I have really enjoyed the Winter Olympics this year. Perhaps it is because of the especially cold and snowy winter we have endured – or perhaps it is that I am truly in awe of the athletes who can spin, jump and fly on skis. And it is easier than in years past to indulge in Olympic fever, with a multitude of media channels providing in-depth exposure. Television and online dominate the coverage, and corporate sponsors have embraced both. Visa or other sponsors go beyond logo inclusion and running tv spots, many have very extensive integrated campaigns – including social media.

Social media has played a big part of these games. Even companies who are not officially sponsors have tried to get in on the action
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Being connected to customer needs and desires should be a key aspect of shaping your B2B brand. But the engine of growth needs to include creativity, something many B2B executives don't spend much time on. Others like Google stake their reputation on creativity. They walk the talk: All engineers are allotted up to 20 percent of their time to work on their own ideas. The result? Products like Gmail and Google News, seeds of which began as personal endeavors.

According to MIT Media Lab, a hotbed of creativity, the secret sauce for business creativity is developing an environment where different people from different areas and disciplines of an enterprise, work together to share ideas to innovate.

Dr.
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If you have already read J.Leigh Brown’s post about adapting your thinking regarding social media, but are still not convinced that you should include a social media strategy as part of your 2010 marketing initiatives, please consider the following:

Ten Reasons to develop a social media strategy in 2010

1. Real time search results – Google and other major search engines have incorporated Twitter into the results. You could potentially be bumped in the rankings by an outside party tweeting about your company or products.

2. Reduced marketing spend in 2009 – If budget cuts forced you to go dark in 2009, a social media strategy can help you reconnect with your customers and prospects.
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As a new medium for delivering a message, mobile marketing has been thrust into the spotlight - ready or not. As B2B marketers, we have to realize is that it’s about increasing our creativity (choosing the right format and targeting the right message) to reach the right audience. No more are we limited to a brief text message (“Send a text to 22222 to see if you’ve won”) to collect limited information or try to communicate a more involved marketing message.

With the advent of technology platforms like e-readers (is the Kindle on your Christmas list?), smaller computers (my Smartphone is better than your Netbook), portable entertainment units (if I could ever get my son off the PS3) and even navigation systems (yes, your GPS is watching you) the doors are opening to many more possibilities for your message to reach your B2B audience. But which one is the right one for you and what’s the right message to send?

Part of learning how these
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One of the key tenants of strategy is choice. As we recover from this ugly recession, management in virtually every B2B company, large, medium and small faces BIG choices, like how they should position their company for future marketing success. Make no mistake, the consequences of these choices are BIG. They will have a much larger impact than next quarter's sales results.

What will guide decision making for such big choices? Relying on input from the sales force? Good, but not good enough all by itself for getting a true understanding of the market and audience information needed. Secondary Research? Probably some good information can be gleaned, but the information may be too general and, perhaps, not timely. Research done through publications is limiting and often lacks actionable information and insight.

Management needs solid, timely empirical information to guide informed decision making based on the reality of today's
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In my last blog on Creating and Maintaining a B2B Blog I offered some suggestions on who should write your company blog and how often you should post.
In this installment, I’d like to follow up a bit more on the frequency of posting and give some direction on what you should be posting.
The question we are often asked is, “How often should I add new content or post on my company blog?”
The simple answer is: When you have something relevant to say.
When you post and what you post is related. Let’s assume you’ve identified an internal “expert” or core team of employees with the responsibility of managing to your company blog. You now need to determine the frequency of posting and create a realistic schedule.
Let’s start at the top.
1.    Think Strategically
       a.    Does your company have a marketing and communications strategy? What you
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As social media continues to make inroads into the B2B universe, more companies are including blogs as a communications tactic. According to the Society for New Communications Research, 16 percent of Fortune 500 companies support a corporate blog while Forrester Research reports the number is closer to 29 percent. Both reports are one to two years old so I suspect the numbers are much higher today.

As acceptance of blogging continues to grow I thought it might be helpful to give some advice on how to create and maintain a company blog. This is the first of several blogs, each focusing on a specific topic.

Let’s start at the beginning. You’ve decided to create a blog but are faced with two important questions:
1.    Who should write the blog?
2.    How often should you post?

Some companies are fortunate and have an “industry expert” on staff, someone with broad industry
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When a B2B marketer is asked about measuring brand equity, they usually have a pretty good idea about what folks are trying to glean or understand. But, if you dig a little and start asking what makes up this thing we call "brand equity" you might start to get a few puzzled looks. Dig even deeper and ask how they are leveraging what they know about their B2B brand equity that will have meaningful strategic impact on their marketing decisions in 2010 and you might see a little color drain from their face.

Is your company stuck in the old paradigm of brand equity measurement that offers little more than awareness and perception? Are you ready (and is your management) to develop a deeper more meaningful understanding about brand equity measurement that can be used for more effective 2010 planning?

Research that extends beyond knowledge, but through the use of advanced analytics, modeling and simulation, provides valuable real-time insights on how to build better
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Recently a colleague asked me why I - a B2B PR practitioner - was so bent on taking the LEED AP exam. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) which developed it, LEED accredited professionals, or LEED APs, are said to "have demonstrated a thorough understanding of green building practices and principles and the LEED Rating System."

I also shared with my colleague that a couple of my B2B marketing client contacts had recently taken and passed the exam. "So, why do you want to be a LEED AP?" she asked. It was a good question and it made me think. I needed an elevator pitch.

The best that I've seen so far comes from a November 2008
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Ah, yes, the joys of summer! Warm weather has finally arrived in the Northeast. It’s hard to believe that the calendar year is almost halfway gone.

Now is a perfect time for marketers to take stock of their business-to-business programs. After all, the economy is starting to rebound and certain sectors are once again showing signs of life. But the big question is, when will we finally turn the corner? I’m placing my bets on the first quarter of 2010. (Nothing scientific here; just a “gut” feeling.)

In anticipation of a turnaround, marketers should take a step back and put their b-to-b programs under the microscope. Here’s some advice:

1. Revisit your goals and objectives. Is your b-to-b program in line with the goals and objectives of your business? If not, it’s time to make some adjustments.

2. Assess your priorities.
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