What’s the Value of Social Media in B2B Marketing?

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Dominique

So, you have a business and you’ve gotten your budding empire signed up for a Twitter account and a Facebook page (and perhaps a Google+ Business profile in the future too?). Go you! You’re part of the social media revolution. Cake and champagne for everyone!

Fast forward a few months and you may find yourself asking what’s this actually doing for me? What’s the value of social media? How can I get a ROI out of it? It’s a popular question on a lot of professional minds these days, especially in the case of B2B marketing. “Ok,” you say, “I got on board this train, where’s it taking me?”

Ensuring your business has a presence in the virtual world is an essential part of any successful marketing plan. With that said, it’s easy to get lost in social media. Between looking up relevant industry articles to load up the Tweetdeck and responding to comments on your Facebook page you can start to feel like you’re spending a lot of valuable time and resources keeping up a presence that isn’t necessarily turning into dollars.

Or is it?

I like to think of social media as a networking tool. I know, that sounds rather obvious but if you take a look you’ll see a lot of businesses aren’t utilizing it the way they should. Effective networking leads to sales, especially in the B2B market. Social media can be a great B2B sales tool, particularly Twitter, you just have to change the way you approach networking and sales.

Ever see a business you’d like to pitch your product or service to but had no inside connection? As any salesperson worth their salt will tell you, pitching to someone you’ve built a relationship with is easier, and usually much more successful, than cold calling. You just need a way to get a foot in the door, to get in their good graces, to endear yourself to them, and then the sale will follow. That’s how it happened in the brick and mortar days of sales, right? Well, Twitter can be the tool that gets those lines of communications flowing. The key is to pace yourself and to not be…..sales-y.

It’s important to remember that there are just as many spammers and cold tweeting annoyances out there as there are telemarketers. No one wants to talk with them. So sending a tweet to a new business you’d like to sell yourself to 5 minutes after you start following them isn’t going to hack it. You’ll be written off. Lines of communication will go cold.

Twitter isn’t about broadcasting, although a lot of people seem to think otherwise. It’s about listening. It’s about conversations. It’s about building a relationship. Take your time. See what sort of things they tweet. Retweet the ones that are pertinent to your business and add a short encouraging message in front of it. For example, “Talk about a dog day afternoon! RT @ChicDesigns It’s bring your dog to work day at the office!” Continue reading →

The Realm of Social Media

Posted on July 29, 2011 by admin

The release of Google+ has brought all sorts of tumult to the world of social media, and it got me thinking about what our online experience has really become. These days new websites are forged and destroyed with every passing week, and our allegiances to our favorite online domains are constantly tested by the guile tactics of ambitious competitors. What is Google+ but a way for the search giant to combat its greatest foe, Facebook, on the only ground it has never conquered….the fabled world of social media. In this social media realm, people flock from every corner of the Earth to bask in the glory. It is a land where families with great lineages sit in quiet nobility, where friendships are formed, where romantic tales of love blossom, and of course where gold is pilled high enough to reach the sun. We might not realize it, but the peace of this realm is all but certain, as the lords and kings who rule over it constantly battle for its dominion.

My idea for this post is largely inspired by the hit new HBO series Game of Thrones, which is also an excellent book series. It tells of the epic tale of love, adventure, honor, and betrayal, and I feel I see much of the same drama unfolding every week in the social media world. Therefore, I will now present to you my take on the realm of social media, and the great houses that rule over it.

Google

“Never stop searching”

The current King of the Internet and all of its lands. Yet for all its massive power and knowledge, Google has still been unable to marshal the social realm under its banner. One of the oldest houses of the Internet, it provides its loyal subjects with, seemingly, all they could desire. It brings them the finest items for trade both near and far, carries letters from one end of the realm to the other, and its impressive grasp of technology renders new feats of science at an astounding pace. Yet, despite the fact that Google is the largest of all the houses, it has still been unable to plant itself in the social realm. This is not to say it has lacked ambition, as many of its conquests have sallied forth from its gates only to be found broken and shattered on the field. The greatest enemy to the King is Facebook, and the young house has had little trouble thwarting Google’s past conquests. Though the King is not without hope, as a new champion has arisen to conquer the social realm. Whether or not Google+ can finally make progress in the social realm remains to be seen, but to be certain, this new champion is not lacking in fortitude, reputation, or in valor.

