You must be living in a vacuum if aren’t aware of the buzz surrounding the latest Old Spice videos that have gone viral. Earlier this week on Facebook, I responded to a question posed by Social Fresh about whether or not the viral ads will sell more Old Spice.
Will the Old Spice viral video campaign sell more Old Spice? Yes or No?
Here was my response:
Of course it will. As consumers we may not realize it consciously.
But, when standing in the aisle in front of all the brands – even if you are loyal to another brand – you will see Old Spice. Don’t think for a second that this is not a coordinated retail effort.
Pay close attention to product placement in the next few weeks – Is there more end cap placements for Old Spice, more Signage, etc. What may seem like a social only event – is certainly tied to a set of specific retailing strategies at the store level. The brand owner of OLD Spice is a former Proctor and Gamble exec. More will be sold. Lots more. ·
Correction: At the time, I posted the comment, I failed to remember that OLD Spice is a Proctor and Gamble brand. – So better said:
Remember, the brand of owner of Old Spice IS a Proctor and Gamble executive. What does P&G do? BUILD BRANDS.
is much more thought through than the blogosphere is giving Old Spice credit for. This is a well planned, coordinated, measured effort to increase revenue.
There are a lot of super smart, creative, innovative and intelligent marketers in this world. Nothing that is happening with Old Spice brand right now is happening by chance. Nothing. Market share, and more importantly, MIND share is be gained every day.
In a few short months, we will see the same come true in B2B marketing. My bet is that SAP has some super things in the works. Have you seen SAP’s Facebook Friend Optimizer? I bet they have much more on the way. Watch them. Here is an interesting interview with William Robb, Director, Social Media Marketing for SAP. SAP will be a B2B brand that continues making waves in the social web.
Remember, the recession slowed everything down. The creative juices are following everywhere. I am excited for the future of B2B marketing, are you?
In nearly every introduction to content marketing, you have come across phrases like “you are now the media,” and “think like a publisher”. But one key thing publishers have always focused on that B2B marketers traditionally have not is the profitable creation and distribution of massive amounts of content. So how do you begin to find or create the content you will need to succeed?
In Part 1 of How To Think And Act Like A Publisher, we focused on defining your core objective (Profit), the importance of both editorial quality and variety (Editorial), and the systematic creation and production of your content (Production).
In Part 2, our focus shifts to building and growing readership (Circulation), getting the editorial content into the hands of your readership (Distribution), and seeking the next opportunity. Understanding and defining who your content is meant for (Circulation) and getting it to them (Distribution) are the core elements of the publisher’s mindset that marketers need to adopt.
These posts are for marketers interested in learning how publishers think and act. It’s a mindset that, when applied to your B2B content marketing strategy, will open up a whole new world of ideas and possibilities.
A side note before jumping in: this is an introductory article intended to provide marketers some insight into the discipline and business of publishing. It offers suggestions on how to think and act like a publisher and how to apply that thinking to your content marketing. It is by no means exhaustive or all inclusive. Publishers do much more than what is presented here.
Circulation
Circulation is readership.
As a publisher, when it comes to readership, the main objective is to acquire and sustain a population of people that a target advertiser will be willing to pay a premium to get in front of. Therefore from a circulation standpoint, the publisher’s mind is always focused on achieving the following two outcomes:
driving growth (i.e., increasing the number of readers) and
retention (i.e., keeping readers loyal).
But before starting either one of those activities, the first place a publisher must start is with the definition of the optimal target prospect for their advertisers. As without a qualified circulation, a publisher has little hopes of generating revenue.
Sound familiar? Where should you start your content marketing strategy? That’s right, with defining your ideal buyers. Enter Buyer Personas. Buyer personas define your optimal buyer(s) – the human beings, (the people with emotions) for whom your products and services are intended.
Once armed with the definition of the readership, publishers set out to create a marketing strategy to continuously acquire, grow, and maintain that readership. Publishers invest significant time, resources, and capital to ensure that their readership can support the growth of the publication.
