b2b marketer - socialisation of data

7/29/2019 B2B Marketer - Socialisation of Data

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Data

Published February 2013

b2bmarketing.net

Best Practice Guide


2/13

b2bmarketin.net

SaaS has allowed

businesses to scale up and

down in a cost eective

way, without the need

or heavy capital investment

in bespoke sotware

or hardware

Best Practice: Data B2B Marketing 2013 53

SIMON MCEVOyPLANNINg DIRECTORTANgENT SNOWBALL

SECTION 5

Socialisation o data

Social media has transormed the way we look at consumer data. Wehave begun to move rom a world where data is diicult to acquire and

even harder to manage, to a world in which large data sets are reelyavailable, volunteered by consumers, and managed in the cloud. However,

the sheer volumes o data generated every minute make the job onding meaningul insights ever more challenging. Every minute, Tumblr

users publish 27,000 blog posts, Facebook users share 684,000 pieceso content and Twitter users send over 100,000 tweets (Domo, Big Data

Inographic, 2012). Getting on top o this data is the huge challenge B2Borganisations ace today.

In this section, I will look at the main innovations in social data and how

they have aected B2B relationships. I will look at how to get started indevising a strategy or harnessing this volume o social data, how we

can create more relevant lasting client relationships and also open upnew revenue streams or your business.

5.1 Data in the cloud

Sotware as a service (SaaS) has heavily infuenced the way businesseswork over the last ew years. From small oices becoming totally remote

using platorms such as Google Docs, to global businesses runningtheir entire marketing activity rom cloud-hosted marketing automation

platorms, SaaS has allowed businesses to scale up and down in a costeective way, without the need or heavy capital investment in bespoke

sotware or hardware.

5.1.1 Data as a service (DaaS)

In much the same way, DaaS now threatens to revolutionise the way wetreat data management, storage and manipulation. I we look at some othe key challenges aced by businesses when beginning a large data

management or CRM programme scalable storage capacity, fexibilityo storage platorms and requisite level o security DaaS helps meet

all these challenges while remaining cost eective. It also assists withroutine maintenance such as appending, cleansing, de-duping and making

the data insight ready.

DaaS vendors act as a web-hosted interace between your business andmillions o rows o data. This can be anything rom address verication

services, such as Postcode Anywhere, which allow you to veriy names,

addresses and route planning, to B2B contact data sets as suppliedby Jigsaw that gives you access to B2B leads and integrates straightinto Salesorce.


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b2bmarketin.netb2bmarketin.net

Creating, curating and

managing your own data

set, careully aligned with

the needs o your business,

is always preerable to

simply plugging into a

publicly available third party


SECTION 5Socialisation o data

DaaS means the data you access is always up-to-date, clean, ready-to-

use and hosted elsewhere so you dont have to worry about storagecapacity and maintaining hardware.

DaaS can be used to grow your existing database, or to simply appendand enrich data you already have. In many cases, this can be done in real-

time, with calls rom your CRM system or intranet via APIs to the DaaSplatorm, as and when you need them. Charges or this vary, o course,

with typical charges either or volume o data accessed or number ocalls to the API.

5.1.2 Low cost o ener

Even i you dont have an existing CRM or customer database, DaaScan help. Services such as Caspio allow you to build and host customer

databases in the cloud, then deploy apps using a point-and-click appbuilder to create registration orms, reports and data visualisation. The

entry level pricing or these services is small compared to the cost osotware, hardware, deployment and technical maintenance associated

with creating and maintaining a hosted data storage system, so is hugelyattractive to SME businesses looking or a one-size-ts-all solution to

plug straight into their business. However, or larger organisations abespoke solution, perhaps plugging into some DaaS vendors, is still

probably more suitable.

5.1.3 DaaS drawbacksDaaS does, o course, have some drawbacks. The key one being that

as much as you dont have the headache o hosting data, you also donthave the benet o owning a unique data set outright. I data is the new

oil then DaaS vendors are sitting on the oileld and tapping into theirservices means you are just getting the same set o data as everyone

else. Creating, curating and managing your own data set, careully alignedwith the needs o your business, is always preerable to simply plugging

into a publicly available third party. It becomes part o your business IPand value intelligent data on a range o individuals that are known to

have an interest in your business. DaaS simply cannot provide this.

5.1.4 Choosin DaaS partnersThere is certainly a place or DaaS and as services become more

sophisticated and varied it is clear more businesses will turn to it toenrich and append their existing data sets. With this in mind, here are ve

things to consider when choosing DaaS partners:

1. How is the data bein sourced? Some DaaS partners may besimply packaging up already reely available data sets, or just

providing convenient interaces. Make sure they are adding somevalue through screening, cleansing or appending, otherwise it

might be cheaper to source this data yoursel.


