For B2B companies, their goal is to make their customers more successful than their competitor's customers. To identify what they want from a specific social media strategy, they need to start with the bottom line in mind. Cangialosi commented that social media is just an extension of every other area of the company, but that it's largely happening out of marketing departments. The panel advised that the marketing department should lead with their messages, but customer service should be involved as well, and whoever is responsible for CRM, for a more complete strategy. Peck added that B2B companies need to have communication skills and subject matter expertise to effectively deploy a social media strategy.
Cangialosi said that the true promise of social media is when you can engage with people, which the legal marketers I know in social media would agree with. When engaging, it's important to be transparent in social media channels about why you're there. If you're not planning to use it for customer service, let them know, but expect people to ask questions anyway. The panel also suggested working with a public relations team in advance to forecast out what prickly issues could come up.
Someone in the audience asked how social media can help companies get to B2B decision makers. Peck said that it connects people who can connect you to them. But it's important to be there before the sale. The key to getting to decision makers is to provide good content.
As was mentioned during the last panel, many companies measure their success in social media by the number of followers that they have. But the key is in engagement. One of the benefits of social media is that when it comes to lead generation, you can now see very clearly who you're dealing with because of social data. Schneider pointed out that while everyone is talking about engaging with their audience, they shouldn't forget that they want to sell something. They still need to ask people to buy.
Another audience member asked what tools, from a content standpoint, work best for companies and Holden-Bache said "Blogging, far and away." This seems to hold true in the legal market as well, with many lawyers able to build their reputation for having a certain area of expertise through their blogs. The panel used HubSpot as an example of effective blogging because they use their posts to invite further engagement in webinars, white papers, etc. Cangialosi suggested other companies should similarly use a call to action at the end of every post. The best way to improve awareness is by generating dialogue and interaction from the blog content and then getting others to spread it. An audience member pointed out that just because someone writes content doesn't mean that anyone will necessarily read it. Schneider also cautioned that it's still important to take the online relationships offline. Instead of running "campaigns," companies should think about building relationships. That way, even when the platforms change, the relationships live beyond the tool. Cangialosi added that the database is still king though - social media may drive customer signups, but you never know which networks might disappear.
Another question from the audience was about what place Facebook has in B2B marketing. Schneider said that it's a great place to test media and can also be a conversion point. Someone else asked about timing messages to appear during business hours, and Schneider agreed that timing matters, but suggested that companies find out what works for their audiences first - do your clients read blog posts at 9am on Monday morning or at 6pm Tuesday evenings? Audience member, Nicole Donnelly, said that her company is beta testing a program called Big Ruby which can measure what time of day works best for your audience.
The panelists metnioned that companies who are doing social media "right" include Kaspersky, HubSpot, American Express, Sales Force, and Direct TV.
So how does this translate for law firms? As I've been hearing so often lately, the message was that it's all about relationships. But the panel takes this one step further to say that it's important to know your audience, what they want, where they're involved and to engage them in ways that are useful to them. This will vary from firm to firm, and for client to client, but if you identify these things as part of your social media strategy development, it will help your firm in becoming more successful in using social media.
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Lindsay, this is a great recap! There are so many huge nuggets of wisdom in here, but a few that are very important are:
ReplyDelete-Put a smart person behind the tools,
-It's important to be there before the sale,
-Goal is to make their customers more successful than their competitor's customer
It's so valuable to read recaps of conferences like these, so thank you for taking so much time to do this!
I completely agree Nancy!
ReplyDeleteLindsay -
ReplyDeletethanks for the great recap of the panel! I appreciate it and am glad you enjoyed it!
All the best,
Greg
What about the treats these social media sites pose to the business in loss of personal productivity and security risks? Lately I have read a lot about how social media can assist with cheap marketing! But what about the cost of down machines, loss of information and systems that are compromise.
ReplyDeleteWe are giving the recommendation that these sites are risky and time leakers if used by the whole company.
Joe, I actually heard a great answer to this question recently, which I mentioned in this post: http://legalnetworkzen.blogspot.com/2010/03/lma-2010-leveraging-social-networking.html
ReplyDeleteJohn Byrne (the panelist) said that if employees are using Facebook or other social media tools too much, this is a human resources disciplinary issue, and not a social media issue. I couldn't agree more with him. In terms of risk, social media is no riskier to systems and loss of information than email and there's no company out there that is considering not using email. Everyone these days is constantly bombarded with spam and emails containing links to viruses. Using technology in a smart way and having a social media policy (examples of which are linked from the post I mentioned above) are key in having an effective and safe use of social media. I'd love to hear some other thoughts on this from other readers!
Anything "new" is always going to be risky chiefly because it's new. And, of course, lawyers do not usually want to be the first one to jump on the bandwagon.
ReplyDeleteAs for the loss of information, down machines, etc., you get this with email. Like any technology, the person using it must be aware of the risks and rewards and use accordingly.
As time-leakers...for someone who uses social media and uses it to take advantage of business development opportunities, it's like going to a networking event. Social media is not meant to replace meeting people face to face, but enhances the experience and opens the door to people you may not ordinarily have the chance to meet!
Joe: Lindsay and Laura have offered great answers to your question. Your questions are shared by many because these are new tools to add to our marketing plan. Once one becomes more familiar with them, studies them, and uses them on a regular basis, and sometimes even reaches outside for additional instruction, it becomes obvious how to use them effectively to build your knowledge and sphere of influence.
ReplyDeleteI recently wrote a blog post about the challenges management, of which I have been a part for many years, should think about when allowing staff to use Facebook and other social media tools in the workplace. This is a management and marketing issue.
If you understand branding, you will find Social Media, as well as other networking avenues, extremely valuable real estate for you to frequent and own. To have additional brand ambassadors out in the marketplace sharing the brand you have shared with them as being important is like gold!
As far as security, common sense and cool heads must prevail. One should approach conversations, and yes, this is all about the conversation and interaction, the same as when meeting and talking to someone, or some people, F2F (face-to-face). If it's not appropriate to say in public, outloud or in writing in places other than the Internet, then it certainly is not appropriate to say or write virtually.
It is easy to have conversations without giving away the store, or telling us what the Colonel's Secret Recipe is. People tend to try to make this more difficult than it is. We're building relationships here, and learning as much as possible from others. That is something that can be learned, as well as taught.