Just returned from my annual “unplugged” vacation where I don’t check my email or phone for at least seven or more days.

Not having to check email for 10+ days is quite liberating, to be honest. I was talking with a friend once about how addicted we’ve all become to email. He said, “I brush my teeth, check email. Eat breakfast, check email. Do some work, check email.”

I realized over vacation that all this email checking means you don’t have time to do lots of other things. In fact, I made a list of all the things I used to do before the advent of email and computers. The result? Scary.

While on vacation, I took naps, read books, went kayaking with my son on the Charles River, toured the Adams Family home in Quincy, and outfitted my son for the upcoming school year. We also indulged in our secret pleasure: watching all the episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

In short, it was a fabulous and relaxing vacation — and now I’m ready to get back to work — but maybe not check email 20 hundred times a day.

How long have you gone without checking email? And, how did you overcome the initial anxiety?

One of the things I pay quite a bit of attention to — but don’t write about much — is how my eleven-year old son is marketed to by companies and how he interacts with technology.

I find both very interesting. In fact, as I write this he’s sitting in the living room with iPod buds in his ears and playing a game on his Wii. Every so often his phone trills with another text from a friend.

B2B marketers and gurus (I’m one) spend a great deal of time debating how to reach prospects and buyers:

How we market to people within corporations is changing due to social media, blogs, and technology like iPods and smart phones.

Many things still remain the same with marketing, however: companies still push out brochures, exhibit at tradeshows and fly salespeople around the world in order to meet with clients.

But, as I watch my son, I can see that *big* change is coming — simply because of how he’s being programmed to communicate with his peers.

One his favorite shows, for example, is iCarly (it’s actually one of my favorites, too). The premise is pretty basic: three kids in middle school start a Web show that becomes instantly famous.

But what I love about it is that real kids (TV viewers) from all over the U.S. can send in their own videos, some of which make it to the iCarly Website or even the TV show. (Be sure to take a look at the site — it is awesome!)

So, in addition to talking to his friends via Webcam and Skype, text messages, and even the Nintendo DS (who knew they could actually *talk* to each other through the thing?!), my son is now begging me to make a video that he can upload to YouTube. (The answer? NO.)

What also fascinates me is that he is *constantly* coming up with ideas for new businesses. Whereas when we were kids we had pet sitting businesses or we babysat, kids today have so much technology at their disposal, they can create anything at the drop of a hat — and be quite successful at it.

When these kids grow up, they won’t want to work at a company that can’t deal with technology in all of its *social* implications.

No, they will be so technology savvy they’ll either start their own companies or will only work for  those companies who “get” it — and I don’t mean lava lamps and bean bag chairs.

Which means that as marketers, we need to know more than how to navigate our way around Facebook or blogs.

What it really means is that we need to understand that marketing — at least for kids — has become seamless.

My son sees no delineation between technology, media, and advertising — they are all one and the same. And the fact that his Nintendo DS lets him talk to his friend without having to use a telephone is a fact of life — not a marvel.

Do you agree or disagree?

Five B2B MarCom Strategies to Increase Sales Now – You can download this e-book now. No registration required!

YouTube. Twitter. Blogs. Podcasts. White Papers. Search. Direct Mail. Trade shows. Webinars. Networking. TV commercials. Prints ads. LinkedIn. Facebook. Digg.

Some days I want to scream, “STOP!”

To say that marketing today is fractured and fragmented is a total understatement.

Where are people (our customers and prospects) congregating? How do we reach them? What works? What doesn’t?

Does it make sense to run ads in trade publications? No wait, maybe we should dump all our money into search. But wait, some gurus are still advocating direct mail and white papers.

What’s a marketing professional to do?

My new e-book, Five B2B MarCom Strategies to Increase Sales Now, won’t help you decide the best channel for disseminating your messages.

