1.
Social Media for large, global
B2B companies
Social Media as a part of Corporate (Online) Marketing
Communications

2.
Index
 Introduction
 Social media & the changing media and marketing
landscape
 Social Media
 What is it?
 Benefits for B2B companies
 Social Media Readiness Survey
 Not included in this presentation
 General conditions for implementing social media
(and other online activities)
 Strategy
 Leadership
 Culture
 Community Management
 Content
 Policies & Guidelines
 Tools and Technology
 Measurement
 Social Media as a marketing tool | Case Studies
 Case 1: Implementation strategy
 Case 2: Promotion and
Advertisement
 Case 3: Market Monitoring
 Case 4: Online Content Strategy
 Short- and Long Term Advises
 Suggested Reading

3.
 Traditional and new media
In 2013 traditional media and marketing platforms (magazines, newspapers, television) compete (or complement) with ‘new’
media such as the Internet, texting, mobile phones, social media, user-generated content such as blogs, and YouTube as well.
As the media landscape changes, marketers may change the type of promotions they use in order to reach their target markets.
General expectation is that due to changing technology and social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), less money will be
budgeted for traditional media such as magazines and more money is budgeted for “non-traditional media.”
 Marketing: one consistent approach
 Though technology and new media are developing rapidly, the basic goal of marketing remains the same:
 Once a company has developed products and services, they still must communicate the value and benefits of the offerings to current
and potential customers in a business-to-business (B2B) market.
Introduction | A Changing Marketing Landscape
 But because of all new marketing
platforms (offline and online) it’s
important to deliver one consistent
message to buyers across an
organization’s (global, regional and
local) promotions. These includes all
different types of media such as
magazines, the Internet, mobile
phones, professional selling, and
social media.

4.
 Social Media are the online tools and platforms people use to share
their thoughts, opinions, insights and experiences with each other on
the internet.
What is Social Media?
It’s about CONNECTIONS
– With customers (network)
– With media
– With suppliers
– With influencers
– With (potential) colleagues
– With people
It’s about AUTHORATY
- Build a reputation
- Demonstrate expertise
- Share information
- Help people
It’s about CREATING VALUE
- For customers
- For the community
- For others
- For you

5.
History of Social Media Source: click here
What’s next?

6.
Most Popular Social Media Networks (2013)
Social Media 2013
 Facebook: +1 billion users
(launched in 2004)
 YouTube: 800 Million+
monthly unique visitors
(launched in 2005)
 Twitter: 500 million users
(launched in 2006)
 LinkedIn: 238 million
users (launched in 2003)
 Google+: 500 million
users (launched in 2011)
Popularity and number of profiles per social network change
continuously, per country or continent, but there are a few major
and global players.

7.
 Social Media offers companies tools to communicate with it’s audiences/market on the internet. Every
department can benefit from social media.
Social Media | What is it about?

8.
General benefits Social Media for B2B companies
 Social media enhances brand awareness. By being
present and engaged on social media networks,
companies cost-effectively increase brand awareness.
 Social media offers product information and answers
customer questions. By supplying the information that
prospects actively seek at every step of the purchase
process, social media helps close sales.
 Social media can provide ratings and reviews consumers
seek before purchase. Retailers and other forms of
business can re-post ratings and reviews on their own
website or let customers search for them on other sites
such as Google.
 Social media supports search optimization. Social media
content can improve search rankings through their
keyword focus, links and engagement level. Additionally,
social sharing and other content forms like videos and
images aid findability.
 Social media generates leads and sales. Social media
helps generate leads through shared content that attracts
prospects. While it can be challenging to close deals on
social media, it’s critical to have a call-to-action, trackable
promotion code and a streamlined landing page. (Here’s
more insights regarding social media and sales.)
 Social media powers earned media. When consumers
find engaging and useful information along their purchase
journey, they share this content more broadly. These social
shares, referred to as earned media have the added
benefit of an unspoken endorsement from the sharer.
 Social media engages ‘fans’ and advocates. Social media
networks provide the space for brand advocates to engage
with each other over their desire to show their brand
support.
 Social media builds thought leadership. Firms become
known for being the expert in their space by creating and
sharing their content, especially via a blog.
 Social media provides competitive positioning insights.
By monitoring what’s happening in the social media
ecosystem, you can distinguish your competitors and
better understand their behavior.
 Social media mitigates or avoids PR crises. By having a
social media presence, an organization is able to respond
more quickly and effectively to a potential PR crisis once
they’ve built a base of followers.

