How to Make the Most of Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Leigh HopwoodB2B Technology Marketing Consultant21 September 2011

Website www.reddmarketing.co.uk

Email leigh@reddmarketing.co.uk

Call 07746 249132

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Why it matters to us…

• 69% of B2B buyers use social networks “primarily for business networking and development.”*1

• 90% of B2B companies are using LinkedIn or Facebook*2

• 88% of B2B companies have a Twitter presence; 77% display a LinkedIn page*3

• 21% of B2B companies can consistently demonstrate ROI from social media investment*4

• 46% of companies using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or a company blog acquired a customer from that channel in 2010*5

• 23% of technology purchasers are active content contributors on social media*6

*1Source: KnowledgeStorm*2,3,4Source: B2B Marketing Social Media Benchmarking Report 2011*5Source: HubSpot’s The State of Inbound Marketing 2010*6Source: IDG Knowledge Hub

Why it matters to us…

Why it matters to us…

ExamplesTechnology Company Social Media Result

Lenovo (hardware) Community website 20% reduction in call centre activity

Moonfruit (web hosting) Social media mix 20% increase in sales

Genius.com (marketing automation provider)

Social media mix 24% of its social media leads convert to sales opportunities

Reality Digital (online community platform vendor)

Social media mix 72 leads over the first three months of its social media project

Sun (hardware) Blogging Increased thought leadership

Archer Technologies (provider of risk and compliance solutions)

1) Archer Community

2) Archer Exchange (app store)

1) 20 new members, 4,000 unique visits and 400+ downloads every week

2) 17,000 unique visits, 90,000 page views and 1,200 downloads

Enhanced product development from user feedback directly helped form 3 new products

InfusionSoft (CRM) Social media mix Need for less customer service agents, whilst increasing customer satisfaction by 10%

Why it matters to us…

• Direct interaction with your target audience• Potential to build your network and beneficial relationships• Real time delivery of communications• Message amplification• Opportunity for a B2B technology company to be humanised

• Your business can win business, improve customer relations, improve brand reputation, increase operational efficiencies...

How to make social media work

1. Understand the platforms– What’s available; Blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube…– Where is your audience engaged?

2. Have a clear reason– Brand awareness and/or positioning– Thought leadership– Interaction with audience– Lead generation– Driving website traffic– SEO– Building communities; internal and/or external

How to make social media work

3. Publish a social media policy– Who is authorised to publish content?– What are the guidelines?– Approval processes– Persona’s; corporate and individuals– Consequences of unauthorised activity

4. Plan for the long term– Ensure consistent and continued use of the platform– The right people onboard; CXO’s, Directors and experts– Processes in place to write and deliver content

5. Integrate social media into your marketing – Align marketing messages– Plan it

How to make social media work

6. Tell your audience – Promote your platforms on email signatures, adverts, other social

media sites, newsletters, emails, PR

7. Measure platform effectiveness– Is each platform delivering on its objective?– Fine tune, keep up to date

8. Build internal confidence– Encourage sharing of content– New customers from social media channels– Number of followers– Impact on the market/audience

Winning formula

Profitable Relationships

Quality Network

Quality Content

ConsistencyPersonality

Measure and Tweak

A&Q