From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

I get this question quite a bit. What is inbound marketing and why should I care?

Simply, inbound marketing is the opposite of outbound marketing. Remember the old days of setting up outbound call centers (telemarketing), creating television and radio commercials, and pushing out email blasts to get your word out? Well, that inefficient and expensive method of advertising and marketing is no longer a necessity.

Think smart website design and development.
Think online call-to-actions.
Think strategic blog content.
Think SEO (search engine optimization).
Think social media marketing.
Think audio and video marketing.
Think efficient online lead generation.

All of these strategies and methods are important pieces of the concept, inbound marketing.

What inbound marketing methods most interest you? What larger internet marketing methods do you already have in place?

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Blame It On Me by Barenaked Ladies.

I’ll be teaching a how-to class on Twitter in a few weeks. The idea behind the session is to get non-profits and museums across Virginia onboard with the powerful networking aspects of Twitter.

I’ve come up with this course description and bullet conversation points. If this looks like something that would benefit your organization, feel free to contact me to setup a date. I’d be more than happy to talk with your action officers, decision makers and executives on the true power of social media and new media marketing.

Twitter for Your Organization - The Why and How

Building and maintaining your organization’s brand and reputation is a crucial aspect of the success you achieve. Twitter, one of the power players in this era of social networking, has proven to be an efficient tool to help with brand management.

But why tweet? Here are some of the topics we will cover in this session on tweeting to help you understand how Twitter can help your organization.

- What is Twitter and how does it work?
- Why should we tweet?
- The Twitter lingo.
- How to get started tweeting, creating an account, setting up a profile.
- What software programs can I use to tweet?
- How to post tweets.
- How to manage multiple Twitter accounts.
- How to @reply to others and retweet (RT) other tweets.
- The right way to interact with other twitterers.
- How to add Twitter to your blog.
- How to add Twitter to your Facebook page.
- Twitter marketing with your mobile phone.

Teacher: Keith Parnell, JASE Group Marketing & New Media

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Truth Serum by Dishwalla.

It’s official. Twitter is king.

The Global Language Monitor has announced that Twitter is the top word for 2009.

“In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic, the after effects of a financial tsunami and the death of a revered pop icon, the word Twitter stands above all the other words. Twitter represents a new form of social interaction, where all communication is reduced to 140 characters,” said Paul JJ Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor. “Being limited to strict formats did wonders for the sonnet and haiku. One wonders where this highly impractical word-limit will lead as the future unfolds.”

If you still think social media is just a fad, umm, you may want to splash your face with water again this morning. Social media, social media marketing and online marketing is here to stay!

The Top Words of 2009:

1. Twitter — The ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 characters
2. Obama — The word stem transforms into scores of new words like ObamaCare
3. H1N1 — The formal (and politically correct) name for Swine Flu
4. Stimulus — The $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the US economy
5. Vampire — Vampires are very much en vogue, now the symbol of unrequited love
6. 2.0 — The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything
7. Deficit — Lessons from history are dire warnings here
8. Hadron — Ephemeral particles subject to collision in the Large Hadron Collider
9. Healthcare — The direction of which is the subject of intense debate in the US
10. Transparency — Elusive goal for which many 21st c. governments are striving
11. Outrage — In response to large bonuses handed out to ‘bailed-out’ companies
12. Bonus — The incentive pay packages that came to symbolize greed and excess
13. Unemployed — And underemployed amount to close to 20% of US workforce
14. Foreclosure — Forced eviction for not keeping up with the mortgage payments
15. Cartel — In Mexico, at the center of the battle over drug trafficking

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Sara Smile by Boney James.

I will be speaking on Wednesday (10/28/2009)  next week in Chesapeake (VA) for the team at Real Estate-XChange. Real Estate-XChange is an exciting company that is just beginning their ventures into the social media marketing world.

During the presentation, Social Media Business Strategies, we will discuss social media as part of an online marketing plan falling under the umbrella of a comprehensive marketing plan for the real estate industry, and our (JASE) experiences in using social media initiatives with our clients.

Other points of interest that will be covered are blogging for business, inbound marketing, internet marketing, lead generation, online marketing, search engine marketing and SEO.

2009 Oct 28: Social Media Business Strategies

Location:
The Real Estate-XChange
517 Baylor Court
Chesapeake, VA 23320

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Did you happen to see the amazing speaker lineup for September’s New Media Conventions event? Wow!

Get your tickets now. Don’t wait.

