I receive a lot of email (newsletters, promotions, etc.) from a variety of brands. I also follow many of [>>]]]> In a recent post , I stated that email was still a key marketing tool—even in the wake of newer channels like social media. This got me thinking about my email and social media habits as a consumer.

I receive a lot of email (newsletters, promotions, etc.) from a variety of brands. I also follow many of these same companies on Facebook. Even though they’re delivering much of the same content via status updates that I receive in their emails, I haven’t unsubscribed to most of the emails. Why? A couple reasons.

First, there’s a high probability that I’ll miss a company’s message in my Facebook News Feed. Unlike the majority of Facebook users, I prefer the Most Recent to the default Top News News Feed option. This means my News Feed includes updates from everyone I’m “friends” with. So, chances are good I’m going to miss an update (or two or three) from the companies I follow. Similarly, unless customers are regularly interacting with your company on Facebook, your status updates won’t appear in their Top News feeds.

Second, I prefer sharing content via email than via social media channels. It’s easier. For example, there isn’t always a Share option for content I find on Facebook. Also, an email often provides more information, and this helps me determine whether it’s something I want to share. That’s not to say I don’t share content on Facebook, I just don’t do it with the regularity that I forward emails onto friends, family, and colleagues.

Apparently I’m not alone in this behavior. A recent study by SocialTwist found that 55 percent of sharing happens via email while only 24 percent of sharing occurs by social media. That said, according to the study, social media content garners more click throughs than email—60 percent vs. 31 percent, respectively. That holds true for me; I click through more on Facebook, as it’s the only way to read the entire message or access the promoted content.

Both email and social media are valuable for sharing content. However, as Jay Baer recently pointed out, “…the connections between companies and their email subscribers are far stronger than the connections between companies and their social media subscribers.”

A customer who “likes” your company on Facebook or follows your brand on Twitter may show passion, but it doesn’t show commitment. What it does show is the potential for a fan or follower to become a customer. Using your social media channels to get them to subscribe to your emails offers a better opportunity to convert them into an actual customer.

What channels are your customers using most often to share content?

Despite these robust estimates, B2B marketers have lagged behind B2C marketers in adopting [>>]]]> B2B social media seems to be on everyone’s minds these days. EMarketer.com reports that B2B marketing activity on social networks is estimated to increase 43.3 percent in 2010, while spending is estimated to increase by $54 million in 2014 (up from $11 million in 2009)[1].

Despite these robust estimates, B2B marketers have lagged behind B2C marketers in adopting social media. And it’s no wonder. Because B2B social media is still relatively new, few concrete examples of success exist, making ROI difficult to prove. Standards and best practices are still being developed, mostly through trial and error.

So why should B2B companies bother? In my recent social media-focused client work, I’ve been facing this very question. “We need to focus on short-term revenue,” they tell me. “How do we know this social media stuff is worthwhile?”

With no metrics to point out, this question is difficult to answer. How do you justify building a Facebook fan page, for example, when traditional marketing practices can be backed up with numbers and a history of proven efficacy?

Well, for starters, social media—even for B2B companies—isn’t marketing. Or at least it shouldn’t be. Applying traditional marketing practices in a social media context just doesn’t work. Imagine a friend posting a link to a press release announcing a new diet pill on your wall. There’s a reason the Can-Spam Act was passed. People don’t like marketing infiltrating their personal space.

The human element of social media is exactly what makes it difficult to translate into a B2B context. Until recently, social media has largely been a consumer realm, where people interact based on personal interests, personal entertainment, or to accomplish tasks. No wonder a lot of B2B marketers don’t take social media very seriously.

But this is a limited way to look at the potential of social media. Whatever people are doing on social networks, the underlying principles are the same: communication, interaction, and building relationships. Every company, no matter what it’s selling, depends on this same set of principles. It’s all about reaching your customers effectively and building relationships with them.

So when considering social media in the B2B context, keep this in mind: Behind every impersonal business decision is a living, breathing human being. And most business decisions, no matter how big and how important, originate from a network of personal relationships.

