Joe Chernov

The terms “inbound marketing” and “content marketing” have been popping up in the blog posts, press releases, eBooks, infographics and social media feeds of every marketing automation company lately. While the differences between the practices may be nuanced, the surge in use of these terms is anything but subtle.

The question is, Why?

For one, there is a “modern marketing” element to the terms. The marketing automation category has existed for several years, and newer practices like inbound marketing, content marketing and even social media marketing are adjacent, if not overlapping, specialties. Marketers love the next new thing. We can’t help ourselves.

There’s also a follow-the-leader dynamic. HubSpot founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah wrote a super book called Inbound Marketing. Others drafted off of their...

One of life’s unspoken disappointments is this: Rarely do we know the extent of the difference we make in one another’s lives.

We stumble across an article, catch the tail end of a conversation, receive a kind word from someone special, notice a tweet in passing … and something about it sticks. Maybe it inspires, or perhaps it irritates. But it calcifies, until we do something about it. And that’s one of the ways change happens.

For me, Augie Ray, the executive director of community and collaboration at USAA, is one of those “silent” change agents. When my career began to take a new shape, it was his reports (when he was an analyst at Forrester Research) and writing on “Experience: The Blog” that, unbeknownst to him, helped me clarify what I wanted to do, why I wanted to do it, and how I wanted to do it. His...

You know the feeling: Just when you think you have something (almost) all figured out, someone goes and blows up your self-image. As the person responsible for Eloqua’s content marketing efforts, that’s how I felt when reading Altimeter Group’s latest research: Content: The New Marketing Equation.

Turns out, however, illumination can be a very good feeling.

You see, today’s report, published by Rebecca Lieb, is filled with practical tips and heady observations for those just cutting their teeth on the practice, all the way up to forward-looking companies like Nestle (whose program, I was delighted to discover in the report, is run by one of the most influential figures in modern marketing practices, Pete Blackshaw). This accessible “content marketing for everyone” framework is central to the...

Have you ever been the only one dining in a restaurant? If you have, and if you are anything like me, I’m sure it took a while to shake off the depression. It’s pretty grim when the kitchen is as quiet as the dining room.

For B2B marketing professionals, Facebook can be just as bleak. Fan pages so empty the only conversation is between colleagues. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to sell high-fructose foods or video games to amass a meaningful Facebook fandom. Even a marketing automation provider can inspire a vibrant Facebook community.

Our newest presentation, “10 Ways to ‘Solve’ Facebook for B2B” (hashtag #B2Bfacebook), highlights 10 actionable tips – real things you can start (or stop) doing to make a measurable difference in your Facebook marketing efforts...