Ouch. I am at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston and the panel on content management systems (CMS) got lynched by the audience via the #ims11 twitter stream. Comments included “the panel is boring”,  “If the Tweet stream was like the Gong Show, we’d be on to the next session by now.” and “the cms panel killing themselves on stage.” They missed the mark with a fuzzy, technology-centric discussion.

In their defense the CMS panel followed a couple of great keynote presentations but I can’t help but wonder what they could have done differently. I am on a panel this afternoon at 3:15pm so the thinking is more than theoretical!

#1 Pay Attention

You don’t need fancy semantic analysis tools to realize the audience was letting out a collective yawn. Unfortunately, none of the panelists were checking the twitter stream so they couldn’t adjust their message. I don’t care if it looks a bit silly, but I’ll be taking my laptop up on stage this afternoon.

The same should apply to your business. It is NOT that hard to keep an eye on some critical keywords on Twitter, Google Plus, etc. A critical comment here or there is no big deal, but a torrent of them probably means you are doing something wrong.

#2 Know Your Audience

The attendees at IMS11 appear to be primarily marketers, not technologists. Most of them are using low end CMS such as WordPress and Drupal. They aren’t familiar with why a company would implement an expensive CMS let alone why one system is better than the next guy’s. Marketers love words like ‘brand’, ‘impact’, ‘differentiation’, ‘reach’, ‘audience’… they don’t love words like ‘personalization’, ‘services’, or ‘scalability’.

Ironically, the CMS panelists talked a lot about using tools to know your audience. What they missed was a very simple look around the room. The most important question they were failing to answer was, “What Is In It For Me?” for 90%+ of the audience.

#3 Remember Why You Are in Business

Congratulations, you have a job at a CMS company because you understand web technology. And, congratulations, you are on stage because you are slightly less scary and generally more passionate than the other technologists in your company. But DON’T make the mistake of directing your passion to your own product.

Passion should be directed towards what your customers are passionate about. In this case, the audience cares about creative, inspirational marketing! Awesome content! More leads! Remind them why THEY get up in the morning, not why you do.

Wish me luck this afternoon.

I am currently in the final few days before running my first ever marathon, the San Francisco Marathon on July 31st. Here are some content marketing tips I have learned by being ‘engaged’ in this great event.

#1 Be Clear

The San Francisco Marathon site’s design is nice and clean. Big visual banners call the site visitor to action and a lot of thought has gone into the site architecture.A surprising amount of information has to be communicated for a marathon. For runners, they might be asking how hilly the course is, how they should taper training in the week before the run or what they should be eating the night before? Spectators might be asking where to stay or what are some of the lead up events? Volunteers could want to know how to get involved and friends might want to donate to a charity.Whilst violating a few rules (the “Race” menu has 26 choices), the overall visual design and layout is very effective.

#2 Stay in Touch

Everyone is busy. Despite best intentions and the lingering fear of running 26.2 miles, people don’t pay attention as much as they should. For me, the San Francisco Marathon’s Facebook page has been invaluable for keeping me in the loop. A couple of updates a week has accelerated to 1-2 a day as we near race day.

Their Facebook fan page gets prominent billing on their home page, inviting you to “Like” them. There are 25,000 runners in the marathon, and they have over 13,000 “likes” on Facebook. Not bad!

But not everyone is on Facebook or necessarily paying attention to it. So they have also effectively used selective email newsletters, with emails sent 1-2 times per week. Their Twitter feed is also no doubt helpful if you don’t follow quite as many people as I do.

#3 Fill Your Events

Events are still the most meaningful way to build a relationship with your audience. A typical Facebook update from the marathon read:

 “Don’t forget to join us for the Eat for a Cause: tacos for San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center event tonight at tacolicious! 6:30pm-11pm!”

Getting people out of their routines and to something new is always hard, but worth it. Get your events noticed and get as many of your audience as you can to them.

#4 Promote Your News Coverage

The public relations team for SF Marathon are out there getting the good word out. When they succeed, it is worth highlighting the stories far and wide. An example is a phenomenal story in the San Francisco Chronicle of a war widow who intends to run the marathon twice (52.4 miles!) in honor of her fallen husband. This was posted onto their Facebook page where I picked it up, and no doubt many more did as well.

#5 Guest Writers Build Credibility

Guest bloggers with personal stories build credibility. Their expertise matters less than their personal stories and connection to the topic at hand. Whether it is Libby Jones writing about violating the taper in her lead up or Bridget Batson’s recipe for carrot zucchini muffins, this authentic and personal writing is better than any canned copy.

#6 Mix Up Your Content Types

People learn in different ways – some are visual, some are auditory and some prefer to read. If your goal is to educate and inform your audience, then you need to deliver content in multiple formats.

Certain topics also lend themselves to different content types. I found the videos of the course mapexceptionally helpful. And don’t underestimate the printed word: the Runners’ Guide  PDF provided a lot of useful information in a ready-to-print format.

#7 Run Competitions to Generate Content

A recent Facebook update from the SF Marathon said “Let’s kick off race week with a contest! First 5 people to post pictures of their PACKED bags for traveling to San Francisco this weekend win a sweatband! Make sure to tag us in your post. Better pack fast!”

What better way to generate some activity than invite your audience to submit relevant photos for a competition?

I stumbled upon the web site for Oregon health insurance company Regence and I was immediately impressed by its clean almost Web 2.0 design. Remember this is a big, boring corporate collecting over $8 billion in premiums per year. Then I noticed their section ‘The Buzz’ and I was even more impressed.

Regence have done an outstanding job with a very plain English description of the challenges facing the health care industry in the United States and what we can all do about it include:

1. Treat your doctor like a partner
2. Double your motivation (to improve your own health)
3. Make wellness a daily to-do
4. Know your health risks
5. Safeguard your good health
6. Watch your wallet

Their solutions are clearly only part of the answer as healthcare in the US is a hornet’s nest of problems. Nevertheless, it is refreshing to see a ‘big corporate’ use such simple, authentic communication.

Today the news is aghast that consumer prices are up 5.6 percent. This is bad news clearly. But the news yesterday was a sense of relief that healthcare costs are up only 10.6 percent.

If a 5.6 percent increase in the CPI is viewed as shocking and 10.6 percent increase in healthcare is viewed as a relief there has to be something wrong with healthcare costs in the US!