Ian M Rountree

Copywriter, Project Manager, Digital Marketing

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Absence Explanation and Going Forward

September 26, 2014 by Ian Leave a Comment

I like mountains
I like mountains

Why hello there. It sure has been a while.

The last time I wrote anything substantive here was over two years ago, and while I don’t expect that  most of you have hung on the silence waiting for some grand return, I have had enough questions from friends about “that blog I used to run,” that I feel like I should explain what happened. I won’t bore you with a lot of details, but it should explain a bit about why I’ve been so quiet.

There’s a TL;DR at the end, if you’re impatient.

The amount of free time I had changed.

The last two years have been very turbulent. Between changes in my family situation, living arrangements, falling out with some valuable people – leaving one job, not having a job, working for myself, then (recently) being brought on with a new agency (Hello Websites), there’s been very little time to constructively research my work, keep up on trends, and – overall – develop commentary that I felt would be of value here.

My relationship with social media also changed.

While my experience getting attention, growing a readership, and communicating with movers and shakers was valuable, it’s lost a significant amount of luster. I look back at the frantic pace I tried to keep, between managing twitter, Google+, a Facebook page which never ended up with traction (mostly because I barely cared about it), and so on… And none of it is terribly attractive.

I’ve lost my itch to get noticed as a person, to have a following. Because of this, my work is evolving in a positive way.

What does that have to do with this blog?

I used to feel as though I was making commentary here that was valuable to some people, and with all the many changes in priority the past two years have required, that commentary dropped right off the radar. I would expect this of anyone having a reasonably full life suddenly double in workload. Without expecting it, planning for it, or adjusting to it, the volume of things I needed to do elsewhere was vastly superior to the amount of care I had for keeping up with this blog, and balance my other social media involvement fell by the wayside as well.

My needs have changed, it’s as simple as that.

Does that mean I’m done blogging? Well, clearly I haven’t been – so I don’t think I can comment there. You’ll probably see some posts here and there, but they’re far more likely to focus on personal interest than business.

Does that mean this site will disappear? Not a chance. The archives here have entries more than a decade old, that’s nothing to sneeze at. However, changes will be happening.

Going Forward.

  • This site will be getting an overhaul, far more than just getting the new theme I threw on it today. I expect to put more emphasis on Page content than Blog content.
  • My other social media properties are getting some review. My old Facebook page has come down, and my Twitter account will probably get some attention. Others, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Google+ will get looked at as well.
  • You will be seeing new content here. In line with this site becoming a lot less about “my work” and a lot more about “my self” – there will eventually be a change in direction for posted content.
  • I’m happy to chat about the changes and the past year. Hit me up on Facebook or Twitter, or send me an email – I’m always here.

TL;DR:

If you’re subscribed, connected, following, favoriting, or what-have-you-ing this blog because I used to talk marketing and SEO, chances are the future will disappoint you. There’s a lot of commentary in those areas going around already, and I’ve simply lost interest in adding to the pot. My effort on that side is remaining with my daily work.

If you do feel like sticking around, however, even after this massive chasm of a sabbatical – thank you! I’ll probably start commenting on my field again eventually, but it won’t be the core focus of my personal website.

That’s all I’ve got. How have you been doing this year?

Filed Under: Announcements Tagged With: announcements, blog, list, marketing, news, update, work

The NOW Revolution Book Winner – Ryan Caligiuri!

March 2, 2011 by Ian Leave a Comment

Ryan Caligiuri, a fellow Winnipeg-based marketer and columnist for the Globe and Mail left an insightful comment on my review of the NOW Revolution regarding social causes and how they attach to social media. Because of that, I chose him to receive my second copy of the book.

Ryan is the new Director of Marketing for Imaginet, a Winnipeg-based application life cycle management firm specializing in Microsoft-enabled web solutions for businesses. I asked him for some insight about how the media and marketing landscape has changed in the last few years – check out the video below for details.

 

Can’t see the video? Watch on YouTube – The NOW Revolution Book Giveaway Winner – Ryan Caligiuri

Update: The Modern Earth Blog has also featured this video, with a bit more background about Ryan and the work he does.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: amber naslund, innovation, jay baer, marketing, now revolution, ryan caligiuri, small world, Winnipeg

Business Book Review – Inbound Marketing

December 3, 2010 by Ian 1 Comment

A blogger, an SEO and a social media expert walk into a bar…

One of the tricks about building a good library is finding books at every level of expertise. For new media workers, this couldn’t be more important – we all have varying degrees of skill in the ten or fifteen areas we need to approach regularly in our jobs because, let’s face it, none of us is “just an SEO” or “just a blogger.” With so many of our skills being relatively new, and so maleable to the moment of their use, we not only need books that address multiple levels of skill across a variety of disciplines, we also need material that’s at once precise in its detail, and timeless in its theory.

Inbound Marketing: Get Found using Google, Social Media and Blogs is exactly the right mix of these attributes.

