 |
|
 |
|
|
B2B Needs Social Media, Too Dispelling the myth that social media is only for consumers, —July, 2011  |
|
 |
|
|
B2B Needs Social Media, Too Some B2B Execs think Social Media is for Consumers Only.
|
|
|
Companies selling products and services to other businesses are often quick to dismisssocial media as a fad more f it for consumers than for building a B2B brand. Hanging on to this outdated point of view could be costly for organizat ions that need to maintain a compet it ive edge (and who doesn’t these days?) There are several reasons that social media is well suited for companies selling in the B2B space. This paper outlines key reasons businesses operat ing in B2B markets needs to take social media seriously, and how to make it work for your business. Over the next several pages, we will address how an effect ive corporate social media strategy plays a role in:
|
|
|
B2B Marketing is All About Relationships The customer relat ionship is the core of B2B success, extending beyond the sales team to customer service, product development and of course, market ing. Without strong connect ions to customers and prospects, vendors and service providers are swimming against the t ide. Building and nurturing these relat ionships can be a daunt ing challenge, so having the right tools to indent ify and engage prospects throughout the customer lifecycle is crit ical. Sales cycles are often long in B2B markets. A deal may take months or even years to close, rather than the few days or weeks that a consumer my spend evaluat ing a purchase. Buyers of big-t icket products have a lot at stake, including thousands — or even millions — of dollars, their company’s reputat ion and their personal career prospects. Avoiding this dreaded roadblock starts with f inding and court ing not only the decision makers, but the influencers as well. Engaging the right contacts before the process moves to an RFI or RFP, well before the f inal presentat ions are scheduled, can be facilitated with strategic use of social media. Building Critical Relationships Nothing will ever replace face-to-face contact as the ideal way to build an interpersonal connect ion. However, advances in technology are increasingly driving relat ionships online. Social media has enabled us to get in touch and stay in touch with old friends as well as potent ial new business prospects. Think about how many people you know who met their spouse or signif icant other online. If no one comes to mind, ask around and you’ll probably be surprised by the stat ist ics. In fact, a study of more than 11,000 people released in 2010 by Match.com and Chadwick Mart in Bailey indicated that 17% of couples married in the last 3 years (one in six marriages) were between people who met through an online dat ing site. Those relat ionships would likely never have blossomed (or even have been planted) without the seed of an online connect ion. What does that have to do with B2B market ing? Corporate buyers of business products services are people, too. As object ive as people may try to be in business situat ions, ult imately the same emot ions that shape personal relat ionships come into play in the corporate world. People do business with people they like. They often hire people like themselves (although that’s not always a good idea). They make decision based on gut inst inct, and can take offense at perceived slights. They also share more openly and work harder when they feel valued and appreciated. Understanding the human aspect of B2B relat ionships brings a new dimension to sales, market ing and customer service efforts. People want to be heard, respected and valued. Social media can be the ideal tool for companies seeking that personal level of connect ion with their customers and prospects, providing immediate, one-to-one interact ions. Moving beyond an infrequently updated company webpage to build a dynamic social media presence online gives businesses an opportunity to listen to customers and respond in real t ime, addressing concerns, ant icipat ing needs and providing assistance. Because social media creates a new channel for communicat ions, it should be in every organizat ion’s toolkit, just like the telephone and an email account. Finding Prospects Online Unlike the closed channels of telephone and email, social media provides a unique, open communicat ions platform that is especially well suited for discovery. Social listening techniques are essent ial to understand your audience. Not everyone is online, but fortunately for B2B companies, those using social media most frequently include a wealth of business professionals with the power to purchase. The f irst step to indent ifying potent ial prospects online is to understand who you are looking for. Can your target prospects be ident if ied by company, job t itle, industry aff iliat ions or cert if icat ions? You can f ind shared interest groups for any of these on social media platforms like LinkedIn and BranchOut (the professional network applicat ion recently launched by Facebook). Another way to uncover warm prospects is to monitor ment ions of your own company name, or your company name paired with that of a compet itor. These prospects may be searching for recommendat ions from others, asking quest ions like “What’s better, Acme or Zeta?” before making contact ing potent ial vendors. Once you f ind these people, review their prof iles and reach out to those that look like good prospects or influencers. Start with a simple Follow, Like or Connect, then begin to engage using comments and feedback. Save the sales pitch for later, after you’ve established a foundat ion for your relat ionship. Monitoring Competitive Actions You will be amazed by what people share on social media, and when it comes to compet it ive monitoring, there is no harm in listening in to see what’s being said in the public domain. To keep up with your compet itors, track their corporate and employee posts and tweets to learn what’s going on at the company. Corporate posts will provide basic informat ion about new products, market ing act ivit ies and events the organizat ion is host ing or sponsoring. Connect ing with or following compet itors’ sales representat ives will give you a little more insight. Understating Customer Sentiments Once you have a social listening program in place, don’t forget to monitor customer insights and feedback. Put your ear to the digital ground and listen for online comments about your business, both posit ive and negat ive. Are customers talking about the quality of your service? Are they looking to buy or resell your product?
