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Lucy Nixon

Lucy Nixon

Taking a Servant Attitude to B2B Social Media Engagement

I invited David Geer, a technology writer, journalist and editor, to write a post for us today about the approach to take to B2B social media engagement.

Over to you, David…

servant attitude - butlerA good servant is comfortable putting the needs of others first. Is this how you position your business when engaging other businesses through social media?

When applying a servant attitude to B2B social media engagement, businesses must brand themselves in such a way that their entire identity, their entire voice says, “We are HERE TO SERVE YOU”. The core to any business is its people. Like people, businesses respond to a thorough, empathetic understanding of what their needs are and how to meet them.

To understand the needs of the business, study the business. To learn how to communicate that knowledge in an empathetic and other-centered way, find a good role model and strive to be like that business or that business’s communicators.

B2B Idol

Many young people who watch American Idol want to see and hear a rising star separate from the pack to become the singer they wish they could be. They are looking for a role model, someone to strive to mirror on their way to achieving their own success.

To find your B2B Idol, simply look to the business on social media that understands and relates to your business and its needs the most. Examine their social media content. What is it about their posts that you respond to as a potential business client? Perhaps the posts are more personal and less corporate in their language.

Perhaps the business knows and speaks your language, the keywords and terms of your industry. Do they express how you feel about a critical pain point? Do they invite you to participate in an open-ended, no-strings conversation? Do they reserve discussion of their solution until it comes up naturally in the conversation?

Elements of Social Media Content That Demonstrate a Servant Attitude

When a business reaches out to you with a servant attitude, social media content will already begin to serve your business in some manner. You should feel heard, understood, welcomed and comforted. The content should be all about you. The writer should express an intimate knowledge of your business and its needs.

A business with a servant attitude will make it clear they want to listen, empathize and respond as they engage you in a conversation via social media. They will build that conversation and grow a relationship, staying that course regardless of your purchasing decisions because the relationship is everything. Serving you is everything.

Because they are interested in serving you, they may sell to you as a by-product of the relationship. The moment the sale becomes more important than the relationship, the aura, the atmosphere that makes sales possible disappears.

Successful Social Media with a Servant Heart

American Express OPEN’s Facebook page engages small businesses with a number of opportunities that demonstrate that American Express OPEN is interested and listening. With links to pages such as “Share Your Story”, where small businesses can tell their success stories, and discussions about important topics such as the cost of product, the charge card company is creating an atmosphere for learning and sharing about how to grow a business.

The result is not only a service to small business customers but also a conversation that reveals business customer needs that American Express OPEN can help to meet.

Course of Action/Next Steps

To build B2B social media communications with a servant attitude, start by:

A. Listening to B2B customers through a number of avenues including their website, media releases and social media

B. Formulating an understanding of their critical pain points

C. Clarifying keywords and phrases to use in a discussion of pain points

D. Continuing to listen as you begin to engage customers

Thanks David!

David Geer understands what your enterprise wants to say and how to say it. Get to know David through http://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddgeer.

Innovation Governance Requires Technology Smarts

bridge-the-gapTwo key components of innovation governance are:

  • the technology that drives innovation
  • and Boards and C-levels who are responsible for strategy and governing the decisions regarding innovation and technology.

Technology is always changing. The problem is a Board technology knowledge gap and this leads to ineffective technology strategy.  

Heller Search Associates say:

 According to the Kellogg School, 75% of executives aren’t confident in the value of their technology investments, 70% of IT projects deliver disappointing results and 35% of projects fail outright. These numbers are staggering and make it clear to me that boards are missing the mark when it comes to providing technology oversight.

In a past post I reviewed the importance of the Board and C-Levels to effective innovation governance. But, how is the Board and senior managers to lead innovation governance if they don’t have technology skills? Simply put, they will not be able to do it well. They don’t need to be geeks but there is a need for some awareness of technology trends and how these might influence the performance of the enterprise.

Deloitte Consultants in their Tech-Intelligent Board (PDF) report say:

Few Boards devote attention to IT (Information Technology). Many would like to do more. The question is how?

There are company Boards that have answers to this question. I will list a brief summary (from a variety of sources such as McKinsey and Deloitte consultants, Harvard Business Review, CIO magazine and others) and will expand on these in future posts.
IGtechskills

  • Annual technology reviews, good but need to be more frequent
  • Hire new Board members with technology backgrounds
  • Set up a Technology Advisory group
  • Set up a Board Technology Portal that is easy to use and sends reminders to revisit
  • Have the CIO brief the Board at least once every three months
  • Use reverse mentoring to have new technology savvy employees to brief Clevel executives (my favorite)

More to follow.

 

Tomorrows World: Best Practice for Corporate Apps

tomorrows-worldTomorrow’s World was the BBC’s flagship science programme for decades, and – as I remember it – always predicted an exciting future. One of the 1979 editions included a prototype for a cordless telephone… others included an item on the office of the future, and on the first home computer terminal.

