How to Leverage B2B Social media to StandardsUsers in the Digital Age

Presentation to13th IFAN International conference

Challenges of the Future

Haim Oren, Global Chief Marketing Officer - TBK consult

October 12th, 2010

Some facts about Social media

Facebook has more than 500 million members, and more than 50% use the site daily.

The fastest growing segment are users over 30 years old.

In August 2009, Americans watched 10 billion videos on YouTube. That same month, Americans conducted 9 billion searches on Google.

More than 80% of online users are active in either creating, participating in or reading some form of social content at least once a month

Twitter attracts 190 million visitors per month and generate 65 million Tweets a day

Source: Ogilvy Worldwide

The proliferation of social media

“Markets are conversations”Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed.

As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies."

The cluetrain manifesto-1999

Social media is changing B2B marketing communications for

good…

According to Gartner forecast:

By 2014, for 20 percent of business users, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications.

Those 20% of business users would make a social network the hub of their business communications both inside and outside their organization’s firewall.

During the next 3 years, most companies will be building out internal social networks and/or allowing business use of personal social network accounts.

Social media is becoming a marketing standard 87% of B2B marketers agree that “ social media will become a

standard tactic like email ”

Nearly 75% of B2B tech buyers consult social media before making a decision

Source; MarketingSherpa, 2009

Social media is becoming a B2B marketing standard-cont’d

A recent Information Week survey indicates:

78% of businesses surveyed use social media tools, with businesses having active accounts. most often with Facebook (70%), followed by Twitter (44%), YouTube (32%), and LinkedIn (23%).

Companies used social media for;

Competitive intelligence Customer service Marketing Sales

Source: Information Week, August 2010

Social Media as a marketing communications standard

In 2008, only 33% of InformationWeek 500 companies used social media tools like; wikis, social networking and blogs to reach out to customers, suppliers, and partners.

In 2009, the number increased to 42%

This year, that figure shot up to 72%, in one of the most dramatic one-year moves we've ever seen in our InformationWeek 500 data.

Source: Information Week 500 survey, 2010

Social media represents a paradigm shift

Web 1.0

Read-Only Web Static content Company driven

content Monolog Company’s Knowledge

Social Web 2.0

Collaborative web Dynamic content Network driven

content Conversation Crowd sourcing

The top influencers on B2B decision making

B2B social networking is now a part of the marketing mix

Spending levels on B2B Social Networking in 2010, close to 40% of B2B firms indicate they plan to

increase spending on social media

40% spend the same as 2009

20% don’t know

Source: Forrester Research:2009 North American companies with 100

or more employees:

The realized impact of social media on business

4 out of 5 respondents said social media had a positive impact on organizational innovation,

78% believed it helped the organization provide better customer service.

70% of IT personnel viewed social media as having a beneficial impact on their organization's productivity

Source; Forrester Research, survey of 303 IT personnel in North America and Europe who use social media, conducted in January 2010.

A review of Effective Social media tools

Gated social Community website Online video Virtual events

Typical weaknesses of B2B websites Rely too heavily on public social

networks (“The twitter strategy”, “the Facebook Strategy”)

Company's content on public social networks is different than on one’s website

Content is “brochureware’ oriented ‘Un- social’ website design Don’t enable conversations

Benefits of a gated community approach Satisfy the needs of your target audience Create high engagement by enabling

interaction among customers, companies, service providers, consultants and industry organizations

Encourage sharing of information by users Expose existing content from your web out by using RSS, widgets etc.

Recommended Social media strategy-the Hub

Turn your corporate website into a hub-The Natural Geographic case

Mobile

Video

WidgetsSocial Bookmarks

Feeds and Content Syndication

Social Networks

Blogs & Micro-blogging

Social Network in action Complianceonline.com

MetricStream provides GRC consulting & advisory services

The strategy: create a gated social network for governance, risk, compliance and quality

Who: GRC professionals What: Provide education, training and best

practice info’ on GRC issues via a social community

How; Becomes a mini University for GRC professional by Offering online courses, articles, & templates, books, published industry standards and training kits.

