SocialTech 2010 http://blog.socialtech2010.com The Official Pre-Game Blog for MarketingProfs' SocialTech 2010 Conference, October 26, San Jose, CA posterous.com Mon, 11 Oct 2010 08:28:00 -0700 Smart B2B Companies Now Think Like Media Companies http://blog.socialtech2010.com/smart-b2b-companies-now-think-like-media-comp http://blog.socialtech2010.com/smart-b2b-companies-now-think-like-media-comp

A guest post by Maria Pergolino, Director of Marketing, Marketo.

Today, more B2B companies are thinking like media companies. They realize it isn’t about traditional selling or interrupting people, it’s about connecting with their audience and building permission.

But what do audiences actually want? They want useful, actionable information that helps solve problems, answer questions and make connections. To that end, valuable B2B content helps companies increase trust and ultimately boost lead generation in a way that scales. To achieve this, follow the steps outlined next to build your brand with valuable content:

1. Planning. The key to thinking like a media company is to add a solid content strategy to your overall B2B marketing plan. Once this is established, you have a clear and decisive direction for your content. Part of the planning process should involve a deep dive into the content that matters to your audience. The planning phase should address buyer personas, understanding potential audiences, what problems they have and how they can be solved. Once you set clear and definable goals for your content, it’s time to start creating that content.

2. Content creation. Traditional push marketing tactics and sales-like pitches are only half the battle. Smart companies are using inbound approaches by marketing with powerful and engaging B2B content. Carefully crafted, genuinely useful content with valuable information bring prospects in organically and gets them thinking—generating higher qualified leads. Sample content formats to leverage include:

1. B2B blogs
2. Video content
3. Audio content (e.g., podcasts)
4. White papers
5. B2B case studies
6. Guest posting on other industry-relevant blogs
7. Creative and shared content through B2B social media

3. Promotion. Building the right content is not enough. To read it, your audience needs to find the content. Making it as simple as possible for your prospects to find, share and consume is vital.To get your content seen and shared, develop a promotion process for each piece of content in order for it to have the highest propensity to spread across the web. This process should be tailored to your category and include both search and social tactics.

Every company is a media company. Today, B2B companies connect faster and easier with audiences of prospective customers—and powerful content is the key to attracting new business. Harnessing it can bring in more fans and ultimately more sales.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:16:00 -0700 3 Social Media Measurement Tips From #TechChat http://blog.socialtech2010.com/3-social-media-measurement-tips-from-techchat http://blog.socialtech2010.com/3-social-media-measurement-tips-from-techchat

Last week, Andrew Spoeth of Marketo was kind enough to guest host #TechChat with us. Andrew is also co-moderator of #B2BChat, and he was previously director of Marketing at B2B search firm Enquiro. We were thrilled to have him join us!

Andrew and I chatted with attendees about social media measurement (transcript available here). And within 10 minutes, it was clear: Many marketers aren’t measuring social media. However, even though social media measurement is relatively new territory, our savvy attendees and guest host brought many golden nuggets of wisdom to the chat. From last week’s #TechChat, here are my 3 favorite social media measurement tips:

1. The first step in social media measurement is to define why you want to measure something. (via @AndrewSpoeth)
While it may seem obvious, you must decide why you want to measure something. And then if you don’t know or have a good answer, don’t waste time measuring it. Because measurement for measurement’s sake is a waste of time.

2. Track reach but identify insights and understand quality of the connection or engagement. (via @robpetersen)
Tracking reach is important, but as Rob pointed out, quality is important too. Are the people you’re engaging with influencers? Or are they bots that auto-follow?

3. Making friends with the “cool kids” isn’t the shortest distance. Build your own base to become a “cool kid.” (via @RLMadMan)
Always the wise attendee, Marjorie pointed out that just wooing the “cool” kids isn’t enough. As a marketer, you must build your own band of followers. Sure, they may not have 20,000 followers and a Technorati Top 100 blog, but their loyalty can snowball into a tribe that’s bigger than just two or three cool kids.

Thanks again to Andrew, Rob, Marjorie, and the rest of the #TechChat attendees for your insights. To learn more about B2B social media marketing, join us October 26 for SocialTech 2010. SocialTech is our new conference about social media for the high-tech industry, featuring three keynotes, 14 sessions, and more than 30 B2B social media experts. You can attend live in San Jose or from the comfort of your own computer. See you in San Jose.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:07:00 -0700 7 Reasons You'll Love SocialTech http://blog.socialtech2010.com/7-reasons-youll-love-socialtech http://blog.socialtech2010.com/7-reasons-youll-love-socialtech

While we're busy putting the finishing touches on SocialTech, we started to think about why the conference is different than other online marketing conferences, and came up with these 7 reasons we think know you'll love SocialTech: 

1. It Features Real, Actionable Case Studies from Brand-Side Marketers
Each session features actionable case studies from marketers at companies like Motorola, Cisco Systems, SAP and more. You'll discover exactly how they are using social media to drive real, measurable business results.

2. It's Uniquely Focused on B2B Marketing at Companies in the High-Tech Industry
SocialTech is the first conference focused specifically on social media marketing for companies in the high-tech space. You'll learn how to successfully market high-tech products and services via social media, and solve the unique challenges faced by B2B marketers today.

