A Practical Guide For CEOs On Using Social Media – B2B Edition

“Some CEOs say they’re too busy for social media. I say it’s part of the job.” Jack Salzwedel – CEO of American Family Mutual Insurance Company

Salzwadel’s advice seems to be falling on deaf ears if a Domo and CEO.com study is to be believed. The report, published earlier this year, found that fully 61% of CEOs of the Fortune 500 had no presence on any social channel and the usage of social media by even the other 39% is underwhelming. No one is saying this is a good thing, though, and digging deeper into the “why” of such low CEO participation reveals that many of the reasons are internal to them rather than business-driven. Apart from a belief that social media is a young person’s game and a fear of repercussions from sharing something inappropriate, among the chief causes cited by CEOs was a lack of understanding of what to do on social platforms. At Midas Touch, we work with a bunch of B2B clients. As we go about getting their company on the social media wagon, the question of how the CEOs in these companies should use social channels often comes up. Let me use this post to share the recommendations we usually end up giving.

First some caveats. In keeping with the “practical” nature of this guide – this is a “nuts and bolts” set of suggestions intended for CEOs of mid-sized companies looking to leverage social media to help their business get ahead. We are not really addressing loftier goals like branding or creating thought leadership. Using social media for personal branding is also a story that will have to wait for another day.   

LinkedIn

A TrackMaven analysis of content shared by B2B brands across the leading social media networks over a 12-month period starting mid-2015, revealed that across several measures LinkedIn was the most popular and effective platform. That’s reason enough to have it front-and-center in our plans too. Here’s what the time-strapped CEO should do on LinkedIn.

1. Networking really is LinkedIn’s primary raison d'être. As soon as the, hero of our blog, CEO connects (meet, emeet etc.) with a customer, prospect or influencer, we recommend connecting on LinkedIn as well. As a matter of practice, the connect should occur very soon after the meeting so the interaction is still fresh in their minds. This also means that the LinkedIn profile of the CEO should be complete, with a professional head-shot and the relevant amount of information about the organization they represent. 

2. This CEO should post occasional, but regular LinkedIn status updates from their profiles. Except to share significant news, preferably the updates should be to about the industry at large rather than about their own company. This is to get into the eye line of a wider audience, positioned as someone with an interest in and a contribution to make to the space.

3. Our, now emerging from social exile, CEO should follow the company’s LinkedIn company page and like and share the content being posted there, especially if it leads back to the company website. This will help the visibility of the posts.

4. Keeping in mind that the CEO, who is the subject of our post, is time-strapped, having a regular blog may remain an ambition only. That being the case, blogs from the company blog absolutely can be posted from the personal profile of the CEO (with attribution). The topic of the blog, their tone and message and even the frequency of posting has to fit in with the overall positioning and network of the CEO. This helps to showcase the thought leadership of the company.

Twitter

Last year Social Media Today reported that B2B Marketers who used Twitter generated twice as many leads as compared to those who didn’t. Most B2B Marketers rate Twitter as the 2nd most effective social platform behind LinkedIn. Here’s how the CEO can work Twitter like a (near) pro.

1. Well, of course, create a Twitter handle and tweet regularly. Yeah – we already agreed that the CEO doesn’t have a lot of time so this does not have to be a flood of tweets daily. Let’s start with a measured, steady, sustainable pace. Remember, the tweets cannot all be promotional. We suggest a mix of personal thoughts that relate to the business, company news and content and also relevant content from the industry at large. People will follow the CEO if they see the twitter channel as a worthy source of informative content.

2. Something that should please the sales team - this is also a good way to connect with senior prospects, customers, and decision makers directly. I’m fond of saying that if you start a tweet with @BillGates, it will reach the man – he won’t react to it in all probability but really which channel gives you that kind of direct access? With such great power comes great responsibility, though – these connections are not to be milked too blatantly, be slow, be sure and don’t be salesy.

3. This is also a great place for our, now socially-savvy, CEO to listen. The aim is to participate in ongoing conversations by searching for #s (sorry – I should explain that is this an easy way for those in the know to identify tweets across the Twitterverse that refer to a particular topic) that are relevant. This gives great insights into what others have to say about the area you work in, or even what customers, prospects, and competitors consider important at the time.