Compliance Online courses

-

Compliance online Best Practices database

Complianceonline.com deliverables

Community: with 500,000 registered users it is considered the largest online community for compliance professionals

Online Training: hosts 1000 online training programs expert trainers and compliance specialists for regulatory and compliance professionals through

Best Practices: has established 1 million article

database and library service that aggregates best practices, articles, & whitepapers

Store: is one of the largest database of 25,000 compliance related products - from published industry standards and training kits to tools, templates, and books

Complianceonline.com marketing metrics…

2 million unique visitors per year 500,000 registered users Profitable after first 6 months Provides 30% of MetricStream

annual leads

Intel communities

.

Dell Social media marketing

Dell Social media marketing

Online video

Online video provide dynamic and engaging experience that connects with buyers

Over 30% of B2B marketers are not using online video at all

33% use it only to market or demonstrate products

11% for customer testimonials 10% for Internal communications/training 9% for customer support

Source: Forrester 2009 survey of B2B marketers

Online Video benefits to B2B marketers Builds engagement with prospects & buyers Helps to build excitement around physical

events before and after ( user conference, trade show etc.,)

Viral video helps build awareness and interest w/o the high cost of broadcast adverting

Demonstrate intangible product/service attributes

Builds creditability with prospects

IBM use of online video

“The video segments have to be more than a commercial – we have to offer content with value, information of how our solutions will help our customer’s business, and tips for using particular solutions.”

Mark Leaser- IBM Worldwide Offerings Manager for IBM Software Services

IBM use of social media

IBM use of social media

Each IBM operational area includes; Video clips A link to LinkedIn discussion groups Link to Face Book, Delicious, Dig,

LinkedIn & Twitter RSS feeds Conversations with IBM managers

ISO

HP ‘You Tube’ enterprise TV

Virtual events B2B virtual event is defined as; “ Online interactive meeting using a broad range of rich

media tools for communications, collaboration and networking among hosts, sponsors and event participants.”

It includes; webcasts, web conferences and full blown conferences

The range of tools can include: online video, online spokespeople, collateral downloads and the look-and-feel of different venues and environment.

Collaboration tools might include: chats, share business cards, share desktop or application.

Why virtual events make sense in the current economy?

According to B-B magazine nearly 60% of marketers cut their marketing budgets in response to the economy in 2009 and

Over 40% of the companies are expecting to further reductions in marketing budgets in 2010

Result: # of virtual events increased by 37% in the 1st half of 2009 while budget cuts led to 30% reduction in face-to-face meetings.

(Source: Marketing Sherpa)

Virtual events benefits Providing immediate and

sustainable global reach Cost effective for both attendees

and organizers by eliminating travel & venue cost, Logistics, etc)

Enable easy sharing of information Enables tracking attendees’ activity

& engagement Shorten sales cycles

Virtual events metrics

Standard metrics include; Attendees’ profile; interests,

attendance rates) Engagement metrics; duration of

participation, downloads, dialogs) Performance metrics; lead ranking

and qualifications and ROI

Cisco Live Virtual Cisco launched Cisco Live Virtual, a virtualPlatform which is an extension of its Int’l

Networkers Conferences. After the physical conference takes place,

a virtual version went live featuring: Video taped executive keynotes and

seminars presentations Session Pdfs Blogs and discussion groups Chat rooms to network with the exhibitors

Cisco Live Virtual

Cisco Live Virtual

Cisco use of social media

Cisco use of social media

Cisco use of social media

Cisco use of social media

Cisco use of social media

Cisco Live Virtual

Concluding remarks… Position Social media as a marketing

communication standard, to your organization Define your company’ social media activities as a

part of the marketing mix Invest for continuous social media involvement Include resourcing & budgeting that reflect

strategic commitment Have in place a well defined management

structure Provide parameters for the employees to engage Determine key social metrics to track Conduct ongoing research with stakeholders to

evaluate social media fit with brand image

Thank You.

Haim Oren Global Chief Marketing officer TBK consult Email- haim.oren@tbkconsult.com