Scaling Social: The Future of B2B Social Marketing

The days of being happy with mentions and followers on social media are over. To take your social marketing to the next level, it's time to build relationships.

The Social Media Ecosystem Report "Rise of Users, Intelligence, and Operating Systems" (pdf) was put together by the folks at Jordan Edmiston Group, an investment bank focused on media and marketing services, with support from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Before I go further, a quick shout-out to the Salorix team for getting lots of great coverage in the recent report. They were talked about, quoted and got to submit a chart, too … all in the section: Big Data Enables Enhanced Business Intelligence.

But why did this early-stage company get covered in this report — alongside IBM, Google and Adobe no less?

Well, it turns out the “big data meets social media” thing is hard. Or as the report says:

“Scaling social with intelligence is extremely challenging”

And this is what Salorix is looking to solve with their technology platform.

Brand Mentions are no Longer Enough

You see, we can no longer be happy simply responding to brand mentions and boasting about our likes, retweets and followers.

We need to also:

• Identify relevant and influential brand-related conversations
• Engage the consumers doing the talking
• Get them to amplify our brand message to their social network.

That does sound hard, especially since 90 percent of those conversations are happening outside of brand-controlled properties (this is what Salorix says). Makes me long for the days when ad banners still worked. (When was that exactly?)

Future of B2B Social Marketing

As B2B marketers, we've done a good job embracing the role of influencers as a way to sway the moods and minds of our prospects. Well that's no longer enough, either.

Instead, we now need to engage our prospects directly, using what we learn from finding and listening to them on the social web. What platforms they use, how active they are and what they're talking about, sharing and creating. This then informs our content marketing strategy and how we look to convert these prospects into leads.

Remember, it's not about quantity and growing audience, it's about quality and building relationships. Why? Because we're B2B not B2C.

With this in mind, here's what you should focus your social media activities on:

• Developing detailed buyer personas that take into account how your prospects behave on social media.
• Creating content based on what your prospects are saying and sharing across the social web.
• Optimizing your content for social engagement and social distribution.
• Tracking and measuring how your social content converts into shares, clicks and leads.

This is the future of B2B social marketing, and how you'll scale social with intelligence.

So, how are you adapting your social media practices to connect with prospects, customers and influencers? Let us know in the comments section below, let’s keep the conversation going!

Image courtesy of Cienpies Design (Shutterstock)

Editor's Note: To read more of Carter's B2B marketing advice, check out Struggling with B2B Social Marketing? Here's What to Do Now

About the Author

Carter is the Founder and CEO of Leadtail, a marketing agency that focuses on online marketing and social media for B2B companies. Carter and his team have developed and implemented social marketing programs and campaigns for leading consumer and business brands including Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, British Telecom, Symantec, and TiVo. Continue the conversation @Leadtail.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

The Current State of Social CRM [Infographic]

Just as companies are getting more comfortable with social media, they are still learning how to capture and take advantage of all the information they're gleaning from their fans and followers.

This month we'll be exploring the role of Social CRM and how it can impact and improve the customer experience.  Many of us already have customer relations management systems in place, but they aren't necessarily connected to the places customers are. By plugging social media networks into your customer database, companies can begin to add relevant and useful information about their current and prospective customers so they can deliver better customer experiences.

Social + CRM

Now that more brands are using social media to engage with their customers, more and more are learning interesting things about them. How can you effectively manage your customer lifecycle so that you can make sure you can deliver the right information to the right people? Additionally, as users start using social media to ask questions or seek customer support, companies not only need to be actively responding and listening to customers, they need to be documenting these communications within their CRM so they can ensure that all call center agents can know what conversations are taking place and where.

However, just because you have a Social CRM in place, doesn't mean the hard work is over. There is more pressure than ever to convert social media engagement into leads and conversions. It's essential that the right people, from marketing to sales team members are plugged into the Social CRM so they can take advantage of the valuable information being funneled into it.

A Social CRM provides many opportunities to create a full perspective of each customer and prospective customer. What would you do differently if you knew not only where they were and what they were saying, but having it update in your CRM system?

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Gartner: Fake Social Media Ratings, Reviews to Hit 10 to 15 Percent by 2014

Feel comfortable buying Facebook Likes or Twitter followers? The practice is becoming more and more accepted, and fake social media ratings and reviews could hit 10 to 15 percent by 2014, according to research company Gartner.

In its recent report, "The Consequences of Fake Fans, 'Likes' and Reviews on Social Networks", the company says that trust in social media remains low, but could rise from single digits to as high as 33 percent by 2014.

Who to Trust

It may sound obvious, but people tend to trust those most like them and also people they know in real life. That partly explains why many people don't trust what they read when it comes to Amazon.com reviews, for example. However, people do trust websites that have lots of reviews.

A May 2012 online survey of 2,000 people from econsultancy.com found that companies with 50 or more reviews see nearly a 5 percent boost in conversions. The survey indicated that 31 percent said they use reviews to help them make a purchase. These numbers no doubt influence the rise of companies like SocialJump, who charge US$ 75 per thousand Facebook likes. 

While Gartner is realistic about how popular this practice is becoming on Twitter, Google+ and YouTube, the report cautions that companies should be aware of the risks associated with using these services. According to the report, any short term gains could nullified in the long run if the public finds out about the inflated numbers and starts viewing those companies as untrustworthy.

Regulators are Taking Notice

In 2011, the FTC levied a US$ 250,000 fine against Legacy Learning Systems for hiring marketers to post fake reviews on several websites. Gartner also cited campaigns by Sony, Wal-Mart, Nestle and Volkswagon as having been found to be misleading. Many of those campaigns were run by large marketing firms, but some companies were found to have been deleting negative comments on their social media sites.

In 2010, retailer Ann Taylor was suspected of giving out gift cards in exchange for favorable blog reviews. The case was investigated by the FTC, but no economic sanctions were filed. Additionally, the FTC settled with PR company Reverb communications the same year over fake reviews.

In a more connected world where people are interacting more than ever via some kind of mobile device, the report shows people still value real transparency and have little tolerance for deception. Let us know in the comments if you've come across some reviews or ratings you were certain were paid for. 

Editor's note: Check out our coverage of the advantages and pitfalls of "buying" fans, and why marketers are struggling to master social marketing. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com