Web Business Marketing Blog

Welcome to the sixth edition of the marketing carnival. Reflecting on the first 6 editions in this carnival experiment, I think the jury is still out on their use for business marketing. A few observations with mixed feelings:

1. Carnivals attract many contributions - for example this carnival attracts about 60 submissions per month.
2. The quality of contributions on average is low. Some bloggers appear to use carnivals for massive self promotion. Some submit up to half a dozen articles per month. Many contributions are off-topic. Some even have broken links. It takes time to filter contributions.
3. At the same time, carnivals have helped me to discover some good blogs flying below radar.
4. And 3 of the 6 carnival editions appear among the top 10 posts on this blog.
5. A carnival positions you to deliver a regular digest of content on your niche.

So in conclusion, carnivals are not silver bullets. From this edition, I’m following a different approach, posting the carnival edition in 3 parts:

1. Top articles, selected from carnival contributions
2. A digest of the marketing blogosphere since last edition
3. A selection of contributions from the blogosphere, with minimal edits

Issue #7 of the carnival is planned for mid February.  Contributions continue to be welcome.

Top stories

• Knowledge Wharton presents a post on social marketing: How Companies Are Generating Value from Customer Input. 
• Charles H. Green presents Digital and Analogue Social Networks and Pharma posted at Trust Matters, saying, “A certain kind of customer-centricity is not collaborative. It is customer-centric in the way a vulture is customer-centric—laser-focused on its prey.”
• Paul Simister presents Are You A Business Advice Junkie? posted at The Business Coaching Blog, saying, “Marketing is an essential activity to attract attention to your business and then stand out from the crowd, in such a compelling way that people contact you. But in your search for the latest ideas, have you become a business advice junkie?”

Digest

Loic LeMeur reminds us of an important attitude for creative people. Ideas have value, but only in execution. Keep your pipeline of work short and free of clutter. Think twice before letting a new idea enter the pipeline, but when you do, progress it swiftly.

Micropersuasion has a great tutorial on how to use the web for knowledge management, describing the many things you can do with RSS in combination with Google Reader.

Matt Dickman discusses social media fading, something unavoidable but good to be aware off. His hierarchy to subdivide users, and tactics for reactivating dormant users can be particularly useful for community managers.

December was also the month of LeWeb3. If you weren’t there, all videos are available for 24-7 viewing as the next best thing. Kris Hoet has a great digest on the event, linking to some of the other digests.

Ardeth Albee from Marketing Interactions presents an article on microsites as a flexible mechanism to support a marketing campaign. Continuing on microsites, mediaweek suggests to consider using social media as an alternative.

Web marketing changes the way we plan, produce, publish and promote. The traditional organisation of these functions is challenged, and it should not come as a surprise that many marketing departments are struggling. Futurelab wonders whether it’s time to kill the art department. Kris Hoet wished he could find Agency 2.0, integrating marketing functions, instead of having to work with a myriad of specialised contractors.

Problogger suggests to maintain your blogging rythm by writing posts in batch, using the scheduling option of your blog to determine when they appear.

MarketingSherpa, in their 2008 benchmark survey of e-mail marketing, warns us that reports on email marketing’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

Selected contributions

• Carol Bentley presents The power of words. . . posted at Carol Bentley.
• Joshua C. Karlin presents Sharing the Wealth Leads to More Wealth posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.
• Carol Bentley presents Refer, refer and be referred posted at Carol Bentley.
• Warren Wong presents How To Start A Successful Blog posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, “Tips on how to start a successful blog and what it takes to succeed.”
• Carol Bentley presents Do your headlines grab your reader?s undivided attention posted at Carol Bentley.
• Denis Hiller presents How to get ink in the blogs posted at PR TALK: a discussion about public relations, saying, “5 tips on working with bloggers and developing long-lasting professional relationships.”
• John Crenshaw presents “He Tells Me To Burn Things” posted at Dominate Your Life, saying, “How do you distinguish good advice from bad, how do you know when someone is just telling you to “burn things?””

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