31 Jan |
Facebook: What have you done for me lately? |
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As a B2B marketer your quest is primarily to find new, quality leads. You may have a mix of lead generation tactics and processes that have worked for you and some that didn’t. In recent times, you may have also tried Facebook marketing. Did it do something for you…by way of lead generation? I’ve been thinking a lot about social media and why it appears so exciting for marketers in general. So, does the leading social media channel, Facebook have B2B fans? I think it certainly does. Just like the star-struck fans of a Hollywood celebrity or pop star—fans that swoon at a
Read more...24 Jan |
Let’s Put Social Media in Its “Place”…Remember that it cannot “Replace” Sales |
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At a recent business networking event, an excited senior executive was telling me all about his B2B organization’s brand new social media marketing strategy. I was curious to know what kind of results the company is expecting to see. With much enthusiasm and palpable optimism, the executive told me they were planning to increase market share by 20% over the last year. Not a bad target I thought, although I did not ask for details on numbers. Yet, when I probed further to ask what other sales and marketing initiatives were being put in place to achieve that goal the answer shocked, but
Read more...17 Jan |
Does Your Social Media Image Match Ground Realities…or is it up in the air? |
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Big brands are quick to communicate their “brand promise” across marketing channels. With the rapid evolution and near total adoption of social media marketing, it is now much faster and easier to communicate with your stakeholders. What the big boys need to keep in mind, however, is that actions do speak louder than words. Your website, company blog, Facebook and Twitter pages can say great things about your commitment to quality, customer service, blah, blah, blah…but if your target audience does not see this reflected in actual experience with your brand then you have a problem
Read more...29 Nov |
Social Media for B2B and B2C—A Carnival of Grasshoppers? |
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Many years ago I watched a TV show called Kung Fu where the blind Kung Fu master calls his young student a “grasshopper” as a term of endearment for one who still has a lot to learn. A quick Google search led me to a scene I remember and I’d like to share it with you. Take a look— Now I’m not claiming to be like Master Po—mainly because I am neither blind nor old! But I was struck at the time by the old man who could see and hear things that others (including the young “grasshopper” boy) could not. My reason for bringing this up here on my blog is because I see a lot of
Read more...26 Jul |
Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing for B2B – The Debate Rages On |
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Popularity is a strange thing – whether it is a high visibility brand, a car, a pop star – as the popularity charts go up the numbers on the opposite side start to grow too. It’s true, die-hard fans will always have a community that looks down on them (their taste). Same is the case with Social Media Marketing (SMM). You can love it, hate it, but you can’t ignore it. And so it continues to be a topic of debate in the world of business. How effective really is it? Is it only the racehorse for the consumer market or can B2B marketers gain significant ROI from social media marketing? I
Read more...01 Apr |
Evolution of Social Media for B2B Lead Generation |
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“Analytics is key” says Paul Dunay Social Media Expert “After 2 years of developing a strategy to deal with various types of social media conversations within Avaya we finally got the monitoring and routing of those conversations to be institutionalized within the firm. No small feat by any means but I just couldn’t imagine that the sum total of social media in B2B was just about monitoring and reacting to tweets all day. I felt there had to be much more we can do with the social data that we just can’t get out of monitoring. So I started looking at the social media analytics
Read more...22 Feb |
Twitter and B2B Lead Generation |
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When it comes to social media marketing no business wants to be left behind. It’s mostly free, elicits immediate response and has tremendous reach. Employees and executives are encouraged to ‘tweet’ new products/services and events, keep in constant touch with the target market and manage customer relations when the waters get choppy. And Hollywood thrives on it. However, while Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, etc. were earlier being used for B2C communications, today social media is being touted as a cost-effective B2B lead generation machine. Let’s look at some recent examples of
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