9.
Social media costs:
 Social media requires brand monitoring and analytics.
This enables businesses to discern what’s happening in the
evolving marketplace as well as how their business is perceived.
 Social media needs content creation.
At its core social media runs on content. It’s critical for
organizations to continually create great content or they risk
alienating their existing fans.
 Social media includes distribution and related promotion.
It’s important to get your content out to multiple social media
locations such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Also don’t
underestimate the importance of having your content re-
distributed via RSS and other forms of syndication.
 Social media requires on-going staff engagement.
Social media requires firms to be present and active. It’s not
like a traditional campaign where you pay for promotion and it
goes on autopilot.
 Social media must have senior management commitment.
This is difficult to assess in terms of specific euro’s but it’s
critical to success. Without c-suite support, social media won’t
be taken seriously.
Social Media related investments

10.
Why social media for B2B companies?
 There are higher gaining's per customer
 Target Audiences are easier to find and to
connect with
 The value of high quality information:
 Highly specialised companies, with complex
products demand extra explanation and services.
Social Media offers B2B opportunities to address
and explain/answer certain topics or questions
about your company’s products, services and
solutions.
 There is less competition on search engines
(like Google).
 This makes it easier to be found by target
audiences.
 Better supervision and control on company
image.
 Less annoyance of critics.
 Life Cycle of products and services is longer.
 Investments in social media are therefore more
efficient.
 People are more socially involved than
products or services.
 Especially in B2B environments the qualities and
expertise's of the employees make the difference.
And this is where social media comes in: your
professionals can show they ‘got’ it, through social
media.
 B2B professionals have interesting content to
share.
 In general professionals want to grow their
knowledge and network. This will generate
interesting information for a online community.
Many people think that social media is especially relevant for personal use or B2C businesses.
Without denying the opportunities within B2C sales and marketing, according to David Rosen, VP at
Makovsky, social media is more suitable for B2B than B2C companies, because:

11.
Social Media
On Google it has 470.000.000 hits; it is continuously referred to in the news; and your children aren’t doing
anything else anymore these days. Everyone seems to be talking and using Social Media, and for many
different reasons.
Don’t be fooled! Although Social Media has proofed itself to be a useful marketing tool, anyone who’s
thinking about using it should realize it won't perform miracles. Success is depending on many factors (see
page …). So don’t rush in to it. Take it seriously and write a realistic strategy before you start.
As a marketing tool social media should be approached (and incorporated) as ‘just’ another (online)
marketing channel within the (online) marketing or media landscape. Because of its popularity and size it
should be incorporated in the whole marketing communication mix though.
Social Media: an integral part of the marketing communications mix
Social Media isn’t a separate or temporary ‘thing’, is
just a relatively new marketing channel, just like a
magazine or a brochure, but with extra, and even
new capabilities. Moreover: social media are here to
stay!
Because of its growth, popularity and opportunities
its should become an integral part of your company’s
marketing communications mix. People should be
encouraged to use them.

12.
Social Media Readiness Survey
SWOT Analysis
- these slides of the presentation aren’t included
in this version -
 Introduction & Theory

13.
Social Media
(and other Online activities)
Conditions for successful
implementation
 Strategy
 Leadership
 Culture
 Community Management
 Content
 Policies & Guidelines
 Tools & technology
 Measurement

14.
For successful implementation of SM within a B2B, there are some general conditions to live up to:
Conditions for implementing social media
Strategy There must be a strategy (social media, content, online)
Leadership There should be clear leadership. Not only on an organizational level, but on a global
(or at least) European level as well
Culture A culture needs be created in which online efforts (and associated activities, like social
media) are simulated and prioritized (and taken serious).
Community Management There must be management of online communities (followers, traffic, etc.)
Content There has to be a realistic content strategy, with commitment from all that are
involved.
Policies and guidelines There must be general social media and online policies and guidelines, from which
employees and departments can benefit. This also means that relevant training must
be provided.
Tools & technology There should be tools for managing and optimizing social media and online activities.
Measurement There should be clear goals, which determine whether your activities are successful or
not. Key of success = measurement. It allows you calculate ROI (return on investment).

15.
Strategy
Let’s start at:
DCS
systems?

16.
‘Who fails to plan, is planning to fail’. (Winston Churchill)
Social Media (and related online activities) should be implemented with a clear strategy. Because social media
are just an online tool and platform, social media marketing should be part of the general (online) marketing
communication strategy. (see figure next page).
Because your online activities might not yet being fully developed, online marketing isn’t seriously
implemented. A clear online marketing strategy could set online standards and incorporate the use of social
media as well.
The following elements are part of an Online (marketing) Strategy:
1. Online mission: Where do we stand for? Why are we here?
2. Online goals: What do we want to achieve?
3. Success factors: Which factors do we need to influence?
4. Indicators: How will we measure success (or failure)?
5. Targets: What will be our targets?
6. Improvement: What should we improve?
Strategy
Strategy Available ?
1. Online Strategy ?
2. Online Marketing / communication Strategy ?
3. Social Media Strategy ?

