Ad Your Comment Here - Latest Comments

Re: Education & Thought Leadership Will Drive Most B2B Content Production Plans to Be “Brick Heavy”

PeterJ42 — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:47:19 -0000

These are not either/or.

The centrepiece is the thought or research. This can then form a long, in-depth document and/or a a host of shorter ones, more focused to an audience, stage or message. Often the shorter documents act as standfirsts for the longer one.

In many companies, however, the long document is long because it is unfocused - it is like a newsletter trying to have an article for everyone. Often this is to appease a salesteam who still want their oldfashioned collateral, often it is because the delivery methods aren't well focused but still send everything to everybody.

If you stand back and consider the buying team and what will move each of them to the next stage, then you will have a much more focused set of documents with both light touch and deeper delve options.

Re: SEO or social search: What’s a B2B communicator to do?

Nick Stamoulis — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:42:01 -0000

B2Bs that aren't content generators should be. In order to improve visibility online today and improve a search engine ranking, you need to produce quality content on a regular basis. It's the content that establishes trust amongst target audience members and the search engines over time.

Re: Other Voices: Julie Meredith, Radian6

Aaron Pearson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:08:12 -0000

Great post! In particular, worth noting that when banks face any sort of reputation crisis (and there seems to be one every week somewhere), they play out both online and offline, and the communications, executive and legal teams need to be ready for that. Thanks Julie!

Re: Do Most Online Communities Fail?

Allan Schoenberg — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:50:58 -0000

Chris -- Thanks for the note and really it seems to all come back to listening doesn't it? I hate people judging success based on the amount of conversations. The foundation of all of this goes to just paying attention and understanding what is being said. I like your comment on be "effective" -- and that is something to always consider when measuring success.

Re: Do Most Online Communities Fail?

Allan Schoenberg — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:49:03 -0000

Rachel -- Very well said.

Re: Do Most Online Communities Fail?

Rachel Happe — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:28:42 -0000

My pithy response is that all communities look like a failure before they look like a success... because they are not like light switches. The key to understand is whether you are effective at driving behavior change in the community you have (and like Chris says, all organizations have a community whether they choose to recognize it or not). If you cannot effect a change in behavior in your community that is more efficient or effective than your other means of doing so, you should not scale your community and yes your experiment in community building may have failed. If you can effect a behavior change but it's not at a scale that is impactful to the organization, you have a different challenge on your hands - but it's not one of failure - it's a milestone on your path to success.

Re: Do Most Online Communities Fail?

Chris Selland — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:58:24 -0000

Many communities do fail but that's really not the point - the majority of large organizations are still at the 'paving cowpaths' stage with their communities. What's important is to recognize that customers are increasingly social and communicating and interacting with each other. Whether that interaction is taking place on YOUR community, your competitor's community or a third-party community site (and often, it's all of the above) what's important is to structure your efforts in a way in which your interactions with them are as constructive & effective as possible.

Re: The Role of a Social Media Communicator During a Crisis: A conversation with @Chrisbrogan

Kate Brodock — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:53:31 -0000

Toby -

Thanks for your insight. I'd love to hear more and I'm happy to chat with you about this. You can email me at justkate @ syr.edu!

Kate

Re: The Role of a Social Media Communicator During a Crisis: A conversation with @Chrisbrogan

Toby Phillips — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:41:33 -0000

I'm a grad student in the Public Communication program at American University and I've actually been looking into the debate you've posted above. My grad thesis may actually focus on it. I've noticed large corporations make very limited statements (I'm assuming on purpose) on Twitter. The "business as usual" model seems to be the standard, right now. My gut is that adding to the conversation via very social avenues only increases negative attention to the organization.

If you have any recommendations or other observations on the subject, I'd love to talk to you.

@tobycphillips

Re: Is Social Media Central to Your B2B Communications Strategy?

Allan Schoenberg — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:41:56 -0000

Some very good points Aaron. I think companies are still struggling with who "owns" social media. B2B companies typically already lack the resources of B2C companies, which I think puts more of an empasis on having an internal champion. But I can see this changing as more customers use these networks.

Re: Is Social Media Central to Your B2B Communications Strategy?

Allan Schoenberg — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:38:30 -0000

Many thanks Nick and this is clearly a trend to watch. There is still plenty of room to grow for B2B marketers.

Re: Is Social Media Central to Your B2B Communications Strategy?

Nick Stamoulis — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:21:20 -0000

If social media isn't part of a B2B marketing strategy yet, it should be. Social media is used differently by B2Bs than B2Cs but it's still important. No matter what your industry is, your target audience members are using social media and it shouldn't be ignored.