Actions:
Start your content marketing strategy by creating buyer personas. You must have a clear understanding of who you are trying to attract for your readership.
Review your registration and opt-in forms. Are they simple, easy to use? Do they have good calls to action? How many steps does it take to complete the process? Whether it be your e-mail marketing list, your newsletter, or your blog RSS feed, pay careful attention to simplicity, ease of use, and placement.
Be mindful of the *age* of your subscribers (length of time subscribed) and their level of activity (or inactivity). If you have old, inactive subscribers, make one attempt to reach them, and if you receive no response, dare I say it, remove them. And then acquire new ones.
Create a way to track and monitor the growth of your readership. A simple spreadsheet will do.
Distribution
Distribution, from a publishing standpoint, deals with getting the editorial product into the hands of the readers. The focus is on understanding and utilizing all of the channels through which content can be delivered and consumed, then working to spread the product as widely as necessary (to existing and potential readership) to achieve the publisher’s circulation goals and deliver value to their advertisers.
This is accomplished in a variety of ways: snail mail, digital magazines, the publication’s web site, newsstands, grocery store lines, events and trade shows, syndication, strategic alliances, and on and on. You see, the goal is to spread your content as far as possible, though in a very targeted way, based on where and how the defined readership interacts with the content.
Enter the social web, and your readership is just as capable of distributing the content for you.
Actions:
Look for external destinations to distribute your existing content. For blogs feeds, consider Alltop.com and Technorati. For blog articles, of course Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, but look for other niche destinations too – BusinessWeek Exchange is great for B2B.
Seek places to contribute content – distributing your “thought leadership” in the form of contributed articles.
With every piece of content you create, you must answer the question, “have I made it easy for my readership to share it?” (and that means in all channels, on and offline. Email, Twitter, events, etc.)
You have time, but begin thinking about the answer to the following question: “How do we make our content more touchable?” (Think: iPad)
A side note: Two of the most exciting things happening right now relative to distribution in publishing happen to be related to the iPad. The first just launched: Flipboard. [note: possibly link to their site or Twitter feed?] (It makes an iPad imminent for me.) The second, “Adobe plans to make the tools used to create the Wired Magazine App for iPad generally available late this summer. Exciting news for publishers and B2B marketers.
Seeking the next opportunity
To be honest, most publishers were not very good at this. If they had been, the industry would have fared much better over the past 10 years. Prior to the internet, publishers basically printed money. When it came along, there wasn’t any urgency to act because their pockets were full. Wham! Enter the recession, open source publishing platforms, and the next thing you know everyone is a publisher, and it seemed no one was spending money on print advertising.
So publishers had to adapt, and the good ones have. And with the lesson of the past ten years learned, keeping an eye on the horizon and seeking the next opportunity are musts for long term sustainability and vitality.
Action (just one):
Adapt and Think Bigger. Embrace the times in which we live and seek ways to utilize the new technologies available to you.
Recap
The six core areas:
Profit – define your core objective and have a laser focus on it
Editorial – focus on the importance of both editorial quality and variety
Production – having a system for content creation using schedules, deadlines, and the right people to manage the process
Circulation – defining readership, and driving the growth and retention of those individuals
Distribution –getting the editorial product into the hands of the readership
Seeking the next opportunity – always keeping one eye on the horizon
When listed together (and thought of in this way), these six areas provide you with a framework to begin thinking and acting strategically with a publisher’s mindset, and it becomes easy to see how thinking and acting like a publisher translates directly to acting and thinking as a B2B marketer today.
There is a direct correlation between structuring your marketing department in a way that enables you to systematically create targeted helpful, useful content on an ongoing basis and influencing your buyers in a way that generates demand for your products and services.
Our purpose at Make Good Media is to help you accomplish that goal.
