Social media in B2B: "How conversations help you leverage the things you are already doing." for InSites Consulting

How conversations help you leverage the things you are already doing. Or: how being an business to business company makes you more conversation- worthy than most big brands.© InSites Consulting Polle de Maagt (@polledemaagt) and Ashley Smith for InSites Consulting Conversation readiness 1

Hello. I am Polle de Maagt. I create impact through conversations at a pretty cool company called InSites Consulting. We work mostly because we’re committed to take research forward, but brands like Ben&Jerry’s, Nike, Heineken and Philips agreed to pay us for it.© InSites Consulting Conversation readiness 2

Never.Ever.Come to me with the excuse that it‟sdifficult for B2B organizations to domarketing or advertising and to makeuse of social media or conversations.Most things that are normal for B2B, areskills B2C is struggling to implement.

“Twitter is another way for us to engage with our customers, its becoming very critical for us,” said Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO of Eastman Kodak Co. Hayzlett himself is an active Twitter user (@jeffreyhayzlett), as is his marketing team, including Kodaks b2b group (@kodakdigprint). “What b2b marketers, in particular, miss is that these conversations are going on without them. Just type in your company name on Twitter search and youll be blown away— there are going to be comments about your company and issues being discussed you werent even aware of.”Business to business is about relationship and personalcontact.So says Kodak.

Business to business is about superb products/expertise.About acts, not ads.

Over-the-top-delivery Makes negative conversations Over-delivery Makes positive conversations Expectation Delivery Gives no reason to talk Under-delivery Makes negative conversationsBusiness to business is about managing expectations.About under-promise, over-deliver.

Business to business buyers are on social media.Shown by research by Forrester.

Business to business isn’t on social media.We tried to make a scan of the industry and competitors. Efforts are scattered,unprofessional and not about conversations. We are in a wasteland.

Texas Instruments.We tried to make a scan of the industry and competitors. Efforts are scattered,unprofessional and not about conversations. We are in a wasteland.

Dell Healthcare.We tried to make a scan of the industry and competitors. Efforts are scattered,unprofessional and not about conversations. We are in a wasteland.

Dell Healthcare on Twitter.We tried to make a scan of the industry and competitors. Efforts are scattered,unprofessional and not about conversations. We are in a wasteland.

Philips healthcare on YouTube.We tried to make a scan of the industry and competitors. Efforts are scattered,unprofessional and not about conversations. We are in a wasteland.

Philips 21:9 Carousel: really show people what it‟s about

Learning 1: No centralmanagementMany companies have cluttered (local)initiatives that are not centrallymanaged.Result = no synchronization, no vision,no goals.

Learning 2: Modus inertia.Most accounts are inactive, without anyconversation going on. Being present is afirst step, but we have to engage as soonas possible.

Learning 3: Broadcasting, nodialogue.The active accounts are often justbroadcasting messages in push-style.Social media is about people andconversations, not about promotions andads.

Learning 4: No activation.Most accounts have very littleconnections. People need to be aware ofyour presence. Show links to socialmedia channels in all touchpoints(website, newsletter, offlinecommunication,...)

Learning 5: Static content.Lot‟s of websites show pictures,video‟s,...unfortuntaly they cannot beshared. Everything we show, must beshareable. If we use video, let‟s think inYouTube, Vimeo,...For pictures we canuse Flickr. If we build presentations, let‟sthink in Slideshare, if we offer PDF‟s weuse Sribd,...

Learning 6: Too rational.Most companies just share rationalinformation. We need to go beyond factsand figures. People identify with humansand emotions... And don‟t forget: gobeyond text. Think photo, slides,video,...What do you like most?

So, what is this presentationabout? What’s happening withconversations and social media?(and you might recognize some thingsyou are already doing).

1) From customer acquisition to customer retention tocustomer advocacy.KLM went the extra mile with their KLM Surprise campaign.

2) From remarkable talks to remarkable acts.Volkswagen did a campaign to actually change people‟s behavior.

3) From monetary value to conversation value.Penguin Books recognizes influentials.

4) From technical to emotional benefits.Actimel featured is technical benefits, which made it vulnerable towards negativeclaims.

5) From product to service.Delivering happiness at Zappos.

6) From communication to company culture.Measuring your advocacy by the number of people hat wears your tattoos.

7) From communication to employee advocacy.A great website by the way.

8) From not getting distracted by technology, but using it.Wakoopa once was a geek tool, now a very promising marketing research tool.

So, this presentation isn’t somuch about advertising, socialmedia or marketing, but aboutrelationships and commonsense.About how applying common sense takesyou halfway to success.

Consumer Journey General overviewLet’s have a look at how consumers in a B2B environment make their decisions Pre-purchase Help them choose Legitimise decision making Loyalty loop Have loyalty benefits Treat them based on sales Start Orientation Purchase Post-purchase Deliver Polle de Maagt (@polledemaagt) for InSites Consulting, based on McKinsey‟s Consumer Decision Journey

Consumer Journey ConversationsIf you translate this based on conversation value, you will get a nuanced view. Pre-purchase Be there Neutralize doubts Have conversation proof Loyalty loop Solve problems Activate to share Co-create Start Treat them based on conversation value Purchase Make it work Orientation Over-deliver Be shareable Post-purchase Over-deliver Solve problems Activate to share Co-create Polle de Maagt (@polledemaagt) for InSites Consulting, based on McKinsey‟s Consumer Decision Journey

That makes four main uses forsocial media and conversations:1) Solve the problems of your clients2) Activate your buyers3) Have a sales process worth sharing4) Be there before the sales

Helping people helps.Exceeding customer expectations builds loyalty (81% repeats, 63% recommends)and falling below customer expectations erodes loyalty (5%/71%).

