B2B Voices

A Q&A With Jeannie Walters, Founder, 360Connext

Jeannie Walters’s Chicago-based consulting firm specializes in the cornerstones of customer experience, including customer engagement, employee engagement and connections like social media. Before starting 360Connext, she spent 12 years at Vox, a customer experience consulting firm, eventually as President and Partner. Walters specializes in helping companies achieve more loyalty from employees, customers and prospects through improved experiences at every level.

Jeannie Walters, Founder, 360Connext

I spent some time last week talking with her about the profound impact improved customer engagement can have in B2B, both in terms of strengthening existing business relationships and in unleashing those customers as word-of-mouth advocates for your brand.

Aaron: Talk a little about what you learned at Vox that reflects your priorities now at 360Connext.

Jeannie: A main focus for me has been around the customer experience, and typically no one person owns that function so it touches a lot of areas. Employee engagement is one of the easiest ways you can influence customer experience so that’s a big focus for me right now. For example there are a lot of companies right now that have laid off employees and you need to keep those remaining employees focused on the mission. The other area that’s really coming to life is social media to connect directly with customers, and that goes to both content and communication. But most customer initiatives don’t typically work, because it has to become a part of the organization’s culture.

Aaron: Changing culture is a very long-term process, right?

Jeannie: It is, but one step people can take is to really understand what your customer experience is right now. I’ve worked with large companies like Allstate and AIG and that’s a daunting effort. So you need to take it one piece at a time. For instance, look just at your social media strategy. Or just look at conversion rates online. Then take those learnings and apply them to the next piece and the next piece. Don’t expect a CRM system to be a magic bullet to [fully understand the customer experience].

Now my focus is more on midsized companies because in a lot of ways, you can move things a lot quicker, make changes easier. Oftentimes, midsized companies are still run by the original leader. They are often more passionate about the customer experience too.

Aaron: How do you engage employees in customer experience initiatives? It’s not just about the marketing and sales people, right?

Jeannie: The problem is we often focus on the salesperson relationship but often after the deal those people move on. So companies need to focus on retention as much as acquisition. All the money and resources go to acquisition or selling – making the sale. …

A lot of the [employee engagement problem] relates to hiring the right people and making sure they’re the type of people that solve problems and are service-oriented. Because if you get feedback from customers, you need people who are really prepared to respond.

Aaron: So what are some of the best practices in being responsive to customers?

Jeannie: Be very public about feedback and use it. There are some SaaS [Software as a Service] companies that do a great job of that. They say, “Customers, we heard from you and so we’re doing x, y and z” with our software. The other thing is kind of empowering employees to solve problems. Call centers are often incented to spend less time on the phone and that’s terrible.

Aaron: I’ve actually heard of call center workers purposely faking connection problems to rack up a bunch of short calls.

Jeannie: Yes it’s better for them if they hang up.

Aaron: Of course, it can be hard to find the resources for solving that caller’s problem right then and there, especially with complex products.

Jeannie: So you need to be realistic, about whether we can call you back for instance. At the end of the day, humans are reasonable. The rub comes in when the expectation comes a certain way and is not delivered. Cell phone companies are finally figuring out that service is what they do and getting much better at call center service.

Aaron: Talk about customer events. Do people use them well?

Jeannie: Social media has done a lot to promote events better and to help companies understand what customers are looking for. People want substance, and especially with complicated products, they want to understand how to make this work better for me, and another customer can help them understand that best. SaaS companies have also done a great job here by bringing together their power users to help [these other customers] and that’s had a lot more influence on the experience.

Aaron: It’s interesting that you keep bringing up SaaS companies – these are companies that realize they are service companies, not software companies, so it seems natural that they would really be focused on listening to and responding to the customer, true?

Jeannie: Absolutely true. Also, look at banks and how they used to be known for abusing small business clients. They took your business for granted and then realized people have more choices. Some banks have been strugging with family-run businesses because the clientele is dying off and they didn’t reach out to the next generation. I had a client who found their business customers had a relationship with their banker. So if the banker moved on, so did the business. In response, the bank started creating small business-focused events – forums for small business customers. AmEx Open Forum is an example of that. If you are an AmEx busines customer and carry an Open card, you get access to other entrepreneuers like yourself. The part of the pendulum swing that we’re in is exclusive memberships. I predict we’ll see more of that. People want to find the right people a little easier.