Facebook

“Defend the Wall”

The most powerful lord in all the lands and sworn enemy to Google the current King, Facebook may be one of the youngest houses, but it more than makes up for its youth with ruthless ambition. Indeed, the aspirations of this young house are so great that it seems to be unwilling to accept anything other than being anointed King. Of course there are those who say that the Facebook house is more fit to be named King then Google, since it is Facebook who now firmly holds the social realm in its iron grip. The social media frontrunner has already accumulated enormous riches from the social realm, and certainly has the ability to reap even greater wealth from a kingdom whose true worth is not yet fully known. More and more, people swell the ranks of Facebook with every day, and it seems certain that the powers of Facebook and Google will soon clash again. Though Facebook is not without faults, as would be expected for a house with such ambition. The social realm is not as safe a place as many would like to believe, and tricksters, thieves, and brigands roam the roads of Facebook freely. It also seems that Facebook has little regard for the rights of its people, and it oft seems that the young house would sell the privacy of its followers to the highest bidder. The Facebook wall may be guarded by millions and protect immense wealth within its keep, but the wall is not without cracks, and those cracks are beginning to show.

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Warning: Social media overload may lead to brain meltage

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Dominique

When it comes to managing your company’s social media presence how much is too much?

It may be time to get cutthroat.

I had a chat with a coworker today about an all too familiar topic shared by marketers – overload. I’m overloaded with social media accounts and profiles. In fact, at a recent family dinner my phone went off with notifications from four different social media networks, some with multiple updates, all in the course of an hour. This led to another rousing rendition of one of my family’s favorite pastimes in which I am ridiculed for being a workaholic who is overly involved online. They actually made me sit there and count the number of profiles and accounts for which I act as administrator. To be honest, when I stopped and thought about it I was slightly horrified.

I have administrator access to 21 social media/sharing accounts. How did it get to this point?

Between Facebook profiles and multiple pages, Twitter accounts, blogs, Tumblr accounts, foursquare, Flickr, and LinkedIn I’m swamped – accounts for my personal use, accounts for Dukky, accounts for my freelance clients (who also are on MySpace, uvumi, iLike and more) I’m at capacity. In the words of the aforementioned coworker, “it’s enough to make your brain melt.”

Overload can be a common problem for any marketer, not just one with multiple clients. When it comes to getting your company or brand out there on the social networks how much is too much? Sure, having a blog and a presence on Facebook and Twitter (the heavy hitters that everyone who’s anyone is on) makes good marketing sense, but does having a presence online also mean you have to have your company on LinkedIn and foursquare? In my opinion, the answer is simple – yes and no.

Yes, to effectively market your brand today one must have a presence on social media networks. Is it necessary to jump on every network that’s out there though? Absolutely not.

Many companies, especially small-to-medium businesses, see social media as a cheap and effective way to build brand awareness and reach more customers. And they’re right, it is. Social media is changing the way business owners and marketers can reach their target audiences in ways that are revolutionizing the industry. The problem lies with two common issues – lack of manpower and the leap-before-you-think syndrome. Continue reading →

Bring out your dead! (marketing tactics, that is)

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Dominique

Finally, someone explained it. Listen up world, as we tell the sad, sad story of the last advertising agency on earth – courtesy of FITC, which is, oddly, an advertising agency.
<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/10251808">http://www.vimeo.com/10251808</a>

Why this video? Well, currently we are hard at work putting our new SMB platform to the test and each member of Team Dukky has a part to play. My main duties have been in assisting new small business clients to draft out their campaigns and put them into action. Small business owners on a whole are a pleasure to work with. Most are eager to dive into the social media integration and live analytics feed our product provides. However, from time to time I’ve been hit with one particular question – why should I have my campaign set up as a share-to-win promotion? Will social media help me at all?

