Social Media for B2B Enterprises A Guide to Getting Started

by Mike CichonJanuary 27, 2009

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What is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?

Primary Goals:

Premise: Consumers saturated and fatigued

by impersonal broadcast messages

The Web has changed the way consumers shop and buy

Traditional “out-bound” programs produce low quality “leads”

More sophisticated consumers want to be educated not sold-to

Educating prospects before initial sales contact will shorten sales cycles

Growing influence via peer interaction, personal referrals, and “at large reviews”

High volume / low level of interaction

Knowledge x-fer relegated to Sales

Argument: Interruption-based tactics

(e.g., email) are becoming ineffective

Drive increased inbound website traffic, reduce “buying friction,” and augment paid search

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Elements of SMM

Building and maintaining your on-line presence Corporate website and 3rd party sites

Developing rich persona-based content Many tools and communication vehicles

Participating in discussions on the Web Establish an organic path to your product / company

Measuring / monitoring Define meaningful metrics and use them to analyze

results

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Hosted and placed content

Associate expertise, authenticity and transparency with your brand

Corporate Website

Web-PR

Forums Social Bookmarking

Blog / Micro-Blog

Wikis / Directories

Other Social Media

Social Networks

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A few notable social media tools

Must Haves Nice to Haves Website

SEO and web-analytics (Google) Blog (Wordpress, Twitter,

Technorati) Marketing automation

(Marketo) Web-PR

Optimized, direct to consumer press releases (Vocus / prweb)

Wikis / Directories Wikipedia, ZoomInfo

Brand Monitoring Google Reader / Blog, Twingly,

SocialMention, Backtype

Social Bookmarking Delicious

Social Networks LinkedIn SIG Facebook Fan Page

Other Digg Flickr StumbleUpon YouTube Buzzlogic Buzzmetrics

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Types of content

Basic content Webinars / seminars

Whitepapers

Value calculators

How-to guides

Advanced content Videos / podcasts

E-books

Tools / toolkits

Flash demos

Examples

Conversation Agent e-Book

Fast Company.TV

Hubspot Grader

Rearden Commerce Demos

“On the Web, you are what you

publish.”

David Meerman ScottThe New Rules of Marketing

an PR

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Participating in the blogsphere

Listen Identify top bloggers and subscribe to

their feeds Configure alerts / widgets to search

for mention of company and key competitors

Join the conversation Start blogging and actively

commenting Adopt a conversational tone Give perspectives and ask for input Link to influencers and encourage

them to link to you

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Measuring success (Best Practice)

1) Measure traffic, validate source Unique visitors eMail / RSS subscriptions

2) Correlate to leads

3) Correlate to conversions (closed deals)

Jan FebMarAprMay Jun Jul

Aug SepOct

Nov Dec

0 1 2 2 5 6 7 5 8 8 7 15

Track to ROI and benchmark to other programs

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Other (anecdotal) metrics

Inbound website links Blog visitors / links Twitter follows /

retweets Posts on forums Votes for blog articles Delicious bookmarks LinkedIn connections Questions answered on

Yahoo Answers Fans / friends on

Facebook Views on YouTube StumbleUpon visitors

Metrics like these illustrate

increased touchpoints,

interactions, and conversations,

but are a bit less traceable to

pipeline performance

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Important questions to ask yourself

Who are your target buyers and how do they use the Web Are the social technographics of your target market

favorable

Where do your prospects hang out on the web What sites and blogs do they visit on a regular basis

Who are the thought leaders in your market Brief them on your products and invite them to contribute

Is social media appropriate to your goals / timeframe Social media takes marketing resources for R & D For B2B companies, measurable benefits will likely

take 6 or more months to materialize

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Other considerations …… stage of the product and market*

New ProductNew Market

New ProductExisting Market

New ProductRe-segmented

Market

• Target market might recognize need, but is unaware a solution exists

• Innovators will recognize solution when they see it

• Few if any active shoppers

Mark

et

Typ

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ark

et

Ch

ara

cte

risti

cs

Role

of

Socia

l M

ed

ia

• Well educated target market aware of need

• Many active buyers, late majority value shoppers

• Early adopters seeking next generation solutions

• Well educated target market aware of need, but predisposed to existing solutions

• Many active buyers and value shoppers

*Reference: The Four steps to the Epiphany

Educate the market and create demand especially among early adopters as there is no ready mass market

Generate broad awareness and buying interest by augmenting traditional demand gen, advertising, PR, and channel strategies

Cultivate debate or conflict to re-orient buyers and divide the market, creating a niche or segment that can be dominated.

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One last thought…

“When thinking about what social media is going to

do for your business, please be wary of setting it up

to be the salvation, the be-all, the life raft. It’s a set

of tools, a strategy, and a handful of tactics. It’s not

always appropriate. It’s not always the best thing in

the world. But it’s not a guaranteed everything.”

… ChrisBrogan.comSocial Media is not a Life Raft

January 23, 2009Social media should usually complement (not replace) traditional

demand generation, PR and advertising programs

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Social media marketing summary

1. Ensure a professional presence everywhere on the Web your target market is likely to visit and provide links to your content

2. Place conversational mentions of the company / product in various blogs, forums and other editorial venues where target prospects are likely to encounter and consume them

3. Make the company / product easy to find via natural search1. Develop appropriate keyword, content and link strategies

4. Enlist the help of market influencers to engage in on-line thought leadership discussions

5. Attract visitors to higher value content and provide them access via registration and opt-in programs

6. Define and measure success metrics / tailor programs

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Recommendations

Start by optimizing your website for keyword search

Optimize press releases for keyword search

Evaluate / adjust paid search campaigns

Start a blog, use keyword anchor text in subject lines

Monitor your brand for mentions across the web and comment when / where appropriate

Develop a strategy to build inbound links to your website

Develop a comprehensive content / collateral plan and allocate appropriate resources to it

Compare to other programs and adjust as necessary

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Thank You!

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About Mike Cichon

I am a Web2.0 / SaaS marketing specialist with extensive hands-on experience in go to market strategy and execution.

Over the course of launching several products to market I have developed a consistent track record and deep hands-on experience in messaging / positioning, go-to-market planning, and crafting effective demand generation programs.

Over the past 10 years I have enjoyed working with several technology companies in Silicon Valley. I’ve learned from experience how to use the latest marketing and public relations strategies to help products get noticed in today’s crowded markets.

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