DOES SOCIAL MEDIA WORK FOR B2B COMPANIES?

I've always wondered why B2B's executives keep telling me they're not interested in Social Media for their Business. In my opinion, if there is a business sector that should understand and value Social Media, is precisely B2B.

B2B's professionals had always relied on business contacts and personal relationships with customers. B2C's, otherwise, normally deal with anonymous buyers. The buying cycle is longer in a B2B environment, than it is in a B2C's, and usually goes way beyond the actual sale. A successful sale requires a, somehow, intimate knowledge of the customer, beyond product's characteristics or seller's level of expertise.  The roles of the influencer, the decision maker, the user... have always been present and well defined in B2B.

B2B has always been about developing Social Networks. Now that we live a time in which those are on steroids at a global scale, it seems to me, from a Social Media Strategy's point of view, there is much a B2B company may benefit from.

So, for those of you who, like me, have to face the resistance of the B2B´s executive to integrate Social Media in his profesional arsenal, here go 5 tips to make them change their minds.

1. B2B's DECISION MAKERS ARE NOT FROM MARS

B2B's decision makers are people. They don't live in a distant galaxy. They are regular Joes and Janes. In fact, they're normally better educated and enjoy higher incomes than average. And, guess what, that fits perfectly in the description of the Social Media user. Do you know why? Because B2B's decision makers are indeed heavy Social Media users themselves.

Ask the B2B executive about his social media habits. He probably visits independent blogs, gets info through Social Media Channels, has a LinkedIN profile and engages likely in social media activities. Don't believe me: belive the $500 Forrester's study  that proves me right.

Survey done among North American and European decision makers at Companies with +100 employees

Now that we've established the obvious: B2B's decision makers are humans and use social media, let me tell you another thing about them: they use social as a tool in their buying decision making process. If you want them to know about your business, don't wait to see if your wonderful SEO strategies lead them to your site, put yourself where their eyes are. Join the conversation. Become part of their social media environment.

2. EMPHASIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL REPUTATION

I'll never get tired of repeating this: Reputation is Social Media's currency. Reputation is the door to influence. You may be an eminence in your field, but it won't give you the influence you deserve unless you make it very public. Social Media can help you build your reputation as well as that of your business.

What are you waiting for? Show the world your company's real value: the keen angle of expertise no other has. As redundant as it may sound, you need to strengthen your strengths, the things that differenciate your business from your competitors. If you don't do it, others will. Or worse... your competitors will percive your social media absence as a weakness and make it work against you... which leads me to the third of my tips

3. DOMINATE THE PARTY ROOM... OR ELSE

There is an analogy commonly used when refering to Social Media: it's like a big party. It's almost true. And you know party's dynamics, don't you? If you're not present, bad gossip about you is more likely to spread around than when you're there, dominating the room, being the soul of the event. So, if not for anything else, be sure you make your own invitation to the party to protect yourself/company from insidious gossip.  Besides, parties are fun. Blend in and enjoy.

4. INDULGE YOUR CLIENT'S GODSON

Your clients not only are present in social networks, they are sharing their lives, the interests and people they care about.

Imagine you've been trying to convince the purchasing manager of a company to buy your product. Wouldn't it be helpful to know his godson is a enthusiastic fan of the Miami Heat NBA's franchise, buy a t-shirt signed by king James Lebron himself, and give it to this manager you want to lean the purchasing decision towards your side? You won't be buying something nice for the decision maker, you'll make him look great in front of a boy he cares deeply about. Guess what, now all that info is available for you, for free. Chances are that person is already sharing about the things he cherishes, and the intimate connection he has with them. If you don't use social to research about your clients, be certain your competitors do.

5. USE HUMOUR

Face it, you're not Brad Pitt. How did you make your better half fall in love with you? You made her laugh, didn't you? Nothing works better than humour to enhance your natural charm. Humour catches attention. You maybe wondering what does it have to do with B2B? We're serious people doing serious business here! Well... think it better. I'm not telling you to be a clown, I'm telling you not to understimate the power of a smile.

