The B2B Social Media Book E-Book

Kipp Bodnar

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 360

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Advance your B2B marketing plans with proven social media strategies

Learn social media's specific application to B2B companies and how it can be leveraged to drive leads and revenue. B2B marketers are undervalued and under appreciated in many companies. Social media and online marketing provide the right mix of rich data and reduction in marketing expenses to help transform a marketer into a superstar. The B2B Social Media Book provides B2B marketers with actionable advice on leveraging blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more, combined with key strategic imperatives that serve as the backbone of effective B2B social media strategies.

This book serves as the definitive reference for B2B marketers looking to master social media and take their career to the next level.

• Describes a methodology for generating leads using social media
• Details how to create content offers that increase conversion rates and drive leads from social media
• Offers practical advice for incorporating mobile strategies into the marketing mix
• Provides a step-by-step process for measuring the return on investment of B2B social media strategies

The B2B Social Media Book will help readers establish a strong social media marketing strategy to generate more leads, become a marketing superstar in the eye of company leaders, and most importantly, contribute to business growth.

Leseprobe

Contents

Foreword: Ann Handley

Introduction: We Didn’t Wake Up One Day and Write This Book

Part I: The Fundamentals of Social Media Lead Generation

Chapter 1: Why B2B Is Better at Social Media Than B2C

The Marketing Status Quo

What Your Marketing Could Be

Five Reasons B2B Companies Are a Better Fit for Social Media Marketing Than B2C Companies

When Social Media Isn’t Right for B2B

B2B Social Media as an Annuity

Results Independent of Effort

Annuities Facilitate Scale

Social Media Is Only One Piece

Building a Next-Generation B2B Marketing Team

Storytelling + Data Analysis = Great Social Media Marketer

The Perfect B2B Marketing Leader

Three B2B Social Media Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 2: Five-Step Social Media Lead Generation Process

Step 1: Get the Basics Right

Step 2: Maximize Content Discovery

Step 3: Create Conversion Ubiquity

Step 4: Test and Fail Fast

Step 5: Optimize for Maximum Lead Flow

Three B2B Social Media Lead Generation Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 3: Yes, Chapter 3 in a Social Media Book Is about Search (It’s That Important!)

Evolution of Search

Context as the Foundation of Search

Four On-Page Optimization Opportunities

Authority Drives Ranking

Three Strategies for Link Building Success

Changing Authority

Social Search and B2B

Unified Keyword Strategy

Rank Is Dead

Search Isn’t Just Google

Three B2B Search Engine Optimization Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 4: How to Close the Loop of Social Media ROI

The Math of ROI

Calculating COCA

Understanding Total Lifetime Value

Social Media Is Good for COCA and TLV

Intent Is Attribution

First- versus Last-Action Attribution

Gathering the Data

Measuring to Superstardom

Integrating Marketing and Sales Databases

It Is Math, Not Hugs

Three B2B Social Media ROI Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 5: Reach: More Is Always Better

Being Targeted Isn’t Enough

Be Able to Sell Anything

Six Time-Tested Methods for Building Reach

Remarkable and Frequent Content Fuels Reach

Paying for Reach Is Okay

Nearsightedness Kills Great Marketing

Three B2B Social Media Reach Building Steps to Superstardom

Part II: Social Media Lead Generation in Action

Chapter 6: Creating Ebooks and Webinars That Prospects Love

Create Ebooks Everyone Wants

The 10-Step Blueprint to Ebook Awesomeness

Webinars Are Low-Cost Trade Shows

Five Steps for an Engaging Webinar

Marketing with Existing Sales Tools

Storytelling with Video

Three Commandments of B2B Video

To YouTube or Not to YouTube, That Is the Question

Being Interesting Is the New Black

Three B2B Social Media Content Offer Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 7: Why You Are Already a Business Blogging Expert

The Origins of Corporate Blogging

The Thinking Part of Setting Up Your Business Blog

The Content Part of Setting Up Your Blog

The Nuts and Bolts Part of Setting Up Your Blog

The Ultimate Business Blogging Checklist

Blog Content Drives Leads

Three B2B Blogging Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 8: Become a LinkedIn Lead Generation Superstar

Profiles Are Just the Beginning

Companies Can Get Recommendations Too

Business Value Through Sharing

Grouping Your Expertise: LinkedIn Groups

Answering the Questions: LinkedIn Answers

Professionals Need Advertising Too

Three B2B LinkedIn Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 9: Twitter: Leads in 140 Characters

