What next - will chirping take off?

Is the Chirp app the next big thing?


As social media has evolved and insinuated its presence into the b-2-b marketing space there cannot help but be a sneaky suspicion that there is a measure of uncertainty about the value to a business and therefore how much resource to invest. Behind this concern is the ephemeral nature of some of the delivery tools and how much they are dependent on the continued enthusiasm of the users. Remember the initial excitement that greeted Friends Reunited and discovering what old school chums were up to? In the main it was pretty mundane stuff they were doing and it reminded you of why you had not kept in touch with them after leaving school. Then there was MySpace and now the hot property is Facebook. Both Friends Reunited and MySpace soldier on and you wonder if the shine might also go off Facebook too. So what next? A flurry of exchanges on my local marketing network responded to the news that one agency's client was investing resource in Chirp.


According to News Scientist - "Chirp,launched today, is a new service that allows people to share digital content – web pages, pictures, video or pretty much anything that can be stored on an online server – by playing short tunes to each other." The BBC mentions potential marketing applications saying,"It can also work over public address systems or radio transmissions - potentially allowing broadcasters a way to send up-to-date pictures or links to background information: or an advertiser to send coupons or snippets of a song or promotional video." One big question is will people be bothered? Last year it was QR codes that were suddenly everywhere in a checkerboard black and white rash over display advertisements and posters. But what seemed like a great system for linking the printed page to the Internet requires the user to make an effort and that won't happen if the experience disappoints. 


b-2-b marketers need to be aware of the technical possibilities and allow some modest resource to test and evaluate but not lose sight of a crucial question - is this a place that your target audiences actually visit?




  

Marketing is more than getting leads

catalogue collectors surprisingly include vicars 

Historically leads generated by marketing activities have then been passed straight on to the sales team. And what happened next is anyones guess.

Sometimes they sat in a pile on the sales manager's desk or in the back of his car. Sales people may also have been sceptical about the value of the leads, particularly if they hadn't been qualified in any way. The salesman is usually looking for immediate prospects that can quickly be converted into orders to meet  targets. The reality is there will probably be few 'hot' leads, most will be at different stages in the sales process from initial research into what might be available and onwards to being close to buying. When sales leads arrived in paper format - often response cards - there was usually a fair sprinkling of catalogue collectors with a surprising number of school children, students and more surprisingly - vicars. To discourage the amateur librarians response cards or forms asked more and more questions to provide information that would help weed out the 'time wasters'. And of course the forms in due course moved on to the web site. Some research indicates that the intervention of a form to qualify for information loses a high percentage of visitors. This matters, because the old weeding out process is as totally outmoded as much as the salesmen jealously guarding product information that would only get released to the most eager prospects once they had jumped through a series of hoops.

The web site brutally exposes all the product details that past generations of salesmen would drip feed to prospective customers. But it doesn't mean that having this information online makes it understandable to web site visitors and it helps to provide paths through the web site that are appropriate to prospects at different stages in the process that not only leads up to closing a sale, but continues after as they become users of the product or service. Many b-2-b enterprises do not sell online   to customers buying on impulse, but are more likely once on board have an extended relationship with the vendor. So when  a visitor reaches your web site make available the type of useful information in the form of white papers and video the type of information that sets the scene, explains the technology, provides examples of how your product benefits users. Instead of hiding this behind the old style form, offer the option to sign up for a monthly newsletter with the promise of useful and current information. By nurturing the prospect the relationship is being built and valued. When the time arrives for a purchase your company will have created a good impression and time for the sales call. It is just as important to maintain the relationship after purchase with follow up contacts, maybe even a 'users' club if relevant and of course introducing accessory products to build the value of the customer's account.

Talking about planning

In this blog we have often talked about planning and more specifically the importance of a marketing plan. But what about individual campaigns?

Simply writing a marketing plan annually when reviewing the budget, then forgetting it for a year is a pretty pointless exercise. And when it comes to campaigns that are part of that marketing plan, then it is important to give these the same attention to planning. Whether it is a major event such as a new product launch, a trade show or a special price promotion, setting objectives, strategy and targets as well as ensuring all the marketing tools are in place calls for some careful planning and at the end of the campaign evaluating the results. Was the outcome successful? Were targets achieved? What worked and what didn't?