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By utilising this new

channel eectively, you can

drive new leads back to your

business and position

yoursel as an expert in

your eld.



2. What data do ou reall need? Having access to every window

cleaning business in the UK might sound great, but are you sellinganything that window cleaners want? Are they ever likely to be atarget market? Dont get carried away by simply gorging on data,

as this can become expensive and time consuming.

3. Check the small print on the pricin. Linked to the above, makesure you know what you are getting yoursel in or on pricing.

Many DaaS suppliers oer very attractive entry-level rates with axed cap o data, but become expensive as soon as this cap is

broken. Try to negotiate with your chosen vendor or an unlimitedtrial period until you work out what your data needs are likely to

be.

4. Who else is usin the data set? DaaS providers may not wantto share all their partners with you (although some are very open

about it) but its worth asking the question, as you dont wantto simply be overlapping with all your main competitors. This is

particularly relevant or lead purchasing.

5. Be condent it is secure. Nothing is more damaging to a modernbusiness than a data leak, so make sure your supplier and your

own database and connections are secure. Security is dealt withelsewhere in this guide so I wont go into it here, but needless to

say its the single most important thing to consider when dealingwith any data set.

5.2 growin our business network throuhsocial media

One o the most exciting aspects o the socialisation o data and thearrival o social media or B2B marketers is the opportunities it opens

in the prospecting space. One o the most deeply ingrained mantras inthe sales world is people buy rom people. Usually this had to entail a

ace-to-ace meeting, or perhaps a phone call. Both o these are time

consuming and in many cases geographically limited or time-sensitive,and in the case o cold calling, downright annoying. Social media allowsbusinesses to nd people who are already engaged in conversation

about topics related to their product or service, and engage with themin a riendly, trust-building way. By utilising this new channel eectively,

you can drive new leads back to your business, position yoursel as anexpert in your eld and gain new insights on how you should develop and

sell your products.

As with any lead generation activity its vital to have a ew thingsestablished beore getting started. I use these six steps with our clients

to make sure theyre ready to go:


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Think about what your

target audience wants to

hear and what is important

to them. The general law

o social conversation is

it needs to be interesting,

unny or useul



1. Perorm a quick audit. Are people talking about you or your product

already? Who are they and what are they saying? What are yourcompetitors doing? Where is the conversation happening? All othis can help dene your overall strategic approach and eed into

the next ew steps so its important to do it rst. This can takeweeks i done thoroughly, but i resources are tight, even a ew

days spent examining the landscape will be hugely benecial.

There are plenty o tools around to help you do this, rom reeones such as Social Mention or Twitters own search, or you can

invest in enterprise level analytics such as Brandwatch. Bearin mind enterprise level tools will require a bit o training and

understanding o Boolean search and data analytics, so you couldalso outsource this kind o activity to an agency that will have

these skills inhouse.

2. Dene our taret audience. This will probably be pretty similarto your general target market, but bear in mind that or some

businesses, particularly very traditional ones, the online audiencemay be dierent to your wider audience. I you already operate

in places like Facebook then Facebooks analytics will give yousome great stats on the demographic breakdown o your social

audience. But i youre going rom a standing start then denewho you want to target, based on ndings rom your audit, and

be prepared to ne-tune this as you go along. Important things toconsider are age and gender, but also online habits, or example do

they like to contribute, share or just consume inormation.

3. What conversation topics are ou oin to own. This is cruciallyimportant, as you want to become an expert in your eld, not a

babble o irrelevant noise. Think about what your target audiencewants to hear and what is important to them. The general law o

social conversation is it needs to be interesting, unny or useul.So i you sell car parts you might want to own car repairs as a

topic and be on-hand to answer tricky questions about where to

source parts rom, rather than shout about recent promotions oroers. In the social space, people rarely want to be sold to.

4. Decide which channels are riht or ou. Dierent channelshave dierent pros and cons, so its important to know how to get

the best out o them. There are hundreds o social platorms soI wont aim to address them all here, but look at the key ones or

prospecting:

LinkedIn is a an excellent place to build an online business networkas it allows you to network through people you already know by

way o introductions and see how many connections away you

are rom your target customers. LinkedIn groups give you agreat opportunity to be helpul and knowledgeable on particular


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Remember Facebook is a

place where people go to

socialise and unwind, you

dont want to be the guy at

the party hustling people

who are trying to orget

about work



topics and can position you and your business at the centre o

a thriving network. Another advantage o LinkedIn is that as abusiness community, members are more tolerant o being pitchedat although still tread careully as you can be removed or being

spammy.

