62% of executives cited say social offers the potential to achieve better customer loyalty and service levels

Filed under Discussion, Resources by Kate Brodock on 6 July 2011 at 14:13 {no comments}

Last week, Jive Software came out with a study that discussed how social marketing strategies are currently being viewed amongst executives. There were several interesting findings:

  • 78% of executives admit that having a social strategy is critical to business success.
  • 66% of executives believe that social applications for business represent a fundamental shift in how work will get done and how companies will engage with customers.
  • 62% of executives cite the potential to achieve “better customer loyalty and service levels” and 57% anticipate “increased revenue or sales” as a result of implementing a Social Business strategy.
  • 53% of executives believe they must adopt Social Business or risk falling behind.
  • 92% of executives and 82% of millennials believe that work-related web-based apps greatly or somewhat increased their productivity.
  • 73% of executives, 73% of millennials and 64% of general knowledge workers agree that social platforms will fundamentally change the way people share, connect and learn at work and with companies.

While there are several conclusions that can be drawn from the body of statistics that was drawn from this report, it shows a clear increase in the use of social strategies and social tools to accomplish not only external marketing goals, but also internal communication goals.

Additionally, the significant difference in commitment level for future social strategy implementation and the view of where executives see their company’s current social strategy could signify a low-level tipping point in adoption of social across all business sizes and types.

While past statistics have been similar in terms of where executives view their company, the numbers that have identified a social strategy as “critical,” “fundamental,” or that they “must” adopt social have not been that high in past years. I’m guessing that the number of respondents who feel more comfortable about their social strategy will rise – perhaps significantly – over the course of this year.

Don’t miss the cool infographic that Jive put together.

Social Business? I Have Just the Award for You

Filed under Uncategorized by Aaron Pearson on 7 June 2011 at 20:02 {no comments}

Constellation Research announced its new Constellation SuperNova Awards yesterday, and yours truly is the PR agency lead and on the judging panel for the Social Business category.  I’d love for you to submit your work!

Constellation Research is the firm of a long-time analyst friend of mine, R. “Ray” Wang, who managed to make it cool to be an enterprise software analyst at Forrester Research, before joining Altimeter and now leading Constellation. He’s recognized the hard work involved in being truly transformative with technology, so he’s created a great new award program for leaders who have overcome the odds to successfully apply emerging and disruptive technologies for their organizations.  In addition to Social Business, there are also categories for Cloud Computing, Mobile Enterprise, Emerging Tech, and Advanced Analytics.

In April I had the opportunity to co-teach a social media marketing class at the University of St. Thomas in downtown Minneapolis for their executive education program. While it was hopefully not a complete waste of time for the students, I know it was a great experience for me because it forced me to go beyond my own direct experiences to pay more attention to world-class work out there, whether Weber Shandwick had anything to do with it or not, and to give some deeper thought to the common threads those programs shared.

One of those threads is the right kind of internal champion. I did a book review post here on Empowered, by Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler, which talked a lot about how to nurture HEROs in your organization. These Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives can be truly transformative in the ways they use social technology and concepts to transform the business if management and IT supports them. It’s a reminder of how the concept of social business is so much more than about marketing communications. It can encompass training, customer service, product development, employee communications, and of course marketing.

I think it’s fair to say that in the Social Business category, the Constellation SuperNova Awards are about recognizing those HERO leaders. Joining me on the judging panel to select these rock stars of Social Business is, fittingly, a real all-star group:

  • Jeff Ashcroft, VP, Constellation Research
  • Barney Beal, Managing Editor, Tech Target
  • Paul Greenberg, President, The 56 Group, LLC
  • Esteban Kolsky, Founder, ThinkJar
  • Marshall Lager, Managing Principal, Third Idea Consulting
  • David Myron, Editor-in-Chief, CRM Magazine
  • Jon Schwartz, Technology Reporter, USA Today

The submission process: Web-based and simple

The site: Here

The deadline: July 31

Go to it.

