Paying for Twitter

It’s a question on most digital marketers minds: will Twitter survive without a revenue model to underpin it’s operations and expansion? Asked another way, what will be the revenue model that Twitter will adopt to ensure it’s long term survival?

As a committed user I have come to rely on Twitter for news, updates, connections, information, and to follow the fortunes and activities of companies, brands and people. It’s often the first web site I visit each morning, and the last of the day. Using Tweetie on the iPhone makes Twitter easily accessible when I’m on the move.

So could I, and millions of others like me, live without it now?  The short answer is no. It got me thinking “what would I pay to keep using it”?

The value that Twitter adds to my professional and personal life is well worth paying for. By way of example, I have had more success resolving Optus phone and wireless issues by using their Twitter account than by phoning their call centre. Professionally I have connected with some smart people who are supportive and willing to provide real business opportunities.

I would also prefer to pay for an ad-free Twitter. My threshold is about A$25 p.a. Assuming that this was an option, how much would you pay? Answer the poll below and also let me know your thoughts on paying for Twitter.

Measuring the ‘sociability’ of a company

There is a need for a professional measurement criteria to determine how “social” a company is – or isn’t.

Below I have begun thinking about an approach to this issue by identifying the numerous reasons, or strategic rationales, why a company would want to be connected to it’s customers, prospects and the wider community.

1. Listen

Various social media channels allow companies to set up “camp” online and listen to what people are saying about them. It may be a Facebook fan page, a blog, a specialist forum site, a YouTube channel, or a Twitter account. There are numerous listening posts and some of these should be a foundation of a social media strategy.

2. Converse

Actually saying something of value to the community of friends/fans/followers/etc. is the next tangible step a company can take when they’re “being social”. This can take many forms and requires qualified and intelligent company representatives to be responsible for online publishing (this seems obvious but its amazing how poor some company/brand communicators are).
3. React

One of the biggest areas of opportunity to constructively use social media is when a crisis or negative issue arises. The banks, telcos, airlines and other major service-based organisations are the prime suspects in this matter. How a company responds to the issue via public social networks is often as critical to the outcome as the actual compensation or redress they offer the aggrieved customer.

4. Crowd-sourcing

An increasingly popular form of “being social” is to reach out to the community via social networks to invite ideas and feedback about a specific topic. It might be to come up with a new product name, or a home-made advertising campaign, or to conduct a test marketing program. There are many opportunities to use social networks to reach out to the community with the promise of rewards and publicity for those who “win” or have their entry broadcast to a wider audience.

5. Integrate

An essential element of a successfully social media strategy is how well your conduct in social media networks aligns your company or brand with all other customer communications. It’s potentially disastrous to act online as a highly “social” organisation if this does not match up with behaviours in other areas such as customer service, product availability, price competitiveness, green and philanthropic credentials, etc.

Can you nominate other strategies or tactics that a company can be put into action using social media? What other ways can a company “be social” online?

How to Use Social Media in B2B Marketing

B2B is generally considered the unglamorous sector of marketing, being dominated by PR, DM, telesales (“want to buy some ink cartridges”) and those tedious trade magazine ads.

Today, customers demand more in-depth information about a company to help them make better business decisions. Instead of relying on advertising or PR, they’re turning to social networks, blogs, independent media sites, colleagues and even to the companies themselves.

Online social media networking is providing B2B marketers with the means to publish useful and relevant content about themselves on sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. It’s not just consumer brands that are benefiting, as many professionals use these sites to keep in touch with their peers and industry thought leaders.

A Sample B2B Marketing Idea

Many people ask me how can a B2B marketer employ social media to complement their other marketing activities. I thought I’d share a sample idea to demonstrate how an integrated media approach can work.

• Send existing customers a personal invitation to attend a regular seminar your company runs at a good quality CBD hotel. Obtain a mailing list of prospects and send them an invite too. Run an advertisement in your trade media inviting people to attend. Promote the seminars in your e-newsletter, web site, via sales reps and in all other marketing materials (brochure, flyer, poster, etc.).
• Select guest speakers who are leaders in your industry, to talk about news, trends, events, etc. that are of interest to your audience. A person from your company must also speak , to help establish a ‘personality’ for your company and to promote your products and services. This could be a senior executive from here or overseas, or one of the R&D folk who can ‘see’ the future.

