where do the telecom cxos spend time to gather industry/domain related information

Survey Report

Where Do Telecom CXOs Spend Time To

Gather Industry/Domain Related Information

Market Survey Report By:

Saumya Verma MBA, Class of 2013 Department of Management Studies Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

2. SURVEY FINDINGS 4

Where Do They Spend Time 2.1 Accounts with Social Media 4 2.2 Separate Profiles for Personal and Official Purposes 4 2.3 Time Spent on Social Media 5 2.4 Social Media Engagement Towards Official Purposes 5 Reference Points 2.5 Importance of Social Media for Industry Related information / Engagement 6 2.6 Kind of Information They Look from Social Media 6 2.7 Social Media : Reliable or Informative 7 2.8 Validation of Vendors Based on Their Social Media Presence 8 Advanced Touch Points 2.9 Gathering Information About a Vendor 9 2.10 Connecting with Existing Vendors 9 2.11 Importance of Independent Industry Forums 11 2.12 Vendor’s Marketing Channels Noticed by Respondents 11 2.13 Sources of Technical / Domain Information 11

3. CONCLUSION 13 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Accounts with Social Media 4 Figure 2: Separate Profiles for Personal and Official Purposes 4 Figure 3: Time They Spend on Social Media in a Day 5 Figure 4: Social Media Engagement towards Official Purposes 5 Figure 5: Importance of Social Media for Industry Related Information 6 Figure 6: Kind of Information They Look from Social Media 7 Figure 7: Social Media : Reliable or Informative 7 Figure 8: Validation of Vendors Based on Their Social Media Presence 8 Figure 9: Trust to Get Information About a Vendor 9 Figure 10: Preference to Connect with Existing Customers 10 Figure 11: Importance of Independent Industry Forums 10 Figure 12: Vendor’s Marketing Channels Noticed by Respondents 11 Figure 13: Sources of Technical / Domain Information 12

Table of Contents

Where Do Telecom CXOs Spend Time To Gather Industry/Domain Related Information- Survey Report 2

Executive Summary


When it comes to being an industry leader, what differentiates one vendor from others is how he connects with decision makers of the target customer companies. For this, a vendor should be very much aware of the major touch points between him and a customer. A clear picture of where the customer spend time, what are the touch points and how a customer uses different channels to gather information about the vendors as well as industry / domain information is required to make a good marketing strategy.

This survey was targeted at CXO people of Telecom Companies. The set of respondents includes 290 CXOs across 33 countries, and 54 unique communication service providers (CSP). Out of them, total 21 responses were received.

This report constitutes of three major sections which collectively fulfill the purpose of the survey.

Where customer segment spend time on internet and social media. By precisely knowing this, a vendor can target his market strategy to capture the time spent by respondents on internet and social media effectively. This section also analyses the various social media channels and their importance among the respondents.

Reference points. This section tells about the reference points from where customer seg-ment gather industry/domain related information. By, analyzing them, a vendor can show his effective presence to any prospective customer on the targeted reference points.

Advanced Touch Points. This section focuses on the known touch points between customers and the vendors. It analyses a customer’s perspective towards gathering advanced informa-tion about a vendor, connecting to existing vendors, marketing channels by vendors etc.

These survey findings will help the vendors in being among the top three searches of every chan-nel used by respondents.

Survey Findings Where Do They Spend Time


People may select more than one checkbox.

2. Separate Profiles for Official and Personal Purposes Many people keep separate profiles on social media for official and personal purposes due to pri-vacy reasons. This question was asked to find out about the social media habits of respondents. On analyzing the known responses (respondents who mentioned their names) , generally respon-dents from APAC region keep separate profiles.

Figure 2 shows almost equal respondent follow the habit of keeping separate profiles on social media.

Figure 2 Separate Profiles for Official and Personal Purposes

Do you have separate social media profiles for personal and official purposes

1. Accounts with Social Media As the first step to find out where the respondents spend time, their presence on various social media was asked about.

Figure 1 makes it evident that 100% respondents have account with LinkedIn. So, vendors and service providers should target on LinkedIn Targeted Advertisements and LinkedIn industry dis-cussions as to reach out to larger span of targeted customers.