Every now and then I take time to think beyond our product offerings. It’s a nice exercise and usually leads to some unique and creative ways to think about positioning the exchange. One area that we like to pursue and where we have been successful is in the area of technology. I’m sure we’re not alone in this area, but we try to balance talking about technology as well as our people in technology. So what are some areas that go beyond just products in helping to promote your B2B brand? Here are some quick thoughts.

Technology:

I like talking about technology. I like talking with our technology team. I’m a tech geek like a lot of you. And I do believe that marketing IT matters – I wrote about it here and earlier this year on B2B Voices about the importance of partnership with information security here.

Human Resources:

Have you integrated recruiting into your social media campaigns yet? There are some simple and effective ways to do this, such as starting out with posting exisitng job openings. But you should also think about how to fully leverage LinkedIn for your recruiting efforts. By the way, have you looked at your company’s profile on LinkedIn yet? It may be in need of some help (another easy victory for you with HR).

R&D:

Positioning your research team members can help showcase some of the great minds at work within your company. These are probably the people that already have a blog or read blogs. Getting these people to post on popular blogs about innovation and technology can help position your organization as leader in either very broad or niche topics.

If you need ideas on how you can do this go back and read Aaron Pearson’s post on how to combine tradition and social media in B2B here and Arik Hanson looked at what to do if you hit a social media roadblock here. And of course share your ideas with us on how you look beyond products to promote your company or clients. What are some ideas that have worked? Or failed? And where do you get your inspiration?

When you cast your gaze across the digital landscape one organization you may not expect to see is an accounting firm. But, one of the leading tax, accounting and consulting firms in the country–RSM McGladrey–has proven that notion wrong over the last year building up quite an online presence in the process.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m a former McGladrey employee. I worked as part of the marketing/PR team for five years in the early 2000s. So, it’s been particularly interesting for me to monitor their progress as they’ve started their first blog, dove into Twitter and started a YouTube channel–all in the past year.

Overall, McGladrey’s one of the more socially active accounting firms. Just take a peek at their online interaction and platforms:

* RSM McGladrey Golf Blog

* Success Starts Here (career/recruiting blog)

* RSM McGladrey Mfg (Manufacturing blog)

* RSM McGladrey ESOP blog

* Official McGladrey Twitter account

* Terri Andrews and Ben Gotkin also tweet under the McGladrey banner

* RSM McGladrey Careers Facebook fan page (more than 1,200 fans)

* McGladrey Careers YouTube channel (1,179 views)

* McGladrey PR News channel (238 views)

* McGladrey LinkedIn Alumni Group (nearly 900 members)

But, as we all know, a “presence” means nothing on the surface. There needs to be an integrated strategy. A solid business case for engaging with these tools. I had the chance to ask Terri Andrews, PR manager at McGladrey, a few questions last week about their engagement, strategy and results so far.

B2B Voices: McGladrey is currently active on a number of different social platforms. How did you sell these ideas internally to senior management who must have been a little skittish?

Terri: Our senior management has been surprisingly receptive so far. They realized early on that social media was going to be the way of the world. And they understood we could either use these tools to solidify our reputation up front or move into reactionary mode online. We’ve been testing the waters since early last year.

B2B Voices: What were your initial goals as you began last year?

Terri: We wanted to get involved in a listening mode. What conversations were happening in areas we were interested in? We really wanted to get a feel for where we could add value. We also feel we can use social media to raise brand awareness in many ways.

B2B Voices: How are you setting expectations internally at McGladrey? And how are you measuring success?

Terri: You can’t expect 10,000 clicks every time you post a blog. We’re trying to work with our executives and thought leaders to help them understand that their won’t be an immediate ROI in every case, but that it’s more about building relationships that will eventually result in ROI.

B2B Voices: In my view, social media for professional services firms like yours is all about thought leadership. As far as you know, has any of the work you’ve done online led to a lead or an actual new client?

