The road to social media failure is paved with good intentions. Without a cohesive strategy, processes, tools, and governance, well-intentioned marketers can cause more harm than good. Equally well-intentioned senior executives know they need to get social, but don't understand the channel, how deeply it cuts through their strategy, or how to guide their teams through the strategic and cultural transformation needed to take full advantage of its potential.
1. Building a Cohesive B2B Social Media Strategy
Presented at SES, San Francisco, Sept. 11, 2013
Rebecca Tann, Vice President Marketing, Regus
2. About Me
Global Marketing Strategist
Fortune 500 Brands
Traditional, Digital & Emerging Tactics
Managing Budgets in Excess of $30 million
B2B and B2C Experience
@rebeccatann
3. What we do
World‟s largest provider of flexible workspace
solutions
More than a million customers a day
Locations spread across 100 countries
Where we do it
Who we do it for
Global organization with more than 1,500 business centres across some 600 cities
Founded in Brussels in 1989
Currently headquartered in Luxembourg
More than half of Fortune 500s
Start-ups and medium-sized companies across every sector
About Regus
4. About You
Working with B2B vs. B2C brands?
With an agency vs. in-house?
Currently managing social media
campaigns?
Feeling they have a clear/cohesive strategy in
place?
5. Agenda
Step 1: Forget Social Media: Think Content Marketing
Step 2: Goals: Define Goals & Objectives
Step 3: Measurement: What Does “Success” Mean to You?
Step 4: Infrastructure: Get Some Help
Step 5: Governance: Lock it Down
Step 6: Listen, Learn and Adapt
Intro John Lee with Webtrends
@rebeccatann
6. Our Basic Theory of B2B Social Media
B2B looks a lot like B2C
Humanize your brand
Keep it simple
Tell your story
Interact, surprise and reward them
Talk to your customers
Relationships are between
people not businesses
Engage like it’s yours
Go where your customers are
Best told through customer
experiences
7. Step 1: Forget Social Media: Think Content Marketing
What assets do I have in place?
What assets do I need to create?
What resources do I have?
Target: Who‟s your audience?
Topics: What are they interested in?
Locations: Where can you find them?
Content: What can I offer them of value?
Image Source: www.toprankblog.com
@rebeccatann
8. Step 1: How Regus Does it
Created Content
Curated Content
Business Experts
Target: SMB to Large Multinational
Topics: Business, Operations, Finance etc.
Locations: Global & Local – Online & Offline – Horizontal & Vertical
Content: What can I offer them of value?
9. Step 1: How Regus Does It
Content
Bank
3rd Party
Blog Posts
Byline
Articles
Media
Coverage
Industry
Reports
Great Big
Surveys
Case Studies
Press
Releases
Expert
Commentary
Custom
Research
@rebeccatann
11. What are my business goals and objectives?
What does the C-suite expect of our overall social media strategy?
How does/can it impact other areas of the organization:
• Marketing
• Sales
• Operations
• Customer Service
• HR/Recruiting
Step 2: Define Your Objectives
@rebeccatann
12. Goals: Sales Driven Organization
What Matters: Inquiries (Leads), Deals (Contracts), Revenue
How does/can it impact other areas of the organization:
• Every department has goals that map back to the business goals
• Each department, and every program, is either driving revenue or
driving costs (up or down)
• Social media must drive business objectives too:
Step 2: How Regus Does It
755% increase in Sales YoY
from Social Media
13. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Measurement Architecture: What do you need to measure?
• Analytics (Ex. Google or Platform Specific - i.e. Facebook Insights)
• Tracking Links
• Operational Changes
o Technical Support
o Web Forms
o Call Center Scripts
o Sales Software Integration
o Other
Step 3: Measurement: What Does “Success” Mean to You?
@rebeccatann
15. Step 3: How Regus Does It
Social Media Metrics
Social Network Engagement Jan Feb Mar
Twitter (@tweets, ReTweets) 10,000 15,000 20,000
Facebook (likes, shares, comments) 5,000 6,000 7,000
Blog (shares, comments) 900 1,000 15,000
Total 15,900 22,000 2,052
Target 10,950 12,371 15,300
Social network revenue (GBP - 000) Jan Feb Mar
Total 27.46 11.28 54.10
Target 15.0K 16.0K 18.0K
Q1
Determine key KPIs that are relevant to your business and the time
periods you want to report against…
16. Gathering your resources
• Human
o In-house
o Agency
• Financial
o Advertising
o Marketing
o Promotion
Step 4: Infrastructure: Get Some Help
• Technical
o Listening & Monitoring Platforms
o Engagement Platform
o Analysis
• Content
o Creation
o Curation
@rebeccatann
19. Step 5: Governance: Lock It Down
Social Media Policies
Workflow Plans
Social Media Ambassadors
• Training
• Monitoring
Employee Engagement
20. Step 5: How Regus Does It
Clear Social Media Policy
Clear Workflow Plan (For Operations)
Support Social Media in Every Country Regus Has a Presence
Different Platforms for Each Region Based on Target Audience
Social Media Managers Train Employee Ambassadors
700 Social Media Ambassadors in N. America Since 2012
@rebeccatann
21. Step 6: How Regus Does It
Social Media
Manager
• Customer Tweets Complaint
• Regus Gathers Contact Info
Customer
Service
• Determines Center Location of Customer
• Center Manager is Contacted
Center
Manager
• Contacts Customer Onsite
• Resolves Issue with Customer
• Notifies Social Media Manager of Resolution
Social Media
Manager
• Closes Loop with Customer on Twitter
23. Creating a „Feedback Loop‟
Examining what works and doesn‟t work
Examining which platforms are more prolific
Experimenting with a variety of strategies/methodologies – i.e.
Twitter Chats, Contests/Sweepstakes, Live streams etc.
Step 6: Listen, Learn and Adapt
@rebeccatann
24. Summary
Step 1: Forget Social Media: Think Content Marketing
Step 2: Goals: Define Goals & Objectives
Step 3: Measurement: What Does “Success” Mean to You?
Step 4: Infrastructure: Get Some Help
Step 5: Governance: Lock it Down
Step 6: Listen, Learn and Adapt
(Highlight a few of the types of resources that Regus uses for its SM content strategy)All of these items feed our content bank.For example, the Great Big Survey (GBS) can spawn a press release, tweets, a full report, a byline, a blog post etc.
Regus’ Twitter handle for U.S.We started to take this serious in Feb 2013 and the numbers show it.Interactions: 18,210 (It's actually more than this, but we can't track the interactions of our employees accounts) (198% increase from last year)We have over 15,000 Twitter follower on RegusUSA and over 6,000 follower on @RegusCanadaExample of what Regus’ Twitter feed looks likeExamples of our content – Link to a blog post about doing business abroad (created)Link to a report by a third party about long commutes (curated)Work while watching a Padres game – view from one of our centers in San Diego
