Social Media

–By Justin Albano, Director of Business Development at Bonfire Social Media–

B2B marketers and business owners often ask me if the benefits of social media only exist in the B2C realm. The answer is a resounding no. The core concepts of social media: establishing your brand as an industry influencer, engaging with your customers, leveraging brand advocates, and nurturing leads along a sales cycle are just as powerful in connecting with companies as they are with consumers. In fact, B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not [1], and 57% of B2B companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn [2]. However, just like any other marketing tools, here are some best practices that will get you started in the right direction.

1) Know Your Objectives

What do you want? More customers? A better relationship with your customers? Both? As a biz dev guy I love “to do lists,” strategies, and most of all accomplishing objectives. Often, companies that I talk with are either focused on driving more leads or improving their brand’s perception and share of voice. Dependent upon your company’s objectives, you need to understand which, or both, of these categories your company falls into. Without defining your objectives, you stand no chance of measuring success or understanding the effect of your actions.

Action Items:

• Start macro and go micro. What do you really want out of your business? Do you want to grow a secure company that can be passed on to your kids? Do you have a quick profitable exit in mind? Start with your vision and let it set the framework for your strategies in every business facet. Then develop your bottom up action items, i.e. what will it actually take to get there?
• Set success metrics and milestones and review your progress regularly, not just at the end of the year.

2) Understand Your Demographics

It may seem obvious, but it never ceases to amaze me how few companies actually understand who their demographic is, what their buying cycle looks like, what motivating factors/events cause them to take action or where they get information on products and services.

Action Items:

• Create customer profiles that allow you to examine your demographics in a more intimate way. For example, Suzie is a mother of two who works full time, loves to play tennis and hike, cares about the environment, and prefers to watch movies rather than TV. Setting up these profiles gives you a great demographic snapshot and helps to focus your marketing efforts.
• Once you understand your demographic’s buying cycle, what info, education or resources can you provide to make their buying decision easier? This is not only important for brand awareness and brand perception, but should be the driving force behind your lead nurturing cycle.
• It is crucial for you to understand your industry’s keyword landscape. Which keywords are your demographic using to search for the products/services you offer or information related to your offering? Which keywords are obtainable? How do you currently rank for those keywords? Google provides some free tools for the Do-it-Yourselfers, but any digital marketing shop should help you build the list and give you the analytic insights that will enable you to make sense of it all.
• Discover which social platforms your demographics are already engaged with and focus your efforts there. Currently, there are over 800 million users on Facebook, 300 million users on Twitter, 116 million users on LinkedIn and only 60 million users on Google+ [3]. If you currently have an email database, run it through some social networks to discover who is already using which networks. This could save you mountains of time in the long run and allow you to target your unique demographics.
• Listen via social networks like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and forums, as well as online news sites. Once you know your demographic’s hangouts and keywords, you can listen to social conversations via CMS platforms like HootSuite/TweetDeck and by setting up Google Alerts that monitor articles, blogs and forums that are currently talking about your keywords.

3) Create Value Based Relationships

Social media is not the place for old-school messaging tactics, and the concept of protecting your secret sauce is dead. Company decision makers typically go to your website, not social networks, to learn the benefits of your products or services. Companies and consumers alike are actively searching for value-based content that makes their lives and their buying decisions easier.

Action Items:

• Offer value-based content. If you help companies streamline their processes, don’t just talk about how you do it; offer them free templates or How-To whitepapers that teach them how to be more efficient. Providing this type of value will convert prospects in to fans of your company and customers in to loyal brand advocates.
• Understand the difference between relevant content (e.g. interesting articles, company update s, etc.) and compelling content that provides value and motivates visitors to take action (either by providing contact information or requesting a demo).
• Monitor conversations within social communities, like LinkedIn discussion threads, and offer advice or input wherever possible.
• Don’t be afraid to give away the secret sauce. As we all know, understanding how to do something and actually doing it are two very different things. Some of Bonfire’s best clients are those who tried to do it themselves first and quickly realized that their time and resources are much more effectively spent doing the things that they already excel at rather than learning how to develop custom Facebook tabs, constantly managing social networks, writing blogs or producing webinars.