17.
 CMS also involves “Web” or “online” marketing
Custom Marketing Strategy (CMS)
Source: TREW Marketing

18.
> Start with
planning.
Start with strategy development

19.
Social Media Strategy – full model

20.
Leadership
What about:

21.
Leadership: a global, regional and local responsibility
Leadership on global a global level
Big Multinational companies usually have 1000’s of employees and multiple offices in many regions and
countries. This males them global companies. Global Companies in many occasions therefore have a
global image to live up to, especially regarding its online activities.
As mentioned earlier the media- and marketing landscape are changing; online presence is getting more
important and profitable. It is also important to realize that Internet, and social media as well, do not have
clear - geographically - boundaries (like the ‘old’ media landscape usually had). The online landscape also
faces differences in language and use and popularity of online platforms throughout the world, but in the
end all that a company is (in public) publishing online will be visible (and viewable) in front of the whole
world.
This is one reason why big global companies should standardize its online activities: so the ‘look and feel’
of all online communications globally is in line with the corporate policies and guidelines (which will be
addressed later in this survey).
This is what is mean by ‘leadership’: globally integrating and monitoring your company’s online presence.
Who will set the global standards of all online activities, like social media?
Who will initiate social media and take leadership?
Who can be addressed when questions arise or advise is needed.

22.
Most Social Media platforms are global networks. Social Media often has no clear
geographical borders. Subsequently: global collaboration and monitoring is necessary.
 Your company needs collaboration of as many offices, regions, employees as possible
Global collaboration and reputation
Global accounts
Micro
accounts
Local accounts
Regional
accounts
Your company’s global
online reputation
Your company’s online reputation is based on
the sum of ALL online platforms (also social
media) together
Therefore a ‘bad’ local, regional or micro
account influences your general online
reputation

23.
A global company has a global
online reputation
Your company =
 Japan
 East Asia
 ASEAN &
Oceania
 CIS
 Europe
 Middle East
 North and
Central America
 South America
 South Asia
One consistent online
approach & message
Internet, and social media as well, do not have as clear
boundaries like the ‘old’ media landscape. Of course there
are differences in language and platforms, but in the end all
that a company is publicly publishing online will most of the
times be visible to the whole world.
 Just search for your company name in Google, it will likely show
content from all over the world.

24.
Leadership: a global, regional and local responsibility
Leadership on global, regional or a local level?
Leadership is not only necessary on a global level, but on a regional, or even local level as well. For instance:
if there would be global standards, who would make sure people, departments and business units live up to
them? Who will initiate the research and strategy on how social media should be implemented on a regional
or local level? In other word: whose responsibility will ‘social media’ (and its goals) be?
Implementing Social media at a company requires leadership, clear roles and clear responsibilities. Without
them the execution of a social media strategy is bound to slowly dissolve after a while, probably before any
results are recognizable.
 How will social media be organized within your corporate structures? Who will be social media
spokesman?
Different types of coordination of social media within companies
Source: Altimeter Group Survey Q4 2012

25.
Social Media: a burden or a necessity?
For some of your employees Social Media is likely to be perceived as just a temporary phenomenon. Many
people still – especially the ‘older’ generations… often associate social media with the elaborate use of time
consuming online social activities carried out by for instance their children, friends, or partners. Whether or
not this is true (which it isn’t…), opinions on social media are also being influenced by the horror stories
circulating in the media. Others, just don’t see the necessity of social media: business is going well, so why
bother? Whatever opinion people have about social media, misperceptions of social media are often caused by
not understanding them properly.
Don’t be fooled; obviously there are threats related to the use of social media (and all online communications),
therefore good policies and guidelines are in order. Still, the ‘threats’ associated with online activities are not
so different from the ones companies are already facing. Of course, there is a chance of facing criticism online,
or getting negative feedback trough the internet. But, like companies can’t control newspapers (although…),
you can’t control the internet either. Internet is an open source of information and people will contribute to it,
with or without presence of your company. Hence, its better to participate on these platforms, to monitor
potential discussions and join in on them if necessary. But with no presence at all, it will be even harder to
control or influence a discussion or topic online.
Aside from some threats related to the use of social media, the most important thing about them is: as a
marketing tool, internet (and social media) offers interesting business opportunities.
 To benefit from it, social media should be taken seriously. As mentioned before: Social Media (and other online
activities) should become fully integrated in marketing communication strategy, and not separately. It should be
incorporated in your company’s corporate culture. The social media strategy should be integrated with the wider
organizational business plan and marketing strategy. It is necessary for all levels of the organisation to embrace
the principles of social media. Therefore there should be a mandate from highest level of the organisation.
Your company’s Culture

26.
Community Management
Don’t forget about:
Community Management

27.
When engaging in online activities there should always be an individual nominated to assume ultimate
control and accountability for the organization's social media efforts. This person is responsible for
governance, policy documentation, training, the execution of the strategy, and constant monitoring and
analysis. Without such a person many online activities will slowly diminish after a while. The community
manager must keep beneficiaries engaged, come up with ideas and monitor the whole process in general.
Because of complexity of large, global organizations such a person should be assigned on different levels
(global, European, local). These community managers should be able to show leadership when it comes to
online activities.
Community Management
Community manager:
Central Spokesman

28.
 In short: Online Content Marketing is about two thinks, about:
 Creating: what are you going to create? This concerns the actual process of
writing, editing and optimizing content for online platforms.
 Sharing: where will you share/publish information. Social Media are a tool for sharing
content with target audiences and therefore is part of the content
marketing process.
 Though a lot of offline content is published, but the creation op (online) content is a
challenge for many organizations:
 Is your content creation standardized or centralized?
 Is it clear whose responsibility creating and publishing content is?
Content Marketing
 An online (intranet) content library could be created, where
all relevant (external) content is published internally. There
are probably already places on your companies intranet to
do this, but is everybody contributing to this? A clear
content policy and guideline (content protocol) could be
created to help your professionals creating qualitative
content most efficiently.
Social media as tool to share and publish content

