Social Media for B2B Companies

Should you be tweeting, blogging and podcasting to reach more customers?Sarah Sturtevant

President,

Integrated Website Solutions Inc.

Agenda

The socially connected industrial companySocial Media: What, Why & How?Latest Stats, Facts & Figures on Social Media for B2B Companies & IndustriesSocial Media Tools

Outbound “Push Marketing” is Inefficient

Traditional “Push Marketing”: You are in control of the message you push out along with how or when it is received by prospects.

But those prospects may not NEED what you sell at that moment.

Some “Pushy” Tactics: direct mail print catalogues cold calling trade shows print magazine ads static brochure-ware sites

It’s 2012 – times have changed!Digital “Pull Marketing”: Your customers are in control.

They search for your products or services online at that exact moment they HAVE a need. If they find your site, they decide how and when to act.

Some “Pull” Tactics: search engine optimization detailed online catalogues interactive websites social media networks

Pull marketing is also know as “inbound marketing”

Where are your customers?

97 % of industrial buyers use the internet to research buying decisions

Are you spending the majority of your marketing dollars online – where you can brand more

effectively when buyers have a need?

Source, ThomasNet Industrial Marketer

Social Media 101“The social media train has already left the station. Are you on it?”

Web 1.0: company-centric, one-directional communication from a website to its audience. It shouts: “Buy our stuff … we’re the best!”

Social Media Communication: customer-centric, interactive information sharing, collaboration and community-building online. It asks: “How can we serve you better? We want to get to know you.”

Social Media Sites Influence Customers & Help Drive Customer Retention

Flickr Photo: ragtops2000

“End users who previously couldn’t vote for content via links from web pages are now able to vote for content via their clicks, bookmarks, tags and ratings. These are very strong signals to search engines, and best of all, they don’t rely on the elitism of one website owner linking to another or the often mediocre crawl of a dumb bot.”

-- Mike Grehan, “New Signals to Search Engines”

Today, social media sites allow ordinary people to go beyond simply consuming information; they can now produce and publish it on multiple channels. They can also share brand recommendations with their social media followers using “like” buttons or by re-tweeting (sharing) a brand’s post.

… but ignoring social media networks doesn’t prevent your customers from talking about your company on these sites.

So doesn’t it make sense to find out what social sites your customers use, listen to them and then join the conversations so you can influence them?

Reasons Why B2B Companies Don’t Participate in Social Media “it’s a passing fad” “only kids are on these social sites” “we don’t have time” “we’re not sure how to get started” “if we do get started, we don’t know how to

maintain our social sites” “it might be a time-waster with no ROI”

How do growing companies market?

1950 - 2000 2000 - 2050

Source: Hubspot @rickburnes

Other companies have successfully used social media to: drive more traffic to their company websites acquire new customers build customer loyalty and retention gain valuable market research for innovation develop a community of virtual “brand

advocates” increase search engine exposure from multiple

social sites maximize the positive public relations “buzz”

for their brands -- one conversation at a time

Why Is Social Media Vital to Industrial B2B Companies? Social Media networked customers are

connected and have great influence.

“Connected consumers are only growing in size, magnitude and influence. Ignoring them is a step

towards digital Darwinism.”-- Brian Solis

Social Media & Business

65% of the world’s top companies have a an active Twitter profile 90% of marketers use social channels for business 43% of marketers have noticed an improvement in sales due to

social media participation 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic

due to social media campaigns and 79% are generating more quality leads

LinkedIn is 4X better for B2B lead generation than Facebook and Twitter

Only 10% of marketers are actively monitoring social media ROI

Source: 99 New Social Media Stats for 2012, @carapring

Social Media & Small Business

53% of small businesses are using social media 88% believe exposure is the biggest benefit 19% use Facebook, 15% LinkedIn and 4%

Twitter 12% think it’s a must, 24% do it when they have

the time and 14% say they don’t know enough about it

Source: 99 New Social Media Stats for 2012, @carapring

Social Media & Industrial B2B

More than 63% of industrial buyers use social media at least once a week to research and source suppliers

7 out of 10 of small and mid-size suppliers (68%) are already engaging with prospects through social media

68% of industrial buyers want to read about new product or service innovations

To reach new customers, overseas and at home, nearly 9 out of 10 product and custom manufacturers (86%) are investing in online marketing this year and more than half are increasing these investments

56% of industrial buyers recommend that suppliers who are interested in doing business with them establish a social media presence

Source: Thomas Industrial Purchasing Barometer @ThomasNet

Don’t Jump in Without a Plan

Before you engage in social media, you need to figure out a strategy which has benchmarks and measurable objectives.

