So the B2B Magazine Top Agency List for 2011 has been released, and for the first time in our storied 12 year history, Canyon Communications has made the list. In fact, we made it in 23^rd place, but seeing as how the list is ordered alphabetically, I’ve been told that being listed 23^rd may not carry as much weight as I had previously thought

But it’s an honor to be included on this illustrious list, which includes a wide variety of our fellow B2B agencies (and some B2C agencies dressed up in B2B clothing). The list celebrates four different categories of B2B agency – large, medium, small and interactive, and while we think of ourselves here at Canyon as large and interactive, by B2B Magazine’s standards we’re not.

But what we are is the only Arizona-based – heck, the only Southwest-based, from Dallas to LA – B2B agency to make the list.

Let’s be clear about one thing – we certainly couldn’t have done this by ourselves. When we here at Canyon get recognized for something like this there’s lots of praise to go around, including for all of the staff at Canyon who work tirelessly day after day strategizing and executing, writing and designing, and everything in between to make sure we keep our eyes on the prize. Many kudos to our team of freelancers and suppliers who help make us great, along with the support team that keeps everything humming along smoothly.

And most importantly, thank you to our clients, big and small. Our commitment to excellence is routed through our collective desire to make things better, to move the needle, to demonstrate ROI both strategically and creatively, and to deliver the world-class B2B results we can all happily hang our hats on.

So bravo to all, and thank you for your continued efforts. Here’s to the 2012 list – if we take my PR advice and rename the agency AAA Communications, we might just hit that top spot.

Okay, so it’s a couple of days late (March 14, 2006) but I’ve never been good with dates (and I was tied up with Pi day, anyway*). So Monday was Twitter’s fifth birthday, and while the day passed relatively quietly online, Twitter released some absolutely astounding stats about their first five years in the social media playground.

Full disclosure – I lifted these stats directly from Twitter via Gizmodo, but I really like how they laid them out…

3 years, 2 months and 1 day: The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet. 

1 week: The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.

50 million: The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.

140 million: The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.

177 million:Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.

456: Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).

6,939: Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day. (I tried to extrapolate that over an entire year of almost 7K TPS, but it made my calculator give me the E sign, something I hadn’t seen since middle school)

572,000: Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.

460,000: Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.

182 percent: Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

Wow. A bit player five years ago (well, four years and 11 months ago) now dominates the new media landscape in a way no one could have possibly conceived of, with Twitter being a go-to resource for information about earthquakes and disaster relief, pump-ups, meltdowns, different kind of meltdowns, all the way through to its original intent – to bring people closer together through the sharing of thoughts, perspectives and opinion, all in 140 characters or less.

So what does Twitter mean for our B2B friends?

Like all social media platforms, Twitter is another way to engage your audiences and stakeholders, a useful conduit to connect you to the people you need to connect to. And its opt-in, opt-out ease forces B2B marketers to be even more astute in their content generation and placement, because it’s as easy to hit unfollow as it was to begin following in the first place.

But can you be strategic in 140 characters?

The way Twitter has set it up, once someone is following you, besides DMing you there’s really only two other things they can do to you – retweet you, and help spread the message, or unfollow. Your content is crucial, as it directly impacts your value to your audience stream. You need fresh, dynamic and engaging content for your core stakeholders (product info, links to case studies and videos, thought leadership perspectives, etc.) to ensure you’re offering your followers the latest and greatest (and to ensure you get more retweets than unfollows), but you cannot rely on Twitter to market for you.

Twitter allows you to be a part of the conversation, but if you try to monopolize it with marketing messages, you’re quickly going to be left behind (or worse, unfollowed). Instead, leverage your Twitter account to engage your stakeholders, making sure you are part of the right conversations, and be aware Twitter is just one part of your integrated marketing, PR and digital strategy. Twitter alone won’t make a sale for you, but as part of your suite of marcomm tools it will help you gain presence in the marketplace.

Ultimately, Twitter is another way to reach the people you need to reach with the information they need to have. Content is still king, but in the kingdom everyone has mobile phones and 140-character attention spans – and while it’s hard for some (okay, me) to accept that the game of content delivery has changed forever, the next step (after denial, of course) is recognizing the “nimbleness” required to adapt your content and strategy, not just to Twitter, for example, but to the next big thing.

So happy birthday Twitter! I can’t wait to see what has replaced you five years from now.

Is content still king in your world? How can Canyon’s digital guru help you reach your targets 140 characters at a time, and plug your business into a digital strategy to help you “be” social media?

*I’m a sucker for celebrating random days; I’m already looking forward to May 4!

So whoever had two months in the “how long will it take for the transplanted Canadian to write a blog post about hockey” wins; see our Digital Guru (TM pending) Dara to collect your prize.

