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Archives for October 2013

How to Turn a B2B LinkedIn Company Page into a Sales Tool

linkedin company page b2bTime to get back to marketing basics on LinkedIn. There is no better social network for business-to-business (B2B) marketing than LinkedIn. Over 200 million professionals actively use LinkedIn for networking and career development, and companies are seeing great results from LinkedIn marketing efforts.

In 2012, a HubSpot study found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter, and in 2013, HubSpot found that 43% of marketers had found a new customer on LinkedIn. Recently, AdWeek reported that 43% of marketing agency executives believe LinkedIn is the most important social media vehicle for generating new business leads according to a new study by RSW/US.

Here are tips to turn your B2B LinkedIn Company Page into a sales tool, so you can get some of the positive results that other B2B companies are seeing on LinkedIn.

1. Create a Keyword-rich Overview that Sells Your Company

First, you need to attract potential customers to your website. Don’t skimp on your company overview. Instead, be sure to include keywords that your target audience would use when they’re searching for a company, products, or services like yours. Your overview should sell your company, not bore visitors. Compel them to click around and get to know more about your products and services rather than click away and never return again.

2. Invest Time into Creating Amazing Product and Service Pages

Once you’ve attracted potential customers to your website, you need to show them what you offer and how your products and services can benefit them. Develop comprehensive product and services pages that explain your most popular products at the very least. Don’t simply copy and paste content from your website or sales brochure. Instead, focus on why a LinkedIn user would visit your company page, and succinctly deliver the information they want and need. Consider creating targeted product and services pages for specific segments of your audience.

3. Don’t Forget Your Employees are Your Best Brand Advocates

Next, you need to find more ways to attract prospects and jump start word of mouth marketing. Your employees play a big role and should be your most vocal brand advocates. Make sure your employees understand their role in building your brand and business by acting as brand advocates both online and offline. On LinkedIn, they should connect with your company page and engage by liking updates and commenting as appropriate. They’re LinkedIn Profile pictures and names appear in the sidebar of your Company Page in a special employee section, so visitors can see if anyone in their own LinkedIn networks works for your company. It’s one more way to build a connection and add a level of trust with prospects.

4. Ask Your Clients and Customers to Review Your Products on Your Company Page

Now, it’s time to start developing your social proof to deepen the trust in your brand among prospects. Every review that a LinkedIn member publishes on your Company Page is a testimonial, and those testimonials can be extremely effective in developing interest and trust in your brand that lead to purchases. LinkedIn users who review your products and services on your Company Page are highlighted in your Page’s sidebar. Not only can visitors see your employees’ LinkedIn Profile photos and names, but they can also see if they’re already connected to those employees on LinkedIn. As your Company Page gets more reviews, you can integrate them directly into your sales process and refer consumers to them.

5. Put Your Best Foot Forward by Publishing Useful Updates on Your LinkedIn Company Page

Build a connection with prospects by providing information that matters to them. This is a critical step in converting prospects and developing customer loyalty. Focus on useful, meaningful updates that your target audience is most likely to find value in and share with their own audiences. Furthermore, use LinkedIn featured updates to spotlight your best content at the top of your company’s LinkedIn home page. If you’re having an incredible sale, make sure everyone sees it and takes action by making it a featured update.

6. Get More Personal by Targeting Your Updates

Get the most effective messages in front of the right people by segmenting your audience and speaking directly to niche groups. In marketing, targeted messages are far more likely to compel consumers to purchase, repurchase, or talk about your brand. On LinkedIn Company Pages, research shows that targeted updated have a 66% higher audience engagement rate than non-targeted updates. The targeted message feature is underutilized on LinkedIn Company Pages. Differentiate your company by leveraging this feature for informal personalization that reduces message clutter and improves the overall user experience on your LinkedIn Company Page. Better sales results are sure to follow.

Image: Sheila Scarborough

Instagram, Twitter or Facebook Advertising – Which Is Best for Brands?

instagramWith last week’s announcement that Instagram advertising is coming in the near future (first through a limited test among U.S. users), brand marketers have taken notice. There will soon be a new way to reach the 150 million Instagram user audience. Ads will roll out with a small number of brands on both the Instagram website and mobile app with a focus on enhancing the user experience with ads.

An Instagram blog post explained the upcoming advertising launch to users as follows:

“Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands. We want these ads to be enjoyable and creative in much the same way you see engaging, high-quality ads when you flip through your favorite magazine.”

Instagram users will also be able to hide ads they don’t like and provide feedback on those ads.  Let’s hope that the Instagram team will take many of the lessons its parent, Facebook, has learned about advertising to deliver a strong offering to advertisers that its user audience accepts.

