Thursday, April 02, 2009
The Uses of Social Media in B2B Communications, a panel discussion
Social Media Club Chicago, March 26, 2009
Social Media Club Chicago had a crowd of approximately 225 last week at The Chicago Mercantile Exchange for an evening of The Uses of Social Media in B2B Communications.
The high point of the panel was when Ellis Booker worried that "people are doing the right things for the wrong reasons." Marketers are using Social Media "not because it is effective, but because it's cheap!"
To extrapolate on Booker's comments: At this stage, most marketers using Social Media are not measuring results, but activity. Social Media becomes 1) an inexpensive focus group, gathering anecdotal evidence from an unorganized stream of information, and 2) an extremely cheap publishing platform with occasional flashes of brilliant or break-out success. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way.
The CME group has made a video of the event.
The SMCC is organized by Barb Barbara Rozgonyi. The event panel was assembled by Jeff Willinger. Great food from Rivers, in the CME building.
Len Kendall, Media Manager, Critical Mass, moderated a panel of:
Allan Schoenberg, Director of Corporate Communications, CME Group
Ellis Booker, Editor, BtoB Magazine, Crain Communications
John Fairley, Director of Web Services and Social Media, Walker Sands Communications
My lightly edited "summary" of the panel:
What are the differences between B2B and B2C on Social Media?
Booker says that "B2C is easy." B2B is a longer process. In the time he has been at BtoB magazine, he has seen a change, "the playfulness of campaigns has ramped up... having more fun."
CME Group's Schoenberg pointed that the B2B audience is smaller and that the value proposition needs to be stated more strongly than in B2C. While Fairly said that "more people are involved in the sale and decision." Social media allows you to reach those people at different points in the decision process.
Booker says that corporate Social Media presence is becoming an expected part of doing business. Fairly says that people will move toward companies who are active in Social Media because they will be perceived as being more available and transparent.
What tools are you using to manage Social Media presence?
Fairly likes free tools that track history, suggesting "SM2.com", "Social Mention" and "Blog Tracker". Schoenberg likes tools that track what people say about the commodities market, and uses "Vocus". Fairly suggested using Twitter Search to monitor mentions of your brand and related terms.
Tools like TweetDeck and PeopleFollow let us filter the conversations and focus on relevant content.
What are ways we can drive traffic using Social Media?
Fairly talked about the relationship between Search and Social Media. You need to understand the tools of Social Media. Study the networks and see if your customers are there. Are they on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or other niche communities? Listen to your customers on the site. What are their pain points and interests. You have to follow social norms, understand the audience. Then establish key relationships. Later you can tweet to the masses. "Our strategy is to tweet about a pain point to a 'maven' in the community, who re-tweeted our comments."
Booker says you have to focus on why you are doing Social Media. He gave an example of a "sandbox" community site created by a company. They wanted to do a six-month trial, but 18 months later, they had 400 of their best customers actively engaged and had no choice but to keep up that test community, even though it wasn't part of their media strategy.
Later, Booker also said that they are "listening more with Social Media. We use the Social Media infrastructure to listen and decide what to report.
Schoenberg's guideline is "C-squared": Content x Community. Keep driving new content into the community, then engage in conversations. He used LinkedIn, then Facebook and talked about cross-pollinating the venues.
Where is the revenue?
Schoenberg had some anecdotal examples. "We have brought in leads for our brokers, and now they are trading." But he acknowledged that Social Media has been less money and more time. However, he says they have 52K followers on Twitter.
Fairly pointed out that Paid Search has set a standard. It's very measurable, but Social Media doesn't correlate directly to revenue. There is a story to be told: how many influential bloggers linked, some new leads, increases in traffic. Viral media brings traffic from everywhere, so you have to look at cumulative effects.
Booker worried that "people are doing the right things for the wrong reasons." Marketers are using Social Media not because it is effective, but because it's cheap!
To extrapolate on Booker's comments: At this stage, marketers are not measuring results, but activity. Social Media becomes an inexpensive focus group, gathering anecdotal evidence from a disorganized stream of information, and an extremely cheap publishing platform.
What metrics are you using? How do we gauge expectations?
Schoenberg said CME Group's Social Media efforts are part of an overall marketing strategy, "it has to fit into everything else we do. If it's just an island, you are going to fail."
Booker pointed out that E-Marketer magazine forecast on-line advertising would grow by 53% this year. Now, they are saying growth will only be 10%. At least, he concluded, it's going up. Unlike print advertising.
Are there ethical guidelines companies should be following?
Schoenberg brought up Digg as an example that Social Media can be gamed. Their biggest concerns were legal. Let people know you work for the company.
Who is in charge of your Social Media Presence?
Last year, the buzz was "you are no longer in control of your brand." You don't know what people are doing until you listen and hear or see for yourself.
Both Fairly and Schoenberg said you need to manage the message, educate your internal people to get a consistent message. Schoenberg expressed a need to manage the message and to be clear about who is the official voice for the organization.
How do you manage the volume of messages and the 24x7 nature of Social Media?
Booker stated that it is important to get right back to people. Fairley said that they "co-Tweet", having a collaborative Twitter account. Schoenberg uses "TweetLater" to schedule messages to drip out into Twitter. Fairly said that "Social Media is like adding another phone to your office, and you have to answer it."
But Fairly also brought up the most important thing you can do with Social Media: Identify people who are most passionate about your product or topics, engage with them, and activate them to be your advocate.
