Social Media For B2B Companies

Social Media for B2B Companies Should you be tweeting, blogging and podcasting to reach more customers? Sarah Sturtevant President, Integrated Website Solutions Inc.

Agenda

Internet Marketing Fundamentals

Moving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

Social Media: What, Why & How?

Social Media Tools

Isn’t having a basic company website good enough?

Basic B2B “brochure-ware” sites – don’t cut it anymore . They frustrate good prospects resulting in countless lost sales opportunities for companies.

Reality Check:

92% of all B2B purchases have some portion of that process initiated online with ZERO human intervention.

Source: Outsell (2008)

You need more than a static website if your company wants to stay competitive online.

“ 66.5% of B2B marketers plan on spending more online, and 66.3% plan on spending more on website development.” - BtoB Magazine, 2009 Plans & Priorities Survey

“ But we already know who our customers are…”

It’s not about who you know … it’s about how well your site sells you.

“ 50% of industrial buyers have selected one supplier over another primarily based on the capabilities of that supplier’s website ”

-- 2008 ThomasNet Buyer-Seller Disconnect Study by Outsell, Inc.

Outbound “Push Marketing” is Inefficient

Traditional “ Push Marketing”: You are in control of the message you push out along with how or when it is received by prospects.

But those prospects may not NEED what you sell at that moment.

Some “Pushy” Tactics:

direct mail

print catalogues

cold calling

trade shows

print magazine ads

static brochure-ware sites

It’s 2009 – times have changed!

Digital “Pull Marketing”: Your customers are in control.

They search for your products or services online at that exact moment they HAVE a need. If they find your site, they decide how and when to act.

Some “Pull” Tactics:

search engine optimization

detailed online catalogues

interactive websites

social media networks

Pull marketing is also know as “inbound marketing”

“ If people aren't buying online, they're researching online. And no matter how much they're doing both those things, they would like to do more.

The only thing holding them back is a lack of destinations or a quality user experience on the destinations they do have to choose from.

Your customers are adopting online at an incredibly fast rate.”

-- Gord Hotchkiss is the president of Enquiro , June 2009

Where are your customers?

93.4 % of industrial buyers use the internet to research buying decisions

Are you spending the majority of your marketing dollars online – where you can brand more effectively when buyers have a need?

Source, ThomasNet Industrial Marketer

Companies Need An Online Strategy

Brand – differentiate your products or services from your competitors

Drive – funnel more quality prospects to your site

Convert – give them a reason to contact you once they get to your site

Measure – hold your site accountable for generating good quality sales leads and ROI

Adjust – monitor how your site is performing and tweak it continuously to improve

Social Media 101 “The social media train has already left the station. Are you on it?”

Web 1.0: company-centric , one-directional communication from a website to its audience.

It shouts: “Buy our stuff … we’re the best!”

Web 2.0: customer-centric , interactive information sharing, collaboration and community-building online.

It asks: “How can we serve you better? We want to get to know you.”

Social Media Sites Drive Web 2.0.

Flickr Photo: ragtops2000

Today, Web 2.0 tools allow ordinary people the chance to go beyond simply consuming information; they can now produce and publish it on multiple channels.

Don’t worry… you don’t need to tackle all these social sites at once!

… but ignoring them doesn’t prevent your customers from talking about your company on these sites.

So doesn’t it make sense to find out what social sites your customers use, listen to them and then join the conversations so you can influence them?

Reasons Why B2B Companies Don’t Participate in Social Media

“it’s a passing fad”

“only kids are on these social sites”

“we don’t have time”

“we’re not sure how to get started”

“if we do get started, we don’t know how to maintain our social sites”

“it might be a time-waster with no ROI”

How do growing companies market? 1950 - 2000 2000 - 2050 Source: Hubspot @rickburnes

Other companies have successfully used social media to:

drive more traffic to their company websites

acquire new customers

build customer loyalty and retention

gain valuable market research for innovation

develop a community of virtual “brand advocates”

increase search engine exposure from multiple social sites

maximize the positive public relations “buzz” for their brands -- one conversation at a time

Don’t Jump in Without a Plan

Before you engage in social media, you need to figure out a strategy which has benchmarks and measurable objectives.

Social Media Sites Are Just Tools

Once you define your objectives,

some tools will be more appropriate than others

… Not Silver Bullets

Here are a few social media sites worth checking out…

Being Social Online: It’s not just a fad for kids anymore

More people access social sites than email (which is now considered “passé”)

The fastest growing segment of people using Facebook are over 35 years old

The median age of Twitter users is 31 – it doesn’t attract “20 somethings” or teens.

The median age of a LinkedIn user is 40

A network linking 45 million professionals

2008 – 22% of employers used social networking sites like LinkedIn to research job candidates

2009 - 45% of employers now use social networking sites and

another 11% plan to start using social networking sites for screening.

That represents 56 percent of employers - a big majority!

- 2009 Careerbuilder survey

Some LinkedIn Tips

Personal branding pages should highlight professional achievements

Include references and work-related content you publish (i.e. blogs, presentations etc.)

Company branding pages should include a logo, pictures, videos and a link to your company website.

Twitter

A micro-blogging site that is not just for announcing to the world what you had for lunch

Definition: A “Tweet” is a post on Twitter of 140 characters or less

Goal: Don’t just collect followers, engage with them!

“ Tweets from the Chiefs”: Some CEO’s on Twitter

Rob Howard, Telligent CEO

Twitter helps Telligent with customer feedback (positive and negative),

keeping a pulse on the industry, and it's a great way to get some buzz going

quickly.

Source: BusinessWeek

Jeff Booth, BuildDirect President and CEO

“ Twitter helps me start relationships.

Many of those relationships that would have never started without

Twitter have already become meaningful for our business.

I have found that the best way to create relationships is to give to

others. This is the same for Twitter.

I try to engage with users rather than to sell to them. I try to add value.”

Source: BusinessWeek

Facebook Company Page

Facebook has over 300 million active users – that’s almost the population of the US

More than 50% of Facebook's members now are over 25 years old; over 55% are women (the new buying power), 51% have an annual income of $75K; with 33% claiming to bring home $100K or more

Facebook has become one of the most trusted companies in America, and people spend three times more time there than on Google!

So, should your company have a Facebook page?

Corporate Blogs: Indium Corp. Case Study

75-year electronics assembler in Clinton, NY

Began with one corporate blog in 2005

Now has 10 blogs on their site written by 15 staff members

ROI includes more engaged customers, increased leads, reduced costs

Since publication in August, this blog has had over 200 views.

RSS- Really Simple Syndication RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. -- Wikipedia

Other Social Media Tools