Take for example what CISCO did. They have a router, the ASR9000. Price tag: $250,000! Buying Decision Cycle: 2 years! Not your B2C'S cherry pie. What did they do to improve the chances of selling such a product? They made a Valentine's video. "Nothing says I love you like 64 Terabites per second". Using the words of Eric Crangel from Business Insider:

There's really only a tiny handful of people with the budgetary authority to buy stuff like this. If even only a few them smile and think of Cisco more as a funny cool friend than a stodgy IT firm, it was worth it.

Next time you hear B2B's executives telling you Social Media is not for his business, you'll have a 5 points story to tell them.  You'll thank me later...

RED BULL: DON'T TARGET THE WALLET, TARGET THE HEART

In a recent podcast interview with Tessa Barrera, former Director of Social Media Strategy for Red Bull, she mentions that, in Social Media, it is far more important for Brands to focus on who you are instead of what you do. I cannot think of a better Social Media advise.

Companies focus too much on what they do, the products/services they sell. They push their content to the public the way they've done it for ages. They do not seem to understand the social shift markets have developed: the two ways scenario new platforms bring to the marketplace. One way communication is not dead yet, but it is decadent and anoying.

The traditional approach would've promoted an energy drink showing the product and its benefits. RedBull took another path. They understood what energy drinkers' lifestyle is about, what they enjoy. An Energy Drinker is an Adrenaline Junkie, a seeker of excitement that goes beyond replenishing electrolytes. Red Bull provides them with tailored content like no other: competition, extreme challenges, excitement. They don't ask you to buy their product. You don't see a sales pitch anywhere in their content. They associate the brand with all the activities that catch their potential consumer's attention: outstanding people doing amazing stuff. RedBull sponsors events that keep you in the edge. They give you emotions beyond ordinary: drama, adventure, passion, motivation, courage, thrill... And they use Social Media wisely. Monitoring what is being said about the brand, interacting with people, engaging in conversations. They truly understand how to be native socially.

What can we learn from RedBull's Social Media Strategy?

Don't Marginalize Social, Make it your Business

To give marginal importance to your Social Media Strategy is a clasical mistake that goes beyond my comprehension. In fact, if building custommer relationships means anything to your business, Social Media (community empowerment) should be the foundation of your business strategy. Period.

Red Bull does not see itself as a company that sales energy drinks. Nowadays, it's a powerful content provider for people who seek for extreme excitement and emotions, that happens to manufacture and sell an energy drink. Once they understood who they are, their strategy evolved around the concept.

Don't Ask, give

Red Bull seldomly asks to buy their product. They hardly ever show it. Instead, they give their audience exclusive content, using the language of Social Media: visual content. Videos and Pictures more than articles or typed posts. And they facilitate sharing.

Don't Manage, Empower Your Community

Besides amazing content, Red Bull gives their audience tools. Tools like Red Bull #TheShow initiative. An application that turns people's instagram pictures into a show to share.  They give them power, value, the hability to turn ordinary content into a visual experience.

Don't Target the Wallet, Target the Heart

Don't take me wrong, I'm pretty sure Red Bull's executives want to sell energy drinks and expect Return On their Investment. They simply take the Social Path to it. Red Bull does not focus on what they sell, they focus on who they are: a company that brings excitement to its advocates. Isn't that what an energy drink does? Why not focus on it? Don't sell the product, give an experience. Customers will associate the experience with the brand. The value of an emotional impact is worth much more than a sale. 

Take for instance, the Red Bull Stratos stunt. An austrian with an unpronounceable last name, was going to do something no one had ever done before. They created an event, carefully promoted on Social Networks to broadcast it live for a worldwide audience, making everyone witness history on the making.

Go Mobile

Red Bull uses Apps for smartphones. You can install the Red Bull TV App in your iphone, consume and share their content with your Social Networks. Free Smartphone games... you name it. They know the importance of mobile, and make the effort to be in your smartphone's screen.

