By Alexandra Reid
Readers of this blog likely know that we work exclusively in the B2B marketplace. It has been common knowledge for some time now that social media is not limited to B2C companies; rather, B2B companies are succeeding (if not dominating) in engaging with online communities through social media channels. It is an exciting time for our clients, who are both intrigued and excited about the potential social media presents for allowing them to engage with prospects, customers, journalists and industry thought leaders.
B2B companies are excelling past their B2C counterparts in social media in many areas. Just check out these data points from a study conducted by Brian Solis:
- 81 per cent of B2B companies maintain company-related profiles on social networks, compared to 67 per cent of B2C.
- 73 per cent of B2B companies monitor brand mentions, compared to 55 per cent of B2C.
- 66 per cent of B2B companies engage in discussions, compared to 43 per cent of B2C
- 50 per cent of B2B companies upload content to social networks, compared to just 32 per cent of B2C
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Thank you for being with us for the fourth month of our new blog. Although a bit late, here is a recap of our posts from May in case you missed them, beginning with, in chronological order, the latest installments in our ongoing series on getting technology to market, The Commercialization Ecosystem, which covered a great swath of topics including government and education’s role in the startup ecosystem, cultures of risk, intellectual property, sustainable viable products and other pearls of wisdom.
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By Alexandra Reid
I am a fortunate community manager because I get to both write social media strategies and carry them through. This seamless process allows me to have a firm grip on the day-to-day online activities of our clients with the foresight to effectively steer these activities to reach long-term goals.
While it is beneficial to have a team of professionals that handle the areas of social media in which they are specialized, there are some major obstacles to this approach, especially for new ventures that do not have bottomless budgets to devote to the cause. For social media to be planned and carried out in house requires a dramatic reorganization of the departments that would handle the accounts (usually a battle between marketing and sales) as well as a huge commitment of time and resources. Alternatively, if you wish to outsource social media to a large agency, you run the risk of paying a small fortune for senior professionals to handle your accounts, while, unbeknownst to you, the bulk of the tasks are handed down to the juniors.
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By Alexandra Reid
Outsourcing social media has received mixed reviews and it seems that this debate is growing fiercer as businesses become increasingly more aware of the enormous impact social media can have on their reputation. This heightened awareness likely stems from a combination of horror stories of outsourcing gone wrong, such as the well-studied case of Chrysler’s social media disaster, and what seems to be a recent increase in research in this area conducted by social media consultancies, internal marketing departments, PR and marketing agencies and third party publications.
In our view, outsourcing social media is both safe and effective if you are judicious in selecting an external partner that is worth its salt. It is no secret that damaging and irreversible mistakes can occur in social media, so it is vital that you chose a well-established agency with a history of above-standard communications that knows your business through-and-through and that there be an iron clad, error-proof system of review between agency and business. This study conducted by SocialMediaToday on in-house and outsourced social media advises businesses to establish visibility into what the agency handling their social media activities does and make sure they are tracking, measuring and course-correcting constantly. We couldn’t agree more, having established these connections for open communication with our clients where each and every message sent out is reviewed, scrutinized and improved and where questions can be asked and responded to with immediacy.
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By Alexandra Reid
As in all marketing efforts, establishing benchmarks and measuring metrics in social media are fundamental to determining success.
Benchmarks are the standards against which all measurements and metrics are measured. In order to determine if a social media strategy is effective, businesses must establish their desired outcomes and what it will take to achieve those outcomes. To track progress, key performance indicators, including competitive performance metrics to reach these targets, must be determined. But how do you determine benchmarks and which data points require measuring? And, more importantly for startups, how can you measure and track these metrics consistently to ensure targets are being reached on a limited budget?
The difference between metrics, measurements and benchmarks
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By Alexandra Reid
