5 Tricks to B2B Marketing Socially

Whenever I ask members of sales team from around the globe what they need – the answer never changes – more case studies. Its not to say that we don’t respond but for whatever reason it takes a village to get a single case study done.

The reason the sales team loves case studies is it gives them evidence. Evidence for them to start a conversation around your solution and gauge whether there is a need with the potential buyer they are talking to.

Then how do B2B Marketers use that content with Social Media to do the same - here are 5 tricks to Marketing B2B content socially ...

1) Tell good Stories - You have a new kind of marketing evolving now – a marketing that is driven by good stories. I think Story Telling is going to be a huge component of the marketers tool kit going forward since the web and social media adore good stories.

2) Make them Sticky - But not just any stories – for example boring stories of an ERP implementation aren’t going to go viral any time soon. But stories that are “sticky” will – but even if you cant have a really sticky story you can at least write about what people care about and in a way in which they will care – ex 7 Ways Facebook will Change your Life was downloaded 10,000 times in the course of a month because it’s a sticky story.

3) Think Friction Free - Think about the friction involved in the packaging of your content and find a way to remove friction from the process. Typical friction-laden processes and long registration forms are usually the culprit so think about circumventing them by uploading to sites like SlideShare give you an easy way to access an audience that can engage with your content.

4) Launch them with all available media - Think about how to maximize your reach into every available channel or media. Find a way to take the core idea and distribute into every possible niche of consumer attention – get creative and leverage that story to maximize the mileage you can get from it.

5) Measure Reach, Efficiency and Value - If you are going to go through the trouble of putting your content out there – why not gauge the effectiveness of the content by measuring how many people you reach, how efficient that reach was (did they click through to learn more, did it drive website visits up, did they register for more information on your site) and finally what value did that bring – a newly minted lead in your database is worth something and it gives you a stream of leads to nurture to the point that you can hand them to your sales team as a sales ready lead that they can close!

 

The Tipping Point and your Contact Center

Back in the year 2000, Malcolm Gladwell published his landmark book called The Tipping Point. And little did he know 9 years later he would have set the stage for how many Contact Centers handle Social Media?

Let me explain …

Many of the most Socially advanced Contact Centers today are using tools to listen in on Conversations. Conversations that are happening about their brand, conversations that are happening about their competition, and of course conversations that revolve around Customer Support! Customer Support makes for an easy anchor of any good Social Media strategy so it stands to reason that Customer Support would play a leading role when it comes to listening in on Conversations.

But today’s listening and analytical technology for social conversations are still in their infancy. So many Contact Center managers find themselves using their listening tools to find Support opportunities and then manually “cutting and pasting” them into email to send to the agent that can best handle the inquiry.

In his book, Gladwell describes "agents of change" like the Connectors who are the people who "link us up with the world”. He characterizes these individuals as having social networks of over one hundred people. And the Mavens who are "information specialists", or "people we rely upon to connect us with new information." They accumulate knowledge, especially about the marketplace, and know how to share it with others.

So in effect the Contact Center Manager acts as the Social Agent of Change, more specifically in the role as the “Connector” linking up the worlds social requests to the best qualified Agent who then plays the role of the “Maven” or information specialist.

While this is a great role for the Contact Center to play it has 2 distinct pitfalls. First is this approach while admirable is just not scaleable. Too much manual intervention and we need to evolve the analytical tools take the place of the “Connector” role. Second we are going to need to get to a place where all this is trackable and measurable rather than unstructured workloads.

 

Some Weeks are Hard to Top!

Last week was the perfect storm of 3 major life moments all coming together in one week to form the perfect trifecta. It’s a week that is going to be hard to top in Dunay history but don’t put it past me to try!

It all started Friday, Oct 23rd when my wife came into the house and said “oh yeah, I think your books have arrived – I saw a whole bunch of boxes out by the garage”. Little did she know in that moment I became a published author! I spent the weekend packing up copies of Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley) and sending them to family, friends, long time mentors but most importantly to influencers who I would love to have review the book.

Monday, Oct 26th rolled around and I was privy to some huge news that was going to be announced – no it wasn’t just my son's 11th birthday – but BtoB Magazine (a Crain’s publication) voted me onto their list of Top 25 Marketers of the Year 2009! I could barely wait to see it in print or have it go live on their website so I could share it with everyone. It’s one of those serious industry honors and one that I have been hoping, praying and striving to achieve.

And to top it all off, Friday Oct 30th I got to appear on my favorite web TV show – HubSpot TV live from Boston. I have been a long time fan of HubSpot TV and I have seen every episode. So when Mike Volpe offered to have me on as a guest around the time of my book launch - I jumped at it. My only reservation was that it was so close to Halloween that they might want me to appear in costume. But when I got there and saw the entire staff of HubSpot dressed in costume, I knew it was time to just go for it. So I ended up appearing as Hulk Hogan – which if I must say – I thought I looked pretty good as the Hulk!

