Most studies of social media use have focused primarily on the question of adoption, or the rate of conversion of B2B social media skeptics into users.  In contrast, the researchers behind Business.com’s “2009 B2B Social Media Benchmarking Study” take as a given that social media usage has already gone mainstream, and believe that the more interesting questions now relate to patterns and modes of actual usage.  In their words:

“Social media usage is a reality in today’s business environment, and the question of utilization is much more interesting, and important, to company executives and marketers interested in identifying the most effective and efficient opportunities offered by this new medium.”

So the results summarized here are from their study of participants already involved in using social media for business, either using social media as a business information resource, working for a company actively planning or engaged in one or more business social media initiatives, or both.  With 564 respondents, the results are clearly bankable.  We’ve pulled out some findings we thought interesting [Read more...]

Well, the near-constant barrage of voices (including ours) urging your adoption of social media seems to be working:  a recent Center for Media Research survey of media planners/buyers found that “having a presence on social networks” is one of the top priorities for media plans in 2010.

This has some folks concerned that such an unexpectedly whopping result could presage a tendency among marketers to do something – anything – to indicate that they’re aboard the social-media express.  Among those concerned is Sean Carton, who warns in a recent post on ClickZ against proceeding without a real strategy.  Even better, [Read more...]

Remember back in those halcyon days of, say, the mid-00s and earlier, when starting your online program was as simple as…

• build (or update) and optimize your website
• get an opt-in customer/prospect list together for nurturing emails
• cross-market your URL on traditional print, packaging, and other offline vehicles

…plus some more or less optional tasks, like:

• develop a real content strategy
• enable website analytics and set some benchmarks
• assign responsibility for Web-related activities to relevant internal stakeholders
• monitor competitive activity, including website changes and online marketing spend

Ah yes, things were so simple then (and we won’t dwell on those B2Bs who still haven’t worked very far down their “optional” list… [Read more...]

There’s been a fair amount of e-ink spilled over how to measure social media results …some of it in fact on this very blog.  Mostly, what you see is exhortations to measure attributes or variables that are readily measurable within the structure of social media:  things like followers, mentions, responses, reach, influence.  Perceptive readers, though, will readily see this as a classic example of assuming the conclusion:  i.e., I “know” that getting lots of Twitter followers and mentions will have a positive effect on my business;  hence, I can measure our social media effectiveness by simply measuring those things.

This leaves open the question of how did you “know” that those inputs had anything to do with your business results, because you didn’t actually measure it end to end;  and if that question comes from your CEO or a Board member, it could be quite embarrassing.  Fortunately, you can cite studies showing that companies active in social media generate [Read more...]