Are B2B companies that refuse to engage in social media facing extinction?
Aug 1st
“No.”
That’s the short answer to a question that was posed to me in Focus (which seems quieter and more manageable than Quora). It got my attention because it is a question I often hear in my classes too. Instead of preaching fear and pontificating about social media as the Second Coming of B2B Marketing, let’s look at this another way.
Social media is growing fast, but it’s no longer new. If social media were such a dominating competitive force that non-users would be threatened with extinction, wouldn’t we be seeing some signs of that by now?
In fact, I am struggling to recall one case study where a B2B company used social media to dominate a market and extinguish a competitor … and I watch for these things.
I really like Eric Qualman’s inventive Social Media Revolution videos — I even show them in my classes some times. But there is one phrase in there that makes me cringe: “The ROI of social media is that you will be in business five years from now.”
Oh puhleeeze. Let’s see. Eric’s first edition of this video came out in 2009 which means we are less than two years aways from the Social Media Armageddon. I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to change my vacation plans just yet.
Social media marketing can undoubtedly be used in very meaningful and powerful ways but I don’t think it is necessarily a “let’s bet the ranch” investment that is going to transform very many B2B marketplaces. And let’s not forget the powerful applications for HR, PR, and many other parts of the company. I’m an advocate and think every company should make an informed decision about how these tools integrate with current efforts and can create some new ones.
Yes, it’s big, it’s bad, it ain’t going away. And I’m all over the value selling perspective. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that a ton of business in this world is still won and lost at the end of a negotiation by the company who is prepared to knock off another penny per unit, especially in these economic times. That can kill a business faster than an inactive Twitter account.
I also think it’s difficult to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage based on a social media strategy. The entry barriers are low and it would be pretty easy for competitors to mimic efforts.
If you’re selling ball bearings to Ford you’re probably not going to tweet your way to long-term success, right?
What do you think? Are you seeing any non-tech B2B businesses storming the fort with social media marketing successes?
Case study: Fast-growing B2B expands social media exposure
Feb 4th
Drew Hawkins has become one of the most consistent contributors in the {grow} community. He recently commented that he could relate to the research on the explosive growth of social media in small businesses because he was witnessing it first hand. I invited him to share his inspiring success story …
When I started at Hinda Incentives in 2009, we had very little digital marketing efforts outside of a website and a Google AdWords account. Since that time, we’ve established a presence on multiple social marketing channels and positioned ourselves as an industry leader in the social space. Within that time frame, we were listed on the Inc. magazine list of the Fastest Growing Companies, Crain’s Chicago Fast Fifty roster, and are among the finalists for a B2B Twitterer of the Year award. Our social media growth has paralleled the rapid financial growth of our company.
How did we get to where we are today and what are the results?
Setting Our Own Table
One of the overused phrases in social media marketing is “joining the conversation.” Hinda is an established player in the incentive and recognition industry. Our first research objective was to pinpoint where our audience was hanging out and what was being said about incentives. To our disappointment, there wasn’t much of a conversation about the subject outside of a couple of key influencers.
Many see this as a roadblock to social media, but we saw this as an opportunity. Since we couldn’t get invited to the conversation table about recognition programs, we set our own table. After building online relationships with a couple of those key influencers through blog commenting and Twitter conversations, we began to build our own community around the strategies of recognition and loyalty programs — with Hinda’s name attached to the dialogue.
B2B Social Media…Where to Engage?
Our social strategy boiled down to one goal: Drive traffic to our website — our largest source of lead generation. If organic search and an AdWords account were creating opportunities, we figured social media would amplify that traffic. Our theory was, if people liked what we had to say in our social outlets, they would be more likely to visit our website.
B2B social media is still uncharted territory, so we narrowed our “voice options” down to a few select channels. Our emphasis went toward content development for our blog. We generated traffic to our blog using Twitter and LinkedIn, and some relevant, B2B-friendly networks. Our blog showcased our expertise while Twitter and LinkedIn helped “humanize” our company brand. All of those channels would provide direct links to our home site, improve Search Engine Optimization, and enable our community to learn more about us.
The Results
- Our Twitter community of targeted customers has grown steadily (doubling in six months), as has our LinkedIn following. Our conversations on Twitter established relationships for significant sales leads while the lead quality generated from the new social website traffic has measurably improved over the last year.
- Our blog traffic took off quickly and we already receive 1,000 visits a month with subscribers from at least 30 different customers. In this short time our social presence has increased that valuable traffic to our website by about 15 percent. This has been powerful — just in the last week we received a few hundred thousand dollars in sales opportunities through this advantage.
- The blog has proven to be a valuable piece of social media real estate. We don’t just regurgitate the same concepts over and over. Our posts tie recognition and loyalty programs to hot topics such as social gaming, consumer electronic trends and pop culture.
