pruneau | teamworks communications - Latest Comments

Re: The ONE percent reality of Content Marketing.

Paul Pruneau — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:47:07 -0000

Your comments are right on!

And here's the deal: the Content Marketing hype is way ahead of market reality.

Transforming a business, especially a marketing department, into a skilled and effective content creation machine that is actually delivering value to a business is way beyond the competencies of most marketing organizations or managers.

Sooner or later decision makers will recognize that they have to step up, and probably out, to realize the promise of Content Marketing.

And that bodes well for experts like you.

Re: The ONE percent reality of Content Marketing.

InboundMarketinSquad — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:24:01 -0000

Great article Paul! All excellent points! The tendency is to be overly optimistic and assume that writing content is no big deal and employees can fit it in along with all the other things they do.

Sure they can. After all, anybody can write, or talk, or make a video with their built-in webcam and post it to YouTube. Right?But can they do more than provide mundane information? Can they capture someone's attention? Provide that info in such a way that the reader/viewer/listener is entranced, delighted, inspired, excited and aching to act on what they've read/watched/heard? IMHO and from experience, I doubt it.Being able to communicate information effectively is a hard-earned skill requiring lots of practice, a dash of art and above all, dedication. And keeping the content engine fed, as you so aptly pointed out here and in your other posts on this topic, takes allocating dedicated resources to people who are skilled at this and can get the job done. Which is a hard and bitter pill for businesses to swallow.But if they don't swallow it, Google won't find them. And if Google can't find them — no one will.

Re: 5 barriers to implementing a small business content marketing plan.

Paul Pruneau — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:03:53 -0000

Thanks Ted for your considered comment.

Content Marketing can deliver tremendous long term value to a business.

Yet, getting a organization to step up and actually invest in the resources required to succeed for the long term remains a significant challenge.

The winners who "get it" will get far ahead in their category just because they got going before everyone else.

Re: 5 barriers to implementing a small business content marketing plan.

Ted L. Simon — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 18:26:35 -0000

Here, here! Well put, Paul. In the end, this quote from your post highlights the most efficient way to build a brand and a business: "An aspirational goal should be to have your customers and prospects turn to you as the trusted resource to help guide them to making better decisions." Trust is the currency of the online realm, and the only way to build that trust is to engage with your communities in relevant, timely and authentic ways. That requires a well designed plan...and the willingness to invest the effort to execute that plan properly.

Re: 10 reasons why your web site redo will fail.

Paul Pruneau — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:40:40 -0000

Lauren,

Thanks so much for your kind words!
Redoing a web site is fraught with possibilities and plenty of peril for those who are uninformed.
Hopefully, others will find these insights worth considering before they start down the path to a new site.
Best to you!

Re: 10 reasons why your web site redo will fail.

Lauren — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:57:27 -0000

For all of these reasons, when choosing someone to help you redesign your site it's important to focus on how good a partner this firm/person will make over the long haul. Clearly, Paul, you have the expertise to deliver great value to the wise people who are your clients.

Re: Marketing professional services online: How to get it right.

Paul Pruneau — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:09:23 -0000

Thanks for your comment Drew.

What may be an eye opener for many is that the "remodeling" is not just a one time event.

Additions, and the investment in them, appear to be the digital future.

Re: Marketing professional services online: How to get it right.

Drew McLellan — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 01:32:05 -0000

Paul,

Thanks for the shout out. As we've discussed -- your readers need to remember that if there's not a business reason for them (and they aren't measuring for those goals) to be spending time on social media/blogging -- then they shouldn't do it.

They need to set business (not social) goals and then decide which tools will help them achieve those goals. You've provided them with a great road map in this post to either get started or do some "remodeling" of their current efforts!

Drew

Re: 5 barriers to implementing a small business content marketing plan.

Marcia Kadanoff — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:10:56 -0000

Couldn't agree more. Companies seem reluctant to realize that content marketing and inbound marketing are the lowest cost and highest ROI ways of driving new business, particularly for business-to-business and considered purchase products in the consumer space.

Re: 10 reasons why your web site redo will fail.

Paul Pruneau — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:49:52 -0000

Eric,

Thanks for your comment and the compliment!

Coming from a talented writer like you, I'm blushing from the reply.

Take away from the the post and today's environment = It's now a lot more complicated. And guess what? The bar is moving up. Fast!

Not sure how marketers or brands are going to keep up or address all of the continuous change. But where there's turmoil, there's opportunity to add value. No?

Best to you!

Re: 10 reasons why your web site redo will fail.

Ericstouffer — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:38:03 -0000

You're still really smart. Great read and clear points

Re: 10 reasons why your web site redo will fail.

Jim Boyer — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:58:41 -0000

If more companies would take decisions like those on this list to heart the web would be much more interesting to surf.

Re: 10 have to have WordPress plugins.

androidmg — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:02:23 -0000

10 have to have WordPress plugins
Good post!