Cisco had one of it’s most successful product launches.All about B2B and social media.

AMEX gathers small business.All about B2B and social media.

Activate your audience to recommend you.Every customer that leaves Florence‟s B&B Il Giglio d‟Oro is asked to leave arecommendation at Tripadvisor; it is now ranked #1 of 364 B&B‟s …

It is about capitalizing on the stuff you’re already doing.Kay Mook gained the Antwerp Zoo 300K extra visitors and almost becameproduct of the year 2009. More at http://polle.me/ccjSNL

It is about creating happy customers.Even in a procedure-heavy company like Starbucks, there is room to put a smileon customer‟s faces.

Create sales promotions that are worth sharing.The difference between “50% discounted” and “because we love you, we have anextremely interesting experience you HAVE to see”.

Commit random acts of kindness.Think about small things worth talking about.

Make sales easy and easy to share.Make it easy to subscribe of share your content via twitter, Facebook or othersocial buttons. Example: http://polle.me/ij19j4

Leverage the power of social commerce.Groupon is one of the smart promotions platforms.

1. I did a LinkedIn group search and found the group 2. I then did a search for the group on Google 3. The group search led me to find the company’s website 4. While on the company’s site, I used a free website tool and downloaded a white paper 5. The phone rang within 20 minutes of downloading the paper (I hated this part! But was glad, in retrospect, that I gave them my name and not Mickey Mouse.) 6. I had a good 45 minute conversation about…social media. Yep, that’s right! There was a little bit of discussion about their website, the tool, their offerings, etc. but most was about social media, implementing it, how it’s changing marketing. (I loved this part! Even though I knew they are a marketing a social media application) 7. I had never heard of this company so I went to the MarketingProfs Know-how Exchange forum to further investigate and to see if anyone else had. I had a hunch, however, that the answers I received were from the company’s marketers (give them a read, you be the judge), but none-the- less I was still curious. 8. I then hopped over to Twitter to see if anyone over there had heard of the company, but it was radio silence. But, coincidently, there just happened to be a bunch of timely tweets appearing about this company and its new free tool that they released. And how the company “listened” (via Twitter) to a tweet and actually implemented the suggestions made on the tweeter’s blog. Now that got my attention! 9. I then signed up for the company’s webinar. I wish I remember where I saw the promo for the webinar, but I can positively say, I don’t think it was an invitation from the company. 10. Finally, after feeling that I did enough investigation, got a sense of what they could achieve for me [because it obviously works for them, in my experience] I signed on with this company for their services. (via)© InSites Consulting B2B before the sales: true case how being there before the sales just helps. Conversation readiness 46

0Scania makes it easy to find and share information.Using a social media newsroom.

Work together with 23000 other experts.Using a social media platform.

Indium engineers convinced 10 engineers to blog.On their terms. The results: 3.2 times more web traffic, 2.4 times more leads.

O’reilly uses content to grow their company.And they built new business models on top of it.

Bring your sales where the end consumers are.Bring the sales where your clients are: smart cooperation in content.

Will it Blend: designed to help sales people sell the product.

Akzo Nobel: Paint.

Not convinced?We asked 500 European marketers howthey perform in terms of return oninvestment, turnover growth,profitability, market share and customersatisfaction.

Product improvement Offline WoM Road map WoMThe best performing marketers do three thingsthat make them stand out.* Conversation Readiness research amongst 500 European marketers

It’s really simple:Act human.Build upon the things you’realready doing.Think conversations.And on top of that: here‟s some structureto help you out.

Observe Facilitate JoinThe three pillars of conversation management.

Start with observing and listening.There are simple tools to observe what consumers are doing. Viasearch.twitter.com or more advanced tools. But what about customer emails?

Facilitate.UPS facilitates discussions on „New logistics‟ with their B2B clients on Facebook.

Join.Helping helps. Exceeding customer expectations builds loyalty (81% repeats, 63%recommends) and falling below customer expectations erodes loyalty (5%/71%).

Use pilot projects to learn and change.Telenet launched a beta product to let consumer help them eventually create abetter product. Think in intrinsic, learning and change KPI‟s.

Be maniacal about measuring and tweaking.Measure views, clicks, but even more important: your return on investment.Extremely simple, but effective: the Net Promoter Score.

You can forget most of the thingsI said in this introduction.But please, remember these 3 things.

1) Conversations drive business. Companies that connect with their consumers perform better. So start the conversation.

2) To drive conversations, exceed expectations and create stuff worth sharing. Don‟t plan only for life time money value, but for life time conversation value.

3) Start with observing, but start with simple ways to drive conversations. Start monitoring, start with pilots and learn while doing.

Read the manual.Seriously.Read it.

I hope I showed some common sense. If you liked it, please share my story. Send me an email at polle@insites.eu or find me on twitter at @polledemaagt.© InSites Consulting Conversation readiness 68

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Social media in B2B: "How conversations help you leverage the things you are already doing." for InSites Consulting

by Polle de Maagt on Mar 30, 2011

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Social media in B2B: "How conversations help you leverage the things you are already doing." for InSites Consulting Presentation Transcript