Brain Vibe

marketing muses to stay engaged

September 2, 2009 • 1:17 am 0

B2B Social Media: The Silent Majority Opportunity

B2B Customer Silent MajorityThere is a huge silent majority out there.  Are you speaking to them?  I think you should.

This has been an issue with social media in B2B that I keep coming back to.  There are those of us that produce content, those that comment, those that share, and those that just are there on the fringe – the silent majority.  As marketers, free press (engagement) is typically measured more in actions and thus the measure of social media success.  But, what has me thinking is, are those that are most vocal and interactive really representative of my market or who I want to convert?  I know that they have influence by their ability to advocate the brand and spread my message.  Though, it makes me wonder if my message is really being shared in the manner that I would intend.  Ah, the loss of control.

But, I digress…

There is a part of me that thinks social media and how we measure effectiveness may be a bit flawed.  Taking a step back and looking at the B2B decision process, social media is not proving to be a big conversion component at the bottom of the funnel.  It is really a thought leadership component.  As such, while I certainly want to engage those visiting say in a blog or community, I think that the silent majority may actually be my real customer.  I’m not even determining how I’m influencing them or who they are in how social media effectiveness is measured today.

Here’s why I care about the silent majority.  They are the ones that are probably in a serious research phase as they assess their business and ways to improve it.  They are the ones that don’t have other motives outside of becoming more knowledgeable.  It may not be in their best interest to publicly communicate their opinions or questions as it could expose their strategy to competitors, thus they are closer to considering next steps.  They share content rarely, but when they do it is highly relevant to their purpose.  I think the silent majority is actually the closest to being converted, and we don’t even track them well.

Initial thoughts are that we should look at members/subscribers and content sharers that are active in visitation but less so in direct engagement – taking a bottom up analysis rather than top down.  This may point towards more qualified leads to engage in direct marketing activities and other traditional conversion tactics.  We might want to look overall at our social media and begin to track metrics that point towards research behavior that resembles behavior of those ready to engage in the sales process in order to determine potential effect on marketing conversion.  Thus, giving a window on our social media’s effect on conversion.

What do you think?  What is your strategy for the silent majority?

Filed under: b2b, customer relationship, sales 2.0, social media marketing, , , , ,

August 10, 2009 • 10:44 pm 0

Social Media Myth: You Can Be Everything To Everybody

You walked over to your IA and said, “I want a dynamic, modular, customizable, and personal website for my visitors.  Let visitors design their experience!”  They went back trying to configure that requirement into their traditional web software design tools, and they freeze.  Trying to implement a social media strategy on your website and throwing up your hands in frustration as the nebulous and fluid nature of social media destroys that rock solid and logical foundation is probably why most have yet to attempt that pull vs. push strategy. If this is really the way you want to go (and by the way, you should!), then there are a 3 things you’ll want to establish at the onset.  Some points are things you should already be thinking about with a traditional site, but it is even more important when you allow interaction and content to travel through a social media platform.

  1. Keep it focused, keep it simple.  Determine up front the primary objective for you website.  Selling cookies, servicing existing clients, a how to on shrinking your carbon foot print, what ever it is, pick one thing and focus on that.  It is inevitable that you have multiple types of visitors and segment and they all have different needs.  The reality is, you can’t be all things to all people.  Your website is the one place where you can do what you want to do best online.
  2. Timing creates relevance.  Recognize how seasonality or periods will impact what your visitors are expecting on your site and be flexible and automated in what they see first.   This is how you can be agile in attempting to serve multiple interests.  Campaigns in market drive visitors with specific needs based on what your call to action was.  However, after these periods of heavy advertising, visitation profiles and behavior change and your primary content should as well.
  3. Website as an Ad Network.  This is the real change in thinking.  Your site is no longer an internet PDF.  Your blogs, widgets, articles, and comments will travel.  If you don’t think you have any control over this, you are partially correct.  However, how you decide to place and allow content to travel to tell your story is in your control.  Rather than tighten control over content, strategically leverage it in the same fashion you would with contextual marketing and display advertising.

Taking these three points into account will ensure you have the right place to start and the most flexible design to fit your purpose.

