Tài liệu SOCIAL MEDIA FOR B2B MARKETING BY ASUTHOSH NAIR & JASPREET SIDHU ppt

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Social Media for B2B Marketing
The B2B market is far smaller than the B2C market. This fact alone impels expanding your
reach to identify new leads. Social media is well-placed to do just that. Just monitoring online
conversations alone can help you glean changing trends and needs and pick out emerging
opportunities a mile way before your competitors do. This could then fuel new offerings and
new revenue channels. With the expanded reach you also get to identify companies with
which to establish-revenue generating partnerships.
2.
The remarkable thing about the B2B arena is how people in it actively network online to
share knowledge and build their network of industry contacts. Using social media, they can
now build professional communities online to share insights and solve problems, and
leverage upon these interactions to build brand, reputation and prospects.
3.
B2B buyers rely heavily on third-party feedback in making purchase decisions. They would
also like to be part of the product or solution development process. They are also likely to
trust the opinions of colleagues using the products far more than that of the company selling
those very products. Social media channels are great avenues for providing objective, third-
party experiences and feedback, reduces buyer-side risk for big-ticket B2B purchases.
4.
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Social Media for B2B Marketing
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Social media engagements are a good platform to consistently
demonstrate thought leadership. Thought leadership is fast
emerging as a must-have in B2B marketing to have real impact,
lead and stand out. It helps strengthen your market positioning,
enhance your perceived value to clients, build trust and loyalty,
and generate more business overall.
†1
Thought leaders can also expect greater recognition, demand and
reach in the market.
†2
And what exactly is thought leadership?
When you help people frame the way they think about key issues
or guide them to smarter decisions, by presenting insightful,
compelling and often provocative perspectives, that's when you
are likely to be acknowledged as a thought leader - the "go to"
business (or person) for a particular interest area.
5.
Social media is cost-effective. Some would say, the most cost-effective ever.
That is not to say it's free. It does require investment of budget, professional
resources, and most crucially, time. But all these combined is nowhere close
to the cost associated with other media. In tight economic times like these,
it's social media that can be utilized most effectively to gain competitive
advantage. And as the cost of sales acquired through social media is
significantly lower, ROI and profit margins can increase.
6.
†1
Source: Britton Manasco. (2009, December 21). Want to Build Trust? Want to be a Market Leader? Be a Thought Leader. http://bit.ly/68wFCG
†2
Source: Mike Schultz and John Doerr.Professional Services Marketing. 1999. Wiley.

Social Media for B2B Marketing
B2B offerings tend to be complex and B2B purchase decisions are not by any stretch impulse-
driven or low-risk. Sales cycles are long and buyers will spend a lot of time on upfront research.
So why not be a part of that process? Social media offers unprecedented and abundant avenues
for knowledge sharing that can help educate prospects and facilitate faster sales cycles. You
get to communicate information and answer buyer questions about your offerings more
quickly. By providing this almost real-time, two-way communications, you not only inform, but
also build trust and credibility that can work to increase sales in shorter periods.
7.
†1
Source: "Ranking the Top 100 Global Brands" www.engagementdb.com. July 2009
Furthermore, in lessening the confusion around your offerings, the information exchanged
and relationships built through these conversational media can help position you as a trusted
advisor and decrease the concerns associated with high learning curves. In turn, these could
help increase purchase rates of your products, services and offerings.
Using social media for B2B marketing is not without its rewards. Socially
engaged companies are in fact more financially successful, according to one
study.
†1
And engagement refers to going beyond mere presence. It involves
interacting with others, setting off discussions, and responding in a timely
manner during conversations. This can be a challenging transition for
traditional marketers used to having control over their channels.
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Social Media for B2B Marketing
At the same time you would not want multiple interactions from people in your company
responding randomly without coordination. Keep in mind too the need for transparency in all
outreach activities. Lack of genuineness is a sure-fire way to slide down the social media ladder.
With these considerations in mind, let us take a look at how you can kickstart social media
marketing in your own company.
The first thing an organization needs to do to kickstart their social media
marketing campaign is to draw up a social media strategy. The social
media strategy is an extension of the overall marketing strategy. It needs
to be commensurate with the business and the market you are targeting.
This keeps your brand identity unified across the board. The question is
not how to make money from it, but rather, how you can use the various
social media channels to facilitate prospecting; and how you can cultivate
relationships and integrate ways of communicating and selling to buyers.
To begin you may want to choose to focus on a few of your overall
marketing goals e.g. lead generation, customer retention, establishing
yourself as the experts, or increasing your brand awareness and equity.
Depending on your goals you may choose different social media
platforms to best suit your purposes.
HOW CAN YOU START? BASIC RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
PLAN YOUR STRATEGY
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Social Media for B2B Marketing
Another key point would be to communicate this strategy to your entire
organization and involve everyone. Get everyone onboard and actively
participating in blogging, tweeting or interacting with your consumers on
forums. Put together a roster to schedule participation or set a weekly/
monthly minimum contribution from each person. This enables your
organization to be 'heard and seen' from all the perspectives.
DO YOUR RESEARCH
Once you have your social media strategy in place you will need to invest
some time on research to find out where your audience spends most of its
time. From LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, forums, to YouTube and Facebook there
is an increase in users across all age demographics. The Forrester report on
Facebook demographics reports the increase in the over 35 age demographic
and predicts that 75% of its worldwide users will be out of college.
38% of all media on the internet
is consumed on social platforms
so we as B2B marketers need to
be there.
When you have identified the platforms where your audience spends most of
its time its important to begin listening to your customers and find out what
kinds of conversations they are having about your brand. Some social media
tools you can use to help you do this would be Monitter, Social Mention,
Google Alerts, Alltop etc. Many of these services are provided free and let you
listen in on the conversation about your brand by using their sites to search
using your brand name or a contextual theme.