Terri: We continually track our blog numbers and we know our social activity is increasing visits to our Web site. We’re trying to push folks to content on our site that is relevant to them. And, we’re working hard to find our audiences where they live online–whether that’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

B2B Voices: What’s next for McGladrey in the social realm?

Terri: We’re currently in the midst of implementing a social media policy/guidelines for employees. We believe this will give employees a better understanding of how they can get involved online on behalf of RSM McGladrey. We’re hoping this will ultimately result in even more employees representing McGladrey on social networks. The policy will also ensure we’re all integrated and supporting each others efforts.

So, how does McGladrey measure up?

McGladrey has already made great strides. The fact that they operate four blogs, three Twitter accounts, a Facebook page and two YouTube channels means, as Terri stated above, they’ve convinced senior management the benefits of engaging online outweigh the negatives. That’s no easy task in an accounting firm culture. Believe me.

However, while the firm has made great strides, like any other company, there seems to be a few opportunities. I thought we’d take a moment to look behind the numbers at their digital activity:

* Thought leadership: I’m a firm believer that the biggest social component to any professional services firm digital strategy is blogging. It’s the ultimate thought leadership platform. And, the SEO benefits are huge for firms like McGladrey. It’s nice to see McGladrey putting some emphasis behind an industry that I know is important to the firm: Manufacturing. Tom Murphy has been, and is, a great face for that vertical for the firm.

* Engagement: As an organization that’s trying to establish itself as a thought leader in different categories, engagement isn’t always the priority. However, the lack of comments and two-way dialogue on the McGladrey blogs has to concern the firm just a little. On the flip side, Terri Andrews and Ben Gotkin do a wonderful job serving as the “face” of the firm from a recruiting and PR perspective on Twitter. And, the recruiting team does a nice job on Facebook responding to questions and jumping in when appropriate.

* Integration: This is one area where I think the firm has a clear opportunity. Visiting the McGladrey Web site, other than the McGladrey Golf Blog, I don’t seen any mention of the organization’s social work or properties. So, there’s an opportunity to integrate all McGladrey’s social initiatives on their Web site. On the flip side, the Success Starts Here blog does a fabulous job of pulling together all the digital McGladrey properties. On the blog, not only can I link quickly to the firm’s Facebook page and YouTube channel (focused solely on recruiting), but I can also view a Google map with location info for every McGladrey office across the country. Nice.

So, can an accounting firm really be social? I think McGladrey’s answered that question beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt. But, like any other company, they still have opportunities. They’ve done the heavy lifting. Now, it’s a matter of listening and watching how their fans and followers behave on their sites, monitoring the digital landscape and adjusting as necessary.

Enough blathering by me. You’ve seen what McGladrey is up to now. What do you think? How does McGladrey measure up against other professional services firms (accounting, legal and architecture firms) you’ve seen online?

If you use Twitter a lot you’ll know that at times it becomes difficult to write an email or document without catching yourself inserting a #, $ or @ symbol somewhere. I’ve actually caught myself a couple of times doing this. The beauty of using these symbols is that is makes searching and following the vast streams of information easier and more efficient. As a B2B communicator here are a few of my thoughts around these helpful symbols:

#

Some of the favorite # discussions I follow include #pr20, #journchat and #blogchat where there are lively and insightful discussions, and of course I try to use #b2b as often as possible to tag content relevant to this audience.

$

If you’re not using $ signs to at least monitor what people are saying about your company/client than you could be missing out on finding supporters or emerging issues. How does StockTwits work? Here is a cheat sheet from the source itself and I posted earlier about using StockTwits as an investor relations tool here. Essentially the $ works like a # except you are using it in front of a stock, currency or commodity product to create a stream. I obviously follow $CME on StockTwits closely.

We’ve also used the $ to our advantage at CME Group where we’ve created our very own $ for Twitter interviews. Working with the team at StockTwits we created the symbol $ExchTalk to actually interview industry leaders, bloggers, traders and media. You can follow all of these online discussions here.

