case study: how microsoft amplified their social media brand messages through their trusted...

Commercial in Confidence – (c) purechannelapps Ltd. 2014 1

Presented by:

Steven Woodgate, SMB Social Media Community Manager, Microsoft

Olivier Choron, CEO and Founder, purechannelapps

How Microsoft

use their Sales Partners

to engage B2B

customers


• purechannelapps™, UK-based, incorporated in 2011

• socialondemand®: social media amplification software

• newsondemand: dynamic and targeted e-

communications

Background


73% of IT executives are influenced by social networks

in decision making - Socialcast

Empowered tech buyers are two-thirds

into the buying cycle before engaging sales Forrester Research

60% of business decision makers say branded content

helps them make better product decisions - Socialcast

Social Networking – Why is it so critical?


Too many hurdles

B2B organisations are struggling to involve their brand

advocates in this ‘influence’ cycle.

Employees, partners and other brand advocates have no time,

resources and, in some cases, limited marketing expertise.

Intermediaries are unable to produce professional collateral.

Too many brands are vying for their intermediaries’ attention.

Need simple, easy-to-use tools and programmes that get results.

Brands need to develop and manage ‘influence’ programmes on a

global level.


Social Media Amplification via brand advocates and

intermediaries

The posts are published automatically on the partners’

social network(s), if they have selected this option.

1. Brands inputs

news items (and

tag them)

2. Partners receive the news,

log in, view/ edit/ post the items 3. The news items are

posted on the partners’

social network(s)

4. Their followers

(buyers) read the posts,

click on the links and call

their partners!



intermediaries

2. Partners receive the news,

log in, view/ edit/ post the items



intermediaries

3. The news items are

posted on the partners’

social network(s)

4. Their followers

(buyers) read the posts,

click on the links and call

their partners!


Social Media Amplification

Extensive analytics engine to report

on the success of each partner, post,

campaign, and geography

Robust multi-level content creation and

approval workflow to support multi-

regional and multi-business unit

organizations

Comprehensive filtering for

partners who can select to only

receive the content that matters to

their followers

Content-publishing APIs

for Twitter/ Facebook/ LinkedIn.

Partners do not have to login to

their social networks to post.


Brand messages can reach much wider audiences, as you can leverage your

sales

teams, sales/channel partners (all types), alliance partners and other brand

advocates.

Content reaches those that count – the ‘consumers’ - through those who can

actually sell the ‘sales staff/ sales partners’.

Easy for partners to become ‘socially active’ (3 clicks: email to post)

It empowers the ‘through’ intermediaries with compliant content (closer

engagement with the brand and more socially active)

Enterprise-class platform (27 languages) enabling you to distribute social media

content globally

Cost-effective solution, with a SEM-smashing cost per click of just $0.09/ $0.35

The results and benefits


What our customers say

“Really, the ongoing success of our relationship with purechannelapps™ is as a

result of two things; firstly, their product is exceptional, a different league to the

competition, and secondly, the ongoing and passionate support of purechannelapps

and their account management.” – Michelle Graff, Director, PureStorage

“socialondemand has delivered on every KPI we monitored, and is now an integral

part of our marketing strategy.” Chris Harges, Director of Global Marketing, Mountain

Hardwear

“socialondemand provides us with a leading-edge, dynamic platform by which we can

continue to communicate through our channels to reach our customers.” Angela

Leech, Channel Marketing Programs Manager, EMEA, Adobe

"Socialwave enables us to extend our messaging reach to tens of thousands of our

partners’ followers. We look forward to incorporating this into our corporate social

media strategy and driving more channels sales


Presented by:

Steven Woodgate, SMB Social Media Community Manager, Microsoft

Olivier Choron, CEO and Founder, purechannelapps

How Microsoft

use their Sales Partners

to engage B2B

customers


Case study – Microsoft

Microsoft already ran

successful partner marketing

programmes

Microsoft believed they lacked

a key tool in their arsenal-a tool

to socially enable their partners

Microsoft knew their partners

lacked the time and resources

to create their own content

A tool would need to be cost

effective and easy to use for

both them and their partners

$ Without the resources, time or

budget, partners were turning

their back on social media

Microsoft realised that

a socially empowered

and active channel

network would

generate demand and

leads for partners

through their vast

social media

networks.



