How one company celebrates the power of being connected Meryl K. Evans, Professional Services Journal Editor interviews Rhett Glauser of ServiceNow Recently, I experienced the power of social media. I lost all applications on my BlackBerry when I installed a major operating system upgrade. Yes, I backed up my smartphone prior to the upgrade, and [...]
Recently, Adam Kleinberg, CEO of Traction, attended the iMedia Agency Summit where he tweeted a running commentary. He made sure he used the conference hashtag because he gets a lot of interaction from other conference attendees and followers. He received a message from someone who said, “I love your tweets. We’ve got to connect when I get there.”
Grasshopper Group is the company behind the 5,000 campaign, a rebranding campaign that included sending five green chocolate-covered grasshoppers to 5,000 influencers. The company used FedEx to create a sense of urgency and authenticity. A glossy white bag with an attached hangtag appeared inside each envelope. The hangtag had a URL leading to a video about the power of entrepreneurship.
Personal use of social media is widespread and is exploding in popularity. Business use is growing and evolving. Are nonprofits like hospitals involved? Yes, and more will participate as time and budgets allow.
Think back 25 years. Can you believe we didn’t have cell phones and a computer in every home and on every desk? The pre-cursor to personal digital assistants, the Palm Pilot didn’t debut until 1996!
Although it’s harder to get started because of size, approvals, layers of decision makers and other complications, more big corporations than ever use social media today.
With springtime comes blooming flowers and the start of a new baseball season. After the first rendition of “Take Me out to the Ballgame,” picture yourself sitting in a large stadium looking down on the bright green diamond and undisturbed brown dirt
We have a business-casual dress code in our organization, with casual day on Friday. However, a colleague dresses a little too casually on a daily basis. We’ve asked her to turn it up a notch, but she still wears shorts on Friday instead of jeans like most folks, short skirts or low-cut blouses that reveal too much. How can we encourage her to dress appropriately, especially since our first attempt to convince her failed? Or should we leave it alone and hope karma does its job?
— Team Lead
2010: The year social media went mainstream by Michael Brenner – B2B Marketing Insider Some predict 2011 will see the merging of Twitter and Facebook and the death of Foursquare. Michael Brenner shares his thoughts on what 2011 holds for B2B marketing in various areas and especially social media. What do you think 2011 holds [...]
Sometimes it feels like marketing and sales are on opposing corners like Republicans and Democrats. Never mind that research shows that aligning the two makes a difference. Instead, are they debating the right issues? Instead of function-oriented debates, try changing it into buyer-oriented one.
Articles about the use of social media in B2B companies heavily focus on how to connect with customers and generate leads. Many forget that marketing internally also matters. Internal market focuses on educating employees about its marketing programs, the company’s customers and prospects and so on. Every single employee can affect your company, so you need to ensure they all send the same messages.
How many times have you heard that a business uses social media to build its brand? (Yawn.) That’s a given. This article shows how nonprofits like hospitals can use social media to build a community while respecting strict privacy rules. The interview also contains advice on getting started with social media.
How does your business use social media?
Some B2Bs have found success in using Facebook to interact with customers and prospects. So it is possible. Just look at Cisco. This article offers a variety of ideas on how to use Facebook pages for B2Bs.
Doing more with less is the norm. In my opinion, employees should be thankful they have a job with decent pay. Yet, my staff continues to insist on raises even though we can’t afford them. Should I cave in and give the raises, putting my business at risk? Or should I hold firm, and let them find a better job if they want more money?
— Manager
Content Marketing Institute has released a report that 8 out of 10 marketers use social media, but only three believe it’s working for them. Turn that around with these seven ways to make your social media work smarter for your business.
What has worked for you in social media?
It’s easy to collect a lot of data. The hard part comes in making sense of it so you can act on it. The author offers up a solution in social intelligence, which involves gleaning insights from social communities.
What is an example of social intelligence?
This eBook provides insights and suggestions to close the sales and marketing gap. As a result of bringing the two teams together, they’ll better define qualified lead and processes for generation and nurturing them. The eBook includes insights from various b2b marketing experts.
What is most valuable advice you’ve picked up from the ebook?
Beware Peter Shankman uses strong words to make his point, but they’re important points marketers and executives need to hear. Asking how to get more followers, fans or likes isn’t the right question to ask. It’s about engaging and be there for your customers. Yes, engagement can bring in revenue. Just make sure your customer facing employees have flexibility to help.
How do you engage in social media?
One of my employees, let’s say Brad, has bad breath. Unfortunately, it’s not a temporary issue. I’ve tried all the subtle ways to adapt and change, but nothing works, and the idea of talking to Brad about his breath makes me uncomfortable.
