Social sharing in B2B: Understanding the cycle of influence

Social sharing in B2B:
Understanding the cycle of influence

www.cognitomedia.com
Vivienne Hsu
Director, Cognito
Who’s on our webinar today
2
Steve Thomson
MD UK, Keller
Fay, an
Engagement
Labs Company
Eli Singer
CMO,
Engagement
Labs
Katie Kinnear
Social Media
Manager,
Cognito

How advocacy drives success in B2B
Steve Thomson, Keller Fay

www.cognitomedia.com 4
We are social animals
• We live in a connected world
• We seek out the opinions and advice of others: Family, friends,
colleagues, peers, experts
• We like to share our experiences & help others
The world of science is
revealing we are “hard
wired to be social.”

Everyone wants to be talked-about, recommended
"We want to be the most talked-about brand at World Cup. We knew we were going to
do something real-time, that isn't completely brand new to us, but it is at this scale.”
- Tom Ramsden, brand marketing director for Adidas Football
“Out assets are our
people, capital and
reputation.”
- Goldman Sachs

Advocacy and Conversation have proven impact on customer decisions
Social dialogue has been shown to impact:
üSales
üCustomer loyalty
üSearch
üWeb visits
üBrand health & reputation
üAttractiveness as an employee
Ensuring positive advocacy towards your
company is not a ‘nice-to-have’

Proven impact across a range of B2C categories
Econometric analysis
consistently shows that
word of mouth is a driver
of sales, search and
other brand outcomes
Analysis shows that
the revenue growth
of the brands with
the highest advocacy
levels is far above
the industry average
Boston Consulting
75% percent say
they turn to
peers to push
them toward or
away from a
purchase.

But what about B2B?
• Do WOM and advocacy factors drive business decisions?
• Don’t we simply need to be active in LinkedIn?
• Can we influence how people talk about us?

Business and social networks are enduring

Growth of social media (inc. internal platforms)
Collaborative &complex decision-making
Globalization & better connections
Requirement for diligence, thoroughness
Information on tap
Evidence that B2B decisions are (increasingly) influenced by social factors
It’s the professional way to make decisions

Business decision makers acknowledge social impact
What role did social media
play in your research process?
• 53% of buyers said they relied more on peer recommendations, versus
only 19% of buyers surveyed in 2012
• 37% of buyers said they spent more time using social media to
research solution

Advocacy and influence: Internal / External
Role of internal ‘influencer’ long-accepted
in B2B models
External influence facilitated by the growth
in social media, user/supplier content
Motivations, content, channels, networks
will be different
• Internal: can be mandatory
• Social signaling vs. keep-it-to-yourself
• Discreet networking vs social media
BOTH will have impact

“We found that, on average, 5.4
people now have to formally sign
off on each purchase.
Complicating matters, the variety of
jobs, functions, and geographies that
these individuals represent is much
wider than it used to be.”
13
Internal: Decision-making is more collaborative

• What are the characteristics of influence & advocacy?
• How do we drive advocacy higher?
• How do we measure the impact of our actions?
A CEB survey of nearly 600 B2B buyers found that nearly half
the people who reported a willingness to buy a product or
service were not willing to publicly advocate for it.
Willingness to buy and willingness to advocate are not the same

A strategic framework for activating advocacy
What’s the brand story?: Identify drivers of advocacy –
distinctive & viral brand
messages
Target the talkers: Profile & reach active
advocates & influencers
Activate passive advocates
Choose your channels Identify touch points which
drive advocacy
Deliver excellent Product & service
experiences

Social, WOM & implications for measurement
Eli Singer, Engagement Labs

To grasp the State of Social Media in 2016,
it’s helpful to have a perspective
as to where the industry is coming from.

Social: How we’re evolving
Text
Imagery
Video
FRAGMENTATION

FRAGMENTATION
EVERYWHERE

FRAGMENTATION
EVERYWHERE
EVERYONE

In 2016:
Bite Sized | Image Centric | Faster

Giphy Closes $55
Million Series C At A
$300 Million Post-
Money Valuation
Feb 16, 2016
Imagery increasingly important

Measurement exists in
many shapes and sizes

Point Solutions
Social measurement

Macro Solutions
79 92 71 75 79 79 4 92 96 21 66 72 69
Social measurement

Consumers need to see your message
7 times
to notice or even remember it.

Identifying influencers
Online & offline
Those willing to speak
Provide content & context to share

Remember:
Offline advocacy needs to be activated
• Understand real-world triggers (content but also
situations, business needs)
• Ideally measure actual advocacy
• Design/plan digital content to travel offline – and factor
this into ROI
Social measurement

The social sharing opportunity for B2B FS
Katie Kinnear, Cognito

Challenges and opportunities
B2B challenges
1. Niche audiences with a focus on
quality over quantity
2. Complexity of your products,
services and solutions
3. Longer sales cycle
4. An “unsocial” community
5. Change resistant company structure
6. Compliance and risk
30

B2B challenges
Opportunities for social sharing
31
• Recommendation in niche areas of
expertise counts for even more
• Social sharing provides an
opportunity to build trust and deepen
relationships over time
• Increasing number of targeting
opportunities and tools

B2B challenges
32
• Make the complex accessible
• Create targeted, highly-relevant
content that gives you credibility
• Differentiate yourself as an educator
who provides timely, useful
information that addresses customer
needs
• Empower your spokespeople and
experts to share their knowledge

B2B challenges
33
• Play the long game
• Use social sharing to provide value
at every step of the sales cycle
• Social sharing, thought leadership
and advocacy engender trust and
strengthen relationships over time

B2B challenges
34
• Social recommendation is important
to people – B2B or B2C.
• Focus on advocates who are already
engaging
• Adopt a social tonality in your
communications

B2B challenges
35
• Hard to overcome internal mindset,
fear of new processes and
technological hurdles
• Even small steps in social sharing
reap great rewards and recognition
in this industry
• Maximise the efficiency of your
marketing and impact the bottom line

B2B challenges
6. Compliance and risk
36
• Build in compliance from the start
• Guide and empower employees by
establishing guidelines and providing
training
• Increasing number of tools and
resources available to help mitigate
risk

Questions, comments? Please contact us!
CognitoInsights@cognitomedia.com
Eli.Singer@engagementlabs.com

Social sharing in B2B: Understanding the cycle of influence

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Social sharing in B2B: Understanding the cycle of influence