In today's time short environment it is all too easy to respond to an imperious directive from on high within the company to do some marketing initiative without understanding the rationale, having the right tools in place, agreeing benchmarks and reviewing results. Then rush on to the next half executed scheme. As the chairman of a company I worked for some time ago when observing such frenzied activity was fond of asking, "are we merely being busy fools?"

Thinking about content marketing

Content marketing. Is that a new buzz word to tempt unsuspecting clients?

However exciting the new web site looks or a glossy new brochure appeals, the real test is does the content  interest the prospect and contribute to moving that person towards a commitment to purchase. The previous two blogs have discussed the changing role of PR from the traditional press release to the ability  the Internet affords of now being your own publisher. But unless the content published is compelling and valuable it won't do the job. So we talk about content marketing.

At different stages in the buying process, or perhaps in the stages that lead to an actual purchase, a prospect may need to be guided through a sequence of events. There will be prospects who may have identified a problem with something within their area of expertise, but at this stage are unaware of the existence of products or services that can deal with their problems. To give an example a company specialising in instrumentation may already have a solution for people who are experts in other fields such as geology or structural engineering, but are unaware of the products and how to use them and the companies that can supply the tools they don't yet know they need. This can also be the case in new markets where content is required to educate people. This can be a two edged sword, as in educating people you also help open the door to a market they didn't know existed and in turn to your competitors. The well written educational piece will not just explain the technology and applications but in doing so position your company as experts, build credibility and trust. Typical examples of useful content at an initial research stage are White Papers, Guides and 'How To' tips.

Creating awareness is often an essential early step for introducing new customers to the products you have and lead to an interest to learn more and to become more specific in their research to discover what particular products from your range are what they need. At the early interest stage offering telephone support can be very helpful in identifying product options that best meet their application needs. Some prospects might be alarmed at actually talking to a vendor so early in the process, particularly if they have only recently discovered the benefits this class of product appears to offer them. So online selection tools can seem less intimidating and anonymous than getting engaged with a sales person before they have researched other options. At any time that help option needs to be accessible. Not everyone wants to take the time to figure it all out first. Having read a white paper and realised where to go, others may prefer to short circuit the rest of the process and press the help button right away. Others need to be nurtured along the route and directed to content appropriate for that stage. At some time products,  price and availability become important in the decision process. How this information is presented will depend on the nature of the product as to whether it is off-the-shelf for next day delivery, or subject to design and proposal. Content should have made sure prospects know what to expect here.

Writing for totally newcomers to the market as well as repeat customers and regular specifiers who need to get straight to the detail and expect it to be up to date and accurate, will call for different styles and different paths through the web site. And what with multiple communications channels, content marketing has an important role to play.

Thinking like a publisher

Thanks to the web and free publishing tools anyone can now be a publisher - but what to publish?

In The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott he writes, "Prior to the web, organisations had only two significant choices to attract attention. Buy expensive advertising or get third party ink from the media." There were other options such as a company newsletter mailed to the customer database to keep in touch, particularly useful when product purchasing/replacement cycles are long to help maintain top of the mind awareness and unprompted recall of your brand during the long intervals in between. But the web has indeed opened a new door directly to customers, so what do they need to know? Well they don't necessarily want to go straight to an online catalogue. In the b-2-b marketing space purchases are more likely to be researched rather than made on impulse. And of course web site visitors may not yet be a customer, but they could be prospects waiting to be converted.