Not only is Instagram joining Facebook in building an advertising platform that will generate revenue, but the announcement comes at the same time news of Twitter’s initial public offering hit the streets. In the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing from Twitter, the company revealed that it has 218 million monthly active users. Yoree Koh and Suzanne Vranica of The Wall Street Journal explain that this is significantly less than the 1.5 billion active monthly users that Facebook boasts. That 218 million Twitter user audience represents 22% of U.S. Internet users according to Forrester Research, but that’s very small compared to the 72% of U.S. Internet users who check Facebook at least once per month.

Koh and Vranica also explained in their article that Twitter advertisers don’t believe an audience of 218 million users is big enough to invest in Twitter advertising. Today, Twitter usage peaks during big events, and the rest of the time, it’s dominated by a small group of power users. Many advertisers are waiting for Twitter to find better ways to increase engagement among wider audiences and to encourage them to log in more frequently.

These shortcomings make most consumer brands choose Facebook first. Of course, Facebook advertising has its own long list of problems, but today, it’s the social network that most brands prioritize. Is it truly the right place for those brands to invest ad dollars or do they just think they have to be there because the Facebook user audience is so big and the site is so popular? For brand marketers, the problem becomes trying to explain why they’re not advertising on Facebook to executives.

So which is best for brands—Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook? The answer is, there is no single answer. Every brand is different, but advertising on Facebook because that’s where 1 billion people are doesn’t mean the investment will drive a positive return. The Super Bowl gets massive viewership each year, but that doesn’t mean every brand should advertise during the big game. If you can create a highly relevant offer and release it at the right time and to the right audience on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, then invest. However, as with all marketing investments, if you can’t generate the needed ROI, it doesn’t matter if there are 1 billion users, 218 million users, or 100 users.

Apple Bumps Coca-Cola from Top Spot as World’s Most Valuable Brand

apple logo apple storeThe Top 100 Global Brands 2013 list from Interbrand has been released and Apple has ended the 13-year run Coca-Cola enjoyed in the #1 spot. In fact, Coca-Cola fell to third place on the list of the most valuable global brands in 2013, behind Apple and Google.

Both Apple and Google were top risers in the 2013 list, with estimated value growth rates of 28% and 24%, respectively. Coca-Cola only experienced a 2% growth in value. However, the biggest growth in brand value was experienced by Facebook. Ranking at #52 (up from #69 in 2012), Facebook’s brand value rose by 43% to $7.7 billion. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Nokia dropped from #19 in 2012 to #57 in 2013 with a brand value that dropped by 65% to $7.4 billion.

In terms of positions on this list, Apple moved up from #2 in 2012 (#8 in 2011), and Google climbed from #4 in 2012 (also #4 in 2011). Looking back even further, Apple didn’t even make the top 10 in the 2008 list (#24) while Google ranked in tenth place. But let’s go back even further. In 2000, when the list of the top 100 global brands was first published, Coca-Cola was in the top spot, but Apple was ranked #36 and Google didn’t make the list at all.

The top 10 global brands of 2013 are:

  1. Apple = $98.3 billion brand value
  2. Google = $93.3 billion brand value
  3. Coca-Cola = $79.2 billion brand value
  4. IBM = $78.8 billion brand value
  5. Microsoft – $59.5 billion brand value
  6. GE = $46.9 billion brand value
  7. McDonald’s = $42.0 billion brand value
  8. Samsung = $39.6 billion brand value
  9. Intel = $37.3 billion brand value
  10. Toyota = $35.3 billion brand value

Today, the top 10 global brands according to the Interbrand report are primarily technology brands (5 out of 10). However, tech brands aren’t the most common sector seen on this year’s list. That honor goes to the automotive sector. Here is a breakdown of the number of brands in each sector that made it on the list of the top 100 global brands of 2013:

  • Automotive = 14 brands
  • Technology = 12 brands
  • FMCG = 12 brands
  • Financial Services = 11 brands
  • Alcohol = 7 brands
  • Luxury = 7 brands
  • Electronics = 6 brands
  • Diversified = 5 brands
  • Apparel = 4 brands
  • Beverages = 4 brands
  • Media = 4 brands
  • Restaurants = 4 brands
  • Business Services = 3 brands
  • Retail = 2 brands
  • Sporting Goods = 2 brands
  • Energy = 1 brand
  • Home Furnishings = 1 brand
  • Transportation = 1 brand

Overall, U.S. brands dominate the list with 57 followed by Europe and Africa with 33. Ten brands on the list are from Asia. You can follow the link above to view the full report, interactive charts, and more.

Image: Plasticpeople

Between Presence and Pretence: Catching Social Media Trends

multiple-groups
It was always predicted amongst the tech world that brands like Facebook and Twitter would take off and they have rapidly become essential tools for recruiters. However, the success of these brands has spurred a variety of offshoots and we’re at an interesting phase in the development of social media where, along with the big players in the market, there are many smaller platforms all trying to grow their networks.

