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Leap List: 29 People to Help Your Marketing
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Leap List: 29 People to Help Your Marketing

General Updates, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter Chats

Leap List: 29 People to Help Your Marketing

The kids getting ready to "leap" off a terrain jump in Park City

The kids getting ready to "leap" off a terrain park jump in Park City

In 2010, I posted the Olympic Dream Team for Internet Marketing – a list of people from all aspects of the Marketing world who were providing thought leadership at that time. In honor of Leap Day (February 29th), I’m revisiting that list and giving you 29 Online Marketing thought leaders. Some of these people have remained on the list because they are consistently providing compelling and insightful information. People have dropped off the list, not through their own actions, but because my focus may have changed and others became more important to my current Marketing information needs, or it could be that we have simply lost touch. There are a few new names on the list that either I should have included back in 2010 or that we’ve only become acquainted since the original online Marketing Dream Team list was created. There is no particular order to the list, I’m excited to see posts from any of them in my Twitter stream, Facebook timeline, Google+ circle, or email inbox.

Bonus: Rachel, April, Andrea and Sara Beth – the ZipSetGo team (I added the ZipSetGo team and their #TNI Twitter chat as a bonus because their focus is travel rather than marketing, but I think it’s a great example of using social media marketing for the travel industry!)

OK, I cheated a little by combining people and companies on a few of the entries, but sometimes there were just too many smart people in one company to list them all! I consistently get valuable information and insights from these people and I respect their opinions. Even though we may not always agree, they always give me something to think about. Whose Marketing insights do you look forward to reading each day? Please add them in the list below…

Content Marketing Strategy

: Content Rules!

Content, content, content! Content is King! With the recent Google “Panda” and “Farmer” search engine optimization (SEO) updates, Google has taken a stand against websites that provide little original content. So I thought content might be a good topic for the Twitter chat #SMchat on May 18, 2011 at 1P ET.

I’ve talked to a few people about content recently and I’ve asked two special guests to join me to discuss Content Marketing on #SMchat: Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, and Danielle Leitch, Executive Vice President of Client Strategy at MoreVisibility.

Ann spoke with me about her new book, Content Rules, written with C. C. Chapman and personalized especially for me (see photo) after I spoke at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Forum and what she said makes sense to me:

“My feeling is that you can’t have a Social Media Strategy without first having a Content Strategy. How can you speak before you know what to say?”

Danielle also recently discussed content strategy during the new #MVchat Twitter chat on May 12, 2011. If you haven’t joined #MVchat it’s a good place for a quick (half hour) discussion on different internet marketing topics. #MVchat is held on Thursdays from 3:30-4P ET. After the chat, I asked Danielle about content driving online revenue and she said:

“Content is essential when it comes to providing value to the user, positioning well in SERPs, creating sticky site or social account and establishing self (business) as industry leader. All of the above will contribute to revenue generation in one form or another – so YES, content directly correlates to making money online. Measuring time versus value for that content production is critical for ROI analysis. Don’t produce content for the sake of text – offer value in all content delivered.”

It appears that Danielle isn’t the only one who thinks good content equals more revenue. According to a MarketingSherpa case study on Content Marketing: Inbound strategy pulls in 25% more revenue, 70% more leads http://bit.ly/ldyBs2

I’m very excited that these smart ladies will be joining us and I’ve got several questions for them and for everyone who will be participating in #SMchat:

Do you think sites with good SEO practices have been impacted by Google’s Farmer and Panda updates?
Do you have a Social Media Strategy? A Content Strategy? If both, which came first and why?
Nearly 1/4 (23%) of all social media messages contain links to content http://bit.ly/kUJBO0 – how do you make it easy to share?
Have you found content=revenue like the MarketingSherpa Content Marketing case study? http://bit.ly/ldyBs2
Now that we’re not just writing brochures, how can you repurpose content to minimize overload on creators? http://bit.ly/m7gtVE

Look for answers from Ann (@MarketingProfs) and Danielle (@DanielleLeitch), along with me (@SharonMostyn) and the rest of the #SMchat crew on May 18, 2011 from 1-2P ET! We look forward to seeing you there! Can’t make it or just shy? Leave your question or comment below and I’ll make sure you get an answer.

2010 Internet Marketing Olympics Dream Team

: Podium in the stadium from Crestock Creative Photos

Well, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada ends today so I decided to try to come up with a “dream team” of Internet Marketing Olympians in several categories. The “events” are: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Email Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (including SEO/SEM/PPC), Social Marketing, Web Analytics, and I’ve even included an event for Vendors.