29.
One problem concerning the creation of ‘content’ may be that it is sometimes unclear who is responsible
for writing, publishing and initiating it.
This is why there should be a content protocol that answers the following questions:
 Who can be addressed for creating the different types of content: should it be MARCOM, external
parties?
 For instance: what if a salesperson or a product marketer for whatever reason needs a video.
Whose responsibility is this? What conditions needs to be lived up to? What does this person
needs to supply in order to get it done? Etc.
 Who can be addressed for translations if necessary?
 What are the related expenses?
 What kind of ‘look and feel’ (lay out) conditions do I need to live up to?
 How should content be written / published in order to make measuring online statistics?
 What should be done after content is produced and where does it need to published?
 What other conditions for online publications are important?
 For instance: it is generally advised that for promotion purposes online video’s shouldn’t be too
long. Same goes for articles. And there all kinds of rules that may improve conversion and usability.
Content Protocol

30.
Social Media: a global, regional and local responsibility
Micro level
- department
- product
- service/
solution/ Bu’s'
Local office Regional
HQ
Global
HQLevel
- HR
- Marcom
- Services
- Solutions
- Delivery, etc.
- Netherlands
- Japan
- USA
- India
- Etc.
- Asia
- Middle East
- Europe
- North America
- Etc.
- HQ
Company x | social media
Who /
What
- Career news
- Events
- Testimonials
- Application notes /
whitepapers, etc.
- Local news / events
- Local product
developments
- Local success story
- Etc.
- Regional news
- Regional products
- Success stories
- Regional events
- Etc.
- Global news &
developments
- Biggest projects
- Success stories
- Etc.
Content
Micro
social media
platform
Local
social media
platform
Regional social
media platform
Global
social media
platform
Publish on
platform

31.
‘Content = King’ and ‘if social media is a motor, content is gasoline’. These are phrases often articulated when
stressing the importance of ‘content’ within the whole process of social media. And its true! Content makes a
difference. The key to ‘good’ content is developing a content strategy. But remember:
 There must be devolved responsibility. The most successful organisational social media campaigns have multiple contributors. Content
production by more than one person enables a greater volume of content, a perception of being available and accessible at all times, more
authentic interaction, and a richer and more diverse range of topics and themes.
 There should be regular coordination meetings to pre-plan social media content production and activities (but there is also scope for
spontaneity). The best social media campaigns are highly orchestrated and thoroughly planned before they are executed. Production of a
regular ‘running sheet’ is an appropriate mechanism for coordinating social media messages, as well as integrating social media efforts
with the organisation’s wider marketing strategy. At the same time, social media agents within the organisation should be empowered to
be spontaneous when required.
 There must be compelling content. Perhaps more than anything else, compelling content is critical to success. If the content that is being
produced is not interesting or of no value to the target audience, then there is little point being involved in social media at all. Social media
specialists use the ‘what’s in it for me’ principle to good effect, they encourage fans to engage, to contribute and to redistribute the
content.
Content
The content should be well-written, keyword-rich and free of spelling and
grammatical mistakes. Ultimately all corporate communications - formal letters,
marketing collateral or social media posts - reflect positively or negatively on the
organisation’s brand.
There must be an appropriate frequency of content. There is no ‘one size fits
all’ when it comes to the appropriate frequency of content, but it is important to
get this right for your particular type of organisation.
There has to be an appropriate tone and persona adopted in social media
content. Unlike traditional corporate communication, social media is typically
less formal, it is couched in a more conversational tone, and it is infused with the
writer’s views. A balance must be struck between formality and informality,
depending on the nature of your organisation. The tone must be consistent.

32.
 When writing B2B (marketing) content focus on:
What problems, concerns, or needs are my customers
facing right now, that are causing them to seek out my
product or service?
 Next step: write about it!
B2B Content: lot’s of theories…
Read more: case 4

33.
Another model…

34.
Policies, Guidelines & training
Help employees with:

35.
In order to centralize and control all online activities, as well as to stimulate employees to join online efforts, clear policies and
guidelines are needed. These should focus on what you should do, instead on what isn’t allowed. Help people help your company
online. So there should at least be:
 A social media usage policy in place. In making the case for social media, it’s common to field employee productivity concerns.
After all, it’s easy to log on to Facebook and discover an hour has passed. The solution is to stay focused on the principles
outlined in your social media policies. The devolution of content production and the immediacy of social media dictate the need
for a codified social media usage policy. The policy needs to contain clear guidelines for the everyday usage of social media and
publishing rules.
 A social media training program in place. Following on from the production of a social media usage policy, the organisation
should provide appropriate training for staff to ensure that the policy is understood and adhered to. This is particularly
important at induction.
 There is constant learning about social media within the organisation. Social media is a rapidly changing phenomenon – for
example, Facebook was founded in 2004 and in the space of 6 years it has amassed over 500 million users, an unprecedented
feat for all forms of media. It is important that social media personnel are accustomed to new emerging trends and the
constantly changing landscape. This knowledge will allow the organisation to stay ahead of the game.
 Emergency plans in place should something go wrong. The open nature of social media means that there is potential for things
to go wrong – the inadvertent release of confidential information, ‘flaming’ by disaffected customers, theft of login details by an
unhappy former staff member, ‘cyber squatters’ who purport to be your organisation on social media sites. Organisation's must
be prepared to counter these contingencies should they occur.
Policies, Guidelines & training
Policy/Guideline/protocol/training Available
Social Media Policy ?
Social Media Guideline ?
Social Media (or online) protocol ?
Social Media training program ?