4) Leverage Your Current Marketing Mix

A common and dangerous myth is that social media replaces traditional and costly marketing channels with free messaging. This is simply not true. Social media is at its best when it is amplifying other marketing efforts or when integrated in to a well thought-out campaign.

Action Items:

• Install social plug-ins throughout your site. These allow visitors to share your content on their preferred social network quickly and with a minimum of effort.
• Utilize landing pages to capture leads and initiate your lead nurturing cycle.
• 59% of B2B purchase decision makers have used their smartphone to research products and services when they are considering purchases [4], so optimize your content and landing pages for the increasing number of mobile users.
• Include QR codes on in-print advertising and articles with compelling calls to action.

This is not rocket science and it’s not revolutionary. Instead, this is a new application of what the heart and soul of American business was when companies took the time to connect with their communities and develop relationships with their customers. As a B2B marketer your audience might be smaller than your B2C counterparts, but that means you can be much more targeted and strategic with your marketing. While a B2C marketer may segment their demographics down to niche communities, you can target specific decision makers within your target companies and develop a value-based relationship that not only nurtures the current sales cycle but also sets a positive framework for a long and supportive business relationship.

—-
Stat Citations
[1] Source: Hubspot, State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010
[2] Source: http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-monitoring-in-10-minutes-ebook/?source=hspd-affiliate-PID-3701805-txt-ad-social-media-10-min-day-ebook-20110819&AID=10933127&PID=3701805&SID=skim1024X498223X8a5f920e568fa93e07c8561649950bf2
[3] Source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/b2b-social-media-marketing-statistics-to-ponder-099980
[4] Source: http://socialmediab2b.com/2011/09/b2b-decision-makers-smartphones/#ixzz1jmUIeJul

Behold: the mighty infographic.

From flowcharts to certain installments of webcomics like Randall Munroe’s xkcd.com, infographics distill data and facts and present them in a way that we can all understand. 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) is impossible to conceptualize, but infographics can show 1,000,000,000 in context and scale, using images and captions, in a way that helps us grasp that knowledge.

We’ve compiled 11 great infographics from 2011, plus two fun bonus graphics, and arranged them by topic. What are your favorites?

Economics

The Science of Salary – Shaun Saunders and salarytutor.com showed us in September the comparison between job satisfaction and salary in various professions, from fast food cooks to surgeons. The most satisfied employees, as it turns out, are firefighters. Where do you fit on that scale?

Money – Randall Munroe’s webcomic XKCD is required reading for any self-respecting geek/nerd. His chart of “money (almost) all of it, where it is, and what it can do” takes an entirely incomprehensible concept and makes it accessible and understandable.

Social Media

The Growth of Social Media – If Facebook were a child, it would be in first grade this year. If it were a country, it would be third largest in the world, behind China and India. This infographic from Search Engine Journal puts the most popular social networking sites, and how they’ve grown over time, into perspective. Which sites do you use regularly?

Major World Events of 2011 and their Impact on Social Media – Flowtown takes us through 2011, from the Arab Spring to Charlie Sheen’s breakdown, and ranks whether or not they mattered, as measured by their impact on networks such as Twitter.

Social Media’s Best Bacon Dishes – Using data from social media ratings, infographicsarchive gives us the low-down on everyone’s favorite dessert of meats: bacon. Have you eaten any of these dishes? Are some of them too out-there for you?

Science and Technology

Radiation – After the 9.0 earthquake hit Japan this spring, people all over the world started worrying about radiation exposure from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Randall Munroe took data about exposure from every day events and compared them to the risk from Fukushima.

The Insanely Great History of Apple – Steve Jobs left an unparalleled legacy in the world of computers. The folks at PopChart labs bring us a complete family tree of Apple’s products, from the Lisa to the iPhone 4S.

Politics

This is Not My Beautiful House – What would Congress look like if it were, proportionately, comprised of the same demographic as the United States? The results might surprise you.