Twitter is a great place to engage quickly and easily with theconversation around topics related to your business. I have used

Twitter well with a number o B2B clients, curating a ollowing olike-minded prospects and suppliers that eeds itsel with constantly

updating content. Many businesses also use this or customerservice, due to its quick, real-time nature, or posting time-sensitive

oers and promotions.

Facebook is not traditionally a B2B prospecting environment, butusing it judiciously can add a lot o colour and depth to your brand.

Facebook can allow you to be more o a riend to your clients,link to interesting web content, share unny videos that relate to

your brand or be a place to host pictures. However, this needs tobe considered careully as Facebook isnt right or every business.

Remember, its a place where people go to socialise and unwind,you dont want to be the person at the party hustling people who

are trying to orget about work.

goole+ is a burgeoning social network, particularly popular withthe tech industry (early adopters). Its main advantage is that

Google actors Google+ activity and presence into search rankings.So businesses that have a large, active presence on Google+ will

achieve higher search rankings over time. Given that the dierencebetween second and third place on a search results page can be

double the number o site visits, this platorm should not be ignoredlightly.

Quora and yahoo Answers are Q&A-based communities thatallow you to provide useul inormation to prospects in an inormal

environment.

YouTube is a great place to host video, as YouTube videos rank

incredibly well in Google search and can help your brand reach a massaudience. For those in the creative industries, Vimeo is a video hosting

platorm that only hosts original, creative content and lters out spam.

5. What is our tone o voice? You may already have establishedthis in a branding process, but i you havent its worth thinking

about how you want to come across in the social space. Funnyand irreverent? Useul and sincere? Inormative and interesting?

Remember you are trying to get a lead-generating conversation

started, but you will need to tread sotly as being too direct willswitch people o. Develop a sales unnel, where the rst ew


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In many ways, social CRM

is similar to traditional CRM.

It is about understanding

customers better, using

data, and responding in a

timely, relevant way to

their needs



messages get people interested in the conversation, then perhaps

gently direct people to your website or a meeting where real sellingcan begin. Avoid trying to sell through social media, it will onlyaect your credibility and trust negatively in the uture.

6. How will ou measure success? This is critically important associal prospecting will require time, resources and thereoreinvestment, so measuring success will prove the ROI. Obviously

leads are a great way to measure it. However, make sure you canattribute the lead back to the social prospecting you dont want

to warm a lead in social only to attribute it to the call centre orwebsite because thats where the nal deal was done. Think about

soter measures, such as share o voice or quality o responses.You can use some o the tools mentioned earlier to measure this.

Avoid getting bogged down in crude measures such as numbero ollowers as this can be hugely misleading. Id rather talk to 10

people who were genuine prospects and interested in what I hadto say, than 1000 time wasters, trolls and spam-bots.

5.3 Social CRM

So you have started to build a network o prospects through socialmedia, you have a presence and you are starting to develop a prole as

an expert in your eld. But what about existing customers? What aboutcustomer service, dealing with complaints, listening or ideas on product

enhancements or even headhunting new sta members? Social mediacan be a antastic place to engage more deeply with your customers.

5.3.1 Buildin deeper relationshipsIn many ways, social CRM is similar to traditional CRM. It is aboutunderstanding customers better, using data, and responding in a timely,

relevant way to their needs. This should lead to better, deeper customerrelationships that ultimately translate into loyalty and revenue. However,

social CRM diers in a ew key ways:

It is alwas on so requires a more proactive approach to dealingwith queries. People using social to get inormation or make a

complaint dont expect to be kept waiting or days. They see socialas a quick response method and expect businesses to refect this.

you can see a uller customer picture. Traditionally, you would seethe data you hold on your customers, with relation to your brandonly. Now, thanks to things such as Facebook Connect and Open

Graph, we can see how our customers relate back to the widerworld; the movies they like, the other brands they shop with, the

riends they have etc. This data can be incredibly useul in building

a more holistic customer view, particularly in the relationships-ledB2B environment.


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Unlike prospecting, social

CRM aects every part o

your business, rom

customer service and

marketing to product

development and HR



It is more dificult to track and monitor. Simply due to the volumeso data that you have to sit through and assess in terms o

importance, it is much harder to evaluate success. Most businesseslack the skills to do this kind o data analysis work, although moreare bringing skilled data experts inhouse to be able to be ready to

tackle this.