36.
 Risks should be dealt with according to policy
Policies to control risks
Quite obviously, there are risks related
to going ‘social’, with privacy and
security being high on the list. The
spontaneous nature of social media
can also backfire on companies. And
finally, many organizations worry that
the conversational tone of social media
will undermine their careful branding.
Not engaging in social media, or not
using it effectively, however, has its
own set of risks which often can be
shown to be even more damaging.

37.
Tools
Key to effectiveness:

38.
Social Media is a online activity, and it is depending on technique (computer, software, etc.). Because social
media networks are overflowing and so are the things you can do on them, it can be become a very time
consuming and complex process. Luckily there are tools or software programs to make the process more
efficient and easy, especially for community managers. It is strongly advised to use such tools when using
more than one social media network at the same time. Examples of Social Media Management Systems
are:
 Hootsuite Enhance your social media management with HootSuite, a popular
social media dashboard, which will helpl you manage multiple
networks and profiles and measure your online activities.
 Twitterfeed Offers to tweet the last posts published in a blog via the RSS feed.
 Hubspot an inbound marketing software platform that helps companies
attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. An alternative
would be Marketo.
Another very important condition for effective social media is a good Hub Station. A Hub Station - usually a
the corporate website - functions as the base-platforms, where most online communications (online traffic,
content, online campaigns) are referring to and come together. Furthermore a Hub Station is also very
important for measuring online statistics and the efforts (and success) of your online activities.
Tools
Content tools
Photoshop
Article library (for instance within intranet)
Meltwater
Analytic tools
Google Analytics

39.
 Usually a companies website serves as such a Hub-Station.
Tools | Online Marketing needs a HUB-station
All campaigns usually link to
corporate websites = hub
station

40.
Without clear goals it is very hard to calculate ROI for social media (and online marketing), and
social media can become a very abstract process. In the end social media should obviously
contribute to diverse business goals (set KPI’s). In order to determine its success results must be
measured! By analyzing online statistics companies this can be done. But:
 There should be monitoring and analysis of key performance indicators. A social media
campaign must be constantly monitored and adjusted as necessary. A set of appropriate
quantitative and qualitative key performance indicators that relate to the objectives of the
strategy should be identified to determine its success or otherwise. Suitable online KPIs might
include sales referred, newsletter sign ups, search engine ranking, unique visitors, page views,
bounce rates, time on site, follows/fans, unsubscribes.
 At the same time there must be a focus on sustainability and long-term results. A social media
strategy must be executed in full for at least 6-12 months before it begins to achieve any
significant traction. An expectation of immediate success will ultimately result in failure of the
strategy.
Measurement | ROI

41.
 How marketers should approach online campaigns
Measuring Digital Campaigns | model

42.
Social media measurement admittedly can be difficult to calculate. As an organic, trust-building activity
best suited for influence and soft lead generation, drawing a direct cause-and-effect between social
marketing and ROI is a challenge. But it can be done effectively.
 Measurement must be holistic (all marketing efforts must be measured), or else it will miss the effect
of social combined with traditional marketing. Internally, ROI becomes specific to an outcome or goal;
there is no one answer.
 Many marketers swear by measuring content by its performance; they create databases that track their
social media updates and online interactions in a highly detailed way. Inbound marketing, among other
things, uses content downloads and webinar registrations to capture solid leads (and measurements).
 And, of course, website metrics — and social metrics, are the ultimate measurements of referred
traffic from social media. For instance, if sales have increased, and the number of referrers that your
website analytics show to be coming from social efforts has spiked, then dig deeper into those stats
and learn whether they are directly related (they probably are!).
ROI

43.
(Online) KPI’s related to goals (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage)
Source: www.smartinsights.comRead more: case 1

44.
Social Media and Online Marketing
From opportunity to policy
Case 1: Implementation
Case 2: Promotion and Advertisement
Case 3: Market Monitoring
Case 4: Online Content Strategy
Case 5: Online and Social Media Training
Case 6: Top B2B social media networks

45.
When businesses think about starting up online activities like social media,
there are a number of phases you have to trough. For Social Media it is important to realize that a Social
Media strategy is an extension of the overall marketing strategy.
When creating any online strategy, always start with:
A clear Strategy and clear Goals
Case 1: Implementation | Start with a strategy
The question is not how to make money from it, but rather, how your company can use the various
social media channels to facilitate prospecting; and how the company can cultivate relationships
and integrate ways of communicating and selling to buyers. To begin you may want to choose to
focus on a few of your overall marketing goals e.g. lead generation, customer retention,
establishing yourself as the expert, or increasing your brand awareness and equity.