3. Scoble, Kawasaki, and Owyang—All in One Day
Where else can you get inspired by tech leaders like Guy Kawasaki, Jeremiah Owyang and Robert Scoble all in one day?

4. We've Hand Picked Content without Pitches
Each keynote and speaker has been carefully vetted to ensure a high-quality, actionable presentation without any pitch or persuasion.

5. You Can Attend In Person OR Online
We must admit—we'd love to see your gorgeous face in person. But we understand that you may not be able to travel all the way to San Jose, so we're streaming all of the keynotes and sessions for virtual attendees.

6. It's Short, but to the Point
While we'd love to spend a few days getting to know you, we know that busy marketers like yourself don't always have the time to set aside 3 or 4 days to attend a conference. So we've packed a year's worth of advice and learning into a single day in San Jose.

7. Great Networking and Tasty Food
Like all MarketingProfs events, we've made sure to set aside time to eat, drink, and be merry with your marketing peers from companies like Intel, Adobe and Intuit.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:14:11 -0700 4 Ways Content Builds Relationships with Prospects http://blog.socialtech2010.com/4-ways-content-builds-relationships-with-pros http://blog.socialtech2010.com/4-ways-content-builds-relationships-with-pros
A guest post by Maria Pergolino, Director of Marketing, Marketo.

Engaging B2B content can improve search rankings, conversion rates, lead generation and even overall revenue, but it also builds relationships. When you read great content, aren’t you compelled to comment or share it? That’s the beginning of building a relationship.

Instead of direct selling to prospects, begin to build a relationship with them; forge trust; find out their needs and recommend the right solution for them—prospects buy from people they trust.

Ready to know more about building relationships with content? Here are 4 ways that B2B content helps build relationships.

1. Guest posting: Writing blog posts on other B2B blogs in your industry is a powerful way to position your brand in front of a new audience. By getting in front of other established blog’s readers, you have the potential to build relationships with many readers. To start a conversation with those readers, do such things as invite readers to comment on your post and reply to those comments in a timely manner.Relations aren’t built without effort—you need to encourage readers to engage with you. By delivering helpful, relevant information in your guest post and invite interaction, you open the door to a relationship with that reader.

2. Commenting: Whether it’s on a post from your B2B blog, a guest post or going out and commenting on other blogs in your industry, commenting is a small but powerful way to start conversations. Start building relationships with readers by finding outside blogs or B2B forums, and see what others are talking about and then add to the conversation by adding your own comments. By providing value to the conversation, this expands the audience you are trying to reach and starts building relationships.

3. Social media: B2B social media puts you in touch with prospects in a more personal way—engaging on a personal level with prospects helps build relationships and builds up trust with your prospects. Using B2B social media, you have the opportunity to easily monitor and engage with others on issues in your industry. Also look to monitor social traffic for mentions of your brand, both good and bad. By becoming a resource for them and solving their problems, you can build and repair relationships with potential prospects.

4. Links: You may have heard to be cautious when linking away from your site and it’s true—you should be cautious. However, to get link love, you have to share link love , especially when it’s providing your audience with value. There will be times when the benefits to sending links away from your site outweigh the negatives. By linking out to others, it’s a signal that you value their content. This can be an effective strategy for beginning a relationship with others in the industry and may even result in a link back to you.

Great content not only informs and sells; it also builds relationships with prospects and influencers in your industry—an example of a great B2B blog is this Marketing Profs blog.

When you leverage powerful B2B content from blogs, social networks and even content sharing through links, you start to build the right relationships that will be valuable now and in the future.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:13:00 -0700 Top 10 B2B Blogging Tips http://blog.socialtech2010.com/10-b2b-blogging-tips http://blog.socialtech2010.com/10-b2b-blogging-tips
Last week, MarketingProfs hosted a killer #TechChat with special guest, @MackCollier. The topic was B2B blogging. And we’re so grateful for all of the advice Mack shared during the chat!

From last week's chat, here are the top 10 B2B blogging tips from last week's #TechChat with Mack Collier.

1. “Focus on your subject matter experts, then teach them social tools. You can be the evangelist your biz needs.” (@carissao)

2. “Blogging is like learning to ride a bike—use training wheels, get balance, then go for it! Same applies to Social Media.” (@susanbeebe)

3. “Don’t forget to have a blog promotion plan along with posting/publishing plan.” (@pushingsocial)

4. “Your blog can’t just be a sales pitch, that is going to get old VERY quickly. Related to the industry you’re in w/o being ’salesy.’” (@mikulaja)

5. “Content about your customers draws more customers than content about your product.” (@robpetersen)

6. “I think blogging is the polar opposite of advertising if it’s done well. Don’t post press releases.” (@RLMadMan)

7. “Anyone who thinks a blog isn’t work, time, and investment is selling something. Or clueless.” (@AmberCadabra)

8. “Blogging goals should always stem from overall strategic goals and brand voice.” (@joey_strawn)

9. “B2B blogging allows you to educate prospective and current customers in your field.” (@DavidSpinks)