Affiliate Marketing

Geno Prussakov
Jen Goode
Melanie Seery
Missy Ward
Scott Jangro
Shawn Collins
Stephanie Lichtenstein
Trisha Lyn Fawver

Blogging

Aneta Hall
CB Whittemore
Coree Silvera
Dawn Westerberg
Debra Ellis
DJ Francis
Heather in BC
Lee Odden

Email Marketing

Blue Sky Factory – Greg Cangialosi, DJ Waldow, and Chris Penn
Chad White
Loren Baker
Michael Katz
Scott Hardigree
Stephanie Miller

Search Engine Marketing

Adam Sherk
Brent Payne
Chris Burns
David Szetela
Rand Fishkin
Wil Reynolds

Social Media

Jay Baer
Jim Kukral
Mack Collier
Mari Smith
Paul Chaney
Renee Lemley
Scott Stratten

Web Analytics

Avinash Kaushik
Coremetrics (including but not limited to: John Squire, Boaz Ronkin, Susan Barnett, and Jason Mraz)

Vendors

Hubspot – Dharmesh Shah, Mike Volpe, Rebecca Corliss, and Ellie Mirman
Ion Interactive
Lyris
Marketing Profs – Ann Handley, Shelley Ryan, and Beth Harte
More Visibility
Radian 6 – Amber Naslund and Teresa Basich
The Duffy Agency – Kevin Duffy and Sean Duffy

I know I missed a lot of people/companies/organizations that should be on my 2010 Internet Marketing Olympic Dream Team – please post a comment and let me know who they are below. Thanks!

MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer = THE Best Marketing Conference. Ever.

I want to make sure that readers are aware that I won the pass to this conference during the MarketingProfs’ Digital Marketing Mixer Sneak Peek. This in no way impacted my conference review below. Please see the Disclosures and Policies page for more information.

Last week, I attended the MarketingProfs’ Digital Marketing Mixer in Chicago. After 20+ years in the advertising/marketing business, I’m a bit jaded when it comes to conferences, but the speaker list looked good and it would give me a chance to meet “in person” many of the people that I had only met “virtually” via Twitter, email, etc., so I went. I generally consider conferences worthwhile if I get one or two takeaways from the whole conference. That was not the case at the MarketingProfs’ Digital Marketing Mixer. Instead, I got 3-5 things from EACH SESSION that I was ready to implement immediately!

My goal for the next MPDM is a good pic with all my Tweeps! I will be elaborating on the individual things I learned and how they’re being used in future posts, but I thought you might be interested in what some other people have to say about this event:

Jay Baer summed the event up with 33 Hot Social Media and Digital Marketing Tips (and 8 Killer Quotes).
I made Aneta Hall’s list of Best Social Media #mpdm Tweets (twice, but once was a RT).
I didn’t make Michael Damphousse’s Top 20 Tweets from #mpdm, but there were many great people who did.
Sean Duffy flew in from Sweden to attend! You can see how much he enjoyed the event in his response to the question, Are MarketingProfs Digital Mixers really worth the time and expense?
Mack Collier blogged daily and posted a Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer: Recap.
Debra Ellis presented on combining Direct Marketing and Social Media and posted some great Twitter eTips about #mpdm.
Sonny Gill blogged about the community panel.
Alexandros Poulos provided BtoB insightsin his post.
David B. Thomas live-blogged several of the MarketingProfs sessions, including “How Big Brands Engage in Real Time Conversations with Consumers”, “Integrating Social Media Into Your Marketing Strategy”, “Business Blogging Tips and Case Studies” and “30 Ideas from the Digital Marketing Mixer You Can Implement Tomorrow”.
Matt Grant live-blogged several sessions.
Teresa Basich posted her insights on the MPDM aftermath.
Matt Cheuvront wrote about the MPDM theme of social media being an investment.
DJ Francis posted the only picture of me facing the camera and smiling in his blog post, The MarketingProfs Digital Mixer is Over, But the Work is Just Beginning, although I’m partially blocked by a blurry guy.
Jessica at Switch also posted Tips from the Digital Marketing Mixer in the Switch blog.
Check out Eric Hoffman’s Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer 2.0 post if you’re looking for downloadable Word doc notes of both days!
Michael Brito wrote an article called, Lessons Learned from the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer 2009 on his blog.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few blog posts, if you’ll take the time to tell me about them, I’ll be sure to add them!