If you look at it this way, B2B companies have some characteristics that make them great candidates for using social media:

• B2B companies typically have a more complicated value proposition than, say, the satisfaction of an ice cream cone on a hot summer day. Communicating intangible business value and thought leadership requires a wider platform than traditional marketing can provide. Social media opens the door to more types of communication. Furthermore, you can communicate at a deeper level using social media platforms than you can with traditional marketing.
• B2B companies often have a long sales cycle. High stakes purchases require a lot of support and information. This support and information is traditionally provided by sales people working one-on-one with customers during the pre-sales/consideration phase. Why not use social media as one strategy for providing that?

Some B2B companies are taking the leap into social media. Cisco has a Facebook page with more than 60,500 friends linked to it. Marketing traditionalists might question the value of this page, but one glance at Cisco’s Facebook wall clearly shows that the audience is actively engaged in the form of comments and “likes.” Oracle, Dell, and Deloitte all have Facebook pages that show similar levels of interaction.

Even if we can’t clearly articulate the monetary value of B2B social media, it’s clear to me that it is a useful promotion tool, especially when combined with traditional marketing practices. Reaching your audience is reaching your audience, regardless of how you do it.

For some interesting insight on this topic, check out this useful blog I found, Social Media B2B.

But before you go, tell me what you think of B2B social media. Is it just marketing in disguise or is it an authentic way to reach your audience? What successful B2B social media strategies have you seen?

The phrase should evoke some kind of nervous sweat if you’re one of the legions of marketers looking to boost your Web 2.0 savvy. That’s because there are nearly as many ways to engage an audience online as there are essays, tip lists, and best practices for doing so. Pocket that idea—you could make [>>]]]> Social media.

The phrase should evoke some kind of nervous sweat if you’re one of the legions of marketers looking to boost your Web 2.0 savvy. That’s because there are nearly as many ways to engage an audience online as there are essays, tip lists, and best practices for doing so. Pocket that idea—you could make a fortune creating the latest social network for wannabe social networking gurus.

I digress.

It’s difficult to conjure up a list of tips and techniques for social media because each engagement is just a little bit different from anything you’ve ever encountered. Yet there are real ways to interact with modern social networks. There are ways to deliver your message without looking like a shill. There are ways to engage with these new hubs of Web activity without spending a fortune. But these practices are muddled by a litany of bad advice that gets tossed around as a de facto standard for social media involvement. So check out these examples of social media flops, and use their stories to influence your own original ideas.

Liar, Liar, Social Network on Fire

In late 2008 online editors began to notice a peculiar trend appearing in the comments of their gadget- and tech-related blogs. A number of users were referencing just how awesome the new Motorola Krave handset was; only, they were doing so in a suspicious way. It’s hard to define exactly how these comments were suspicious. But just like the Supreme Court’s definition of pornography, you’d know them if you saw them.

And these online editors sure saw them. What began as a social marketing campaign ended up becoming a giant egg on the face for Motorola. Instead of currying favor amongst the readers of these top gadget sites, the biased comments attracted editors’ attentions for the wrong reasons. They, in turn, ran stories blasting Motorola for its patent astroturfing.

Keep Your Fans Close—and Your Competitors Closer

Once upon a time, there was an online application called Scrabulous. It allowed Facebook users to challenge each other to a tile-based word game that had an uncanny similarity to Hasbro’s popular Scrabble title. After the app amassed more than 500,000 users, Hasbro decided to launch an “official” version of Scrabble on Facebook. Oh, and they also decided to sue the pants off the Scrabulous creators for copyright infringement.

Scrabble is still competing against Scrabulous, now rebranded as “Lexulous,” with both running neck-and-neck at roughly 550,000 monthly active users. Instead of working together to create a one-shop approach to this popular game, both companies are now stuck competing for a diluted pool of Scrabble enthusiasts. Keeping in touch with how your fans are engaging with and promoting your product is important, but if you need to escalate the situation, at least consider a scenario that unites—not divides—your customers.

The Power of Proactive Pizza

Time and time again, a corporate disaster plays out over the social networks and the companies involved are chastised for their lack of response. And as they scramble to fix the damage, the flames turn into a forest fire. Take Domino’s Pizza: In mid-April, the Internet found out about a series of videos featuring two Domino’s employees mixing bodily functions and unsanitary practices with the normal day-to-day life of their pizza franchise.