While hindsight tells us that publishers as a whole could have done more to embrace and adapt to the changing media landscape, we can still learn so much from publishers and the way they run their businesses. Tapping into a publisher-worthy understanding of your readership (your customers and potential customers) will help you get into the mindset that is driving the shift to content marketing, web content strategy, and ongoing content creation.
Conclusion
We are at a pivotal time in history, where we are not only experiencing the convergence of print, digital, and social media, but also a transition in the way content is created, packaged, and consumed.
We are all publishers now. And as publishers (and B2B marketers) it is important to understand how to think and act like to attract, nurture, engage, convert, and love our customers.
At both B2Bbloggers.com and Make Good Media, it is our purpose to help you become the marketers shaping the future of B2B marketing. I hope you found this two-part article useful.
Thanks for your time, and I look forward to you sharing your comments.
Covey is so right; “sharpening the saw” provides much needed renewal, revitalization, and clarity of purpose.
It is really, really helpful to slow down, take a deep breathe, and relax. Do it. Make the time. You really don’t have any excuse not to.
First “perceptions” are so frequently wrong. Fight the urge to make judgments with limited information. Gather facts and then decide.
What’s your take on Gary Vaynerchuk? For whatever reason, with very, very little data, my perception of him was not positive. I never watched an episode of Wine Library TV, I didn’t follow @garyvee on Twitter, I actually don’t think I ever even had a discussion about him, but for some reason, in my mind I had formed an impression, that kept me from wanting to learn more. Frankly, it was probably envy, I don’t know, whatever it was, it was DUMB.
Have you read CRUSH IT!? Last week I listened to the audio version. Wow, what a book. Not because it was ground breaking social media content (though that was good too), but Gary read the book himself. And I felt like in those few hours, I got to know him. What a story he has, what an inspiration, an entrepreneur through and through. The book is filled with excellent advice on how to prepare yourself and your business for today’s future. His vision and passion for why he does what he does are his strongest assets. Listen to the book, hear for yourself, and put Gary on your radar. I predict he will be one of the most influential leaders of our time.
Back to the point of this lesson, you see how easy it was for me to form that impression with little to no information. You see how much my perception changed by reading just one book. A true testament to the power of great content and its ability to influence perceptions and lead to the creation of customer advocates. Are you producing great content? Need help?
As much as people say we should “unplug” while on vacation, it’s my opinion that doing so simply makes life less efficient.
I mean if I truly would have unplugged, just as one example, I would not have been able to use Google Voice search on my iPhone to:
Determine the high and low tide (find the best spot to build our sand city)
Check for the exact time of the sunset (find the best time for our family photo shoot)
Locate a restaurant (eat)
And on and on and on.
Why do that do ourselves? I checked email, Twitter, wrote a bit, but guess what, those are all things that I LIKE to do. Why should we deprive ourselves of what makes us happy when on vacation?
Similar to Twitter, it is not until you break through the initial “idiocy” of Foursquare that you realize the power it has to extend the way businesses market themselves and connect with consumers.
We live in exciting times and all of us can benefit from a dose of removing the blinders and thinking and dreaming much bigger than what we see in front of us today.
Foursquare is big (has a tremendous visionary as a founder) and just getting started. Just imagine when they hook up with Groupon – check in at restaurant, no specials, click nearby places in app, restaurant ½ mile away by one meal get one meal. Where are you going?
Think bigger.
I’m rested and ready for an exciting end to 2010. Are you?
Side note, if you happened to see this tweet last week, the picture above is the ferris wheel that I was on. It was high and I remain afraid of heights.
Covey is so right; “sharpening the saw” provides much needed renewal, revitalization, and clarity of purpose.
It is really, really helpful to slow down, take a deep breathe, and relax.
First “perceptions” are so frequently wrong. Fight the urge to make judgments with limited information. Gather facts and then decide.
What’s your take on Gary Vaynerchuk? For whatever reason, with very, very little data, my perception of him was not positive. I never watched an episode of Wine Library TV, I didn’t follow him on Twitter, I actually don’t think I ever even had a discussion about him, but for some reason, in my mind, I had formed an impression, that kept me from wanting to learn more. Frankly, it was probably envy, I don’t know.