But, it will help you with strategy. That’s because no matter what the communication channel, the strategies for developing messages and campaigns that resonate with buyers and customers have remained the same:

1. Understand your target market

2. Determine your campaign objectives before you start writing

3. Integrate online and offline tactics

4. Build your Website around what Buyers and Prospects want

5. Focus on your Customer, not on your company

These strategies aren’t rocket science but in today’s fragmented marketing world, they’re often forgotten in the rush to get a campaign out the door.

You can download this e-book without having to register, provide your name, nada, nothing.

I hope you enjoy it. I enjoyed putting it together!

Should business-to-business (B2B) companies offer content for “free”? By “free,” I mean offering things such as e-books, white papers, and reports without requiring people (aka “buyers”) to register for the content?

This has been a hot topic under discussion at Bob Bly’s blog. In a July 22, 2008 post, Bly states,

I advise my readers to require the user to submit his e-mail address . . . and opt into my e-list . . . in exchange for getting my free viral e-books like my latest on selling to the “GOM” market — men age 50 and older.

In this post, Bly is refuting David Meerman Scott’s advice to “make content totally free with no registration requirement at all so that people are more likely to download it and share with colleagues.”

In the B2B world, very little content is “free.” If you want a white paper or a special report, you have to hand over your contact info — and often the info requested is way more than is justified for a white paper or report.

Asking for this information suppresses response — or if people do fill in the registration form, they’ll use bogus information such as “Donald Duck,” or “Mickey Mouse.”

(I know this because I once put a “free” report behind a registration page. The results were less than stellar.)

One of my clients, a global manufacturing company, recently benefited from opening up their online content.

Previous to 2007, customers who wanted to download an MSDS (material safety data sheet) had to register for the corporate site. The registration process included filling out a long form.

According to the e-business manager, people complained about this — but it was corporate policy.

The policy was changed early last year — allowing anyone to download an MSDS without first registering.

The result? Web traffic SOARED — from 40,000 visits to 80,000 in just a few months, with over 61,000 downloads of the hot, hot, hot MSDS documents.

The e-business team expects the number of downloads to double for 2008.

Removing the registration barrier had an unexpected side benefit — it cut down on customer support emails to the business unit. Said one manager, “We went from 5 - 6 emails a day for these things to none.”

Apparently, keeping information “protected” behind registration barriers is common in my client’s industry.

It was pointed out that my client’s competitors lock up product literature — including brochures and data sheets — as well.

Imagine — keeping brochures, datasheets and the like from buyers interested in your products. I can only shake my head.

What do you think? Should B2B companies keep content behind barriers? Should they offer content for free? Or do a little a both?

Last week Cuil, the new search engine that’s supposed to give Google a run for its money, launched.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to test it — but knew in a matter of a few hours that it wasn’t doing well in the blogosphere since Dan Lyons‘ (aka Fake Steve Jobs) commentators never seem to miss a beat about what’s going down.

Today, Julie Batten of the Click Z Network, wrote a terrific article about “Why the End is No Where in Sight for Google.” I agree with everything she said, especially the fact that Google is so entrenched in our daily lives that we don’t “search” online for something, we Google it.

(I find it a sad fact of life that neither I nor my son can live without Google. He spent most of Sunday evening downloading info about Weird Al Yankovic and listening to his parodies such as “White and Nerdy” and “eBay” on YouTube.)

So, I finally had a few minutes today to mosey on over to Cuil and give it a brief test run.

Typed in my name — Dianna Huff — and got lots of old stuff. The link to my Website (DH Communications) is the third listing across the top. The listing for this blog, which is #1 at Google, didn’t appear in the first page results.

So I typed in “dh communications.” My site is listed in the top row, middle position, but why is there a link to “austin cc” in my listing? I don’t get it.

I like my listing in Google better.

Hopefully Cuil will improve with time. In the meantime, I’ll stick with Google.

One complaint I often hear from small B2B companies or consultants who call is that their Websites generate few, if any inquiries.

Getting people to inquire about your services is a two-step process.

STEP #1: Get People to Your Website.