School Cafeteria Food vs. Prison Food – GOOD collaborated with Column Five Media to show us the similarities and differences in cost, content and nutrition of the food fed to prisoners and American public school kids.

Entertainment

The Illustrious Omnibus of Superpowers – Another great piece from the folks at Pop Chart Labs. 300 superheroes and their powers, from Superman and Spider-man to lesser-known heroes like Ant-Man and Matter-Eater Lad. Who’s your favorite superhero? What power would you want to have?

NPR’s Book Flowchart – 60,000 NPR listeners submitted their favorite sci-fi and fantasy book titles, NPR compiled them into a list of 100 must-read books, and SF Signal turned it into a flow chart. An interactive flow chart. It’s endorsed by Neil Gaiman and contains everything from World War Z to The Princess Bride. Are your favorites on that list?

Bonus

Inside a Toddler’s Brain – If you’ve been on Facebook, Pinterest or Tumblr lately, you’ve likely seen this diagram. Not scientific, but so close to the truth as to cause giggles that will make your co-workers wonder what you’re looking at.

The Visible Tom Waits – Again, not scientific, but Jim Lockey brings us a good visual explanation for the cause of Tom’s trademark sound. Do you have a favorite Tom Waits album?

Social networking sites now reach 82 percent of the world’s online population, representing 1.2 billion users, or nearly 1/6 the population of Earth. It accounts for 19 percent of all time spent online. (Comscore) In 2011, social media not only was further integrated into our lexicon and media consumption, it became a communication platform for important events around the world.

Some of the biggest events in 2011 like the Arab Spring and the death of Osama bin Laden were announced via social media or spread via social media.

Arab Spring

Time Magazine

Time Magazine’s 2011 person of the year was The Protestor. This speaks to the power of the Arab Spring movement that shook the Middle East and sent shock waves around the world. The Arab Spring began with the Tunsian Revolution at the end of last year and continues today. Protestors have organized on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and blogs to spread the word and gain support for the movements in Egypt, Israel, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. Even as individual countries began to shut down access to the Internet and individual platforms, protestors kept finding new ways to get the word out.

Accoring to Yahoo! News, one of the most popular hashtags of 2011 was #jan25 which marked the beginning of the protests in Egypt which ended February 11th when President Mubarak stepped down from power.

Protests in Baharain, Syria, and Libya were also spread via social media and included shocking moments like the photo of Gaddafi’s body that went viral and when a NATO commander announced the end of the Libyan war via Facebook.

The Occupy Movement
Protests moved stateside on September 17, 2011 and by October 15, 2011, the protests had spread to 1,000 cities in 82 countries. (Wikipedia) The #OWS movement has been supported through a variety of channels. On September 25, the hacktivist group Anonymous uploaded a YouTube video threatening action if the NYPD showed brutality against protesters. A massive march in NYC was organized via Twitter on October 5th. On November 19th videos from several different viewpoints of the students at UC Davis getting pepper sprayed received millions of views via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. On December 20th Anonymous released the personal information of NYPD officers who evicted OWS protestors.

These are just some of the major moments that have been fueled by social media to mobilize protestors and keep the Occupy Wall Street movement alive.

Other Memorable Moments
#japan was one of the most popular hashtags in 2011, following the tsunami in March.

Steve Jobs, the man who defined technology communication, was memorialized after his death via Tweets, Facebook posts, and montage videos.

Many of us may remember where we were when we heard of the death of Osama bin Laden. I saw the news via my Twitter stream, others found out via Facebook, and any other platform that was able to spread the news.

Who knows what 2012 will bring as technology and social media continue to infiltrate our communication habits. The new trend of image based social media including Instagr.am, Pinterest, and Tumblr blogs may be the next platforms for getting the message across.

You know what they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Sources:

“Google+ skyrocketed to 40 million users in 2 months. It’s the Facebook killer.

I get more comments on Google+. It’s just, so much cleaner than Facebook.”

