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How B2B Companies can Use Social Media to Enhance the Customer Experience
B2B Customer Experience Management
Mr. Simon Daisley,
Managing Director, Future-Proof Consulting
G-CEM Inernational Partner (UK)
www.profusioninternational.com
This article is exclusively written for G-CEM.
Participation in social media can bring great rewards for organisations of all sizes. Forward-thinking B2B companies are now actively using new web tools to make contact with their customers. This article shows how social media, particularly blogs and social networking can help B2B companies to build relationships, communicate their message, increase sales and enhance the customer experience.
The web has really moved on. In the early days, it used to be 'read-only'. Companies presented content on static pages and we read it. Now, with new developments in design, technology and understanding, the web allows us to do so much more than just retrieve information. Today the web is all about participation, collaboration and content.
In this interconnected web world, social media tools are on a meteoric rise. Popular applications include Blogs (reference, social media), Google Groups (reference, social networking), Wikipedia (reference), Facebook (social networking), LinkedIn (business networking), YouTube (social networking and video sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and Twitter (social networking and microblogging). And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The 2008 US presidential election has been heralded as the first ever social media election. Both candidates used these new platforms extensively, but Barack Obama's excellent strategic use of social media and the web certainly helped turn the tide in his favour. He had a presence on every conceivable social network and recognised that, by giving supporters all the tools they needed, he could harness the power of volunteers willing to campaign on his behalf online.
"On Facebook alone over five million people reported that they had cast their ballot, reminding others in their network to vote."
Many commentators hold this up as final proof that social media has gone mainstream. There's certainly much to malign about this new world. But whether you think of it as 'the most explosive outbreak of information since the birth of the internet itself' or 'self-obsessed content pollution...the last publishing refuge of the inarticulate and illiterate', it can no longer be ignored. Businesses need to take note.
"Social media will change your business. Look past the yakkers, hobbyists and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: catch up...or catch you later."
Business Week, February 2008
The big question for B2B companies is how to use this new media as an effective business tool, and, in the face of so many options, where to start.
In this article, we analyse two of the most powerful social media platforms for B2B businesses: blogs and social networking sites such as LinkedIn:
Blogging for business
At its simplest, a blog is an online journal; a quick and easy way to create and publish content online.
- Blogs publish personal opinion, normally in an informal style. They show the human side of your organisation.
- They encourage two-way conversation. They are interactive, connected and seek feedback from readers.
- Blogs are frequently updated, so almost always get higher rankings in search engine results than static websites.
Blogging represents one of the fundamentally new ways that businesses are now communicating with customers on the web.
"Blogging is not a fad. It's a new communication tool that every business person needs to become conversant with, if not fluent in. If you're a CEO or senior executive, a blog offers you a remarkably efficient way to communicate intelligently with a lot more people, which is after all, a key part of your job. If you're a product manager, blogging is a new way to connect with and learn from your customers. If you're a solopreneur or a microenterprise, a blog is your dream marketing machine."
Debbie Weil, The Corporate Blogging Book
Customers see company blogs as a more open and transparent form of communication than the 'hype' traditionally found on a corporate website. They are more likely to trust its content and they like the opportunity to have a dialogue with a real person in the company online.
Customers crave content. They like to read and learn to help them make well informed buying decisions. Writing a business blog is a great way for B2B companies to show themselves as thought leaders and spread ideas at low cost. A well written, informative blog is an opportunity to directly influence customer decision making processes through the complex B2B sale.
"A recent report by Knowledgestorm found that 52% of B2B technology buyers had already been influenced by blog content at least once when making a purchasing decision."
Where to start:
New marketing guru David Meerman Scott advises companies to take their time and do some careful groundwork before jumping in to corporate blogging. He recommends:
1. Read blogs in your market space. Do that for a month or two.
2. Comment on blogs as appropriate for a few months - add value to the conversation
3. Then (and only then) if you like commenting and feel comfortable with your blog voice, consider starting your own.
Once you've worked out who in the company is going to write, creating a blog for your company is easy. To start simply log on to Blogger, Typepad or Wordpress, tailor a template, and write your articles.
- Create original content and write for your customers; articles that tune in to what they're thinking and solve their problems.
- Share your ideas and test them with your customers. Think of your blog as a laboratory for experimentation.
- Ask for their feedback and find out what they think.
- Promote your blog as widely as possible.
Remember, a blog is a dialogue. The winners are those who host the best conversations.
Social networking
Social networking is no longer the domain of teenagers. Its reach is now vastly broader. Millions and millions of people around the world are creating profiles and making new contacts on a plethora of different online sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo, Plaxo...the list goes on.
Many of these interactions are informal, social connections, but online social networking has now become a critical part of the business landscape too. B2B companies need to work out how to use social networking to develop meaningful relationships with customers.
Customers are rapidly losing faith in traditional sales, marketing and service. More and more they rely on advice from colleagues, peers and 'people like us' to help them decide what to buy. The connections enabled by social networks are, as Christopher Carfi states, 'the glue that put the humanity back into business' to solve the trust problem.
