Social Branding for B2B -- Notes from a Hardass Motherfu*ker -- University MBA Lecture -- Scot McKee

SocialBrandingfor B2BNotes from aHardassMotherfu*kerPresentation to University MBA StudentsScot McKee, Managing Director, BirddogDec. 2011

I‟m here because of this “Can‟t stop recommending this book” ***** Amazon, 2011 “If only all business books were this good” ***** Amazon, 2011 “The first business book I have read from start to finish” ***** Amazon, 2011

A summary of me 25 Years of B2B brand strategy pain Just when I thought it was safe Digital marketing happened And then Social Media…

A summary of the B2B Mkt. Lifetimes of communicating function over form Dogmatic repetition of product specification Neither of which the customer cares about Then Social Media scared the crap out of everyone

A summary of you Learning marketing during a banking crisis Eurozone economic meltdown An „endless‟ global recession Fundamental changes to business marketing In other words… …the pain has only just begun

All roads lead to the brand Today‟s objectives: Offer insight into new media realities Encourage you to challenge B2B conventions Prepare you for the shit-storm heading your way

All roads lead to the brand To do that, we need to answer a question…

What is a brand? Answer: “A perception, or collection of perceptions in the mind of an audience”

What is a brand? “What people say about you when you‟ve left the room” - Jeff Bezos, Founder, Amazon

What is a brand? So, in a B2B context, a burnt cow‟s arse is not a brand

What is a brand? This is not a brand either It‟s a badge

What is a brand? THIS is a brand

What is a brand? Your brand is how people „feel‟ about you „Intangible assets‟

What is a brand? Traditionally, we have controlled perceptions with „stuff‟

What is a brand? But what happens when there is no „stuff‟, only people?

What is a brand? People now connect to devices, networks, communities Not „stuff‟

What is a brand? Business brands are „always on‟ Up mountains… on the beach…

What is a brand? …in public… and… (ahem)… in private

What is a brand? In social spaces brand focus is now „content‟ Not the old business content, new customer content

What is a brand? To influence brand perceptions, content has to be: Customer focussed Customer relevant Customer endorsed Even customer generated

What is a brand? In other words, businesses facilitate brand conversation But no longer control it

What is a brand? Selecting the right message to shape perceptions is very different from pushing the corporate message

What is a brand? Social ideas & concepts that engage the customer May not be aligned to traditional corporate „selling‟

What is a brand? Determining „good‟ from „bad‟ or success from failure is governed by client expectation, and the crowd… *Eeek*

What is a brand? 2 very different examples With different outcomes Highlight the disparity…

The Powwownow Story Digital Strategy Community Engagement „Pull‟ v „Push‟ Creative Platform® Social Channels The UK‟s leading conference calling service provider

The Powwownow Story Digital Strategy Community Engagement „Pull‟ v „Push‟ Creative Platform® Objective: Social Channels „Build a social community to raise brand awareness‟

The Powwownow Story A single online creative concept to encourage debate about business travel (and offer the conference calling alternative)

The Powwownow Story Applied via a „sponsorship‟ brand model

The Powwownow Story Multi-platform delivery

The Powwownow Story Online/offline social integration

The Powwownow Story Info - graphics Distributable content creation

The Powwownow Story After 5 months: Community of 55,000 Engaging hundreds daily 100% positive sentiment Brand awareness high Sales conversion low Project suspended

The Powwownow Story Q: #Success or #Fail…? A: Social Success Sales Failure Learning: Agree achievable objectives Social strategies are long-term Supports the sales process, not replace it

When it goes right… it can go very right.

The RingGo Story Objective: „Harness positive brand sentiment to influence customers and prospects‟

The good guys 3rd Party mobile parking services provider

The bad guys The Rail Operator & Parking Contractor replacing RingGo with a less efficient and less secure parking system

The deal 3 Week campaign Briefed in 20 minutes Agreed on a handshake Full agency autonomy & independence (no client approvals/delays) Blogging platform launched within 24 hours

Give it a Name

Give it an Image

Hit the „Publish‟ button…

Focus on Content

Focus on Content Blog offered news & opinion A destination for customers Content driven by advocates A bridge linking communities High visibility & transparency

What was achieved in 21 days?