10. “I believe that every business blog takes on a life of its own, no two should be alike.” (@Michael_Evanko)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:48:16 -0700 4 B2B Social Media Lessons from Cisco Systems http://blog.socialtech2010.com/4-b2b-social-media-lessons-from-cisco-systems http://blog.socialtech2010.com/4-b2b-social-media-lessons-from-cisco-systems
Marketing at the enterprise level has a unique set of challenges — lack of agility, decentralized teams, and long approval processes — to name a few.  Lucky for us, we had the opportunity to chat with SocialTech presenter, LaSandra Brill of Cisco Systems, about ways they have overcome these challenges in their social media program, and consequently, have driven significant return on investment. As LaSandra revealed during #TechChat (transcript available here), social media made the launch of Cisco's ASR family of routers one of the top five most successful launches in Cisco history, reaching ninety times the audience of previous launch campaigns, at one-sixth of the cost!!! Yep, that deserved 3 exclamation points.

From last week's #TechChat, here are 4 social media lessons for the enterprise from LaSandra Brill of Cisco Systems:

1. Educate Employees on Social Media Marketing Best Practices

How many people have you met that say,"I just don't get Twitter. People don't care what I ate for lunch or that my cat just puked."?

If you're like me, you've met lots of 'em. Marketers, too. But Cisco Systems is turning regular employees into social media enthusiasts by educating them on social media best practices with their in-house optional social media certificate program.

2. Have an Open Social Media Policy

Unlike Apple (and the NFL), Cisco encourages social media participation, and has a clear social media policy. Want to comment on a blog, or Tweet about Cisco? Go for it — as long as you follow these rules.

3. Encourage All Employees to Participate

The one advantage that large corporations have is well, a large workforce. Cisco has 70,000 employees — 70,000 potential social media brand champions. Just imagine the power those 70,000 people would have on Twitter. Pretty awesome, isn't it?

4. Share Knowledge with Other Groups

Cisco has an internal site where they post best practices and planning resources. They meet and share their success stories monthly. So if product team A finds out that XYZ works, they can easily share it with product team B, and vice-versa.

A big thank you to LaSandra for participating in #TechChat, and an even bigger thank you for those of you who shared your insights during last week's seminar Cisco and the Social Web — it got rave reviews!  If missed the free seminar and want to learn more about Cisco's high-performance social media program, have a listen to the recording. Learn even more about high-tech B2B social media marketing in San Jose at SocialTech 2010. SocialTech is our new conference about social media for the high-tech industry. Not in San Jose? No worries. We're streaming all content to virtual attendees as well.

And don't forget: #TechChat is every Tuesday at 8 PM ET. Our next guest is Michael Brito, SVP of Social Media at Edelman Digital. Michael has worked for major brands in Silicon Valley (HP, Yahoo! and Intel) and was instrumental in driving social media programs and campaigns emphasizing authenticity and long-term relationship building. Awesome, right? We can't wait to see what lessons he has to share.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:28:00 -0700 3 Social Media Ideas from #TechChat with Guy Kawasaki http://blog.socialtech2010.com/3-social-media-ideas-from-techchat-with-guy-k http://blog.socialtech2010.com/3-social-media-ideas-from-techchat-with-guy-k

Whew! We hosted our first #TechChat last Tuesday with our special guest, Guy Kawasaki. More than 500 RSM (really smart marketers) joined us to chat with Guy about social media marketing for the high-tech industry. While the chat moved faster than any chat I’ve ever attended, most of us were able to take away a few key insights about social media marketing.

Here are my favorites:

1. Trial and error leads to strategy.

Because social media is still relatively new territory for most marketers, it makes sense to develop your strategy as you go along. You can’t plan what you don’t know. According to Guy, “I think ’social media planning and strategy’ is an oxymoron. Basically, you try stuff and see what sticks.”

2. It’s all about the numbers.

Let’s be real. Twitter is all about the numbers. The more followers you have, the more opportunities for developing connections you have. According to Guy, “The best way to get good connections is to get more followers. It’s the big law of numbers.”  With more than 250,000 followers, Guy has played that game very, very well.

3. No one’s an expert. We’re all experts.

Again, because Twitter is so new, we all have the opportunity to be experts. Unlike other forms of marketing, we’re all still figuring Twitter out along the way. So seize this opportunity to own it like no one else. Guy says, “No one’s an expert at social media. One of the reasons I love it is we all have a fighting chance to use this thing effectively!”

A big THANK YOU to Guy for these insights, and thanks to everyone for attending. If you missed the inaugural #TechChat, don’t fret. WTHashtag has a transcript, the Isatis Marketing Blog compiled the best Tweets from Guy, and Stanford Smith wrote a great blog entitled, “How to Tweet like a ‘Beat Reporter—#TechChat Edition.”

Ready for more? Join us Tuesday, August 24 from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Eastern standard time) for the second #TechChat. We’ll be chatting with special guest, LaSandra Brill, social media manager at Cisco Systems, about social media for high-tech, B2B marketing. LaSandra is also presenting the new seminar, “Cisco and the Social Web: Our Adoption and Evolution,” on Thursday, August 26 at noon (Eastern standard time).

