Learning and sharing... by Zoe Sands

On my quest for social media knowledge and learning I continue to attend lots of social media events, most recently SMWF. After attending many sessions it sprung to mind that although there is still a lot of buzz around social media, most businesses are not truly utilising this channel. I hope that the following piece on social business may resonate with you to take action within your organisation and start your own social business journey.

Social media to become a ubiquitous business tool 

Just as email has become a ubiquitous business tool so will social media in the coming years, therefore it is imperative that businesses take notice of social media. When I first started my digital career at Hyundai back in 1997, I was the only person within the organisation that had an email account and access to the Internet. Gradually over time more people were provided with an email account and Internet access and nowadays it’s expected you would have access or you cease to be efficient and effective in your work. This may seen completely alien for those who are generation Y, but this was the case in the late 90s early 00s. To some extent social media is seeing this restrictive access within organisations, where only certain people in certain business functions are encouraged, or in fact provided, with access to use social channels in their every day work.  Without full social media access for all employees within an organisation you can’t expect to develop a social business.

Today we see a lot of organisations blocking the use of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter within the corporate network. This dictatorial attitude only forces employees to use other methods of accessing these sites bypassing the secure corporate network and accessing social media via their own tablets or mobile devices. It is far better for an organisation to instil social media best practice and governance than it is to demonise social media and drive employees off the network.

Social business a possibility

Businesses need to realise that being social is not about your organisation having a social media presence just for the brand, but that it means empowering employees to use social media in their every day roles to influence, engage and join in conversations about business needs and opportunities. This is what leads to a social business. There are very few businesses that can truly say they are a “social business”; the businesses that spring to mind that are truly social are those who have built their businesses on social technologies; for example Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to mention a few. If businesses choose to always do what they have always done, then they can only ever expect to get the same results. Businesses should ultimately look to achieve being a social business within three to five years. The first step would be to look at social media as a new communication channel, which opens up new opportunities for businesses. Gone are the days where marketing is used in the traditional sense, and classed as a cost centre function. Marketing now needs to prove itself and show return on investment, a contribution to the bottom line and add value to sales pipeline. Social marketing allows for greater engagement in the buyers journey along with assisting the humanisation of brands. Next step is empowering your employees to be your brand advocates and utilise the social channels in their everyday work. Finally encourage your customers to actively be social with you and engage and leverage your content for their benefit.

Plenty of research has taken place over the years that says people don’t form relationships with brands, they form relationships with people. Social media accelerates the formation and depth of relationships by enabling quicker communication and sharing amongst their individual networks. If your employees are not allowed to use the social channels in their every day work then they are limiting their marketing effectiveness in this fast changing social world. So, what are you waiting for? Make a plan to pilot social media within your organisation. Enjoy and good luck!

I’ll be talking about this topic at the forthcoming IDM Knowledge & Networking event “Meet the socially skilled business marketer” on 19 April 2012 in London. Do come along if the topic interests you. 

The third in a series of market surveys carried out by B2B specialist research agency Circle Research and supported by ABBA and the Institute of Direct Marketing, has revealed exciting, positive changes in the market over a six month period. The B2B Barometer provides a factual marketing perspective on how B2B companies are reacting to changes in the market.

The latest B2B Barometer survey of around 120 B2B Marketers and Agencies (FREE to download at www.b2bbarometer.co.uk) shows that optimism is building in the B2B sector, with the majority of agencies and marketers revealing rising revenues and improved future growth prospects. In addition 41% of the client marketing professionals reported larger marketing budgets for the next year, but 59% of the agencies surveyed reported a decline in the quality of enquiries and 30% of the agency sample actually experienced declining revenue. It has provided a true measure of what is happening to business markets and will certainly help both clients and agencies make future decisions based on real peer-to-peer information.

Debbie Williams, Chair of the IDM B2B Council, said, “The B2B market place is a real barometer of what’s happening in business. it is often very difficult for companies and agencies to keep pace with the latest market trends and this series of surveys has proven to be a valuable measure for B2B agencies and marketers. Some very interesting facts about social media and its relevance have been unearthed. I am delighted to be associated with this unique and ongoing survey programme.

Social media is declining
Just 28% of B2B marketing respondents actually had a strategy in place for Social Media. Many of the remaining group are beginning to question its relevance to the B2B sector. However, 86% still insist that spending on social media will increase over the next twelve months. An interesting fact is that 70% of client side organisations still have no social media strategy in place, which is a 7% increase from the last B2B Barometer survey in December 2009. A key issue for client marketers would appear to be the measurement of results, with 79% of those polled indicating that no actual measurement of social media activities was taking place, though 64% of the group believed it was possible!

Key factors for B2B Marketers and agencies
Many of the professionals surveyed were anxious to increase two way communication with their clients, and build on customer relationships. It was believed that email marketing could be a more effective tool in relationship marketing.

Data raised its head yet again as a critical factor and all those surveyed were in agreement that accuracy and quality in data were critical factors in B2B Marketing.