The National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers last month unveiled the most controversial marketing effort (even worse than this) the team has seen in its 30+ year tenure – the Oilers Octane, a 24-member cheerleading squad. Detractors have called the idea behind the Octane unseemly, unnecessary (and the worst yet) “un-Canadian”; the concept of an off-ice cheer team spawned online petitions and Facebook protest pages (where you could presumably “unlike” the concept) and thousands of opinion-based column inches about how people go to hockey games to watch hockey, not to ogle cheerleaders.

In the planning phase up to the launch of the Octane, the Oilers knew some hockey purists were going to be horrified by the idea of Oiler cheerleaders. Despite the fact that 19 other NHL teams already have cheerleaders, the Oilers are the first Canadian-based team, which is always a tricky proposition north of the 49^th parallel; when it comes to the NHL in Canada, first doesn’t always equal innovation, it often equals selling out.

And it’s not like the Oilers need the Octane to draw fans – the teams is closing in on 300 consecutive sell-outs, a feat considering the team plays in the second-oldest (behind Madison Square Garden) and most-cramped arena in the league. The team’s empire also expands beyond the NHL, as they also own an American Hockey League team, a Western Hockey League team and a Golden League independent baseball team. The Oilers are not hurting for brand awareness.

So why then? Why risk alienating fans for the sake of cheerleaders? And what’s the tie-in to B2B marcomm? Brand ambassadors.

By establishing the Octane, the Oilers have launched a network of 20 new brand ambassadors that can represent the team at a variety of local events ranging from ribbon-cuttings to school visits, spreading the Oilers’ corporate messages (and season ticket purchase plans) on behalf of the team. These new ambassadors take some pressure off of the player requests the team deals with on a daily basis, and reduces the number of events the Oilers simply are unable to send representatives to. The team has already sold Octane calendars, with all proceeds supporting the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation, so there’s another ancillary benefit. They’re expanding The Oilers’ business reach relatively inexpensively, and offering a subsidiary service (cheerleading, natch) to the team.

The Octane may be cheerleaders by definition, but they were designed to be much more than that, and the end result was more than worth the potential run-off and fan disappointment. Each of the cheerleader’s bios speaks to their enjoyment of hockey, and their passion for the Oilers, furthering the team’s position as a part of Edmonton’s very fabric. And they’re doing all of this while wearing three-inch knee-high white go-go boots – brand ambassadors at their best.

Does your organization employ brand ambassadors as effectively as the Oilers?

All of your employees can be your brand ambassadors provided they’re equipped with the right information, and an internal communication culture that instills a common belief in the company (go-go boots doesn’t hurt, either). The key is communication; ideally, transparent, two-way communication. By letting your team in on the plan, they become an army that can speak on your organization’s behalf, helping to spread the (corporate) word and serving to convert the world (or at least let them know what you do).

Is internal communication as important as marketing? Can brand ambassadors serve to spread the word for your company? Is this blog post just a blatant attempt to write about hockey, or worse, cheerleaders? And how can Canyon help you convert your brand ambassadors?

There’s been an inspired debate recently about the role of Public Relations (PR) in the B2B sales cycle, particularly with the continued fracturing of both the traditional and online media markets and the emergence of once-fringe now-mainstream digital marketing techniques.

In a recent Hubspot blog post, Christine Huynh mused that PR doesn’t drive sales, arguing that “in reality, sales success and public relations campaigns do not have a direct correlation.” Hunyh goes on – “the key factor in bridging (the gap between sales and PR) most people miss is marketing”.

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, Hubspot sells closed-loop internet marketing software to integrate sales and marketing activities, so a slant against anything that doesn’t directly fill the demand gen funnel is to be expected. Blog posts like these (including the one you’re reading now) are designed to create discussion and hopefully find life beyond the page they’re posted on.

And to that end, Huynh’s post worked. Fast Company Expert Blogger Wendy Marx rose to the PR industry’s defense with her response post, which clearly laid out how integral PR can drive a successful B2B campaign. Again, full disclosure – Marx works for Marx Communications, a B2B PR and Marketing Specialty firm, which offers PR services to its clientele.

The truth (as always) lies somewhere in the middle. PR is an incredibly valuable tool that should be included in the toolbox of any B2B marketing communications program. But like advertising, direct mail or trade shows, as a stand-alone proposition, PR won’t get the job done by itself.

PR is a modular tool best served by integration into a larger, full-spectrum B2B marketing communications campaign. PR builds upon brand momentum and the Unique Selling Proposition established in the strategic discovery process, positioning company stakeholders as thought leaders in an industry. Beyond buzzwords (I hate buzzwords), PR is the art of good stories, and telling those good stories to the right people (building good relationships, and in the meantime, leveraging those relationships to help tell more good stories down the road). A former colleague of mine said it best – good public relations is the art of telling someone how good you are at what you do, and having them believe you.

Are you using PR to tell your B2B company’s story? Do you think PR plays a role in the B2B sales cycle? Do you have an example of PR directly contributing to revenue? Please feel free to post your comments below.