How to Achieve B2B Social Media Success

How to Achieve B2B Social Media Marketing Success March 2011

Agenda
Introduction – Three Phases of Social Media Adoption
Observation (Exploring and Listening)
Preparation (Getting Your Ducks in a Row)
Participation (Publishing, Responding and Mingling)

But First - Why Social Media Matters to B2B Companies
Companies active in social media report a 59% higher lead conversion rate for organic search traffic
85% of B2B buyers say they want B2B vendors to engage and interact with them online
93% of B2B buyers believe that all companies should have a social media presence

Why Social Media Matters (2)
9 out of 10 b2b buyers start a purchase process with search (and social media increasingly affects search results)
Three-quarters of B2B technology buyers say they use social media at some point during a buying cycle to gather information or communicate with colleagues about a purchase; 58% use LinkedIn for this purpose
YouTube reaches 36% of all business decision-makers - more than 10X the figure for Forbes.com

43% of employees in Fortune 1000 companies say they use LinkedIn for professional purposes
100% of the Fortune 500 have at least some of their executives listed on LinkedIn. 50% of LinkedIn users are business decision makers
65% of journalists use social media to conduct research for stories

59% of C-level executives report using social media for business purposes at least weekly
90% of B2B technology decision makers watch online videos
80% of B2B technology decision makers read blogs; 69% are active on social networks

(Really?)
Yes, really – sources for the preceding statistics can be found here:
http://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/best-social-media-stats-facts-and-marketing-research-of-2010/

Phase 1: Observation

Establish Your Baseline
Before you start – create a dashboard
A snapshot of all measures that may be affected by social media activities

Example Metrics Total website traffic Unique visitors Web traffic by source (e.g. Google Advanced Segments) Subscribers (email, RSS) Web traffic quality (bounce rate, time per visit, pages per visit) Search traffic – generic and branded Email open rate Email pass along (if possible) Email CTR Facebook fans Twitter followers Blog traffic YouTube subscribers YouTube video views LinkedIn group members “ Mentions” – total and by social network Lead conversions by source Lead conversion rate – total and by source Net new customers Revenue from new customers Marketing spend reduction Number / share of sales interactions involving social media

Selecting a Monitoring Tool
Social media monitoring is critical for baseline and progress measures
Free tools – you get what you pay for
Some key considerations:
Extent of coverage
Realtime (or near realtime) alerts
Workflow capabilities

Popular Monitoring Tools

What to Look For
Who is talking about your company / products?
Where are they talking?
What are they saying?
Who needs to know / respond?
Ditto the above for your competitors.
Who is talking about issues / trends in your industry?
Who are the key influencers to connect with (analysts, journalists, bloggers, customers)?
Who are the competitors to monitor?

Phase 2: Preparation

Social Media Policy
Your employees want to help – but need guidance and guidelines
Involve all stakeholders: marketing/PR, development, customer service, HR, legal
Be a concierge – not a dictator

Sample Social Media Policy Outline
Define “social media”
Explain company objectives
Shoulds and Shouldn’ts
Musts and Mustn’ts
Who to ask when questions arise

Develop a Social Media Plan
Establish metrics (from your baseline)
Identify your tools / venues
Allocate responsibility / time / resources
Set reasonable measurement intervals and goals
Plan for contingencies
B

Mistakes to Avoid
Using social media as a direct response vehicle
Trying to automate interaction
Expecting instant results
Not allocating (enough) time / resources
Treating social media as a silo
Failing to plan
Sending mixed signals / messages
Being dishonest / misrepresenting
Failing to train employees
Not providing fresh / relevant / valued content
Failing to LISTEN
Being negative
Assigning it to an intern

B2B Social Media Success Stories: ShipServ
ShipServ: international shipping software
Objectives:
Awareness
Leads
Engagement
50% increase in website traffic
Tactics:
redesigned website
Blog
tracking through CRM system
content development/promotion
LinkedIn group
SEO
Results:
web traffic up 59%; 1,000+ white paper downloads
600 views of company videos
Landing page conversion rate up 150%
Sales-ready leads up 400%
Measurable increase in brand awareness
Estimated cost was 20% of traditional media campaign

B2B Social Media Success Stories: Ernest Agency
Ernest – a UK-based b2b marketing agency
Objectives:
Increase brand awareness
Demonstrate industry knowledge and social media marketing capabilities
Increase search traffic
Generate new business
Tactics:
Create B2B marketing statistics video
Post video on branded YouTube channel
Promoted video through:
Twitter
LinkedIn groups and profiles
Facebook
PR
Email
Comments on industry blogs
Results:
6,500 video views
42% increase in Twitter followers
77% traffic increase to blog; 30% increase to corporate website
20+ blog posts written about or featuring the video
Measurable improvement in organic search traffic
Two significant new customers

Phase 3: Participation

The Four C’s of Social Media

Proactive Monitoring
Monitor
Brand mentions
Key influencers
- Industry developments
Respond
Who needs to know?
Do we need to respond? How?
What else do we need to do? (e.g. capture information about a service problem, market opportunity or new product feature)
Measure
What’s the impact?
How do we capture / report this?
How does this change what we are doing (if at all)?

Measuring Success
Ultimately this is based on your goals and objectives.
Direct ROI measures can be challenging.
Typical success metrics include:
Increased brand awareness (e.g. branded search, direct visits)
Enhanced brand image (important – and real – but hard to quantify)
Increased brand / product mentions in social media
Increased website traffic, Twitter followers, blog readers, etc.
Increased lead conversion rate
New opportunities identified
Increased customer engagement / lower churn rate

Questions? http:// webbiquity.com

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How to Achieve B2B Social Media Success

by Tom Pick on Mar 28, 2011

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How to Achieve B2B Social Media Success — Presentation Transcript