The book focuses on the wide-funnel approach new media tools are allowing businesses to use to grow. The premise, that many businesses now have the ability to grow simply by making themselves available on the web, is a big deal these days – and it’s working for a lot of people. Using new media tools, companies like Zappos and foundations like Wikipedia (both featured in the book) have done amazing things; in addition to building business or awareness, they’ve participated in a fundamental cultural shift. The Pitch, as it was even five years ago, is no longer the only way to get customers. The secret is now (as it always has been, but for different reasons) to Be Remarkable.

Each chapter in the book tackles a range of subjects from simple definitions of blogging, social media, and inbound marketing theory – all the way up the chain of specificity to customer conversion on blogs, landing page best practices, and picking PR agencies. The format really appealed to me – definition, reasons behind the benefits of whichever subject was being looked at, followed by a case study highlighting a great example of people doing it right. This practicality worked quite well, lending a sense of education, and the feeling of action-ability to each subject.

For example, here are the sub-headings in the chapter on blogging, one of the longest in the book:

  • Getting Your Blog Started Right
  • Authoring Effective Articles
  • Help Google Help You
  • Making Your Articles Infectious
  • give Your Articles a Push
  • Starting Conversations with Comments
  • Why Blogs Sometimes Fail
  • The Gift That Keeps On Giving
  • Consuming Content with RSS
  • Subscribe to Relevant Industry Blogs
  • Contribute to the Conversation
  • Tracking Your Progress
  • Inbound in Action: Whole Foods

In fifteen pages, Halligan and Shah take the reader through the entire cycle of effective blogging – from design needs to article development. It’s an impressive feat, especially since the information is approached from a universal best-practices direction.

And that’s just blogging – there’s so much more in this book.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media marketing, what skills to hire for when searching for marketing professionals, choosing and measuring PR agencies… The range of subjects isn’t just fit for a marketing professional, much of this information could be used by anyone doing online work – and should be! Web designers could benefit from understanding how marketers use conversion tools and metrics. Programmers who understand the needs of bloggers could help develop better systems.

The list goes on.

Inbound Marketing is an interesting read. The presentation is highly textbook-like in its instructional tone, but Halligan and Shah have a dynamic writing style that keeps interest for longer than any instructional text I’ve ever read. The subject matter at once applies to beginners looking for an understanding of basic online marketing theory – and provides insights for intermediate marketers as well. Experienced web professionals may find themselves a little under-informed by this book – but I’d still heavily recommend it as a reference, especially when looking to communicate at a more introductory level.

In short; Inbound Marketing belongs on the reference shelf of every online professional, because of its no-nonsense approach to very complicated subjects. The broadness of its information means the book itself will remain relevant for some time.

I say; buy it if you haven’t already. Get Inbound Marketing: Get Found using Google, Social Media and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah from Amazon.

Small Update: This book has been revised and updated as of 2014 – but I haven’t read the new version yet, so I can’t endorse it in detail. I’ll probably read it eventually, and a link to any future book review I do of that edition will go here when and if it is written.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: blogs, book review, books, marketing, resources, reviews, social media, thumbs up

What is Marketing in 2010? (or) How Meta Can You Get-a?

January 30, 2010 by Ian 5 Comments

I’m still trying to figure this out. I don’t have a marketing background, a technology background, or even a business background. I have a sales background – I’ve been dealing with people, confronting their hangups and counselling them through difficult decisions for most of my life. Solving problems for people is a part of my make-up, a core piece of who I am. When people ask what I do at work, it’s difficult for me to admit I fall into the category of a retailer, or even a salesperson. Retailing and sales are related to marketing, certainly, but it’s more of a kissing cousins relationship than a fraternal twins relationship. The perception, however, is the same of all three; high pressure pitches, manufacturing concept whenever we’re not begging for coerced permission.

That’s not my process. I’m a facilitator. I build a bank of information, contacts and products and then I get people what they need.

So when I see companies purporting to do the same thing I do (whether in the same space or not), but failing terribly at communicating this, I get a bit frustrated. We all get a little freakedout by businesses behaving badly, even people pretending to be businesses, and its worse when I see it locally. Part of this, I’m aware, comes form my lack of understanding of the space – sales is as different from retailing as it is from marketing, after all, and with so many self-declaring experts around, it’s growing increasingly hard to tell who’s legitimate and who’s not.

Is it positioning, or is it posturing?

The first important question to ask if you’re trying to figure out anything about how someone’s acting is whether they’ve got something real backing them or not. Snake oil salesmen talk a certain way, dyed in the wool producers speak an entirely different language. Part of my job as a facilitator is to learn to speak every language there is, and communicate my bank of options to whomever I speak with in a way that matches their understanding and perspective. Still, it gets really easy to tell when someone wants a massive television because they think it’s going to be some kind of social proof for them, or when another person wants the same television because they sit ten feet back and have poor eye sight.

What does this have to do with marketing?