If you’re like me, you’ve read dozens, if not hundreds, of these type of statements over the last 4 months. Worse yet, step away and do a Google search for “Is Facebook Dead?”. You would think the platform disappeared overnight. People are actually starting to make these type of claims.

My intention here is not to bag on Google’s new and much-hyped platform. In fact, I love how clean and intuitive Google+ is; you don’t have advertisements, you don’t feel bombarded with messages and it isn’t inundated with spam as many other platforms are.

The issue I have is that we are running real businesses here. “Shiny Object Syndrome” isn’t allowed. Being cool and new is not enough and we can’t just bank on potential or assumptions. We have to look at the actual data or we could find ourselves investing our dollars in the wrong places and doing a serious disservice to our clients.

In MarketingChart’s latest set of social media data, we discover that Facebook is still far and away the most popular social network, both in terms of users and time spent.

As you can see, it’s not just that Facebook has 800 million users. People spend infinitely more time on the platform compared to all other web brands. When this is narrowed down ONLY to social networks, the differences are even more astonishing:

When we look at this broadly, it’s basically Facebook and everybody else. As we see “Like us On Facebook” right next to “Follow us on Twitter” everywhere we go, we often forget that a very high percentage of Twitter users don’t check back regularly despite having hundreds of millions of “users”. This isn’t the case with Facebook. Ironically, the number of active users is likely the reason people spend so much time on Facebook. You’ll probably find co-workers on LinkedIn, people who watch the same sports teams as you on Twitter, and people who share the same TV interests on YouTube. But you’ll find everyone on Facebook. Everyone.

And it doesn’t stop there. Although the market for new Facebook users has shrunk to the point where growth is nearly impossible, Facebook is still climbing in overall market share:

But let’s go back to Google+ for a brief moment. In terms of market share of visits, the platform has an extremely long way to go:

I hate to say the M-word, but it’s worth mentioning that MySpace still has them beat.

So what can we take away here? Does this mean Google+ is a dud? No. Does this mean you should re-invest everything into Facebook? Of course not.

The bottom line is, speculation is just speculation. Certainly there is reason to believe Google+ will be a big player at some point. But now? Unless you’re targeting a narrow group of early-adopters, it’s just another social network. It’s cleaner and easy to use, yes, but it doesn’t do anything Facebook can’t at this point and chances are your customers are not using it.

Everyone loves a giant killer and we’ve seen massive platforms fall in the past (tempting to use the M-word again here). Just remember to keep your focus on real data, avoid the hype, and focus your efforts where your customers actually are.

Recently I was honored to speak at a small CEMA Marketing group in Austin, TX. At the event, I presented some ideas for how event marketers could integrate social media with a higher participation at conferences. A lot my content was centered around keeping actions simple and having fun with available tools such as Twitter. Below are a few elements of my presentation. If I could sum up my ideas on the matter they would be this:

1. Make everything very, very easy.

2. Use available tools instead of building propriety apps.

3. Cater to online chatter through qualified community managers.

4. Educate users pre-during-post event

5. Make networking fun and easy.

The education industry is engaging in an interesting debate between those who champion social media as a tool for students to take learning to a new level and those who attempt to keep it out of the classroom altogether. Many feel there’s no place for Facebook and Twitter in the classroom and the industry has been reticent to fully embrace the medium.

Facebook has made serious efforts to try and ensure they reach out to parents and the education community, addressing concerns regarding the use of the platform by children and teens. They have created a resource for teachers that answers some common questions such as what to do if you suspect abusive behavior on Facebook, how to hide your personal Facebook profile from your students and how to report underage users. Facebook requires all users be at least 13 years old.

All of this drama within the education field has made some industry leaders slow to adopt social media campaigns. The sad truth is that taking Facebook out of the equation ISN’T an option. Teachers, your students are on Facebook and you can either see that as an obstacle or embrace the platform as a new way to reach your students.

