My friend Justin Levy just had brain surgery. He went into the operation not quite knowing what would be on the other side. Despite this personal nightmare, Justin's social media presence was extraordinarily brave, honest, and revealing. Through his timely and detailed posts, his friends and followers could get a daily peek into every aspect of his trial. His successful operation was finally trumpeted with a triumphant "thumbs up photo" on Facebook. Thousands of people felt relief.

This very public, courageous journal of his trials made a big impact on me and my podcasting mate Tom Webster. In fact, it became the seed for our newest Marketing Companion podcast. Under the same circumstances, what would you do? And let's take the conversation a step further. What is the professional expectation of the much-discussed "authenticity?" Is anybody really authentic? Can you be strategically authentic? The result is a fascinating discussion and I think you are really going to enjoy this episode. Here are some of the topics we cover:

• How important is establishing your personal social media "character?"
• The difference between transparency and authenticity
• The burden, privilege, and complexities of representing your brand online
• The tightrope between personal and professional revelations on the web
• Drawing the line -- over-sharing and personal authenticity in service of the business
• Social Accounts: The Resume of Your Life
• Social media ambassadorship -- The new professional skill?

Are you ready for this? Of course you are!  

Resources mentioned in this podcast

Content Marketing World

Kevin Spacey speech at CMW

Tom Webster Share of Ear for podcasting presentation

Justin Levy and his new Unstoppable Blog

Scott Monty

PEZ T

top Illustration "Shadow Selfies" taken by Mark Schaefer in Wales 2014

Our podcast is brought to you by Voices Heard Media. Please check out this tremendous resource for scaling social media engagement. 

One of the most interesting aspects about being an observer in this particular time and place in the history of marketing is watching the continuous cycle of innovation, experimentation, and maturity. The dynamics of our age are unprecedented and exciting. For example, let's say we were in the 1970s. In that entire decade, what innovation caused us to re-think marketing strategy? There was probably one in the entire ten-year-period: the emergence of cable TV. If you compare it to what we face today, it really re-defines what marketing is all about, doesn't it? We need a core competency in the ability to effectively assess the relevancy of a technological innovation and rapidly reject it or deploy it. Another advantage we have today as marketers is the wave upon wave of data coming at us to help us make these decisions. One interesting data point emerged last week that was the catalyst for a much-needed conversation -- what are the boundaries of inbound marketing? The data point was a public filing revealing that HubSpot -- which defined the term "inbound marketing" -- is still hemorrhaging money after eight years and its sales and marketing costs are arguably higher than what would be expected from a "traditional" approach. On the surface, this would seem to break the inbound promise. Or does it?

The boundaries of inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is a concept that certainly should be reaching some level of maturity by now. The strategy works, in most cases. But the revelation from Hubspot provokes the question ... does it work everywhere, and for how long? In our latest Marketing Companion podcast Tom Webster and I dissect this issue, starting with the fact that inbound marketing might mean different things to different companies based on industry structure and size. Let's hold this trend up to a strong light and take a look at the possible boundaries of inbound marketing.

• Does content marketing work in a highly-competitive space?
• Is content marketing as efficient as we think?
• Should the goal of inbound be leads, relationships, or both? Is that possible?
• Hubspot shows that you also need traditional sales and advertising tactics. What is the balance? What can we learn from this?
• Do quarterly sales goals and the financial responsibilities to shareholders inhibit the potential of content marketing?
• Is there an eventual diminishing return to content marketing and how do we anticipate that?

Ready to learn more? Here we go:

Resources mentioned in this podcast

Tom's blog on the Hubspot earnings announcement Is Inbound Marketing Profitable or Simply a Slogan?

Z.E.R.O.: Zero Paid Media as the New Marketing Model by Joseph Jaffe

Marcus Sheridan's idea about Content Saturation Index