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:20:54 -0700 3 Other Social Networks for High-Tech Marketing http://blog.socialtech2010.com/3-other-social-networks-for-high-tech-marketi http://blog.socialtech2010.com/3-other-social-networks-for-high-tech-marketi
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. When B2B marketers decide to dive into social media marketing, they usually start there. However, when marketing a high-tech product or service, the use of video and presentations plays an important role in the buying process, allowing them to explain the benefit of a product with more than just words.

To help you take your high-tech social media marketing to the next level, here are 3 other social networks you should consider using.

1. SlideShare
Do you have a corporate SlideShare account? You should. SlideShare is a great way to demonstrate the benefit of your solution in presentation format. You can imbed the presentations in a blog or article, or provide presentation links to your sales team for use in the sales process. Whether you create new presentations or upload files you have on hand, Slideshare presentations don’t have to be long or wordy. In fact, Cisco System’s most viewed presentation is just one slide long!

2. StumbleUpon
If you’ve ever had a piece of content get hot on StumbleUpon, you know that it can drive significant amounts of traffic for weeks, months, and even years. While you can Stumble (or vote) on your own thought leadership content, it’s best to let your visitors Stumble your content for you. Make sure you have a StumbleUpon button on your content to remind your visitors to Stumble it, and ,of course, create “Stumble-worthy” content. I’ve had the most success (literally thousands of visits a week!) on StumbleUpon with comprehensive, top 10 lists.

3. YouTube
You know video is important in B2B marketing—from product tours to demos to presentations. But are you creating video content specifically for YouTube? Or are you just uploading formal demos to the channel? Instead of simply uploading previously created content to YouTube, get up close and personal with interviews with the executive team, product team, and your customers. The great thing about YouTube is that users actually expect user-generated content, so your videos don’t have to be expensive, big-budget productions. In fact, your prospects may relate better to an informal conversation with the engineering team, rather than a formal corporate video with the CEO.

What other networks should high-tech marketers be using? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:45:48 -0700 Chat with Guy Kawasaki August 17th http://blog.socialtech2010.com/chat-with-guy-kawasaki-august-17th http://blog.socialtech2010.com/chat-with-guy-kawasaki-august-17th
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of #TechChat, the first and only Twitter chat about social media marketing for the high-tech industry. Starting August 17th, join hosts @MarketingProfs and @MprofsEvents every Tuesday at 8 PM ET to chat with industry experts about social media for high-tech marketing.

The best part? Our first guest is @GuyKawasaki. Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. He’s a former Apple Evangelist, a social media expert, all around kick ass guy, and a keynote speaker at our upcoming SocialTech Conference, which will be held October 26th in San Jose.

If that hasn’t convinced you to log in August 17th at 8 PM ET, here are 4 reasons to attend the inaugural #TechChat with @GuyKawasaki:

1. Guy Kawasaki is the man.
We could go on and on about the reasons he rocks, but let’s get straight to the point. There are very few people (if any) who have used Twitter as successfully as Guy has. He has over 250,000 followers and consistently updates his followers with the best, most interesting content on the web. If you join #TechChat, you’ll chat directly with Guy and and see his insights on marketing high-tech products via the social web.

2. Build Your Own Brand
If you’re new to Twitter Chats, they’re a fantastic way to interact with people, share your own opinions and advice, and network with superstars like Guy.

3. It’s easy!
You don’t even have to Tweet anything (although you should!). To join the chat, you’ll simply add #TechChat to the end of your tweets and join the conversation with Guy, Ann Handley, and other smart marketers like yourself. Or you can simply follow the #TechChat hashtag on Twitter. Whether you contribute or merely lurk, it’s a free hour of networking and advice, straight from your own computer.

4. Get a Preview of SocialTech 2010
SocialTech is our brand-new conference all about social media for high-tech marketing. Consider #TechChat as a free preview of what we have in store for attendees.

5. Free snacks!
Let’s not forget: there will be free beer and jalapeno poppers for all attendees.*

Have I convinced you yet? Fantastic! I’m glad you can make it. See you Tuesday August 17th at 8 PM ET for the first #TechChat.

* Assuming you BYO, of course.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:59:00 -0700 4 Ways to Improve B2B Facebook Marketing http://blog.socialtech2010.com/4-ways-to-improve-b2b-facebook-marketing http://blog.socialtech2010.com/4-ways-to-improve-b2b-facebook-marketing
While Facebook marketing continues to grow at lightning speed, it’s still relatively untapped territory for many high-tech marketers. Just because Facebook got it's start with the college crowd in 2004 doesn’t mean B2B marketers shouldn’t be there in 2010. With that in mind, here are 4 ideas for getting more from your B2B Facebook Marketing.
 
1. Humanize Your Fan Page
No matter how large or corporate your company is, people still buy from other people. As a marketer, you must strike that magical balance of being professional and personable so your prospects feel connected to your product(s) and your brand. Humanize your Fan Page by uploading pictures of employees and your office(s). Give prospects a view of what goes on behind the scenes. Introduce them to engineers, customers, the product team, the sales team, and the CEO. The more they get to know you, the more they’ll trust you. And the more likely they’ll be to choose you over a competitor.
 
