By Alexandra Reid
With the rise of social media, today’s B2B sales landscape is more complex than ever before. There are hundreds of social media channels. Within them, a vast number of conversations are taking place, from short greetings to passionate discussions about businesses and their products, new social and technology trends, even what people had for breakfast.
The process of digging through these conversations, uncovering qualified leads, developing them into prospects and closing sales through social media is becoming even more complicated as revenue cycles shorten and large sales become less frequent in a struggling economy.
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This week marked the one-year anniversary of our new blog. We thank you for being with us and participating in our conversations, which covered a whole host of technology marketing issues.
Last month, we offered new counsel for startups from startup founders themselves. Screenreach, Host Analytics, CommentAir, Genevolve and NanoScale all weighed in on the specific issues that all entrepreneurs should be aware of, including the importance of strong teams, ways to overcome the status quo, how to ensure your product meets a specific market demand, attracting a flagship customer, and how to bring to market a compelling product that is protected by a rigorous intellectual property strategy.
We also explored the benefits that could come from industry and academia working together, what an IP coordinator should know and tribes in a techno world. Of course, this list just scrapes the surface. Read ahead for more.
January 3: When selling yourself as faster and cheaper is no longer enough: Part 2 by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
January 10: Putting your assumptions to the test by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
January 18: Wanted: Partners willing to take a leap of faith by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
January 23: What an IP coordinator should know: Are we getting value for our money? by David French
January 25: Dealing with the devilish details by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
January 30: Preparing for a major offensive by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
January 31: You really can achieve great things when industry, academia work together by Jason Flick
And on a related note…
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By Alexandra Reid
Vimeo recently announced a number of site upgrades that will help businesses upload, showcase and share videos faster, wider and more beautifully than ever before.
The video hosting and sharing platform’s popularity skyrocketed last year, with an 82 percent membership and 48 percent unique visitor increase from 2010. It’s a good thing then that Vimeo decided to update its features to compete with other popular video channels in 2012. As a huge fan of Vimeo myself, I look forward to seeing these numbers increase further, and with all the hype surrounding “new Vimeo” I suspect they shall. Vimeo even attracted the attention of BBC News, which reported that the channel could pose a significant challenge to YouTube in the coming year.
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This is the next entry in our “Best of” series, in which we venture deep into the vault to replay blog opinion and insight that has withstood the test of time. Today’s post hails from December 2010. We welcome your feedback.
By Linda Forrest
Customer service is an area of keen interest for us, as those who regularly read this blog will know.
It’s clear that the increased adoption of social media in recent years has had a tremendous, we think positive, impact on customer service. The fact is that online communications can act as a logical extension of effective customer service programs, but can also fail miserably if the organization doesn’t have a solid strategy in place as well as the systems to support that strategy, the people to run it and a commitment to ongoing success in this area.
Am I a customer service expert? No, but I am a life-long consumer, and an adept marketer of technology products and services. These two things combined give me a well-rounded perspective on how online communications, including social media, can be the lynchpin or the undoing of your reputation with customers, prospects and the industry in which you operate.
Let’s first examine the systems that drive your customer relations efforts.
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By Alexandra Reid
Although still invite only, Pinterest is skyrocketing as a popular social media platform among businesses and consumers. And while it’s not critical that B2B businesses launch their own boards right away, it’s certainly worth your while to check out the site and determine if and how it could be worked into a social media marketing strategy.
I’ve played around and done the research on behalf of our clients, and thought it might be helpful if I shared my findings for other B2B businesses interested in pursuing the new social channel.
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By Alexandra Reid 
