What if you posted content and no one cared?

If you want to be good at social media in a B2B environment you need to be able to connect with your audience. Passive, one-way conversations don’t work in a social media setting; even if you’re trying to just fill an SEO need. If you really want to communicate your message and make a difference with your communication efforts you have to connect with your audience. This means that you need to plan accordingly for each platform, not only for the content you choose to post but also how they work (e.g. Twitter is more real-time than a LinkedIn group).

Here are some thoughts on how to make those connections.

• Ask questions that create a dialogue among your followers. If you wonder why no one responds to your posts it may be because they feel you’re not interested in their opinions. The easiest way to get over this is to simply ask a question and seek feedback.
• Get others to share content and ideas from and about you. There’s nothing wrong with reaching out to your followers to offer support; that’s why it’s called “social” media. Just be careful that you don’t over ask and remember that you’ll need to likely return the favor some day.
• Bookend your content around topics. If you have news around a product or service you can build further awareness and credibility around what you’re doing by posting third-party content around your news. This can help eliminate the “look at me” image you may be giving by just posting your news release, and in addition helps to show you are part of a broader industry news cycle and on top of the trend.
• Take the discussion offline. It’s always helpful to network offline and discuss how to create and leverage content to build connections. If you’re not going to at least one conference a year you need to change that. You should also leverage LinkedIn and connect with people in your industry or field. In fact, you should connect with all of us here at B2B Voices: Aaron, Arik, Kate and me.
• Benchmark against others. There will always be someone doing something better than you or different than you, so follow them and see what you can make work for your brand.

These are just a few ideas on how you can make your brand more valuable to your stakeholders. What is important is that you find a strategy that works for you to make those valuable connections. I’ll be speaking on this topic in June for a panel at the B2B Corporate Social Media Summit in London and will update this post.

If you enjoyed this post you may also want to read:

Navigating the Legal Road Map of Social Media

What’s your “I” in social media?

Four spring cleaning tasks for B2B communicators

Why LinkedIn’s Company Pages Now Matter More

Do most online communities fail?

Avoiding the one cup approach to social media

If You Want to Succeed Online Connect with Your Audience is a post from: B2B Voices

I recently was asked to meet and talk with a group of students in London at the Hult International Business School about the evolving profession of public relations. Juan Colmenares video taped the sssion and you can watch the full video here. Approaching this from my years of working for B2B companies, we discussed a variety of topics from resume writing to daily job responsibilities to how social media is changing the role of the communicator. Many thanks to Barbara Gibson who teaches the class and asked me to come lead the discussion.

You can follow the ongoing class discussion using #MGT360 on Twitter.

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy:

Yes, giving back to the profession makes a difference

The most important question you can ask

Getting Your Degree in Business Acumen

You are What You Read

Is Motivation the Key to Success?

The career path for public relations professionals is evolving rapidly

The Evolving Role of Public Relations is a post from: B2B Voices

10 Topics for My Social Media Marketing Class

I’m doing my third go-around this spring teaching Transformative Social Media Strategies, an executive education course at the University of St. Thomas Opus School of Business. This time I’ll be joined by Roman Gaponenko (@romanholiday), a colleague of mine with a particular passion for measuring all this social media work. The fun starts May 2 and runs Wednesday evenings for four weeks in downtown Minneapolis. We work hard to give B2B and B2C both their due.

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. For all the activity everyone’s undertaking in social media, so much of it is not especially strategic.
2. When marketing people own social media – which is common – they are often unprepared for the next United Breaks Guitars.
3. It’s rare to have the persona of the company align well with the persona of their social communications – and super cool when it does.
4. Let’s not confuse being an influencer with being popular.
5. A community manager for a consumer lifestyle brand brings a very different skill set than a community manager for a group of golf course superintendents. But both are skilled positions.
6. Social is becoming VERY global.
7. Social media requires organizational alignment and executive sponsorship to scale and have real impact.
8. Opportunities for marketers to bring the “real world” and social world together are immense!
9. There’s a fine line between viral and not.
10. Watch out for the impact of Big Data on social media marketing.