2. Consider Facebook Your Competitive Advantage
As popular as social media marketing is in high-tech B2B marketing, it’s still in it's infancy. Do a quick search and take a look at the Facebook Pages for the largest software and hardware companies. While most have a Facebook presence, few are harnessing it's full potential. Use this to your advantage and make your Fan Page better than your competitors’.
 
3. Take a Group Approach
While many larger companies have full-time social media marketers on hand, in smaller or less progressive organizations, social media still falls under a marketing manager or PR manager’s responsibility—and their plates are already full. By allowing multiple team members to update the page, you’ll increase the frequency of updates and subsequent Fan activity on the page. Just make sure you have strict guidelines in place on what’s acceptable and what’s not. I’ve seen this group approach produce significantly better results than having just one or two Fan Page administrators. Nothing’s worse than landing on a Fan page that hasn’t been updated in weeks.
 
4. Create an Opt-In Form with Static FBML
With static FBML, you can create a custom tab that allows Fans to subscribe to your newsletter, request a white paper, or contact a sales representative. Most email solutions have instructions on how to integrate an opt-in form with static FBML.
 
What high-tech organizations do you think are doing a stand-up job on their social media marketing? Let’s talk about it in the comments below!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:51:00 -0700 The Real-Time Web: 3 Ways B2B Marketers Can Adapt http://blog.socialtech2010.com/the-real-time-web-3-ways-b2b-marketers-can-ad http://blog.socialtech2010.com/the-real-time-web-3-ways-b2b-marketers-can-ad

A guest post by Maria Pergolino, Director of Marketing, Marketo.

It’s no secret that modern B2B marketing is all about the web.  B2B marketing is actively being shaped by the power of the internet as a resource and researching tool for prospects and buyers alike.

Add another layer of change when you consider the ability to share information in real-time and modern marketing can get complex, fast.  In this ever-changing environment sometimes it feels difficult to stay ahead of the game – but it’s vital.  To accomplish this, it’s pertinent you stay adaptable.

Follow these three ways to acclimate to the real-time web and the way it’s changing B2B marketing.

1. Provide Relatable Information

Your customers are no longer waiting for information to fall into their lap.  Instead, they’ve taken to the real-time web to search your company name, products and services.  They’re gathering information and forming their own opinions based upon what’s at their disposal.

Many B2B marketing websites are relatively static. You may add new product updates from time to time, or updated copy every so often, but for the most part, new content isn’t added on a regular basis.

B2B blogs and social networking sites allow marketers to add new content weekly or even several times a week. By consistently posting interesting, informative information, organizations will encourage prospects to regularly visit the blog in search of fresh content. Plus, frequently updated, optimized content can help improve a website’s visibility in the search engines.

2. Engage In Seed Nurturing

Lead nurturing campaigns used to take place after prospects landed on your site and entered your database. However, qualified prospects are now visiting your site or social media sites anonymously before you ever have their names or information.  Seed nurturing allows you to build relationships with prospects before they you have any information.  Thanks to the real-time web, you’re able to relay valuable resources to these prospects, helping shape their decision-making process.

Use social media to share educational and resourceful white papers, links and articles.  Your ability to provide facts, research, updates quickly and rapidly will help facilitate your placement as a thought leader of your industry.

3. Practice Online Reputation Management

The Internet now provides a rich arena for brand monitoring, and the marketing analytics possible to report on are robust.  But there is equal potential for the real-time web to either praise or “flame” a brand digitally.  Forums, comments, tweets and statuses can turn open-ended text boxes into a weapon or praise.  To help ensure you’re receiving the latter, there are a lot of ways to correct and respond to any negative brand mentions.  The real-time web gives us the opportunity to leverage brand ambassadors and B2B marketing tools to track our brand and increase awareness, while controlling any negative mentions.

Now that you know a few ways to adapt, it’s time to put these ideas into implementation.  If you haven’t already, develop a social media plan and find out what’s being said about your company and products.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/112206/ann-handley-glasses1.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aARy2Q8XMbf Ann Handley annhandley Ann Handley Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:57:00 -0700 6 Ways to Generate Leads on Twitter http://blog.socialtech2010.com/6-ways-to-generate-leads-on-twitter http://blog.socialtech2010.com/6-ways-to-generate-leads-on-twitter

Now more than ever, lead generation for the complex sale is a long process of developing relationships with your prospects. Gone are the days of just getting names and making calls. Since Twitter is a fantastic way to build new relationships, it makes sense that B2B adoption continues to grow. However, because it’s still a relatively new channel, many B2B marketers struggle with how to use it and aren’t harnessing its full potential. With that in mind, here are 6 ways to generate and nurture more leads on Twitter.

1. Interact with People

This may sound obvious, but it’s easy for B2B marketers to fall into the trap of simply tweeting thought leadership content and promotions. Content is important, to be sure, but the real benefit of Twitter is the ability to develop relationships. So interact with people, reply to their tweets, ask questions, and start building new relationships.