Visualizing B2B Social Media Marketing [Infographics]

Filed under Resources by Kate Brodock on 25 April 2011 at 08:55 {2 comments}

If there’s anyone that loves infographics, it’s me.  That’s why I was pleased last week when Lee at TopRankBlog presented us all with a series of infographics that focus on B2B social media marketing concepts.  I’ve included a few of the ones he highlighted below, along with a few new ones.

B2B Social Media Landscape

Social Media Facts and Figures

The State of B2B Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing: B2C vs B2B

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What’s on tap for the B2B Voices team in 2011?

Filed under Discussion by Allan Schoenberg on 25 January 2011 at 06:03 {no comments}

With a new year comes new priorities and objectives. Each of us at B2B Voices decided to share with you what we’re working on for 2011, and hopefully in December we can all say we’ve achieved our goals. Share with us in the comments what you hope to accomplish as well.

Allan Schoenberg

In January I relocated to London for CME Group to take on a new role and new challenges for the company heading up all of our international communication efforts. While I will still be managing our presence in the social media landscape, we obviously are looking to expand in that area overseas as well. As our business continues to grow throughout Europe and Asia, we have been aggressively pursuing more ways to communicate our brand attributes and strengths of our business. My expanded role at CME Group is an exciting time professionally and personally for me. So this year expect to see more regular media coverage of CME Group throughout Europe and Asia, including profile stories, product and service news, and having the company more woven into the fabric of the London business scene.

Aaron Pearson

In January, I shivered in the cold while watching with envy as Allan relocated to London. I have a couple big professional priorities for the year. First, I’m hoping not to bomb out teaching an executive education class on social media marketing at the University of St. Thomas with Weber Shandwick Digital Strategist and Vice President Andy Keith (builds on this course). That’s partly why I’ve been doing more social media book-reading – I need to make sure I have a good handle on perspectives and experiences beyond my own. Second, as the head of our vertical market segment, I’m trying to focus a great deal on growing our healthcare IT work.  It’s the hottest B2B vertical market out there and we have a good base of experience to tap. Finally, we’re trying to take more of our clients’ B2B social media efforts beyond pilots to full-fledged efforts that deliver measurable impact. Social media engagement really is perfect for connecting niche B2B audiences into global communities, and yet there’s a lot more experimentation and innovation today on the B2C side. I have a major client playing in a blurry space between B2B and B2C and that should be a great sweet spot for showcasing how this can really work – stay tuned.

Arik Hanson:

For me, in many ways, 2011 will be a building year. On the business side, I’ll be building on the first year of my new digital communications consulting business, ACH Communications. Year one exceeded almost every expectation I had–but in 2011, I’m looking to take that success to the next level. That doesn’t necessarily mean growing my business (although that appears to be happening whether I want it to or not). It means finding ways to work smarter. And stay ahead of the digital curve. And, finding ways to deliver outstanding value for my clients. Professionally, I’m hoping to build on a number of events I helped run or found in 2011. I’m working with PR leaders across the country to formalize the Help a PR Pro Out (HAPPO) organization a bit–we will have big news to share about a great Feb. event soon. I’m working with my colleague and friend Melissa Berggren to take the MN Blogger Conference event and build that out a bit with additional events in 2011. And, I’m hoping to play a key role in BlogWorld again this year (I helped organize the Social Media Business Summit last fall). Finally, personally, I’m hoping to build on our family successes (OK, so the metaphor doesn’t really work here :) . I’m planning to take more time with my daughter and son to help them discover their interests and passions. I’m hoping to spend more time with my wife as we continue to explore more restaurants and haunts in Minneapolis (we’re amateur foodies). And, I’m also looking to spend more time on myself as I seek to read more (trying to read 26 books in 2011) and get back in shape (working out 3 times a week–a big jump for me).

