3/29/10 – Inbound Marketing University awards the Inbound Marketing Certification to Mark Mathson, President & Founder of Keenpath, as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (http://inboundmarketing.com).

This certification acknowledges Mathson’s proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

Mathson joins an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. In total, 1,300 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program.

To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, Mathson completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive certification exam. (View the full list of classes: http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes)

The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times’ best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more. (View all professors: http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/professors)

This certification is administered by HubSpot.

About Keenpath

Keenpath is an Internet marketing and social media marketing company that helps businesses get found on the Internet, initiate more leads and convert a higher amount of those leads into customers. Keenpath helps guide your company goal of finding qualified prospects by instituting best practice search engine optimization, blogging and social media campaigns. Based in Great Falls, Montana, Keenpath can be found online at http://keenpath.com

About InboundMarketing.com

InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site’s content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.

About HubSpot

HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot’s software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot’s free marketing tools can be found at http://grader.com.

People like to be told stories. It doesn’t matter if you are 8 or 88, a story of interest is always appealing, has the power to draw in, and creates an interest in the story teller and who they are. An individual or company aiming to brand themselves need to tell a story.

In a recent discussion with a client in the real estate industry, we discussed ways to truly make their website a hub of useful information to current and prospective customers. At the top of the list was creating genuinely interesting content on their website’s blog. This ranges from telling stories about the local history of the area, highlighting some of the fun things to do, including pictures.

Become a master story teller

Whether speaking or writing on behalf of a small or large business, the end desired impact and hope is the same. To extend the value and importance of your brand. Extended reach can be accomplished with a wide network, whether offline or online. Not only from a public relations perspective, but also a relationship building perspective.

Do you like to be talked at, or conversed with? Its no different with Internet marketing and social media marketing strategy. I was listening to a very interesting webinar featuring Gary Vaynerchuk talking about passion inspired video and creative content, and something that he zeroed in on caught my attention. He said real relationships are key, not the tools.

Business and Consumer Whac-a-Mole

The cycle of word of mouth is intriguing. Don’t view business to consumer and business to business in the traditional sense. Your story, product, service will get sent through the channel of B2B, B2C, BCB, and so forth. Yes that’s right, BCB: Business Consumer Business. How about Consumer Business Consumer. Is that possible? Break the molds, tell the story to your target audience.

(Image credit: Colin Brough)

At a recent meeting I had with some associates, I was talking to a guy who has become a closer friend, and we like to bounce ideas off each other. I had sent him a LinkedIn invite to connect and reap the benefits of that dimension of an online relationship, however, he told me that at this time he isn’t going to sign up, that he prefers face to face.

I respect that. But at the same time, you can have it both ways. For the sake of time, I didn’t have the opportunity to explain why its important, particular in the industry of business he is working in, however, it got my wheels spinning and I have a few thoughts as to why it is so important to connect online and offline.

Blend offline and online networking

Like I’ve said before:

The blending of online and offline contacts in a social network is key to good networking.

Some of the best businesses have been built on those strong, and key face to face relationships.

Letting your foot hit the pavement and getting out, meeting up, discussing, brainstorming and collaborating with others to build up something, whether is a business, or organization, is effective. The same effect can be realized in a different dimension with online networking. I’ve connected with many clients and business contacts that I never would have realized if it wasn’t for social networking and social media. At the same time, those existing relationships I have with people I may see every day have been strengthened through using the Internet as another channel of communication.

Take the opportunity to introduce others to this dimension

Like all good things that you realize, its always fun to share it with another. I’d challenge you to take the opportunity to reach out to your clients, contacts, and others who you desire to connect with on another level in business, and invite them to join your network, community, or group. Its likely you already have done this, but think about someone who you know isn’t quite there yet, show them the light and advantage of online networking.

(Photo credit: Loic Lemeur)

Over the past weekend, I had a chance to speak and present at the Missouri River Break event. I presented two sessions on Internet marketing strategy for business. It was worthwhile, an opportunity to meet some excited business owners, individuals and organizations.

The discussions ranged on a variety, but an overall theme came out of the workshops. Use an approach that works best for you, that is tailored to your niche and marketplace, after putting thought and research in to what really matters in your overall marketing objective.

The second session was video streamed live via USTREAM, and a recorded archive video version is available here.

Download the Internet Marketing Presentation (.PDF)

You can also check out the slides embedded below:

Internet Marketing Strategies for Your Business View more presentations from Keenpath.

A big thank you to SEOmoz.org for providing wonderful information and graphics which where used in this presentation.