Filed under: communication, customer relationship, social media, social media marketing, , , , ,

June 20, 2009 • 5:56 pm 0

Inside Out B2B Social Media Communities

It seems that in order to feel connected in social media communities, the trend is to create micro communities within a network.  Where a year ago it was all about how many Twitter followers and Facebook friends you have, this year we are looking to build more intimate and meaningful neighborhoods.  It makes sense.  After all, working a room takes a lot of effort.  Ultimately, you are trying to have meaningful conversations and exchanges.

Here’s the thing,  if you are thinking about building a customer community, there are a lot of great ideas and discussions that hopefully will come out of it.  Outside of providing better avenues of service, exchanges between you and your customer and customer to customer are valuable insights into a customer’s needs, decisions, and challenges.  Why would you want to keep that just in the community?

E-tailers got it right when they incorporated rating systems and customer comments on products to help drive more sales.  In a business-to-business community, sharing opinions and advice with potential customers on the main website can help further engage browsing visitors and improve lead generation.  Locking support forums behind customer community gates might seem like a good idea because you don’t want potential clients scared off when investigating your solutions.  However, isnt it better to have them engage in the forums to help further understand how your solutions fit their requirements and have customers and community leaders help out in the discussion?  If they go to other communities and forums where you aren’t present, you and your customers don’t have the ability to influence their opinions.

I suggest that part of your social media marketing strategy takes into account ways to break down the social media silos you may be developing when trying to service various segments within your interactions.  Just as you create dynamic content on your website with Twitter streams, podcasts, and video.  Think about how conversations and insight within the customer community can optimize and improve engagement and interest on your website.  Include comments and opinions from the customer community.  Include dynamic case scenarios of how to overcome the challenges of implementing your solutions with forum and blog discussions.

Let your customer’s voice shape your website.

Filed under: b2b, customer relationship, social media, social media marketing, , , , , , ,

June 4, 2009 • 9:49 pm 0

Social Media Allows Solution Improvisation

A fear of B2B marketers of leveraging social media is the loss of control over the conversation and content.  In fact, by relinquishing control, you open up the conversation with your customers and can improve your relationship, improve your offers, and strengthen your position in the market.  Social media allows you to improvise to improve, evolve, and innovate.

During an interview, Conan O’Brien talked about what he learned from improvisation.

“… people respond to something that happens in the moment, much more than they will respond to the most brilliant thing that was thought of ahead of time and prepared.  Improv teaches you not to fear those moments.  That is where the gold is.”

While Conan O’Brien is talking about comedy, and stand-up in particular, the same holds true with your customer conversations.  You already have your value proposition, positioning statements, messaging, and connection in place.  Allowing yourself to open up to the customer not only to tell them about you, but to listen to them and improvise how you meet their needs will get you farther.  

You become the solution, not the cost.

Filed under: communication, customer relationship, marketing/advertising, social media, social media marketing, , , , ,

June 2, 2009 • 1:52 pm 0

Social Media for B2B is a Game Changer

Forget about the question of if you should or shouldn’t leverage social media for B2B marketing.  Forget even that you can see a direct link to ROI.  If you aren’t blogging, networking, and conversing with your customers and the market through social media, you lost already.  Why?  Social media marketing in B2b is what a website was back in the 90′s, it is the game changer.  If you use social media you have credibility and authority.  Without it, you are a wall flower.

Customers want to hear your voice.  They want you to be a thought leader.  It is more than the stale white paper.  It is about the tone and interaction you are willing to subscribe to when you engage in social media marketing practices.  A community, a blog, you tweets, they all help you create authority simply by stepping out.  

The number one role of marketing in B2B is to convince your customers that it is worth spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on your solutions.  If you aren’t credible, authoritative, and a leader, chances are slim a customer is going to consider you.  Just being aware of you as a provider isn’t enough.  The benefit of social media marketing is that as much as it improves awareness, it ultimately establishes you as a player.

And, if you really have to prove quantitatively that social media marketing is improving ROI (of course you do!), stop looking at awareness.  Track the movement of your brand across leadership, credibility, and mindshare.  Chances are, your social media marketing efforts are paying off here.

Filed under: b2b, communication, customer relationship, marketing/advertising, social media marketing, , , , ,

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