by Fronetics | Mar 12, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Integrate digital and social media practices into trade show routines to increase leads to drive profitable customer action.
The world became enchanted by the Koh-i-Noor diamond in 1851 when Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. This first of its kind exhibition, sometimes called the world’s fair, served as a platform for countries around the globe to display their innovations and achievements. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, these exhibitions routinely drew millions of people and connected the world in a way that hadn’t been done before.
While exhibitions continue into the present day, some critics argue that they are becoming irrelevant as a result of globalization and increasing interconnectedness. Proponents, however, are actively working to ensure modern day exhibitions reflect the changing nature in the way humans communicate and connect with one another.
In a similar way, modern trade shows serve the purpose of connecting industries and showcasing the best of a company’s product or service offerings. Indeed, trade shows remain a staple of many marketing budgets and practices. Offering unparalleled access to leads and face to face communication with prospects and customers, trade shows prove to be a successful marketing strategy for many companies. But is your company making the most of trade shows? Companies that integrate modern digital communication practices into tired trade show routines are likely to increase lead to customer conversion rates while shortening lead and sales cycles.
Promote enhanced and continued engagement with trade show contacts by formulating your trade show social media strategy using the following approaches.
In the weeks leading up to the trade show your company is scheduled to attend, publish Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts promoting your attendance and providing pertinent information to attendees. Set up a landing page with an accompanying call to action on your website where visitors can download a brochure or RSVP to speak with you at the show. Review the list of trade show attendees and perform prospect research using social media. In the days before the event, draft relevant and timely marketing and lead nurturing email templates to be sent during and after the show. Connect with high value prospect attendees on LinkedIn to arrange a time to meet up at the event. Use the trade show’s Twitter hashtag to tease display materials and connect with other attendees.
During the show, use social media to keep the conversation going with customers and prospects. Continue your use of the show’s hashtag to monitor conversions on social media and see what’s being said about your company. Connect with LinkedIn users you meet. Post pictures of your booth on Facebook and Twitter and videos of product demonstrations or customer testimonials on Youtube. Schedule and send the lead nurturing email templates you prepared weeks ago. Make note of recurring questions from attendees and industry trends being discussed.
Following the show, prepare your company’s blog editorial calendar for the next few months using your notes on customer questions and industry trends as a guide for developing post topics. Make event presentation or speaking materials part of your lead nurturing activities by sharing them with prospects using Slideshare and automated emails. Segment contacts for enhanced communication. Continue engagement with leads through Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Much like the way world exhibitions are being pressured to evolve in order to provide continued value to citizens of the world, trade shows should be viewed by companies as opportunities to leverage new technologies to grow prospecting opportunities and build alternative lead nurturing channels. Continuing engagement with customers and prospects through digital and social media enhances the nature of prospect follow up and customer communication, extending the value of the trade show far beyond location-specific activities.
by Fronetics | Mar 11, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
How to use social media as an innovation engine.
Innovation is a powerful way to drive growth, but traditional approaches taken by companies to develop innovative products and services are increasingly being found to be unsuccessful in creating growth. The emerging shift in how companies and customers interact is ushering in new practices for companies seeking growth through innovation.
Traditional marketing logic sees the customer and company as separate and detached; the customer is seen as the passive recipient of a company’s product or service offering. The modern marketing paradigm recognizes customers as co-creators of value and collaborators alongside companies in their innovation process. How then can your company successfully engage customers to develop new products and services? How can your company innovate faster? How can your company innovate better? Harness social media as an innovation engine.
Conversations taking place on social networks about brands, companies, products, and services can provide your company with a wealth of information and be a source of innovation – innovation that can drive growth. Here are some dos and don’ts of making social media part of your innovation process.
DO
Monitor conversations about your company and its products and services
What are customers saying? What do customers like? What do they dislike? Are there questions that are repeatedly being asked by customers about your company and/or a specific product or service you offer? By passively listening to these conversations, you can determine how your company and its offerings are being perceived in the marketplace.
Learn about creative ways customers are using your products
Ikea products are constantly being “hacked” or used in ways that the company had not intended. Learning “off-label” uses for your products can help you to identify needs within the marketplace, new marketing opportunities for your products, and can generally get your creative juices flowing.