Monitor your Brand Wisely, use Social Language Skills 

Content distribution is an important factor to put your brand on Social Networks, but it is not the only one. It's also a splendid tool to listen and monitor. People talk about your brand, and not always well. Reputation is an asset that has to be nurtured and cherished. Red Bulls pays attention to what people say about them, and acts with wonderfull finesse.

If an anonymous guy with 200 followers ironizes on twitter about "diying of cranberry red bull overdose", they don't ignore it, but they don't over react either. They respond using Social Media Tools: humour, irony and hard core facts.  Traditional companies would had either ignore or threaten the guy. Red Bull protects its reputation skillfully, improving it at the same time. Brilliant.

There is much to learn about Red Bull's Social media Strategies, but, as Tessa Barrera said, the key is to understand the importance of focusing on who you are, not on what you do. Keeping that in mind on each of the steps you take in Social, everything else will follow.

SELFIES PARA EMPRESAS

Si algo representa los medios sociales en su esencia más pura, es el Selfie. Un autoretrato es más que una imagen. La visión de nosotros capturada por nuestro propios ojos, por los de nadie más... Hecha para ser compartida. ¿No es eso lo que son los medios sociales? ¿Presentarnos a nosotros mismos la forma en que nos vemos? ¿La forma en qué queremos que nos vean?

Los famosos, los políticos y el ciudadano medio los utilizan a diario. Ofrecen sensación de cercanía, de humanidad ... personas reales en un mundo digitalizado. Cuentan la historia de lo que se muestra, y de lo que escondemos. Son la metáfora perfecta de un mundo móvil. Tomamos la mayoría de ellos con la cámara de nuestros móviles. Muchas veces, el dispositivo está presente en la imagen. Y el gadget, también dice mucho de nosotros. El modelo, la cubierta, la forma en que lo sostenemos, la manera en que se ha convertido en una extensión de nuestra personalidad.

Las empresas tienen mucho que aprender sobre el "movimiento selfie".

• En primer lugar, como herramienta de marketing. La base sobre la que podemos construir un perfil de nuestros clientes potenciales. Un medio para entender quiénes son, qué les gusta, cómo se ven a sí mismos, cómo quieren ser vistos, cuáles son sus intereses . Un pilar para cernir grandes volúmenes de datos y moldearlos en un ser real. El sueño húmedo de cualquier investigador de mercado. Si queremos triunfar en Redes Sociales, debemos entender el valor del selfie.

• En segundo lugar, porque también es una forma en que las compañías pueden presentarse al mundo. El selfie de una empresa es un gesto de transparencia. Un vehículo para mostrar su día a día, las caras detrás de la marca. Somos más que nuestros productos, somos sociales ... nosotros, cómo empresas, somos humanos. Las empresas son orgánicas, están vivas... entidades vivientes, organismos que interactúan y son parte activa de la Sociedad.

• En tercer lugar, porque los selfies son contenido, cuentan historias. En el mundo del Social Media, las historias mandan.. Nuestro mensaje tiene que tomar forma de historia para captar la atención de los grupos que nos interesan. Si queremos construir relaciones significativas con ellos, tenemos que apuntar a los corazones de nuestros clientes más que a sus mentes. Proyectar Emociones, más que datos. Un selfie de nuestra empresa lo hace mucho mejor que cualquier otro contenido. Consigue que esas relaciones se hagan personales.

Piénsalo...

Link a un artículo en inglés sobre los selfies más interesantes del 2013

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM SELFIES

Selfies are some of the most shared content nowadays. In fact, if something represents Social Media in its most pure essence, it is the Selfie. A portrait of one self made by ourselves is more than a picture. It is the vision captured by our own eye, not by somebody elses, made to be shared. Isn't that what Social Media is all about? Present ourselves the way we see us? The way we want to be seen?

Celebrities, politicians and the average Joe use them. They give a sense of closeness, of humanity... real people in a digitalized world. They tell a story of what we show as well as of what we hide. They are also the perfect metaphore of a mobile world. Most of them are taken by our camera equipped mobile devices. Even the device is sometimes present in the picture. And the gadget tells about us too. The model, the cover, the way we handle it, the way it has become an extension of our persona.

