Community is Like a Dinner Party

Filed under Discussion, Guest Post by Kate Brodock on 24 June 2009 at 08:34 {no comments}

This is a guest post by Rachel Happe, the Principal and co-Founder of The Community Roundtable, a peer network for community managers and social media practitioners.

Most of us have heard some version of “Social Media/Twitter is like a Cocktail Party” and while this is hardly a new meme, I wanted to add my perspective because a party is not a party is not a party. I have a soapbox topic that is related which is social media is not community – even though it may share many of the same characteristics.  To me it is like saying a cocktail party is not a dinner party – most people would agree.  I like both as an individual but one represents my circle of acquaintances and the other represents people with whom I have more intimate relationships. For business, that is very similar to a marketing funnel – and depending on what type of business you are in, one may be more important than the other. In particular, if you are marketing to businesses rather than individuals, the deeper relationships engendered by “dinner parties” are critical to your marketing efforts.
There are a few characteristics of a good dinner party that make it special and different:

  • The food and wine are typically more elaborate and sophisticated
  • Your attention is focused on a small set of guests all evening
  • The music is mellow to allow for in depth conversations
  • Guests are introduced to other people they are likely to enjoy meeting
  • The host or hostess mixes things up, ensures the conversation keeps moving, and draws out their guests
  • You put out your best dinnerware

Done well, the host of a dinner party makes their guests feel welcome, comfortable, interesting, and desirable. It is a pretty good ‘tool’ for establishing closer relationships with people and making them want to stay friend with you.

What can businesses learn? Sure, throw a lot of cocktail parties (i.e. use social media tools), you have to get your name out and chat with the crowd… but make sure you also throw some fabulous dinner parties – or get invited to them because those are the events that allow you to have a richer conversation. Niche communities are where people will trust each other, participate in deeper conversations about their needs, and really get to know you. Setting up a community to serve the same purpose as a dinner party requires:

  • A appealing location (even if that location is virtual) that encourages conversation and connections
  • Good content that will encourage the conversations you want the group to have
  • A community manager who facilitates introductions, highlights content, and keeps the conversation going
  • Participation of experts and thought leaders that people want to meet – whether from within your own company or external

You can throw the dinner party, which may cost more but you get to decide who gets invited, or you can work on being a sought-after guest – someone that helps hosts provide good content and/or energy. But beware: It is all to easy to provide an appealing location, invite people over and assume they will form a tight knit community. But think about throwing a dinner party, having people come over and then spending the evening in another room – maybe yelling out to them every once in a while. Awkward, no? People would chit chat a little but the conversation would be stilted because there they are, sitting in your living room… waiting for you and the food, eventually leaving in disappointment and annoyance.

Communities are a phenomenal way of developing relationships with prospects and customers… but don’t think they will effortlessly develop. Want to understand them a little better? Go home and plan a dinner party.

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Sorry for Being a Social Media Buzzkill

Filed under Discussion by Arikhanson on 16 June 2009 at 23:29 {one comment}

A fellow PR pro in the Minneapolis/St. Paul community, Aaron Pearson works as a senior vice president and vertical markets segment leader for the Global Technology Practice of Weber Shandwick, a leading public relations firm.With 15 years of B2B and technology communications experience, Aaron has spent time in the manufacturing, enterprise software, data storage and telecommunications industries. Aaron is also a member of the Business Marketing Association and holds an MBA in marketing from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management. Without further introduction, take a read from this B2B Voices guest poster:

It’s interesting to me that so many of the conversations on Twitter among communications professionals concern social media – Twitter chief among them.I do appreciate many of them, (hey, Beers Who Twitter – Thanks @PaulDunay!) But there is a disconcerting, anything-can-work, dot-com boom feel about it.  

To be clear, I’m a huge cheerleader for the potential of social media and, more broadly, digital communications to elevate B2B communications programs. Who wouldn’t want to embrace communications channels that tend to be more measurable, more transparent, and more conversational? Research consistently shows that the most important form of marketing communications is word of mouth, and social media benefits from many of the personal, trusted characteristics of word of mouth.   

And yet, eight years after the dot-com bust, most of us still buy our groceries in a brick-and-mortar store even if we don’t make a mall run to buy music CDs anymore. There’s going to be a shake-out in social media (a real Twitpocalypse?) as people realize days are still 24 hours long, we have a finite amount of time to interact with each other, and in the face of competition, the business models of weaker communities show their flaws. (See Bloomberg, “MySpace Fires 30% of U.S. Workers.”) 

Our new online social web is here to stay, but for B2B marketers, it is no magic elixir to cure bad products or vague value propositions. We still need to use a battle-tested strategic planning process. What business outcome do we need to achieve? What insights does research give us into the needs of our audience, who they listen to, how they buy? Given those insights and our own creativity, what’s the right strategic approach, and how can we harness tactics both traditional and new in creative ways to ultimately accomplish those business objectives?

This may be boring and disappointing for some, but the alternative is costly failures like the Skittles experiment in the B2C realm as Razorfish’s Steven Cisowski outlined for us last week in Ad Age. Directionless innovation run amok.

According to a Feb. 20 Forrester report, “The Social Technographics of Business Buyers,” 68 percent of business decision-makers use social media for work purposes, a number that’s probably only grown since that information was collected in Q4 of last year. (Read more about it from analyst Laura Ramos’s original blog post.) And yet, social networks rank seventh in influencing technology purchase decisions, after web sites, sales people, traditional online or print media, trade shows, and of course, word of mouth.  

