Applying social media to business marketing

Presentation to University of Derby 2nd Year marketing students, Thursday 24 February 2011

Image: http://engravedword.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/social-networks-logos.jpg

Presentation overview

• Understanding the challenge of ‘now’• What social media isn’t...and what it is• Why b2b marketers fail to make social media

work• Case study examples to learn from• Ten best practice tips for business marketers

Me (in numbers)

15 years in sales & marketing

220 Blog posts on The Marketing Assassin over 2 years

£5m Approx client billings 1999 – 2010

1422 Twitter following 334 Linkedin

contacts

2010When I became a CIM Chartered Marketer

160,000 Total approx blog readership

0 No of university lectures before today

Why listen to me?

• I’ve been sat where you’re sitting• You’ll soon be entering the world of work• You’ll probably work for a company that sells

things to other companies • Old sales and marketing techniques now only

work up to a point• You need to be able to compete

The challenge of ‘now’

• Abundance of information and messages• Customers are always on, always connected• Distraction• Getting and securing attention is harder• Means reduced attention span• Permanent digital footprint• Good viral and bad viral!

What is social media?

‘Websites you can use to interact with people around the world’. Microsoft

‘A set of technologies and channels targeted at forming and enabling a potentially massive community of

participants to productively collaborate’. Gartner

‘A term used to describe the type of media that is based on conversation

and interaction between people online’. A Kaplan

What social media isn’t...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE

What social media is

A rise in conversation engagementsharingsolving

• Forums and message boards• Review and opinion sites• Social networks• Blogging• Micro blogging• Bookmarking• Media sharing

Content, shared

The Best Job in the World

• Global campaign promoting a dream job as caretaker on an Australian island

• 400,000 web visitors in 30 hours achieving the target for the year

• 1 million hits on the second day• 34,684 applications from 200 countries• 336,000 Facebook-referred Web site visits• 3,170 @Queensland followers on Twitter• 1,100 TV placements in two days in the U.S. alone• 423,000 votes for favourite candidates• Estimated £49m worth of exposure (AEV)

Consumer brands that nail it

BlendTec ‘Will it blend?’

• Domestic and commercial use blenders• Set up a YouTube channel and proceeded to blend

anything incl. iPhones• YouTube channel stats:

– 109 videos– 151m views– 359,000 subscribers

• 61,000 fans on Facebook • 5,600 followers on Twitter• Reported fivefold increase in sales as a result of

long term campaign and exposure

Consumer brands that nail it

Consumer brands that nail it

Old Spice

• 71 year old fragrance company targeting men• Viral video approach utilising YouTube base with

Facebook page, Twitter and a blog• YouTube channel stats:

– 205 videos– 192m views– 237,000 subscribers

• 1.2m fans on Facebook • 122,000 followers on Twitter• More viral video views inside 24 hours than Barack

Obama’s victory speech!

Why social media isn’t working as well for business

Image: http://engravedword.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/social-networks-logos.jpg

• It’s social• Brands are broadcasting not engaging• Brands are broadcasting / engaging with the

wrong people

Reasons for a B2b social media #fail

• Brands are not using the right tools

• Brands compound this by not integrating the wrong tools

• Brands don’t engage with prospects in the right places

Reasons for a B2b social media #fail

http://www.realfresh.tv/wp-content/uploads/images/2010/10/social-media-logo.jpg

Social media and business

Q: Isn’t it all just marketing?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2755/4383040372_08aca02b4c_z.jpg

Twin track social media strategies

• Long established source of IT vacancies, feeling the competition by 2008

• Needed to embrace tech marketing channels to position as expert and to reach cynical specialists.

• Objectives: communicate with IT audience and drive web traffic

• Created a blog and crack blog team to discuss industry issues not just recruitment in order to become the go to place for IT professionals

• Agency used to manage the delivery of writing etc• Within a year reached 5,000 unique, regular IT

specialists• Supported by Twitter, 3000+ followers

Case: Adding value through blogging

• Founded in 2004 offering low cost conference calls– 65% market share, 200,000 users, 5,000 calls a day

• Positioned as the next best solution to meetings, hit on the idea of using the time, cost and eco factors of international travel to push take up.