4. Now that our CEO has become quite the social media pro let’s up the ante. Next on the agenda – live tweeting. Think of the many events and occasions CEOs attend. This is the time to make the handle more active – live tweeting the occasional relevant impression from the event floor is a great way to contribute to a larger conversation and gain some visibility for your own and your company’s point of view.

I think our CEO is now ready for the social world – right? In closing a word of advice. Not from me, but from Marketing and Customer Service thought-leader Jay Baer. He said, “Focus on how to be social, not how to do social.” That’s sound advice for all CEO’s looking to dive into social media.

On Why You Don’t Visit Facebook to Look For A Job Or LinkedIn For Hotel Reviews?

Staying Socially Afloat

About 3 and a bit years ago it seemed you couldn’t go a moment on facebook without someone sending you a BranchOut shout-out. The app was touted to help facebook make the pivot from being a place one visited to surreptitiously check back on one’s ex to the brand new jobs supermart. Perhaps unsurprisingly nothing of the sort happened and today BranchOut has transformed into a kind of workplace messaging app. This is a salutary tale - a reminder that each social network has its specific place and marketers have to choose wisely. Let’s take a brief look at some of the most popular networks and how your brand can best leverage them.

LinkedIn: My agency, Midas Touch, does a fair amount of work with B2B focused clients so it’s no surprise we love LinkedIn. The people here have professional motivations – network with their peers, build up a profile that attracts potential employers, seek information for their professional needs and so on. This is THE place to go if you want to paint a professional picture of yourself (or your brand). Research shows a significant percentage of engagements with companies on LinkedIn eventually convert into purchases with the operative word being eventually. Use the company page as a living breathing extension of your website, the Showcase pages as mini special purpose websites and the LinkedIn groups as a forum of your peers to learn from, participate in and promote quality content to get the most out of undoubtedly the most effective B2B Social Media Channel out there.

Twitter: Short, sharp, swift and ground zero for the momentary sensation. This social network is best suited for making announcements and updates including time-limited offers. If your brand counts on buzz then riding on the “breaking news” of the moment on Twitter – a witty aside or a meme-worthy image offers it the best chance of going viral courtesy the oh-so-easy RT. If you want to participate in an ongoing conversation or show your interest in or understanding of a particular market space Twitter offers that opportunity in spades through the intelligent use of hashtags and the curated presentation of relevant informative articles. Another unique opening that Twitter provides is the chance to directly get in the eye-line of influencers, opinion makers and possible large buyers – an organized, subtle campaign of following them, sharing what they share and sustained engagement could get you and your brand on their radar and eventually help convert them into trusted brand advocates.

facebook: Sometimes I wonder how did we keep track of the wonderful vacations our friends were taking in the dark days before facebook? Checking into facebook is now a many-times-a-day activity for hundreds of millions of users, also known as potential buyers, worldwide. The consensus of opinion is that these people look upon facebook as a personal space and are perfectly willing to seek information that would help them reach buying decisions across a variety of product and service categories that impinge on their personal lives. Brand pages and Fan pages are as, if not more, valid surrogates for the brand as the website or offline advertising. The marketer’s responsibility is then to keep the page active and always reflective of the values of the brand through everything it says. The potential is high for showcasing visual elements in the form of photos, albums, videos and graphics. Content that elicits engagement is king here – the currency of record is “Likes”. Fans happily “Like”, “Share”, “Comment” and “Tag” their way into an abiding relationship with the brand. The brand page is a close approximation of a customer community with all of the attendant advantages and disadvantages. The warm and fuzzy feelings of certain fans of the brand are just as likely to get airtime publically on the brand page as the rant of the disillusioned former fan. The marketer’s domain overflows into the customer service space here quite seamlessly and the brand has to be ready for that. facebook is constantly evolving – opportunities for brands abound as long as marketers stay in sync with the network.

There are several other social networks out there vying for the attention of your brand – Pinterest for creating special interest based communities, YouTube as a means of sharing video information and SlideShare (a part of LinkedIn) as a means of presentation format content dissemination all hold their own special promise – the challenge for brand marketers is to identify the specific purpose they aim to achieve and to then pick the right social media network best suited for that. After-all you wouldn’t go to facebook to look for a job or to LinkedIn to find a restaurant now would you? 

An Event To Remember - Pune Digital Marketers

On the 6th of Sept., 2014 my partner in crime at Midas Touch, Radha Giri, and I had the honour of presenting our thoughts to The Pune Digital Marketers. This group is an extremely active and enthusiastic group of professionals from the, no prizes for guessing, Digital Marketing space. We decided the session would be the perfect opportunity for us to present our oft-talked about but seldom exposed to the outside world idea - The Integrated Approach to B2B Lead Generation. 