Look at social media to identify trends
Is there a way that your company can take advantage of specific trends? Can you introduce a new product or service? Can you re-purpose a product or service to meet the demands of a specific trend? Even more basic, if you already have a product or service that is trendy, make people aware that you have what they want. How you ask? Engage them on social media.
DON’T
Be afraid to ask questions
Users engaged with your company on social media can be employed similar to a focus group. Posing thoughtful questions to your followers can elicit responses that are likely to provide valuable insight your company would otherwise have to pay for. Practicing active listening to social media conversations also makes customers feel engaged, valued, and appreciated.
Dismiss feedback provided by customers
Don’t dismiss feedback provided by customers via social media; embrace it and its honesty. Learn from the feedback provided. Engage with customers to learn more. Use the intelligence that you gain from social media to fuel innovation.
Forget about your competitors
What are customers saying about your competitor and their products and services? What do customers like about your competitor’s products? What do they not like? Are your customers using your competitors products in an off-label way? All of this information can be used to fuel innovative for your company.
David Burkus, founder of LDRLB and assistant professor of management at Oral Roberts University, wrote that “in most organizations, innovation isn’t hampered by a lack of ideas, but rather a lack of noticing the good ideas already there.” The conversations taking place via social media offer a wealth of good ideas. Your company can capitalize on the information and intelligence provided, or you can ignore it. If you choose the former you can turn social media into an innovation engine for your company – one that will help your company grow not in spite of, but because of the current environment and customer demands.
by Fronetics | Mar 11, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
How to use social media as an innovation engine.
Innovation is a powerful way to drive growth, but traditional approaches taken by companies to develop innovative products and services are increasingly being found to be unsuccessful in creating growth. The emerging shift in how companies and customers interact is ushering in new practices for companies seeking growth through innovation.
Traditional marketing logic sees the customer and company as separate and detached; the customer is seen as the passive recipient of a company’s product or service offering. The modern marketing paradigm recognizes customers as co-creators of value and collaborators alongside companies in their innovation process. How then can your company successfully engage customers to develop new products and services? How can your company innovate faster? How can your company innovate better? Harness social media as an innovation engine.
Conversations taking place on social networks about brands, companies, products, and services can provide your company with a wealth of information and be a source of innovation – innovation that can drive growth. Here are some dos and don’ts of making social media part of your innovation process.
DO
Monitor conversations about your company and its products and services
What are customers saying? What do customers like? What do they dislike? Are there questions that are repeatedly being asked by customers about your company and/or a specific product or service you offer? By passively listening to these conversations, you can determine how your company and its offerings are being perceived in the marketplace.
Learn about creative ways customers are using your products
Ikea products are constantly being “hacked” or used in ways that the company had not intended. Learning “off-label” uses for your products can help you to identify needs within the marketplace, new marketing opportunities for your products, and can generally get your creative juices flowing.
Look at social media to identify trends
Is there a way that your company can take advantage of specific trends? Can you introduce a new product or service? Can you re-purpose a product or service to meet the demands of a specific trend? Even more basic, if you already have a product or service that is trendy, make people aware that you have what they want. How you ask? Engage them on social media.
DON’T
Be afraid to ask questions
Users engaged with your company on social media can be employed similar to a focus group. Posing thoughtful questions to your followers can elicit responses that are likely to provide valuable insight your company would otherwise have to pay for. Practicing active listening to social media conversations also makes customers feel engaged, valued, and appreciated.
Dismiss feedback provided by customers
Don’t dismiss feedback provided by customers via social media; embrace it and its honesty. Learn from the feedback provided. Engage with customers to learn more. Use the intelligence that you gain from social media to fuel innovation.
Forget about your competitors
What are customers saying about your competitor and their products and services? What do customers like about your competitor’s products? What do they not like? Are your customers using your competitors products in an off-label way? All of this information can be used to fuel innovative for your company.