Re: Rent vs. Own: As marketing shifts, how to reach more qualified prospects.

Paul Pruneau — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:50:30 -0000

You're right on Mike.

Marketers need to get the "AAM" message.

It's not about your solution. It's a ALL ABOUT ME and how you're helping me with my pain, adding value, and demonstrating understanding and relevance in a world where there are too many choices and not enough time to listen to the chest pounding about a brand or solution.

Thanks for your comment too!

Re: Rent vs. Own: As marketing shifts, how to reach more qualified prospects.

Mike Mac — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:42:54 -0000

Paul, you've articulated what I've been thinking about for many years... influcence can and will increasingly be achieved through sharing of content that has intrinsic value to the consumer of that content... content that assists the individual in some tangible and immediate way. "Marketing" has to become much less obvious and self-serving.

Re: 9 ways to get more people to see & share your blog.

Paul Pruneau — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:56:28 -0000

Hi Don,
Glad you found this useful. Please send me a link when you’ve launched your new blog. I’m looking forward to reading your contribution. Best ’til then.

Re: 9 ways to get more people to see & share your blog.

Don Smith — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 02:12:42 -0000

Thanks for putting this together Paul. Some good stuff I'm going to execute on for my new blog.

Re: Social media: the hidden costs of success.

Divesh Mehta — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:29:34 -0000

Hey,
Nice Read.
Few companies are hell bent of having a social page and do all sort of stuff to make their presence felt...some even go spending huge sums so as to garner visibility but what I have seen is the missing connection...aptness. The brand in B2B are great example ...connecting with masses they don't cater to and collecting them by completely different communication channel...no correlation...What does your research say on this?

Divesh Mehta

Re: Expectations for Social Media’s elusive value.

Paul Pruneau — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:41:43 -0000

Thanks Paul for your considered comments.

I think you're onto something about Twitter. I would agree that everyone using the channel DOES have an agenda and is selling something. A product, service, personality or POV.

And the definition of selling can, and should, include influence over time. Which will lead to a sale. For that, I believe, is the ultimate value that many of these new social channels offer.

No investment over the long term (sharing, Tweeting, commenting, interacting) no gain or ROI. And that ROI could be whatever your objective is: visits, retweets, likes, conversions, shares, downloads, links, time on page, subscribes, etc.

But I'm with you. Grip it and Rip it is a good attitude. The challenge for everyone these days is that there's a lot to Grip before you can Rip. At least in golf you know the goal is to put the ball in the hole and you can plot a course to accomplish that.

On the web, and particularly in the domain of internet marketing these days, it seems as though the boundaries of the course, and even the location of the hole, keep moving. But I guess that's what keeps the game exciting. And sometimes exhausting!

Re: Expectations for Social Media’s elusive value.

pmatsuda — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:26:17 -0000

As semi-humorous as the Oatmeal's article (see "very passe" link) is, it assumes that Tweeters should be knowledgeable and bring something valuable to the table. With any social media, the value is having the majority, not the minority to be "real people", not pundits, marketers or media outlets. If that is the case, then marketers will be bemoaning the fact that the only people using Twitter are those trying to push their product, service or POV.

That being said (and getting to the meat of the article), social media is lot like golf. As the great Gary Player once said, "Golf is a puzzle with no answer". Any illusion that you have that you have it "all figured out", can be easily shattered with your next round, your next hole, even your next shot. The one big difference is that the Rules of Golf are slow to change, whereas, the rules, and playing field of social media change at least once every 6 months if not sooner.

This got me to thinking about more ways that social media is and isn't like golf. Maybe I'll post it in my own blog...or maybe I'll just work on my short game. Either way I go, it won't be an exercise to increase my rankings or mine more followers. Sometimes you just have to Grip It and Rip it for the hell of it.

Re: Rent vs. Own: As marketing shifts, how to reach more qualified prospects.

Paul Pruneau — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:34:28 -0000

Sasha,
Thanks for your question.
Earned media refers to originally created content that gets passed along if a community finds that it has relevance or value. Essentially you are earning the trust and credibility to distribute based on the quality and value of your content.

If you would like to learn more about this, this book goes into a lot more detail: Paid Owned Earned (Maximizing marketing returns in a socially connected world) by Nick Burcher.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8193...

Re: Rent vs. Own: As marketing shifts, how to reach more qualified prospects.

Sasha — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:48:20 -0000

Paul, could you explain to me what does "earned" Media mean?

Is it earned in a sense that it earns new customers/earns money to the company through obtaining new customers?

Re: 24 tips to make your blog a success.

Paul Pruneau — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:27:41 -0000

Thanks for the supportive comments. Hope to share more with you soon!

Re: 24 tips to make your blog a success.

jimmy — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 08:30:04 -0000

Nice site.
Easy navigation, good content. Nicely
done

Re: Why your business card is no longer in your wallet.

Paul Pruneau — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:03:29 -0000

Yes, I do believe that you've got it right.