Here we are in that future, and yes, we have mobile phones and ‘home computers’. (No robots in my office yet though).

And the rate of change seems to be accelerating. Not only do we have mobile phones, we are increasingly using them to do what ‘home computers’ were designed for – and more. We didn’t have access to the internet on our phones in the 1970’s, you know… but now almost 40% of time spent online is spent using a mobile device and 17% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices.

Naturally, this has – or should have – an effect on your digital strategy. Given the prevalence of the personal computer over the last few years, corporate comms professionals have naturally been using the corporate website, together with email and other outreach options. But given the rate of change, in particular that towards mobile, what approach should you take now?

Communicate Magazine will be hosting an afternoon conference – Best Practice: Corporate Apps – to discuss just this. There’s a great line-up of speakers discussing case studies, thoughts on strategy, and views on the future, together with the chance to network, and a debate.

It will be on October 10, in the Barbican Centre, London. Do come if you can (find out more). It should be both interesting and useful; I’m particularly looking forward to the session on The New Best Practice. Naturally, there’s a hashtag – #BPCA13 – so if you really can’t make it, you can follow online.

I bet the tweetstream around the Tomorrow’s World episodes would have been interesting…

AT&T Embraces Emotional Branding in Ad Campaign

at&t wireless iphoneWho said a telecommunications brand can’t pique consumers’ emotions? AT&T proved that it could successfully tap into consumers’ emotions decades ago with its “Reach out and touch someone” campaigns. While the brand has lost some of its emotional connection to consumers in recent years, the marketing team has been trying to turn that around over the past 12 months with an ad campaign that is laser-focused on emotional branding.

John McDermott of Advertising Age reports that the AT&T “It’s Not Complicated” campaign, which features first graders discussing AT&T’s mobile service with an adult, has been very successful in emotionally connecting consumers to the AT&T brand. Both consumers and AT&T employees (the brand’s most powerful advocates) are reacting positively to the campaign.

You can watch one of the commercials in the campaign below.


This is good news for AT&T, a brand known for wireless coverage in the United States that is significantly inferior to the market leader, Verizon Wireless. McDermott reports that AT&T isn’t focusing on its competitors in its marketing strategy but rather the company is planning to extend its wireless offerings in the future. The question at this point is whether building an emotional connection through an ad campaign will work in the long-term if AT&T can’t back up the feelings its ads evoke with products that deliver on consumer demands.

Google succeeded in its attempt to build an emotional connection between consumers and its brand with its 2011 Google Chrome ad campaign and again with its 2012 Google Zeitgest video. However, Google was able to meet consumers’ expectations for its brand, so the emotional connection was a significant enhancement to the brand’s existing value.

Years ago, I worked for AT&T, and at the time, I was proud to be an AT&T employee. It was my first marketing job out of college, and I still have an AT&T paperclip holder sitting on my desk as I type this article. I have hope for the AT&T brand. Step one — set consumer expectations and consistently meet those expectations. An emotional connection will develop organically, which can be fostered through emotional advertising. Only time will tell what the rumored AT&T wireless brand extensions will be and whether or not they’ll be enough to make consumers believe in the AT&T brand again.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts below.

Image: Robert S. Donovan

Offering work experience? 9 key tips

I asked Alice, a sixth-form student spending a week with us for work experience, to look at the websites of companies offering work experience to people like her. This is what she found…

 

work-experienceLots of sixth-formers (and younger!) look for work experience while thinking about what they might like to do in the future. Here are 9 suggestions based on my review of corporate websites.

 1. Make it easy to find

It is really hard to find work experience over the internet so it is important that once you get to a website it is easy to navigate your way around the site – for example, with a layout that splits the information into sections so it’s easy to find what information applies to you.

The BBC’s website was the easiest to navigate and you could find work experience straight from the home page.

  • It had links to different parts of the website including application forms, and explanations of what each part of the company does.
  • The bright colours, images and design they used were really good, keeping it looking professional and appealing without looking childish.

The BBC website was perfect for its target audience and I thought had one of the best designs and layouts.

2. Make us feel welcome

It is important to sound friendly and pleasant on the web page because that makes the atmosphere of the company sound welcoming rather than daunting. This is important because we need to be comfortable enough in the work surroundings to ask questions, which is how to learn and is what the experience is about.

Numerous websites were good at sounding friendly and yet still professional, such as Penguin and the BBC.

 3. Talk directly to us

One of the best features or language techniques I saw was when the company talked directly to you rather than indirectly. The benefit of talking directly is that:

  • this makes the website feel a lot more personal and friendly, which makes the company sound a lot more appealing
  • It also makes you feel like the company is taking you seriously and treating you like an adult rather than talking down to you.

One of the best companies for doing this was Tata Steel.
Tata Steel work experience

4. Tell us what skills we need

GSK and Tata Steel give a list of skills or requirements needed. This is useful because:

  • It helps people who are looking for a specific type of work, telling them what they need to achieve and do to be able to apply.
  • It also gives people who are genuinely interested in that certain field a better chance of being taken on.

