social media and b2b: how to build outstanding advocacy. This is my presentation at the Likeminds 2010 conference in Exeter, Devon. My presentation aimed at bringing hindsight, which is useful in those times when social media is coming of age 6 years later (and a change of names)
so now it’s both a lot easier and a lot harder because of all the misunderstandings surrounding Social Media. Yet, when all the red herrings have been discarded, Social Media is a very powerful tool (repeat: a tool, not a strategy) which makes it possible for a brand like Orange Business Services to develop Brand Advocacy online and ... offline too.
Uneak White's Personal Brand Exploration Presentation
[En] Building Brand Advocacy With Social Media [likeminds 2010]
1. social media and b2b: how to build outstanding advocacy Yann Gourvennec Head of Internet & Digital Media http://orange-business.com Exeter – February 25 th , 2010
10. ICT buyers … vertical painpoints are passionate about technology annoyed by banners/ marketing by interruption are part of ECOSYSTEMS IT security virtualization read blogs turn to trusted technology B2B resources use social media source:
11. the ICT ecosystem TYPICAL B2B ECOSYSTEM NEWS OPINION LEADERS OTHER SECTORS CONSULTANT PARTNER ENTERPRISE X RSS FEEDS WEB ENTERPRISE OTHER REGIONS ADMIN CONTRACTORS BUYER LEGAL BUSINESS UNIT CLIENT TEAM FINANCIAL CONTROLER CONSULTANTS OTHER BUSINESS UNITS ENTERPRISE Y CONSULTANCY VENDOR VENDOR
22. ROI? content generation motivation leadership of opinion global reach SEO UGC breaking silos nurturing talent rss (dynamic) links comments/discussions cheap spice up IRL events
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24. follow us on @orangebusiness http:// www.posterous.com/orangebusiness http:// www.facebook.com/orangebusiness
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Notes de l'éditeur
introduction, who I am, what I do, including my 15+ year experience in the Internet world. Internet Dinosaur I’d call that … which enables hindsight which is useful in those times when social media is coming of age, 6 years later (and a change of names) so now it’s both a lot easier and a lot harder because there a lot of misunderstandings like … like this Twitter story with that marketing manager … not certain about “outstanding” one must remain humble at this point. we are learning everyday but the point is how we have been able to use social media at Orange Business not for the sake of using tools or becoming the ultimate twitter users (why would we do that?) … but to actually support an overall Internet Strategy … now it’s one thing to do a site or go into social media for a person or a (very) small business… but for a large business it is very challenging. I’ll explain how we have overcome these challenges and how we have gone into brand advocacy i.e. incited people to talk about us rather than marketing at people.
introducing Orange Business Services for those who don’t know as yet that we are operating all around the world
community is the buzzword that everyone is getting excited about and rightfully so because … the Internet is fueled by communities and has always been from day one … yet are we sure we understand what’s going on there, what a community is what the web is all about
nov-de 2008 some rights reserved - CC 2008 - visionarymarketing.com - Yann A. Gourvennec >>> the manifesto's trademark armadillo picture OK, "markets are conversations" but keep on reading anyway ... How many times have I heard consultants open their presentations with the ultimate quotation from the 1999 cluetrain manifesto to justify the need to jump on the social media bandwagon: "Markets are conversations"; QED (or so they think). I have been a long time admirer of the manifesto myself. 95 theses (not just one) such as the one quoted above, make up the manifesto. In this piece, I will take just five of them which I think are most important and should be remembered ... at least as much as the obligatory conversation motto. thesis #3: "conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice" in social media, it means that you have to have real people and real life interaction-- including behind-the-scenes -- when discussions are triggered in tools like twitter for instance. Automated responses will not do. thesis #7: "hyperlinks subvert hierarchy" this doesn't mean that your boss should be replaced. It means that websites are driven by linkage, not menus and that they aren't designed like software. Unfortunately, I haven't witnessed any progress in that direction. Too many discussions - not to say feuds - in businesses are triggered by the relative position of a menu within a home page. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the Web is working and the way that SEO is done. thesis #24: "Bombastic boasts "we are positioned to be the pre-eminent provider of XYZ"—do not constitute a position in social media, what matters is directness, truth, honesty, disclosure, real information from real people, not preformatted pitches in corporate speak. thesis #26: Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets. as per our previous post on Paul Argenti's latest opus on the subject of Corporate Communications , it's not so much that PR doesn't do that at the moment which matters, but the sheer necessity for PR to reinvent itself and become human again. It's not as obvious as it may seem when you are behind the company firewall so to speak. thesis #66: We want access to your corporate information, to your plans and strategies, your best thinking, your genuine knowledge. We will not settle for the 