Including social media as part of the marketing mix

For many b-2-b marketers, social media has at best been something of a trial, a test run, a toe in the water to take the temperature. But now some companies are thinking it maybe time to include a social media strategy as part of an integrated marketing communications programme. An integrated marketing communications programme should now strike a balance between traditional media, established Internet methods and social media.

Traditional print media has been under pressure for several years due to the widespread adoption of the Internet offering greater immediacy to news and information without the need to subscribe or register for journals and magazines. With advertising revenues declining, weaker editorial content, fewer pages and fewer publications, display advertising - the mainstay of many b-2-b marcomms plans - may no longer be the best investment. Although  traditional media offers researched and audited audience data, more of your audience may now be looking somewhere else.

In the Internet era, customers and prospects are no longer passive audiences but are actively researching comparative product specific and background information themselves. So search engine optimisation became a mantra to propel company web sites high on the list for relevant search terms. Analytics packages measure visitor statistics - where they came from, what they looked at and what, if any, action they took.  Web sites and email have been the killer applications of the Internet and matured into mainstream marketing communication tools, primarily accessed via desk top or lap top computers. But this situation too is changing - just when the web site has become the main conduit for enquiries - with more people preferring mobile devices to access content and the increasing popularity of social media platforms. 

  

Social media additionally offers the prospect for ‘conversations’ between sellers and buyers, explaining and showing products and receiving feedback. Measuring and evaluating interaction varies between the different platforms, but those with advertising options allow a target audience to be specified based on user registration data. Because social media’s origins are in personal social communications, b-2-b organisations generally don’t expect their customers to use this medium for business. But it’s worth asking them the question. Do your customers use Facebook, follow on Twitter, read blogs and watch YouTube? Because social media is used to share social trivia and questionable images it is not seen as serious media for business. But then again the same people once dismissed the importance of web sites and placed labels on them to declare their site did not contain pornography!

Are b-2-b marketers engaged in social media?

How are b-2-b marketers exploiting social media opportunities?

Many of our b-2-b clients were late adopters of web sites. Now of course the web site is probably their most important marketing tool. But at the time they saw no need for a web site, not that is until they realised that suddenly their competitors had them and what we had been telling them for years was indeed happening. It is a familiar story of the reluctance, even hostility to embrace new technology. Back in the 19th century it was the Luddites who challenged the industrial revolution as machinery took over the work of artisans. But early adopters are not always right either. Some technologies do not fulfill their promise and in hindsight were expensive mistakes. The technology opportunity that b-2-b companies are faced with for marketing communications is the second era of the Internet, web 2.0. Web 2.0 allows interaction and has made its mark most tellingly in social media - Twitter, YouTube, Blogging and Facebook, plus several hundred less familiar names. Once again b-2-b companies have been slow to become involved because social media brings new challenges to the status quo, it takes businesses and the individual out side their comfort zone.

Previously the only communication by businesses to their customers has been controlled by the company through advertising, mail shots and press releases - all checked and approved before issue. In fact a lot of smaller companies don't even do that much, rarely if ever issuing a press release. But a key feature of social media is the so called 'conversation' that provides for comment, feedback, opinions. If not properly managed, there is an opportunity for disenchanted customers to not only complain, but to do so in a public forum where other customers and prospects can be exposed to a hitherto secret process. The challenge here is what to do about it. Failing to monitor what is being said about your company, if anything, is one issue and becomes a problem once a subject gains traction.  This sort of thing has already caught some out due to their ignorance of the original problem. At the very least 'alerts' should be set up to monitor what is being said about your business on the Internet, so you are immediately aware of problems and can respond rapidly before a small irritation becomes a crisis. There needs to be an agreed process already in place to respond quickly, effectively and positively to nip the problem in the bud. Customers are realistic enough to know that things go wrong, what interests them most is how well the supplier fixes the problem.

The next matter to address is how businesses proactively use social media. Setting up a blog or Facebook page needs to be carefully thought about. In particular how to share information, what to share and who to authorise to do this. Some high profile CEOs write blogs for example, something that will probably shock many SME business owners particularly where they have traditionally played their cards close to their chest and barely communicated with their own employees let alone their customers. Actually more enlightened businesses work closely with their PR agencies and it is they who actually contribute much of the input.

Finally despite all the hype about the millions of people signed up for Facebook or followers on Twitter - are your customers and prospects at these places. In the next few blogs we will look at this in more detail and talk about specific social media channels.