1) A large software company in the Pacific Northwest hired Winnow Consulting to help educate people and build awareness of their new "Emerald Door" computing platform through social media. 2) The challenges included different business units with too many online assets and little social media experience, as well as hype around terminology and entrenched competitors. 3) The approach focused on listening, participating, consistency, consolidation, and coordination on Twitter, which led to over 100% growth in followers and retweets over 6 months while learning that consistency is key and not all growth needs to be explosive.

1. b2b social media -
a case study
colleen heubaum - winnow consulting
@cheubaum
grant boudon - sol marketing concepts
@grantboudon

3. the project
client:
large software company in Pacific Northwest
product:
“Emerald Door” - computing platform
diverse audience
disruptive technology & business model
goal:
educate and participate in new space
build awareness around new product
foster community of early adopters
monitor sentiment - defend against negative

4. the challenge
internal
different business units
too many online assets
little experience in social media
external
hype & terminology
entrenchment
social media adoption

5. the approach

6. Comparison: July 2010 Dec 2010 %
#4
Followers 3,430 7,034 +105%
Lists 359 707 +97%
Retweets 444 1,290 +191%*
Links Clicked 2,964 9,405 +217%*
the results: twitter

7. what worked - what didn’t
listening different programs WW/US
participating tools
consistency announcement visibility
consolidation event support - “tweetups”
coordination
rock-star internal SMEs

8. lessons voice
learned is tricky
know
your consistency
audience(s) is key
you don’t need
explosive
growth

9. what’s next
tiered launch support
multimedia - podcasts and YouTube
empowering the field with social
media