At the end of our Social Media Quote Week, we felt we needed one that summed it all up. But mostly we have to keep it real! “Social media is about the people. Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you.” – Matt Goulart

While we like to goof around on here, never forget that these quotes are adding valuable insight and advice into any marketing strategy that involves social media. Case in point: “If you get bored with social media, it’s because you are trying to get more value than you create.” – Fast Company

We're just getting started, y'all! “Successful companies in social media function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners than as traditional advertisers.” - Erik Qualman

Once again back is the incredible ... "Social media are tools. Real time is a mindset.” – David Meerman Scott “Social media is a contact sport.” - Margaret Molloy

Merry Christmas! And Happy Festivus to the Rest of You!

Oh, em, GEEEEE! Quotes Week was so damn popular we absolutely had to bring it back peeps! Check it! This week we're doing social media quotes!  “Build it, and they will come” only works in the movies. Social Media is a “build it, nurture it, engage them and they may come and stay.” – Seth Godin

And now we come to the payoff! Begin with the end in mind If you’ve read Stephen Covey’s long-time best-selling book,  The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People , you’ll recognize this one as the second habit: Begin with the End in Mind. In Covey’s words: It focuses on what you want to be and do. It is your plan for success. It reaffirms who you are, puts your goals in focus, and moves your ideas into the real world. If you don’t know what you want to be, in terms of your content marketing, when you grow up, how will you know if you are on the right path? Things to do: Create your content marketing mission statement. Set a subscriber goal for your content. Decide what you ultimately want subscribers to do. Answer the question, “ How Will We Know We Are Succeeding? “ Do you have a major issue that is driving your success, or stopping you from succeeding?  Please let me know in the comments below.

We're closing in on the end of the tips. But this one's a killer! Kill a channel Here’s a publishing truth: It’s likely that with each new channel you add to your content marketing plan, the other channels you are already using will take a small hit in quality and focus. I’ve seen this time and again as concentration goes wider and relevance gets broader. I’d like to challenge you to kill a channel (or two) and put a renewed focus on the channels that are most worthy of your time and attention. Be amazing: Be great at distributing content through three channels; use another three to heavily promote that content; and forget the rest… at least for a while. Then check the results.  

The tips just keep on coming! Follow the “3-legged-stool” model Almost every successful media company in the world leverages the “3-Legged-Stool” model: creating content for digital,  print, and in-person . I believe that if your brand doesn’t leverage all three channels in a meaningful way, you cannot truly be an industry-leading informational source. Beyond that, there is a huge opportunity in leveraging print channels, specifically. Just think of it like the value of a trade show where all your customers are in attendance, but none of your competition showed up. That’s the value print content marketing currently represents. I smell opportunity.  

Continuing the mad tips!  Go 6 months without mentioning your product There's a study that compared CMI’s informational/educational posts to posts that mentioned their products and/or services. The posts that talked about the brand received about 25 percent of the total unique visitors that a regular, educational post did. At the same time, those branding posts received virtually no additional subscribers on sales-related posts, while regular posts brought in between 35 and 75 subscribers. The point is this: The more you talk about yourself, the more you’ll negatively impact your content marketing efforts. Keep the offers outside the content, and watch your program flourish.  

After last week's Quote Week, we're moving onto Tips Week! And our focus is Content Marketing! Take “best of breed” seriously Ninety-nine percent of companies don’t do this. There are at least six principles that are essential to epic content marketing. The sixth, and perhaps most important, is setting a goal/mission to be the “best of breed” informational provider for your industry niche — i.e., to truly be the leading informational resource for your industry. This is critical to making content marketing work for you. If your content marketing isn’t eagerly anticipated and truly necessary, at some point, your audience will see through the façade and ignore you. Ask yourself this:  If your content marketing disappeared from the planet, would anyone miss it? If no one would miss your information, you’ve got work to do. Start by setting your goal, then set up the processes and invest in the people you need to reach that goal.  

And finally, the last of our Marketing Focused Quotes for Quote Week: 1. “Today it's important to be present, be relevant and add value." – Nick Besbeas 2. "Great Execution is the Ultimate Differentiator." - Margaret Molloy 3. “The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing.”  - Tom Fishburne 4. "Know thyself. Know the customer. Innovate." – Beth Comstock 5. "Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction." – Tony Zambito 6. “If you are an artist, learn science. If you are a scientist, cultivate art.” – Karin Timpone 7. “We’re all learning here; the best listeners will end up the smartest.” - Josh Bernoff

To keep the inspiration bubbling, true believers! 1. “The consumer is not a moron; she is your wife.” – David Ogilvy 2. “Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.” – Joe Chernov 3. “Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go.” – Seth Godin 4. “Make your marketing so useful people would pay you for it.” – Jay Baer 5. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” – Simon Sinek

More tips, more tips, more tips! Forget real-time marketing Some of the real-time marketing examples surrounding the tragic death of Robin Williams will make you sick to your stomach. Brands and publishers alike are tripping over themselves to leverage breaking news for business gain. The  only  situation in which you should be considering real-time marketing is if your content marketing strategy is near perfect. Only then will you be well prepared enough to tackle the risks of real-time (and reap the potential rewards). Focus on consistent, valuable information… become the expert… get the process in place… be patient.  

Continuing our Quote Week extravaganza, we have quotes about Marketing: 1. “Whether B2B or B2C, I believe passionately that good marketing essentials are the same. We all are emotional beings looking for relevance, context and connection.” – Beth Comstock 2. “Good marketers see consumers as complete human beings with all the dimensions real people have.” – Jonah Sachs 3. “Our jobs as marketers are to understand how the customer wants to buy and help them do so.” – Bryan Eisenberg 4. “Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.” - Mike Volpe 5. "If you're a good marketing person, you have to be a little crazy." – Jim Metcalf

It's Quote Week at Web Market Central! And we're kicking off our week of inspirational quotes with some of the best on creativity: Quotes on Creativity 1. “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein 2. “To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.” – George Kneller 3. “Creativity about life, in all aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” – Leo Burnett 4. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker 5. “An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” – Edwin Land