@

If you’re using Twitter you know that the @ symbol represents your name and identifies who you are talking with. The point I want to make is that I wish people would use the @ symbol more when they talked about brands. If you really want to have a company talk with you than use their @ in your tweet. Afterall, isn’t that one of the key elements of Twitter — to have a dialogue or conversation versus just shouting?

What are your thoughts? Are there other # discussions you like on Twitter? Have you found StockTwits usesful? Let us know.

As the last in my series of 2010 prediction posts, here are some of my thoughts looking forward to the next year in B2B social media use.

1. Social media use will grow horizontally in the B2B space. This means there will be a lot more industries that will be represented on social media than there have been thus far.  And we’re talking a lot more industries like cementing or manufacturing.
2. Because of the horizontal and first-time occurrences mentioned above, it also means there will be some industries that will be under-represented in the social media sphere, but that will develop front runners who will get significant advantages within those respective industries.
3. While being more accepted, there will be more boundaries placed on how many B2B industries us social media.  There won’t be so much “stuff” to play with because implementers will realize that there are particular tools that are more helpful for B2B purposes, and that there are many tools that just won’t work.
4. Social media will be used heavily for internal use in the B2B space.
5. There will be a lot more multimedia uses, specifically video.
6. As for all social media marketing, it will be a question of how to interact with people rather than simply where.  This goes a long with the idea of strategy trumping tactics, but it really emphasizes putting together a fuller picture of what can be done with social media tools in B2B and applying in a more focused way.

What do you think will happen in the next year?

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LinkedIn continues to win me over. While the buzz remains focused on Facebook and Twitter, I continue to see improvements with the LinkedIn Platform. Some of the changes in the past year alone have included the addition of applications (e.g. Tripit), better group management functionality, new LinkedIn Blackberry application, and the latest change is the in the look and feel (more like Facebook/Twitter).

If you’re in B2B communication and you’re looking for a place to start in social media – or expand – then you need to go back to LinkedIn if you haven’t already. The main reason I like LinkedIn for social media is that it’s very transparent: I know who you are based on your profile and most people have a real photo (not an avatar of screen name). I am also a fan of their group functionality. We use mostly private LinkedIn groups at the exchange as a way to connect users (we become a networker) and as focus groups for topics, issues and news.

Here are some thoughts and ideas about why pursuing LinkedIn groups can be a win for you and your organization.

Privacy– One of the concerns of public streaming networks like FaceBook and LinkedIn to internal and external stakeholders is the issue of privacy. The “private” feature in LinkedIn helps ease those fears since messages can’t be picked up in Google or other search engines. As a side note, one thing we have noticed by keeping our groups private is that the the number of people remains a manageable size and we can control who joins. As these groups grow we likely will look at creating subgroups (another new feature). There are some good ideas on subgroups here via @CherylHarrison.

RSS Feeds — A nice feature is that you can aggregate RSS feeds into your group, which may or may not include feeds from your own company. And you absolutely should include feeds from relevant trade pulications and blogs to drive content without you having to search for it. We mostly use non-CME Group feeds in order to help foster discussions and provide us with more credibility since we bring in outside content.

Discussion– Part of the focus group feature of LinkedIn groups is the discussion section that allows you to have an open forum for whatever you need it. Do you want the group’s feedback on a new product you’ve launched? What about input on how to improve your web site? More important is you should encourage your audience to post topics and then you can take notes, learn and jump in when needed. Just don’t try to manage too much of the conversation or people will stop contributing.

Legal and Investor Relations- My guess is your corporate counsel is not on Twitter. They might be on Facebook. I blogged earlier about investor relations using StockTwits for to reach shareholders, but they likely aren’t there yet. Here is where LinkedIn can be a showcase for your social media efforts. There likely is more of a chance that they are on LinkedIn and you should be get them involved to show what social media can do and win their confidence.

Company Profile- While you’re at it you should take a quick look at your company’s profile on LinkedIn. There is an enormous amount of data people can find on this one page and someone needs to update it and validate it. Since people may want to learn more about your company before joining your group. I suggest you find your company now and make sure it’s accurate. As a bonus your recruiting department will appreciate the update.

This video from Kyle Flaherty is a nice overview on how to set up and start managing a group.

