promoted tweets to my account.  Surely they’ll also start age-targeting me as I tweet next summer that I’m breaking into my 40s. 🙂 (more…)