The Josh Gordon Group blog

I love this cartoon by Brady Bonus I found on the Eloqua cartoon collaborative. I don't have to add much about the importance of having a content strategy driving social media because this cartoon says it beautifully:

Topics: content strategy, social media

I frequently suggest to clients they combine their blog and website. But often the mentality is that websites are websites and blogs are blogs.

Topics: content strategy, social media

Social media guru and uberblogger Chris Brogan was coming to town. I was going to see him and Tweeted about it. Having never met Brogan I was surprised and delighted to receive a funny Tweet back (on left). 

Topics: digital media, social media, Twitter

What is the downside to marketers shifting media dollars out of paid media and into owned and earned media? Matt Kinsman's team at American Business Media did a great job interviewing me in this video about this overlooked topic. In the intreview I refrence findings from our recent study, "Improving Marketing Effectiveness." Click on the picture below to see the video produced using the new, innovative Me!Box interface which blends video with posted content for a richer viewing experience.

Topics: B2B suppliers, content strategy, digital media, B2B marketing, non-customers, e-newsletter, social media, Josh Gordon Group, buyer/seller relatsionship, Josh Gordon, advertising, earned media, existing customers, noncustomers

When I was a kid, there was one kind of milk you could buy: the white kind. But now you choose from whole, skim, 1%, 2%, organic, and chocolate. Media is a lot like that. You used to spend money for one thing: exposing customers to marketing messages. Now you choose from “bought media”, “owned media”, and “earned media.” The definitions:

Bought media: media you pay for like print ads and banner ads.

Owned media: media you own and control such as your company website,  blog, newsletters or digital magazines. Your organization publishes these.

Earned media: exposure you “earn” by posting content on social networks, forums, and websites that you do not own. Examples are comments posted on blogs, photos shared on Facebook, or videos uploaded to YouTube. Here is chart from a presentation from Alex Wong that illustrates these three kinds of media.

Conventional wisdom says each of these media has different strengths:

Owned media is best for reaching your current customer base. Since your organization should have the most complete list of your own customers, publishing a newsletter or digital magazine to that list should provide the best coverage available.

Bought media is best for reaching new customers. The weakness of “owned media” is that it reaches largely people who are already customers or inclined to become them. Since paid media is purchased from a 3rd party publisher you will more often find customers of competitors.

Earned media enables your biggest fans to advocate for you. Every company has customers who, if properly motivated, will advocate for you online. While this is basically an organic process that you have no direct control over, smart organizations find ways to encourage this process along. Many mistakenly think that earned media is free. While there is no charge for posting content on most social media sites, the task of doing so requires staffing for the function, and adding staff is never free.

Earned, owned, or paid media. Which should you emphasize?  
If your customer are heavily involved in social media, then earned media needs your attention. If you have not asked about your customers social media involvement in a year, you need to ask again.

 If you sell a utilitarian product like car batteries, or commodity products like toothpaste or paper towels, paid media might be best. When was the last time you saw a passionate blog post or successful newsletter about toothpaste?

If most of your business comes from repeat customers, you need to think more about owned media.

Different media work best for different situations. Along those lines, I prefer skim milk in my morning cereal, but 1 or 2% % for hot coca.

See Alex Wong's entire presentation on slide share

Topics: content strategy, B2B marketing, owned media, social media, non-customersr, buyer preference, buyer/seller relatsionship, advertising, BtoB, On line content, earned media, paid media

Most organizations know their current customers very well and social and digital media are helping. By monitoring activity on social media such as  Facebook pages, LinkedIn forums, and Twitter streams customer feedback flows back to organizations. Additional feedback from “owned” digital media comes in as customers interact with the company website, e-newsletter, and blog. Best of all, this feedback is free!

Topics: digital media, non-customers, social media, noncustomers, social media myopia

Some marketers have written off trade magazine advertising as yesterday's news. But a just-released study of broadcast technology buyers from the Josh Gordon Group found magazines and digital magazines among the most frequently used of all media.

Topics: B2B suppliers, B2B marketing, social media, Improving Marketing Effectiveness, iPads, LinkedIn, Josh Gordon Group, digital editions, digital magazines, trade magazines, e-readers, BtoB, Facebook, Twitter, engagement scores