5.3.2 Plannin our social CRMMuch like developing a social prospecting strategy, social CRM requires

a bit o planning beore your business is ready to dive in. Again, here aresix steps we go through with clients beore embarking on social CRM:

1. Create a social steerin committee and driver.Unlike prospecting,

social CRM aects every part o your business, rom customerservice and marketing to product development and HR. You should

recruit representatives rom each department to orm a steeringcommittee that should be lead by a driver. Id suggest this comes

rom the CRM team as they are going to be most acutely aware othe broader objectives or CRM in the business. The driver should

own social within the business, be in charge o the strategyand reporting, and make sure all departments are aligned in their

approach. They should be an evangelist or social within the businessand be encouraging all departments to become more social in

their thinking.

2. Perorm a quick audit where are we now? Much like theprospecting audit, this should look at who is talking about you,

are any o your customers using social and what channelsseem to be most used by your customers. It should also

look at the quality o conversation; are comments mainlycustomer service-related, or are they oering advice or new

products and services? This will help dene who needs to bemost involved.

3. Set some clear objectives where do we want to be? Just like CRM objectives within your business these should

be measurable and in line with the broader business goals.I you have a small group o high-value customers, perhapsits about delivering high-value content and giving advice

about how to get the best rom your business relationship.For larger audiences it might be related to speed quality and

resolution o response. You might also build customer eedbacksurveys into this to get both a qualitative and quantitative view.

4. Create a clear resourcin plan. One o the trickiest things aboutsocial CRM is its always on nature which can be diicult toresource. Its best to share day-to-day community management

among a ew people and make sure they have time in their day

to deal with it. Also make sure these people are well trained andskilled they are now the voice o your business online so have a


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Social CRM is a human art,

not a science, and mistakeswill be made. A business

that embraces mistakes will

always be more dynamic

than one that treats

ailure as unacceptable



very important role to play. For assisting with workfow, there are

some great tools available, such as Conversocial or Salesorces

own social plugins which allow you to assign jobs and help monitoryour social spaces. Also make sure there are clear escalationprocedures in place in case o serious problems or highly technical

questions.

5. Make sure ou are constantl measurin and reportin. Thiswill be proving the value o what you do. I you can, visualise the

data using inographics and imagery as this makes it easier todigest or people in the business that are not amiliar with what

you are doing. A lot o businesses think biblically-sized reportsshowing every last measurement are needed, but I disagree. One

or two pages showing the key trends are all thats needed to givesomeone a picture o success or ailure. Cultivate a culture o

trial and error within your business, with the mantra, ail, and ailast at its heart. Social CRM is a human art, not a science, and

mistakes will be made. A business that embraces mistakes as away to learn and make things better will always be more dynamic

than one that treats ailure as unacceptable.

5.3.3 Analsin the dataSocial CRM is impossible without the ability to manage and interpret the

large volumes o data that social media produces. Some o the toolsmentioned earlier, such as Brandwatch, can provide access to this data

through APIs, but this still needs to be ltered to get a clear pictureo only relevant content to your business, so its important to have, or

be able to tap into, the skills to do this. Larger organisations may wellhave very skilled data people in the business already, but they are rarely

employed in looking at social data, so getting your head o data involvedwill be critical. Smaller organisations may want to outsource this work,

partnering with an agency that can provide the skills they need withoutthe large costs o recruitment.

5.3.4 Holistic customer viewFinally, think about where you can collect data across the web and how

you can begin to build a holistic customer view across multiple platormsand channels.

Can your customers and prospects sign into your site using FacebookConnect? Are you incentivising data capture using whitepapers and

thought leadership pieces? Are you creating shareable content, suchas inographics? Can you give users preview access to new sotware

or services in return or data? Can you ask users to link their Facebookaccount to their email address using a Facebook app? By linking these

various sources o data together you will start to build a 360-degree viewo your customer.


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Having a clear idea o

precisely what you want

to do with the tool will help

enormously in choosing the

right one or you



5.4 Social media monitorin

One o the by-products o increased engagement through social mediachannels is the prolieration o social media monitoring tools, which aimto help you sit through volumes o comments, likes, tweets and blog

posts to nd the ones relevant to your brand. While these tools can behugely helpul, both in terms o guiding strategic thinking around topics

and highlighting key infuencers, they can be rie with inconsistenciesand unreliable in many respects.