- Our blog also served as a crucial PR tool last year when a major competitor pulled out of our industry. Many in our industry turned to what we said in our blog to learn our official position on the situation, and this was picked up and quoted by other blogs, reinforcing our position as the voice of authority in our industry.
- We still have a long way to go, but already LinkedIn and our blog have become the number 2 and 3 sources of web traffic to our site, after organic search. With this initial success we have earned the right to grow our social marketing efforts. When our website overhaul is completed in a month, we look to boost sales leads further by making our site even more “social.”
Lessons Learned
Social Takes Time: Unless you are a well-known brand, establishing a social presence takes time. We’ve been working for over a year and a half on our efforts and are just now reaping the benefits. There was a time when our posts and tweets were met by cricket chirps – as if nobody was listening. The key for us was to keep digging in and build an audience. When our competitors finally got to the social scene, we already had a big lead.
Quality Over Quantity: We knew from the beginning that we weren’t aiming to be a company with two million followers. While audience size is important, we seek a small yet engaged audience. So far that strategy is paying off. Our audience is actively referring clients to us, spreading our brand message and even making a point to seek us out at trade shows to meet with us in person. We’ve learned that there’s more to social media than just having a ton of followers. It’s converting to meaningful relationships that counts.
Plan Before You Act: Flying by the seat of your pants in social media isn’t strategy – it’s luck. Before starting anything, you should research who you need to target, where they hang out online and what they talk about. We wouldn’t be where we are today without steady planning and analysis.
We’ve had a lot of fun in the digital space and are constantly learning ways to improve. We never settle. Good digital marketing, or any marketing, is a constant learning and re-evaluation process.
I hope this has been interesting for you. What are your key take-aways from what we’ve done so far? How can we improve?
Drew Hawkins is a Marketing Coordinator for Hinda Incentives. You can find him through his personal blog (Brain Wads) or @drewhawkins on Twitter. You can connect with Hinda as well through their blog, YouTube channel or Twitter.
Research: Fastest-growing companies accelerated social media usage
Jan 21st
Research released yesterday from The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth indicates fast-growing U.S. companies continue to out-shine the Fortune 500 on deployment of social media marketing initiatives. The research effort, now in its fourth year, studies a compilation of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. Magazine.
Social networking continues to lead the way. The platform most familiar to the 2010 Inc. 500 is Facebook with 87% of respondents claiming to be “very familiar” with it. Another noteworthy statistic around familiarity is Twitter’s amazing “share of mind” with 71% percent (up from 62% in 2009) reporting being familiar with the relatively new micro blogging and social networking site. Forty-four percent say Facebook is the single most effective social networking platform they use.
In terms of actual usage, Facebook also leads the way:
Blogging remains an important tool for the Inc. 500. Fifty percent of the 2010 Inc. 500 has a corporate blog, up from 45% in 2009 and 39% in 2008. Beyond the actual adoption of this tool, there is clear evidence that companies are using blogs effectively. There is a strong propensity to engage consumers through accepting and replying to comments and providing a vehicle for subscriptions. Thirty-four percent have developed social media policies to govern blogging by their employees. Approximately 20% of the Fortune 500 has such a policy and only 22% of the Fortune 500 have an active blog.
New communications tools are changing the way successful businesses operate. Forty-three percent of the 2009 Inc. 500 reported social media was “very important” to their business/marketing strategy. That number jumps to 56% in 2010. In addition, 57% report using search engines and social networking sites to recruit and evaluate potential employees (also an increase from 2009).
Diverse B2B uses of Twitter, Facebook and blogging. This year, 31% reported using Facebook for B2B communications with vendors, suppliers and business partners and 27% use Twitter for that purpose. The researchers note that this could signal an important change in the popular conception of both platforms and how they are being used. Blogging also appears to be growing as a means of communication with vendors, suppliers and partners. In 2009 18% used blogs for this purpose, while 22% are using them to reach an external B2B audience.
Social media adoption varies by industry. Despite the fact that 83% of the 2010 Inc. 500 use at least one of the social media tools studied, adoption is skewed by industry. Government Services companies make up 12% of the 2010 Inc. 500, but 27% of those who do not use social media tools. Energy companies comprise 3% of the 2010 Inc. 500 but 17% of the non-users. Financial Services companies follow the same pattern holding 5% of the Inc. 500 slots, but 10% of the companies who have not yet adopted social media.
Watch out for Foursquare. Although only 5% of the respondents use Foursquare, of those who do, 75% regard it to be successful as a marketing vehicle. Online video and message boards are deemed the most successful of the primary social platforms:
This statistically-valid research would indicate the use of social media among fast-growing companies has taken hold and is showing some returns. What are your thoughts on this study?
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