Professional Documents
Culture Documents
January 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction.............................................................................................................. 3 Where Weve Come From...................................................................................... 4 First Things First: Are Tech Buyers Using Social Media?....................................... 5 Social Media Use by Tech Purchasers In Different Regions.................................. 6 Blogs: Everyones Social Media Fundamental........................................................ 7 LinkedIn: The Secret Lead Generation Tool............................................................ 8 Twitter: A Tech Awareness Engine......................................................................... 9 Facebook: Still More of a Personal Channel........................................................... 10 YouTube: One Part of a Video Strategy................................................................... 11 What Now?............................................................................................................. 12 About the Author...................................................................................................... 13
B2B TECh MArkETiNg ANd SOCiAL MEdiA: WhAT SOCiAL MEdiA ChANNELS rEACh TECh BuyErS?
By rOSS LEvANTO, SENiOr viCE PrESidENT, SChWArTz COMMuNiCATiONS
The headlines:
Many B2B technology marketers are still not using social media strategically. Theyre either doing just enough to be able to tell their CEO theyre doing it, or not using it at all because they think their target audience isnt using it.
Many of these same marketers group together all the different forms of social media as one big stew and dont do enough research into the differences between the various channels.
The fact is, a good portion of B2B technology target customers are using some mix of the different forms of social media. However, they use each type of social media in different ways, and so technology marketers need to take a unique approach for each different form of social media.
Source: IDG Research Audience Engagement Study (Base: 3,658 technology buyers worldwide) The interesting thing about this chart is that it shows tech purchasers are more likely to be using Facebook and YouTube than Twitter and LinkedIn. This does not mean however that those are necessarily the best channels for technology marketers to use. Its not a stretch to think that a good portion of their Facebook use is for more personal, rather than business, reasons. What we hope to explore in this eBook is some of the different ways tech marketers can start to use each of these channels in the right way.
Key Takeaway: Tech purchasers are indeed using social media and so to ignore it as a channel would be a missed opportunity. The study went on to show that a full 23% of technology purchasers are not only using social media, but consider themselves active contributors of content to social media. Going after this active quarter of tech purchasers is reason enough to develop a good social media strategy.
Source: IDG Research Audience Engagement Study Base: 1723 (North America), 1566 (Europe), 206 (APAC), and 96 (Latin/South America) qualified respondents
Key Takeaway: If youre responsible for international marketing, dont confine your social media strategy to just a US audience. If your social media handles, fan pages and videos arent relevant for all the regions youre targeting, consider creating regional programs.
Key Takeaways: Make your blog presence your number one social media priority, and blog frequently. Create blog content that is educational not self-promotional. Nobody wants to read about how great you are, especially technology purchasers. Create content that helps them understand your space. No company is too small to blog. At a recent content marketing event at Schwartz, Ann Handley of MarketingProfs.com pointed to an owner of a small pool business in Virginia who has attracted a lot of attention and business from his blog. If you cant blog yourself, outsource it Schwartz helps many clients with blog creation and writing.
Key Takeaways: Make sure your company is listed in the LinkedIn Companies Directory and has the right description, links and keywords. Include your companys blog RSS feed and Twitter account so theyll show up on your LinkedIn company page. Make sure your key company leaders are on LinkedIn and have joined all of the relevant groups where they can network with potential customers in your industry. When possible, start your own LinkedIn Group to help drive the perception of your company as a thought leader.
Key Takeaways: Tech marketers need to start a Twitter handle for their company to establish a voice in this space. You should follow leaders, journalists, customers and others tweeting on the topic, and tweet multiple times a day minimum, about items of interest in the industry. Like with blogging, try not to be overly self-promotional. You need to be patient because establishing a presence on Twitter requires a lot of effort, and not always a direct payoff. A recent Pew Research study showed that 21% of Twitter users dont ever check tweets, and even those who do wont necessarily see yours in a sea of tweets.
Key Takeaways: Every B2B technology company should have a Facebook presence, but they shouldnt make Facebook their number one Social Media priority. Share links to your blog posts, pictures of events, links to major announcements, but always try to strike the balance between sharing good news and not going too far in the direction of self-promotion. Take compelling content (video, eBooks etc.) and make it accessible only to those who Like your company on Facebook, in the same way that you might put it behind a registration wall on your site.
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Key Takeaways: When thinking about your video strategy, dont only ask yourself what can we do on YouTube? Think about the types of video content pieces that would be most valuable to tech purchasers, and then deploy that content in multiple places. Our Digital team at Schwartz advises our clients on types of video content they should create themselves versus when to seek outside help to produce. This of course depends on your resources, but for quick impromptu pieces to share through social media, get yourself a flip cam and get busy. For anything that needs to appear prominently on your site or at events, get some help.
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What Now?
If the data and insights in this eBook made you think you need to take your social media strategy to the next level, or even to square one, your next question may be: How do I do that? While the answer varies greatly based on situation, there are some simple things that every company should do. One important to-do is to understand more about your current mindshare in social media. Schwartz uses Radian6 to measure social media mindshare and many other metrics. Even if your company has not created a social media presence, people may be discussing your products/services in social media forums. If the quantity of discussions is low compared to that of your competitors, you can use the data as a way to lobby for more resources to put toward social media.
Even without this type of analysis, every tech B2B company should have reason enough to create some presence in all of the channels weve mentioned. We do caution companies to go into it knowing that just creating a Twitter handle and Facebook page doesnt mean youll magically get tons of followers. The real key to followers in any channel is content and coverage. You need to have content to tweet about, or youre just left with self-promotional product tweets or random observations. As we mentioned, having a good blog is one essential form of content, but you also need to have video content, eBooks, whitepapers, infographics, podcasts and other forms of content that will serve as the backbone for your social media efforts. It also helps to have coveragementions of your company in third party media or blogs. A company without coverage would likely tweet about a new product of theirs and point people to the description of the product on the websiteblatant self promotion. A company with coverage can tweet about a great article in ZDNet that talks about their product and how it helps business - still somewhat self-promotional, but with third-party validation. The Final Takeaway If youre a tech marketer, you should know that your target audience IS using social media. In order to create social media programs that really have impact, you need to have a backbone of great blog, video and written content that is informational and not overly self-promotional. With this content in hand, you can create a unique strategy for each social media channel, and with the right tools, measure a real impact on your business.
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