Patrick Krane
VP of Marketing & Advertising, LinkedIn
“
www.socialmention.com
Real-time social media search and analysis
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Social Media for B2B Marketing
From analyzing these conversations you will be able to identify and learn
what your brand perception is as well as that of your competitors, what drives
your brand and identify white space which possibly will provide opportunities
for you to improve and grow your brand perception. Listening to your
customers and being critical in your analysis of their conversations gives your
organization an immediate advantage as you can leverage on the positives in
these communications and work on what your consumers perceive to be the
negatives of the brand. Researching into your brand conversations will also
help you to identify your evangelists and detractors and see how influential
they are based on their reader base.
BtoBonline reports that B2B marketers are making their presence felt on
social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
Each of these platforms has specific advantages over the others and you may
want to use a combination of these for your social media campaign. Twitter
provides you with an avenue to engage and interact with your consumers,
both starting and joining conversations, by routinely providing information,
updates and even discounts to the follower base. BtoBonline further reports
that the use of viral video, through sites such as YouTube, is being primarily
used for customer/demand generation (58%) and the building and
management of the brand (35%). The primary objectives for blogs on the
other hand are customer retention (33%) followed closely by brand building/
management (29%) and customer demand/generation (25%).
5%
9%
32%
54%
Brand Building / Brand Management
Demand Generation
Customer Loyalty / Retention
Cross-Selling / Up-Selling
Primary Objective for Social Media Use in B2B
†1
†1
Source: BtoB and the Association of National Advertisers (June 2009)
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Social Media for B2B Marketing
SET YOUR GUIDELINES
As a good social media campaign involves all parts of your organization, from sales
to PR to technical support, its unrealistic to assume that everyone will know just
how to dive in and start working on making your brand social. It is helpful and
indeed important to set some basic rules for your staff to follow when blogging,
tweeting or responding to comments on forums. The guidelines should cover how
the post/tweet/response should be written. It is important to keep in mind that the
one of the key objectives of any social media campaign should be to add value for
your consumers through the information you distribute. The use of social media is
not to preach to or only advertise to your audience but to engage and participate
with them in conversations. When responding your staff should speak in the first
person, be mindful of the tone of what they are posting, and have care to exercise
their best judgement when responding to negative comments.
Some guidelines used by companies already using social media are
-
Don't pick fights, be the first to correct your own mistakes, and don't alter
previous posts without indicating that you have done so.
-
IBM's brand is best represented by its people and what you publish may
reflect on IBM's brand.
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Social Media for B2B Marketing
-
With conversations, participate online. Don’t “broadcast” messages to users.
-
With moderation, only police where we have to. Trust our users where we don’t.
-
Be external. You don’t have to be 100% internally focused. Link to other
blogs, videos, and news articles. Retweet what others have to say
-
Post frequently. It’s a lot of work but don’t post to your blog then leave it for
two weeks. Readers won’t have a reason to follow you on Twitter or check
your blog if they can’t expect new content regularly.
-
Separate opinions from facts, and make sure your audience can see the
difference.
-
Be engaged and be informed. Read the contributions of others. Know what
the current conversations are and what people are saying in order to see if,
and how, you may be able to contribute a new perspective. Participation is
the fuel of social computing.
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook 60%
49%
70%
81%
Social networks/media use among B2B
Source: BtoB and the Association
of National Advertisers (June 2009)
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Social Media for B2B Marketing
-
Always pause and think before posting. That said, reply to comments in a
timely manner, when a response is appropriate. But if it gives you pause,
pause. If you're about to publish something that makes you even the
slightest bit uncomfortable, don't shrug it off and hit 'send.' Take a minute
to review these guidelines and try to figure out what's bothering you, then
fix it. If you're still unsure, you might want to discuss it with your manager
or legal representative. Ultimately, what you publish is yours - as is the
responsibility. So be sure.
-
Perception is reality. In online social networks, the lines between public and
private, personal and professional are blurred. Just by identifying yourself
as an Intel employee, you are creating perceptions about your expertise and
about Intel by our shareholders, customers, and the general public-and
perceptions about you by your colleagues and managers. Do us all proud. Be
sure that all content associated with you is consistent with your work and
with Intel's values and professional standards
GET CRACKING
You have a strategy, you know from your research where and in which
direction to focus and have some basic guidelines for everyone to follow. The
only thing left is to implement your action plan.
91 % of these technology
decision-makers were Spectators.
55% of these decision-
makers were in social networks.
58% are Critics, reacting to
content they see in social formats.
B2B buyers have very
high social participation
“
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Social Media for B2B Marketing
Its not enough for an organization to just make itself visible on a social media
platform. You have to create value through the content you make available for your
readers and consumers and you have to be regular and consistent with your
content creation and distribution. Offer insight into your expertise through well-
written and meaningful articles on your corporate blog. Establish your position as
thought leaders and the proven experts as it increases customer confidence. Any
organization that embarks on a social media campaign needs to actively participate
in conversations relevant to the brand and its goals.
One way to do this would be to start your own community through blogs and
forums. Its important to remember that the organizations that succeed using social
media are transparent and genuine with their reader base. They offer information
that has value for their consumers and welcome the participation of these
consumers on how to better improve the products and services offered as
compared to the brands competitors. Cultivating your own community is also a
great asset as these online conversations can be used as focus groups for new
offerings as well as enhancements on the brands current products and/or services.
When publishing and creating your brand content its useful to create and maintain
the social identity of the brand as a stand-alone. This is easy enough with a blog or
forum where the branding remains that of your organization but with multiple
contributors.
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The organizations that succeed using social media are transparent and
genuine with their reader base.