Kate Brodock

In January, I transitioned from full-time to part-time at the family business in Rome NY, a manufacturing plant, in order to focus entirely on my social media marketing and content production consulting firm, Other Side Group.  I’ll be reworking the formula I had from 2008 until now, and will be adding a focus on reputation management for high-profile individuals, in addition the existing social media marketing for organizations.  Luckily, my family still loves me, and I’ll be also taking their marketing to a new level.  I’m excited to “get back” into the space full-time, and look forward to working with B2B and B2C customers alike.  I also hope to renew my focus in Girls in Tech in my new role as CMO of Global, and in Meta-Activism Project.  Lastly, I’d like to increase my number of speaking and writing opportunities, as those are two things that really drive me. Oh, and have a ton of fun in life… of course.

You can also follow all of us on Twitter: Allan, Aaron, Arik, Kate or connect with us on LinkedIn: Allan, Aaron, Arik, Kate

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More Reasons to Like Posterous, especially in a B2B setting

Filed under Toolbox by Kate Brodock on 11 March 2010 at 18:53 {6 comments}

I recently wrote about using Posterous as a tool for social media marketing, and I wanted to take some time to comment on why it’s a great tool specifically for the B2B space.  Three of the nine reasons I had given really stand out to me:

  1. SEO. Whether you’re a cutting edge research firm that only transacts with other businesses, or you’re in a more traditional industry like manufacturing, there are just plain fewer opportunities to really leverage SEO… people aren’t necessarily searching for you in the ways that B2C organizations get searched on.  The concept of outposts comes into play heavily here, and the simple fact that having more places for people to search for content related to you – and ideally from you – the more opportunities you have to associate that content with your website, and the more qualified traffic you can drive to your site.  You can very appropriately (and deliberately) assign keywords to your content that is directly linked to your website, and thus your company.
  2. Inbound linking. Many B2B companies also don’t have a lot of opportunities for inbound linking, especially in the more traditional industries  or instances when you may be just one piece of a long supply chain.  Inline with SEO opportunities, Posterous allows a pretty easy inbound linking opportunity….and one of high authority.  If you’re on a fledgling website strategy and need to boost that inbound link count quickly and effectively, Posterous is a great way to do that.  Additionally, these types of young or underdeveloped websites may have a low authority, and supplementing that with Posterous inbound links can do a lot for your organic SEO.
  3. That means more thought leadership potential. See, it makes a nice little equation, doesn’t it?  With higher SEO, more content sharing opportunities and more inbound linking, it means all of your valuable content is all pointed back to your brand.  If you’re good at what you do – which you probably are – and you identify effective internal content to share, this could mean the start of some great thought leadership opportunities.  And this is where people in more traditional industries can have a big advantage…. if you’re among the first to start really thinking about this equation, you can make huge and long-lasting strides ahead of competitors who aren’t as “up-to-snuff.”

I also wanted to throw out a technical note on calls-to-action.  Again, in the B2B setting, calls-to-action can be a lot more difficult to achieve.  It’s not like someone wants a new pair of running shoes from you.  By using outside content on Posterous, and providing a link of some sort – preferably in the form of “For more information on X systems….” – you can still drive people to your own products or services related to the content you’re posting.  As long as the content is relevant to your company, this is still a good way to be found by qualified leads.

So, a couple To-dos for B2B Posterous users:

  • If you have a blog, post every post up on Posterous, with a link back to the original.
  • Think about calls-to-action, and make sure that every post has one that brings your products/services to the readers’ attention.  These don’t need to be overt (and really shouldn’t be), but can be very effective.
  • In some of the more traditional industries, it may actually be better to have your call-to-action right at the top.  If someone is searching for “copper tracer wire” and really just wants a quote or a price (which is usually the case with a purchaser behind the desk) and they come to your Posterous page in their search results, make it really easy for them to get that done…. through you. They may not have the patience to read through your entire post….
  • Use outside content, and find a way to incorporate an association to your company.  This is an easy one, as the fundamental goal of content production is to provide valuable information to your audience.

What else have you found helpful about Posterous in the B2B setting?  Are there any other To-Dos you have? Do you have a Case Study you’d like to share with us?

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