It is often noted that customers and prospects want benefits, they want to know what your product and service can do for them. Creating an online resource that is authoritative about your industry or market can be a very effective marketing tool. There is plenty of scope for content here, not just talking about the latest developments but taking a step back to provide people new to the subject a straightforward explanation of what the sector is all about, the main things to be aware of and the benefits to their organisation. You should also discuss the operating environment, issues such as legislation specific to this area of interest, what standards apply, examples of applications, new developments, user experience - in short, content which is relevant and informative to prospective buyers that provides a valuable briefing resource. Traditionally this is the area of White Papers and some of this content can indeed be available packaged in a PDF for download. But a blog actually can do much more. There are several benefits in using a blog. Although company sponsored it can afford to take a more  personal approach, less formal than the White Paper and certainly more flexible. Content can be developed by several authors, each with different expertise and knowledge of the subject. A blog is not restricted to text alone, images and video can be used to great effect and links can take readers to further information such as products that meet their needs. Blogs are also an interactive tool allowing followers to comment on articles and authors and others to respond.

The thing is, running a blog does require effort, not just to set up, but to keep going forward, to maintain quality and build followers and that is what not many companies are good at doing. But those who do will see the rewards. Taking the moral high ground in their market sector will build authority, develop trust and know what, when the time comes to replace or buy a new product guess whose name will be high on the short list of vendors.

Have the rules of PR changed?

Not everyone gets what PR is about.

Forget about the formal definitions, in the B-2-B world PR is about generating favourable news coverage for a client, it is about managing the reputation of the client and in money terms it is about using the PR fee to gain value that simply buying equivalent media space for advertising could not achieve. It is not the world of murky 'spin doctors' who seek to manage news in the political arena. And it is not just about press releases either.

The thing about PR is that it can use many channels to communicate and this often used to cause problems in one B-2-B agency where I worked, between advertising account executives and PR account executives as to what constituted PR and what had strayed into advertising territory.  Traditionally press releases could probably be regarded as the core of a PR programme along with newsletters, company magazines, subscribed articles, White Papers and the like. But whatever the actual delivery mechanism the process ultimately required client approval before release and the news pitch was directed towards the editors of trade press publications. It was the editor who decided which press release would appeal to the readership of his magazine.

But in the era of social media the audience is not an editor writing for say a technical audience, but the end customers themselves. So it is argued the formal style both of writing and presentation should be abandoned in favour of an informal conversation with the customers. And another thing - the imperative of instant communication and response bypasses the process of review and approval. It is no longer just the press release, but the blog, Facebook, Twitter, news feeds and video that are useful PR communication tools. It is not of itself an alternative as some might assume, or without cost - whether the hours consumed are on the in-house budget or as an outsourced fee. Opening up the writing task to a roster of authors also involves risk - a wrong word here or there can destroy years of carefully constructing that reputation at a stroke.

One approach we have used to manage the diversity of news channels is to develop a PR Grid that chooses the style and form of publication and how appropriate a particular news item is for certain channels. Some items are only for the social media channels, items which are different, unusual or in some other way more interesting still go down the traditional publication route as well as the social media routes. Brought together it makes for an integrated approach that still delivers a consistent core message but in a way that recognises the diversity of broadcast options.

DAY 2 at ABTT Theatre Show

On show with British Harleqiin.

ABBT Theatre Show

Great buzz on opening day.

Should all marketing communications now be online?

Some marketing commentators are suggesting that traditional marketing tools are no longer of value and that trackable and measurable campaigns should now all be online.

Although much evidence points to the company web site as the preferred portal for initial contact with a vendor, what drives visitors to the site in the first place is another matter. This may well be conventional display advertising in a trusted industry sector publication. A recent email received from Industrial Technology quoting from market research they had commissioned, noted that "Despite the growth of on line promotion, advertisements still play a major part in directing traffic to websites and, from our reader research findings, 76% of readers prefer magazines to keep up to date with new products. 66% then visit the chosen manufacturers websites." 