David Burkus, founder of LDRLB and assistant professor of management at Oral Roberts University, wrote that “in most organizations, innovation isn’t hampered by a lack of ideas, but rather a lack of noticing the good ideas already there.” The conversations taking place via social media offer a wealth of good ideas. Your company can capitalize on the information and intelligence provided, or you can ignore it. If you choose the former you can turn social media into an innovation engine for your company – one that will help your company grow not in spite of, but because of the current environment and customer demands.
by Fronetics | Mar 10, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Companies who are not participating in social media and using social technologies are at a disadvantage; social media means business.
In a 2013 article in MIT Sloan Management Review, Gerald C. Kane, Associate Professor at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, wrote: “When asked to define social media, most people probably rely on something similar to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of obscenity: ‘I know it when I see it.’” Unfortunately this approach to defining social media tends to perpetuate stereotypes and does not accurately reflect what social media is and how it can be utilized by business. What, then, is social media? Social media is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.” These websites and applications are inclusive of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. Social media is part of a larger framework called social technologies. The McKinsey Global Institute defines social technologies as: “IT products and services that enable the formation and operation of online communities, where participants have distributed access to content and distributed rights to create, add, and/or modify content. Social technologies are inclusive of Yammer, Jive, Moxie, and Supply Chain Operating Networks such as Descartes, GT Nexus, Elemica, E2open, LeanLogistics, and One Network. Also included in social technologies are network-based business intelligence and analytics.
Social media is business
Clara Shih, CEO and Founder of Hearsay Social, and Lisa Shalett, Managing Director and Head of Brand Marketing and Digital Strategy at Goldman Sachs, call attention to the fact that when you get right down to it, social media encompasses “a set of new and innovative ways for businesses and customers to do what they have always done: build relationships, exchange information, read and write reviews, and leverage trusted networks of friends and experts.” Furthermore, engaging in social media and utilizing social technologies provides business with the tools to manage status, social networks, and established relationships—all drivers of firm performance. Social media and social networking also enable companies to be able to better manage risk, create demand, define their reputation, innovate, and enhance business intelligence.
Companies who don’t use social media are at a disadvantage
Companies who are not participating in social media and using social technologies are at a disadvantage. One of the primary reasons is that customers (current and future), employees, and competitors are participating. Kane points out that “competitors are innovating and experimenting with social media to conduct their own business faster, at a greater scope, and with broader reach than is possible without these tools. If competitors can figure out how to use social media for their advantage (and they will), then the manager and his or her business will lose out—unless he or she can keep up. After all, there is no such thing as social business—there is only business.” Similarly, Shih and Shalett note that “[s]ocial media offers a variety of opportunities for brands to understand and participate in those conversations. While participating in social media is not without risk, not participating might prove to be the greater risk—especially to reputations.” By the same token, Freek Vermeulen an Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School puts forth: “Status, social networks, and prior relationships are the forgotten drivers of firm performance. Underestimate them at your peril. How you manage them should be as much part of your strategizing as analyses of differentiation, value propositions, and customer segments.”
Kane also points out that social media enables customers to share information about their experiences globally, and allows employees to collaborate so as to improve customer service.
The benefits outweigh the risks
In 2012 The McKinsey Global Institute reported that 72% of companies surveyed use social technologies in their business and that 90% of those companies reported seeing benefits. “The benefits of social technologies will likely outweigh the risks for most companies. Organizations that fail to invest in understanding social technologies will be at greater risk of having their business models disrupted by social technologies.”
A 2014 survey found that companies within the logistics and supply chain industries are using social media and realizing benefits. The survey found that the three most popular social networks for companies in the logistics and supply chain are Twitter, (95%), LinkedIn (86%), and Facebook (77%). Specific benefits realized from social media include: increased engagement with customers (86%), increased market intelligence (80%), and increased business intelligence (73%). Other benefits include:
- Increased customer retention;
- Increased demand for products and services;
- Increased leads;
- Shortened sales cycles.
Social media means business.
by Fronetics | Mar 10, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Companies who are not participating in social media and using social technologies are at a disadvantage; social media means business.
