Ideas and Strategies on Applied Social Media, Marketing and Business Development
Can one Green Bay WI native deal with the heat and solve a business problem in Arizona? Picture this scenario – you provide a service that is not needed every
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day, in fact, it might only be once in a lifetime. How do you educate the public about your service, gain trust and stay at top of mind? Would you consider using social media? [Read more...]
In the business to business (B2B) space the buying and selling relationship has changed.
When was the last time you sat down with your clients and socialized?
The disconnect has been accelerated by access to information via the Internet. We trust our referral network and contacts in our social ecosystems more than the sales professionals who represent the products and services we buy. Those of us in the sales engineering role, as I was, have had to change our process. Developing social business relationships through social media as well as traditional channels can accelerate the process and we need to consider SocialCRM solutions to help sales professional manage this.
Thirty years ago, when I first came to Wisconsin as a young sales engineer for a bearing company, I called on Harley Davidson. I enjoyed being a resource of information for the Engineering department, negotiated a variety of contracts with purchasing, worked with the manufacturing team on problems with products, and tested new designs with the R&D team. I spent at least 4-8 hours each week working and socializing with a variety of employees.
This time allowed me to get to know them. I could appreciate the internal dynamics of the people, politics and business. It also made it fun and successful for both sides. The evangelism from everyone – engineers to the machine operators – in their support of the product was electric. And no doubt about it, they were fun to be with on a personal level as well.
In fact it was due to that very personal relationship, that I was able to help solve a problem. A product defect literally shut down the production line at the Capitol Drive plant in Milwaukee. I was 9 months pregnant(and my due date) but still managed to deal with a problem on the manufacturing floor. I helped test product to OK enough to keep them going for the next two days. You don’t do that for just anyone!
Today, the buying-selling cycle is vastly different. Access to information allows the “company” to do their own research for information and sourcing from companies far and wide. Referrals and recommendations come from contacts on the Internet are trusted more than the sales engineers (like me) that visit them in person. I am using social media as a “social business relationship” development and networking tool. Used strategically, with a plan and business goal in mind, both outside and inside sales professionals can make their time more effective as well.
I am not alone. A recent survey by OneSource shows that sales professional indicate that a mix of social media and traditional information are the most effective in qualifying and prioritizing leads.
In today’s companies there are 5-8 people involved in every purchase. You may not meet them all during your sales visit or ever. Nonetheless, the ability to understand the business, social and political connections within an organization is important. Managing your connections on social sites with a business focus is admittedly difficult from a time management standpoint. There are new tools that are being developed to help.
Just like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems manage business relationships, SocialCRM solutions manage the relationships outside the firewall in the social space. It could be as simple as a spread sheet or as complicated as a traditional CRM like SalesForce.com. I have been using Xeesm for the past year and recently started using the Xeesm Edge (SocialCRM) solution. Xeesm is one of the leading tools that provides ability to manage the social side of the equation in terms of listening and engagement. I also just recently started to evaluate Gist from a due diligence perspective. Watch for a future post on the comparison.
We need to consider social engagement one person at a time. If I were to apply Xeesm today in a social business relationship with Harley Davidson, my efforts might look something like this this. Build a Flight (basically a group in Xeesm), add the names of possible contacts within Harley Davidson I find in my social spaces. This is where I will manage and track my touch points and contacts as I move from stranger, to connection, to opportunity, to proposal and ultimately to a sale. Over a two week period of time, my activities might look like this
Day 1 – review all social sites that Harley Davidson as a company is present in. Review all employees I can find in social spaces who are currently employed. Evaluate my connection depth.
Day 2 – Listen/Read several posts by individual people and on corporate blog
Day 3 – Chime in the conversation
Day 4 – Comment on relevant blogs, forums, groups
Day 5 – Ask or answer a group questions
Day 6 – Make a introduction to someone
Day 7 – Suggest an interesting site or post
Day 8 – Invite key contact to my own group
Day 9 – Have a conversation over the phone
Day 10- Bring others to the conversation
The important thing to remember is to care but not sell. Be social first and the selling comes at the end.
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“Ah, engagement. That sticky word that gets discussed an awful lot in context of social media conversations. But how, exactly, do you look at engagement and keep tabs on the factors that drive it?”
via 10 Key Engagement Metrics to Track « Social Media Monitoring and Engagement – Radian6.
Wendy’s Note: On April 8, 2010 I attended the PR and Social Media Summit at Marquette University. The line up of speakers was excellent, including Amber Nashlund of Radian 6. Since our Social Media Breakfast Madison group is just starting an effort on tracking and measuring social media results – this post by Amber seemed important to share.
What you measure you can manage.
The key to all the discussion on measuring and tracking is what you measure you can manage. Since we need to know what social media tools work best to achieve our business goals, we need to track. The 80/20 rule works on social media as well. 80% of our revenue is derived from 20% of our efforts. It would be important to know how much time you are spending totally on your social media and on which tools and actions. When you begin to get results, tracking back to these numbers will be key.
I hope you join us for the next Social Media Breakfast Madison on April 21st at Talula Restaurant (7:30 am registration/networking, 8:00 start) Check out our LinkedIn group (Social Media Breakfast Madison) for more details.