While the answer seemed obvious to me, I have come to realize that many small business owners are operating under the rules of the old guard of advertising. This, my friends, is a mistake. Television and print ads alone are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Consumers are tired of having marketing messages dictated to them. They’re tired of having no control over what sort of messages they’re bombarded with. With the growth of internet capabilities, smart phones and the ever expanding reach of social media into every aspect of our lives it’s no wonder that traditional marketing tactics are failing to work. Think about it. How many people do you know that sit and watch cable television anymore? They don’t. They have Tivo and DVR. They record their shows, watch them on their schedules and, if you’re like me, relish in the fact that they can fast forward through the commercials. That’s right, I work in marketing technology and I hate television commercials. In fact, I don’t even have cable. Why pay $60 a month when I can snuggle in bed with my beloved Hulu? Sure, there are commercials (count em, 3 per episode) on Hulu shows. BUT they allow me to tell them if the commercials are relevant to me or not and then customizes what ads pop up during my shows. Most are even interactive. Hulu listens. Hulu learns. Hulu, is my new best friend.

Consumers do not want to be pandered to. Our lives are too busy these days. We need smarter marketing. This is where digital and social media, with their ability to take traditional marketing further, have taken hold. When I log onto Facebook I don’t see ads for arthritis pills, Dora the Explorer or hockey gear. Why? Because those things aren’t relevant to me or my life. It would be a waste of money for a company to pay to put those ads in front of me. I’m never going to buy Scott Turf Builder. I let the landlord worry about the lawn. Facebook and other social media sites allow advertisers to filter the people their ads are visible to based off their searches, likes, posts, tweets and comments. So when I login to Facebook I see ads for local New Orleans music performances, my beloved Saints (Who Dat!), sales at Anthropologie and discounts at Starbucks (yep, I’m that girl).
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One Good Post Deserves Another – The Golden Rule and how it applies to social media in business

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Dominique

We all know the Golden Rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I’m pretty sure it was posted on the bulletin board in about half my school classrooms growing up. And I’m even more certain that it was repeated to me in a tone of disappointment when I had gotten into yet another fight with one of my brothers. We were inundated with it growing up. So it baffles me when businesses fail to adhere to this time honored sage advice. It looks like I’m not alone in this sentiment either.

Last week Steve Olenski posted an article on Social Media Today about a recent frustration he had with a rather substantial business – American Girl. You know those incredibly popular dolls that come complete with books, movies, clothes, bedroom sets, matching clothes for their proud owners and even accessories (all sold separately, of course). If I’m not mistake the American Girl store in Chicago even has a cafe in it where mothers and daughters can spend an entire day shopping and dining all in the theme of their favorite doll. Impressive right?

So it’s only natural that this company should have a customer service department in place as well as at the very least, a Facebook page. Well when the doll he and his wife had ordered failed to arrive on time Steve called American Girl’s customer service hotline. He was told it was delivered to his local USPS office. Low and behold, with just a day or so left until Christmas morning, no such doll had arrived at the USPS. So Steve called again and was given the runaround. So, like any good social media professional, he took to their Facebook page.

Unfortunately the post was to no avail. It seems the last post the company had made to its own Facebook page was from many, many months before. How disappointing.
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Why can’t we be friends?

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Dominique

Here are some shocking stats for you:

Five of the top 50 global brands have either no or a virtually nonexistent Facebook presence. Marlboro, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Siemen’s, that is.” And Apple, one of the most admired global brands, does not have an official Facebook presence?
Budweiser is the only one of the top 50 global brands to direct users to an “unfiltered” Facebook wall. That means that the other 44 are actively limiting what consumers can see on their pages.
89 percent of consumer replies on company’s Facebook pages remained unanswered. Case in point: Gucci didn’t reply to a single thread in the last three months. Eleven companies, meanwhile, responded to more than just one consumer.