Companies have much to learn about the "selfie movement".

• First, because it can be used as a tool. A foundation to construct a profile of our potential customers. A means to understand who they are, what they like, how they see themselves, how they want to be seen, what their interests are. The pilar to filter big data and morph it into a real self. A market researcher's wet dream. If we want to triumph in Social, we must understand the value of the selfie.

• Second, because it is a way in which Companies too can present themselves to the world. A Company's selfie is a gesture of transparency. A vehicle to show its day to day life, the faces behind the brand. We are not longer our products, we are Social... we, as companies, are Human. Companies are organic selfs, they are alive, living entities, living organisms interacting with society.

• Third, because selfies are content, story tellers. In the world of Social, stories rule. Our message has to be shaped into a story to capture the eye of the stakeholders. If we want to build meaningful relationships with them, we have to target the hearts of our customers more than their minds. Project emotions, more than data. A selfie of our company does that better than anything else. It makes those relationships personal.

Think about it...

Link to an interesting article about some of the most celebrated selfies of 2013

HOW TO GET $800,000 TO FUND YOUR WEBSERIES: SOCIAL MEDIA LESSONS FROM VGHS

Do you know what VGHS stands for?

You should.

Video Game High School is the most successful webseries of all times (as of March 2013): 36+ Million First Season views. 2nd season, with its +$800,000 fully funded budget, on the making.

 VGHS’ astonishing success got its producers a sweet deal contract with NETFLIX to make the webisodes available for their 33 Million paying subscribers. I don’t know about the figures of the deal, but considering the more than 36 million views of VGHS first season, it is safe to say both parties profit from it.

VGHS is the brainchild of C-List internet Celeb (as he describes himself) Freddie Wong, a 27 years old Asian American from Seattle, whom greatest achievement 5 years ago was being Guitar Hero Champion at the 2007's World Series of Video Games. I know what you’re thinking: another story of the geek who got lucky going viral online… There is a component of truth in that thought, but just a very tiny one.
   

LESSONS

Freddie Wong’s success has many lessons to learn from, and not just if we are interested in starting our own webseries.

• SHARE FIRST: Freddie’s success comes from putting hundreds of hours of his time available for everyone online. He is very passionate about VFX, Video Games and Video Production, and he found a way to combine the three in a very didactically entertaining way. He did not knock on big studios' doors asking for help.  To use the outrageously european artists way of demanding public funds to prove his talent, never crossed his mind. He just exposed his skills to the world.

• ADD VALUE: Freddie is probably not the best VFX artist in the business, he is a regular guy with a passion and he shares it. He not only does cool stuff, he shows you how he did it! The foundation of the success of his content lies on two pillars of value: Cool Entertainment, even cooler Education!

• BUILD A COMMUNITY: His YouTube channel is the 5th most subscribed channel in YouTube today because he cares. He listened, commented, and answered (many times in video mode) his audience questions and suggestions. He uploaded content regularly. He kept the audience expecting more, and he delivered.

• INVOLVE YOUR COMMUNITY INTO YOUR PROJECT: VGHS has been fully funded by “backers”: people “donating" money in exchange for cool exclusive goodies that go from mentions of their names in the official credits of the series; to merchandise like signed Headsets, coffee mugs, gaming chairs; ego boosters such as be a character that screams "Brian! Look out!" for a single shot in the official VGHS trailer; or just invitations to the production set. He called for involvement, his loyal,thankful, community answered.

• USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO FUND AND PROMOTE YOUR PROJECT: Wong did NOT spend a dime on Traditional Media Advertising. He posted a video explaining the project, used kickstarter.com, a funding platform for creative projects; posted on free content curator pages like reddit.com; used his twitter account to raise awareness and his fanbase did the rest. And they really showed up: Freddie was aiming for $75,000, they raised

$273,725 in one month!

No budget was assigned for promotion. They used only free Social Media Channels. All the money raised went into content production. He did not spend a single dime on traditional promotion channels.