Five Off-Platform Benefits of Twitter

Anatomy of a Tweet

Replies and Mentions

Retweets

Direct Messages

Hashtags

Finding B2B Leads on Twitter

Setting Up a B2B Twitter Account

The 10-4-1 Rule of Social Sharing

14 Ways to Drive Leads with Content on Twitter

Five Ideas for Prospect Engagement for B2B Companies

Pushing the Twitter Envelope

Three B2B Twitter Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 10: Maximizing Facebook Lead Generation through Engagement

Profiles versus Pages

It Made Sense for Cisco to Join

Three Reasons to Create a B2B Presence on Facebook

Yes, Facebook Is for B2B

Understanding the EdgeRank Engagement Algorithm

10 Ways to Drive Leads on Facebook

Facebook Engagement Means Leads

Three B2B Social Media Facebook Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 11: E-Mail Is Social

Opt-In Is a Better Call to Action

Why Nobody Likes E-Mail

12 Ways to Get More Leads Out of E-Mail

Testing E-Mail Ideas Using Social Media

Four Ways to Socialize a Prospect’s Inbox

Social Profiles within the Inbox

Three B2B Social Media E-Mail Steps to Superstardom

Part III: Taking Social Media Lead Generation to the Next Level

Chapter 12: Stop Preparing for the Mobile Web; It’s Here

Getting Smart about Smartphones

Two Ways to Mobile-Optimize a Website

On the Go with Mobile Content

What Is the Context of Your Content?

Rethinking the Mobile Landing Page

B2B Mobile Apps Are for Suckers

Location Is for Sales, Not Marketing

Three B2B Social Media Mobile Marketing Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 13: Making Trade Shows Social

Driving Trade Show Leads with Social Media

Treat Trade Shows Like Comarketing

Five Steps to Instantly Make Your Trade Show More Social

Taking Over Physical and Digital Word of Mouth

Three Trade Show Takeaways from “DNS Is Sexy”

Using Location to Become the Best “Party” at a Trade Show

Virtual Conference

Three B2B Social Media Trade Show Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 14: Run a B2B Social Media Marketing Team Like a Start-Up

It All Starts with Passion

Where Does Passion Come From?

Knowing When to Ship

It Becomes Agile Marketing Anyway

Three Principles of Agile Marketing

When It’s Time to Look for Funding

What’s the Exit Strategy?

Three B2B Social Media Start-Up Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 15: 10 B2B Social Media Roadblocks

1. Legal Wants Full Approval—Of Everything

2. Social Network Access Is Blocked

3. Executive Support Is Lacking

4. The Customer Base Is Not Attuned to Social Media

5. But I Have a Real Job to Do

6. It Is Free, Right?

7. We Need the Right People for the Task

8. We Have Always Done It This Way

9. The Network Admin Is a Debbie Downer

10. You Don’t Know Where to Start

Three Clearing Roadblock Steps to Superstardom

Chapter 16: The Best Time Ever!

Social Media Marketing Is about Lead Generation

Be a Storyteller Who Uses Data

Second Is the First Loser

Useless Metrics

The Beginning, Not the End

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Index

Copyright © 2012 by Kipp Bodnar and Jeffrey L. Cohen. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Bodnar, Kipp, 1982-

The B2B social media book : become a marketing superstar by generating leads with blogging, Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, and more / Kipp Bodnar and Jeffrey L. Cohen.

p. cm.

ISBN 978–1–118–16776–2 (cloth); ISBN 978–1–118–21378–0 (ebk);

ISBN 978–1–118–21393–3 (ebk); ISBN 978–1–118–21430–5 (ebk)

1. Internet marketing. 2. Social media—Economic aspects. 3. Online social networks—Economic aspects. I. Cohen, Jeffrey L., 1965- II. Title.

HF5415.1265.B633 2012

658.8′72—dc23

2011037191

For my parents who taught me how to learn and teach. And for Tera, who constantly makes me better at both.

—K.B.

For Peter and Grace, even though you are not B2B marketers, you wound up in my book.

—J.L.C.

Foreword

This is the book I’ve been waiting for.

Does that sound like a bloated overstatement? It’s not. It’s true.

Ever since social media tools started to emerge in the business world, they’ve been simultaneously pilloried and championed, scorned and lionized—depending on your point of view or the kind of business you’re in.

And that’s part of the problem, isn’t it?

