1. IBM Social Media Boot
Camp Alumni Update
Helping Build Your Social Authority
August 8, 2012
Kick-Start Your Content Embeddable
Marketing Videos for Your
Program Blog
Content marketing is all the Employees want to bring their
rage these days, but what own devices into the workplace,
exactly is it and how do you but many haven't considered
manage a content marketing security challenges these devices
program? create.
At IBM Midsize Business, IBM has been a leader in raising
we've had a successful awareness about mobile security
content marketing program in place for more trends and helping midsize
than a year. We publish new articles of interest businesses balance the need to
to midmarket professionals every day. These satisfy employee demands with
keyword-optimized stories are designed to the need to protect information.
attract search engines, and since our Midsize This three-minute video highlights
Insider site was added to Google News, traffic some of the most significant
has exploded! security threats that have
Content marketing is all about attracting emerged on mobile platforms.
customers to your website with information that Embed it in your blog when you
interests them. In July, we recorded a webinar communicate about this
that showcases the IBM influencer program important topic.
focused on the essentials of content marketing
and how we apply them at IBM midsize Here's another embeddable video
businesses. The webinar is free, and I invite you you can use. "Smarter
to watch and learn what's working for us. Then Commerce and the Value Chain"
apply these techniques to your own content is about putting customers at the
marketing program. center of your business and
Here's a link to the webinar. Let me know what serving them on their terms. It
you think! gives examples of how real
Best, customers have reinvented
Leslie Reiser themselves by creating real-time
visibility into their businesses.
Use it as a building block for your
own thoughts on this important
area.

2. Tweeting Thought
Leadership
Here's a good way to use Twitter to promote
content assets: Pull out interesting data points
and tweet them individually.
For example, this IBM/Frost & Sullivan white
paper on new approaches to CRM talks about
how mobility is changing customer behavior.
While that topic may not generate a lot of
excitement on Twitter, some of the statistics Mobile Apps Grab
contained within the white paper are fascinating.
For example, here are some factoids that can Customers When
be posted on Twitter to promote the white
paper: They're Away from
the Desktop
· 12% of the US population refers to Mobile computing is growing by
social media before making a purchase. leaps and bounds, and mobile
#IBMCRM http://ibm.co/MsrPOf apps are one of the best ways to
· Up to 85% of data is unstructured. How capture the attention of
do you try to capture it? #IBMCRM customers when they're out of the
http://ibm.co/MsrPOf office. IBM has two apps that
· On average, 23% of an organization's demonstrate the company's
data is inaccurate, incomplete or out of thought leadership and
date. #IBMCRM http://ibm.co/MsrPOf technology innovation in areas
that are top-of-mind for
The secret of Twitter is to arouse people's technology professionals.
interest. Factoids are an excellent way to do
that. The IBM THINK app for kids,
innovators and forward thinkers
captures the best of the 2011
NYC THINK exhibit, where
visitors were immersed in a film
and interactive experience across
40 oversized digital screens that
displayed how technology can
improve our daily lives. The app
provides an illustrated timeline
documenting our quest to
measure the world and shows
how maps help us to explore new
ways to organize information.
Available for both iPad and
Android platforms, it's a free
download that stimulates the
imagination while reinforcing
IBM's creativity. Learn more here.
Making the Case for The IBM Cloud for Midsize
Businesses iPad app is full of
case studies, videos, white

3. papers and other resources
about cloud solutions for midsize
Managed Services companies. It includes
Andy Monshaw has a bylined article on comprehensive content from
Huffington Post that could provide some good third-party analysts, IBM, our
fodder for your own customer outreach. Andy Business Partners and other
makes the case that small retailers today can experts. Learn more here.
get an advantage over their larger competitors
by anticipating what customers need before You can use these apps in your
they specifically ask. "All small retailers have to own social channels by building
do is take a step back, look around and gain a content around ideas presented
little analytic insight to see the next big trend in them and by tweeting details
around the corner that will attract the individual that are relevant to your
consumer," he writes. audience. Promote these apps to
One way to do this is through the use of your customers as part of your
managed service providers, which can deliver own content marketing efforts.
the best technology quickly via the cloud. If
cloud services are part of your growth plan, then
link to this article and embed the accompanying
video to build on Andy's proposition.
Featured Alum:
Tip of the
Wirehead Technology
We like to keep an eye on what our Boot Camp Week: Curate
alumni have been doing to build social capital,
and we've been particularly impressed by the Factoids
work of Wirehead Technology.
There's no shortage of
Wirehead is a small, Chicago-based IT service remarkable information
provider that specializes in the mobility, about the growth of social
healthcare, retail, real estate and education media, and the folks at
markets. It doesn't have a big staff or budget, Wikibon have done a nice
but you wouldn't know that from its big social job of assembling some of
footprint. the more notable statistics
into this aggregation of
We particularly like the facts. This is a tactic you
Wirehead Mobility Blog, which can use in your own content
is a curated collection of marketing programs.
thematic articles drawn
mostly from other sources on When you come across
the Web. Wirehead CIO statistics that validate the
Howard Lee (left) updates the importance of your
blog at least three times a week, with Monday's marketing services,
post devoted to mobile and social media bookmark them and

4. marketing, Wednesday's to wireless industry assemble them into a single
news and Friday's to healthcare, mobile health page. Then tweet individual
and security. statistics and link back to
your master collection. Be
Nearly all of the content is summaries and links sure to include a source link
to articles on other websites. This technique is for each bit of information as
called "curation," and it's one of the most cost- a way of thanking the
efficient ways to generate material for your blog. originator.
Content creators appreciate the link from
Wirehead, and the topic selection helps If you're really ambitious,
establish the company's expertise in target steal a page from Wikibon
markets. Readers appreciate the way the blog and create a big infographic.
keeps them up to date on developments in their People love to share these
industry. visual summaries on
Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit
Howard started the blog about 18 months ago and Digg, and the traffic
and maintains it rigorously. He explained to us they can generate is nothing
that social media drives most new business at short of amazing.
Wirehead."Nearly all of our clients have come in
because they see the blog and get in touch with This collection of 72
us," he said. As a result, Wirehead doesn't have Fascinating Social Media
to do any advertising. "This is all about Marketing Facts and
information, which is more important than Statistics for 2012 is another
advertising," Howard said. example of how you can
It doesn't stop there. You can also find aggregate relevant content
Wirehead on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, to build your own social
Google+ and even Pinterest. And did we capital.
mention its 14 Facebook pages? That's a topic
for another article.