Ben Brugler Speaks at YouToo 2011

Social Media and B2B: “ Why Should Consumers Have All the Fun?” April 15, 2011

What are we hoping to accomplish today?
A better understanding of how social media can impact B2B companies
How B2B companies can use social media
Best practices for using social media in B2B
What’s next?

Is Social Media Right for B2B?

86 percent of business-to-business companies now use some form of social media in their marketing mix…compared to 57 percent in 2009 and 15 percent in 2007 . Source: BtoBonline and the Association of National Advertisers, RealTime Report, White Horse

But… Only 32% have a daily presence Source: RealTime Report, White Horse

Our competitors will see “ My customers don’t use / have access to social media” Where new customers come from: 45% LinkedIn 43% blogs 38% twitter 32% facebook “ We can’t control what people say” I don’t trust our employees We don’t have anything to say “ We don’t have enough time” 60% of B2B companies have no staff dedicated to social media “ My boss will never go for it” 36% of B2B companies say there is low executive interest Source: AKHIA, Alexander Hotz/Mashable, HubSpot

B2B spending on social media will increase from $11 million in 2009 to $54 million in 2014. Source: RealTime Report, White Horse

How Will It Be Spent?

Google ‘ social media trends in B2B’… you will receive 3,810,000 results

Five Things to Consider Before Starting a Social Media Program
Know thyself. Understand your brand and what your true point of differentiation is.
Plan accordingly. Social media success isn’t achieved on day one – it’s always in motion, always in flux. Plan on having a consistent presence.
Time management. Maybe the most important – you can have the content and you can have a plan, but if you don’t leave yourself time to execute you’re all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Don’t be shy. You’ve done the work to create and implement your voice – don’t be afraid to use it. Respond to people’s questions. Comment on their opinions.
Integrate. Don’t ignore the other components of your marketing program.
Source: AKHIA

Social Medi
Social Media Usage in Fortune Global 100 Companies
65% have a twitter account
54% have a facebook fan page
50% have a YouTube page
33% use a corporate blog
Source: iStrategy2010
Graphic: Candis Hecking/AKHIA

Twitter, YouTube Blogs facebook LinkedIn Build interest Thought leadership Connect Personal connection Share knowledge Credible voice Join the community Conduct business Contact/engagement Resource Genuine interest in the co. Trust Ongoing interaction Advocate Partnership Creative to design a graphic Love at First Sight – Building a Social Media Relationship Source: AKHIA Graphic: Candis Hecking/AKHIA

The social media toolbox

Awareness of twitter has jumped from 5% in 2008 to 87% in 2010
200 million registered users
300,000 new users per day
180 million unique visitors per day
7% of Americans actively use twitter (17 million)
55 million tweets a day
37% tweet from their mobile
51% of users follow brands
Source: twitter

How Can B2B Companies Use twitter?
Brand awareness / building
Information exchange
Media relations
Build subject matter experts
Drive web traffic, specifically to thought leadership entries
Listen and monitor relevant market conversation
Exclusive offers / promotions
Source: AKHIA

Using twitter – a closer look: Cisco Customer engagement Customer feedback and real-time data CEO face time Corporate news / week ahead Industry resource Source: Social Media Examiner / Cisco

Using twitter – a closer look: IBM Promoting partners Build credibility Engagement / build relationships Industry resource “ Listening for leads” Source: TNW (The Next Web)

Using twitter – a closer look: IBM Source: eMarketer Using twitter – a closer look: IBM Source: eMarketer

Tweeting: Best Practices
Most Retweetable (RT) time is late in the day (between 2 – 5 p.m.)
Click-through (CT) rates stay stable throughout the day/night
Don’t be afraid to tweet links on the weekend, the CT rate is actually higher
Posting one link/hour will drive the highest CT rate
You can take a bit.ly link and add a “+” to the end to be taken to a page to see the number of clicks the link has received
If you’re promoting content on your website (through a URL), don’t crowd your content by tweeting too many times…
… but if you’re tweeting for more general informative URLs, post often because people look to you for this type of information
Bottom line: Tweet often for more variations and options. People with 22+
tweets per day end up with the most followers.
Source: HubSpot ‘Science of Timing’ Webinar

twitter: Metrics
More than any other channel it is important to determine ‘what’ you’re hoping to accomplish with twitter – so you can accurately measure:
Benchmark – capture the state of your site and relevant outlets (YouTube, facebook, LinkedIn) pre-twitter program
Impressions – how many times is your brand mentioned (@, #)
Influence – how often you are RT’d; how many CT’s
Traffic – how much site traffic is coming from twitter
Set goals – do you want to reach a certain number of downloads or redeemed offers
Supporting goals – what intangibles did twitter open up for your company, specifically larger audiences through speaking opportunities or guest appearances on blogs
Source: AKHIA