Social tools and platforms have helped sell airline seats on Southwest, shoes on Zappos, T-shirts on Threadless, or laptops on Dell.com. But those high-profile consumer-based success stories are easily dismissed by business-to-business (B2B) types who don’t see the same link between social media and B2B sales.

How can a set of tools that puts butts in airline seats actually make a difference in the B2B world?How can a platform that racks up T-shirt sales matter to me? What works so well for one can’t possibly work for the other, right?

Wrong. This is why I started this foreword saying that this is a book I’ve been anticipating. (And I’m thrilled that it’s here and that you’re now reading it, of course.)

The truth is that social media can be as perfectly aligned to B2B sales as a ball bearing is to its groove. And here’s why.

B2B businesses don’t facilitate one-off deals like T-shirts or flip-flops. Rather, they build relationships for pricier, more complex, and longer-term sales. They educate their prospects and act as a resource to them throughout the decision process. In short, they lay the groundwork for a long-term relationship, not a one-off transaction.

In that way, as a B2B marketer you are way ahead of the curve—or at least your business-to-consumer (B2C) brethren. You are already in the business of generating leads and nurturing them. You already have a crystal clear understanding of who your customer is. You already have the kind of in-house expertise you need to create content that will resonate with your prospects because it’s what they crave. You already have a perspective and point of view that differentiates your brand.

Social media, then, is an opportunity—not a burden. Social media gives you a new way to reach more people, to hone what you already know and share it with your audience in a new way, to amplify what you already are saying, to engage and be enjoyably interesting, to be human, to have a little fun—and so to connect with your prospects and customers in a powerful way.

I didn’t use the phrase enjoyably interesting lightly in that last sentence. Creating fun and interesting content and amplifying its reach with social tools can humanize your business. It can give you an opportunity to show personality and point of view in an appealing, engaging way that sets you apart from your competitors. Since your content is often on the front lines—it’s what reaches your prospects even before your sales team—“enjoyably interesting” can be a differentiator in the B2B space. (See the stories in this book for more specifics on what I’m talking about.)

I didn’t use the word powerful in that previous paragraph lightly either. Because I believe that social media does indeed have the power to transform your B2B company in significant ways. The problem is that many companies get caught up in the tools: How can we possibly sell solder paste on Twitter? What’s the use of a Facebook group for our enterprise software solution? But the tools are merely that: tools. The real benefit—as with any other gizmo—comes from how you use it.

And that’s where this book comes in. This is the book that strips out the hype surrounding tools and platforms and shows you—with how-to blueprints and frameworks—how you can generate and nurture business leads through social media. It shows you how you can integrate social media with your existing programs. It shows you how you can use content you create to educate and nurture prospects. And—bonus!—it spells out how you, the B2B marketer, can be the hero at your company because the marketing department will be contributing to the bottom line in a tangible, measurable way.

As someone who has spent most of her career as a writer and editor for B2B publications, I’m practically allergic to content that doesn’t deliver on the how-to. I’m talking about books or articles or any kind of content that’s all strategy and theory and never quite manages to offer a blueprint or implementation framework.

Theory has its place, of course. But in my experience, businesses are more anxious to know how to do something (how to build a client base, how to create momentum, how to grow revenue) than they are interested in knowledge for the sake of pure intellectual curiosity.

Kipp Bodnar and Jeff Cohen are doers, and they deliver on their promise to show you how, not just why. I love that.

You’re going to love it, too. But more important, you’re going to use it. It’s going to matter. It’s going to make a difference. So . . . get to it!

—Ann Handley

Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs; Coauthor of Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011);

Monthly Lead Gen columnist, Entrepreneur Magazine

Introduction

We Didn’t Wake Up One Day and Write This Book

Welcome business-to-business (B2B) marketers!

The book you are reading didn’t happen overnight. We are so excited we can barely hold back the whoops and the high fives.

In a moment we will tell you how we got here, but to start we wanted to address two things.

First, for those of you who are considering buying this book, if you are happy with the status quo at work, don’t want to get noticed, and are not interested in adding to the bottom line of your B2B company, this book isn’t for you. We would rather you not buy this book than get frustrated with the possibilities of a future that you are unwilling to invest in. For the rest of you, again, welcome to the most important book you will read this year.

The second thing is to answer the question, Why? Why in the digital millennium, when everything is online, would two online guys write and distribute a traditional book about an online topic?