The Yellow Lines analytics February 22 201114 views

The Yellow Lines analytics February 28 20111,402 views

The Yellow Lines analytics March 01 20111,621 views

What did we achieve in21 days? Community building: Over 22 Thousand (22,000) unique site visits

What did we achieve in21 days? Engagement/ Brand advocacy: >8 Hundred (800) comments 99.8% positive sentiment Local News Coverage BBC Radio Coverage

What did we achieve in21 days? Policy review/ Setting: Email petition from supporters Email responses from Board Directors to RingGo customers 27 Letters submitted to MPs Requests from Office of Rail Regulators (ORR)

What did we achieve in21 days? “The Yellow Lines is an invaluable asset that has gathered all the positive user support we knew existed but were never able to harness, and made it available for the whole world to share…” Harry Clarke – Founder, RingGo

Great, but… Social case studies are rare in B2B Fear, inertia, scepticism, lack of experience dominate So… Q: How do we drive change? A: Lead by example, one Turdy Brown step at a time…

B2B Marketing Conf. 2011 Full Keynote Presentation: www.birddog.co.uk Here are the important slides…

The social wall of turd Customers are on the other side

The B2B Challenge Staff, customers & prospects have gone Digital and Social „crazy‟

The B2B Challenge But the business response isn‟t quite working

The B2B Challenge The challenge is for business to keep up with customers

The response so far In the „old‟ digital days, you would send email

The response so far Not working? Ok…SEND MORE

The response so far But it‟s still not working Because of the „social‟ wall

The response so far It stops everything…

The web is deadSource: Wired/Cisco

The web is dead Audience adoption of social media is forcing business change

The web is dead The central corporate „push‟ hub

The web is dead Now has to „pull‟ audiences from social spaces

The web is dead But while businesses focus on the website

The web is dead The customers are ignoring it

The web is dead Oops Customers love being social

Some facts Over 8,000 social channels Mobile commerce to reach $31bn by 2016 938 changes to Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn since 1/1/11 90% of the World‟s data has been created in the last 2yrs 28% of buying decisions influenced by social networksSource: IBM/Social Media Today

The point for B2B is… Those who “don‟t see the relevance” – are dead.

The point for B2B is… Social media needs to become the fabric of all marketing activity

The point for B2B is… The entire Marketing Plan needs to be socialised (That doesn’t mean all marketing is social media…)

Social integration Understanding the customer‟s journey Allowing online engagement offline And vice-versa Encourage advocates, not customers Personality trumps protocol Create experiences, not sales pitches

Potential Reach? E.g. Promoting this presentation via: Traditional/Website/Email 100

Potential Reach? Promoting this presentation via: Our known/tracked/online network In the first 24hrs 100 100,000

Potential Reach? Conservative extended community 100 100,000 200,000

Potential Reach? Within a week 100 100,000 200,000 500,000

Guardianship Seeding + Syndication + Aggregation = Reach Increased Reach = Brand Amplification Brand Amplification = Sales But… ownership changes hands

Guardianship From the moment you hit the button It‟s not „yours‟ anymore

Guardianship It belongs to the crowd

Guardianship The audience becomes part of the brand It wants to be associated with content It wants to participate It wants to share

Guardianship When brand support is high Sales are the inevitable consequence

To end at the beginning Engaging Content Creation Distributable Social Content Cross Channel Sharing Message Amplification Customer Engagement

The social experiment And that was the end of the presentation Apart from… the photo

The social experiment To engage wider audiences, you have to make your brand, your world, accessible to the outside world

The social experiment So, at the start of my presentation, I took a picture…

The social experiment …and tweeted it

The social experiment It received more views than the entire conference delegation… in 5 minutes

The social experiment In 10 minutes… It had been re-tweeted 26 times

The social experiment In 15 minutes… It achieved coveted „Top Tweet‟ status

The social experiment By the end of the day, it had been viewed 400 times

The social experiment Less than a week later, views passed 1000

The social experiment It could have ended there... …but the crowd had other plans

The social experiment During the presentation…

The social experiment After the presentation…

The social experiment Picked up and quoted by competitors (Thought leadership)

The social experiment Support Fan Advocate Facilitating independent brand awareness

The social experiment YouTube video released (next stop Hollywood…)

The social experiment Not an advertisement Not sponsorship Not paid for Not requested Content aggregation, Syndication, brand amplification

The social experiment The future of a B2B brand will be determined by its social audience – whether you like it, or not Content aggregation, Syndication, brand amplification

The social experiment One hour after movie release

The social experiment That‟s a month of presentations, in an hour

The social experiment One week after slides were shared

The social experiment That‟s over two years of presentations, in a week

The social experiment Revenue will come from a bunch of people you barely know learning of your brand from a bunch of people they barely know… …but trust implicitly

Final takeaways You‟ve seen a large social campaign A small social campaign And a personal social campaign We haven‟t even touched on what‟s really possible…

Final takeaways …But that‟s another story for another day.

Final takeaways Listen – customers talk to/about you all the time Be social – talking about it isn‟t the same as doing it Hurry up – your competitors are already there

Final takeaways B2B Brands can be built online It‟s my job to make it possible It‟s my job to show you how It‟s your job to make it happen

Thank you (and be social…) Scot McKee

Contact www.birddog.co.uk

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Social Branding for B2B -- Notes from a Hardass Motherfu*ker -- University MBA Lecture -- Scot McKee

by BirddogB2B on Dec 20, 2011

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Social Branding for B2B -- Notes from a Hardass Motherfu*ker -- University MBA Lecture -- Scot McKee — Presentation Transcript