The Top Line

One way or another, that’s what a lot of people that I know are asking. Here are snippets from five conversations I’ve had in the last week—followed by my own observations.

So what’s the big deal?

Tuesday morning, I gave a presentation on Social Media 101 to the Boston Chapter of the Wharton Alumni club. There was a lot of interest and a lot of questions about how members could use social media to increase their revenues.

Although social media adoption rates are still relatively low—more and more companies are jumping in. And, as they do, we may see a dramatic shift in marketing spending patterns.

Today, most B2B companies are just dipping their toes in the social media waters. Some have launched blogs. Others are experimenting with Twitter. Still others are adopting a wait and see attitude.

What if Tom’s of Maine had tried to match Colgate or Crest feature by feature? Would they have ever succeeded? How about Netflix?

Unique product positioning is the key to success

Each of these companies entered markets where there was a dominant player—yet both succeeded. They understood, what many of us often forget, that satisfying the unmet needs of a distinct market segment is far more important than matching the competition feature-by-feature.

Google the title of this article and you’ll find lots of statistics on who reads blogs. That said you may not know anyone who reads blogs. I believe that blogs are worth writing—even if no one reads them right away.

The reason? When readers are ready, the blogs will still be there. And that's the power of on-line content.

Blog statistics track traffic and level of interest

I know this from direct experience. According to the statistics my blog collects, a lot of visitors find my blog posts weeks or even months after I originally publish.

By Barbara Bix -

A lot of the work I do is at the intersection of health care and technology. Yet, I didn’t hear about last Thursday’s conference on Transforming Health Care until a few weeks ago. No else did either.