In a 2013 article in MIT Sloan Management Review, Gerald C. Kane, Associate Professor at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, wrote: “When asked to define social media, most people probably rely on something similar to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of obscenity: ‘I know it when I see it.’” Unfortunately this approach to defining social media tends to perpetuate stereotypes and does not accurately reflect what social media is and how it can be utilized by business. What, then, is social media? Social media is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.” These websites and applications are inclusive of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. Social media is part of a larger framework called social technologies. The McKinsey Global Institute defines social technologies as: “IT products and services that enable the formation and operation of online communities, where participants have distributed access to content and distributed rights to create, add, and/or modify content. Social technologies are inclusive of Yammer, Jive, Moxie, and Supply Chain Operating Networks such as Descartes, GT Nexus, Elemica, E2open, LeanLogistics, and One Network. Also included in social technologies are network-based business intelligence and analytics.
Social media is business
Clara Shih, CEO and Founder of Hearsay Social, and Lisa Shalett, Managing Director and Head of Brand Marketing and Digital Strategy at Goldman Sachs, call attention to the fact that when you get right down to it, social media encompasses “a set of new and innovative ways for businesses and customers to do what they have always done: build relationships, exchange information, read and write reviews, and leverage trusted networks of friends and experts.” Furthermore, engaging in social media and utilizing social technologies provides business with the tools to manage status, social networks, and established relationships—all drivers of firm performance. Social media and social networking also enable companies to be able to better manage risk, create demand, define their reputation, innovate, and enhance business intelligence.
Companies who don’t use social media are at a disadvantage
Companies who are not participating in social media and using social technologies are at a disadvantage. One of the primary reasons is that customers (current and future), employees, and competitors are participating. Kane points out that “competitors are innovating and experimenting with social media to conduct their own business faster, at a greater scope, and with broader reach than is possible without these tools. If competitors can figure out how to use social media for their advantage (and they will), then the manager and his or her business will lose out—unless he or she can keep up. After all, there is no such thing as social business—there is only business.” Similarly, Shih and Shalett note that “[s]ocial media offers a variety of opportunities for brands to understand and participate in those conversations. While participating in social media is not without risk, not participating might prove to be the greater risk—especially to reputations.” By the same token, Freek Vermeulen an Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School puts forth: “Status, social networks, and prior relationships are the forgotten drivers of firm performance. Underestimate them at your peril. How you manage them should be as much part of your strategizing as analyses of differentiation, value propositions, and customer segments.”
Kane also points out that social media enables customers to share information about their experiences globally, and allows employees to collaborate so as to improve customer service.
The benefits outweigh the risks
In 2012 The McKinsey Global Institute reported that 72% of companies surveyed use social technologies in their business and that 90% of those companies reported seeing benefits. “The benefits of social technologies will likely outweigh the risks for most companies. Organizations that fail to invest in understanding social technologies will be at greater risk of having their business models disrupted by social technologies.”
A 2014 survey found that companies within the logistics and supply chain industries are using social media and realizing benefits. The survey found that the three most popular social networks for companies in the logistics and supply chain are Twitter, (95%), LinkedIn (86%), and Facebook (77%). Specific benefits realized from social media include: increased engagement with customers (86%), increased market intelligence (80%), and increased business intelligence (73%). Other benefits include:
- Increased customer retention;
- Increased demand for products and services;
- Increased leads;
- Shortened sales cycles.
Social media means business.
by Fronetics | Mar 4, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Social lurking doesn’t drive value; engagement drives value.
To realize the benefits and seize the opportunities afforded by social media, companies need to use the information and intelligence gathered through social listening. Another essential component for success: engagement. Engagement is a differentiator. In the absence of engagement you are a lurker. Social lurking doesn’t drive value. You don’t want to be a lurker.
To realize the benefits of social media and social listening you need to actively engage with customers and others via social media.
What is engagement?
Engagement is the act of interfacing with customers and others via your company’s established social media accounts. How can your company engage? Here are some ideas for engagement:
- Ask questions
- Answer questions
- Provide clarification
- Weigh in on a discussion/topic
- Thank followers for their ideas, suggestions, and feedback
- Highlight when/how you have used customer feedback to make changes to a product or service
- Simply let people know you are listening to their comments and feedback.
Social media can be a strategic tool – if used correctly. Engage, don’t lurk.