The sudden uptake a year or so ago, of QR codes provides a link from the printed page to a landing page which in theory offers a simple connection without the need to key in a url. There is some scepticism about the take up of these, or whether the novelty value has passed. It still takes time to open an app, scan and view content which has to be pretty good to bother doing this on a regular basis. So if the first experiences are disappointing, the call to action will have to be very compelling to bother.  Interestingly looking at Google Analytics for some clients the move to mobile devices is growing, but at under 12% of site visitors is still a minority, with the top platforms being iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Social media referral currently accounts for just over 1% of their traffic, despite a significant client commitment to engage in this area. Here there is even more scepticism in b-2-b marketing. It seems some people are becoming bored as noted in a recent article reflecting on some market research. "Along with saying that they were bored, the Facebook defectors also used the words “not useful” to describe the experience. Apparently, some users simply aren’t getting the information that they require when they log on to the service. One major issue could be that users aren’t seeing the statuses, photo uploads, and other activities from the people they care about. Even if they want to see what Person X had for breakfast, it might not appear on their News Feed. Facebook has been upfront with the fact that only a small percentage of your friends actually see your posts – somewhere around 12%." A big question is whether advertising is that effective in a social environment. The fall of 30% in Facebook stock since the recent IPO suggests that the financial markets are also having their doubts.

At a more general level over 70% reached the client web sites through search - more searching by brand name than for generic product - 16% via referral and 12% direct. Most likely the referred and direct visitors are more valuable as one third are returning visitors. So getting visitors to the web site is not simply generated by other online actions but in many different ways and that points to a fully integrated marketing campaign both on and off line. The challenge is getting the best mix of offline, online and new tools to create an effective and joined up campaign.

Marketing for small businesses

Most UK businesses are small, most need marketing expertise, but most cannot afford much.

In a recent blog we noted the dilemma that businesses most in need of professional marketing expertise were least able to afford access to such skills, or have budgeted to spend on traditional marketing communications programmes. Looking at marketing not as an expense, but as an investment the picture can look different. In technology markets the business may have its origins in a new product idea, or a set of products that can address a niche market. However the small business is funded, there will be some revenue expenses that are a regular, probably monthly, commitment such as salaries, premises and utility services. There may also be capital expenses in machinery or tooling which have been made on the basis that the investment will deliver benefits. The benefits might be in lower unit costs of production, or improved quality (less rejects and returns) that will lead to better product profitability and more sales. But the increased sales are unlikely to materialise if potential customers remain unaware of this great product. Which brings us back to marketing. Viewed as an investment, marketing should therefore demonstrate valid returns, which ultimately are measured not just in sales leads, but in profits growth.

First there must be a commitment to make that marketing investment and allocate funds accordingly - the figure will have to be affordable, but it is essential. Secondly it has to be consistent and a regular budget commitment each month. Thirdly the investment should be carefully made to get the right mix. Finally the success or otherwise must be monitored and things not working analysed and changed. This is where outsourced marketing support can  make the difference.

An experienced marketing agency that also understands the company's market, the terminology and technology can help ensure that an integrated marketing plan can be devised and implemented to achieve targets, stay within budget and become part of the team driving the business forward.

 

Social Media

A less reverent look at the social media game .....


Social Media Revolution (parody)

A nation of small businesses?

According to UK government statistics SMEs account for 99.9% of all enterprises and almost two thirds (64.2%) of private sector businesses are sole partnerships.

Perhaps not just a nation of shop keepers, but apparently a nation of small businesses anyway, with many enterprises having just one person doing everything. And not unsurprisingly non existent marketing budgets. Yet marketing guidance, advice and implantation is what they need to flourish. We can speculate the reasons why there are increasing numbers of what might be termed 'micro businesses' not least the complex and all reaching mass of employment legislation that is probably deterring many growing companies from taking on employees. Preferring instead to sub contract to other micro businesses creating a network of inter connected enterprises. Into this space comes LinkedIn.

LinkedIn seems to target professionals and has kind of evolved into, not exactly a job site where people looking for employment post their CV, but nonetheless a place to publicise skills and experience and garner glowing testimonials from people you have worked with. There are groups to join where ideas can be exchanged and through connections access to millions. And yet are people attracting business enquiries  from this source? I suspect that for most the leads and conversions are small, if any. Meanwhile it becomes another time consuming investment to develop contacts aded to the time sunk into other social media platforms.

Now everyone can be a publisher is there too much news?

The volume of company announcements has increased rapidly with the ability to self publish online, but how much of it is really news?