46.
When businesses start up online activities like social media, they should also know how such
activities can or should contribute to articulated business goals. Of course these are likely to
be different (or not) for each office, department, person or business unit.
Examples of (online) business goals:
Case 1: Implementation | Set goals

47.
In order to calculate ROI and campaign effectiveness clear KPI’s should be
set.
* A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric that helps you understand how you are
doing against your objectives.
Case 1: Implementation | Set KPI’s
Example of Online Marketing KPI’s
• Site traffic
• Unique visitors versus returning
visitors
• Time on site
• Page views per visit
• Traffic source
• Day part monitoring (when site visitors
come)
• Newsletter subscribers
• Texting subscribers
• Chat sessions initiated
• Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn followers
or fans
• Pay-per-click traffic volume
• Blog traffic
• Number and quality of product reviews
• Brand or display advertising click-through
rates
• Affiliate performance rates
Read more: http://www.shopify.com/blog/7365564-32-key-performance-indicators-kpis-for-ecommerce#ixzz2fzBn6agM

48.
Questions that need answering before staring up:
 Who is your targeted audience:
 Recent customers
 New customers (anonymous)
 Engineering professionals
 Thought leaders, industry guru’s
 Are your audience(s) online? On what platforms?
 How are you going to communicate with them?
 How will you measure results?
Case 1: Implementation | Set target audience(s)
Your Customers share info on their
social media accounts

49.
Don’t forget about the other steps!

50.
Online Promotion and advertisement
Advertising, simply put, involves paying to disseminate a message that identifies a brand (product or service) or an
organization being promoted to many people at one time. The different types of marketing communications an organization
uses compose its promotion or communication mix, which consists of advertising, sales promotions, direct marketing, public
relations and publicity, sponsorships (events and experiences), social media and interactive marketing, and professional
selling. The typical media that traditional companies utilizes for advertising are likely to focus on: magazines, (news)papers,
the Internet (corporate website), direct mail, newsletters and brochures.
Social media and other online platforms can also be used as channels for advertising. Benefits could be:
• Target audiences can effectively be targeted by using keywords (search engine marketing) or by targeting profile
databases (LinkedIn).
• By measuring campaign results (for example: analyzing online traffic to website) the return on investment can be
calculated.
• Online advertising is cost effective.
Case 2: Promotion and advertising
Advertising and Promotion Opportunities
 Social Media and online (search engine) advertising as an effective new alternative to ‘old’ marketing
efforts.
 Using tools and structures to calculate ROI and optimize online marketing communications
 Online search engines marketing
 Online media (like social media) tools to promote new product releases
 Gathering leads, market insights and remain up to date by monitoring (potential) customers and
competition through following their social media accounts and other online platforms.

51.
 Social media and other online platforms are interesting marketing channels.
But effectiveness is depending on several factors:
 Figure - Factors That Influence Selection of Promotion Mix
 Many factors, such as a firm’s marketing budget, the type of product, regulations, target customers, and competitors,
influence what composes the promotion mix. Depending on what medium is used, marketers use the communication process
to encode or translate ideas into messages that can be correctly interpreted (decoded) by buyers. However, marketers must
determine how to get consumers’ attention and avoid as much interference and noise as possible.
Case 2: Promotion and advertising
What does your
promotion Mix look
like? Do they include
online or social
activities?

52.
 There are numerous online
channels for sharing and
communicating all kinds of
marketing related content,
including advertisements.
 A marketer should discover what
channels are most effective, by
analyzing statistics and
calculating ROI. (page …)
Online Promotion & Advertising

53.
 Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Other online platforms for advertisement
SEM: sponsored (paid) search results. (Cost
Per Mille / Cost Per Click)
SEO: Organic search results

54.
 Search Engine Marketing Process
Online platform for advertisement

55.
Focus on online traffic (online visitors)
Channels for getting
traffic (visitors)
Next step: converting
traffic to customers

56.
Social Media are good platforms to monitor your company’s industry related developments. Just monitoring online
conversations alone can help you glean changing trends and needs and pick out emerging opportunities. Both customers and
competitors are active on social media platforms, as well as other related parties. Social media monitoring can be used as:
 A great tool to track down and share industry related news:
o monitor market: industry, customers, competitors and company accounts. Because your market related parties are
sharing all kinds of content online, monitoring them can be useful to improve market insight about target markets.
Or to Identify new product and service opportunities
o The online landscape therefore seems like a good place to monitor your market (industry, customers and
competitors), because most of them are publishing online. And… it’s fairly easy and fun!
 A way to get introduced with social media and other online activities.
o By listening to how market is communicating online (what is being shared and in what form) not only useful
intelligence can be gathered, but your professionals can get familiar whit different kind of social media network and
related online platforms.
 Integrate social media into daily activities of employees, trough Intranet, and by providing suitable technology
(social media dashboards, website integration, etc.)
 There are several possibilities for monitoring online channels. First it’s important to determine who to monitor:
(potential) customers, competitors or industry in general. Secondly, it is important to know what or where this
monitoring should take place: social media channels (Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), blogs, corporate websites, third
party websites, etc. etc.
 After this research you can set up the tools and resources you want to use. Goal is to bring all company related
information together in one environment, where employees can read them efficiently, without investing to much time in
it.
 There are quite many different tools/services that can do this. Some are free, some of them are paid.
Case 3: Market Monitoring