If you’re a social media marketing professional then you probably had the same reaction to these statements from a recent article from Forbes.com that I did. And that reaction was “What the #@*?!”

Much to my horror, the article says that some of the world’s biggest brands, with thousands of dollars at their disposal, simply don’t get the value of social media marketing, namely Facebook. The article states that five of the top 45 companies on Interbrand’s list of the Best Global Brands had no Facebook presence and seven others—namely Disney, Gucci, McDonald’s, Louis Vuitton, American Express and Sony—allow only for “company-initiated conversations,” meaning consumers can read, but not chime in the dialogue.

That last part is what got to me the most. How can you not allow for a conversation with your customers? Isn’t that what social media marketing is all about? Well it seems that a lot of these companies either lack the 24/7 resources needed to manage a corporate social media presence (cause we all know that social media never sleeps) or they subscribe to the old guard mantras of marketing. And that old mantra is to keep the power. One of the contributors to the study the article talks about explains – “Most of these marketers were raised with the goal of owning the consumer…but with social media, the objective is not to own the consumer, but to be their friend.” To this sentiment I’d like to borrow some time honored words from War and ask “Why can’t we be friends?”
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A Social Media Professional’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Renee

Christmas is just a few days away and with a only a handful of holiday parties to attend down and still about five more to go the winning question so far this year has been “How’s your job going? I see you posting things about Dukky…what exactly is that and what do you do?” Depending on who’s asking usually determines how I can actually respond. Aunt Mary loves me but has no idea what viral sharing means or even understands what a marketing SaaS is, nor does she really care. Her involvement in social sites is solely based on connecting with others and staying in touch with old friends.

And thus, the social media professional’s dilemma arises. When you love your new Christmas present and immediately want to instagram a picture of it or feel it necessary to immediately tweet Uncle John’s outlandish holiday declaration to your social networks it’s likely that some of the family just won’t get it. How can you avoid being labeled rude and withdrawn when really you are just maintaining a high (or normal to you) level of connectivity? Continue reading →

Dukky Featured Campaign – The power of teamwork (cont.)

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Dominique

Recently, Dukky was lucky enough to work with some pretty great fashion and beauty companies who teamed up to bring their customers amazing opportunities to win big (all the while promoting their brands virally). As advertised in People StyleWatch magazine, users can visit the Holiday Cliques website and enter to win loot from Smashbox Cosmetics, Express, Lord & Taylor, Tory Burch and Vince Camuto. We love this campaign so much we’re featuring it on our blog, our Dukky Promotions Facebook page and Twitter @dukkytweets. Be sure to check out the campaign and enter to win! Best of luck to everyone!

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15 Social Media tips from Dr. Suess

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Dominique

I came across this article last week and passed it around the Dukky office. It was such a huge hit I thought I’d share it with our readers as well. Hope you enjoy!

The older I get the more I realize how smart my mother & Dr. Suess are.

Yes, Dr. Seuss may have some crazy rhymes and guys drawn in his books. However, if you look at the core of his thoughts and words, the man was brilliant. I think he can teach us some nice lessons in regard to social media.

1. “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
-Authenticity and transparency in social media is the green in the green eggs and ham. I like realness Sam I am! Don’t be somebody different offline than you are on Twitter and Facebook. There is one you.

2. “Be who you are and say what you feel because those that matter don’t mind and those that mind don’t matter!”
Quit worrying 24/7 about what everyone thinks of you. Build your plan, work your plan and get out there! Yes you will need to manage your brand, reputation and image online. However, make it real!

3. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
-Are you laid off, fired from corporate or plain just quit? Out of a job, quit cryin’. It’s a blessing. Get on with your life and build your life in your own way!
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