Before the Internet, most b-2-b marketers had limited media access to reach their target audiences with news - typically trade journals, local press and a company newsletter. The press release is a formal company document, although often researched and written by a PR agency, it was (and still is) approved before issue,  so the process takes time. The PR specialist identifies news stories that are likely to be of interest to a magazine editor, will look for a unique angle on the story and provide a captioned and credited, professional photograph - the more eye catching and compelling the better. Once the press release reaches the editor's desk along with hundreds of others, probably only one in twenty gets selected for publication. Unpublished stories can still be used on the company web site and in newsletters. A Virtual News Office is a great way of publishing company news. But formal company news is not the reason for 'news' overload - it is the social media channels. Frequently the tweets are links to another online item. Even video is running the risk of over exposure.

Twitter and Facebook are probably the biggest culprits in churning out news by the minute. In the first case, most of it isn't interesting news just inconsequential comments of the moment. For example, by following tweets from companies and organisations active in a particular b-2-b market sector, even if you are following relatively few, it generates such a deluge of information that it soon becomes unmanageable and consequently unread. Amalgamating news feeds using something like Hootsuite clearly demonstrates the scale of the problem. One organisation told me it has about half a dozen people each tweeting 5 or 6 times a day. With the filters  - PR agency and magazine editor - on what constitutes 'news' removed, quality is obviously one casualty, interest another and the risk of losing the attention of your customers an all too real possibility. Is a development engineer or an architect keen to be kept informed of new products and projects really going to be impressed by being swamped with company tweets and Facebook messages, or would they prefer just to stick with what is important and relevant to them? Has anyone even asked? Perhaps the 'less is more' philosophy would work better.

On the other hand selectively used social media can add to traditional news broadcast methods. Tweets as headlines of press releases can link to the full story on a VNO. Blogs provide a channel for very targeted information appealing to very specific, small and focussed target audiences that would never have supported a printed magazine. Videos are good for providing supporting information on the YouTube channel. For b-2-b marketing not everyone will be social media users and marketing strategy must recognise the diversification of news delivery, maintain quality, publish information of real interest and value to the target audiences and avoid over kill.

Will the Facebook IPO be liked?

Later this week Facebook will make its initial public share offering predicted to value the business at around $100 billion and immediately become one of the biggest companies in America.


This blog has frequently commented on Facebook as a marketing medium. Undoubtably in its short history it has been a phenomenon, but is it sustainable? Lets evaluate the product against some fundamental criteria. According to books and the movie describing Facebook's origin and short history it grew out of a student venture that wasn't based on a particularly novel idea or execution, or from the result of in depth research. Neither was it driven by a business plan and financial forecasts. The surprise is that it took off in spectacular fashion with users signing up at an amazing rate to currently around 900 million world wide. Big numbers inevitably appear attractive to advertisers seeking to reach big audiences and this in turn led to talk of monetizing the product and then to the IPO.


As Facebook kind of 'took off' there is always the concern that if the fundamental appeal of the offering is not understood, then keeping the users happy if what it is that made them happy in the first place is itself not clear, there is always a risk of alienating them. Of course the initial success is based on a free product that generates just $5 per member. If it cost to join, would users pay to belong and would it have taken off as it did? Initially there was some exclusivity in so far as you needed a university email account to join.Two things that might just alienate users are the use of personal information and the presentation of advertisements on personal pages. Offering very targeted audiences appears to be an advertiser's dream suggesting low waste of advertising dollars.  I have just returned from Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia and suddenly all the advertisements served to me are in Thai. Spooky, but not really appropriate especially as I can't read them.


And despite the big numbers of users,  it is still a small percentage of the world population which is counted in billions. And what proportion of an advertiser's target audience total population are regular Facebook users? In traditional marketing target audience populations can be defined and media addressing a particular group similarly evaluated. I wonder how many companies have any idea what proportion of their target audience are regular users of Facebook and are they typical of the whole target population or a sub set with different needs?