Measurement was again highlighted as a critical area for attention. Suggestions indicated that more integrated systems and better sales force alignment was required to make ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) more effective. Only 43% of client side respondents actually measured ROMI and the metrics used were the ‘easiest’ to gather rather than those which would have the greatest benefit for the business.

An executive summary of findings has been published at www.b2bbarometer.co.uk. To find out more about B2B marketing budgets, key trends and insights into the social media phenomenon – including how project fees are calculated and how the impact on reputation is managed please visit www.b2bbarometer.co.uk The new report will be available shortly in PDF format for FREE download direct from the site. Copies of the original benchmark study and the second survey are also
available for download.

The IDM is currently running a content marketing experiment today, there’s quite a few articles written by thought leading B2B marketers on a range of subjects. Check out John Bottom’s article on B2B social media opportunbities and threats. Here’s my thoughts on the B2B social media research conducted:

“Great synopsis regarding the future of social media from some senior B2B marketers. For me the main opportunity is social media opens up a new two way communication channel with customers, prospects, brand enthusiasts and influencers that transcend all parts of the business from marketing to sales to customer service. Although, I do think the main threat to social media is where it should live within an organisation, what function should take charge of social media? PR, Marketing, Customer Service, Legal etc? Whilst this is still undecided organisations are often running many diverse social media strategies or should I say social media tactics, which aren’t in sync with the brand messaging and goals and are often fragmented diluting the effort put into social media to create engagement.”

What do you think the B2B social media opportubities and threats are? Post your comments on my blog or on the main IDM page.

I was recently asked to debate the following topic: “When it comes to using social media effectively, once again B2B marketers are behind their B2C counterparts” and take the opposing side with Steve Kemish. I’m fortunate enough to have worked both in the B2C and the B2B arena so can see the plus points for both sides of this debate. My first initial thought on the debating subject was that B2C has so many well know case studies, which are often bounded about at conferences and events, so I had an idea what Debbie Williams and Mark Mason would be talking about to put their “for the motion” argument across.

Undeterred and rather competitive I set out to research and use some of my own B2B social media experience to investigate and document some world firsts in social media from the B2B community rather with my aim to discredit the statement that B2B is always following B2C. On reflection it wasn’t that difficult I had 2 world firsts, which I had already worked on myself, but rather than this being about work which I had done I wanted to add some other examples, these were:

• IBM’s Seer Wimbledon augmented reality app with a live Twitter integration (World First)
• Cisco’s Social Media Advertising campaign using Google’s Feed burner Ads (European First)
• Sage’s repositioning campaign using peer to peer advertising with LinkedIn (World First) and
• Juniper Networks’ Mobile Community using the Lithium’s platform (World First)

So, with all my research and preparation in hand, I awaited the social media debate with much anticipation that I would probably lose the debate, as most people would be able familar with the B2C examples and may have actually used some of the applications/environments/games created.

First on was Mark, who eloquently spoke about the how B2Cs were way ahead of the B2B community and in fact were much more effective. He also pointed out that B2B brands often lagged behind their B2C counterparts, as they were slow to take up opportunities. Inparticular he noted that Twitter was not being used as a thought leadership piece by B2Bs. He also highlighted that some B2B brands had fallen short on some rather bad experiences with corporate blogging. My thoughts on this was that it really doesn’t stop you in your tracks when considering social media.

Second up with Steve, with some rather bold statements to the audience telling them to make up their own mind from the examples he will now demonstrate. He explained a great example on VMware, where product demonstrations and how to guides are all recorded on video and hosted on YouTube (the world’s second largest search engine). He also argued that social media for B2Bs was more about targeting and finding out where your customers are. B2C knows where people are but not who they are, it really is more about mass marketing for B2Cs in social media. B2B is more targeted and therefore can be more effective. Steve micley countered Mark’s statements.

After Steve’s feisty argument Debbie was next up, her opeing statement was impressive withover 320 B2C brands active on social media. She spoke about many of the well known B2C social media examples; Absolute Vodka, Avon, Coca Cola, Harley Davidson, Ford and Blend it. All valid examples, but nothing outstanding or world firsts discussed. From her speech I summarised that most consumers using social media are Avon ladies riding Harley Davidson motorbikes and sometimes driving Ford Fiestas, blending and drinking lots of Black Russian cocktails.

By now I was a little nervous, being the last person to speak and having to surmise my fellow debating speakers’ points. Well, I presented my 4 B2B cases all being world firsts, as detailed above. In my summary I concluded that B2B Innovation = ideas + innovation + risk and that we as B2B marketers are only limited by our own imagination.

What followed was an interactive questioning and thought sharing session, concluding in Steve and myself wining the debate. I guess the audience appreciated our side of the argument. I think presenting some of the world firsts in social media also helped win.

The debate was hosted by ABBA (Association of Business to Business Agencies) and held at RSA, London a lovely building with a treasure cove of vaults below the main building where drinks and canapés were served after the debate, kindly sponsored by Equifax. Photographs were taken by John Wilkinson.