My First Digest

Social Media Affecting BtoB Buying Behavior

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:50 GMT

Credit: Intersection Consulting.

A new study from Connected Marketer and DemandGen Inside the Mind of the New BtoB Buyer reveals some very interesting shifts in the behavior of BtoB buyers.

Push vs Pull

Traditionally information and material about a product or service originated from the company, was evaluated by analysts and distributed by the sales reps. Now buyers have access to reviews and comparisons online. They are finding their informaion is many places. They are talking to their peers.

“The buyer is armed with even more information and leverage. Sales and marketing professionals need to recognize and embrace this in order to succeed in today’s market.”

The New Influences in the Buying Process

BtoB buyers are actively using social media in many steps along the path of the purchase-making decision. Companies involved in BtoB sales need to implement a social media strategy along with other marketing and sales tactics.

78% started with informal info gathering
59% engaged with peers who addressed the challenge
48% followed industry conversations on topic
44% conducted anonymous research of a select group of vendors
41% followed discussions to learn more about topic
37% posted questions on social networking sites looking for suggestions/feedback
More than 20% connected directly with potential solution providers via social networking channels

The Role of Content

Almost 95% of recent purchasers said the solution provider they chose “provided them with ample content to help navigate through each stage of the buying process.” It's important that you get your message out and that it can be found as they search at any point in the buying process. You need “skin in the game” and that content must be visible as your propective customer moves through all the possible sources of content.

Search (SEO and SEM)
Social Media and Social Bookmarking
Forums
Blogs
Your Website
Press
Peers and Peer Groups
Analysts

As the buyers' behavior changes, so does the marketing process have to change. Social media is not only for BtoC. Publishing the right content and making sure it gets found in the right places is a vital BtoB strategy today.

Social Media – Integrating with Other Channels

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:32 GMT

Social media marketing has gone from experimental to must-have. Close to 80 percent of marketers say they are planning to use social media in 2010.

However, it appears that we are still at the ‘figure it out' stage in terms of integrating social media into marketing and PR planning, says marketing management firm Unica. While a majority of voting features, product reviews, user-generated content and RSS feeds are integrated with other campaigns, that is not true of efforts on social networking sites, blogs or microblogs.

According to eMarketer, the reason marketers have the perception that social media is easy and cheap to do. But much of the real cost of social campaigns is in the people-hours spent fostering and maintaining social conversations. And effectively allocating resources requires a social media strategy integrated with other activities.

Hello – Is that really you I'm talking to?

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:18 GMT

Image Credit: Chiara Marra

Mitch Joel's post about the Death of Social Media suggests that when we treat social media like a traditional marketing channel we're killing the medium. I agree.

“The minute we (as a community) allow and accept traditional mass media tactics to pollute Social Media, is the minute that all is lost.”

He refers to the article about Ghost Blogging in the February issue of Entrepreneur magazine. They interviewed a few professional blogger/tweeters who service several clients.

For the last 100 years, ghost writing has been an acceptable PR activity. But we were in an era of one-way, mass communication. These were ghost-written articles that you reading a newspaper or magazine. You did not expect to have a one-on-one conversation with the author.

Social media has changed the rules of the game. It's about having real conversations.

And when you are in a two-way dialogue with someone, you do expect to actually be speaking with the person you think you're talking to. Social media is about transparency and an open conversation. Ghost blogging or tweeting is not a real conversation, and people predictably get upset when they discover they've been duped.

I totally get that some high profile people or execs are too busy to blog or tweet. But there is someone in the company or organization that is passionate about the business or product, writes well, has a lot to say, and will make a great blogger. Microsoft did not make Bill Gates their blogger – it was Robert Scoble. Who ever heard of Robert Scoble before he blogged for MS? And Robert Scoble never pretended to be Bill Gates.

And if you are a busy exec jotting down your thoughts and handing them off to a blogger, then why not say so? We'll understand that. If Kinsey Scholfield blogs Chris Moneymanker's poker tournaments hand-by hand, then it's obviously not him tweeting, is it? He can't play and tweet at the same time. But isn't it just as interesting to have his ‘official' tweeter standing right there and talking to him as he plays?

There are many services an agency or consultant can provide to a company or individual to help them improve their Social Media presence and engagement. Ghost writing is not one of them. ( I wrote about this as one of the trends in The Future of PR for 2010 )

Coach them on their writing, advise them on their content strategy, teach them how to find influencers and reach out correctly. Monitor mentions of the brand and help them measure the effectiveness of their Social Media activity. Be their “official” blogger, if you must. But don't pretend to be them.

You can put their training wheels on and teach them to ride. But ultimately they have to ride this bicycle themselves.

What Are Social Media Users Looking For?

