B2B Social Media Marketing: Building the B2B Business Case for Social Media

Building the B2B Business Case
For Social Media
10
key benefits
Christina “CK” Kerley
www.CKB2B.com

Make No Mistake:
“Social” media is Business media.

Highly Engaged Audience.
57% of U.S. workers use social media for business purposes at least ONCE PER WEEK.
The
FACTS On
Social
Media
For
B2Bs
Used By Those With
Purcha$ing Authority.
While marketers are the earliest and largest adopters of social media, these tools are now gaining DEEPER penetration into the enterprise with USE BY EXECUTIVE MANAGERS and IT.
Social Media = Knowledge Advancement.
The NUMBER ONE reason cited by U.S. workers for using social tools for business purposes was to ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE AND ASK QUESTIONS FROM A COMMUNITY.
Source: IDC State of Social Business/Jan. 2010

Today’s B2B Buyers
59%
Engaged with peers online who addressed their challenges.
Followed online industry conversations on topics.
48%
Followed online discussions to learn more about topics.
41%
Source: Inside The Mind of The New B2B Buyer/Feb. 2010

Today’s B2B Buyers
37%
Posted questions on social networking sites looking for suggestions and feedback.
Connected directly with potential solution providers via social networking channels.
20%
Shared learnings from their research and buying process with others—through individual discussions, blog postings, discussion forums and tweets.
59%
Source: Inside The Mind of The New B2B Buyer/Feb. 2010

Yet many B2Bs
are not convinced
that these
game-changing media produce significant benefits for their business sectors and unique challenges.
©2009 Christina Kerley/ckEpiphany
All Rights Reserved

But that mindset is costing them potential profits, business leads, industry relevance…
and market share
to their savvy competitors.
All Rights Reserved

The Solution?
Better understanding
of the
tremendous B2B
business case
for social media.
10
key benefits
All Rights Reserved

B2B Branding is “High Touch” and is mainly established through directly interfacing
with customers and relationship building.
(vs. ads and campaigns)
#1
Extend
Branding
And
Relationship-Building
Efforts
Social media provides an array of new “touch points” for B2B brand executives to interact with prospects and customers.
Due to two-way, real-time attributes, social media tools enable a highly personal brand experience for B2B customers and prospects.
The convenience of social media allows more B2B executives to build relationships with current and prospective buyers… and building relationships is core to all B2B marketing and sales efforts.

The B2B market is much smaller than
the B2C market and thus, expanding
reach is imperative for identifying and
generating new business leads.
#2
Expand
Reach
With social media, companies now have access to a world of new markets… and new business leads.
Through monitoring online conversations, B2B executives can learn of changing needs and emerging opportunities that can fuel new offerings and practice areas to drive new revenues for the organization.
With their newfound reach, B2Bs can also identify companies with which to establish revenue-generating partnerships.

B2B Professionals actively network online
to share knowledge, solve problems
and build their network of industry contacts.
#3
Tap
Professional Communities
B2Bs can build professional communities centered on increasing knowledge share and reducing challenges that professionals face every day—and leverage these interactions to build brand, reputation and prospects.
B2Bs can participate in existing communities and network with members to share insights and help solve problems.

Through the value of their community participation, B2Bs can increase their standing and improve the potential of positive third-party referrals.

B2B buyers are heavily influenced by
third-party feedback in their purchasing decisions—both to identify solutions
and to limit risk to their organizations.
#4
Increase
Third-Party
Influencers
(WOM)
Due to providing objective, third-party experiences and feedback, favorable WOM (word-of-mouth) reduces buyer-side risk for big-ticket B2B purchases.
Programs implemented through social media help to facilitate brand advocates that can help “sell” B2B offerings through spreading positive mentions and endorsements.

B2Bs rely on thought leadership
to communicate, differentiate and
position their offerings.
#5
Bolster
Thought
Leadership
Programs
Through text, audio and video, social media gives thought leaders a dynamic new platform to demonstrate their expertise and gain exposure.
B2Bs can create rich, in-depth conversations, professional forums and knowledge exchanges around their unique ideas, articles, perspectives, reports and methodologies.
B2Bs can “repurpose and repackage” their existing thought-leadership content in new ways for these new tools, platforms and channels—and thereby maximize the content investments they’ve already made, and the ROI from them.

Social media are the most
cost-effective media. Ever.
#6
Reduce Marketing Spend
While social media requires an investment of budget and professional resources, it's nowhere near the costs associated with other media.
Even in tough economic climates, B2Bs can afford social media programs and use these initiatives to gain competitive advantage.
As the cost of each sale acquired through social media is significantly reduced, ROI and profit margins can increase.