In the UK and other countries numbers are falling.This Guardian article quotes  Magnus Hoglund, chief executive of the law media portal Law360.com, who has worked on digital media companies for the past decade, saying: "From my experience, I get the sense that being on Facebook is not cool anymore. The early adopters and trend setters are moving away. [But] these are also exactly the type of people brand advertisers want to reach; if they are leaving, it doesn't look good for Facebook." The Daily Telegraph reports, "Facebook now has more than 900 million users, who share 46 billion pieces of “digital content” every day. That content might be short updates, photos, links to other websites, or invitations to events. Many of Facebook’s members use it instead of email. Others play a variety of games. Then there are those who follow pages run by celebrities, sports teams and even brands." It goes on, "All of the data those hundreds of millions of users add to Facebook contribute to building a profile of their interests. Using Facebook’s tools, advertisers can target very specific sections of the membership. If you want to reach women aged 18 to 24 who live in London and are fans of Lady Gaga, then Facebook can sell you an advert that will be shown only to members who match that profile." It begs the question, will it so effectively deliver engineering specifiers who work in Birmingham for a b-2-b company producing components?

Then as Facebook themselves have pointed out the greatest growth is in mobile platforms - smart phones and tablets - which they have not yet monetized. Commentators seem to agree that income will primarily be from advertising and this is unlikely to be additional money, but diverted from other media.  Interestingly General Motors has announced it will no longer pay to advertise on Facebook.


Of course companies can still communicate through their Facebook page without paying to advertise and here is another dilemma - what is it that Facebook does for b-2-b's? Other social media platforms have a ready-to-understand proposition. YouTube is great for videos - product demos, user endorsements, events etc. Twitter great for news headlines. LinkedIn for professional contacts and recommendations, blogs for specialised content, but Facebook's heritage is in personal communication  rather than broadcast messages and it takes resource and effort to build a loyal group  of followers. There then remains the not trivial task of then turning them into buyers! 

Is what a client wants what they need?

Sometimes clients have very definite views of what they want to do, but that may not be what they need to do.

Such a situation prompts the question - is the marketing brief informed by research, or because someone in the marketing team likes the idea. Consider an example. A UK division of a company within the portfolio of a major international business had some money to spend on advertising simply because the organisation allowed a percentage of the budget regardless of need to be spent on display advertising. The brief was to produce an advertising campaign. It soon became apparent that their type of very specialised capital equipment had a very limited market within the UK territory, in fact here were just five buyers of this class of product. They already knew them all personally and while there were several marketing initiatives that could help nurture and retain these key accounts, display advertising wasn't one of them.

Another wrong direction is to buy the not-to-be missed advertising deal where there happens to be a convenient page left to fill at a much discounted rate. Or to sign up for a new exhibition because "all of your competitors are going to be there." Or to invest in the next new thing, whether it it is a yet untested new publication or the latest new place on the Internet.

Few small to medium size B-2-B companies budget for formal market research, but that is no reason not to ignore researching the market. The Internet has considerably simplified what was once known as 'desk research' and made online polls easy, but telephoning just a small sample of the target market while not statistically valid can often flag up a problem worthy of further investigation. Clients often claim to know their market, but ringing a dozen or so of their customers or prospects can quickly uncover often surprising information. For example, unprompted recall of the brand might demonstrate the client is less well known than was assumed. Or the company may have a poor reputation for deliveries, or service - issues that if not addressed will undermine a marketing initiative such as a new product launch.

Market research should be at the core of new product development and marketing campaigns in delivering products with messages that answer the needs of users and provide benefits that are valued and differentiate the product from competitors. So the question of what the company needs as a marketing programme should be informed by research rather than what marketers think is needed.

Should marketers have a good knowledge of the technology they use?

Marketing for many b-2-b enterprises is not just about presenting increasingly sophisticated products, but using communications channels that also are reliant on an underlying technology.