But have you read CRUSH IT!? Last week I listened to the audio version. Wow, what a book. Not because it was ground break social media content (though that was good too), but Gary read the book himself. And I felt like in those few hours, I got to know him. What a story he has, what an inspiration. The book is filled with excellent advice on how to prepare yourself and your business for today’s future. His vision and passion for why he does what he does are his strongest assets. Listen to the book, hear for yourself, and put Gary on your radar. I predict he’s someone we will know and learn from for a very long time.
Back to the point of this lesson, you see how easy it was for me to form that impression with no information. You seem how much my perception changed by reading one book. Great content influences perceptions and leads to the creation of customer advocates. Are you producing great content? Need help?
As much as people say we should “unplug” while on vacation, it’s my opinion that doing so simply makes life less efficient.
I mean if I truly would have unplugged, just as one example, I would not have been able to use Google Voice search on my iPhone to:
i.Determine the high and low tide (find the best spot to build our sand city)
ii.Check for the exact time of the sunset (find the best time for our family photo shoot)
iii.Locate a restaurant (eat)
iv.And on and on and on.
Why do that do ourselves? I checked email, Twitter, wrote a bit, but guess what, those are all things that I LIKE to do. Why should we deprive ourselves of what makes us happy when on vacation?
Similar to Twitter, it is not until you break through the initial “idiocy” of Foursquare that you realize the power it has to change the way businesses market themselves and connect with consumers.
We live in exciting times and all of us can benefit from a dose of removing the blinders and thinking and dreaming much bigger than what we see in front of us today.
Foursquare (and services like it) is big and just getting started. Just imagine when they hook up with Groupon – check in at restaurant, no specials, click nearby places in app, restaurant ½ mile away by one meal get one meal. Where are you going? Think bigger.
Side note, if you happened to see this tweet last week, the picture above is the ferris wheel that I was on. It was high and I remain afraid of heights.
It’s rather coincidental that today Chris Brogan’s post is titled, VIDEO IS SO POWERFUL AS A MOTIVATOR, as I finally overcome my fears and post my first video here on B2Bbloggers, “What Matters Most.”
Hint: It’s not B2B social media. It’s not content marketing. Nor is it B2B marketing.
To quote Chris,
“If you’re not already doing video for your site, I strongly recommend it. It doesn’t have to be amazing. It might still draw our attention if it’s just plain useful.”
Earlier this year, I wrote a post, Humanize Your Marketing With Buyer Personas, because of what I feel is lacking in a lot of B2B marketing today. That is content – read marketing material of any kind – that is created and crafted in a way that is makes a personal connection and demonstrates a real life understanding of the people to whom the company is trying to market.
Much of what I come across still reeks of “me, me, me; we are great.”
I am becoming more and more convinced that the reason for this is that marketing departments haven’t slowed down and taken the time to create buyer personas. This is such an important step for any type of B2B marketing today. Forget social media and content marketing for a moment, the reason buyer personas matter so much is that B2B buyers and B2B buying has changed. So even if you never decide to venture into Twitter or Facebook, you still need buyer personas to effectively create trade ads, tradeshow booth signage, or any marketing material if you want to reach these changed B2B buyers.
So in this post I decided to answer the questions that are most likely top of mind for you when it comes to buyer personas. Here goes:
What is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona is a description of a specific person for whom your products and services are intended. It goes beyond statistics and demographics, and defines behaviors, motivations, likes/dislikes, traits, etc. Its intent is to help you reach your customers on a human level.
Why do buyer personas matter to me and my b2b marketing anyway?
A buyer persona enables you create marketing content that is for someone and not everyone.
Why is it important to create marketing for someone rather than everyone?