Re: Is Social Media Central to Your B2B Communications Strategy?

Aaron Pearson — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:10:38 -0000

Allan, I think on social the answer is no, not yet. On digital, the answer is maybe. Marketing dollars are hard to come by and it's tough putting a ton of investment into activities that are hard to measure. So there's tremendous incentive to build a program around an effective website and content strategy supported by online media where activity and ROI can be more clearly tracked and established. But in many cases, you still need buzz to establish yourself it social is important but it may start with traditional media. And face-to-face events and conferences and just really important complements to online activity.

Re: What Drives Your B2B Social Strategy?

MyTradeZone — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:11:18 -0000

Interesting thoughts, with good links I'll check out. "mak[e] sure your social media strategy aligns with your business and other communication initiatives. It should rarely be a silo."

I agree 100%, and I think it's great that more and more B2B companies are realizing the power of using social networking to connect with customers, keeping their business strategy in mind, and not mindlessly accumulating more fans/followers.
Will be a great year for B2B social media.

Re: What Drives Your B2B Social Strategy?

Aaron Pearson — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:25:38 -0000

I need to read through Jeremiah's report, but I agree with you Allan about the struggle with strategy. And strategy clearly comes from informed research and that's what some of those tools are supposed to provide. Their proliferation has reached absurd levels and most of them add so little value, kind of like an add-on to Microsoft Word that let's you make text bold or italics. I would just note there is very much a role for paid research a la talk to your customers/prospects! It is amazing what you will learn.

Re: Some more thoughts on Gary Vanerchuck’s “there’s no such thing as social media”

Alex Butler — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:21:54 -0000

I said there was no such thing as Social Media 3 years ago, get with the program, jeeezuz.

Re: Your Game Plan: Focus on Fans

Allan Schoenberg — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:26:39 -0000

Thanks for the comment Albert. I think B2B fans want two things from a company -- a winning team (e.g. positive news) and someone they can trust. If you are a trusted source through the good and bad times people will value your cmpany more and regard you as an organization they want to be associated with for the long-run. For example, I'm a long-time fan of Amazon. I don't always agree with their decisions, but I so support them and I want them to win. I'm also proud to be associated with them as I read my Kindle on the Tube.

Re: Your Game Plan: Focus on Fans

Albert_Maruggi — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:47:06 -0000

ah yes Allan all this is very true. Let's go down a hypothetical path. What happens when fans see they are extensions of "content marketing" Social seems to be increasing the ante for fans, measuring activity, influence, etc. What will fans want in exchange?

Re: Social Clutter or Social Clarity?

Allan Schoenberg — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:38:12 -0000

I have to be honest, Instagram is my idea factory as of late. If you can't tell by now all of the images I've used are from that app.

Re: Social Clutter or Social Clarity?

Allan Schoenberg — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:37:28 -0000

Thanks for the comment Nick and agree with you. Smart marketers know it's about engagment and two-way communication. Those that don't are doomed to fail as you state.

Re: Social Clutter or Social Clarity?

Allan Schoenberg — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:36:34 -0000

There's a Ron Burgandy Lego set?!?! How did I miss that?

Re: 2012: No Predictions, Just Actions

Allan Schoenberg — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:30:55 -0000

Jeff -- Thanks for stopping by and reading. A couple of comments based on your thoughts. First, yes, part of our plan always is to look at other providers (e.g. media, bloggers, vendors, partners) and how they can help us push our content out. There's a network effect based on leveraging those resources that help us. Second, as a start up I think the mistake most often made is two-fold: the need/desire to have something go viral and the trap of having to do everything. My suggestion is to focus on meeting the business strategy first by looking at what resources can be best used and second to focus on customers. If you focus on provding exceptional products/services then your customers will tell your story -- on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. and that's more powerful than any marketing campaign.

Re: Social Clutter or Social Clarity?

Michele Lewis — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:47:14 -0000

I don't see Ron Burgundy in the photo.

Re: 2012: No Predictions, Just Actions

pointsnfigures — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:33:51 -0000

Interesting. Do you plan to push content to other content providers in hopes that they will use it? If you were a start up, would you make YouTube videos about your product or process and push them to relevant content providers that might run or link to them on their website as a strategy?

Re: Social Clutter or Social Clarity?

Nick Stamoulis — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:55:06 -0000

Tools like Hootsuite can certainly make the process easier. It's just important not to rely too much on automation. Social media is about being social. Followers will see right through the robot posts.