Yet, I have to do something since I’m his manager. Should I give him a never-ending supply of chewing gum or is there a more tactful way to handle this?
— Manager
Recently, I worked hard on a project alone. The only help I received was from my coworker, Ed — but it was with resentment and, believe me, very minimal. The manager asked Ed who worked on the project. Ed said that I did it with his help. How can I get sole credit? Should I leave this situation alone or do something about it?
— Christine
The article reviews a survey that looks at how lead generation management (LGM) systems affect the roles of marketing and sales. In a nutshell: organizations where marketing takes an active role in the lead generation effort, technology is an enabler for marketing and helps the two work together better.
What solution, if any, is your organization using in lead generation?
Love how Rod Sloane uses cold war as an analogy in describing sales and marketing alignment, or lack thereof. Cut the detente’ and see better results.
When was the last time you focused on aligning sales and marketing in your company?
Often, companies cite brand awareness as the reason they use social media. Yes, it helps, but is it the most important goal? What about lead generation? Customer retention?
What’s your organization’s main goal for social media and why?
We’re not going to tell you to just jump in. However, we know that social media is scary and overwhelming for b2bs trying to get into it for the first time. Learn how one organization helped its employees enter the social media realm.
What fears, if any, do you have about social media for business? Or how did you jump in?
Recently, I worked hard on a project alone. The only help I received was from my coworker, Ed — but it was with resentment and, believe me, very minimal. The manager asked Ed who worked on the project. Ed said that I did it with his help. How can I get sole credit? Should I leave this situation alone or do something about it?
— Christine
At our company, most employees have Internet access at their workstations. Ordinarily, I don’t mind a few minutes of web browsing here and there for a break or even a little personal business. It’s the same as a quick water cooler conversation.
Yet as social media has grown and become a business necessity, more employees have started to hang out on these sites — and not always for work. Am I going overboard in wanting to control the amount of time employees spend online for personal surfing? How can I trust them to get the work done without curtailing this personal web browsing? Or does it really save productivity since they get the mental break they need?
— Nathan
Yet another article showing the importance of aligning marketing and sales. “A brand is merely the promise of an experience. In order to experience the brand, one must generally purchase the product or service of the brand. In order to purchase the product or service of the brand, you need to provide a selling channel.”
Marketing is about branding. Sales is about revenue. Putting both in the same boat and paddling in the same direction will make those a reality. But of course, there are challenges in getting them in the same boat going in the same direction.
What other challenges do you see in aligning marketing and sales?
Download the free 20-page guide on how to create a marketing plan that incorporates personas, builds a team and uses different demand generation approaches. The guide also includes tips for building a sales and marketing machine, staffing, timeline and budgets.
What do you think of the advice given in the blueprint?
The article reports that Forbes and Google conducted a survey of 354 executives and found that over 50 percent of the under 40 have a work-related blog, show on up Twitter and visit social networks often.
Valeria connected with experts to ask them for their thoughts on why and how B2B companies benefit from including social media in their marketing strategies.
What’s your experience with B2B social media?
This great list sorts the resources into categories including how-to, case studies, networking and presentations. What are your favorite go to resources for B2B social media?
The concept of the virtual event, long a notion prompting predictions and fears of live events’ demise, has achieved an ironic feat. Far from threatening the vitality and existence of traditional events, virtual events bolstered by social media have strengthened the appeal of in-person professional gatherings across all industries, and will soon be crucial to most brick-and-mortar trade shows.
Since it’s impossible to add another hour to the 24-hour day, I need an alternative. How can I find time to do all the things I need to complete at work? No doubt, many managers/supervisors deal with this challenge. How have you overcome the “I can’t get everything done” syndrome?
— Ed, Manager
At our company, most employees have Internet access at their workstations. Ordinarily, I don’t mind a few minutes of web browsing here and there for a break or even a little personal business. It’s the same as a quick water cooler conversation.
Yet as social media has grown and become a business necessity, more employees have started to hang out on these sites — and not always for work. Am I going overboard in wanting to control the amount of time employees spend online for personal surfing? How can I trust them to get the work done without curtailing this personal web browsing? Or does it really save productivity since they get the mental break they need?
— Nathan
This article takes you through the process of aligning sales and marketing in the lead flow process. It also identifies alignment problems and how to work through them to gain qualified leads and close the deal. And aligning marketing and sales is indeed a journey, not a destination.
What do you think of the article’s approach?
If you’ve been reading the articles we share on marketing and sales alignment, you understand why it’s important to get the two teams in sync. But how do you make it happen? What I like about this article is how it breaks down the five ways without overwhelming you. It’s not a long article.
What do you think of these five tasks?