Figure 1 Accounts With Social Media

In which of the following social media do you have an account

Survey Findings Where Do They Spend Time


3. Time Spent on Social Media Being decision makers in the organization makes CXOs the right target for vendors to get the deal done. This requires vendors to maximize their presence on the social media used by CXOs.

Figure 3 shows, majority of respondents spend very less time on social media, justifying the kind of busy schedule they have.

Figure 3 Time They Spend on Social Media in a Day

How much time do you generally spend on social media

4. Social Media Engagement Towards Official Purposes

Social media is used by users in both ways, personal and official. As per the survey matter i.e. re-garding Industry/domain related information, we only limit to official purposes. Figure 3 and 4 collectively analyze that respondents spend a very less time on social media in a day; and out of that even lesser for official purposes. So, vendors should be quick and apt to cap-ture that smaller fraction of their attention to show an effective presence in the industry.

Figure 4 Social Media Engagement Towards Official Purposes

How much of your social media engagement is dedicated to official purposes

Survey Findings

Reference Points


5. Importance of Social Media Channels for Industry Related Information/Engagement As the first step in finding out and prioritizing reference points where the customer segments gather industry information, this question was asked in order to rate the various social media on their importance.

Figure 5 shows that blogs are the most trusted and reliable social media for industry information followed by LinkedIn. It clearly suggests that vendors should participate more in industry or do-main specific blogs and in LinkedIn telecom executive groups and discussions.

Figure 5 Importance of Social Media Channels for Industry Information

On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest) please rate the following social media channels on their importance as a source of industry related information/engagement

The numbers shown in the figure are weighted average of the ratings given to every social media channel.

6. Kind of Information They Look From Social Media After prioritizing the various social media channels, next question was asked to find out as what kind of information they look for from social media. Respondents were given choices like industry trends, industry benchmarks, technical information, domain related information and information about the vendor.

Figure 6 shows, for almost every kind of information, people trust blogs followed by LinkedIn. Also, LinkedIn is mostly used for information about the vendor. This suggests vendors to be very expressive on blogs. Also, vendor organizations should maintain a good, informative and active profile on LinkedIn.

Figure 6 Kind of Information, They Look from Social Media

What kind of information, do you look for from the social media channels (Mark all that are applicable)

Survey Findings

Reference Points


7. Social Media : Reliable or Informative We have recognized social media as a major reference point. Now, next question surveyed was how do people see social media on parameters : reliable or informative.

Figure 6 shows, LinkedIn is the most reliable and Blogs are the most informative social media channels. So, both should be used effectively to cater to the needs of the customer.

Figure 7 Social Media : Reliable or Informative

Please rank the social media channels on the parameters mentioned below.

Survey Findings

Reference Points


8. Validation of Vendors Based on Their Social Media Presence At the end of surveying about various reference points between Telecom CXOs and vendors, the question asked was, whether they validate vendors based on their social media presence before finalizing a deal.

Figure 8 shows, major part of respondents do not validate vendors based on their social media presence. They give importance to some other parameters for validating a vendor.

Figure 8 Validation of Vendors Based on Their Social Media Presence

Do you validate vendors based on their social media presence

Survey Findings

Advanced Touch Points


9. Gathering Information About a Vendor Now, it comes to prioritizing the advanced touch points between the telecom CXOs and vendors. So, while gathering information about a vendor, which channels respondents trust most was asked for

Figure 9 shows, respondents trust industry reports and ratings most for getting information about a vendor. This requires more participation from the vendor side to industry reports. Also, second stands the consultancy services. For this, vendors should seek ways to find how consultancy ser-vices base their recommendations on success stories, reviews or testimonials.

Figure 9 Trust to Get Information About a Vendor

On a scale 1 to 5 (5 being the highest), please rate which of the following channels do you trust in order to get information about a vendor’s suitability to meet your requirements

The numbers shown in the figure are weighted average of the ratings given to every given channel.

10. Connecting with Existing Vendors It is equally important for a vendor to stay connected with existing telecom operators. It helps ven-dors in retaining the customers and keeping the customers regularly updated with the new product features and other happenings.

Figure 10 shows, respondents prefer to connect with existing vendors through website RSS and blogs. This mandates that the vendors regularly update website and blogs with effective content. The list is followed by twitter accounts. Twitter is also a very apt medium to spread updates as it has a widespread user base and acts as a quick sharing medium.