57.
 What do you want to monitor?
 Set Key Words!
 Single and long-tail (multiple) keywords
 Where do you want to monitor?
 Set platforms
 Social Media
 External websites
 Blogs
 Etc.
 How do you want to monitor?
 By rss feed
 Google alerts
 Social media dashboards
 General monitoring tools (such as meltwater)
Monitoring schedule
Monitoring
dashboard

58.
Social Media Monitoring Platform (SSMP)
Industry
- Industry guru’s and
thought leaders
- Social media accounts
of industry related
websites
- others
(potential) Customers
- Social media accounts
of (potential)
customers
- RSS newsfeeds of
corporate websites
- others
Competitors
- Social media
accounts of
customers
- RSS News feeds of
customers
- others
employees
SSMP

59.
Content Strategy (Online)
CASE 4

60.
Online Content landscape (Case 4)

61.
Social Media, like any other website, rely heavily on the content that is on there.
The principles of good content are, to a large extent:
 interesting to your audience,
 delivering compelling and highly valuable information,
 and created with your business goals in mind.
The specific focus of B2B copy has one variation: B2B sales funnels tend to be longer and more complex
than consumer-focused transactions. Content needs to support that sales cycle and nurture leads and
prospects along your funnel in order to be effective.
Content Strategy
What Makes an Effective Content Strategy?
 Decisions about what types of content
you'll create for your customers (e.g.,
blogs, newsletters, case studies, etc.).
 Plans for what topics or material you'll
cover, and who is going to write it.
 When and how you're going to
distribute this material to customers
and prospects (e.g., rely on search
engine traffic, distribute at
tradeshows, email to contacts, etc.).

62.
 A number of different factors go into this planning. At the heart of it is understanding what's effective to help you sell your
products and services.
A B2B content strategy needs to be created with several specific factors of your business in mind:
B2B content strategy | planning
 Who are my customers, and what kinds of
content do they like to consume?
 Understanding what channels, platforms,
and content formats they spend the most
time looking at is directly related to
creating content that achieves your goals.
 What problems, concerns, or needs are they
facing right now, that are causing them to seek
out my product or service?
 Use your content to help solve that issue,
and you'll have a customer for life.
 Are my products or services best showcased in
print, video, or audio formats?
 Choose content types that are natural to
your business.
 What do I enjoy?
 If you're going to be creating or
promoting your content, it's helpful to
choose something that engages you
personally. The energy of your materials
will be better, engagement will be more
natural, and your ability to create
connections with customers and
prospects will be much more evident. Plus
you'll have fun.
 What does my specific sales funnel look like?
 Starting at general research or brand
discovery phase and going past
maintenance and upselling? What types
of content can you create along the
funnel to help drive your prospects
toward a selling decision? Any content
strategy should start with your business'
personalized funnel mapped out.

63.
 Example: content focused on sales process or ‘buyer journey’.
Every type of content should have a clear purpose
Online Content Marketing
is part of your customer’s
buyer journey

64.
B2B content ideas
 B2B Content Ideas: Education and Thought
Leadership.
If a prospect wants education or thought leadership what
they are really trying to do is understand their problem or
opportunity, get a fix on the landscape, and understand
how to frame the market. B2B content ideas that address
these questions include:
 Trends, benchmarks and statistics
 What’s new and why it matters analysis
 Best in class examples
 Problem guides
 Opportunity guides
 Needs assessments
 101 education
 B2B Content Ideas: Solutions and Product Suitability
If a prospect want solutions and product suitability content
they want to figure out how to solve their problem. This
means understanding how different solutions work, how to
compare different approaches, a building a short-list of
relevant solutions. B2B content ideas that address these
questions include:
 Solution guides
 Solution comparisons
 Pitfall analysis
 Readiness and suitability assessments
 Strategy and planning templates
 How to find and select the right vendor
 B2B Content Ideas: Decision Support and Credentials
Prospects who have built their short-list then look for
decision support and credentials. This means building
internal consensus for the decision and building comfort
with their choice. B2B content ideas to address these
questions include:
 Pricing
 Trials or product demonstrations
 Access to internal subject matter experts
 Implementation plans and requirements
 Delivery examples / success stories
 Data sheets
 Focus on Developing Practical and Useful Topics
The most common search phrases start with “how to”
concepts not specific brand or product names. If your
search traffic is primarily driven by your brand name you are
missing traffic from prospects looking for practical
information related to their decision process. To connect
with prospects before they know who you are, you need to
share practical and useful “how to” topics related to your
subject matter expertise. Balance your product, brand,
commentary, opinion, and about-us content with practical
content to see better inbound search results and content
engagement. Use these B2B content ideas to inspire
practical content topics such as examples, guides,
templates, plans, tips, reviews, etc.
Source: www.brainrider.com

65.
 Channels for exhibiting Thought Leadership
Online Thought Leadership
One of the goals of an online marketing strategy is to
show and create Thought Leadership: show industry
expertise.