600 million users
Average user has 120 friends
2.6B minutes spent daily by combined total users
170 countries

How can B2B Companies Use facebook?
Promote corporate news and events
Brand building
Share tips / best practices
Real-world research / customer feedback
Stay connected with customers and prospects
Exclusive content / offers
Recruiting/HR
Source: AKHIA

facebook: Best Practices
When should you post updates?
Three peaks:
Early morning – 7 a.m.
After work – 5 p.m.
Late night – 11 p.m.
Brands that posted outside of business hours report 20% higher engagement rates
Why? 51% of companies block facebook.
Source: BuddyMedia (via Mashable)

When should you post?
Companies posting Thursday and Friday have 18% more engagement (counting down to the weekend!)
Sit back and enjoy Sunday: high fan engagement BUT…
… brand posts account for only 5% of total posts

Science of posting
Posts with less than 80 characters have 27% more engagement
A full-length URL is 3x more likely to be read than a shortened one
Ask for engagement – posts with ‘where’, ‘when’ or ‘why’ at the end of the post receive 15% more engagement

Building your fan base
Celebrate: birthdays, anniversaries, official ‘days’, official ‘months’
Appreciate: thank fans with a fan appreciation program
Converse: ask fans what they want to see
Inspire: share ways your brand / product can be used / leveraged
Interact: Respond!
Source: Jason Keath/Social Fresh

facebook: Best Practices Building your fan base – Example: bluefuego http://bluefuego.com/

Using facebook – a closer look: Oasis Floral Products
Post Daily Design
Encourage interaction by asking open-ended questions
Announce product info
Develop “tabs” for relevant seasons (ex: Mother’s Day)
Link to product pages, YouTube Channel, etc.
Source: AKHIA

facebook - Metrics
Influence : How often do people comment on your posts – and how quickly do they do it? More comments, immediately after you post shows that your fans anticipate your content
Reach : How many ‘Likes’ are you getting – a high ‘Likes’ to post ratio shows consistent reach
Quality : At what rate is your page gaining fans? There is a link to growth and quality of content (posts)
Engagement : How are you interacting with your fans and how quickly? Are you operating as a consultant, offering your services/skills to add value to their company or your relationship?
Source: Daily Blogger

White Trash Repairs http://whitetrashrepairs.com/ Mr. Breakfast Blog: all breakfast all the time http://www.mrbreakfast.com/index.asp Ninja Pizza | A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) News Blog http://ninja-pizza.blogspot.com/ Worst Pizza.com: Never Eat a Bad Slice Again! http://www.worstpizza.com/ Better Gnomes and Garden: a blog dedicated to gnomes http://www.bettergnomesandgarden.com/ Sources: Nicole Batchelor/AKHIA

156M blogs today
14% are updated daily
15% are corporate blogs
89% of journalists reference blogs when conducting research
Fortune 100 companies blog 7x a month, on average
90% of bloggers use other social media channels to promote their blog
Sources: Earnest; Cision; B2B Social Media Guide

How B2B Companies Can Use Blogging
Information exchange
Brand building / Humanizing the brand
Thought leadership
Drive sales through application examples
Drive traffic through SEO
Larger opportunities (nationally through guest blogs)
Internal communications
Source: AKHIA

Blogging:
The science of posts
Most people read blogs in the morning (80%+), though 40%+ of those polled also read at night
Blog early for links
Know your audience. Men tend to read more blogs at night than women, who tend to read them in the morning
Page views take a dip on weekends (peaking on Mondays), but the weekend is when comments are the highest
Multiple bloggers drive SEO results
Source: HubSpot ‘Science of Timing’ Webinar; B2B SEO

Blogging in Action Example: Brand Building Company: Boeing

Blogging in Action Example: Brand Building Subject Experts Company: HP

Blogging in Action Example: Brand Building Subject Experts Drive Sales Humanizing Company: Adobe

Blogging: Measurement
Beyond subscribers, comments and RT’s…
Are people landing on your blog – what percentage?
Is your blog driving organic traffic?
Is your blog driving overall increase in site traffic?
Does your blog drive long visits? Deep visits?
The higher these numbers are the likelier your chances are of using your
blog to drive customer engagement, resulting in a better brand
experience (and increased sales conversions)
Source: AKHIA

Looking Ahead: What’s Next?
It’s a small world that’s getting smaller
You need to know…SEO
Social media will become the veteran – mobile marketing’s time is now
Video killed the…print star?
Social media is now the frontline

Social Media Not just for socializing.

Unprecedented Information Tool
Centers for Disease Control
Voicemail to 405 agencies, outreach to 2012 bloggers reaching 145 million people.
CDC working on eCards for individuals – so it can get instructions out quickly about specific diseases
The strategy has significant pass-through rates – allowing people to become advocates
Significance: In Kenya with 33 million people, 11.3 million have mobile phones vs. 250,000 land lines and 3 million online computers.