We’re going to have fun.

10 Topics for My Social Media Marketing Class is a post from: B2B Voices

Ten years ago, I decided to call Central Michigan University’s academic director of the Integrative Public Relations program. I graduated from the school in 1990 with a degree in Economics and wanted to learn more about their public relations program. It was a random call that to date has ended up making a difference in the lives of ten students. It also has meant an incredible amount to me personally.

Giving back to me has always been about helping out and getting students to understand the value of good communication — why it matters, how it can influence change for the better, and how it is evolving. In addition, I always have found it beneficial to learn from the next generation of professionals, who approach their future careers with enthusiasm, excitement and new ideas.

In particular, what I’ve found to be an obvious obstacle is that most students don’t understand B2B communications. The textbooks they read and examples in the news they see are all related to celebrities or retail/B2C brands. So what are ways to give back? There are numerous opportunities to provide value where you can help and be beneficial. Here are a few:

• High Schools: Most high schools in the US have a journalism program or a career center. If you are a recent college graduate this is a good place to start in order to sharpen your presentation and speaking skills. Contact your former school and see what they offer in terms of outside speakers for various programs.
• PRSSA: Your university likely has a chapter and they are constantly in need of speakers and professionals to come advise them on projects. Contact the academic program director for PRSSA and offer your assistance. While speakers are always welcome, you may find more value in helping advise on a project or with client work that the group offers to small and medium businesses. In addition, many of these students are looking for help in drafting a resume and learning how to apply for an internship.
• Degree Programs: Both at the graduate and undergraduate level, programs and classes are in need of professionals to bring real-world advice and examples to the classroom. Don’t be shy, get a hold of the academic program and tell them who you are and why you would make a valuable speaker.

One thing I’ve learned in the past ten years of helping out at Central Michigan University is the enormous amount of passion students have to learn. They ask intelligent questions and they really want to hear your answers. In fact, they openly embrace your feedback, but also will challenge it. I would encourage you to think about what you can do either based on my suggestions or on your own. I promise you that the personal rewards over time will go beyond anything you can imagine.

Yes, Giving Back to the Profession Makes a Difference is a post from: B2B Voices

I’m happy to be leading a judging team again this year for the Constellation Research SuperNova Awards and encourage everyone to check them out and see if you have a program that fits. Deadline is May 31!

The focus is on leaders and teams who have overcome the odds to successfully apply emerging and disruptive technologies for their organizations. Vendors, the focus should be on your customers. This year, my category is Future of Work, which is an interesting topic open to lots of creativity. Maybe the best way to look at the subject is to look at what a few of our judges have been writing on the subject, either in general or in their industries of interest, on some of their blogs. I’ll publish more of these in a bit so you can meet some of the other judges.

I'm leading the Future of Work judging panel. Please enter!

Yvette Cameron, Analyst, Constellation Research – Thriving in the Future of Work

Thriving in the future of work requires evolving traditional ways of thinking. It involves moving beyond standard “hire to retire” processes to those that “engage and inspire.” It demands an evolution from transactional systems to engagement and experiential systems, bringing context to people-centric applications to drive agility and flexibility.

Dennis Howlett, Blogger, Irregular Enterprise – Of Chickens and Eggs

In my experience companies rarely fail solely because of outside economic conditions or other externalities. They fail because they crush themselves from within. What made them great ceases to serve them going forward but because we can’t truly see into the future we always rely upon the past. It is the path of least resistance yet the path that is so fraught with the very risks the business is seeking to avoid.

Charis Palmer, Editor, Business Spectator – Running Gartner’s Post-Modern Tech Gauntlet

Gartner’s “postmodern business” is like Salesforce’s social enterprise, on steroids.

