Forrester Agrees: B2B marketers should be involved in social media

Just a quick addition to yesterday's post - the Forrester blog just posted an article about some research they've done.

The research basically says that B2B buys are very active in social media and have a high level of engagement there.

Like I said yesterday, it's not should I be in social media but Why aren't you in social media?

Some highlights of the research pulled from the blog post:

Some highlights from this research (start by looking at the right two columns):

• 91% of these technology decision-makers were Spectators -- the highest number I've ever seen in a Social Technographics Profile. This means you can count on the fact that your buyers are reading blogs, watching user generated video, and participating in other social media. Note that 69% of them said they were using this technology for business purposes.
• Only 5% are non-participants (Inactives).
• 55% of these decision-makers were in social networks (Joiners) -- despite as mature businesspeople and not college students, you'd think they'd be participating a lot less.
• 43% are creating media (blogs, uploading videos or articles, etc.) and 58% are Critics, reacting to content they see in social formats. Again the numbers are very high compared to other groups we've surveyed, and again the level of participation for business purposes is also very high.

Read the entire article about B2B buyers in social media here

Online Marketing Summit - Lessons Learned About Social Media

So I've been back from the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) for a few weeks now, and have somewhat had a chance to catch up and breathe.  As promised, I want to provide some information about the lessons I learned and the topics that were discussed, especially those topics that affect us in software marketing.  I've said this before and I'll say it again - if you haven't attended OMS and you're working in the online marketing world - I highly suggest you attend.  I know it's hard in the current economy, but those educational dollars will go far and the networking opportunities are invaluable.

A main theme at the conference this year was the fact that everyone is dealing with a tough economy, marketers are being asked more than ever to prove ROI on their programs and many are being asked to do more with less.  A lot of the presentations focused on how we as marketers can measure our results, market in a recession, wring more value out of what we are already doing and how to make sure that marketing is still relevant when the finance people start looking for cuts.  As a professional in the world of software marketing, I can attest to the pain and the topics definitely resonated with me.

A major topic at this year's conference is Social Media.  When marketers are looking for ways to advertise, create a community or engage their audience social media seems to fit.  Most social media efforts are free and really only take the time needed to set up profiles, fan pages, and keep them updated with content.  However, social media isn't as direct a channel as say - emails or PPC.

Another interesting change from last year to this year really struck me.  Social media was a big topic at OMS 2008.  But the discussions centered more around "should we be in social media?" or "should we be blogging?" and "how does social media make sense for my business?"  Now social media is a foregone conclusion, whether you are a B2B or B2C company, it seems to be widely accepted that you can make social media work for you.  Blogging has also seem to become and marketing standard - an easy way for you to create fresh content, establish thought leadership, create a community and engage your customers.  Now the conversations center around "why aren't you in social media" or "what's the url of your blog" and "what's your name on Twitter?"

This was a bit of shock for me - our company has experimented with Social Media in the last 8 months, and have obviously started the software marketing blog, and gotten involved in a few social sites.  The reason we wanted to begin building a community is that we noticed there is no association, conference, blog or community especially for software marketing.  It's definitely a niche within a niche, but we felt that the needs of those marketing professionals in the software industry were unique enough that it deserved attention.

But we, like most companies, are still trying to find the best way for social media to benefit our business.  And most of all - how do we measure its success?  It seems that the measurability aspect is still a question on everyone's mind - everyone is confident they need to be in social media but not confident in the best way to measure its results.  However, we were taught that social media should be used to augment your main marketing channels and not measured as a standalone channel.

Here are a few tips I got from a session entitled "Is Your Company Social?"  presented by Michael Weisfeld, Sr. Social Media Strategist at BusinessOnline.

1. First review your business goals and your CRM initiatives - what do you want to accomplish?
2. What are the metrics you want to measure? Followers, comments, fans, etc?
3. Come up with a strategy first, then look at the tactics.  Determine your costs and manpower investments, see if you have the resources and if it makes sense for you.
   
4. If you don't know where your audience is - try conducting a survey to find out where they are.
5. Find the influential people in your space and engage them - find common terms and topics.
6. What is your competition doing?  If your competition is on Facebook, or LinkedIn or participating in a particular blog, chances are you should be too.
7. Find topics to talk about - that excite or educate your audience.  Look everywhere, your company news, other blogs, current events, etc.  The more effort you make to engage your audience the more successful you will be, though getting that initial involvement may be a challenge.
8. When engaging in social media you need a lively, passionate tactful personality who will be able to connect to the audience.  This could be your CEO, product manager or even communications person. (Though most people can tell "normal" writing styles from those of us marketing types, so unless you are trying to talk to marketers it's probably a good idea not to have your marketing people author your blog.)
9. Participate externally - the more you participate in other blogs, profiles, etc, the more you will be driving traffic to your own social media efforts.  Once you establish a connection with another blogger, or an advocate in your market the more likely they will be to participate in your own social media efforts and engender participation from others.

Whether you are participating in social media or thinking about dipping your toe into the raging waters, I hope these tips will help you figure out how best to pursue your options.  But as I learned, its not Should I be in Social Media? it's Why aren't you in social media?

Do you have any good or bad experiences with social media?  Thoughts on what should be considered when adding social media to your marketing mix?

Selling In A Recession

Officially the world economy hasn’t become a “Recession” as such but every business person knows we are in a recession and time will tell if it is actually a depression or a deep recession, either way companies are hurt and in the US a lot of people are personally hurting. The number one topic today is how to save money? Companies that have been making money are looking at the future with uncertainty and are trying to be proactive; the standard acceptable norm is to cut 10% of your work force now and get ready to cut more from sales in early 2009 if you’re off target. Along with the cut back in employees companies all have the same marching order “NO NEW EXPENSES".

For sales and marketing this is the worst of times. Sales people are asked to sell more and Marketers are asked to produce more both with fewer resources at hand. As a Sales person how do you sell in this type of volatile market? And Marketer, how do you get more Leads for your sales teams with less?

Businesses will continue to buy new products and service during recession the only difference is that the sales cycle will involve more decision making and take twice as long. If you can prove your service or product can help your customer make more money or save money people will still buy. Marketer, your days of spending loads of money on products and services that produce little or no leads or revenue for the company are done. These types of expenses in the past have always been written off as brand recognition. Brand recognition today will be the companies that survive during these tough times. So concentrate on providing highly qualified leads to your sales team, spend the money on what is proven to work, make sure you have the ROI to defend your purchases, if you do this you and you company will prosper.

Sales folks your lives are changing as well, the days of flying all over to meet potential customers have ended, along with the golf, the extravagant lunches and any other perk that was associated with wining and dining a potential customer. Sure you have to keep your customers happy, so you will continue to do those things but just not like you have in the past, everything will have a purpose and everything will need to have positive results for your company. How you sell will also change, in most cases you will have to prove your product/service does what you say it does, you will need to be flexible and will need to work with your customers to make them comfortable, they need to know what they buy from you will work and will make them look good in the end. You will need to be prepared to run pilot programs so clients can see that your product/service will work for their needs. Unfortunately it is no longer going to be about company X is using our service so why don’t you,those days are gone.

Sales in a recession are possible, actually if done right you can really prosper. The good thing about a recession is eventually it will end and the companies that survive will be the ones that have a good product/service that really is relevant and has proven to work for the masses. Be prepared to listen to the customer and flexible enough to meet their needs, prove the ROI and more importantly have a product or service that does what it says it does.