In addition, Mashable has some good tips here on how to manage your LinkedIn groups. Are you managing groups on LinkedIn now? If so, share some of your best practices with us. What’s worked well? What have you learned? And while you’re at it why don’t you connect to all of us here at B2B Voices on LinkedIn: Kate Brodock, Anna Barcelos, Arik Hanson, Aaron Pearson, Allan Schoenberg.

By nature, many B2B organizations are pretty darn conservative. Trying new things, experimenting and sharing opinions publicly sometimes aren’t high on the priority list for these organizations. So, it can be challenging to get upper management–or any level of management, for that matter–to buy in to social concepts and approaches.

But, just because you run into a roadblock, doesn’t mean the journey is over. Try a redirect.

If you run into a wall with legal, compliance or IT, try redirecting your efforts to a different part of the organization to get things off the ground. Remember, early on, it’s all about quick wins and demonstrating the business value of these tools. To do that, sometimes you need to find a different avenue.

So, if you’re continually butting your head against the wall, try redirecting and channeling your thoughts and energy toward one of the following areas:

Employee communications. Internal communicators face several challenges. Building pride among employees. Aligning staff with key organizational priorities and strategies. And fostering innovation and collaboration. Social media “behind the firewall” can help with all three. Plus, social tools present tremendous value to organizations with remote or geographically dispersed workforces. By giving staff the chance to connect, converse and share ideas across locations, you’re starting to harness the brainpower of ALL your employees. Just ask IBM. And, typically, using social media internally is more of a “low risk” proposition than using it out in the public eye.

Community events/sponsorships. Another lower-risk opportunity might be to activate your brand socially at a community or sponsored event. Maybe your IT consulting firm is the title sponsor of a local walk to support children’s cancer research. Why not encourage walk participants to use a branded hash tag if they tweet during the walk? After all, they’re walking, not running, right? Or, set up a “photo booth” at the end of the race, take pictures of participants and set up computers and encourage folks to upload the photos directly to their Facebook pages. There are simple steps you can usually take to active your brand at events like these without taking a huge amount of risk.

The recruiting front. OK, so maybe most organizations aren’t looking for talent right now, but they’d be wise to prepare for the next few years when boomers will start exiting the workforce. In many industries, social tools represent an ideal way to reach and communicate with the younger, millennial and Gen Y generations. Going this route may give you the opportunity to establish a corporate presence on one of the table-stakes social networks, like Facebook. Remember, we’re talking baby steps here. Set up the account. Create a plan for what kind of content you’ll share and how you’ll build this community. Then, create momentum, and “sell” those wins internally. Down the road, it will make those tough conversations with legal, compliance and IT a little easier.

I normally don’t like to repeat content, but I wrote a post earlier this week over at Other Side Group on when to start using Google Adwords for their B2B company website. Since some sort of pay-for advertising is pretty run-of-the-mill in many B2B industries, this ends up being an interesting topic.

The case company had a very old, static, and simple website that hadn’t changed in five years, has old and weak SEO, had no metrics or analytics installed or was any web activity being tracked….. yet they were still paying a large hunk of money each month for PPC ads.

So what do they do while they’re redoing their website? Do they stop Adwords?

I use the following analogy:

They’re simply paying the meter to reserve a parking spot, and hope they don’t have a cop come around and write them a ticket or tow the car away. Because that’s what would happen the minute they stopped paying the meter if they’d relied on their existing website.  The Adwords are only giving them short-term benefits while they’re still paying.

What we’re working towards is building their own parking lot where they won’t have to worry about paying the meter: An architecturally strong website, with sophisticated SEO, continually updated content, metrics in place to determine how people are accessing and using the site, and developing more paths for people to get there.

It’s about creating a strong, long-term foundation through an architecturally sound website (SEO, keywords… all that good stuff) and only then supplementing it with the short-term gains felt by PPC.

You can find the full discussion here, and I’ll be sure to update you as we move through the process.

What have been your experiences with Google Adwords?

I continue to be disturbed by the frequency with which social media is treated as this isolated specialty area, with the result inevitably being that social media messaging and strategy is cut-off from other marketing communications programs, leading to redundancy, mixed messages, wasted money and blown opportunities. I can’t speak for consumer products companies but in B2B I can only implore you to never go this route.