There ARE some big players making quite a splash on Facebook, so let’s take a look at what we can learn from the top Facebook pages in education. These pages aren’t directly dealing with the complex issues outlined above, but they are targeting and engaging parents and students quite successfully. I would ask any teachers out there that have good examples of how Facebook is being used to connect with students, PLEASE comment and share with readers below. continue

There is a race happening you might not be aware of. The race is for how your business controls and manages your social media. With some major players getting involved and some serious money changing hands this could prove to be a sector to watch. In this post, I’ll try to quickly summarize the most relevant platforms and what kind of businesses they are best suited for. Most only focus on Facebook, but all platforms listed have aspirations to work with other platforms.

Involver was one of the first Facebook application developers and continues to push out compelling products for companies. Bonfire has worked with Involver in past and overall they create a good product. They have jumped into the platform management ring with their “Enterprise” and “Business” solutions. They are very similar with Enterprise giving users every feature and product they make. I’ll focus on the features from Enterprise. If you want to read more about the “Business” product, click here. Below are Enterprise’s capabilities:

• 24 available “pre-made” white label Facebook applications
• Publishing on a claimed 40 media outlets. Most notable: Facebook, Twitter, WordPress
• Post scheduling on Media outlets
• Bit.ly analytic integration
• Social monitoring for keyword alerts
• Message Sentiment Measurement
• Message workflow management
• Internal analytic dashboard
• Up to 10 users

Price: Starting at $2,749 per month.

Wildfire started as a small FBfund (Facebook’s investing arm) company “way back” in January 2010. They initially created apps for pages that were simple to deploy and required no long term contracts.

As of June 2011 they have 120 team members and thousands of customers (we have used several of their products in the past). They have big aspirations to become not just an app developer for Facebook, but a fully functional social management system. In June of this year, Wildfire launched their Suite product. Here are their Suite’s capabilities:

• Drag and drop Facebook Tab creator: This feature requires no coding knowledge and can be updated frequently.
• Content Manager: The Wildfire content manager will allow for social media workflow simplicity and allow community managers to schedule and assign content posting on Facebook. This feature is very useful for companies with large teams or publish content with a high frequency.
• Promotion Builder: This allows companies to construct giveaways using a straightforward interface — drag and drop the text fields you’d like to require during the sign up, tweak the banners, then enter the official rules and you’re good to go.
• Dashboard: Facebook analytics can be difficult, but Wildfire’s dashboard can simply success metrics. Their dashboard shows analytics that are more detailed than Facebook’s standard Insights and you can even chart your progress against a competitor’s.

Price: Custom pricing. In a statement they say “low hundreds” to “low thousands”

Buddy Media is the gold standard when it comes to social media management. I mean gold as in both expensive and the best. They have every feature you could ever want in a platform and are fluent in all major languages. This is very important if you are a multinational brand that wants to segment your social media community. They currently service some of the largest companies in the world such as Starwood Hotels, Sony, Southwest Airlines, American Express and Ford. In addition to their impressive client list, they also recently received an additional $54 million in funding to grow out their infrastructure. Buddy Media can do everything Involver and Wildfire can and more. I’ll focus on the “and more” for the sake of time.

• Drag and Drop Facebook page development
• Multiple language support
• Real time analytics
• Scheduling and posting on multiple social platforms
• Large team workflow management

Price: Customized pricing. Most plans start at $5,000 per month.

I hope you have found this information helpful with any decision making in the future. If you have any you would add that I missed, please comment below.

Videos can quickly grab a customer’s attention and stay in their mind longer than a photo or even the written word. But how can you make your videos more interactive? Allow users to not only view your videos, but become immersed with them.

Annotations are a trusted, but under-utilized YouTube tool that can boost both page views and subscribers for a channel. A video’s power can be enhanced by using this simple (and free) tool.

Two examples of annotation creativity:

Interactive Promotions/Games

Annotations can be a fun way to promote products. Instead of a video showcasing a new line of toys, Hot Wheels used annotations and turned their YouTube videos into an online game. Users can choose both the type of car and add-ons to race. While it takes a lot of planning and video production, the end product is a seamless use of YouTube Annotations.

