Stephen Foskett, self-styled ‘Pack Rat‘, is an interesting example of a niche marketing consultant putting social media and video to work.

I’m following him on twitter, @sfoskett, and learned there of his recent video session on, “What is an Ethernet Fabric?”

Intrigued by the title, I started to watch and discovered how powerful the use of video can be to help build trust and authority in a target market. In Stephen’s case this is the ‘storage space.’

Even if you don’t have time to view all 51 minutes, just the first ten alone will give you the gist of effective ‘educational marketing’ in the b2b tech world.

What is an Ethernet Fabric? from Stephen Foskett on Vimeo.

If you check out Stephen’s site and see how he’s positioning himself as an independent and trusted storage marketing consultant ( my words), then the videos clearly add to that message.

But notice also the contribution from Brocade’s marketing manager, the aptly named Mr. Chip Copper. He illustrates his broad networking experience through a series of ‘war stories’ that help set ethernet in context, while discreetly highlighting Brocade’s offerings in the SAN space.

For any product marketing managers watching this, what did you think of Chip’s performance in the video?
Is he adding value to the topic under discussion?

I happen to think he is, and will add his content marketing contributions to my ‘Storage’ watch list.

Here’s a slideshare.net presentation worth checking out if you’re a technology marketing professional based in the Asia-Pacific region.

Andrea Edwards, the Managing Director of Singapore-registered digital communications agency, SAJE, has put together a strategy and a team to address many of the major content marketing needs of businesses in Asia.

(Disclosure: I’m hono(u)red to be a part of her team. Thanks to Twitter for bring her business to my attention!)

Some slides I find particularly interesting are:

Slide 7: The traditional 7-part Sales cycle and how b2b marketers are scrambling to meet the prospect’s requirements and expectations.

Slides 11-12: What’s changed from the ‘good ole days’ of push marketing and how to position your business in an online era, where marketers are having to change from a reactive to a responsive (almost anticipative) mindset.

Slides 13-19: Introduces ‘The Writers Shop’ and explains what the team can deliver in terms of content and writing experience.

The remaining slides introduce team members, shows some brand name testimonials and describe what SAJE, the company, is about.

Partnerships can be a great way to leverage the abilities and experience of individuals for the mutual benefit of all concerned. That’s certainly my intention in getting involved with ‘The Writers Shop.

Of course, I will continue to also run my freelance writer business here at samuraiwriter.com.

If you have content marketing needs in the IT Networking space, please feel free to contact me.

- Mark McClure

This could be fictional. Then again…

It took months to get ideal customers in a target market to sign up for a customer referral program, but at long last the project began to make measurable progress.

Writers were hired, customer interviews completed and the arduous job of review and sign off among multiple parties was finished in record time.

Everyone from the CEO to the Marketing Interns was excited that real customers were telling their stories, and with your products as center stage. Here are big dollops of credibility and social proof that no amount of data sheets and brochures could ever amount to.

Now fast forward a couple of weeks…

… and imagine your prospects’ surprise, (or more likely, shock and disappointment), when they’re confronted with six mandatory registration fields on your case study landing page.

Are they going to willingly give up so many contact details just to get a look at these stories?

You see, while it may make sense to build a contactable list of prospects, there’s a time and a place to do so. People looking for IT customer success stories to validate and compare ‘your’ claims against similar stories from your competitors, may not take kindly to the psychological resistance you’ve just created with the glitzy sign up form.

Both you and they know that in return for opening themselves up to your sales machinery, some information will come their way.

And that sooner or later, the Sales calls will begin.

The question is: shouldn’t your best success stories be freely shared and made accessible to anyone who wants to read them? And without any obligation to become part of a vendor’s prospect database?

Just a few years ago that approach (of giving away info in return for nothing… but goodwill) might have seemed like a ridiculous waste of time and money. But in an online world where b2b prospects, customers, and vendors are able to communicate, share and (yes!) critique 24 x 7, the marketing rules are being rewritten.

Perhaps you should freely give your customer success stories away online but include within them an invitation to stay in touch via Twitter, FaceBook, your Blog, email … and see what happens?

The days of making prospects jump through hoops to discover why others do business with you may be numbered…

Mark McClure: Freelance IT Case Study Writer, Asia-Pacific

PS – This post was originally published on technologymarketers.com but is included here because of a change in business plans by the fine folks at technologymarketers. I very much enjoyed working with them and hope our paths cross again. Mark McClure