Deck on social media tactics and techniques for B2B marketing

1. Social Terrain Understanding and exploiting the channels anup_chandrakeerthi

2. Introduction and intent of this work Web2.0 is synonymous with user generated content, social graphing and accessibility over smart devices. Empowered netizens have depleted the power bases occupied by incumbent Governing agencies and corporate houses. Information equipped citizens/economic participants are changing the dynamics of daily transactions conducted. The following work focuses on possible means of engaging with businesses (B2B) as opposed to consumers (B2C) and the means available

3. Key terms and numbers Convenience, conformance, necessity and other factors have made online presence an extension of the individual Behavioral traits like self expression, collaboration, credibility, influence & affiliation are emerging clearer, stronger and getting quantified1 better. What is left of privacy is being owned up voluntarily or is getting prised out. While businesses are able to hyper-localize2 their offerings to customers, the same customer can turn to multiple sources of information to take a stand or make a purchase decision.

4. Relevant infographics Source: Advertisement Age

5. every Spend has a Story…

6. Analysis of the sociological steps converging on a buy decision

7. How a business discovers and expresses need Stimulus: A business makes investments that are driven by internal needs like expansion or operational mandates. It may also be in response to externalities like competition, regulation or macro conditions Depending on how deep seated the need is or how endemic a problem is, the company may engage internal talent or go for external consultants to provide best of breed approaches Expression: The journey toward a solution may begin with internal conversations, running long tail queries on search engines, sifting through blogs, interactions on forum, site visits, downloading literature and so forth Reaction: Online activities like these serve as progressively stronger signal to a vendor who may wish to engage the prospective business

8. A prospect’s typical course of action could be - Reference exhibit: #3

9. The other side of the story: How a vendor tries to engage the prospects Online Action Source: Ogilvy Australia4

10. …being part of the social story

11. Rules of engagement A social media actor may be an individual or a designated ‘handle’ of a company. The actor has multitude of platforms to participate in. While a syndicated blog at a reputed site gives instant audience to share a detailed opinion, the same user might choose to tweet her formative thoughts. For soliciting expert opinion, she might post her question on a moderated Linkedin community. To reflect her ‘buy-in’ from other contributors, she may share, comment on or re-tweet the online posting 1 – Relationship exist between persons and not an abstract entity. Hence for online conversations with customers, it would be appropriate for an individual to respond than having a group alias 2 – For broadcast type outbound communication with consistent message, company’s designated post should be the choice. Lends itself to branding, crisis communication, announcements, endorsements etc

12. Rules of engagement (contd) 3 –Sharing can happen just as effectively between groups as amongst individuals. However, collaboration works best between keyed-in individuals. Therefore, sharing techniques like curation, mashups, stumble submissions can be left to an account. A nuanced sharing strategy wins following and tacitly signals the intent of sharing by the company. Mindshare and thought leadership can be projected in a smart curated site5 4 – Bulletin boards (commons), Moderated communities and Invitation- only forums are spaces with increasing signal to noise ratio. Better conversations happen in such forums where there are synergistic thoughts and collaboration between individuals. For a B2B organization, good quality leads emerge from such close collaborators. Nurturing prolific contributors and collaborators is a corner stone to good social media plan 5 – Basic tenet in social media is to-listen than to-be-heard (pull opposed to push). A listening post can be set up at the corporate level or at a lower level guided mostly by where the incoming signals can be best responded to. However amplification of a external collaborator’s voice is gained most by broadcasting at the company post. Doing so makes relationships trickle down to the company’s level than at an individual’s level. Company’s share of conversation metric gets a lift

13. Standard measurements Friends/followers/fans – a base measure Composite score – a weighted average score covering duration of following, channels followed on, passive & active interactions Sharing – Number of times an asset has been shared across channels. A corollary measure, number of sharing by a single user Sentiment gauge – discreet count of likes and dislikes. Inferential scoring based on select words Click through on promoted links and URL shortners Search ranking # tag popularity Comments & re-entrant comments Incoming links Content ageing (inverse of shelf time measured by visits dropping to a set threshold) Reach Reference exhibit: 6

14. a handy checklist

16. Deluge of interesting data has to be qualified, enriched & scored. Process steps7, scoring criteria8 and gating conditions will have to be defined and applied consistently

18. Annotated references klout score, peer Index Location services - Groupon, 4Sq http://www.negotiations.com/articles/procurement-terms http://www.slideshare.net/360digitalinfluence/ogilvy-on-social-media-for-b2b-companies http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/ http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1704205/easy-roi-metrics-social-media-marketing Aberdeen PACE framework for lead scoring Lead scoring dimensions: http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2008/12/dimensions-of-lead-scoring.html

19. Appendix: A candidate criteria list for b2b leads scoring Firmographics (Industry, company size, location) Demographics (Contact’s title, job function) Contactability (Phone number, email address) Action taken (Attended webinar, downloaded whitepaper, requested pricing, spent time on certain Web pages) Need for your product or service Fit (Your products or services meet or exceed their technical, performance, reliability requirements) Competition (What other competitors are involved and can you win against them? ) Contact’s role in the purchase decision process (Recommender, influencer, decision maker) Timing (Purchase decision timing, implementation timing) Availability of funding for the purchase (Has budget, can get budget) Size of the opportunity (Quantity needed, revenue potential) Credit: Mac McIntosh http://www.sales-lead-insights.com/2009/a-list-of-b2b-lead-qualification-criteria-by-category/