Survey Findings



11. Importance of Independent Industry Forums One of the major touch points between Telcos and vendors are independent industry forums. So, exposure of various independent industry forums to telecom CXOs was asked about.

Figure 11 shows, a trend between importance of independent industry forums and number of par-ticipating countries and operators in every forum. The forums which have larger reach out and ex-posure are given more importance.

Figure 11 Importance of Independent Industry Forums

On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest) please rate the importance of the following independent industry fo-rums as an information/ accreditation source

The numbers shown in the figure are weighted average of the ratings given to every given independent industry forum.

Figure 10 Preference to Connect with Existing Vendors Through

On a scale 1 to 5 (5 being the highest), please rate which of the following channels do you trust in order to get information about a vendor’s suitability to meet your requirements

The numbers shown in the figure are weighted average of the ratings given to every given channel.

Survey Findings



13. Source of Technical / Domain Information At last, as the survey title, respondents were asked about the various source of technical / domain information. This will make a clear picture of where a vendor should look to contribute to technical/domain information.

Figure 13 shows, apart from industry experts like Gartner and industry forums, telecom publica-tions also stand at a priority as a source of technical/domain information .

The numbers shown in the figure are weighted average of the ratings given to every given marketing channels.

12. Vendor’s Marketing Channels Noticed by Respondents Vendors use different marketing channels to showcase their presence and excellence in the in-dustry. So, it’s necessary to survey about what marketing channels are actually noticed by re-spondents.

Figure 12 shows, that respondents mostly notice a vendor’s services by his presence in trade-shows/ events. Also, immediate followers like direct mailers and print ads in publications have a very small gap between them. So, apart from direct mailers, vendors can also go for print ads in publications.

Figure 12 Vendor’s Marketing Channels Noticed by Respondents

What kind of marketing channels used by vendors are most likely to noticed by you. Rate on a scale of 1 to 5. (5 being the highest)


Survey Findings


Figure 13 Priority as a Source of Technical/Domain Information

Please rate the following in order of priority as a source of technical/domain information (5 being the highest)

The numbers shown in the figure are weighted average of the ratings given to every given source.

Conclusion


Saumya Verma MBA, Class of 2013 Department of Management Studies Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Roorkee (Uttarakhand) - 247667 India. E– Mail : [email protected] Blog : www.saumyaverma.com LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/saumyaverma Facebook : http://fb.com/saumya.eck Twitter : https://twitter.com/saumya_verma

This survey highlights some of the areas both on internet and social media as well as other refer-ence points where a vendor should invest his time and efforts to conquer an effective marketing strategy.

As, 100% of our respondents have accounts with LinkedIn, and also people trust LinkedIn second for any kind of information like industry trends, domain related information and information about the vendor. In addition to this, LinkedIn is considered as the most informative social media chan-nel among the respondents. So, an impressive presence on LinkedIn whether in the form of indus-try related discussions/ forums, domain specific groups or LinkedIn targeted ads can make a dif-ference to a vendor.

On the parameters like reliable, source of industry related information and industry trends, bench-marks etc, Blogs stand undoubtedly first. This major area must be focused by all the vendors. It may be in the form of paid blogs or participation on telecom industry blogs like talkra.com. Also, respondents prefer to connect with the existing vendors through their RSS feeds and blogs. It also makes essential to motivate participation in website blogs for an effective RSS feed. Also, there can be other things looked upon like providing a platform for customers to speak about the vendor and discuss with the potential customers. Also, vendors can endorse in paid reviews of their prod-ucts and services.

Apart from all these, industry reports and ratings, industry forums and presence in the trade shows are also considered very important as an information/ accreditation source. Also, effective SEO on the content published should be done by all the vendors to rank high on the google search. Involvement from the customer side can be enhanced to showcase the success stories on the websites (kind of testimonials). In social media, twitter also plays an important role. Proper use of tweets by key people from the vendor side about the latest happenings and updates in vendors’ organization should be there. It increases credibility in the tweets among the CXO level followers.

In today’s era, the major source of information is huge database of internet. So, the strategy should be to capture this very first touch point with your customer in a very effective way.

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