It’s Gartner’s way of describing what it will take for CIOs and IT managers around the world to shift their thinking to cope with the consumerisation of IT, and the massive trends of mobility, social media and cloud computing.

A world fuelled by what Gartner global head of research Peter Sonderguard calls the explosion of information, collaboration and mobility, enabled by the cloud. 

Valerie Khoo, Founder, Sydney Writers Centre

Watch some of her take-aways from SXSW! 

Click here to view the embedded video.

In Search of Great ‘Future of Work’ Stories is a post from: B2B Voices

Just over three years ago Arik Hanson had this crazy idea to start a B2B communications blog and asked me to contribute (this is now my 82nd post). I agreed, but didn’t realize at the time how much hard work it takes to blog, but that’s the point; it’s supposed to be challenging. My first post wasn’t exactly rocket science about the profession (So you want to be a B2B communicator?), but I’ve gotten better at it over the years. Since Arik’s proposal to me I have also started a personal blog and now contribute content and ideas to our company blog.

If you are still thinking about blogging professionally one of the best posts I’ve ever read about the topic is from Josh Brown, who answered the questioned, “How do you have so much time to blog?” The answer is easy — we don’t. Like Josh, it’s become an important habit that I enjoy. In addition, this post from Boing Boing this week on how to blog is a must read for both the novice and expert. In addition, many thanks to Francine McKenna who was a great mentor at getting me started on this blog and offered many valuable tips. From my experience with B2B Voices, I’ve become a better writer and more importantly a better thinker.

From all of us who contribute to this blog, thank you for reading, thank you for commenting and if you have been thinking about blogging for your B2B company, your clients or yourself, I hope this post was helpful.

Our most popular posts since we launched in April 2009 include:

Don’t Overlook the Power of LinkedIn Groups

What’s your “I” in Social Media?

Case study: Can accounting firms really be social?

Has Social Media in Financial Services Arrived?

Getting Your Degree in “Business Acumen”

What is social media success in B2B… and some examples

Why LinkedIn’s Company Pages Now Matter More

B2B Case Study: ShipServ

Integrating Social Media With Corporate Website: How Far Can We Take This?

Using video as a B2B marketing tool

Blogging isn’t Supposed to be Easy is a post from: B2B Voices

One of the main issues being discussed this year among B2B communicators is the concept around content. From curation our own content to fighting social spam, we are trying to figure not only how do we provide the best resources for our stakeholders, but also how to sift through the growing amount of data coming our way. One trend that worries me when it comes to content is the growing amount of brands who use social media as a one cup approach; meaning, they are simply filling their own cup with their own content. There’s no conversation. There’s no sharing of other data. There’s nothing separating it from a a newswire service. While that may fulfil the needs of legal and compliance, that’s really not a very exciting, fulfilling or strategic way of communicating.

As I thought more about this, I kept coming back to three reasons why brands take this singular cup approach and waste the opportunity at hand.

1. Resources: Managing social media channels takes time and effort, and as the amount of channels continue to grow this becomes more daunting. If this is the case, brands should either cut their losses from the channels they don’t use and focus on doing one or two really well. In addition, there should be some discussion as to how to add more people internal to help manage content and listen to what’s being discussed online. Four years ago it may have been easy for one person to manage all things social, but those days are
   

   Is your content only serving yourself?

   gone.

2. Compliance: Legal has likely put a lid on what can and cannot be done in social media, making the job all that more difficult. I’ve written a few times here that it’s imperative to earn and have the trust of legal, compliance and InfoSec in order to be successful. If you’ve spoken with them in the past don’t let those meetings deter you. Meet with them again and bring case study examples of your competition and other brands you emulate.
3. Lack of Content: I hear often from B2B communicators that their brand is too niche and finding new content on their site is difficult. This can be compared to the digital challenge of a blank sheet of paper. If you only look at your own content then yes, this will be a challenge. The reward of doing social media is expanding beyond what you see on your own site and finding content from other trusted sources that relate to your products and services.