The Industrial Revolution in England not only changed the way things were made. It  had a profound impact on the way people lived and worked and in turn the fortunes of the nation itself. Visit industrial heritage sites or museums to see equipment of the era and you can watch and see how the machines work. You can witness the parts turning, see cotton being spun, shuttles weaving cloth or pumps raising water. Today the technology is largely hidden buried in silicon chips and embedded computer code. Many marketers promote products without an understanding of how they work, using Internet based systems and programs they are equally unqualified to master. They become reliant on the R&D guys on the one hand and the IT people on the other.

When I started my career in marketing, working for a leading manufacturer of electrical goods, the situation was rather different. The marketing department set the agenda. We wrote the new product development specifications, we worked closely with the design engineers, witnessed laboratory prototype testing, progressed tooling development and introduction on to the factory production lines, packaging, logistics and stocking. We wrote the operation manuals, set the prices and briefed graphic designers and advertising agencies. By living through the whole design to production cycle we had intimate knowledge of all aspects of the product and trained our sales team in how the product should be presented. The marketing team were engineers, most had served apprenticeships in all parts of the company before being appointed to a marketing role. We knew how everything worked including all the outsourced graphic design processes that produced the marketing collateral. In short we had control.

Today for many companies the marketing environment has more focus on communications than new product development. They are increasingly reliant on others to engineer the systems they rely on, they don't have experience of working in a development or manufacturing operation. The products ship in from China. In short they are not engineers. They have no apparent interest or curiosity as to how products work, the effort required to make things happen and little interest in what is involved - only how cheap and how quickly can they get things done. Not surprisingly without understanding or control of the processes things go wrong.

Making an investment in social media marketing

For b-2-b marketers investing in social media marketing the question of how much resource to commit needs to be asked.

In a recent blog we drew attention to the time commitment and asked the question - how is marketing time budgeted? We highlighted a report that discovered marketing people are investing 20 hours or more a week and pointed out this time had a cost.  An article on Marketingnewz.com now poses the question - how much should we budget? Author Brad Shorr also homes in on the time required and proposes a minimum resource requirement consisting of a leader "responsible and accountable for results and for developing all the creative inputs." Plus "a dedicated staffer who is available 20-40 hours a week to execute" five main activities involved in building a community and "programming support to set up accounts, update templates, install applications and setup/process analytics."

Once the presence is set up for the company to participate in the various social media places, building the community calls for several activities which must be done on a regular basis. These are listed as:-

1. Community building - connecting with your target audience on a daily basis.
2. Brand monitoring - checking the social network space daily for mentions of your company or brand.
3. Engagement - listening and responding at least daily, but ideally in real time.
4. Sharing content - writing and publishing material that will be of interest and value to your community and help establish your company as a thought leader and convince your target audience of your expertise and capability. A regular flow of information, typically weekly, or at least something new to say monthly.
5. Maintenance - deleting spam comments, adding apps and updating content.

Clearly being successful in building relationships that develop followers and lead to  conversion with them making a purchase will be the ultimate test of social media. Before making the investment some market research to identify the proportion of your target market population that regularly inhabit the social media space would be a good starting point to figure out the potential ROI. But this is not a quick fire campaign. It may take a year or two to reach a critical mass of followers that will result in order value that exceeds the cost of acquiring them.

Others might speculate that in a couple of years time the game might have changed. Once formerly cool places try to monetize what made it cool in the first place gets lost. Or people simply get bored. I have noticed some early adopters of Facebook seem to be migrating to Google + and remember Friends Reunited and MySpace, who talks about them now? On the other hand if the entry-to-ROI span is long can you afford  the risk of being left behind?

Who is creating content?

As the Internet offers more and more opportunities to self publish - who will create the content?

Many B-2-B companies are now facing the challenge of producing an increasing flow of interesting and quality content to populate online news pages, social media and forum groups. Take a step back to the time when press releases were the only news format. It was typically the case that many  marketing managers of smaller b-2-b companies thought they didn't have any news and stories had to be teased out of them at a monthly meeting with the PR agency. In fact by running through a series of categories to prompt the client  usually a few possible newsworthy stories would emerge. It is worth listing some of the more popular subjects as ideas for the new media too.