From your customers' perspective, social networking allows current or prospective customers to easily make real, human connections with individuals in your organisation.
"Online social networking enables genuine business relationships to form and puts an authentic human face on the interaction, changing the external perception of an organization from a sterile, faceless behemoth into a collection of individuals who are ready to help."
Christopher Carfi of Cerado Inc
In this section we look at the biggest professionally-focused social network - LinkedIn - and show how B2B companies can use it to develop ongoing relationships with their customers.
Often referred to as the 'networking tool for grown ups', LinkedIn is a social networking site developed solely for business interaction. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network with over 30 million users worldwide.
Built around your resume, the site lets you create and maintain a network of people you know and trust in business. You can invite anyone - whether a user or not - to become a 'connection'. It's a free service. It will strengthen and extend your network of business contacts, and allow you to connect with your customers.
"LinkedIn takes your personal business network online and gives you access to people, jobs and opportunities like never before."
Most business people have heard of it, many have their profiles on it, but here are 5 top tips for customer-facing B2B professionals on how to use it to reach customers:
1. Increase your visibility: make it easy for potential clients, customers and partners to connect with you by promoting your LinkedIn profile on the 'About Us' section of your website and on your email signature. By adding connections you increase the likelihood that people will find your profile first when they're searching for someone to do business with.
2. Create interest: communicate what's happen in your business to your network: use the 'what are you doing now' function on your profile and link your blog to your profile with LinkedIn's new blog application.
3. Connect with like-minded individuals: join relevant groups in your marketplace: tune in and contribute to their conversations. Take the initiative and create your own groups.
4. Be a thought leader: participate in LinkedIn Answers: this is a great tool to showcase your expertise and extend your network of contacts.
5. Gain credibility: get recommended by customers and colleagues. These endorsements are clearly visible on your profile and a great way to lend credibility to your claims.
Getting started is easy. All you need to do is complete your profile, as fully as you can (remembering to include your web address or blog address). You can then start making connections to current and prospective customers, colleagues, partners and friends.
Social media such as blogs and social networking are a great way to build business from trust. Trust and credibility are big issues on the web. People do business with people. Participation in social media shows your human side and extends your network in a very personable way.
"Social media puts a human face on your business and allows people to get an impression of what a relationship with you would be like. When all things remain equal, people want to work with people they think they'll have an interesting relationship with."
Rick Julian, CEO of branding agency Quo Vardis
Be warned: social media is not an easy option. Success takes a combination of passion, commitment, conviction, perseverance, involvement and time. Participation should not be undertaken lightly. These new tools are not simply run of the mill communication channels to add to the mix. The same rules don't apply. Take time to understand how your customers use this new media. Find out how to communicate in this world or you risk switching your customers off by looking too salesy, cold and unpleasant. Get it right and you'll foster ongoing business relationships that will bring your company real, measurable value.
Social media offers B2B companies the opportunity to connect with customers like never before. The 2008 US presidential candidates didn't ignore these new platforms, and B2B companies shouldn't either. Measurable value will not come immediately, but come it will. This is customer experience management for the long haul.
- Recommended reading: David Meerman Scott 'The New Rules of Marketing and PR' and his blog www.webinknow.com, 'The Corporate Blogging Book' by Debbie Weil and for a counter argument - 'Blog Schmog' by Bob Bly. Also 'Wikinomics - How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything' by D Tapscott and A Williams. Examples of some well respected blogs in this area include Destination CRM, a blog from the editors of CRM magazine www.destinationcrm.com, B2B Lead Generation Blog http://blog.startwithalead.com, Blogwrite for CEOs http://blogwrite.blogs.com, B2B Marcom Blog: http://www.marcomink.com/blog.
With thanks to Sonja Jefferson (www.sonjajefferson.co.uk) for her help in creating this article.
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About the Author
Simon Daisley is founder and Managing Director of Future-Proof Consulting, a provider of interim customer management services, predominantly in UK local government.
Previously, Simon established Profusion International, a business development company that specialises in giving people more to celebrate. In the private sector Profusion helps to build customer loyalty, brand gravity, employee satisfaction and shareholder value. In the public sector, it applies this same experience to increase organisational efficiciency and service quality. Profusion has worked with organisations such as BT, Ferrari, Royal Bank of Scotland, Debenhams, ANZ Bank and a number of leading public sector agencies including the UK's fastest improving local authority!
Before establishing Profusion International Simon was managing consultant with the Customer Contact Company (c3), formerly Europe's largest independent Customer Management consultancy where they helped leading organisations to transform their whole operation around the needs of customers. Simon was Head of Marketing Communications within the business to business division of BT and is a regular contributor to conferences, CRM magazines and industry debates. He has almost 20 years experience of CRM both as a consultant, speaker, author and facilitator and as an active practitioner.
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