In conversations with our clients in the BB space over the last year or so we have been trying to put in place a mechanism that allows each of the distinct functions within the Marketing, Inside Sales and Sales organizations pull in the same direction with the objective of increasing the effectiveness of all of them. There was also room for several popular social media techniques in the mix - social listening, social selling, content marketing, influencer marketing and the like. 

The session was wonderfully organized and well attended - standing room only as the picture shows. Radha & I were struck by the quality of the audience and the sharp questions. The entire interaction lasted close to 3 hours and while we cannot capture everything that was covered in that time the PPT we used may serve as a pointer. Some more info. can be found on Twitter by searching for #PuneB2BSocial - the official hashtag for the event. 

We look forward to more such events in the future - this was buzzing !    

http://www.slideshare.net/SanjeevNambudiri/an-integrated-approach-to-b2b-lead-generation-and-social-media

Sales In The Time Of B2B Social Media

Every sales person I meet has that nagging feeling that the rules of the game have changed. There is also the acknowledgement that Social Media may have something to do with that change. That being said the hard-boiled sales personality type set in the ways that have proven successful so far needs convincing before a new course is charted. In this piece I wrote for Social Samosa, India' leading social media news and information source, I tell the story of a legen-(wait for it)-dary sales closure that inspired many from the days before social media. Knowing what I know now I try to then find places where that story would be different today specifically due to the impact of social media.

The title of this post was originally "Sales In The Time Of B2B Social Media" in a kind of ham-handed nod to Gabriel Garcia Marquez but for many excellent reasons this was changed - better that than "One Hundred Years Of Solitude" one has to say.

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/07/sales-b2b-social-media/

B2B Sales & The Impact Of Social Media

B2B Social Media - Same Channel Different Story

In the past I had pointed to an article I had written in Social Samosa explaining how B2B Social Media is different from B2C. The focus then was on what are the different objectives and hence strategies that would apply. Knowing how social media would be different for B2B though is only half the story - how can you best leverage it's many forms and channels for the greatest benefit is the next important step.

In another article I wrote for Social Samosa I had tried to take a closer look at some specific social media channels - FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The article tries to set out some specific objectives that could be best served by each channel and also some thoughts on what sort of activities would shine best. I hope it helps you make a choice from among these channels when you yourself have to make your pick.

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/04/b2b-social-media-facebook-twitter-linkedin/

The Choice Is Yours!

In The LimeLight - An Agency Feature On Midas Touch Consultants

Staying afloat in the social sea

Regulars here would know that I am the co-founder of Midas Touch Consultants, a digital and social media marketing agency. The agency focuses on working with small to mid sized companies interested in leveraging the power of digital and social media for true business outcomes. My partner, Radha Giri, and I are both from a business rather than branding background and this tends to colour how Midas Touch approaches social media strategies - the focus almost always ends up being tilted in favour of business outcomes over just branding.

We have been getting attention from the right quarters over the last year or so. This link leads to a feature that Social Samosa carried on the agency - its interesting how they have set up the article. Apart from just introducing the agency and its key personnel (there's a snappy picture of me too - suit up!) it also tries to get at the soul of the organization - makes for interesting reading. Do read it to get a better understanding of who we are and what we believe in.

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/04/social-media-agency-midas-touch/

B2B Social Media - It's Different

When Midas Touch reaches out to the small and medium companies in the technology space that seem to form the staple customer for us a question we often encounter is how can B2B businesses like them leverage social media? A less polite version of that question is also put to us that B2B brands cannot really leverage social media and it's utility is limited to some amorphous "branding" push. Like every other pre-conceived notion this is based on a germ of truth - that being that the social media strategies we are so used to seeing in our day to day lives are heavily B2C focused. Applying them willy-nilly to the B2B context will only lead to failure. Once the realization sets in that B2B Social Media is different the next Q is how is it different specifically?  

To B2B Or Not To B2B?

In this article that I had written for Social Samosa I have tried to outline some very specific points of divergence between B2C and B2B social media objectives, strategies and plans. The article has got decent airplay - I would welcome you also to read and comment on what you think makes B2B social media different from B2C?

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/03/social-media-b2b/