www.kickstartall.com
Kickstarting Your Own Social Media Initiative
by
Mary Sullivan
Last month we published an article called Get
Ready! Social Media for B2B Companies and referred to it
as a primer. Because we believe that B2B companies are ready to
explore uses of social media in their own businesses, we are developing
a series of articles on social media for B2B businesses. This is
the second article in that series.
When people talk about social media in B2B companies, they generally
mean using it for some aspect of marketing. This isn't
entirely wrong, but let's do a check on what we mean
by "marketing."
Twentieth-century marketing was about reaching out to prospective
customers and telling them who you are, what you sell,
and why they should care. But it's not just about the
"4Ps" anymore.
Social media has added a fifth "P": Participation.
21st century marketing includes engaging prospective
buyers and existing customers in talking about what it
is about your company and/or product that they like.
Yes, sometimes they will independently talk about what
they don't like
about your company, but social media also provides tools
that enable you to listen to
the negatives and respond in ways that counter potentially
damaging effects.
Some Uses of Social Media for B2B Companies
Why should you consider social media in your marketing
mix? Here are a few ideas. You can:
- Grow a community of influencers/evangelists that will help validate
your value proposition
- Direct readers to content about your company that is posted anywhere
on the Internet—your website, YouTube, media articles about
your company, etc.
- Develop conversations with your target audience and/or customer
base
- Draw additional readership to your corporate blog
- Publicize your latest press release
- Conduct ad hoc research, gather reader opinion
- Create additional searchable web pages that talk about your company.
Getting Started
Do any of the uses suggested above pique your interest?
Here's what you'll need to do to get going:
- Plan – Identify objectives and create your social
media strategy. Nothing mysterious here—you should always
understand where you're heading when you set out in
new directions.
- Listen – Join the social media sites that you think
may serve your needs. Be a spectator for a bit until you get a
sense of what is going on. You will need to engage with some other
community members to see how people communicate. Click around on
all the links to see what the site offers. Get a feeling for the
capabilities and opportunities.
- Contribute – Join in the conversation by posting
information and inviting replies or comments. See if you can create
a snowball effect by mentioning your website or blog on one of
the social sites and see the impact on your traffic. Or alternatively, Get
Your Feet Wet with Internal Social Media before going outside.
- Plan Again – Once you have a feel for the possibilities,
lay out a pilot social media plan, identifying which
tools you will use, how you will use them, and who
will be responsible for them. (This last is critical; don't underfund
or under-staff. You will set yourself up for failure.) Decide what
measurable outcomes you aim to achieve and by what
dates, and determine how you will track and measure results.
- Benchmark – Before you put your plans into play,
gather benchmark stats about your website's page-views,
blog traffic, and any other measurable areas of your
business you expect will be impacted by your social media initiative.
- Network – Then implement your plans. Make sure you
or your community manager are actively contributing to your social
networks on a daily basis.
- Manage – Re-measure against your benchmarks, and
analyze what is working. Make adjustments to the plan as you deem
necessary.
Social Media Vehicles for B2B Companies
It's important to understand how the different social
media tools (social network sites) work and what you
can do with each. Our March
article offered a primer on the "big 3," Facebook,
LinkedIn and Twitter. Here's a quick review:
- Facebook – "Friends" are symmetrical, and
thumbnail profiles of users can be found via search engines.
Users post updates, photos, and "friends" can comment
back. Users can also be "fans" and
join fan groups; businesses are experimenting with
this relatively new feature.
- LinkedIn – "Connections" are symmetrical,
and some (but not all) profile information is publicly
available to non-LinkedIn searchers. Generally used
as an online resume to find jobs or job candidates; some use LinkedIn
to reach out to prospective customers.
- Twitter – "Followers" are not symmetrical;
you can follow the updates of people you don’t know. Updates
of 140 characters or less, called "tweets," can be sent
either from a cellphone or a computer. Tweets are searchable
by keyword, and users' profiles and
tweets can be viewed if you know the username. People
use Twitter to make announcements, point to blog posts,
ask questions, and gather information from others.
Once you get started using social media, you may want to enhance
your communications with other social tools such as blogs, pictures,
audio and video. Tune in next month to learn about some applications
that you can easily integrate into your social media to provide a
richer experience for your online community.
About the Author
Mary Sullivan, co-founder of KickStart Alliance, delivers customer-focused
product marketing to clients in a variety of technology sectors, including
clean tech. Mary is an experienced social media user and community
builder: a long-time blogger, LinkedIn member, Facebook user and active
Twitterer. Want help mapping your social media strategy? Contact
Mary.
April 2009