Social Media Sites Are Just Tools

Once you define your objectives,

some tools will be more appropriate than others

… Not Silver Bullets

Here are a few social media sites worth checking out…

Being Social Online: It’s not just a fad for kids anymore 2/3 of US online adults use social networking

sites Percent of internet users by age using social

sites: 92 % of young adults aged between 18-29, 73% of 30 - 49 year olds, 57% of those aged 50 – 64

Since 2009, social media use by 50- 64 year has doubled

Source: Aaron Smith, Pew Research Centers Internet & American Life Project, 2012

Google + Since its launch in June 2011, Google + crossed the 90 million users

mark by January 2012 – its rival Facebook took 4 years to reach this point. By September 2012, it attracted 200 million active users worldwide.

Google + content is featured on Google’s new search results page called “Search Plus Your World” introduced in January 2012.

Google features social data from Google + and Twitter updates. It excludes Facebook due to privacy issues and its inability to deeply crawl this social site.

Search Plus Your World includes personal content from those in your social circles which can be turned off

LinkedIn

A network linking over 150 million professionals world-wide

- LinkedIn counts executives from all Fortune 500 companies as members

- More than 2 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages

- LinkedIn members are sharing insights and knowledge in more than 1 million LinkedIn Groups

Some LinkedIn Tips

Personal branding pages should highlight professional achievements

Include references and work-related content you publish (i.e. blogs, presentations etc.)

Company branding pages should include a logo, pictures, videos and a link to your company website.

Twitter A micro-blogging site that is not just for

announcing to the world what you had for lunch!

Definition: A “Tweet” is a post on Twitter of 140 characters or less

Goal: Don’t just collect followers, engage them by creating valuable, share-worthy content!

“Tweets from the Chiefs”:Some CEO’s on TwitterRob Howard, Telligent CEO

Twitter helps Telligent with customer feedback (positive and negative),keeping a pulse on the industry, and it's a great way to get some buzz goingquickly.

Source: BusinessWeek

Jeff Booth, BuildDirect President and CEO

“Twitter helps me start relationships.

Many of those relationships that would have never started withoutTwitter have already become meaningful for our business.

I have found that the best way to create relationships is to give toothers. This is the same for Twitter.

I try to engage with users rather than to sell to them. I try to add value.”

Source: BusinessWeek

Facebook Company Page As of 2012 Facebook has over 900 million active users The 35 + demographic represents more than 30% of the

entire user base There are 206.2 million internet users in the US. That

means 71.2% of the US web audience is on Facebook 70% of the Facebook user base resides outside the US Facebook has become one of the most trusted

companies in America, and people spend three times more time there than on Google!

So, should your company have a Facebook page?

Corporate Blogs: Indium Corp. Case Study 75-year electronics assembler in Clinton,

NY Began with one corporate blog in 2005 Now has 10 blogs on their site written by

15 staff members ROI includes more engaged customers,

increased leads, reduced costs

Since publication, this blog has had over 1,200 views.

Some Social Media Do’s and Don’ts Listen - don’t pitch Entertain – make people laugh Educate - Share helpful information Listen some more Ask questions - solicit feedback/market research Link people to your company blog/website for special

offers or more information

Above all, be a transparent and trustworthy community member

Thomas Industrial Network:Managed Social Media CampaignsThomasNet.com will partner with you to position your business as a thought-leader in your industry on key social media channels, optimize your search engine exposure, increase your site traffic and protect your corporate brand:- Account set-up, monthly interviews, content creation and up to 2 weekly posts per site on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn social media networks- Set-up of Blog service with one monthly post- Set-up of YouTube account with provided video

For more information, contact:

Sarah Sturtevant

President

Integrated Website Solutions Inc.

Phone: (519) 342-8551

Twitter: @sarahsturtevant

Google + : www.gplus.to/sarahsturtevant

Facebook: www.facebook.com/IntegratedWebsiteSolutions

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/industryonline

Email: thomasnet@sympatico.ca