Social Media Strategy

Set up a company Twitter account to specifically support the seminars.

• Invite all customers/prospects/partners/etc. to ‘Follow’ you
• Promote upcoming seminars; venue, time, speakers
• Get feedback on topics that people would like covered in future seminars
• Post links to bios of speakers
• During each seminar, get an employee to post live comments about the points a speaker is making
• Questions for speakers can be asked by Followers, so they can be asked of the speaker and answered in a reply post
• Take photos at the seminar, upload directly to Twitpic
• Post comments about industry issues, news, links to relevant articles, etc.

A company YouTube channel will extend the audience ‘reach’ of the seminar series.

• Video of each speaker can be posted (maybe edited highlights) that registered users can view (BTW those registered users are new business prospects if they’re not already a client)
• Subscribers to your YT channel receive an email when new videos are posted
• A history of seminar presentations is stored and accessible for easy future reference
• A YT channel helps your SEM as it increases your company’s online presence

A Company Blog

The topics covered in the seminars can be expanded upon in a company blog.

• Ask speakers to write a guest post to complement their speech
• Use the blog to get people commenting on the issues being discussed, and shift the discussion to linked topics
• Subscribers to your blog may become new business prospects

Public and Media Relations

The seminar series offers many PR/MR opportunities.

• Invite key journalists to attend
• Arrange press briefings after each seminar
• Send press announcements about new products and services to journalists and link them back to the seminar content on Twitter, YouTube, etc.
• Arrange for a regular article to be written for a suitable newspaper or magazine, that is leveraged off the content from the last seminar

Conclusion

Basing a marketing strategy around seminars can achieve two primary goals:

1. The face-to-face time with customers and prospects enables you differentiate yourself, to assist your customers improve their business, and to create sales opportunities that would otherwise not be possible through traditional sales and marketing tactics.
2. Seminars create customised content that can be republished across many online and offline media, including your website, brochure and e-newsletter, plus online networks such as Twitter and YouTube.

The sample plan described above is a basic approach to demonstrate how social media can be integrated into B2B marketing plans. The most critical take-out is that a company can create it’s own content for online publishing.  After all, content is king.

Do you know any good working examples of B2B marketing and social media? If so I’d love to hear from you; pls post a comment below.

OMG! My parents are on Facebook.

A recent article on Digital Ministry (http://digitalministry.com/AU/home) caught my eye. The headline reads “Scary…your parents are on Facebook!”

Here’s an excerpt from the article: “So are your parents really on Facebook? Whilst this isn’t strictly true in my case, I’ve certainly been ‘friended’ by many of their mates and I know it won’t be long until the inevitable & slightly embarrassing parental posts eventually creep onto my wall.”

From personal experience my 18 yo daughter took a whole year before deciding to accept me as a “FB friend”.  That’s OK as I was just getting to know FB so in that time I learnt some of the etiquette and behaviours of being a cyber friend.

Now she and I are “FB friends” it takes our relationship to a whole new level. As we don’t live under the same roof I don’t see her every day, so FB is another way for us to keep in touch and (this is the important bit) to find out some of what is going on in her life. I know I’m not privy to “all” her FB posts/pics but that’s OK I don’t want or need to know everything anyway! And once the eldest child agreed to be friends online, the younger daughter accepted me as a “FB friend” quite quickly.

As a marketer, I am also fascinated by the insights that FB is giving me into the ideas, attitudes and opinions of my teenage daughter and her peers. The technology is enabling parents, marketers, researchers, etc. unprecedented fly-on-the-wall listening capability to the conversations of our children; and of course they can listen to our online meanderings however I doubt they bother or care what we have to say

The data mining ‘gold field’ of the future will be to capture, organise and analyse online conversations so that marketers can identify emerging opinions and trends that may impact their communications strategies. On public blogs, forums, news sites, etc. the conversations are easily tracked and analysed. However within a closed network like FB, privacy is paramount and marketers must not assume they will get carte blanche to listen in to these conversations.

In a world where we are all seemingly ultra-connected, being connected to your kids is still the most important “connection” a parent should make.

8 tips for B2B social media – iMediaConnection.com

A lack of understanding is holding many businesses back from leveraging the power of social media. Find out how to clear the confusion.

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