‘Choose Your Own Adventure’

Many adults remember growing up with ‘choose your own adventure’ stories. The digital versions of these use YouTube annotations to create a fun story. Fun and interactive, they can be a nice way to promote products or services in story-form.  And, unlike their hard-copy predecessor, you can’t skip ahead and change your mind!

More Practical Uses
While creativity is key to utilizing annotations, this tool can also be used to increase the number of subscribers.

• Subscribers: By using the Subscribe link type, your video can have a great call-out for viewers to subscribe to your channel, allowing for more video views and greater channel reach.
• Linking : If your channel has a lot of content, annotations can link these videos together. It not only keeps viewers on your channel longer, but also allows for a deeper understanding of your services, products or mission.
• Promoting Other Channels: Does your company have more than one YouTube channel? Annotations can help link these by promoting another channel in a relevant video. This can help to promote smaller channels from a large, central channel.

Where to begin?
Start by mapping out your annotations. Whether they are simple links to other videos, words of wisdom, or interactive elements, planning is key. Try to create a virtual path where users will be compelled to spend more time on your channel.

The actual creation of new annotations is relatively easy. Be sure to keep in mind both the placement and type of annotation.

Like anything, however, annotations can get out of hand. It is important to remember what makes videos great is the actual viewing experience. Annotations should be used to enhance and not detract from the experience. By having timely call-outs it can help increase the amount of time users both spend on your channel as well as the amount they share your content with others.

Learn More

Here are a few great resources for getting started on a YouTube annotations project:

How To: Use Annotations to Promote Your Brand on YouTube – A great step-by-step guide on YouTube annotations.

YouTube Help Guide - A simplified guide that can be used as a resource when getting started.

Television shows are a natural match for interacting and engaging with their fan base via social media. Part of this effectiveness stems from shows being serial in nature and the fact that many shows have a branded mythology behind it. While these factors can aid the conversation when the show is not airing, how do you interact with a television while it airs? Proper social media planning can make fans not only feel engaged with the show, but also appreciated.

A recent TV Guide study found that over a third more users Twitter to discuss a show while it is happening than Facebook. This begs at the question: How are shows utilizing Twitter and what can they do to make it better?

I have outlined a few examples below of how shows from different genres are using Twitter to ramp up real-time interaction with a show on-air, what they are doing right, and how (in my modest opinion), they can make it that much better.

Trueblood

True Blood does a wonderful job of creating an interactive Twitter environment. Beyond the usual show hashtags, they have created Bloodcopy.com which is the official place to follow all things related to True Blood on Twitter.  By compiling both the official profile and the character profiles, fans can interact and follow everything in an efficient, streamlined manner.

Glee

Glee is an interesting case. The show does an amazing job in general with social media. By acknowledging a Gleek of the Week each episode, they are fostering an engaged audience who feels valued and  appreciated. However, the various Twitter profiles from the main official profile to the various cast and characters seem to have a disjointed feel.

NCIS

Even though it was named one of the Top 10 most tweeted about shows by TV Guide, their official Twitter profile leaves a little to be desired. Despite having a handy branded hashtag (#NCSI), the profile does little to interact with the community, instead relying on mainly just promoting the show.

Top Chef

Finally, there is Top Chef, everyone’s favorite cooking competition show. Their Twitter profile (and the Bravo network in general) are leaders in real-time fan interaction. Both during the show and afterwards, the official Twitter profile acknowledges fans and answers their questions. A simple RT of fan feedback can go a long in making an audience member feel appreciated.

Summing It Up

How to make it better: Official profiles should not shy away from interacting with fans. By simply thanking fans or answering their questions directly, fans feel like their comments are being heard. While a fanbase may be interacting during an episode, engaging them can go even further.

Centralization: Part of the fun when interaction with TV shows is the blurring between reality and fiction. A tweet from Sue Sylvester can be a whole lot more entertaining than an official tweet. The key, however, is creating a central location where cast, characters, and fans can all tweet together (see the True Blood example above).

Fun Hash Tags: Branded hash tags are great for everyday use, but to keep fans engaged in real-time discussion, why not choose a catch-phrase from the current episode? This helps not only to increase interaction, but spur further conversation.