Unlike impulse-driven, low-risk purchases, B2B sales cycles are far longer, with buyers conducting a lot of upfront research.
#7
Decrease
Sales
Cycles
Educating prospects throughout the purchasing cycle is a core role of B2B marketers, with social media providing them tremendous new outlets for knowledge sharing that can facilitate faster sales cycles.
Social media tools and platforms provide B2Bs with new ways to communicate information and answer buyer questions about their offerings much more quickly.
In providing two-way communications, B2Bs not only inform prospects, but also build trust and credibility that can work to increase sales in shorter periods.

B2Bs must continually identify ways to strengthen and improve their competitive advantage—both in their offerings
and their marketing strategies.
#8
Gain
Competitive
Advantage
B2Bs must remain relevant with existing and new customers and thus, they must be active in the media that their market deems relevant and actively uses.
Since many B2Bs are slower to adopt social media, many companies can leverage first-mover advantages within their industries.
Due to the insights gleaned through monitoring online conversations, companies can identify new offerings and needed improvements around which to strengthen their competitive advantage.

B2B offerings are often very complex and necessitate a learning curve for buyers,
both pre- and post-purchase.
#9
Lessen
Complexity
of Offerings
The information exchanged, and relationships built, through these conversational media help to decrease confusion and, in turn, increase the purchasing rates of B2B products, services and offerings.
Informing and helping prospective buyers through social media channels and programs can help position B2Bs as trusted advisors and decrease the concerns associated with high learning curves.

Due to a smaller market size and higher-priced offerings, the value of each
B2B customer is much greater
than B2C customers.
#10
Strengthen
CRM
Efforts
Social media technologies enable new CRM methods for B2Bs to improve their customer communications, extend customer service and provide knowledge share.
Through social media tools and programs, B2Bs can not only inform but involve their customers in every step of the brand development process and in return, deepen these relationships and retain customers.

Want to
learn
more
about
Social Media
Marketing
for B2Bs?

Why do business professionals use social media—what motivates them to engage in the social Web, what needs does it fulfill, which challenges does it solve, and how are their reasons different from consumers' use of Web 2.0 tools and technologies?
The reasons, and their avid rates of social-media usage might surprise you.
Click here to view slideshow

http://blog.hubspot.com	4952
http://www.ck-blog.com	1340
http://www.sosyalmedyapazarlama.com	350
http://socialmediab2b.com	350
http://blogs.business.com	285
http://www.coopr.nl	199
http://www.slideshare.net	183
http://www.dreamgrow.com	174
http://blog.crmworks.nl	117
http://www.business.com	79
http://hkotadia.com	67
https://blackboard.utdl.edu	31
http://www.pietervlamings.nl	30
http://feeds.feedburner.com	30
http://sentidosocial.posterous.com	29
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	28
http://www.customerthink.com	27
http://kenburbary.posterous.com	25
http://sonjavanvuren.web-log.nl	24
http://paper.li	14
http://www.smo14.de	13
http://gerhard-baumann.net	11
http://marketinganalytixx.wordpress.com	11
http://www.ecademy.com	6
http://www.bryankorourke.com	5
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	5
http://bbstore.nl	5
http://wildfire.gigya.com	5
http://elearning.payap.ac.th	4
http://www.smallbiztwit.info	3
http://thanhphamphu.blogspot.com	3
http://tachnovation.posterous.com	3
http://jlefevere.blogspot.com	3
http://blackboard.se.edu	2
http://bagtheweb.com	2
http://blackboard.utdl.edu	2
http://local.business.com	2
http://somepalvelumme.wikispaces.com	2
http://brittanybelt.tumblr.com	2
http://garciamoya.tumblr.com	2
https://blog.hubspot.com	2
http://www.typepad.com	2
http://ckblog.typepad.com	2
http://www.moralesmarketing.com	2
http://peri-marketing.blogspot.com	1
http://www.google.com.tr	1
http://a0.twimg.com	1
http://bryanorourke.sys-con.com	1
http://posterous.com	1
http://demo13.ifaline.com	1
http://www.blogger.com	1

B2B Social Media Marketing: Building the B2B Business Case for Social Media

by Christina "CK" Kerley on Sep 19, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

61 Embeds 8,450

Statistics

B2B Social Media Marketing: Building the B2B Business Case for Social Media — Presentation Transcript