I particularly like one way Freddie monetize his Social Media Capital:  the $9,001 pledge available for backers in exchange for one tweet.  An option available for just one pledger: Freddie will tweet whatever you want him to tweet on the @fwong Twitter account (more than 300,000 followers) at a time of your choosing. Sweet!

• MAKE YOUR CONTENT WIDELY AVAILABLE: Freddie did not cage the VGHS into his company's webpage. The content was open to everyone in YoutTube.  Each episode was open for everyone to embed it into their own blogs, share it easily through Social Media Channels, forums, Facebook pages, you name it. It certainly brought collateral traffic towards RocketJump.com . Wong's Production Company shows first on Google Search for VGHS. The content generated interest, the Community wanted additional goodies. Conversations lead to RocketJump's web, where the Company posted other content like podcasts, behind the scenes material, blogposts that kept the traffic flowing.

• ENCOURAGE PRODUCT PLACEMENT: VGHS was an excellent medium for gaming community sponsors to place their products. Headsets, PC peripherals, airsoft guns, energy drinks... fit like a glove within the content.

EXTRA BONUS RESULTS

I've already mention some of the accomplishments of VGHS webseries. 36 million viewers, Fully Funded Production, the Netflix Deal are amazing results, but I like to point out one more: Social Media Capital's Growth: Freddie's twitter account increased 50% (from 200,000 to +300,000) YouTube Subscribers more than double from 2 million to almost 5 million.

CONCLUSION

Before VGHS's success, Freddie Wong declared:

We strongly believe the foundations for the future of digitally distributed content will be laid by webseries. We don't see a webseries as a stepping stone to get a feature film project, or a TV deal - a good webseries is an end unto itself. The webseries format is uncharted territory, and we want to explore it.

Everything about Social Media Marketing these days seems to float around content. Audiences are not just people looking for entertainment, they are communities avid for content to share, interact with, and comment about. Marketing is not about selling stuff, is about building relationships (that would evolve into selling stuff...eventually). Could webseries be a content format to enable and encourage those relationships? You bet it can.

Webseries is a wonderful content format to generate conversations, wake up interest and build community. It has all the traditional media series advantages: periodicity, cliffhanger possibilities, plus the flexibility to generate interaction through enriched media features that are native online. VGHS is somehow atypical because a large base of its community was built before the project was even conceived, but the lessons it teach us are there to learn from.  Webseries are here to stay. What do you think?

WEEK IN TWEETS: SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS TIPS

Compressed Knowledge To Get You Thinking...

SocialMediaSuccess TipOfTheDay: Gangnam Style proved language is no longer a barrier for content: the only frontier is your imagination. — Aurelio Toral (@AurelioToral) 22 de febrero de 2013

SocialMedia TipOfTheDay: Google your name or content periodically, you'll be surprised (for good or bad) of the reach accomplished.
— Aurelio Toral (@AurelioToral) 21 de febrero de 2013

SocialMedia TipOfTheDay: your audience's HEAD GUT HEART or SOUL? ... think about which of your audiences feature your content targets to.
— Aurelio Toral (@AurelioToral) 20 de febrero de 2013

Social Media Success TipOfTheDay: Old Media Audiences: EYES and EARS... NewMedia Audiences: MOUTHS ready to TASTE, DIGEST... and TALK BACK
— Aurelio Toral (@AurelioToral) 19 de febrero de 2013

SocialMediaSucces TipOfTheDay: if a post grabs ur attention enough to consider RT, enrich/inject VALUE: add ur personal comment to the RT
— Aurelio Toral (@AurelioToral) 18 de febrero de 2013

Social Media Marketing Success Tip of the Day: Don't obsess with content generation, the Key is to ADD VALUE
.
— Aurelio Toral (@AurelioToral) 12 de febrero de 2013

An intelligent comment about somebody's content may add more value than media content of your own.
— Aurelio Toral (@AurelioToral) 12 de febrero de 2013

Social Media Mktg Success Tip of The Day: A Story aims for the heart, a List aims for the brain, great content touches both...

— Aurelio Toral (@AurelioToral) 9 de febrero de 2013