Even though Domino’s fired the employees and began a top-to-bottom evaluation of the store’s sanitary efforts, the company didn’t bother discussing its response on the very social networks that were aligning around the news.

That plan lasted a single day.

Two days after the original video starting burning its way across the Web, Domino’s had established a new Twitter account and YouTube apology video in an attempt to mitigate the damage to its brand. Although a lot can be said about the company’s ability to control an out-of-control PR nightmare, the better point is that this is the kind of activity that Domino’s should have already been watching.

All it takes is a cursory Google News Alert to discover an impending Internet explosion against your brand. From there, it’s important to get a new message out clearly and succinctly, but personally. Nobody wants to hear corporate-speak when they feel they’ve been slighted; they want to hear a real explanation from a real human being, and they want this resource in the places where they’ve been reading the information. That said, treating social media as a messaging tool after the fact is the surest way to dilute the power of what you’re trying to say. A Web presence can’t be built in a day, especially if you lack the clout of a national pizza chain.

Number of views of Domino’s YouTube apology at the time of this article’s writing: 43,358.

Number of views on a single Web site featuring a video of Domino’s employees putting peppers in their noses: >130,000.

Social Media != Advertising

For the non-geeks, “!= ” means “does not equal,” in that social networks are not acceptable breeding grounds for one-sided conversations. Here’s looking at you, Aquafina MySpace. And you, Facebook “Ford Drives U.”

You can’t have a conversation with a car. You can’t talk about the latest movie with a bottle of water. An audience of users doesn’t sign up for a social network stream just to be bombarded with a series of promotional messages or thinly veiled advertisements. But that’s exactly what’s happening on landing pages like Aquafina’s bottled water MySpace and Ford’s… well… whatever Ford happens to be pitching on its Facebook page.

And it’s worse when entities like PepsiCo and Ford create these online presences and leave them to rot. Although the former has 9,728 fans and the latter 7,148, there’s absolutely no continued engagement. For all the work that was put into the admittedly meager network, there’s no follow-through whatsoever. Even having a water bottle talking to you is better than a water bottle that doesn’t want to be your friend after it has extended its hand/cap/label.

Social networks are a means for interacting with customers and building your brand while you tangentially engage in discussions that might not relate to your brand in the slightest. That’s why these bottled water and car pages just aren’t cutting it in the digital world. There’s no conversation, just advertising, and social media is not a new advertising medium. At least, not explicitly…

So what about the success stories?

You’ve read a lot! Stew on it. Research some funny marketing failures yourself. Chat about them with your friends. Avoid them in your business life. We’ll be back next week to show you a few examples of companies that rocked the social marketing space harder than a late ’90s music video.

The appointee, Katie Jacobs Stanton, formerly a group product manager at Google, worked on Google Moderator, [>>]]]> In a move demonstrating the Obama administration’s commitment to technology to continue possibly the most brilliant voter engagement efforts ever, it was announced recently that the president plucked a product manager from Google to serve as “director of citizen participation.”

The appointee, Katie Jacobs Stanton, formerly a group product manager at Google, worked on Google Moderator, a tool the Obama campaign used to let the public submit questions during debates. What’s the big deal? For starters, it demonstrates how well the Obama administration gets it in terms of understanding Web 2.0 technology and audience engagement.

Secondly, it underscores how critical technology is to facilitating human interaction these days. Notice that they didn’t choose someone with more traditional political chops, such as a community organizer.

The online story I read in MediaPostNews didn’t specify Stanton’s exact responsibilities, but it indicated a focus on moderating online forums and facilitating the administration’s dialogue with the public.

A quote in the story from Forrester Research analyst Shar VanBoskirk sums up nicely the context of this appointment for marketers in the private sector: “If we think about Obama’s administration like a corporation, the smartest corporations are ones that put tools in place to help them listen to, speak with, embrace, energize, and support customers.”

