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This webinar recap is part three of a three part series from the Social Media Marketing conference at MarketingProfs’ Digital Marketing World 2010.

In this presentation:

• Your business needs Social Media
• Fundamental concepts of Social Media Marketing
• B2B Social Media tactics and metrics
• Incorporating Social Media at every stage of the revenue cycle
• The ROI of Social Media

1. Your Business Needs Social Media

The Evolution of B2B Marketing

• Before search engines: branding, mass advertising, tradeshows
• After search engines: lead management, scoring, and nurturing
• Arrival of social media: SEO, content marketing

Why Inbound Leads

• Inbound leads: highest conversion rates to qualified opportunities
• Inbound leads: educate themselves beforehand
• Companies now “get found”

Is your company ready for social media?

• Clear objectives and goals
• Available resources and content
• Target audiences use social media
• Prepared to handle social media
• Ready to incorporate social media through revenue cycle

Developing a B2B Social Media Plan

• WHO: Who are you targeting?
• HOW: Which social media tactics will you employ and how will you measure success?
• WHAT: What goals or objectives do you want to accomplish and what are the action items?

Sample social media plan from Marketo

Developing a B2B Social Media Policy

• How do you define social media?
• Ground rules for participation – who will participate and how?
• Importance of confidentiality

2. Fundamental Concepts of Social Media Marketing

• Company identity and brand
• Social media monitoring (“listening”)
• Social sharing
• Social validation (social proofing)

Company Identity and Brand

• Develop your identity
• Create permissions and privacy settings
• Use proper logos, colors
• Customize as much as possible

Social Media Monitoring (“Listening”)

• Start by monitoring the most popular social media sites
• Make best use of alerts
• As activity increases, consider using 3rd party tools (Twitter Search, Facebook Search, and LinkedIn Search – be aware they all have some limitations; Google Alerts)

Social Sharing: A closer look

• ShareThis or AddThis (have your content shared to an audience(s) who wouldn’t have otherwise seen it)
• Custom links for increased personalization

Social Sharing: Customized E-mails and Landing Pages

Share emails and landing pages, but no need to be constrained by generic content

Social Validation: A closer look

Adds transparency and credibility

3. B2B Social Media Tactics

• Social Media Networks
  • The Basics
  • Blogging
  • Twitter
  • Google Buzz
  • Facebook
• Pitfalls to Avoid

Social Media Networks

• Blogging
• Microblogging
• Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Online video (YouTube)
• Presentation/Document sharing
• Widgets
• Bookmarking
• Podcasting
• Social CRM
• Photo sharing (flickr)
• More!

Crash Course in B2B Blogging: The 5 Ws of Blogging

1. Why blog? (Increase search engine visibility.)
2. What should I blog about? (Anything! FAQs, How-to’s, Numbered lists, etc.)
3. Who should participate? (Everyone who can. For a technical product, engineers are fantastic.)
4. When should I blog/How often? (2 times a week at a minimum. I agree, 2-3 times/week at first is best.)
5. Where should I post your content? (All of your channels that apply)
6. How should I measure my results? (Measurement tools like Google Analytics)

Crash Course in Twitter for B2B

• Twitter profile: humanize and brand it
• Choosing who to follow: import contacts, follow experts in your industry
• Interacting with your followers: be responsive and engaging, not salesy
• Use tools to create and monitor conversations: retweet, hashtags

Crash Course in Google Buzz for B2B

• What is it?
  • Get into inboxes without email
• Getting started:
  • Update Google profile and link accounts
  • Watch privacy settings
  • Be patient as others get acclimated

Crash Course in Facebook for B2B

• Profile and status update: what matters to you and your company?
• Who to “friend”?
• Personal vs. business content: privacy settings
• Groups and Pages: promote awareness and thought leadership

Crash Course in LinkedIn for B2B

• Profile: make it as comprehensive as possible
• Connections: only people you know
• Recommendations positive comments socially validate your company
• Network updates: new business opportunities

Social Network Takeaway: Be aware of your individual vs. company presences

Pitfalls to Avoid in Social Media

• Don’t dive in until you’re ready
• Don’t be a “big brag”
• Don’t be afraid to try it because the metrics are new and different
• Don’t treat social media like advertising
• Don’t assume every social media tool is right for you

4. Incorporating Social Media into Every Stage of the Revenue Cycle

Social Media Across the Revenue Cycle

• Seed Nurturing – Developing relationships with early-stage prospects before they enter your database
• Lead Nurturing – Building and maintaining relationships with known prospects as they educate themselves
• Customer Nurturing – Deepening and expanding relationships with existing customers

Seed Nurturing & Social Media

• Make valuable content freely available
• Create a reputation that builds credibility and trust

Lead Nurturing & Social Media

• Listen
• Segment & Target
• Notify & Score
• Interact

(Maria uses tools to actually score potential customers and people talking about her company.)

Customer Nurturing & Social Media

• Reaffirm purchases after the decision is made
• Deepen relationships, create personal connections
• Discover new needs and requirements
• Manage customer and retention

ROI of Social Media

• Challenging, but not impossible
• The ROI equation remains the same:ROI = [(Amount Gained from Investment - Cost of Investment)/Cost of Investment] x 100
  
• Establish a baseline and measure progress before and after starting your social media strategy

Marketo Case Study

• Clear objectives for success
• Make it easy to share
• Spread the word
• Validate
• Nurture
• Measure return

Social Media Drives Revenue

• Increased brand awareness and thought leadership
• Enhanced lead nurturing and scoring
• Improved sales effectiveness

Maria Pergolino, Director of Marketing, Marketo

Tags: #mpworld, MarketingProfs, Social Media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Expert Advice, Social Media, Training, Conferences, Webinars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.