What I take away from this isn’t that digital communications and social media are relatively unimportant, but rather that they are increasing in importance rapidly yet the established channels aren’t going away.  Personal preferences for how individuals want to receive marketing information are fragmenting. Moreover – and this has always been the case – for complex, B2B purchases, the typical buyer is influenced at different stages in the buying process by different influencer channels. Fail to invest in one and you will fail to optimize your marketing dollars by missing leads you should have gotten, paying too much for them, or failing to convert enough into revenue. Invest in the wrong one – or do so unstrategically – and you basically just burn money (unless you get lucky). It’s getting harder, folks. 

As I was writing this, Phil Baumann, a registered nurse in Philadelphia, tweeted that, “Using Twitter as a be-all tool for healthcare is insane. There’s tons of ways to use it, but not w/out a brain.” Amen, and that goes for marketers, too.  Good luck out there.

Using Social Networking Sites in B2B Businesses?

Filed under Discussion by Kate Brodock on 8 June 2009 at 11:37 {3 comments}

In the B2B Online Marketing group on LinkedIn, Rob Schmelz, E-Commerce Manager for Central Restaurant Products, asked a simple question from people:

robb2b

The question got a few good responses that hit on several key issues involved in instituting social media into the B2B space.

Kathryn Korostoff, Founder and President of Research Rockstar, notes varied successes:

kathrynb2b

A lot of success to date with B2B and social media use has been in cultivating communication with your current constituents: customers, clients, and employees.  As Kathryn mentioned, they had a ton of success using the tools for their customer support.  Other such examples are internal communities for current employees, or platforms that increase the connection to tier one clients.  She also highlights where social media tactics have room to grow: new client or customer acquisitions, or new sales.  In summary, at least in Kathryn’s experience, social media has been much more useful in making existing relationships stronger and deepter.

Scott Hardigree, CEO of Indiemark, which recently launched the mformer portion of their services to target B2B companies,

scottb2b

There is still a place for quick, viral marketing to happen in the B2B space.  A lot of people think this and other forms of word of mouth marketing are reserved for the B2C space.

Maria Colacurcio, Co-Founder of SmartSheet,

mariab2b

As Kathryn also mentioned, social media is a great way to develop your standing as an expert in your field and, ideally, an industry leader.  One of the primary ways this is done in the B2B space is to have a company blog where you’re able to post valuable information that brings readers back for more, and thus creates more brand awareness for when it does come time to make a decision on a certain product or service.  It’s icing on the cake that also boosts your SEO.

Jann LaGoy Mirchandani, Owner of Mirchandani Consulting, a graphic & web design firm in New York, commented:

jannb2b

Some B2B industries may see more success than others when it comes to sales.  Part of that, as Jann points to, may be a result of having a company with a little bit more word of mouth capabilities.  Once you have happy customers, information on a jewelry design may have the capability to be more “talked about” outside your direct network or industry connections than, say, a supply management software application.

Do you have any thoughts on successes or failures in the B2B space?  What have been our experiences?

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Do we really have a generational gap?

Filed under Uncategorized by Arikhanson on 2 June 2009 at 08:49 {3 comments}

Arik Hanson here. I’ve spent a decent portion of my career working in the B2B sector—more specifically professional services. One concern I continue to hear from my former colleagues and others I work with in the accounting, consulting and legal professions: Are social networks really the best way to reach CEOs, CFO and controllers? Aren’t they too old for this stuff?

Let’s look at the numbersGeneration Gap

According to eMarketer, B2B organizations spent $480 million in advertising on social networks in 2008. That number will skyrocket to $4 billion by 2012.

According to Nielsen, Facebook added twice as many 50-64 year olds visitors (13.6 million) than under 18s (7.3 million) between Dec. 2007 and Dec. 2008 (what do you think the number looks like now?)

And, according to a recent study by Accenture (hat tip to Steve Rubel), baby boomers:

· Increased reading blogs and listening to podcasts by 67 percent year over year; nearly 80 times faster than Gen Y (1 percent)

· Posted a 59 percent increase in using social networking sites—more than 30 times faster than Gen Y (2 percent)

· Increased watching/posting videos on the Internet by 35 percent—while Gen Y usage decreased slightly (-2 percent)

Clearly boomers are moving online, but really, the numbers are just one piece of the equation.

Wait, is it really all about the numbers?

Like so many other things in this space, it’s not all about the numbers. Clearly, numbers matter. Especially to bean-counting CPAs and those accountable for the financial performance of our organizations. But, there’s a softer, more relationship-based side to social networks that makes them invaluable to B2B organizations that make their living on longer sales cylces.

For example, what kind of dollar figure would you put on picking your customer’s brains around new products or ways to improve your existing ones? Don’t B2B companies invest millions in focus group research each year? Social networks give you the opportunity to tap into your customer’s minds—in many cases for very little money.

How much value does a new account have for your firm? By arming employees with the resources they need to tell your story to friends, family and business associates through social networks you can turn LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter into powerful sales tools. And the best part: It’s free and relatively easy—chances are, many employees are already engaging in social networks in their free time and talking about your business. Why not give them the tools they need to tell your story, further your brand and possibly convince a friend of colleague to give your product or service a try?

Is ROI really the roadblock?

There’s no doubt it’s tougher to connect social media strategy to your bottom line. But, don’t we have similar challenges with advertising and earned media? Can we really point to an article in the New York Times and say it translated directly into a $10 million account? I’m not so sure.

So, if you’re looking at participating in social networks from an ROI standpoint, it’s not all that different from the existing strategies in your marketing and communications plan.

Given the numbers mentioned above, the relationship value and the ROI discussion, does the perceived generational gap even matter for B2B companies? Or, does it make too much sense not to give these tools a try? You tell me.

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