We’ve heard it before, it’s a cliché, but it’s true – in B2B buying – one size does not fit all. What’s important to the CFO is completely different than what is important to the CIO. Creating a piece of content to address both of their needs may work in some cases, but to truly connect, build trust, and influence that person, you need to be able to address their specific needs individually.
And that same thing is true for ALL the individuals involved in the B2B buying process from users, to the influencers, and the executives. Beginning your content marketing plan with carefully crafted buyer personas enables you to ensure your content speaks directly to the needs of someone. And that my friends is how we connect on a human level.
Why are buyer personas so important now?
Gone are the days of plowing through everyone in a company’s phone tree to reach the final decision maker, the person with the pen to sign the contract. B2B buying just doesn’t happen like that anymore. Today’s decision makers delegate, they empower their staff to gather information, make recommendations, and come to consensus on purchasing decisions.
Granted, you may think B2B buying still happens the old fashioned way, but that is only because the overwhelming majority of B2B selling still happens that way. But B2B buying has changed and so should your B2B marketing. Honestly, if you are still following the old model of B2B selling, my take is that you are doing more harm than good. You are likely losing brand value in the mind of that decision maker you are interrupting with every unscheduled call.
Remember, every single interaction creates an impression – positive or negative. In today’s world, where attention is a scarce commodity, an unscheduled call in a busy person’s day very rarely ends positively. Right? Be honest.
Start using buyer personas and create content that will attract buyers to you.
Where do I start when creating buyer personas?
First things first, you need to begin by gaining a full understanding of how your products are purchased. If you sell to multiple industries or market segments, you need to evaluate the buying process for each industry separately. You need a detailed view of who is involved, their role within the organization and within your buying process. Additionally, you need to understand the process a purchase such as yours goes through for approval. I suggest mapping it out.
At Make Good Media, we spend a considerable amount of time with our clients in this phase of a project because it is so vital to an effective social media and content marketing plan. In our opinion, you can’t effectively target your content without knowing which stage of the buying process is it for and the specific someone (or buyer persona) you are trying to reach.
Now that I understand the buying process and who I am trying to reach, how do I create a buyer persona that will humanize my marketing?
First and foremost, a key point should be made: your products are not the center anyone’s universe but your own. Broaden your scope of thinking about your buyers and realize that your product, no matter how important it is, will only ever touch a portion of their day-to-day activities.
Here are just 10 Buyer Persona development questions that we use with clients to get them started:
What are this persona’s most important job responsibilities and activities?
Which ones relate most closely with your products?
What are the top three – five challenges or problems for this individual in their job?
Which ones relate most closely with your products?
How does this persona measure success?
Do any of your products have the ability to help them achieve that?
How is this personas success measured? By whom (what stakeholders)?
What’s at risk for this individual in the purchasing process?
What could go wrong for them if the purchase is a failure?
What has prevented this persona from considering your products in the past?
What is the person’s likely progression within their career? What other roles have they had? What do they aspire to become?
What is the person’s level of education?
What is the person’s age?
Does this persona require a specific skill set, degree, certification, or other continuing education?
How does this persona typically seek new information and keep up to date with the industry?
What events do they attend?
What do they read? Online and off?
After gathering this data and answering these questions, you can begin to paint a fairly clear picture of the person, the human being with real life struggles and achievements that you are trying to reach. From these answers, you should then name your buyer persona and draft a bio so that you can have it to reference when creating content.
To close
As I said earlier, we’ve been helping our clients with how to create buyer personas, and the most important thing we are sharing with them is that you can’t have an effective content marketing plan (or blog, or twitter stream, or video) without them. Because as soon as you get into the content creation phase of anything, the first question you ask is, “For whom are we creating this?”
If your answer is, “for everyone,” sadly the result will much more likely be, “no one.”
Enjoy A Page From Our How To Create Buyer Personas Questionnaire:
Three useful links from the B2B marketing blogosphere:
Jeremy: Hi, My name is Jeremy and I’m a social network addict.
Group: Welcome, Jeremy.
