Social business will begin disrupting B2B sales & marketing in 2012, and CSRA's Social Business Education Series shows executives how to take advantage of it. This supply chain case study shows how Kinaxis, offers a suite of cloud-based supply chain software and services, used blogs, LinkedIn and a supply chain community to engage prospects worldwide, boosting

1. CSRA Social Business Education
Series
How Social Business Is Changing
the Game in B2B: Sales,
Marketing, Human Resources,
Product Development and Others
2012 Roadshow
http://www.socialbusinessservices.biz/resources/

2. Enterprise Social Business Strategy & Execution
Christopher S. Rollyson and Associates
Plan | Learn | Scale | Integrate | Manage
Social Business Disruption
of B2B Sales and Marketing
Study Guide: Kinaxis
Part2: B2B Case Studies
Manufacturing | Healthcare | Supply Chain | Financial Services
05/05/2012 Entire contents © 2006-2012 by Christopher S. Rollyson

3. Copyrighted
material
Supply Chain Case Study
Background
Kinaxis offers a suite of
•Cloud-based cloud-based supply chain
software and services software and services to
provider supply chain professionals
worldwide. It used a 3-part
• On-demand supply chain social business initiative to
management services significantly increase its
profile with prospects—and
• Serve manufacturers & to boost sales. Notably, its
logistics professionals first social business
worldwide initiative had gone poorly,
so Kinaxis rebooted by
creating a strategy.
05/05/2012 Social Business Disruption of B2B Sales and Marketing: Rare 2012 Opportunities 3

4. Copyrighted
material
Blog/LinkedIn/Community Ecosystem
• Rebooted failed effort; began with
St u d y Gu i de
strategy
• Supply chain blog introduced firm So c ia l
experts to global audience—and was
widely republished Business
• Outreach to LinkedIn Groups drove
more readership Highlights
• “Supply Chain Expert Community”
served supply chain geeks
• Community videos poked fun at supply
chain and showed congruence
• Website traffic and conversions jumped
05/05/2012 Social Business Disruption of B2B Sales and Marketing: Rare 2012 Opportunities 4

5. Copyrighted
material
Serve Supply Chain Geeks Worldwide
• Social business an efficient way to
St u d y Gu i de
connect firm experts and prospects
• The blog served as the heart of their Lessons
ecosystem—for content & conversation
• Kinaxis didn’t try to dominate the Learned
community: “its for members”
• Kinaxis focused on sharing and serving,
not selling
• Humor is risky but great for bonding
• Kinaxis multiplied their social business
benefits by focusing on keywords and
search engine optimization
05/05/2012 Social Business Disruption of B2B Sales and Marketing: Rare 2012 Opportunities 5

6. Copyrighted
material
Earn Loyalty by Serving Everywhere
• Social business makes B2Bs' experts
St u d y Gu i de
accessible to clients and prospects
• Conducting outreach to other sites is very Insights
important in growing readership
• Serving people, without selling, usually
earns high loyalty—and preference
• Critical success factors:
– Use a strategy to plan unique roles for each
of your presences, so they create synergy
– Give equal attention to content & interacting
– Understand and use your unique keyword
combinations to increase your footprint
– Commit to serving prospects to earn loyalty
05/05/2012 Social Business Disruption of B2B Sales and Marketing: Rare 2012 Opportunities 6

7. Copyrighted
material
Blog/LinkedIn/Community Ecosystem
• Kinaxis's social business strategy had 3 parts, but their blog, LinkedIn
presence and online community all aimed to "host the party" for St u d y Gu i de
supply chain geeks.
• Blog posts proved ultra-efficient in connecting Kinaxis professionals to
their global audience. The blog was the heart of the ecosystem; it
offered their experts' insights as well as reader comments, and they
Detail1
republished blog posts widely.
• Kinaxis joined relevant LinkedIn supply chain groups, and they
interacted in them consistently. They shared relevant blog posts as
well, which resulted in more blog readership.
• Most ambitious, Kinaxis launched a supply chain community to serve
their audience—and they didn't try to dominate it or to "sell." They let
members know through their actions that the site was "community-
owned." In addition, they produced supply chain comedy videos that
turned out to be huge hits in the community.
• Due to social business and Kinaxis's attention to keywords, traffic to
their website *and* conversions went up by multiples. Very important
for a cloud-based software and services provider whose prospects
often find them online.
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8. Copyrighted
material
Serve Supply Chain Geeks Worldwide
• Kinaxis tapped the deep connection between their "knowledge owner"
consultants and salespeople and clients and prospects. Social St u d y Gu i de
business proved ideal for making that connection because Kinaxis
focused on sharing relevant knowledge; they didn't sell or promote.
• Kinaxis's blog was the most efficient content engine for its online
ecosystem because content was relatively easy to produce, easy to
Detail2
find, and it fosters interactivity, which lets readers join the conversation.
• Finally, although humor is risky, it's a powerful way to prove to
prospects that you know them--when you can laugh together.
• B2B firms always have subject matter experts who develop and grow
firm core competency, but these experts are expensive and rarely
accessible to prospects. As Kinaxis's story shows, blogs offer an ideal
way to connect experts to prospects. Blogs' interactive and search-
friendly features boost their value even more.
• Kinaxis drove interest in their blog by interacting in LinkedIn Groups;
outreach to other platforms is often even more effective in getting
attention than producing your own content.
• Launching a niche community requires significantly more investment,
but firms that ground their community strategy in serving clients and
prospects earn very high loyalty. The investment often pays off in
spades because members' gratitude translates into preference, a
sweet prize indeed!
05/05/2012 Social Business Disruption of B2B Sales and Marketing: Rare 2012 Opportunities 8

9. Copyrighted
material
Earn Loyalty by Serving Everywhere
• Watch the video
St u d y Gu i de
– http://youtu.be/Ey_t7GQToZ8
• Case study home page Mo re
– http://tinyurl.com/sbscasekinaxis
– Podcast (audio only) (L i n ks )
– Other B2B case studies
– More insight into business drivers
– Action steps
• Catch the whole series
– http://www.socialbusinessservices.biz/resources
05/05/2012 Social Business Disruption of B2B Sales and Marketing: Rare 2012 Opportunities 9

10. Copyrighted
material
CSRA Social Business Education
Series
How Social Business Is Changing the Game in B2B:
Sales, Marketing, Human Resources, Product Christopher S. Rollyson
Development and Others Managing Director CSRA
chris@rollyson.net
+1.312.925.1549
http://about.me/csrollyson
http://rollyson.net/consulting
Part1: The Dynamics of Change
Part2: B2B Sales & Marketing Case Studies Resources
Part3: Action Steps: Evolving Sales & Marketing
2012 Roadshow
http://www.socialbusinessservices.biz/resources/
05/05/2012 Social Business Disruption of B2B Sales and Marketing: Rare 2012 Opportunities 10

11. Copyrighted
material
Social Business Services
http://www.socialbusinessservices.biz/resources/
How to evolve sales and marketing
05/05/2012 Social Business Disruption of B2B Sales and Marketing: Rare 2012 Opportunities 11