2. Don’t Tweet in a Silo

Depending on the structure of your sales and marketing department(s), you’ll want to keep tabs on who is a real prospect and who isn’t (yet). After all, you may look silly suggesting to a seemingly new lead that they check out your product or white paper when they’re already in the last stages of the buying process. However you do it, try to set up some form of communication between your sales and marketing team(s) so you: i) hand off good Twitter leads to sales ii) follow and engage with current prospects and iii) are aware of who is in the buying process and who isn’t.

3. Provide Value and Advice in Your Tweets

So you’re interacting with people and probably promoting your own thought leadership content. Fantastic! You’re off to a great start. Now it’s time to provide real value in your tweets and become a trusted advisor. So provide solutions. Offer advice. Help your followers solve their pain points. Say “A great way to increase ABC is by doing XYZ”.

4. Monitor Relevant Keywords

Monitoring keywords is a great (and easy!) way to find targeted people to follow, offer timely advice, and stay on top of industry trends. Let’s say you market dedicated server hosting. Make a list of relevant keywords that your prospects may use to describe their pain points, like “server downtime” or “network reliability”. You can use an RSS feed to receive a notification when someone tweets with those keywords, or you can use the built-in functionality with a tool like Tweetdeck. However you do it, you’ll be able to stay on top of what’s happening on Twitter, and swoop in when someone complains about their current solution’s reliability or downtime.

5. Monitor Your Competitors’ Brands

The great thing about Twitter is that everything is out in the open. You can easily see who is tweeting to your competitors and what they’re tweeting about. By monitoring your competitors’ products and brand names, you can: i) offer advice to a competitor’s customer who is having technical issues ii) engage with anyone who is considering a competitors product iii) follow anyone who tweets about a competitor iv) follow people that your competitors follow v) stay on top of trends in the industry vi) engage with the people your competitors tweet to. Just don’t do it all at once. That would be creepy and weird. And you don’t want them to call you out on it.

6. Offer Lead Gen Opportunities

Finally, offer direct lead generation opportunities. Tweet webinars, reports, white papers, and content. Just make sure you’re associating those lead capture pages with your Twitter marketing, so you can track the stellar ROI of your efforts.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/654592/Megan_Leap.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wzBGsGg27T3 Megan Leap meganleap Megan Leap Thu, 20 May 2010 09:11:00 -0700 Social Media a Top Emerging Lead-Gen Channel for Tech Marketers http://blog.socialtech2010.com/social-media-a-top-emerging-lead-gen-channel http://blog.socialtech2010.com/social-media-a-top-emerging-lead-gen-channel

More than two-thirds of high-tech marketing professionals (68%) say lead generation is their top marketing priority this year and 74% cite social media as among the top emerging marketing channels for lead generation in 2010 and beyond, according to a Unisfair survey slated for release in late May.

In addition, 39% of surveyed tech marketers cite virtual events as one of the top emerging channels for lead generation in 2010 and beyond, and 34% cite mobile channels.

Among this year's other marketing priorities are brand awareness (cited by 17%) and customer retention (16%).

You can check out some of the other findings from Unisfair's The Future of Tech Marketing (a survey of 500 high-tech marketing professionals on their marketing priorities for 2010 and beyond) here.

About the data: Conducted by Zoomerang for Unisfair, the study surveyed 500 marketing professionals from technology companies, including B2B software (42%), B2B services (25%), B2B hardware (22%), B2C software (4%), B2C services (4%), and B2C hardware (3%). 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/708086/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sDA8AdT0i8p Anne Yastremski AnneYaz Anne Yastremski Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:57:01 -0800 SocialTech 2010: Our Speakers Have Experience and Insight to Spare! http://blog.socialtech2010.com/socialtech-2010-our-speakers-have-experience http://blog.socialtech2010.com/socialtech-2010-our-speakers-have-experience

When putting together the program for SocialTech 2010 we were looking specifically for practicing marketers at hi-tech, B2B companies. We were also looking for people who had plenty of real-world insights and an eagerness to share them.

Turns out we found a number of folks who fit that bill and who are an active part of the so-called "conversation." Here's what some of them have been saying lately:

  • Chris Koch of ITSMA wrote a very intriguing post on the problem of measuring social media ROI. To remedy the problems inherent therein, he recommends making blogs the center of social media strategy.
  • As far as blogs are concerned, Intel's Bryan Rhoads describes how Intel implemented and grew their blogging strategy over the last three years.
  • After reading MarketingSherpa's 2009 Social Media and PR Benchmarking Guide, Brian Ellefritz of SAP was struck by their finding that "the most successful social media marketing tactics are the least measureable" and wondered if we are wasting our time trying to measure them.
  • Jamie Grenney of salesforce.com shared a presentation he gave on setting social media strategy, which features a very detailed discussion of their video strategy.
  • Michael Fauscette of IDC shared his team's predictions for 2010, among which you will find this intriguing claim: "As a fundamental part of the Social Business Transformation businesses shift their focus from technology and process to people, who in effect become the new enterprise platform." (I like the slogan: People are the Platform.)
  • Sandy Carter of IBM saw Avatar and it got her thinking about 3D technology and how it is solving logistical problems for the German rail system, the medical profession, and education (where 3D technology can produce 80% higher retention rates, for example).
  • And lastly but not leastly, the ever prolific Paul Dunay from Avaya draws a "hard line" between advocates and influencers (SPOILER: Advocates support a specific organization, Influencers address an entire industry or space).