• Boris Johnson advocating travel for business in Sept 2009, prompted response. BA and FlyBe campaigned against conference calls

• FlyPowWowNow born from necessity• Objectives to drive traffic, raise awareness and stimulate

trial = on a small budget• Three phase incl . 5,000 free ‘flights’• Micro site, adv, PPC, email, blog, Twitter, Facebook• NB: Facebook 1,079 fans, Twitter 3,655 follows, YouTube

490,000 channel views (all video)

Case: ‘Integrated’ lead gen campaign

£45,000 in attributable sales

• IT resellers are a crucial independent extension to the IBM sales force, selling and maintaining IBM products and services

• Knowledgeable, all communication needs to be insightful and helpful – addressing trends like the cloud are key. Seen as a threat not opportunity

• An online social chat room was created and resellers were invited to sessions led by senior IBM VPs and industry experts

• IBM demonstrated thought leadership and engaged its core audience

• Personalised emails sent after sessions, specific digital magazine created and talking head video content created to maintain interest

• On average 123 people attended for 22 minutes a time

Case: Building a community

Jacqueline Davey VP Business Partner Organisation UKI, IBM

• To endure, social media for b2b marketers remains in providing useful and useable information to customers seeking business solutions (and who shop in a different way to consumers).

1. Useful, usable information

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/multimedia/dynamic/00116/Ipad23_116601k.jpg

Action: Understand what the issues are, the problems that need solving or the pain that needs taking away!

• A priority is to have a PR programme in place. Social media done right is a finely balanced cocktail of original content and relationship management. No PR = no content to make a start with.

2. PR program

http://www.life.com/image/85863666

Action: Create a PR plan which can back into and online content marketing campaign.

• Have an objective. Something tangible not just how many fans, followers, visitors – lets talk conversion metrics and funnels and look at downloads, email addresses, calls, visits, tenders, contract wins.

3. SMART objectives

http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/gift-ideas/rugby-conversion-challenge-tabletop-game.asp

Action: Set some digital marketing objectives that can be measured after a period of activity.

• Know your audience. Profile them, and not just by company, turnover, or job title. If you’re seeking to engage them online, they need to be proficient and active themselves.

4. Know your audience

http://media.northjersey.com/images/300*168/MC_030910paterson.jpg

Action: Save yourself time by creating profiles and researching a wish list.

http://www.catskillsnyrealestate.com/Want-More-Info-Catskill-Real-Estate.php

• Know where your audience congregates and what they want.

http://www.richardhawleyforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=12609&sid=cad65fcf13edb1e22061dc613ce33596

5. Watering holes

Action: Hit sector portals, trade associations and Linkedin groups!

• Develop killer content. An existing PR campaign makes this so much easier.

6. Killer content

http://www.smallfuel.com/blog

Action: Review available content before creating any. Think about your audience (4) where they go and what they want (5) before creating it.

http://blog.rubymediagroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/1228816_66729135.jpg

• If you can’t develop, comment on – comment on industry blogs and news items, your hyperlinked response should garner some interest in you because of your thoughtful responses.

7. Comment

Action: Set up a Google Reader account and add the ten most important web/blog sites to it. Check every day and add comments.

• If you can’t comment, share – if you do nothing other than share, you will be paying it forward by driving traffic to other people’s content and building your profile as a facilitator for your industry, connecting them to each other. A high proportion of Twitter activity is retweeted.

8. Share

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/apr/28/week

Action: Follow industry leaders and publishers on Twitter and share good content you find.

http://aseriesman.blogspot.com/2010/12/monty-python-no-3-monty-pythons-life-of.html

• If you can’t develop, share or comment, find someone else who can do it for you.

9. Ask

Action: Outsourcing the curation and creation doesn’t mean giving over responsibility

http://www.drchrisstephens.com/blog/category/responsibility/

• Remember, people still buy people and the coldest, most demanding customer is still a person.

10. Share

Action: Provide information to help customers. It’s the information age!

http://www.petlifehampshire.co.uk/Portals/0/Silver_Information_Sign.jpg

• Huge social media reach and choice• Information, as content, propels businesses

forward online• To work, b2b social media needs

– An audience– Relevance– Enduring

Summary

• Consider these books– Inbound Marketing by Halligan B, & Shah, D– Socialnomics by Qualman, E– Social Media Metrics by Sterne, J

• Subscribe to these daily blogs– http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/– http://mashable.com/– http://econsultancy.com/uk – http://marketingassassin.wordpress.com/ (mine)

Further reading

Still need convincing...?

Thank you

rene@bdb.co.ukhttp://twitter.com/renepowerhttp://uk.linkedin.com/in/renefphttp://marketingassassin.wordpress.comhttp://www.slideshare.net/renepower

www.bdb.co.uk +44 161 925 4700http://twitter.com/bdbmarketingwww.bdbblog.co.uk

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