As I understand it, marketing is sales on a macro level. For decades, it’s been a disconnected medium, broadcast and wait. Over the last few years, the gap between people and their brands has been shrinking at an increasing pace, and the process is leaving a lot of brands frightened, stiffening like deer in the headlights of an oncoming locomotive. People are getting bigger than their own skins, and brands are getting smaller as their mass media efforts take more and more of a back seat roll in the sales and business growth cycle. Will these channels ever disappear? Not likely. But we’re certainly seeing other avenues become far more measurable, effective, and ubiquitous. Why? Because everyone’s participating. People are more interested when they can serve themselves.

Remaining Meta Together.

There’s a power to celebrity that’s universally enticing. We all like to escape, to believe we’re kings and queens. And when we all have the ability to move so far beyond facilities served by others – Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and so on – and build our own platforms, our own brands, and do our own marketing… Well, that’s even more exciting than following celebrity, it’s becoming celebrity. Creating these self-legitimizing personal platforms creates a kind of power for us we could never have had before, and it’s one that corporations aren’t yet equipped to process.

Because they can’t process it, the ball is in the court of anyone who can build that personal brand, and get just savvy enough to fake importance without looking too much like they’re posturing. It’s mostly a bluff. But it’s creating a brilliant, and very different skill set for those willing to explore the space with real curiosity, genuine interest, and an eye toward how the new world of ubiquitous, instant, and most interestingly thorough information exchange.

The place of passion in the land of liars.

As part of a promotion for The Art of Marketing, Mitch Joel ran a contest on his blog, asking for people to define marketing in 2010. Naturally, I tried to weigh in – but on further inspection, I think my answer was a little lacking. It felt like posturing, more than positioning. Mitch was asking about passion, drive, and innovation. Listening in on new channels, and deciphering their value is nothing new. There’s no innovation there. Is it necessary? Yes, absolutely. But it’s also done. Listening at the point of need is an integral part of what any business should be doing. Defining and recognizing new channels is nothing more than adding new sets of ears.

What is Marketing in 2010?

The short answer? I have no idea. So far, it doesn’t seem much different than marketing in 2009. Or sales in 2009, or 2008. What’s different isn’t part of what I’m doing yet. It’s nothing I can, in my daily work, do differently to increase my utility to others, their utility to each other, or my ability to grow the business I’m involved in.

The long answer? A lot more complicated. Whatever marketing in 2010 is, I’d love to find out. Because with all this attention and excitement going into it, I’m sure curious.

Wouldn’t you be?

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: art of marketing, be a facilitator, embarassingly meta, liars, market-forces, marketing, marketing in 2010, mitch joel, passion, retail, sales

A Note on Leadership for Bloggers

November 28, 2009 by Ian Leave a Comment

photo by pedrosimoes7
photo by pedrosimoes7

If you’re paying attention at all these days, decentralisation is everywhere. Crowdsourcing, microbrands, personal branding – The Cult of Me is in full swing, and it’s leaving a lot of people really puzzled as to how they can either not fall behind, or avoid the trend all together. Here’s a hint: you can’t avoid it. But you can weather it and come out on top. Especially if you treat it with respect.

Some background. Twitter. You’ve heard of it, right? If ever there was an example of perfect Cult of Me behaviour, this is it. You get on, you follow people, they reciprocate, and soon hundreds of thousands of people are on your list of followers. It’s a daunting task, imagining that thirty thousand, a hundred thousand, a quarter million (ok, a stretch), even a million (@stephenfry) people might just be hanging on your every tweet – it’s a weight and a responsibility. Or is it?

Most online community has very little reliable hierarchy. In many cases, the people setting up the systems sit back and let others participate. They can be called upon in extremis for moderation, yes, but never for motivation. Reliable hierarchy has been the driving thrust of progress for a long time – and it’s useful, the way having the sharp end on front of the spear when you throw it. What the trend of decentralisation does is seemingly remove the shaft and turn everyone into individual spearheads going for their own targets, with no weight behind them. When you’re trying to hit a broad target, grapeshot works wonderfully, if the target’s soft.

But where’s the hierarchy? That’s the wrong question to ask, isn’t it? The question I’d like you to ask is not where has the hierarchy gone – there are still leaders, and just about everyone has followers.

You’re a leader. Face it. Own up to it. Even if you lead your friends to coffee once a month, you’re leading, especially if you have any presence on the web. What are you doing with that leadership potential?

The questions I want you to ask are, firstly, when you send out your followers to get their followers and aim at a target, what would the action look like? Are you at the head of the spear, with everyone you have access to helping to create momentum for you to move forward and pierce to the heart of your goal? Or were you playing catapult and sending out thousands of tiny pieces of ammo in an effort to spread your effectiveness over a wider area? And, secondly, how much effort did you put into deciding which method to use, if any at all? How much energy did you devote to making sure the approach you used was the most appropriate for the situation?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: boneheaded-businesses, marketing

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