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B2B Fast-Track to New Media Success by Designated Editor

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It’s true: Most new media successes stem from B2C. And so many B2Bs seem lost. Designated Editor’s Suzanne McDonald offered a fast-track for B2Bs in this presentation, requested by Swissnex Boston and hosted by the Cambridge Innovation Center.

B2Bs & social media: Where we’re at

“Ninety-two percent of prospects almost never book a meeting from a cold call or email. In 2012, rather than make cold calls, sales executives will first seek connections through social media networks, and then increase response rates with warm introductions.” – UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, reported by Mashable.

Social Media Reality-check

AdAge recently reported:

“Although few CMOs will admit this, social media costs less to execute on a per-impression basis than TV, print, and radio. But the organizational cost – both the number of people needed to execute these programs and the changes to corporate culture – can be significant.”

Stage 1: Get your website together

Key components: WordPress, themes, usability & identifying with your audience

Tools: Keywords (Google Keyword tool) and use them in the right places (titles, meta & content)

Remember: Search is increasingly becoming more about social (Google Alerts)

Stage 2: Blog & email

Key components: Blogs enable you to demonstrate thought-leadership, brand personality; brand all of your experts as experts, not just the CEO

Tools: Editorial Calendars should include trade shows, industry news, client questions, processes; make it multimedia; leverage blog to feed email

Remember: B2B = P2P -> people want to interact with other humans, blogs & social make it possible, changing the way businesses interact forever

Stage 3: Social integration: Optimize profiles & content for you & team

Key components: Reserve brand profiles across platforms, determine which social platforms make sense, based on your audience

Tools: LinkedIn use verify leads, connect, community; Twitter enables fast engagement, use hashtags, SlideShare = decision-makers; YouTube #2 search engine; Wikis, PitchEngine/HARO, Zemanta, Podcasts, Meetup, Facebook, Pinterest, Quora, Google+ (too many to bold)

Remember: You don’t have to be everywhere, so focus on your audiences and where they are

Stage 4: Measure & refine

Key components: Know what’s working & what’s not: Refine & adjust

Tools: Facebook Insights, Bit.ly, Klout, Google Analytics

Remember: You won’t know until you try & each brand is unique (or should be), so there’s no 1 size fits all

Designated Editor is working on “B2B New Media Success Guide” eBook & would love to feature your tips. Please share in the comments & be sure to comment on anything we’ve overlooked.

Many thanks to Swissnex Boston and the Cambridge Innovation Center, looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Here’s to helping B2Bs succeed via new media!

Mad Men: More lessons to mine for Social Media

Don Draper Mad Men

Mad Men illustrates our evolution, but have we?

The Mad Men countdown clock is ticking down (too bad there’s no widget to post here), and I’m thrilled. Sadly, no time to use Betty’s party planner, but cheers to AMC for another season of lessons that can be applied to Social Media.

While the social media integration was widely commented on at South by Southwest Interactive 2012 (highlight posts forthcoming BTW), there’s so much more to contemplate.

Mad Men was also mentioned on a panel at the SES (Search Engine Strategies) New York conference yesterday. The panel discussed integrated marketing and mentioned the pitch Don Draper gives to Kodak when the slide “wheel” is introduced.

My Tweet about kicking off the Social Media Strategies course I teach with the Mad Men Carousel clip became a top tweet. Sorry there’s no embed, but click to watch: http://bit.ly/MadMenCarousel

Very evocative, no? This is how I want my students to think of the class: interesting, ever-evolving, which reflects where we are in this industry today.

The Sterling Cooper pitch provides a perfect frame for today’s students — and professionals: It illustrates how technology changes, but the desire for human connection pervades.

Meanwhile, my 2012 conference circuit is echoing: We’ll soon be dropping all the prefixes: e-marketing, online marketing, search marketing new media. It’ll just be straight-up marketing. I read a recent OMMA post that Social Media staffs are being fully integrated into the marketing departments. This make sense, no? You wouldn’t have an email department all by itself and only thinking about getting into inboxes (then what?)?

In essence, we’re all here to align what the company has to offer with customer expectations.

I can’t help but wonder what’s really going through the minds of the Millennials who’ve signed up for Social Media Strategies when I show them a pitch for a product that took consumers by storm decades before they were born. It’s an ideal starter to a class the focuses on engagement and interaction, and we start practicing these fundamentals on Day 1.

I’m eager to see how Mad Men keeps the conversation going, both in my class and in my mind.

What other lessons have you learned as Mad Men shows us a reflection of ourselves in another time?