Do you know the way?
In an effort to follow the NCP Model from Social Media Academy for connecting to the social ecosystem, I am sharing with you my comments and participation in the social web. The NCP Model stresses networking, contribution and participation in the social ecosystem.
Where to start in Social Media? A fresh look from a different angle.
Axel Schultze had this to say after speaking and consulting with 100 executives on social media in all industries. The number one reaction has been: “I get it, I know we gotta do something – but where do we begin?”
The answer: “Find out what your customers do in the social web”.
The biggest fear: “They are probably NOT using social media”.
The response: “Find it out”.
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In response to this post by Axel Schultze on addressing the fear companies have in trying to get started in social media:
Over the past 6 months I have given over 25 presentations on social media, strategy, tools, local search strategies, Internet marketing, and LinkedIn. I have been trying to educate the business to business (B2B) crowd, manufacturers and professional service consultants on what and why they should be educating themselves and looking into social media.
The biggest fear I hear is “I don’t need anymore email coming into my inbox from social media.”
Many of my emails go into a folder that I end up deleting. It is from companies and people I don’t know. The emails I pay attention to are replies from people I am trying to get to know on various social media sites. I can delete the other 60% because its sales pitches from companies. 75% of the ones I keep are emails from people who are either LinkedIn contacts or direct emails from people who are clients, partners, or contacts from Linkedin who have progressed to direct email with me. The point is, we like getting emails from people we know. We don’t always like getting emails from companies and people we don’t. Let’s welcome the email from our connections on social media
The point is I pay attention to people and that is what social media helps me to do. Social Media Relationship Management is the step that allows me to be more methodical, more goal oriented in accomplishing that task.
I am getting better at asking people where they prefer to socialize in our conversation. I have used the xeesm.com tool to help track that process better and it helps give me a point of reference on when the last time I contacted someone and in what place. Good tool that I need to dig deeper on. I also need to encourage more Linkedin users to use it so we can both benefit.
Harvard Business.org had a post by Alexandra Samuel on Three Instantly Effective Social Media Ideas. The perspective was to provide ideas that an organization who lacked the time, budget or experience could do. This social media strategy might allow them to start small, work with a smaller budget and not take risks by using existing free (or at little cost) social media tools. Her suggestions included
1. Suggestion Box
Examples: Dell Ideastorm , MyStarbucks Idea, Threadless
2. Widgets
Examples: innocent drinks, Dove Fresh Takes, Ask Your Lawmaker
3. Deal-of-the-day
Examples: United Airline “Twares”, Future Shop, Pizza Hut’s Facebook page
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Alexandra,
I wish you had posted the business goal that might match the reasons to use any of your three suggestions. For instance one of the goals of Zappos is to “Deliver Happiness.” That high level goal, drove them to integrate sales and customer service online as a strategy. They wanted to humanize the people and company behind the shoes. With that in mind and after assessing that their clients were online they built a strategy. They found that many of the “ideal buyers” were fashion sensitive and liked to read about it, they were mobile and used texting, mobile phone apps, and multiple social media sites. Now they could select the right social media tools.
Zappos determined that the tactic they would employ to speak and engage its audience were blogs, Twitter and facebook. The rest is history as 198 employees are active on Twitter.
These steps, I believe, are important for people just trying to get started in social media. Don’t feed the panic that says “we have to do something” and the approach is not given any time to qualify.
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Questionable LinkedIn Strategy
I received the following email from a Internet Marketing contact on the East Coast. Our connection has been the same Alma Mater and an interest in social media. I have felt some concerns on how he is using this connection for his work. I have posted his question and my response
Original email:
I’ve just finished another web site for the Christmas Season. It has several FREE videos and articles about making the season more enjoyable and less stressful. ** Just completed this site, so would like feedback on the layout and content.
What I mean by “those who hate Christmas” is of course those of us who “hate” the unhealthy stress that results from “having to please” so many people, with diverse interests in the next 25 days. Not, the holiday itself.
–> Please pass the below web site link along to anyone who you know that may want to enjoy Christmas this year with LESS STRESS . . . . .and lots of Free information and Tips.
Thanks for your feedback. {email link not included}
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My response: On 11/28/09 11:56 AM, Wendy Soucie wrote:
I hope that you are truly looking for input and this is not a veiled attempt to drive traffic to a site. In that light I will take the time to respond.
1. For input back on your site. If your target audience is predominantly female, I think your colors will be well suited. To me they are a little pinkish and a turn off for me, but I don’t think I am normal.
2. Your articles on stress reduction are not very obvious – site is mostly or it strikes me as a ecommerce site with bigger narrative on each product. Articles should be front and center if they really are there. I spent less time because I didn’t see them. I would create a section highlighting articles and have a side bar with products that could reduce stress because you don’t have to make them.
3. I am usually suspicious of request for feedback on websites since in the Internet Marketing world, its just another way to drive people to your website.
If you are trying to drive traffic there here is my reaction to that:
4. I did go because of your email about stress and plea for feedback so I guess the LinkedIn email worked. I trust you as a URI Alumni etc.
5. I did not find what you stated in your email so now I am feeling a little less trusting.
Just thought I would take the time to share.