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:58 GMT

As with traditional media, it's different strokes for different folks on social media sites. And knowing your audience's needs and preferences is just as valid in PR today as it ever was.

According to an analysis of social sites by online advertising network Chikita published by Mashable, people go to Twitter for news, MySpace for games and entertainment, Facebook for news and community and digg has a mixed bag.

Another post from Chikita shows that Facebook is far and away the best source of loyal visitors – over 20% of all visitors from Facebook visited the referred site four or more times per week. Digg came in second place with slightly over 16%.

CMO's Guide to the Social Landscape

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:44 GMT

According to the CMO Club 81% of CMO's plan to link their annual revenue to their social media investment!

But other studies show that many CMO's are still confused about how to effectively integrate social media with their marketing and PR programs.

We often get asked whether a company should do it all in-house or outsource to an agency. Since the idea is to hold conversations with your customers and stakeholders, it should be obvious that someone at the company has to do the communicating.

An agency can help you get started. They can do the monitoring and content analysis, give you advice on content direction and editorial decisions and even assist with content creation. But the conversations have to be authentic interactions between the public and the employees of the company.

We can get your training wheels on and coach you for six months or so. Ultimately you must ride the bike yourself.

Twitter and Facebook Influencing Purchase Decisions

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:17 GMT

A recent study of social media usage makes it quite clear that people who become Facebook fans and Twitter followers of a brand are more likely to not only recommend, but they are also more likely to buy from those brands than they were before becoming fans/followers.

And it seems that Twitter is the more influential

79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower
67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or fan
60% of Facebook fans will recommend
51% of Facebook fans/followers are more likely to purchase the brand they love

However, considering Facebook’s over 400 million users, the opportunity is great for social media marketers.

“While social media is not the silver bullet that some pundits claim it to be, it is an extremely important and relatively low cost touch point that has a direct impact on sales and positive word of mouth,” comments Josh Mendelsohn a vice president at Chadwick Martin Bailey. “Companies not actively engaging are missing a huge opportunity and are saying something to consumers – intentionally or unintentionally- about how willing they are to engage on consumers’ terms.”

If you are in the travel/destination industry our webinar with Bulldog Reporter tomorrow has four hours of specific info on these topics.

Social Media Strategies: Ravit Lichtenberg at OMS10

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:37 GMT

Ravit Lichtenberg of Ustrategy spoke in the keynote at OMS10 about the vital need for a social media strategy rather than “shooting arrows at a moving target.'

Take a step back and figure out the best way to reach your customers, provide valuable content and stay close to them, says Ravit.

Five Social Media Tips:

1. Have a vision-driven strategy, but a campaign driven implementation. Have a strategy based on your vision but choose two to three tactic to focus on for your implementation

2. Own your own content as an organization.Aggregate all your content on your website. Make is easy for people to find all your content in one place. (A social media newsoom is a great tool for this.)

3. Put a well-defined structure and process in place. Define the roles and assign accountablity. Be fast and agile because the speed of customer engagement online demands immediate response.

4. Be aware of the role of women in social media. 75% of purchasing power is in the hands of women and traditionally women are good at relationships. Think about marketing to women.

5. Resources – find the right balance between external resources and employees to help you craft the strategy and implement it going forward.

Ravit and I are both presenting sessions at the PRSA Western District Conference and we'll be on a panel together as well! Join us for a few days in the desert at a lovely spa resort.

Search, Video and the Future of PR: Greg Jarboe at OMS 2010

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:50 GMT

The Online Marketing Summit in San Diego was held at the beautiful Paradise Point Resort this year. I caught up with Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR after one of the keynote sessions and talked to him about search, video and public relations.

According to comScore the second most popular site where searches are conducted is YouTube, Music is the number one genre of videos searched, but how-to videos are not far behind.

Gregs advice for PR people:

The opportunities are increasing online. PR people have to learn new skills. You can create videos and upload them to YouTube as part of your pitch to traditional media. Learn to tell your stories in video, upload them to YouTube, optimize them for search so they get found and work with analytics so you can track and measure your results.

US Regions Collaborate for Travel Marketing Online

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:37 GMT

Steve Paganelli, DMO Strategist at TIG Global spoke at the North American Journeys Summit West last week. We caught up with him at the break and asked him some questions about his session and the case study he presented.

Steve explained how several of the regions in the US are collaborating to make their international online marketing more effective – specially since overseas travelers are often not aware of which states make a region. He offered some great ideas for how states can work together to market an area that would be attractive to international visitors – like the Washington DC area,the New England States or the Northern Rockies.

10 Twitter Tips

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:44 GMT

I have started a series of PR Tip Sheets about social media and the trends I see developing in 2010.

The first one is about using Twitter. These 10 Tips are for those getting started.

Download the Tip Sheet