Many customers will reach out for help through Twitter and other social media channels, especially if they feel their voice is not being heard though tradit ional customer support avenues such as a call center, online knowledge center or email. Customer cries for help can take the form of direct contact through post ings on your company’s Facebook wall or messages sent to execut ives through LinkedIn, so it is important that these areas are monitored regularly. Assign someone from customer service to respond to these inquiries in a t imely manner and customers will show their appreciat ion. You can have an even more posit ive impact on your reputat ion for being a customercentric enterprise by seizing the opportunity presented by social media for proact ive customer support. The online world is like a giant digital water cooler, where news spreads faster than the speed of light. What better place to learn what problems customers are having when they don’t come to you directly? Customers often use indirect messages to garner support for their issue by post ing on a blog or Tweet ing about their concerns. Your social listening program can ident ify these third-party messages, giving you an opportunity to step in and offer a solut ion. When your employees are empowered to address concerns uncovered through social media, people will quickly spread the word that your organizat ion cares about its customers. If you are doing things well, you will probably discover some real fans while listening for customer ment ions. These are great connect ions to make. Invite them to submit online reviews, provide test imonials or part icipate in case studies to promote your successes. Establishing Thought Leadership Thought leadership programs are a staple of B2B market ing. Companies need analyst endorsements and posit ive reviews to make it onto vendor lists and win compet it ive bids. Social media is the perfect complement to tradit ional content market ing and thought leadership programs, enabling companies to quickly disseminate original content across the web. A company blog is a wonderful platform for publishing opinion pieces, showcasing execut ive insights and highlight ing compelling case studies. This approach can be expanded to guest post ing on industry blogs and art icle submissions on various media sites. As this content is posted, links can be tweeted to your corporate followers, and papers can be published on your Facebook and LinkedIn pages. Invite your customers to leave comments and feedback, building the search visibility of these pages and driving addit ional traff ic to your website or blog. Listen to what people have to say about trends and innovat ions, and add your own comments as appropriate. This could take the form of a retweet, a blog post comment or responding to an analyst’s status updates on Facebook or LinkedIn. Avoid intense pitching of your products in favor of building a long term relat ionship. If you add value to the conversat ion and can serve as an educated resource, you will soon be asked to provide your own thoughts and comments. To increase your visibility, think beyond the analyst relat ionship to speaking opportunit ies and other venues in which you can share your message. Watch the social media space for announcements like a “call for speakers” or other messages that indicate an event organizer is looking for a thought leader, and respond directly. Explore venues like Twitter chats, Quora and LinkedIn groups where you can submit and respond to quest ions. Twitter chats are scheduled conversat ions conducted in the Twitter stream. You can join them by f inding the hashtag and following it with a tool like TweetGrid or Tweetdeck. (Here’s a tutorial on “How to Use TweetGrid for Tweet Chats” to help you get started.) If you cannot f ind a group or topic that f its your niche, create one of your own. This takes a little effort to maintain, since you will need to pose quest ions and moderate responses, but it is also one of the best ways to quickly build a solid thought leadership posit ion online. Attracting Media Interest PR and media relat ions have been transformed by social media more than any other discipline in the enterprise. The days of emailing press releases and calling in pitches are rapidly fading away as the media moves online. Use this trend to your advantage by f inding out who is covering your industry, and what they are saying. Once again, your social listening capabilit ies can play a vital role in discovering bloggers, journalists and editors that may want to write about your company. An easy way to connect with these writers is to f ind an art icle of interest on a news or informat ion portal and click the social media links provided in the author’s prof ile. This often allows you to go directly to Twitter to follow someone, where you can add them to a private “Media” list you create in your Twitter account. Like court ing analysts, building relat ionships with media isn’t transact ional. Repeatedly hitt ing up a writer with requests to “write about my company,” will fall flat. Instead, let them know that you are reading their work and offer your feedback. Be posit ive if you really liked an art icle, but don’t be afraid to share your point of view if you have a different