Savvy B2B Marketing

When James Carville coined the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” for Bill Clinton’s campaign against George H. Bush, he was boiling down the issues to the single most important point. If you didn’t get this one single thing, then you weren’t going to win the election.

It was the most pressing issue to which all effort was given.

At a recent writers’ group meeting where we discuss and share ideas about the business of writing, we recently had a presentation by Kelley-sue LeBlanc and Tara Mahady of Aleuro about how writers can use social networking.

“You are the currency of the internet.” Kelly-sue told us at the beginning of the discussion.  

Kelly-sue and Tara then shared their Top 5 ways to use Social networking with us.

1. Relationships

 It’s always about the relationships you have with people. Businesses are people too. Build them, manage them, and support them. 

2. Branding

Brand yourself: make it easy for people to associate with your brand, know what and who you are as a person and professional. Be identifiable. Have an engaging image and tag line that your community can remember and identify with your brand.

3. Search

Use SEO (Search engine optimization) to your advantage; be relevant, timely and foremost findable.

Use keywords to find opportunities for your work to be published.

3. Contribute

Create content. Cash may be King but in this world Content is the Queen. Contribute often to blogs* and other conversations. Share, collaborate, converse, and engage…all build your brand equity.

*Blog contribution is inclusive. It’s not only your own that is important but others’; comment where the content is compelling to you.

5. Aggregation and Curation

Be a curator for content: your content as well as others.

What’s that mean? Well if you’ve gone to the trouble of finding content; make it easy for other folks like you to benefit from that leg work. You may become a trusted source for the kind of content you are all about.

What does this all mean to us as writers? It means that you need to build your brand as an expert in something. It could be in marketing, in features writing, or it could be in blog authorship. Find your area of expertise and promote it.

The idealized days of writers composing text in an isolated windowless room are gone. Writers need to connect with other writers in order to get work and to get noticed. Tweeting on Twitter and being on Face book and LinkedIn are considered mandatory for anyone who wants to really get their name out there.

Commenting on others’ blogs gets your name and website out there as well. If you are seen as someone who leaves valuable comments (“Nice article” may not necessarily cut it) then people will soon recognize you as an expert in the field. Build your brand and they will come to you.

It’s about creating your brand, contributing content, and constantly managing it. But perhaps the single most important thing you can remember about being a marketing writer in today’s networked world is this: it’s about the relationship, stupid.