The White House is proving adept at Web 2.0 and conversational marketing. Where are you with your conversational marketing efforts? —Bill Golden, managing editor

Yeah, me too. I really did want to drop a few pounds and clean out the garage, but I just have a million other things to do.

Companies with large websites often find themselves in a similar boat. They resolve to “get control” of their Web content, but [>>]]]> How are you doing on those New Year’s resolutions?

Yeah, me too. I really did want to drop a few pounds and clean out the garage, but I just have a million other things to do.

Companies with large websites often find themselves in a similar boat. They resolve to “get control” of their Web content, but the day-to-day work of keeping the site refreshed and running keeps such initiatives in the background.

But getting a handle on your content—strategically managing how it’s created, deployed, and measured for success—is critical if you want to clearly demonstrate return on your Web investment.

Here’s what you need to remember:

You need a content strategy.

Does your company have a well-defined, broadly understood strategy for Web content?

If you spend most of your time responding to requests to “get this posted on the Web,” or have a dozen different business units creating stuff in their own silo, the answer is probably no.

To develop a good Web content strategy, you must first understand your company’s sales cycle, what your customers are looking for at each stage, and what you want them to do. Once you understand what your customers want, you can map out a strategy to deliver the appropriate content at the appropriate time.

Your strategy must then be integrated into the tools your marketing teams use on a daily basis. These tools help stakeholders ask and answer the key questions before posting: Why are you adding it? What are you hoping to accomplish? Is it providing value to your readers? Will it move you closer to your business objectives?

A content management system is important, but it’s not a strategy.

Six-and-a-half years ago on this very website, I wrote a piece called “Making the Move to a Content Management System.”

Today, many of the ideas contained in the article are quaint. Content management systems are standard for large sites, and off-the-shelf software makes content management accessible for even the smallest organizations. But like I said back in 2001, a delivery system is not a content strategy.

Many large enterprise sites have too much content. While the stats are fluid (and hotly debated), we’re in the neighborhood of 30 billion Web pages now. Content management systems are partly to blame-they make it simple to post, so everybody does. But just because it’s easier to do it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.

A CMS without an integrated content strategy is like setting loose 1,000 construction workers to build a skyscraper without a blueprint. You’ll end up with a building, but is anybody going to lease space?

Think of content in smaller, bite-sized pieces.

There is a lot of buzz right now about modular content. Forward-thinking companies need to approach content in a new way.

In the “old days,” most people thought of Web content as a Web page. But now, a single piece of content may have online and offline applications-and online, it may be just one element on a given page.

At Tendo we’re developing tools to help companies strategically manage these individual content assets. It’s more than a CMS—it’s about using collaboration tools across the enterprise to give greater visibility into content creation. You can target content toward specific business objectives and leverage it as broadly as possible. You save money and time and increase ROI.

Ironically, we’re talking about fragmentation as a way to do more integrated marketing. By boiling content into its most modular elements, you increase flexibility and make sure that your messaging is consistent across communication channels.

If you can’t measure it, don’t do it.

How do you know if your strategy is successful? You must be able to test and measure. If you can’t measure whether an individual content asset is moving you closer to your goal, you shouldn’t post it.

And that’s where metrics come in.

Like content management systems, analytics tools have made Web metrics more widely available. It also means that many companies are drowning in Web metrics without a clear understanding of what they should do with the information.

A good Web content strategy ties Web metrics into the sales cycle. It’s not just about click-throughs, but demonstrating progress moving people from awareness to consideration to preference to purchase to loyalty. That’s the true measure of Web success.

You need a maintenance plan.

Too much content on your site has a negative impact on your bottom line. It can make it more difficult for customers to find the information that is most likely to move them forward through the sales cycle. Plus, maintaining an inventory of Web assets has associated costs.

Companies should periodically review their Web assets, evaluate them in light of well-defined criteria, modify as necessary, and prune when possible.

My colleague Ian Miller wrote a great piece last spring called, “Pruning your Online Garden.” (We love our seasonal themes here at Tendo.)

But before you prune, you need a plan of attack. To create that plan, you must first understand the landscape. That’s why so many of our client engagements start with a content audit. You must understand what you have, map it to what you need, and identify the gaps.