Jeremy: In May of 2009, I opened an account on Twitter and shortly thereafter I found myself launching a business. The barriers to entry and costs were so low; I was just going crazy getting started up. After 13 months, I realized I was using social networking sites 43% more than I used to. I discovered how easy it was to connect with people I hadn’t talked to in years. And I was like “connecting” with them, becoming “friends” again. I know crazy, right. Even learning things like how many kids they have (and seeing pictures of them), the businesses they were starting and running.
From a business side of things, I even connected with a CMO of a major corporation via of Twitter. I interviewed him. I became part of a community of B2B marketing executives contributing to advancing the discipline of marketing. I have established thousands of online connections and hundreds of in real life meetings.
But like I said, 43% more than I used to. That was when I found you, SNA (social networkers anonymous). You helped me see the error of my ways. Now, it’s me, my newspapers, and land line. Thank you.
Group: Thanks for sharing. Keep coming back, it works if you work it.
And well, frankly it just frustrated the heck out of me! I really, really struggle with the label of “Addiction” on the increased usage of social networking technology. Here’s a passage:
Experian Simmons is out with a new package of stats that document the incredible growth of social networking in the US. (Experian is an Edelman client.) Here are some of the notable highlights…
First, some 66% of online Americans use social networking sites today, up from just 20% in 2007. This has been covered a lot before. However, what’s notable is that it’s an increasingly additive activity – 43% visit multiple times each day.
source: Experian Simmons
Advancements in technology have ALWAYS improved the lives of Americans. It’s never been easier to connect with, stay up to date with, and communicate with people. It’s never been easier to meet, find, and start relationships with new people. Using social networking technology to do this is a problem? An addiction? A dependency? Because I do it multiple times a day?
As more people discover the ease of use of the social web, as broadband and wireless reach more people, as new devices, (someone released something called an iPad, no?), and as Moore’s law continues to make it more affordable, is it right to use a term like “Addiction?” Isn’t doing so going to make the end result far more likely to turn people off to it, rather then having them embrace it?
Wouldn’t it be better to focus on the greater impact the social web is having on our society – like bringing us closer together, improving our economy, helping us quickly respond in times of crisis, and bettering our position in the global marketplace.
I wonder if back in the 1930’s they were saying, “43% Americans Addicted To Driving – Going to more places, getting further away from their homes”.
What do you think? Am I off my rocker? And simply justifying my social networking addiction in my own mind? Or is it time to stop with the “Addiction” label?
Be extremely careful that your automated lead nurturing messages are for *someone* not *everyone* – (it’s not one size fits all – use your buyer personas and give your messages a personal tone).
Just because you are saving time with marketing automation, doesn’t mean the human beings you are sending the messages to can’t tell the messages are automated. Make your content helpful and useful or risk the dreaded unsubscribe and or even worse – a failed relationship.
Be sure your messages are timeless. Mistakes like this are dead giveaways that a machine emailed your content and not a person.
Don’t believe that your lead management process and marketing automation system will accelerate / hasten your buyers to move faster through the buying process. Only your remarkable content is capable of that.
Listen. Listen to your buyers, listen to your metrics, and listen to your sales team. Don’t forget the important role listening plays in improving processes, communications, and relationships.
Today’s B2B buyers are busy. Your marketing and products are not the center of their universe. Keep your messages concise, meaningful, and addressed at their needs not yours.
I urge you to read the first 67 lead management tips as the experts provide really good food for thought on lead management, marketing automation, and building relationships with today’s B2B buyers.
To close I’ll quote Craig,
The main thing is that lead management is absolutely essential to ROI-conscious marketing departments. If you don’t have a lead management process, get one. If you do have a lead management process, you should always be optimizing.
Visit Craig’s blog, The Funnelholic, (and read it regularly) to stay informed on B2B demand generation, lead management, and online media. He is a B2Bblogger shaping the future of B2B marketing and one that you should be paying attention to, I am.