66.
 Training and Education (topics)
Knowledge of online tools (like social media) might be low at your company. In order to be successful online this should
improve. By educating and training employees on how professionals can benefit from social media and other online activities,
they are much more likely to get involved in your company’s online activities.
Setting up such a training program should be fairly easy. You only need a person with online capabilities and social skills, and
a number of different training programs, like: courses that explain basic and more experienced use of different social media
platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google, etc.); the basic principles of online advertising; a guide on how to create online
content; etc.
 Such a training can be given by someone within your company, or by any experts outside the company. Examples of
trainings modules/topics:
 Education about your Online and Social Media policies
 Social Media – how can it drive business
 Website optimization:
o How to create te perfect Hub Station (website related)
o usability and multimedia integration
 Online Marketing
o Advertising and Promotion
o How to make your efforts measurable and calculating ROI
 Online Content: how to create effective online content
 How to build an online community
 Social Media Management
o Learn about time/cost effective social media management
Extra: Online and Social Media Training

67.
 Twitter
 LinkedIn
 Facebook
 Google+
 YouTube
Extra: Top B2B platforms
Overview of popular social mediab2b platforms. Based
on USA research.
(source: marketingprofs.com)

68.
Advise
Short Term Implementation | Goals & objectives

69.
1. Open regional and/or local social media
accounts.
o Suggested platforms to start off with: twitter,
LinkedIn, YouTube
 Make these accounts part of corporate
marketing communication mix and start
publishing relevant corporate news:
 Press Releases
 Information about upcoming events
 Career opportunities
 Product developments
 Sponsorships, etc.
 Integrate these platforms with corporate
communications:
 Corporate website(s)
 E-mail signatures
 Offline communications
 Intranet, etc.
 Start measuring results (online traffic,
downloads, shares, etc.)
Short Term #1
2. Website Optimization
 Because of the central role of a
companies website within the social
media process (hub station).
Professionals should start at developing
there websites.
• Set goals: what do you want out of your
website?
• Optimize lay-out and usability, increase
findability online (SEO)
• Know what is actually on there (many
interviewees don’t have a clue)
• Start by analyzing statistics
• Make website content shareable, by
implementing social media buttons and rss-
feeds.
• Make website part of your online
communications mix: standardize publishing:
get websites up to date
• Define website publishing ‘freedom’. Are
you able to influence content of website?
Whose responsibility is it?
• If possible: move content to .eu domain
(many info is on .com domain, which makes
analyzing traffic harder)
• Integrate website with analyzing tools
(google analytics)

70.
3. Online marketing (promotion & advertising)
 When advertising becomes relevant
experiment with online possibilities like:
• Search Engine Advertising (Google, Yahoo)
• Social Media Advertising (ad’s on LinkedIn,
Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
 Start online campaigns and integrate them
with content on the corporate website.
Deploy a structure that enables you to
measure result (online statistics) and try to
calculate ROI. In the end compare them with
offline marketing efforts.
4. Write or renew policies, guidelines and
protocols
 Though there already are some policies,
they’re not complete, and need renewing.
• Social Media Policy
• Social Media Guideline
• Content protocol and strategy
• Website protocol and strategy
• Online advertising protocol and strategy
Short Term #2
5. Social Media Training and Education
 Individually or Group
6. Social Media Monitoring
 Start monitoring market (industry,
customers and competitors) trough social
media, in order to get professionals
familiar with social media. (create
awareness)
7. Leadership
 Appoint a Social Media (and online)
spokesman. At least on a local or regional
level.
8. Content Library
 Start publishing all external
communications within a centralized
environment > intranet. Engage
employees to do so, by making it an easy
process. (protocol)

71.
Thanks for reading!
- Paul Holthuis -

72.
About author | My digital map
News &
Information
Technology
Shopping
& Travel
Entertainment
Business &
Finance
NRC.nl
BBC.co.uk
Google Alerts
Hootsuite
Wikipedia.com
Twitter
Scientias.com
Volkskrant.nl
marketingfacts.com
marktplaats.com
ebay.com
Bol.com
Blogger NS.nl
Scientias.nl
automationworld.com
Google Maps
hrcommunity.com
Youtubes.com
Nos.com
wolveninnederland.nl
vi.nl
VIMEO
Scientias.nl
Facebook.com
Apps / mobile games
linkedin.com
Google
ABN bankieren
Google
Pwjanssen.webs.com
Blogger
Villamedia.nl
Communication tools
- Mobile phone
- E-mail (Gmail)
- Twitter
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
- What's App
nu.nl
Socialmention.com
Nos.com
Archeologieonline.nl
Youtube.com
Paul