I want to point out that none of this would have been possible without the unending support of my wife and family, close friends, and many of you along the way keeping me inspired to achieve new heights. This blog has been the single most important thing I have ever done and has opened doors to meeting new people, writing books (hint another one may be in the works) and learning more about a topic that I am so passionate about. And to that end I am feeling a renewed sense of energy around my blog, so look for more learnings each week as I report back in real time what I have learned.

I have to thank (again) my inspiration for this blog – Keith Ferrazzi. In February 2006 while on holiday in Costa Rica I read Never Eat Alone. And while the point of his book was about how to network more effectively, on pages 100-101 he covers the topic of sharing your passions via a blog. I made up my mind that day that when I got home I would do what I had been contemplating for a while and start this blog. Little did Keith know it but he changed the course of my life with just a few keystrokes.

 

Use Social Media to spot issues before they hit the Contact Center!

Firey laptop batteries, defective chips, tainted foods, toothpaste that stains teeth – these are just some real examples of issues that struck companies recently that might have been headed off at the pass by Social Media.

When you have an issue these days – what’s the first place you go for more information? That’s right – the Internet – most likely Google but increasingly for real time information search you might use Twitter. Conversely most people don’t just pick up the phone and call a company anymore.

Some of these issues first showed up on Twitter way before they ever hit the Contact Center. Perhaps days before anyone called into the Contact Center to inquire.

With the speed of Social Media these days – wouldn’t you love to have a few day head start? Well you do – but only if you are listening.

A peer of mine said that she has seen this effect already on Twitter but she doesn’t jump at the first sighting – she waits to see at least a second sighting perhaps in a different channel (or coming from a different region) before she decides to engage.

While clearly you need to use your best judgment – you do have the opportunity to head off at the pass serious issues for your brand before they become front page news. The only caveat is, you have to be listening …

 

Spend More Time Planning your Content Strategy!

Because of my new book, Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley), which is launching next week - I have been getting a lot of emails and questions from my readers that are very focused on launching their Facebook and Twitter presence.

Seems to me like these channels have gone mainstream in the minds of many marketers as evidenced by the number of inquires about these channels and also by my mom's Facebook profile and my dad's Twitter feed! But what scares me even more than that is the seemingly singleminded focus on the launch of these mediums rather than conversational aspect.

Everyone seems content to dive right in and start planning their presence on these channels but is missing the point from a marketing perspective. Much like the old adage "people spend more time planning the wedding than they spend planning the marriage".

The point is you need to plan the flow of content that will go into these channels. If you already have a blog, podcast series or video series you can effectively use Facebook or Twitter to attract another audience to interact and create conversations with those assets.

Facebook Content Syndication Tips

And there are a variety of ways to syndicate content on your Facebook Fan page. You can use the Notes page to import blog posts to your Fan page, you can use the My Del.icio.us application to import any bookmarks you may have made in your Del.icio.us account, you can use the Simply RSS application to bring in RSS feeds you may have on your company website, you can edit your links section of have a variety of blogs or websites you may want to highlight perhaps by employees or partners of your company, and don’t forget to edit your Feed settings to include the complete versions of all your blog posts so they appear not only on your Fan page but on the Feeds of all your fans.

The channels you choose will only be as good as the content you publish with them. Spend more time on the content and the plans for future content if you really want to create a strong pull of interested prospects with those channels!

 

Why Social Strategies are Difficult for Agencies to execute?

Many agencies today are offering Social Media services (if they aren’t they need to). But for many of them it is often hard to architect the strategy since so much of the knowledge of ‘who to go to’ for ‘what type of Social Media conversation’ is very internal knowledge.

A good Social Media strategy starts with looking at what Conversations you want to engage in, what Objectives you have for engaging in those conversations, what Strategy you will have to fulfill on those objectives and finally what Technology you will use to get there.

In order to plan that out for a client, the agency can work with them to get a sense for the Conversations a brand should be engaged in, what Objectives they should have for engaging in these conversation, what strategy will best fulfill on your objective and what technology to use. But where Agencies typically are challenged is on the “who” part of the equation – “who” will be the person best suited to represent the brand for a particular type of conversation.

Agencies have to get internally savvy fast to navigate the waters of an organization and this typically doesn’t happen overnight. Or perhaps they need to find the “super connector” within the organization who can help them articulate who to go to as point of contact for those conversations.

So when you are working with an outside agency on helping you with your Social Media strategy the best place to focus your efforts to help them is in the identification and recruitment of strong personas who can represent your brand in some very specific conversations.

 

Interview with Leading Sales Expert: Jim Keenan

I had a chance to interview Jim Keenan, the author of the blog A Sales Guy - specifically to get his take on what marketers need to be doing to help sales more. Here is his take ...

1) Why do you think it so hard for marketers to tune into what is effective at the sales level?