• One month trial (July 2013).

• MicrosoftSocialOnDemand.

• During the trial, Microsoft tested different pieces of high quality

content, to get a picture of how this content and socialondemand

would work with a larger base of partners.

• Via 20 partners, 66 posts were reposted 2,435 times by partners (37

times per post), generating 19,900 short url clicks/ retweets/ likes.


• Full roll-out (November 2013) – 500 user licenses in the UK

Case study – Microsoft – Key stats

324 Users

(UK, SMB) 4,448 likes

1,123 Social Media accounts

added, with a combined

4,750,000

followers

280 Partners 343 Posts by

Microsoft

Up to 19%

click-through

rate 186,214

clicks

28,791 re-posts

CPC: £0.20


Case study – Microsoft – Our posts

• We provide content for ‘Devices’ and ‘Services’, for ‘Consumers’,

‘SMBs’ and ‘Enterprises’.

• We mix Microsoft product content with industry news.

• We publish between 10 and 20 posts per week.

“Building the Business Case for Your Social Business Strategy”

6,598 clicks (most for a single post)

“Like The Lions, businesses face challenges

and rely on backroom teams to be competitive”

100% re-posting by partners

“The ten most irritating things about working from home”

20% click-through rate (clicks per connections)


Case study – Microsoft – Partner feedback

“This is a great tool, simple to use and really effective. I love

being able to share good quality, relevant content

consistently. It’s really helped us create a presence on

social media, and no doubt has helped Microsoft, too.” Saffra Hale, Trinity Expert Systems, a Microsoft partner.

“The socialondemand tool is just brilliant. The ability to

customise what content we get from Microsoft, and

seamlessly post it to our social media accounts as our own

content is a huge benefit to our social media efforts.” Howard Blacksmith, PFK Cooper Parry, a Microsoft partner.

“This platform is a positive sign from Microsoft that they care

about the partners and are making a positive contribution to

build a sustainable and valuable business for them.” Mitchell Feldman, Cloudamour Ltd, a Microsoft partner



“At Microsoft, we see our partners as an integral part of our business

operations and are always looking at cost-effective ways of supporting our

mutual marketing efforts.”

“socialondemand answered many requirements we had,

turning out to be even more popular with our partners than we anticipated.”

“We are now able to make a real difference to our partners

and can track how successful they are when it comes to social media,

in terms of customer engagement, interactions and business opportunities.”

Gemma Wood

SMB Customer Marketing Manager

Small and Mid-market Solutions and Partners

Microsoft UK.


Amplify your messages through your advocates’ social

networks

You may not do social media…

But your customers/ prospects, employees, sales

partners and brand advocates do!

Social media amplification will enable your

extended sales teams (internal and external) to be

more engaged (with you) and more ‘socially

active’.

You will be able to reach new audiences and drive

sales via social media.

socialondemand is a new and cost-effective way to

influence potential/ existing buyers.


Thank you.

Steven Woodgate

SMB Social Media Community Manager, Microsoft

[email protected] / @MicrosoftSB

Olivier Choron

CEO and Founder, purechannelapps

[email protected]

+44 (0)7876 472 461 / @purechannelapps

http://purechannelapps.com/uploads/infographic_socialondemand_PCA.pdf

mailto:[email protected]






case study: how microsoft amplified their social media brand messages through their trusted...

Marketing

partners social networks

confidence c purechannelapps

alliance partners

items commercial

brand advocates

sales staff sales partners

brand messages

b2b customers commercial