That's just a sampling of the brain power and breadth of experience that will be on display at SocialTech2010.

Still, as much as I love reading what people write, I always learn more when I'm able to catch them in person. I think you know what I'm getting at....

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/708086/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sDA8AdT0i8p Anne Yastremski AnneYaz Anne Yastremski Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:20:25 -0800 Social Media Socialgraphics EXPLAINED! http://blog.socialtech2010.com/social-media-socialgraphics-explained http://blog.socialtech2010.com/social-media-socialgraphics-explained

The Altimeter Group held a webinar last week entitled "Understand Your Customer's Social Behavior" and were afterwards kind enough to post the slides. (They also posted a recording of the webinar but I found the slides pretty self-explanatory).

Socialgraphic data, as described in this webinar by Jeremiah Owyang and Charlene Li, fits into the broader mix of market research data (demographics, psychographics, etc.) but focuses explicitly on customers' "social" behavior, or, more explicitly, the nature of their online behavior with a particular emphasis on social media.

The questions that socialgraphic inquiry addresses are:

  • Where are your customers online?
  • What are your customers' social behaviors online?
  • What social information or people do your customers rely on?
  • What is your customers' social influence? Who trusts them?
  • How do your customers use social media in the context of your products?

The basic point here is: If you are going to implement a social media strategy, you need to do socialgraphic research.

I liked that, in this presentation, they offer a number of suggestions on how companies can engage a variety of online behaviors (watching, commenting, producing, etc.) as well as sketching out how answers to the questions above can and should influence marketing tactics.

I was a little disappointed that the main way they recommend companies gather socialgraphic data is through surveys. Isn't there another, better way?

Also, while I appreciated their use of a fictional case study to illustrate the application of their model, I would really really really like see how this has played out with a real-existing company.

I think I'm gonna ask Jeremiah about that at SocialTech 2010. What would you ask him?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/708086/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sDA8AdT0i8p Anne Yastremski AnneYaz Anne Yastremski Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:01:49 -0800 2010 Predictions for B2B Social Media Marketing http://blog.socialtech2010.com/2010-predictions-for-b2b-social-media-marketi http://blog.socialtech2010.com/2010-predictions-for-b2b-social-media-marketi

December and January are the high water mark for prediction posts (and even posts aggregating prediction posts). B2B marketing is not exempt from this annual ritual.

The sheer quantity of prediction lists can be overwhelming but then so can the lists themselves.Ten predictions, thirteen, twenty... it's too many!

Which is why I appreciated the fact that Ogilvy's John Bell went to the trouble of writing 3 Helpful B2B 2010 Social Media Predictions. The three predictions he highlights (which he took from three longer lists) are:

  1. Social CRM will integrate with Social IRM (Influencer Relationship Management).
  2. Sales Team Entrepreneurs Will Lead in Social Media Adoption in the Sales Force.
  3. Content Managers and Strategists Will Take the Lead.

I was pleased to discover that John took his first helpful prediction from Paul Dunay's list of BtoB Marketers Predictions for 2010. I was pleased in part because Paul is a nice guy but also because he will be one of our speakers at SocialTech 2010.

John overlooked one prediction that Paul made, however, that I believe worthy of special emphasis. Specifically, Paul writes:

Social will leave Marketing – This year Marketing and Communications totally “got” social media but next year is the year it starts to transform the rest of your BtoB organization from Product Development and R&D, to Billing and Finance, to HR and Recruiting, to Customer Service and the Contact Center. Social Media is not like the dotcom rush to build a website and have a group of long haired people running it in a corner of your organization. Social is a process that has the power to transform your entire organization.

John's prediction that the sales team will deepen it's engagement with social media is only part of the picture. The fact is that social media tools have applications across the organization and the notion that these tools are peculiarly marketing- or even sales-specific is just wrong. Marketing relies pretty heavily on e-mail, for example, but few believe that e-mail belongs to marketing.

The funny thing is that John's third helfpul prediction actually underscores this point. He doesn't write that "social media directors" will take the lead. He says instead that people responsible for the content moving through these channels will become more and more influential, organizationally speaking.

Long story short, I predict that as the novelty factor continues to fade, the focus will fall on the things people are accomplishing with social media tools and not the tools themselves.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/708086/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sDA8AdT0i8p Anne Yastremski AnneYaz Anne Yastremski Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:06:01 -0800 Did You Make Any Social Media Resolutions for 2010? http://blog.socialtech2010.com/did-you-make-any-social-media-resolutions-for http://blog.socialtech2010.com/did-you-make-any-social-media-resolutions-for

I'll be honest; I didn't either.

Thankfully, John Overridex at Geek-o-pedia did and was willing to share them with us!

