How to Achieve B2B Social Media Success

How to Achieve B2B Social Media Marketing Success March 2011

Agenda Introduction – Three Phases of Social Media Adoption Observation (Exploring and Listening) Preparation (Getting Your Ducks in a Row) Participation (Publishing, Responding and Mingling)

But First - Why Social Media Matters to B2B Companies Companies active in social media report a 59% higher lead conversion rate for organic search traffic 85% of B2B buyers say they want B2B vendors to engage and interact with them online 93% of B2B buyers believe that all companies should have a social media presence

Why Social Media Matters (2) 9 out of 10 b2b buyers start a purchase process with search (and social media increasingly affects search results) Three-quarters of B2B technology buyers say they use social media at some point during a buying cycle to gather information or communicate with colleagues about a purchase; 58% use LinkedIn for this purpose YouTube reaches 36% of all business decision-makers - more than 10X the figure for Forbes.com

Why Social Media Matters (3) 43% of employees in Fortune 1000 companies say they use LinkedIn for professional purposes 100% of the Fortune 500 have at least some of their executives listed on LinkedIn. 50% of LinkedIn users are business decision makers 65% of journalists use social media to conduct research for stories

Why Social Media Matters (4) 59% of C-level executives report using social media for business purposes at least weekly 90% of B2B technology decision makers watch online videos 80% of B2B technology decision makers read blogs; 69% are active on social networks

(Really?) Yes, really – sources for the preceding statistics can be found here: http://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/best-social-media-stats-facts-and-marketing-research-of-2010/

Establish Your Baseline Before you start – create a dashboard A snapshot of all measures that may be affected by social media activities

Example Metrics Total website traffic Unique visitors Web traffic by source (e.g. Google Advanced Segments) Subscribers (email, RSS) Web traffic quality (bounce rate, time per visit, pages per visit) Search traffic – generic and branded Email open rate Email pass along (if possible) Email CTR Facebook fans Twitter followers Blog traffic YouTube subscribers YouTube video views LinkedIn group members “ Mentions” – total and by social network Lead conversions by source Lead conversion rate – total and by source Net new customers Revenue from new customers Marketing spend reduction Number / share of sales interactions involving social media

Selecting a Monitoring Tool Social media monitoring is critical for baseline and progress measures Free tools – you get what you pay for Some key considerations: Extent of coverage Realtime (or near realtime) alerts Workflow capabilities

What to Look For Who is talking about your company / products? Where are they talking? What are they saying? Who needs to know / respond? Ditto the above for your competitors. Who is talking about issues / trends in your industry? Who are the key influencers to connect with (analysts, journalists, bloggers, customers)? Who are the competitors to monitor?

Social Media Policy Your employees want to help – but need guidance and guidelines Involve all stakeholders: marketing/PR, development, customer service, HR, legal Be a concierge – not a dictator

Sample Social Media Policy Outline Define “social media” Explain company objectives Shoulds and Shouldn’ts Musts and Mustn’ts Who to ask when questions arise

Develop a Social Media Plan Establish metrics (from your baseline) Identify your tools / venues Allocate responsibility / time / resources Set reasonable measurement intervals and goals Plan for contingencies B

Mistakes to Avoid Using social media as a direct response vehicle Trying to automate interaction Expecting instant results Not allocating (enough) time / resources Treating social media as a silo Failing to plan Sending mixed signals / messages Being dishonest / misrepresenting Failing to train employees Not providing fresh / relevant / valued content Failing to LISTEN Being negative Assigning it to an intern

B2B Social Media Success Stories: ShipServ ShipServ: international shipping software Objectives: Awareness Leads Engagement 50% increase in website traffic Tactics: redesigned website Blog tracking through CRM system content development/promotion LinkedIn group SEO Results: web traffic up 59%; 1,000+ white paper downloads 600 views of company videos Landing page conversion rate up 150% Sales-ready leads up 400% Measurable increase in brand awareness Estimated cost was 20% of traditional media campaign

B2B Social Media Success Stories: Ernest Agency Ernest – a UK-based b2b marketing agency Objectives: Increase brand awareness Demonstrate industry knowledge and social media marketing capabilities Increase search traffic Generate new business Tactics: Create B2B marketing statistics video Post video on branded YouTube channel Promoted video through: Twitter LinkedIn groups and profiles Facebook PR Email Comments on industry blogs Results: 6,500 video views 42% increase in Twitter followers 77% traffic increase to blog; 30% increase to corporate website 20+ blog posts written about or featuring the video Measurable improvement in organic search traffic Two significant new customers

The Four C’s of Social Media

Proactive Monitoring Monitor Brand mentions Key influencers - Industry developments Respond Who needs to know? Do we need to respond? How? What else do we need to do? (e.g. capture information about a service problem, market opportunity or new product feature) Measure What’s the impact? How do we capture / report this? How does this change what we are doing (if at all)?

Measuring Success Ultimately this is based on your goals and objectives. Direct ROI measures can be challenging. Typical success metrics include: Increased brand awareness (e.g. branded search, direct visits) Enhanced brand image (important – and real – but hard to quantify) Increased brand / product mentions in social media Increased website traffic, Twitter followers, blog readers, etc. Increased lead conversion rate New opportunities identified Increased customer engagement / lower churn rate

Questions? http:// webbiquity.com

How to Achieve B2B Social Media Success