Instead of one cup, how do you get to fulfilling multiple stakeholders and with multiple opportunities to engage with you? Here are some guidelines to consider as you look to have your content shared in a network effect.

1. Have a strategy. What are you trying to accomplish using social media? Is it to educate? Persuade? Change opinions? B2B brands that succeed using social media think about how they use the resources to their advantage and have a strategy in place. There is no way to win against your competition using these tools if you simply think about them as a way to publish news releases. The bottom line is you can’t do anything well — social or non-social media — without a strategy.
2. Expand your content: If you are only wanting to talk about your brand and share “legal approved” content you are missing the point and the chance to learn from a vast audience. There are numerous places to share and repurpose content that matters to your efforts and you should take the time to find them. In fact, you probably already share this information internally, so why not repurpose it for a broader audience.
3. Expand your resources: Everyone has internal champions for content and ideas. If you’re serious about using these channels than find the right people to help you. I think you’ll be surprised at how easy this can be. You don’t necessarily need to find people passionate about social media, but you should know the people who are excited about content
   

   How can you serve your many stakeholders?

   and specialized topics who can help.

4. Share your wins…even the small ones. Letting people know throughout the company what you are doing successfully goes a long way to educate them about the advantages of using social resources.

There are now three rules we practice when it comes to content: Work hard to have a supply of good content; have a constant presence on the sites that matter; and, share content from other trusted sources.

If you enjoyed this post you may also want to read:

Navigating the Legal Road Map of Social Media

What’s your “I” in social media?

Why LinkedIn’s Company Pages Now Matter More

Do we need a social index for businesses?

Do most online communities fail?

Avoiding the One Cup Approach to B2B Content is a post from: B2B Voices

Being caught up in the daily grind often makes us overlook the importance of regular maintenance. And with Spring coming now is a good time to review your programs. Here’s a checklist of things you should be doing as we end the first quarter of business and look ahead to the next nine months.

Spring is in the air...are you ready for the rest of the year?

• Check your schedule: If you have an editorial calendar of news and events take another look at it to make sure you are on track. If you don’t have one now is a good time to build one. Do you know what events are critical? What is your plan around them? What have you learned from past events so you can improve?
• Review your accounts: We all have our favorite channel of communication that we prefer to use, and it’s been a great resource for you in the past. Are you sure it’s still the best platform for you? As social networks have grown in size and numbers we now have more options at our fingertips than ever before. Take some time now to make sure you are still using the resources you need.
• Look through your website: I’m always amazed at the great content I find on our site. You probably will come to the same conclusion. You should build time into your schedule to know the issues impacting your organization and then seeing what you can find on your site. In addition, you should try to make this a regular part of your content management program.
• Think globally: I’ve written a few times about using the right tools to reach your international audience, so now is a good time to review what’s out there. Here’s the international information I found.

What’s important to remember is that this should be an ongoing process. As much as the theme of “spring cleaning” is a good way to remember to do this, you should build into your planning and strategy a regular routine of building on your programs.

If you enjoyed this post you may also want to read:

World-Class social practices for B2B companies

Do most online communities fail?

What drives your social media strategy?

Are you ready for a real-time B2B world?

Are you ready for these five trends?

The most important question you can ask

Four Spring Cleaning Tasks for B2B Communicators is a post from: B2B Voices

Two weeks ago,  I was fortunate enough to moderate a panel at the Finextra social media event in London on the “social enterprise” with three people who are helping define and redefine this space.

Jeff Saul is the CEO of Euroinvestor.com and has a long and interesting career in equity research. EuroInvestor.com was founded in 1997 and is today the leading investor portal in Northern Europe with 1.6m unique visitors per month focused on trading & investing, personal finance and lifestyle products. In February they launched the Euroinvestor Cockpit, which allows users to fully customize how they view the most important market data such as Stock, FX and Commodities prices and news.