Social Media Club Chicago had a crowd of approximately 225 last week at The Chicago Mercantile Exchange for an evening of The Uses of Social Media in B2B Communications.
The high point of the panel was when Ellis Booker worried that "people are doing the right things for the wrong reasons." Marketers are using Social Media "not because it is effective, but because it's cheap!"
To extrapolate on Booker's comments: At this stage, most marketers using Social Media are not measuring results, but activity. Social Media becomes 1) an inexpensive focus group, gathering anecdotal evidence from an unorganized stream of information, and 2) an extremely cheap publishing platform with occasional flashes of brilliant or break-out success. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way.
The CME group has made a video of the event.
The SMCC is organized by Barb Barbara Rozgonyi. The event panel was assembled by Jeff Willinger. Great food from Rivers, in the CME building.
Len Kendall, Media Manager, Critical Mass, moderated a panel of:
Allan Schoenberg, Director of Corporate Communications, CME Group
Ellis Booker, Editor, BtoB Magazine, Crain Communications
John Fairley, Director of Web Services and Social Media, Walker Sands Communications
My lightly edited "summary" of the panel:
What are the differences between B2B and B2C on Social Media?
Booker says that "B2C is easy." B2B is a longer process. In the time he has been at BtoB magazine, he has seen a change, "the playfulness of campaigns has ramped up... having more fun."
CME Group's Schoenberg pointed that the B2B audience is smaller and that the value proposition needs to be stated more strongly than in B2C. While Fairly said that "more people are involved in the sale and decision." Social media allows you to reach those people at different points in the decision process.
Booker says that corporate Social Media presence is becoming an expected part of doing business. Fairly says that people will move toward companies who are active in Social Media because they will be perceived as being more available and transparent.
What tools are you using to manage Social Media presence?
Fairly likes free tools that track history, suggesting "SM2.com", "Social Mention" and "Blog Tracker". Schoenberg likes tools that track what people say about the commodities market, and uses "Vocus". Fairly suggested using Twitter Search to monitor mentions of your brand and related terms.
Tools like TweetDeck and PeopleFollow let us filter the conversations and focus on relevant content.
What are ways we can drive traffic using Social Media?
Fairly talked about the relationship between Search and Social Media. You need to understand the tools of Social Media. Study the networks and see if your customers are there. Are they on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or other niche communities? Listen to your customers on the site. What are their pain points and interests. You have to follow social norms, understand the audience. Then establish key relationships. Later you can tweet to the masses. "Our strategy is to tweet about a pain point to a 'maven' in the community, who re-tweeted our comments."
Booker says you have to focus on why you are doing Social Media. He gave an example of a "sandbox" community site created by a company. They wanted to do a six-month trial, but 18 months later, they had 400 of their best customers actively engaged and had no choice but to keep up that test community, even though it wasn't part of their media strategy.
Later, Booker also said that they are "listening more with Social Media. We use the Social Media infrastructure to listen and decide what to report.
Schoenberg's guideline is "C-squared": Content x Community. Keep driving new content into the community, then engage in conversations. He used LinkedIn, then Facebook and talked about cross-pollinating the venues.
Where is the revenue?
Schoenberg had some anecdotal examples. "We have brought in leads for our brokers, and now they are trading." But he acknowledged that Social Media has been less money and more time. However, he says they have 52K followers on Twitter.
Fairly pointed out that Paid Search has set a standard. It's very measurable, but Social Media doesn't correlate directly to revenue. There is a story to be told: how many influential bloggers linked, some new leads, increases in traffic. Viral media brings traffic from everywhere, so you have to look at cumulative effects.
Booker worried that "people are doing the right things for the wrong reasons." Marketers are using Social Media not because it is effective, but because it's cheap!
To extrapolate on Booker's comments: At this stage, marketers are not measuring results, but activity. Social Media becomes an inexpensive focus group, gathering anecdotal evidence from a disorganized stream of information, and an extremely cheap publishing platform.
What metrics are you using? How do we gauge expectations?
Schoenberg said CME Group's Social Media efforts are part of an overall marketing strategy, "it has to fit into everything else we do. If it's just an island, you are going to fail."
Booker pointed out that E-Marketer magazine forecast on-line advertising would grow by 53% this year. Now, they are saying growth will only be 10%. At least, he concluded, it's going up. Unlike print advertising.
Are there ethical guidelines companies should be following?
Schoenberg brought up Digg as an example that Social Media can be gamed. Their biggest concerns were legal. Let people know you work for the company.
Who is in charge of your Social Media Presence?
Last year, the buzz was "you are no longer in control of your brand." You don't know what people are doing until you listen and hear or see for yourself.
Both Fairly and Schoenberg said you need to manage the message, educate your internal people to get a consistent message. Schoenberg expressed a need to manage the message and to be clear about who is the official voice for the organization.
How do you manage the volume of messages and the 24x7 nature of Social Media?
Booker stated that it is important to get right back to people. Fairley said that they "co-Tweet", having a collaborative Twitter account. Schoenberg uses "TweetLater" to schedule messages to drip out into Twitter. Fairly said that "Social Media is like adding another phone to your office, and you have to answer it."
But Fairly also brought up the most important thing you can do with Social Media: Identify people who are most passionate about your product or topics, engage with them, and activate them to be your advocate.
Labels: chicago, social media, web analytics
