Social Media Networking for Sales Results by Alan See in the August 2014 issue of Brand Quarterly

1. AUG 2014
IN THIS ISSUE
Make Your Business Profitable By The Very Next Deposit
Influencer Insights: Ajit Sivadasan, GM/VP Lenovo.com
Social Media Networking For Sales Results
The Art Of Sustaining A Luxury Brand
Global And Local: Getting It Right
IT’S ALL HERE IN
BLACK & WHITEWhat makes a brand successful? Find out from
Lenovo.com, Microsoft, Telefónica and more.
EXTRACTED
ARTICLE
more at
www.brandquarterly.com

2. 58 Building Your Business From The Brand Up
Extracted Article. More at www.brandquarterly.com

3. 59
Social media is driving a wave of human
interaction around the world and its’ use in
the workplace has become an important topic
of discussion among companies. No one
questions the rapid growth of social media
and its potential impact on the customer
experience, but many organizations still
struggle with allowing employees to engage
on social platforms due to risk and regulatory
compliance concerns. The customer
experience includes all touch point’s people
have from the moment they are aware of
a need until they have fulfilled that need.
Social media has the potential to influence
the customer experience when employees
are able to initiate conversations on social
platforms and begin building trust-based
relationships throughout the customer
lifecycle.
So what’s the problem? Just empower your
employee’s to use social media, and then
sit back and wait for customer loyalty and
revenue to soar. It would be great if it were
that simple. But, to make the social-ready
transformation most organizations will need
to adopt a new mindset. Transformations
involve strategy, technology and processes
and a social media transformation is no
different in that respect.
Social Media
Networking
For Sales Results
Alan See
Extracted Article. More at www.brandquarterly.com

4. 60 Building Your Business From The Brand Up
Strategy
Does your company have policies and
procedures regarding social media, blogging
or posting information on the Internet? If
so, when was the last time it was updated?
Social media is constantly changing, so social
media policies need to be reviewed every few
months. Do you have a formal social media
marketing strategy? Does your social media
marketing strategy integrate and support your
strategic marketing plan? How well does your
social media strategy support your corporate
goals and objectives? Do I still need to ask
you more consulting questions?! Let’s be
honest, many of your employees have smart
phones which means they are already using
social media while they’re at work. That
means if you block corporate access to these
sites, you’re eliminating a direct engagement
link to your customers. If you have the right
strategy in place, engaging employees in
social media marketing provides an excellent
opportunity to reach your customers and
build your brand.
Processes
Do you have the processes in place to support
your social media goals and objectives?
To foster a social-ready mindset,
organizations that are performing well
have the following processes:
Leadership from the front office. They are
identifying company executives who are
already doing a good job on social media
and highlighting their activity. They use their
success with social media as leverage to get
others in the company involved.
Setting realistic expectations. They are
recruiting interested employees, but still
recognize that not every employee will want
to participate.
Employee profiles are their own. They respect
the fact that employees’ online activities are
a self-expression. At the same time they
realize that employees who choose to identify
themselves as a member of the company
may be viewed as a spokesperson for their
brand. To mitigate risk, they take steps like
providing disclaimer statements on Twitter
headers such as “Opinions expressed here
are my own.”
Technology
Do you have the technology to support your
social media goals and objectives? There
may be mandated compliance restrictions
that are unique to your industry. Technology,
in the form of social content distribution
platforms, also called social employee
advocacy software, can help solve that
problem. These platforms house a content
library where users have access to a full
inventory of posts that have already been
preapproved by the company. An automated
corporate approval review process within the
online portal can also be in place to ensure
compliance of field generated content.
Results
Engaging employees in social media
marketing provides an excellent opportunity
to reach your customers and build your
brand. All company departments should be
involved and executive leadership should be
able to articulate “What’s in it for me?” to non-
marketing employees and set an example
for engaging in social media. Providing
useful and clear social media policies and
procedures for everyone in the company to
follow will help mitigate risk. It will take time
to materialize, but it’s worth it to expand your
...engaging employees in social
media marketing provides an
excellent opportunity to reach
your customers...
Extracted Article. More at www.brandquarterly.com

5. Brand Quarterly 61
Alan See
Principal, Chief Marketing Officer | CMO Temps, LLC
Alan See is a senior marketing executive and currently ranked as the most followed CMO
on Twitter by Social Media Marketing Magazine and a Top 1% Influencer by Kred. His rare
ability to speak Web 2.0 and Sales 101 in the same sentence makes him a popular blogger
and conference speaker. Alan has over 25 years of industry experience and has performed in
senior marketing, senior analyst, management consulting, and sales management roles at
MindLeaders, AT&T, Seapine Software, AberdeenGroup, Teradata, SAS Institute, Cap Gemini
Ernst & Young, and NCR Corporation. He has also served as an associate faculty member at
the University of Phoenix facilitating courses in Marketing & Management Theory.
www.cmotemps.biz
company’s social network by empowering
your employees to become brand advocates.
It will foster high engagement with your
customers and followers in addition to
building a close-knit company culture. And
the results are worth noting – check out
some I have witnessed:
A Software Company
•• Increased monthly online leads by 275%
•• Increased corporate Twitter followers
over 650%
•• Increased Twitter followers of key
executives from 300 to over 30K
•• Increased Klout score over 70%
A Professional Sports Team
•• Increased Twitter followers 700% (2X
the number of pervious year’s champion)
•• Increased Facebook “Likes” 5,800
•• Increased Klout score 25%
•• Season Ticket Sales: Up 38% even with
season ticket price increase
•• Box Office Sales: Up 1,818% even with
box office ticket price increase
•• Group Sales: 20% increase
•• Promotional Ticket Product Sales:
100% increase
•• Home Opener Merchandise Sales:
166% increase
•• Sponsorship: 20% increase from
returning advertisers
An eLearning Company
•• Created over 3,000 sales leads in
3 months at a cost per lead of less
than $40.
•• Increased corporate Twitter followers
over 500%
•• Increased Klout score over 54%
•• Increased LinkedIn Group members
over 220%
A Marketing Agency
•• Increased sales leads 1,000%
•• Increased corporate Twitter followers
over 500%
•• Increased Klout score over 100%
... expand your company’s social
network by empowering your
employees to become brand
advocates.
Extracted Article. More at www.brandquarterly.com