For recruiters, deciding which bandwagons to jump on and which to let go past isn’t easy and the key is to generate a balance between genuine social media presence, boosting your brand’s status, your networks and your SEO objectives; just giving the pretence of connectedness could, ultimately, be damaging to your marketing plans.

Picking New Networks

If you’re in technology, you should have heard of Pinterest, Manta and Google+. What about Yammer, Zooppa or Dubbler? There are a hundred lesser known networks which could be utilised to make new connections, but the question is deciding which ones to go for.

Obviously the projected size of the network you could access matters: it’s well known that connections on Google+ are far fewer than elsewhere. In itself, though, a small network isn’t a bad thing, it just needs to be more specifically targeted. Bright Network, for example, is teeming with talented graduates looking to make connections. Small, maybe, but undoubtedly useful.

Community Associations

Instagram is just for hipsters, right? Well, not quite; the connotations are, of course, false but it’s worth thinking about the type of network you’re signing your brand into. Most social media networks come with some sort of association that isn’t necessarily aligned with your objectives.

Instagram is massive, no doubt, but if there’s no direct need for clever photography or artistic imagery in your recruitment campaigns then leave it out. It’s a fantastic place to showcase true creativity but trying to make use of networks just for the sake of it could easily be construed as pretence.

Judging Quality and Quantity

Marketing initiatives have a finite lifespan and marketeers have finite efforts, so making sure your social media presence is high quality is far better than spreading your work thinly over many networks. The odd applicant might find your YouTube channel useful, but or most graduate recruiters developing quality connections through a few networks is the right formula.

Networking is about breadth and but given the slim demographic that most graduate recruiters are looking to tap into, a well maintained Facebook page, a selection of strong LinkedIn profiles and a professional Twitter feed will beat presence across hundreds of platforms.

5 Branding Lessons from the Human Era Report

people paper chainA new report from Lippincott and Hill Holliday, Welcome to the Human Era, ranks the top brands that are leading the way in the Human Era. According to the report, a Human Era brand is actually much more than just a brand that is more human:

“It requires an authentic story delivered consistently through an inspiring experience. It requires hard work–establishing organizational values and commitments that are customer driven, while also driving them toward daily leadership decision-making and employee behaviors.”

Over the years, I’ve written about the importance of brand consistency, brand experiences, internal branding, and building a customer-centric brand repeatedly. The world of branding has changed more over the course of the past decade than ever before in history, because people have instant access to more information and communications channels than ever before. It takes seconds to verify a brand claim or ask thousands of people for their personal opinions about brand messages and experiences.

The five key lessons identified in the Human Era Report are lessons that I’ve been asking Corporate Eye readers to embrace in their brand strategies for years. Here are those five lessons along with links to just a few articles from the Corporate Eye archives to help you get a better understanding of why each is essential to building your brand:

1. Building brand trust is the top priority.

If consumers don’t trust that your brand will deliver on its promise in every brand experience and interaction, your brand is going to have limited potential for success.

Learn more:

2. Brand transparency is a requirement, not an option.

It takes seconds for a consumer to verify any claim that your brand makes using Facebook or Twitter. Complete transparency is vital to brand success in 2013 and beyond. In fact, it has already been vital for years.

Learn more:

3. Brand experiences rule.

You can’t expect to simply tell consumers something and have them believe it. You have to show them and prove it to them (repeatedly) through brand experiences. You have to allow them to experience your brand promise for themselves so they can share it and talk about it with others online and offline.

Learn more:

4. Internal brand advocates are your brand’s lifeline.

The importance of building brand advocates cannot be stressed enough. If your employees don’t believe your brand promise and don’t want to talk about your brand, why should consumers?

Learn more:

5. Brand storytelling is the secret weapon.

Brand stories add a human element to your brand and open the doors for consumers to become emotionally connected to your brand. Developing an emotional brand connection is a critical step to building your brand into the most powerful type of brand—a relationship brand.

Learn more:

Top Brands of the Human Era

Now that you understand what it takes to develop a more “human” brand, it’s time to learn which brands are getting it right. The ranking of over 1,000 brands in the Human Era report is based on input from 30,000 consumers across four continents. Each brand was rated on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being best) by its customers using three criteria:

  • Does the brand truly care about and care for its customers?
  • Is the brand trustworthy, real, and authentic?
  • Does the brand have a personality that is vital and unique.

You can see the leaders in several industries below:

  • Airlines: Virgin American and Southwest.com (score 6.9 – tie)
  • Grocery: Wegmans (score 7.0)
  • Retail: Amazon.com (score 7.5)
  • Consumer electronics: Apple (score 7.8)
  • Media and entertainment: Disney (score 7.9)
  • Restaurants: In-n-Out Burger (score 8.3)
  • Financial services: USAA (score 9.4)

You can follow the link at the top of the article to read the full report about the Human Era from Hill Holliday and Lippincott.

What do you think of the Human Era for brands? Is your brand human? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

Image: Stephanie Hofschlaeger