• Keynote: Keith Parnell from JASE Group Marketing & Advertising and NeedLocalHelp.com
• Session #1: The Role of Public Relations in Social Media, Michelle Rogerson from Reina Communications
• Session #2: Successfully Monetizing Your Blog, Julie Maloney from Momspective
• Session #3: How to Benefit from the Power of Google, Kurt Noer from Customer Magnetism
• Session #4: Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign, 14 Characters at a Time, Renee Alexander Hamilton, Operation Smile

New Media Conventions

Agenda

Did you happen to see the amazing speaker lineup for September’s New Media Conventions event? Wow!

Get your tickets now. Don’t wait.

• Keynote: Keith Parnell from JASE Group Marketing & Advertising
• Session #1: The Role of Public Relations in Social Media, Michelle Rogerson from Reina Communications
• Session #2: Successfully Monetizing Your Blog, Julie Maloney from Momspective
• Session #3: How to Benefit from the Power of Google, Kurt Noer from Customer Magnetism
• Session #4: Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign, 14 Characters at a Time, Renee Alexander Hamilton, Operation Smile

New Media Conventions

Agenda

Stay tuned for the excitement! New Media Conventions is coming to Virginia Beach this fall. Check the New Media Conventions website for more details. Make sure to sign up for the email list to get details as they are unveiled.

I attended an event last night that included panelists and audience participants from many different verticals. Each member in the group was an entrepreneur at heart and by living the life. Each member has a passion for entrepreneurship so much that sharing those experiences is imperative to portraying their vision.

When we entered the panelist event room after a half hour or so of casual networking, I snapped a few pictures (see photo below) with my BlackBerry to send up to TwitPic >> JASEzone >> Twitter >> FriendFeed >> Facebook.

While I was doing so, a friendly woman sat down next to me. Here’s how our quick conversation went -
New Friend: Who are you here with while taking pictures?
Me: No one. I’m just taking them to send to TwitPic to get onto Twitter to share with my network of friends and colleagues.
New Friend: Really? [short pause] What is Twitter?

Since the event was getting ready to start, I spent all of 20 seconds explaining Twitter to her, its purpose, and its popularity. She seemed interested, but not really very interested.

Not thinking much more about our quick encounter, the Twitter conversation entered my thinking again when my new friend raised her hand during the panel discussion to ask a question. Her question was not what intrigued me; her introduction actually astounded me. She introduced herself as a “marketing” entrepreneur in Hampton Roads that has owned a marketing agency for over 20 years.

Huh?! Are you serious?! And you’ve never heard of Twitter? Do you do online marketing at all? Do you know what inbound marketing is? Have you heard of social media marketing? Immediately I had 30 questions for her running through my head.

Here’s the lesson for my readers: Question your marketing / advertising agency. Don’t take for granted they know your audience, much less know where your audience lives.

I’ve talked about this lesson a lot on this blog and on my vlog at Coffee with the CEO. Read through here. Watch a few videos. Don’t let my new friend be your marketing guru. Because they’re not, not matter what they say. Call our team at JASE and let’s get your organization on the right (successful!) track.

Feel free to extract from, copy or talk about any slides in the slidedeck. Enjoy!

Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research pieced together this deck of slides in an effort to initiate conversation about social media marketing.

The technique itself is one of old school sources but still rather effective, I think, in social media marketing. What do you think?

Our team has setup our new Facebook Page.

Join us: http://www.facebook.com/pages/JASE-Group/75656084112

Become a fan on our JASE Facebook Page and get inside (early) information on JASE’s free conference videos, slideshows, seminars, webinars, videocasts, podcasts, white papers, and more.

Marketing, Advertising & Technology Resources

Conferences / Seminars

Social media marketing presentations from various conferences and seminars.

Videocasts

Short video sessions hot issues such as social networking, blogging, search engine optimization and online advertising.

Podcasts

On-the-go podcasts discussing software, lead generation, Twitter, JASEzone, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Webinars

Marketing, advertising and technology webinars on a variety of topics including inbound marketing, blogging and network security.

Whitepapers

Internet marketing whitepapers on strategies and results-driven tactics.

Networking with Social Media and Strategies that Generate Leads

Download the free seminar for tips and tricks to drive inbound marketing using social media.

Topic: Networking with Social Media and Strategies that Generate Leads
Event: The Hampton Roads Internet Marketing & Technology Group

Social media will change your business! What is social media? How can I generate leads with social media? Get the answers to these questions and others in this ‘dont’t miss’ video.

* Reasons Why a Business should adopt Social Media Marketing
* Build Your Brand
* How and where to build, manage and monitor your brand online.
* Social Media Lead Generation Strategies
* Social Networking <> Marketing Free-for-all
* Do you conversation?
* Interact first, sell second.