You’ve just been handed the job of setting your company’s B2B Social Media Strategy and gaining executive buy-in across the leadership team. The job is often handed to the PR pros, online marketing executives, customer service managers, or anyone who recognized the power of social media early on.
Early on you saw the potential power of social media through direct engagement with customers – and now you’re tasked with setting the social strategy and direction for your company. After all, who else can lead your company down the path to social media success but you?
The good news is that you are not alone! There are numerous articles and tips out there to help you. In this post, I will try to break it all down to help you get started with a step-by-step approach.
Step 1: Help them see the new reality.
The world has changed – almost overnight. Social media is powerful in its numbers, influential in its reach, and has gone beyond the so-called “Tipping Point” according to this latest eMarketer report.
Executives like hard numbers and facts but they also like to be entertained. Show them the popular video Socialnomics: The Social Media Revolution, now in its 2nd release.
Are they still unconvinced? According to this Hitwise Intelligence report, social media is now bigger than search. And according to Morgan Stanley, social media users surpassed email users in July of 2009 but social media usage surpassed email in November of 2007 (based on time spent). Bottom line message: social media is important, is here to stay, and your company risks falling behind.
Step 2: Demonstrate that social media is influencing business decisions.
The discussion should not be about the technologies or the tools. It is about relationships. And because of the connections they are making online, your customers are using social media now more than ever to make business decisions, according to this report from Forrester. Or you can check out this report Inside the Mind of the B2B Tech Buyer from Chris Herbert, B2B Specialist & Founder of Marketing Integration firm Mi6. In the report, Chris condenses research from Forrester, IDG, and others on the influence of social media on B2B buyers.
Step 3: Be ready to answer the hard questions.
A good pitchman is ready for the standard objections: “Yeah but where’s the ROI?” is usually the first. You can see my answer to this and more in The 7 Burning Social Media Questions but don’t take my word for it. Show this B2B example: How IBM Uncovers “Millions of Dollars” Worth of Sales Leads with Social Media. It is important to convey that the opportunity cost of not participating in social media is real, but the bottom line value is in what can be gained from customer interaction and engagement.
Step 4: Show them the way.
One great example of a social roadmap is the Altimeter Group’s Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management. But for me, it breaks down into these simple stages:
- Listen – Report the news by monitoring the conversations as they are happening on social channels.
- Respond – Be prepared to mitigate brand risk and employ crisis management, resolve customer complaints, or even deliver on a request for a proposal.
- Amplify – Gear up your internal teams to share good news, success stories, or customer passion about your brand.
- Engage – When ready, begin to orchestrate across all departments to incorporate social media into the fabric of all customer outreach in campaigns, events, sales, and support.
Step 5: Social media adoption.
The biggest leap of all may be convincing your executive team to not only embrace the power of B2B Social Media, but to use it themselves to bring a more open and authentic image to your company and brand. You can cite Altimeter Group’s founder Charlene Li who has recently written a book on the subject called Open Leadership expertly reviewed by Jeremy Victor. Or better yet, invite Charlene or Jeremy to work with your company. Nothing can humanize your brand more than getting the top leaders of your company to speak in an authentic way straight to your customers.
With executive buy-in of your b2b social media strategy, you are now on your way to becoming a social media rock star.
You will certainly have many more questions along the way. So for additional support, I have included some of my favorite experts’ tips in the links below:
Shannon Paul’s 28 Step How To Develop A Social Media Strategy.
Jay Baer’s Develop a Social Media Strategy in Seven Steps
Jason Falls’ The Key to Developing a Social Media Strategy
Image Credit: Some Rights Reserved
About the B2Bblogger: Michael Brenner is the author of the B2B Marketing Insider blog and serves as Regional Director of Online and Social Media Marketing for SAP, the worldwide leader in enterprise software. Michael has been working in marketing and sales for over 16 years in various roles with companies such as the Nielsen Company, software start-up FullTilt, and International Communications Research (ICR). Michael’s sales, product development, online, search and social media marketing expertise provide him with the unique perspectives that today’s market requires.
This post is brought to you through a partnership between B2Bbloggers.com and the B2B Search Strategy Summit.
