Tagged: b2b

Accenture Report on the Potential for B2B Social Media

The report presents the findings from a survey with more than 200 North American B2B companies with annual revenues of $1bn or more. The analysis of the results shows that whilst execs agree upon social media being an important mechanism to communicate with customers, partners and other stakeholders, few have really started leveraging social media to its full potential. Accenture goes further on to outline recommendations for B2B companies wanting to enter the social media sphere, earlier outlined in the Social Media Management Handbook. Make social media one of the cornerstones of your customer strategy. Move from social media to “social CRM.” Measure social media’s effectiveness. Adopt a highly flexible and iterative approach to social media implementation. Invest in the right technologies. Achieve organizational buy-in. They further goes on to conclude that there is large opportunities for first-mover advantage for B2B companies in the social media space.

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A No-Bullshit Lecture on B2B Branding

Scot McKee is the managing director of a B2B branding agency who believe in creative branding for B2B companies. McKee is the author of the unconventional marketing book Creative B2B Branding (no, really), where he takes the boring lot of B2B brands by it’s horns, which is the focal point of this lecture; he speaks about how new digital media changes everything for B2B Brands, and he presents different B2B branding cases of different sizes with different impact. The University, where he held his lecture, didn’t want it’s name associated with the video nor the slides of his lecture because they didn’t want to locate their brand  ”next to the deliberately provocative brand image he presents”.

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Kommentar: Hvilke trender blir dominerende innen markedskommunikasjon i 2011?

Sølvi Suongir skrev tidligere denne uken et glimrende blogginnlegg om “Hvilke trender blir dominerende innen markedskommunikasjon i 2011?”. Jeg skulle kommentere med en kommentar i Suongirs blogg, men jeg fikk en melding tilbake fra Google om at innlegget ble for langt – derfor endte det opp her som et blogginnlegg. Det er to ting jeg vil kommentere; sammensmeltingen av begrepet sosiale og digitale medier, og at B2C og B2B slås sammen til B2P.

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How to enter the social media space

Are you a dinosaur?
Are you a dinosaur?

Social media is important for any company. Period. And I mean any. The extent of the social media involvement does however differ from company to company – and it sure does differ significantly. At the very lowest level  any company should monitor the buzz around their brand, their competitors and their industry. This is the first article in a series which will cover how a company should enter the social media space.

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What are the implications of social media for B2B brand management?

As the new digital world embraces participation, openness, conversation, community and connectedness through social media, it brings new opportunities and challenges to B2B branding. It is not to suggest that social media will change how businesses do business, but it is another layer to brand management that needs to be treated different from traditional marketing efforts.

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Master Thesis: Social media in B2B branding

forside

The thesis includes four interviews with social media experts, synthesised around brand management for B2B companies, where as the theoretical background is B2B brand management. Thought leaders of social media and branding in the online environment are currently doing their work out in the field, whilst the academics are lagging behind. In order to shed some light on issues regarding how B2B companies should manage opportunities and challenges in the social media space, this master thesis seeks to address the topic by conducting an exploratory study on how B2B companies can utilise social media to enhance the brand.

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Case study: ShipServ

ShipServ using video to enlighten the content

ShipServ designed a social media strategy which evolved around using social media platforms as beacons to drive traffic to their main site, in order to qualify the “readiness to buy” of the visitors by tracking and nurturing them with an automated marketing solution. Whilst their product is an innovative technological service, the target audience are conservative late adopters; the challenge ShipServ faced was solved by creating relationships with their target audience through multiple social networks backed by a high-quality content marketing strategy.

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B2B Branding Online: A Literature Review

Branding triangle

During the autumn 2009 I conducted a literature review for my pre-diploma work on business-to-business branding online, which in my opinion has implications for how B2B companies could use social media. The main findings of the study suggest that B2B brand strategies should be aligned towards and reinforce the overall business strategy, whilst striving for consistency throughout every customer touch point in order to achieve interactive effects from branding in multiple mediums.

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