perspect ive. Writers appreciate engaged readers because the interact ion helps their own efforts to be seen online. If you demonstrate your professionalism and value over t ime, it’s highly likely that the writer will eventually invite you to serve as a source for a story. Once you’ve established the foundat ion for a media relat ionship, you can proact ively reach out with an offer to help, lett ing writers know you are interested in serving as a source when needed. You may also periodically push out links to your press releases or pitches for story ideas. Just be caut ious that you do not wear out your welcome. Building Brand Awareness The majority of the social media tact ics described on the preceding page, from PR and thought leadership to building strong customer relat ionships and expanding online visibility will contribute to the brand equity of your B2B enterprise. To go further, start by taking a step back to develop a cohesive plan, integrat ing all these elements into your social media strategy. If your company already has a strong brand strategy, incorporate your exist ing vision, mission and messaging into you social media plans. Consider how you can express your brand persona through social media, and develop social media guidelines to govern how your employees should use social media. Once those items are in place, begin implement ing your plan to build awareness. This should include frequent communicat ions on all the social media platforms you choose to ut ilize. Being a regular presence with a consistent voice will reinforce your brand awareness and percept ions about your company. Here are a few t ips on how to build brand awareness with social media:
Social Media is the Tool, Not the Solution As you begin to integrate social media into your B2B market ing, remember that social media is a part of your communicat ions toolkit, not a solut ion in itself. Try as you might, a screwdriver doesn’t make a very good hammer. To get the most from any tool, you must know when, how and where to use it properly. The same is true for social media. Simply going through the mot ions of social media without a solid strategy and clear act ion plan will waste t ime and erode your ROI. To realize the full potent ial of social media, take t ime to learn the ropes or hire someone who knows them already. Consider engaging a social media consultant to help with your planning process and to provide training for your staff. Establish your policies upfront to avoid any pitfalls, and make sure employees charged with part icipat ing in social media are trained on company policies and business object ives. Stay true to your strategy but modify your approach as necessary unt il you hit your stride. Keep your focus on who you want to reach and how your business can best serve their needs through social media. Follow this approach, and you’ll see why social media has become such an important growth factor for successful B2B enterprises. About BrandSprout LLC BrandSprout LLC is an Atlanta-based consult ing f irm that accelerates business growth for entrepreneurs and execut ives across the US. BrandSprout helps businesses succeed by delivering market ing solut ions that create visibility, engage customers and increase sales. Joellyn (Joey) Sargent, president of BrandSprout, is an avid fan of technology and innovat ion. She enjoys merging new media with tradit ional market ing and bringing fresh perspect ives to bear on challenging business problems. Before founding BrandSprout, Joey spent 20 years as a corporate execut ive, leading global organizat ions with responsibility for branding, strategy, communicat ions and product management with companies ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 500. Joey has presented at conferences around the world and has been quoted by publicat ions including BusinessWeek.com, B2B Social Media Digest, Call Center Magazine, and CNET News. Read her Fresh Sprouts market ing blog at http://www.blog.brandsproutmarket ing.com. |
|
For more information, visit www.healthport.com or contact HealthPort Marketing at 800.737.2585 or marketing@healthport.com |
|
 |
TAG’s article library is optimized by search engine optimization company Vayu Media, provider of SEO Services to technology companies nationwide. Vayu Media develops online strategies to grow businesses through increased sales, leads and internet brand awareness. |
While you have probably heard the saying that “no one ever got f ired for buying IBM,” it is st ill no surprise that B2B buyers take their t ime building a business case for a signif icant purchase. Often, the process involves several influencers and decision makers to review and recommend solut ions before the f inal vendor select ion is made. Any number of these people can derail a business opportunity if they decide your products or services just aren’t the right f it.
You might also want to look for people who converse about a specif ic platform, product or service. Use Twitter to f ind people who are tweet ing using certain hashtags to reference a product or event. (Hashtags are words preceded by the pound sign like “#market ing”) This is also a great way to f ind people attending an industry event, conference or seminar. Try searching on Twitter for #sxsw and you’ll see.