Marketing is “passive selling”. I think the problem is execution and rests in two places. The first is with corporate structure. Companies can do a better job at integrating the two functions. Marketing and Sales need to be tightly integrated with the same incentive and management plans. I don't see this enough. I don't know too many companies where the marketing people are on the same quota plan as the sales people. Marketing supports sales, if sales fails, not sure how marketing can be successful. The creative component is the other problem. I get the need the need for creativity in marketing, however all too often the creativity gets in the way of the message. If it looks cool, is hip, and wins awards for creativity, but doesn't increase sales isn't worth anything.

2) What do you think is the most important thing a marketer can do for you to help you sell?

Create a compelling story. I think marketing forgets this sometimes. I see a lot of slick, aesthetically appealing campaigns, but they lack a story. Marketing has an interesting, and I’ll admit, difficult job. They have to connect with their audience through indirect, passive mediums. As sales people we get to talk to folks directly. Sales has the benefit of engagement. If we say the wrong thing, miss the mark with a point, we usually get a second chance to correct it and get back on track. Marketers don't have that. If their campaign misses the mark they're in trouble. This is why marketers HAVE to be compelling story tellers. If they miss the mark they don't get a second chance.

It reminds me of the failed Nissan campaign in the early 90's, when Nissan launched the Acura Brand. They didn't show the car for the first few weeks. They ran ads talking about it coming, and how great it was going to be. But they never showed it. It was a cool campaign; it had intrigue, and was hip. But it didn't work. People couldn't act. The story wasn't compelling. People love cars for what they look like. And until Nissan showed you the car, it didn't matter what else they said.

Compelling stories gives sales a hook. Think of fishing; Marketing baits the hook, finds the best fishing grounds and sets the hook. They then pass the rod to sales to real it in. A compelling story is the bait. Sales needs good bait.

3) What 3 pieces of advice would you give anyone in Sales?

Sales comprises of three simple things: Access, Influence and Delivery. Anything a sales person does MUST impact one of those. It must get them access to their customers, the people buying what they are selling. It must help them influence those they get access to, if you have access, yet can't influence you're dead. It must help you deliver on what you say. If you get access, wield great influence, but can't deliver, it will be a one time sale. Knowing this the advice I give is;

1) You better know your customers business and industry as good if not better than they do. Sales people are business enablers. They provide companies with the tools and information necessary to run their business. Extensive knowledge of your customers business and industry or market gets you access AND allows you to develop tremendous influence. 2) Be an analyst. When it comes to your customer analyze EVERYTHING, their markets, their strategy, their competition, their reasons for doing what they do, the solutions, the timing, the results, the plans, the people, the motives and then ask WHY, why are they doing it that way, why that approach, why that strategy, why that person WHY . . . ask it of yourself, and your customer. Learn how to get to why. The answer is in the why. 3) Believe in what you sell. Ya, I know it's trite, but it's true. When someone believes to the fiber of their bones their solution, product can make a difference, it shows. 3 1/2 Be creative. Do things differently. Look at them from a different lens. Push back on the status quo. Be as creative as you can be. 3 3/4 - Bust your hump. No one is coming. Out work everyone else!

4) How has the Sales function changed as a result of the economy?

It's pretty simple. Budgets are tighter and sales take more justification. It's become harder. It's simple supply and demand. Less money is being spent on fewer things therefore the competition is greater. The sales function itself hasn't change. It's the execution of the function that has been impacted. Those that can execute better at Access, Influence, and Deliver will be successful. I don't think it's anything earth shattering. The economy is just forcing people to be better at what they were doing in the first place.

5) What impact do you think Social will have on the Sales function?

Social media IS having a huge impact on sales today and will continue to have an even greater impact as it matures. Social Media is changing the game when it comes to access and influence. SM is providing new opportunities for sales people to exponentially grow their sphere of influence. Social Sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook give sales people unprecedented access to potential clients at all levels. The ability to connect and establish relationships with clients has never been easier. A new form of access is being created. This new access provides sales people with leads and opportunities once hidden from the world in person to person verbal conversations or the invisible conversation. Access to these "invisible conversations" is game changing. My favorite example of this happened back in April where an executive Tweeted about her "over the top" pushy sales rep and then tweeted 2 hours after about the pushy sales rep competitor seeing the tweet finding her number and calls to "pitch." Get the full story here. I see cold calling also becoming an antiquated way to connect in the not to distant future. SM is also providing sales people with tremendous information about the customers, and their companies. Tools like Gist will change the information game, providing sales people with real-time, relevant information about their buyers, their companies and their competitors increasing their influence.

Sales is all about Access, Influence and Delivery and social media is changing the access and influence game.

Jim Keenan is a Sr. Sales Executive, Enterprise 2.0/Web 2.0 Connector, an Entrepreneur still trying to get it right, and a PSIA Certified Ski Instructor for Vail Resorts. Husband to the Big E and 4 great kids. In a nut shell, he's a Sales Guy and life is good!