Prospective clients can’t call you if they don’t know you or your Website exists. Therefore, it behooves you to drive traffic to your site using a number of tactics such as:

When it came time for me to sell my beloved 1966 vintage VW Squareback in the early 1990s, I bought a classified ad in the San Francisco Chronicle that read something like this:

1966 VW Squareback — All new engine and transmission. Low mileage. Second owner. Excellent karma. $1,200 or BO.

I vowed that I would know the right person for my car because he or she would understand car karma when he or she called about the car. (I *really* loved this car and could not sell her to just anyone.)

I received lots of calls from people who wanted to know about the “Karmen Ghia” for sale.

I received lots of calls from people who wanted to buy the car for considerably less than $1,000.

One day I received a call from an older gentleman. He started out by saying, “I’m calling about the Squareback with excellent karma.” The clouds opened up and angels started singing. Not really — but you get the idea.

He ended up buying my car later that day.

Such is the way of karma — and what goes around truly comes around.

I’m happy to report that karma also works in business and here’s my chance to pass some karma forward.

In her latest blog post, personal brand expert Lyn Chamberlin writes about how Peter Shankman is now offering a free daily email list, called HARO (Help A Reporter Out), that includes 15 - 30 queries from real reporters.

As Peter states on his landing page, he built the list because

. . .  a lot of my friends are reporters, and they call me all the time for sources. Rather than go through my contact lists each time, I figured I could push the requests out to people who actually have something to say.

If you’re a small business person looking for press or you work with clients who want press, subscribe to his daily listings.

Then, pass the karma forward.

IT Business Edge blogger Ann All asks in a recent post, “Can B2B blogs be businesslike without being boring?”

She cites research from Forrester that states that “53 percent of business-to-business companies say blogging has had marginal significance or is downright irrelevant to their marketing strategies.” Reports All:

Forrester implies the fault may lie with companies themselves, using words like “dull” and “drab” to describe B2B blogs. Among the knocks against B2B blogs noted by Forrester: not enough personality in posts, an irregular posting schedule, and bloggers who just don’t stick with it. Fifty-six percent of such blogs feature mostly press releases or other well-known news, giving folks little incentive to read them.

She also states that she personally doesn’t want to read business blogs that include too much personal information about the blogger such as hobbies, pets, or their personal lives.

However, the one benefit of blogging is that one does have the freedom to be more conversational. I agree that one should not post all of one’s personal life in a business blog; however, when clients call, many will ask how my son is doing or if I enjoyed my vacation.

I think a business  blog can serve the same type of purpose. The personal info is what makes reading blog posts so interesting. For example, Google’s Matt Cutts will often insert personal bits into his blog. Of course, he also posts a ton of quality content, so I don’t mind the pictures of cats.

What do you think? Should B2B blogs be all business and little pleasure?

(PS to Ann All — Your business blog is great — well written and interesting. I also subscribed to it.)

Launched in 2007, the Web Video Marketing Council (WVMC) was established to provide useful information and resources to interactive marketers and communicators about the emerging Web video marketing category.

The WVMC Webiste is full of useful tools and information, including a white paper library.

Even better, it features a library of viral video campaigns. Very cool.

Check it out at www.webvideomarketing.org

Hat tip to Jennifer O’Meara, Marketing Director for the WVMC.

Full disclosure: the WVMC has included my special report, How Workers Access YouTube, in their white paper library.

(And speaking of video, be sure to check out my post at the Search Engine Marketing New England (SEMNE) blog: Help Searchers Find Your YouTube Videos.)

I’ve been using the new Xobni Outlook plug-in for awhile now. It is AWESOME.

Xobni helps you keep better track of your Outlook inbox and makes finding those pesky emails much easier.

When you click on an email from a recipient in Outlook, the Xobni sidebar displays the person’s phone number as well as button for sending an email to the person or scheduling a meeting.

Xobni recently began syncing with LinkedIn. Now the sidebar includes the person’s Title (or whatever the person called him or herself on the LinkedIn profile page) plus a photo!

Check it out — it’s pretty cool!