5.4.1 Choosin our toolSocial monitoring tools, such as Brandwatch, Sysomos or Radian6,use a combination o web spidering and algorithmic processing to pull

vast quantities o data rom the social web and then rank it based onrelevance to certain keywords, sentiment and user infuence. There are

literally hundreds o such tools available now and so a comprehensivereview o all o them is simply impossible here. Also, they all contain

dierent eatures and approach content in very dierent ways, so a like-or-like comparison is incredibly diicult.

For that reason I will instead share with you a ew points to consider

when choosing a social monitoring tool or your business:

1. What do I need one or? Sounds like a strange question but ormany businesses, the vast amount o data these tools access may

be total overkill. Maybe you have a small, high-value, niche group oprospects you already know o, concentrated around one or two

online communities. Scraping the whole web or all mentions oyour brand or product may throw up nothing new and just become

diicult to manage, so make sure you have a real purpose orusing tools like this. Where they can be hugely useul is infuencing

conversation topics by seeing which keywords people are usingin relation to your brand, or isolating key infuencers around your

conversation topics. Having a clear idea o precisely what you wantto do with the tool will help enormously in choosing the right one

or you.

2. How tech-savv is the team that will be manain it? Most o thetools available require some basic knowledge o setting Boolean

search queries and ltering through data. However, some are armore technical than others, and ar more diicult to pick up and

use. I you want to be able to drill down into rows o data to thenth degree then Neilsens Buzzmetrics might be or you, but i you

want something that non-technical people in your business canuse with a small amount o training then Brandwatch might be

more appropriate.

3. How much data am I likel to consume? Most platorms base

their costs around a xed number o keywords or phrases or aset amount o data usage per month. This can be quite important,


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A quick scan across social

apps shows massive

inconsistencies in

scoring, and a worrying

lack o accuracy in terms o

topic infuence



as i you are a global well-known brand you are obviously going

to generate a lot more data queries than a small, local business.Likewise, your brand name might be a generic word (e.g. Apple)where ltering out irrelevant data becomes more diicult. Most

vendors will allow you to monitor and adapt your pricing plan asyou go along, once you have an idea o data usage, but make sure

you check with them to be prepared or any big hidden costs.

4. How much resource can I allocate or monitorin? There is nopoint investing in a tool like this unless you have adequate resource

or monitoring. And just because these tools take some o thelegwork out o getting the data in one place and making sense

o it, dont be ooled into thinking that good old human analysiswont be needed too. For example, sentiment analysis has been

shown to be only 60-80 per cent accurate across trends (FreshNetworks, Social Media Monitoring Report, 2010) and as low as

30 per cent accurate on individual comments when comparedto manual assessment. So i you are planning on basing an

infuencer engagement strategy on these tools, having a humanintervene is vital. Given the time and skills involved, it may be worth

outsourcing this kind o work to an agency rather than making all theinvestment yoursel.

5.4.2 Beware o social apps

Another thing to bear in mind when assessing things like infuencerscoring are social scoring apps, such as Klout, Kred or Peerindex, which

claim to be able to reduce an individuals infuence in the social spaceto a number by looking at their ollowers, interactions and content o

comments. These platorms are still way too immature to be takenseriously as accurate a quick scan across these three shows massive

inconsistencies in scoring (as much as a three or our times variance)and a worrying lack o accuracy in terms o topic infuence.

Where they can be useul is in terms o ltering out a set o users that

have a large ollowing, which could be interesting to a brand. For example,

tools such as Brandwatch that integrate with Klout would allow you toview everyone rom the UK that has commented on DIY-related topics inthe last month and also has a Klout score o 50 plus. This might strip a

long, unwieldy infuencer list down to something more manageable andallow you to ocus on the top tier o key infuencers, even i you now

need human intervention to make sure the machines have done theirjob properly.


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Drat a series o top line

objectives that you would

like to achieve through

social, then perorm an

audit to get a picture o

where your business is

right now in relation to

those objectives



5.5 Summar

Overall, the socialisation o data has started to transorm the way werelate to prospects and customers in the B2B space and how we gainan understanding on the people that mean the most to us online. Much

o this can seem too new or overwhelming and can be diicult to assessin terms o ROI. However, running a ew small tests it might help your

organisation see that social data is an area worth investing some timeand resources in.

A great place to start is to drat a series o top line objectives you would

like to achieve through social, then perorm an audit to get a picture owhere your business is right now in relation to those objectives. This

will give you and your board visibility on what could be achieved andwhere you need be to achieve it. I perorming such an audit sounds

daunting, or you dont have the skills inhouse to do it, then outsource itto an agency. This has the added advantage o being a second opinion,

particularly i there is internal scepticism about what social data meansto the business.


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b2b marketer - socialisation of data

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