Instead, as I’ve preached before, our point of view is that a B2B purchase decision is an “inline” journey – that prospects using a mix of offline and online sources of information and influence to ultimately become a buyer and hopefully an advocate. As University of Pennsylvania sociologist Keith Hampton said in an article about the myth of urban isolation, “Online and offline life are inherently connected.”

So here are 5 thought starters on just how to do that:
1. Bring Offline Conversations Online. You’ll get more return on your investment in live gatherings of customers, prospects or influencers if you encourage online conversations to run in parallel. They will help engage people in live attendance more intensively, provide important contextual information (such as online videos or collateral that complement live presentations), and pull in a lot of people who otherwise couldn’t attend.
2. Be an Inline Thought Leader. Most B2B public relations campaigns have a strong thought leadershp component because when you’re making an expensive, complex purchase, you’re more likely to do so with a vendor with demonstrated expertise, not just because they’re running a “buy one, get one free” sale. Make sure your online thought leadership efforts are thematically in sync. One of our consulting firm clients targeting banks did this by complementing news releases and bylined articles (traditional PR tools) with online video interviews of subject matter experts and a Twitter presence that linked to both their own and third-party content that was topically consistent.
3. Activate Your Intelligence Network. Leveraging social media doesn’t just mean trying to connect with current and potential customers. It can also include creating an internal network or a partner network designed to facilitate intelligence gathering about competitors, sales trends or sales and marketing best practices. Tools like Yammer, Delicious, iGoogle and Radian6 can help and even more sophisticated ones are coming onto the market.
4. Ignite Advocates. Word of mouth remains the No. 1 source of influence in B2B, according to most of the research I see from Forrester and others. A lot of that is happening through pretty traditional channels – face-to-face, phone and email mostly. You can arm your advocates for those conversations by sharing information specifically designed to help them tell your story, via Twitter perhaps, or even a password-protected online advocacy toolkit.
5. Work With the Media – and Be the Media. We’re still going to be pitching stories and working with media and bloggers, but we can self-publish good content ourselves too and the evidence is that good content will be embraced even if it comes from a vendor. For example, a vice president at one of my former clients covered their industry trade show with video and regular blog posts, and was included in an industry trade round-up story as one of the individuals “covering” the event. It gave a big boost to his blog traffic. As journalist A.J. Liebling said, “Freedom of the press is guranteed only to those who own one.” Now you can.

Just like Jason Falls, Paul Gillin and Lindsay Lebresco I was intrigued by the box that was delivered to my office last week from Gas Pedal. Holiday candy? A new tech gadget? No, wait…Andy sent me another copy of his book!  No. I unwrapped to my dismay a very large, yellow, personalized t-shirt. Thanks Andy. The obvious idea behind the t-shirt is to promote the “Word of Mouth Supergeniuses” conference taking place right here in Chicago on December 16. And it worked.

Safe and sound at home in my new large, yellow, personalized t-shirt

I’ve been able to get to know Andy better through CME Group’s affiliation with the Social Media Business Council, and I have to admit that Andy is a great example to follow. Why? Well, you can see the photo of me wearing the very large, yellow, personalized t-shirt and in fact I’m wearing it now as I blog. Yes, he’s that good because this t-shirt is reallyis very large, yellow and personalized. But Andy knows that word of mouth is a driving force in marketing, and if he can use a simple thing like a t-shirt with the discount code “ALLANISMYHERO” to get you a $101 discount on the price of a ticket — well you get it too.

And if you look at the event agenda this really has the foundation to be a great program. In addition to the people mentioned above, you’ll be able to hear from Olivier Blanchard, Rick Murray, Rod Brooks (PEMCO), Matthew Guiste (Starbucks) and more.

There’s still time to register for this event here and be sure to use the “ALLANISMYHERO” for your discount. And of course if you let me know ahead of time that you’re coming I can even arrange for a personal tour of our trading floors. Not even Andy can offer that and the t-shirts at CME Group are way better. See you in Chicago!