What are your tips for lead management? Can we get to 100 tips? As B2B marketers, we can use all the lead management tips we can get, no?
Today, I thought I would run a little blog post experiment. I picked a topic – content marketing – and gave myself 20 minutes of writing time.
Start 4:20 PM EST
Content Marketing is:
An approach for interacting, influencing, and attracting today’s modern working professional that sources products using search engines, social networks, industry specific web sites, word of mouth and more.
A methodology for developing helpful, useful information that can be used to market your products and/or services during the multiple stages of today’s B2B buying process.
Driven by the fact that sales and marketing organizations can do very little to hasten today’s B2B buyers. Today’s buyers move at their pace – content marketing enables your organization to have the right information available at the moment they are ready.
Designed to help you produce information for all the people involved in the buying process. For years, we’ve instructed sales people to get the DM (decision maker); this approach ignores the vital roles of the users, influencers, and project champion. An effective content marketing strategy speaks to all the people involved in the buying process.
A discipline that requires study. It’s not a fad, a buzzword, or anything like that. It’s a skill that needs to be developed and mastered.
Personal. It educates. It’s marketing that (by way of buyer personas) speaks to someone, not everyone.
Mayday – a distress signal used to signify an emergency and need for help
Caffeine – something I use to give myself a boost quite regularly
Seem like harmless words that have nothing in the world to do with B2B social media and content marketing, right? Think again.
In recent weeks, Google completed two rather significant changes; one, Mayday, is related to how Google handles search queries and the other, Caffeine, deals with how Google indexes the web. If you are outside the world of search engines, the only Google changes you may have noticed over the past couple of weeks were either the Google Pacman doodle or the day Google choose to be like Bing.
However, Mayday and Caffeine have meaningful impacts on search results, both from a relevance and real-time perspective that in my mind further solidify the need for you to begin participating in B2B social media and content marketing.
Without getting technical, I’ll do my best to highlight the changes and why this is important to you as a B2B marketer, who may be either struggling with the B2B social media decision yourself, or working to gain executive buy-in for your B2B social media strategy.
MAYDAY
Think; search quality. Think; provide users a better search experience by improving results through better matching of websites with user’s search queries.
The project was completed by Google’s search quality team and is independent of Caffeine. A wee bit of technical talk – it is a change to Google’s algorithm – i.e. the code that determines the relevance and ranking of a page. It was rolled out April 28th – May 3rd (around May 1st – hence the name – credit to Webmasterworld).
It’s been tested, and there is no turning back. This is a permanent change.
Here’s Google’s Matt Cutts with an explanation:
CAFFIENE
Think; search timeliness.Think; provide users a better search experience by improving results through providing the freshest, most recently published content about the user’s search query.
Source: The Official Google Blog
This project was completed in an effort to better enable Google to handle the increasing amount of content (video, images, news, blog posts, etc) that is being published every minute and make more of it available as close to possible when it is published.
Today, we’re announcing the completion of a new web indexing system called Caffeine. Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.
Why it matters to you as a B2B marketer
Mayday and Caffeine is Google’s way of telling us that quality, relevant, real-time content is what matters to their users (and your buyers) and content published today is far more meaningful to their users (and your buyers) then content published months if not years ago.
Kinda makes you think about your static HTML website that was last updated a few years ago, no? Adds a bunch of weight to the need to be producing regular, ongoing content too, right?
If or When
That’s the question. I think you know my answer, what’s yours?
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Hi, I'm @jeremyvictor, the founder of Make Good Media and Editor In Chief of B2Bbloggers.com.
B2Bbloggers.com is an online magazine for B2B marketers. Our goal is to engage, educate, and make it easier for B2B marketers to find the information they care about to do their jobs successfully.
As a publisher and new media marketing agency, Make Good Media advises businesses how to integrate social media and content marketing with traditional marketing tactics to attract, nurture, engage, and convert customers in the brave new B2B world of the social, mobile web. How can we help you Make Good Media?