New products or services will always attract attention. New research or technology is even better as developments and advances help position the company as a leader in the industry. Business news such as expansion, new facilities or equipment can also be of interest  as can new staff appointments if used to show recruitment of expertise for example. Contract wins and placement of important orders serve to associate the business with success. Third party endorsements by satisfied customers and related case studies are valuable in building confidence amongst prospective customers. Another approach is for a senior company spokesman to comment on industry developments, to be available as an expert in the market or give presentations at conferences. Contributions of articles for special features in relevant publications can act as guides, provide useful advice and  help establish credibility. The PR agency would generally be writing in a style that would catch the editorial eye as being of interest to the publication's readers and the PR specialist would channel stories to the appropriate publications, or repurpose into case studies, white papers or even user guides.

But for social media publication the content is for individuals and not for editors with an experienced eye for a good story. It is more of an opportunity to engage in conversation. Take blogs for example which could be considered the online equivalent of the former company magazine, with the comments feedback similar to the letters page, and these need to be monitored. Blogs offer a good destination page for tweets which are effectively news headlines. YouTube is an entirely different medium but useful for demonstrating how products work, customer endorsements and coverage of events. Pinterest meanwhile offers a vehicle for interesting themed images. Then at the chatty level there is Facebook and LinkedIn and plenty more.

Maintaining interesting news is certainly going to be a challenge and many companies will need help to set up and implement a a news grid.

How is marketing time budgeted?

Although outsourced marketing costs might be budgeted and managed, how is in-house time accounted?

When the economy falters it is easy to take a red pen to the marketing budget and make some quick savings. It is more difficult to reduce staffing levels because of all the employment legislation. The marketing team may have to do more with less and in response set about driving down outsource costs. But the marketing budget is not just about the marketing communications costs - but in addition employment costs, facilities the marketing team occupy and of course travel and other expenses. When the complete cost is applied, staff hourly rates and overheads might well be higher than outsource costs. So why does this matter? Well one aspect highlighted in the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from SocialMediaExaminer.com is the "weekly time commitment for social media marketing."

The report found that, "A significant 59% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more and 33% for 11 or more hours weekly." It also seems "those with more years of social media experience spend more time each week conducting social media activities. For example 77% of people with 3 or more years of experience commit more than 6 hours weekly to social media marketing. And 24.5% of this crowd are spending 20 hours or more each week." As social media marketing begins to absorb significant chunks of marketing time it is perhaps appropriate to put a value to this activity so that the comparative  costs versus other marketing activities can be measured as well.

It is easy to think that doing marketing work in-house comes for free - it doesn't. Not only is there the actual cost in terms of time and fully allocated overheads, but also the missed opportunity costs. Presumably before the marketing team became so engrossed in social media they were doing something else. Perhaps that something else is no longer important, in which case it is time to review the complete marketing picture and it might be helpful to understand in-house costs just as well as outsourced costs.

New research report sheds light on social media marketing

Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner, has launched the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report and what's more he is encouraging its distribution throughout the marketing world.

Available as a 42 page PDF report the research, to which we made our own modest contribution, is based on the collective input from 3,800 marketers, so represents a bang up to date insight into what is happening with social media as a marketing tool right now.

So lets take a quick look at the major findings.

• A significant 83% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.
• A big issue for some 40% is the wish to master how to measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media and find customers and prospects.
• Video marketing and YouTube figure at top spot for increased investment in 2012 as rated by 76% of marketers.
• And Google+ is attracting interest which only 40% currently use, with 70% wanting to learn more and 67% planning on increasing Google+ activities.
• The top 3 benefits of social media are:-
• generating more business exposure - 85%
• increasing traffic - 69%
• providing market place insight - 65%
• The top 5 social media networks and marketing tools, in order are:-
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Linkedin
• blogs
• YouTube
• But social media is recognised as taking a lot of time - 59% spend 6 hours or more each week on social media and 33% invest 11 hours or more. That's over a quarter of a nominal 40 hour week!
• Perhaps in view of this time commitment we might expect more than the 30% who do to outsource this work.

The full report is packed with interesting questions about social media and numerous charts mapping the current state of play.