As you can see, three of his four resolutions - to be more focused in social media efforts; to integrate social media with "other tools in the marketing arsenal;" and to rely on more meaningful metrics - are essentially a recommittment to acknowledged best practices and are pretty much in line with what Jeremiah Owyang has identified as "social media trends for 2010."

The fourth resolution however - to be continuously innovative with regard to social media tools and tactics - struck me as particularly forward-thinking and, well, novel.

There is certainly a lot out there that hasn't been tried, but there's also a lot that just hasn't been tried everywhere yet. When seeking out new uses of social media, Overridex reminds us, a tactic which might be old-hat in one industry could be cutting edge in another.

That means you've got to find out what others are already doing elsewhere and use their experiences to rethink your own approach. The trick is, of course, to never stop finding out what else other people are doing. They can always teach you something.

While seconding this resolution, I would also encourage folks to take this re-thinking at least one step further. Yes, do as Overridex recommends and continue to invent new uses for your current social media tools (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn). This is certainly a good idea and the potential of these tools is far from exhausted.

But don't forget that it's not just about using old tools in new ways, it's also about discovering and using new tools.

Accordingly, I hereby resolve in 2010 to discover me some new social media tools and put 'em to work.

And what is your social media resolution?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/708086/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sDA8AdT0i8p Anne Yastremski AnneYaz Anne Yastremski Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:13:40 -0800 B2B Communities as Content Engines http://blog.socialtech2010.com/b2b-communities-as-content-engines http://blog.socialtech2010.com/b2b-communities-as-content-engines

I guess this is what the long tail is all about. Tooling around the interwebs (or was it the Twittersphere?) I came across this post, "Texas Instruments E2E Community Blows Open the Case for B2B Social Media Investing" by Rohn Jay Miller from December. The post gives a very detailed run-down of the work Devashish Saxena has done developing an online community for engineers working with TI's products.

I encourage you to read Miller's entire post but wanted to share this paragraph because it illustrates at least one benefit of engaging and developing your communities: They are content engines.

The brilliance of the E2E community is that it took this huge number of client engineers and moved their questions and dialogue with TI engineers into this community.  Not only does this get more brains contributing ideas, and not only does it build the TI brand in the minds of those client engineers, but—here’s the true genius:  instead of answering a question once, the answer gets indexed by the search engines and 100 engineers can find the answer when they begin their research.

The words the keep ringing in my head are "instead of answering a question once." Think of all the questions being asked and answered in tech support communities focused on your products. This is truly valuable content. Are you making the most of it?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/708086/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sDA8AdT0i8p Anne Yastremski AnneYaz Anne Yastremski Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:17:37 -0800 B2B Community Marketing: "Recognition is the currency" http://blog.socialtech2010.com/b2b-community-marketing-recognition-is-the-cu http://blog.socialtech2010.com/b2b-community-marketing-recognition-is-the-cu

Social media are "not so much about communication as they are about community," Forrester's Laura Ramos told me when we discussed the fundamentals of community marketing.

For most companies, especially in IT, online community begins in discussion threads and support forums. The challenge is to "expand this so it becomes more personal," Ramos says.

So, what makes this online experience more "personal"? Ramos recommends the following:

  1. Allow for profiles.
  2. Allow for the creation of special groups.
  3. Allow for collaboration (and not just threaded).
  4. Allow for personal recognition via a rating system.

Ramos had corrected me when I suggested that rating individual responses was an important part of an online community platform. You have to be able to rate the people, she insisted.

"Recognition is huge," she continued. "That's the capital. That's the currency."

I was reminded of this last point when I visited Intuit's "Start and Grow Your Business" Community, which prominently features a "Leader Board" of those who have accrued points by answering questions posed by other members. I was amazed to see that some people - like raywhite28 or qbteachmt - had actually answered over 10,000 questions. Talk about participation!

Kira Wampler helped launch this "community for budding entrepreneurs" and, as it turns out, will be participating in a panel devoted to community marketing at SocialTech 2010.

As you consider integrating community into your business via social media, what questions would you ask Laura or Kira? Heck, what questions are you asking yourself?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/708086/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sDA8AdT0i8p Anne Yastremski AnneYaz Anne Yastremski Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:10:29 -0800 Robert Scoble Knows Bill Gates http://blog.socialtech2010.com/robert-scoble-knows-bill-gates http://blog.socialtech2010.com/robert-scoble-knows-bill-gates

Robert Scoble is going to be one of our keynote speakers at SocialTech 2010. I've been following him on Twitter for a while but have been paying extra attention to his Tweets in the run-up to this event so I came across this one today: "I'm looking at http://www.gatesnotes.com/ and rethinking my own blog. Really great format to focus attention on things."

"The Gates Notes" is, as you might have guessed, a blog where Bill Gates publishes his thoughts on a number of global issues and I can understand why anyone would be intrigued by its design and content.

Of course, after a few minutes it occurred to me that Scoble isn't just anyone, he actually knows Bill Gates.

Now, I'm not saying that that's the main reason to join us in San Jose (or online) to hear Scoble (and a ton of other B2B hi-tech marketers) speak, but it's not nothing.

I mean, do you know Bill Gates?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/708086/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sDA8AdT0i8p Anne Yastremski AnneYaz Anne Yastremski