4-color brochure, for web sites chock-a-block with eye candy but lacking any substance. clients, ecosystems, visitors at large want information, and they want information that is useful to them, not company brochures which mean nothing. when I see most Corporate websites 16 years after the launch of the first ones I realise how little progress we have made in that direction. this is also because Corporate Websites have become the new bone of contention between entities, the area for which all business units are battling and that most of the time, people lose track of what could be of interest to visitors. At the end of the day, this is also what makes blogs easier to manage than corporate websites, as blogs are real opinions from real people. links and further reading the cluetrain manifestoat http:// cluetrain.com , the 10-year anniversary version of the book which you can buy from Amazon, a review of that 10-year anniversary version of the Cluetrain Manifesto which can be found on boingboing . Bombastic boasts—"We are positioned to become the preeminent provider of XYZ"—do not constitute a position
shocking truths about “communities” no! all brands don’t have a community a bunch of clients doesn’t (forcibly) make a community … but they could well be turned into a community a community is made of passion, common interest, helping eachother and mutual benefit good brands exist beyond purchases communities can be … cult products geographical topical vertical communities technical intellictual … 3 what does a community facilitator (not manager) does: the Gardener’s touch seeding feeding weeding
ROI is almost always the question that is cropping up first. But is it the right question to ask? I don’t mean that there is no ROI, but that the way of measuring it is way different from usual ROI measurement My point in this presentation will be to demonstrate that what we have done in the past 2 years and will continue to develop in the coming months is not meant to
the real question is not ROI, the real question is … how can reach out to your audiences through content which is of interest to them (or even solving their painpoints) vertical painpoints are passionate about technology IT Security virtualisation annoyed by banners/marketing by interruption turn to truested technology b2b resources read blogs are part of ecosystems
Solution Selling is at the heart of all we do on the Web and especially what we do regarding Social Media This is behind our content creation, content-sharing and b2b label initiative.
but you can’t do that on your own, you’ll need help from all across the company and elsewhere too (partners)
60+ active bloggers [Fr + En] 100,000+ visitors 1,000+ comments 200+ trackbacks 200 clips over 10 months new guidelines 50% in English + French videos copied on other sites videos used on client intranets
220,000+ visits and 400,000+ pageviews since the introduction of our blogs, 1,300+ comments and 300+ trackbacks and hundreds of articles some of which get read and even something reused by other sources.
and it has been turned into a service too, which we are reselling to our clients.
our best example of UGC so far has been generated by a consultant of ours who gave us a phone call one day asking about legal advice. (1/7th of total views overall in 10 months) this video was produced by him using his personal computer and generated more than 10,000 views which in b2b is really good. it was then used by some of our clients – including people from the ministry of defence and education – as training for their people. producing such a video would cost in the regions of €10,000-15,000 each and it wouldn’t even be practical as vendors don’t necessarily have the knowledge associated with that kind of demonstrations.
here is another example of a business case produced by one of our users in Atlanta on powerpoint and using a good microphone for voice over. the powerpoint presentation was then turned into a clip.
So you were talking about ROI? content generation motivation global reach SEO UGC breaking silos nuturing talent rss (dynamic) links cheap spice up IRL events comments & discussions
our next steps is to move into real community work with our label on the one hand and community websites on the other hand, evolving fast towards serious gaming and nurturing a real community feeling (turning “followers” into “fans”)
Visionarymarketing.com since 1995 Marketing consultant in France and England, Director for e-business, Internet & Digital Media
Head of Internet & Digital Media, Orange Business Services, since 2008 Innovation principal, Outsourcing BU, Orange Business Services, 2005-2007 Alliance Partner, Sales & Marketing with FT in charge of Cisco, HP, Capgemini, CSC etc. 2003-2005 Prior to that Director for e-business at Unisys Teleconferencing services Designed and implemented CRM systems even before the word was invented New technologies: Internet Consultant since 1995 ! Developed a course in Internet Survey methodology and implementation for one of France's major business schools Launched 10 new products for France Telecom including FT's Webconferencing Service Developed a new Marketing approach in 1995 named VISIONARY MARKETING (http://visionarymarketing.com): Evidence that Marketing approaches were changing Evidence that Buyer behaviours were changing Evidence that B2B approaches were also changing and that B2B industries were evolving too Developed this new Marketing approach a few months before The Internet started to grow very popular Tested this approach on the field and refined [NOT a RECIPE – MERELY a VISION to GUIDE my ACTION]