Christopher Kelley joined eToro in February 2012, where he is currently UK Channel Manager and his CV includes developing a live trading room platform for FX traders as well as earning a Masters in Marketing with a focus on Social Media Marketing. eToro is the World’s largest investment network with over 2 million members registered to date.  The company brings traders together where they use a range of metrics and rankings used to illustrate the performance of traders within the network. While traders have typically had two analytical tools eToro brings the added element of Social Analysis

Your social enterprise success depends on your vision and strategy.

Giles Andrews is co-founder and CEO of Zopa. Launched in 2005, Zopa connects savers who are looking for a better return on their spare funds with creditworthy borrowers who are looking for a better deal. Its network has now lent £200m to approx 40,000 consumers.

But what is a social enterprise? Is it a business that’s integrated social media platforms into its marketing and support functions? Is it all about social CRM? Are we talking about a larger industry shift or a marketing slogan? Is it about making money? Or all of the above? Like so many things in the social landscape today there are varying views and opinions on how to define the space.

The resounding feedback from the panel; however, was that their success as a “social enterprise” surrounds engagement and advocacy from the networks they’ve built. It’s not just looking at ways to internalize the data nor is it making sure that everyone internally is using social media for the company. The focus moving forward from these three examples is that companies shifting to a more social foundation are doing so because they are engaged with their audience — they listen, they act and they react to customer feedback and information. The challenge in doing so, or perhaps the illusion, is that companies need to give up control of their brand. That most likely is the most difficult part to accept, but it’s more about being involved with your customers than sacrificing control as so many companies have discovered. For those of you who manage social media this transition is not easy as this post from DigiDay — Confessions of a Social Media Manager – reminds us.

As you think about ways to engage your company or clients into not just thinking but acting more social some ideas to consider include the following:

• Benchmark: It’s always best to show examples from in and out of your industry to prove a point.
• Strategy: I’ve made this point many times on this blog and when I speak, but you cannot be successful in social media (or any media) without a strategy.
• Measure: It will take time, but measuring your efforts and showing success will further help to improve your chances of success.
• Adapt: Great communicators and leaders learn to adapt to changing issues, technologies and business goals; your social strategy will need to change with all of these.

This idea of a more social enterprise is one that will continue to be debated and discussed as more business strategies shift to a social environment. Pulling together the items you need to ensure you can move your company in that direction will help better position you against your competition and make you a more valued communicator to management.

If you enjoy this post you may also want to read:

Social business or business communication via social media? — Carol Rozwell

Navigating the Legal Road Map of Social Media

What’s your “I” in social media?

Why LinkedIn’s Company Pages Now Matter More

Do we need a social index for businesses?

Do most online communities fail?

Defining the Social Enterprise is a post from: B2B Voices

The 2012 Gorkana survey of finanical journalists in the US is now available and I wouuld encourage you to browse the results. Here are a three excerpts I found interesting:

• Almost four out of five journalists (78%) have a neutral or positive outlook on the health of financial journalism over the next year. And of the 79% only 34% have a positive view on the future. I found that number to be low, especially given all of the financial news being generate in the past few years.
  

  Financial caffeine

• The top ten most influential financial news outlets as rated by journalists are: WSJ (72%); Bloomberg News (60%); NY Times (33%); Reuters (26%); FT (20%); CNBC (16%); Dow Jones (6%); The Economist (4%).
• How do they develop stories: reading newspapers or other publications (59.5%); personal interest or that of someone on staff (45.1%); readers/viewers/listeners emails or phone calls (32.4%); U.S. government news releases (31.9%); corporate news releases (29.4%). Corporate social media ranks last (5%) in this category, and based on the results this emphasizes that relationships do matter. I was hoping the survey would have looked more closely at social media as I think there are a number of ways journalists digest news and information — it’s not just all from a corporate account.

What did you think? Post your thoughts on the report in our comments section below.

A Look at 2012: Financial Journalists on the State of Financial Journalism is a post from: B2B Voices