FEMA
Press conferences on Twitter, taking direct questions.
You Tube channel offers instructions.
Twitter lets people know how to file claims

Social Media in Crisis Communication
Good news travels fast….
… Bad news travels faster
Blogs, social networking sites, RSS feeds, etc., have the potential to reach more people than ever before – even non-activists, turning them into activists
Everyone can get in on the conversation almost instantly – and so should you!

Three Primary Ways to Use Social Media in a Crisis
Monitor what is being said about your company, organization or brand.
Anticipate a potential crisis and avert the crisis before it happens.
Disseminate critical information in the midst of a crisis.
React and respond to what is being said
Help shape the message

Monitoring for Potential Crisis
Digital “listening posts” for your name or brand are essential to know what people are saying (good or bad).
Monitoring is a useful way to identify warning signs that a crisis is developing; g etting an early “heads-up” can make all the difference between crisis and total disaster.
Conversations and potential/developing crises are probable across a multitude of online channels:
Blogs and Comments
Microcommunities aka Microforums
Social Networks
Customer Networks
Groups
Facebook
Google and Yahoo Groups

Monitoring for Potential Crisis

Another warning sign could be online videos
The KFC video of rats in New York City
Domino’s pizza prank
Videos spread information about “defective” Kryptonite bike locks and flaming laptop batteries
It might also be a bad sign if customers form groups on sites like facebook to complain about your organization.

Ways to Monitor Tweetbeep – Free site to track Twitter mentions of your company or organization; product names; or any other keyword, and receive hourly updates. Also tracks link mentions of your web site or blog even. The company offers 15-minute alerts, which may prove useful during a crisis where time is of the essence. Social Mention – This site will send you free daily e-mail alerts about your brand, company name, a person’s name, marketing campaign, competitor or key word. You can hone your search to include only blogs, social networks, microblogs, bookmarks, comments and more. Google Comprehensive –Regular alerts for news, blogs, Web, video and groups combined into a comprehensive sweep of mentions by key word. Yahoo offers a similar tool. Keotag – Combs search engines, tag generators and social bookmark link generators at a number of social sites, including Twitter, YouTube, NetVines, Yahoo and Google. Radian6 – A paid service to more closely monitor your mentions and extrapolate deeper meaning from what is being said. Nielsen’s BlogPulse –Monitors broader trends on blogs. TrendsToo (Google) – Searches news wires and web sites, and categorizes by region, city and language.

Disseminating Information During a Crisis/Responding to Posts
Blogs are effective for getting information out during a crisis.
Can be updated quickly – and are interactive: Stakeholders can post comment and ask questions.
RSS can reach employees or stakeholders who are likely to subscribe to updates.
Podcasts and videos can be posted to sites like YouTube.
Jet Blue’s apology on YouTube was effective use of video in a crisis.
Domino’s President among the most effective and speedy.
Websites still go-to source in times of emergency
For news media, AND for employees, family members and the community at large.
The KFC YouTube video responding to the rat situation had most hits from their web site.
Web allows you to update quickly and is a forum for the company’s stance on the situation.
Don’t wait for an emergency to have a plan/process for fast updates.
Consider a “dark site” created prior to an emergency

Response Formula

Admit the error
Apologize
Take corrective action
Give people individual attention

Crisis Example
Motrin
Created a video that offended mothers who believed in attachment parenting (carrying baby in a sling).
Mommy bloggers—called Motrin Moms—were in an uproar.
Formed a Facebook group with more than 1,000 members in days.
Used the hashtag #motrinmoms on Twitter, a searchable tag, so moms—and the media—could follow the Twitter conversation.

Response
McNeil Consumer Healthcare (Motrin) contacted some of the mommy bloggers by e-mail with a personal apology. The company also placed an apology on its web site.

Better Response
Admit the error within the social media sphere, apologizing to mothers everywhere.
Contact the most vocal mommy bloggers, not just to apologize but to ask them for direct feedback on how Motrin could create a more positive and empowering message for moms.
Use the feedback to create a new, more positive ad campaign, and give kudos to the online mom communities and mommy bloggers for their input.

Final Advice

Have a Media Policy
Have a Social Media Policy

Don’t wait for crisis to begin to understand these tools... you won’t be able to do it
Don’t wait to begin building your audiences – may be too late!

Social media in B2B: Key takeaways
The most important step in social media has nothing to do with social media
Understand when and why a social media channel should be used
Regardless of the channel, look at the ‘science’ behind the execution – and never ignore the human factor
The best way to get better is to get better – tweet, post, blog more!
Don’t wait until you need social media to learn social media

“ Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.”   – Seth Godin

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Ben Brugler Speaks at YouToo 2011

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