Posts Tagged ‘B2B’

Is LinkedIn Answers Worth the Investment for B2B Professionals?

Surprisingly, many business professionals still do not know what LinkedIn is supposed to do for them beyond connections. LinkedIn is a feature rich social site that is all business all the time. In this post, we will discuss how LinkedIn Answers can be a strategy that helps build strong networking relationships with people who you already know, as well as, those you would like to know.

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Does Your Company Think Social Media Is Just A Fad?

Social media has been around for a few years now and is finally becoming useful for personal, professional, and business reasons.

However, many B2B companies still believe social media is just a fad.  Some companies might see that social media is not a fad but believe that it is not applicable to their industry.  Often, even when a company acknowledges that social media is valuable, their online life does not reflect that understanding.

Has your B2B company fully accepted the power of social media?  If not, perhaps the following satistics will be very convincing:

Original source:  Social Media Today

In what ways has your company embraced (or not embraced) social media?

Community Manager: The Best Bet For Corporate Social Media Success

Community Manager Motto: Remember why we party.

When I think of the job title, community manager, I think of a very enthusiastic smiling face that belongs to someone with a lot of contacts floating around in their head.  Ten years ago, the term community manager was not even in existence as it pertains to social media today.  In 2011, the community manager is emerging as an integral part of preparing a company to embrace social media.

Social media represents a big change from business as usual.  It’s disruptive and frightening for the staff member who may be more concerned about losing their job over a tweet than solving a customer’s problem.   On the flip side, it can be confusing and frustrating for the customer who is trying to connect to a company only to hear nothing but echo after they tweet.

So what is a community manager’s role in helping the company shift to a social mindset?

In a nutshell, it is to educate, communicate, and motivate across all departments.  Seventy-five percent (no survey for this number, I’m just saying) of a community manager’s time should be invested in communicating to the staff why the change to social.  Yet, it’s not enough to say, here it is good luck.  People can’t utilize what they don’t understand how to use.  I know how to use Excel but some of my old employers thought that should mean being proficient with pivot tables.  Ok, this is not a common function; a little training class would have been appreciated.  And in addition to all that, the community manager needs to understand how to encourage people to change, make it fun and rewarding.

What is the biggest mistake that companies make when hiring a community manager?

You might think that it is hiring or promoting a person that doesn’t have deep knowledge of social media and that could be a problem.  But, lack of executive support is the biggest issue.  Let’s face it, change must come from the top.  If the CEO and VPs are not actively using social media then a community manger is fighting a fierce battle to change company culture alone.  When I’m consulting at companies where the CEO is at the meeting but not in the meeting, I know this company has an uphill climb.   And there are some very good reasons why a deep cultural shift must take place; Facebook has 500 million users and the sales funnel may be dead.  Need I say more?

What are the two most important characteristics of a great community manager?

Great Communicator

This means a social butterfly or a people person.   A community manager must be effective at communicating the value of social media to customers as well as the corporate employees.  They should listen well then participate in a way that causes others to be interested enough to engage with them and the company.

Great Strategist

This person has to be able to see the big picture for all the schmoozing they will do.  In the end, this whole effort is still about revenue.  No matter the action, tweeting, facebooking, blogging, partying the main reason has to be getting people excited about the brand’s offering without being a hustler.  Now a days we say don’t shill.

Social media is remaking the traditional corporate culture.  Are you a company leader who is wondering how to reach your business goals in this “new media” day?  What are some of the reasons why (or why not) you hired a community manager?  If you have a great community manager, give them a shout out!

LinkedIn’s 60 Million Members Means Business For You

Wow, I’m really loving You Tube.  Until now, if I wanted to see someone show me the steps of the latest dance craze then You Tube was my Google.  But since I’ve become very serious about using it to research more serious subjects, I can see that there really is a lot of valuable information to be had.  Many people are very generous.

I’m sharing this video with you because Kyle Flaherty at Breaking Point Systems gave a great talk to the company’s global sales force.  In the presentation he shares some key points about using LinkedIn for B2B sales.  With over 60 million members, of which all Fortune 500 executives are a part, LinkedIn is not to be ignored if you’re serious about growing your business.

In general he reminds us to:

Be a resource: what’s in it for your connections

Don’t interrupt: be helpful

Connect after meeting: keep up with the people you meet in person

Be current: use LinkedIn applications to make your profile interesting

Update your profiles everywhere: when you find yourself listed on LinkedIn like sites update the profile

How helpful has LinkedIn been for you to grow your online presence and prospect for sales?