It also benefits the company as it means that they will only be getting people applying who really want to come and work with them and who might be suitable.

 5. Tell us what we need to know

The information content is really important and I found that it varies a lot between companies. The main things that I would want to know are:

  • What skill would I need?
  • What skills would I gain?
  • What would I be doing on my work experience?
  • How would I apply?
  • What did other people think of it?
  • And how would it help me with my future?

Cap Gemini have a limited amount of information on their website but a separate PDF file containing all you need to know about them and work experience with them. This is a really good way of providing information.
BBC work experience

6. Show us what it is like

Something that I really liked on the BBC website was all the photos and videos of people who have previously been on work experience there.

  • This shows people that are interested what actually happens on the work experience.
  • Videos mean you get to hear what other people think that have been in your situation rather than the company just telling you about it.

This helps people who want to go on work experience and it will help the companies to get more people to apply.

7. Make it easy to apply

I found that most of the websites wanted you to apply online, however there were some that wanted you to ring up to apply;

  • applying online is very easy and it gives you the chance to think about what you are writing in advance, which gives you the opportunity to maximise the possibility of being taken on
  • If you apply over the phone it gives the company the chance to see how well you respond to questions and how well you think on your feet.

However phone conversations can be tricky and daunting especially if you have never met the person before so I would say that from the student’s point of view, the best method and the most beneficial method of applying would be online.

8. Use social media

random house facebook pageChannel 4 has a Facebook page for people who have been on work experience with them. I feel that it would be beneficial if more companies had open Facebook pages for young people and work experience as

  • more and more young people have Facebook now and it would really interest us if companies posted photos, videos and opinions so we could see how other people have found work experience
  • And it would help us learn what the company does, how they do it and what actually goes on when you go for work experience with them.

I did find a page on Facebook for Random House. It is positive, kept up to date regularly with what is going on and also they take the time to reply to posts, which in my opinion makes them look committed to providing good work experience.

9. Make it easy to read

It is also important that the information is presented in the right way. I found that the websites that I learnt the most from were the ones that had the key points written in bullet form and each set of information under new headings.

I liked this layout because

  • It meant I could pick out what information I wanted and what was relevant to me
  • It looked appealing and made me more inclined to read it as it wasn’t just a big block of writing
  • It also meant that I could remember the information more easily as it was broken up and not a solid mass of writing.

 

Even if students don’t apply for work experience with you, or if they aren’t accepted, their experience of the company’s web site and social media pages will affect their view of the company in the future.

Thanks Alice!

B2B Social Media Marketing Strategies

speed-response
While B2C organisations are adopting social media marketing strategies at a fast pace, much of the B2B world is being left behind, with many of these companies believing that their potential customers do not spend time connecting with brands on these kinds of websites.

However, Forrester found that 100 per cent of business decision-makers are using the likes of LinkedIn and Facebook for work purposes, with the vast majority reading brand blogs, watching videos and listening to podcasts.

It is, therefore, becoming increasingly crucial that B2B companies integrate this marketing strategy to increase their global reach. Using social media also allows a brand to create a more personal relationship with clients, which can generate leads and translate into better sales.

Social media presence

When implementing a social media marketing strategy, B2B organisations must first think about the audiences they want to connect with and the brand qualities they want to portray, as this will allow them to better recognise which platforms should be adopted.

It is inefficient to simply create profiles on every social media site – better results can be achieved by focusing on delivering content on the most relevant channels. FedEx, for example, communicates selectively through its blog, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Interaction is key

One look at the messages FedEx leaves to its customers and prospects on these profiles, shows an approach focused on interaction rather than advertising. Clients follow these feeds not to be barraged with promotions.

The company uses its pages to form conversations with commenters, and as a customer service platform. Engaging with those who ask questions or mention the brand is a great way to humanise and get people talking positively about the company.

Tell a story with content marketing

Many B2B organisations with successful social media strategies are using these channels to promote unique content that puts a personal and interesting slant on company operations. UPS, for example, shared stories from its happy clients in order to draw attention to its services in an engaging way.

Businesses can also use content marketing to share industry news with clients and prospects, giving them the opportunity to build a good reputation. This is a particularly valuable strategy for B2B brands, which has customers who are sure to be searching for this type of information.

Establishing a company as a useful source is a great way to encourage customers to connect – they will not willingly sign up to receive a brand’s adverts or irrelevant content. Using a variety of media, such as videos, blogs and infographics, can be the most effective and valuable technique.

Communicating frequently and appropriately

The need to stay up-to-date and communicate frequently is part of the reason why focusing on certain social media platforms is so crucial. In order to attract users, a brand must first understand them and engage them in a way that is relevant.

For this reason, a brand should Tweet far more frequently than they blog, and should attempt to network with other companies through the likes of LinkedIn as opposed to YouTube. Responding quickly, whether to client questions or industry news, is necessary to staying ahead in this fast-paced world.

This article was posted on behalf of Kommando, a leader in experience marketing.