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At first, social media were a new way for individuals to find each other on the Internet. Shortly after, the first B2C companies creating their own fan-pages on Facebook and started tweeting their latest news. The laggard in adopting this way of communicating with the world, is definitely the B2B industry. A recent study by eMarketer.com shows that already, 45% of B2B companies is currently using social media in their marketing matrix. However, it also shows that they are lacking time and resources to effectively manage them. We can find many reasons why B2B companies are hesitating to embark on the social media train. First of all, they are targeting a very specific group, mostly the CEO’s and more often within a very delimited market. The products or services they are offering are usually quite expensive and not easily to be sold without an extensive amount of additional information and support. B2B companies aren’t accustomed to market their company or their products on media that are stigmatized as ‘commercial’ or ‘popular’. These are all good arguments, but are they valid? Aren’t those B2B companies missing out on a whole new way of building long-term relationships with their clients and with their prospects? First of all, you have to ask yourself the following questions when you want to make your B2B company a bit more ‘social’:
1. What do I want to accomplish?
When you are looking for quick sales and short-term relationships with potential buyers, social media isn’t the right option for you. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are just a few of the platforms that can enhance your communication and marketing mix. It provides you with a channel through which you cannot only send out information and news, but through which you can really communicate. This two-way interaction is very important when you want to earn the credibility from your clients, but also from prospects. Typical for B2B transactions is the time spend in screening and benchmarking companies and their products. This process is often the responsibility of a whole decision making unit which contains people from every hierarchical layer and every department of a company. The CEO might not be a big Facebook or Twitter expert, but the IT-specialist might be the one who picks up on your latest blog or tweet. Your potential clients aren’t just browsing the Internet for information on your products or services, they are looking for reassurance. Just think of the credibility you get when a satisfied client posts a ‘thank you’-message on your Facebook wall!
Another, very important element that is easily overlooked, is the importance of these channels for internal communications and human resources. The people who know everything about social media are your own employees and your future ones. Having your own community on Facebook, tightens the bond your employees have with the company. They already read the latest news from their favorite brands on Twitter, so why not follow their own company’s tweets? But also when there is a crisis, social media are very important. No news spreads faster then on the Internet. Very often people are informed by outsiders about the takeover of their company before their CEO has the chance to organize an internal meeting. Furthermore, social media provides the human resources department with new tools for recruiting new employees. Imagine what an effect a ‘I am looking for a new colleague’-message has when 10% of your employees post this on Facebook.
2. How much time do I want to spend?
Don’t think that social media are cheap. A lot of time and effort is needed when you want to use your social media effectively. Make sure you have at least one person who knows your company and - most importantly - your target group very well and has some time every day to spend on social media. It’s important when you get comments on a blog, posts on your Facebook wall, or reactions to your tweets, that you respond to them. When you don’t interact, you will loose credibility and loose interest from your audience.
Don’t think that social media are a fast way to get in touch with your target group. It takes a lot of time before you have a thousand fans on Facebook. You will have to advertise your presence, drive traffic to your social media platforms and create unique content to keep their attention.
3. Where is my target audience?
Make sure you use the right social media for your business. If you are in a very niche market and you have only a few clients, you might not obtain your goals by using these channels. A face-to-face approach will be much more successful. When your clients are operating in highly secured environments like the military, government institutions or financial companies, you won’t be able to reach your prospects through social media. These firms are usually not allowed or able to use social media on a professional level due to high security levels. Therefore, browse through different channels, ask your clients or see where they are present, before you pick your social media channels.
4. Do I have enough resources for content?
The most important, critical success factor is content. People will automatically loose interest when you only blog once a month, when your tweets are limited to the three events you announced last year or when your Facebook wall is only hosting the boilerplate of your company. You will have to keep feeding your audience with new information on your products, publish press releases, start discussions and share the latest pictures from your company event. Make sure you have people in your company who want to share their expertise in a blog, who want to write a short review on the latest product-release or who are willing to take pictures at the upcoming company-barbecue.
5. Do I have the support of key stakeholders (management)?
When you are putting your company in the spotlight, you are also putting some knowledge and information up for grabs. There might be people who want to abuse your openness. The directors of your company might not be so eager to share this information. Therefore, it is important that you have their support. It might be good if one of those stakeholders could be a regular provider of an article or a blog that you can share. This way, they partly have control over the content and they feel involved in this new communication approach.
A lot of time, effort and participation of people from all over the company goes into maintaining your social media. The continuous engagement of your stakeholders is very important when you want to achieve long-term goals.
However, don’t feel like you have to reveal everything. Make sure you have certain elements that will trigger the reader into contacting you. Make them curious about a product and put the phone number of your customer service department on several locations.
A lot of CEO’s are finding their way to Twitter and more and more professionals are sharing their expertise in blogs. Effective communication can only be achieved by using the right communication mix. Social media is definitely a part of this and will help B2B companies in tightening their long-term relationships with their client and build their credibility with prospects. Finally, if you don’t think your company is ready for social media, you should still dedicate a small amount of your time to them. Whether you like it or not, you are already present on various social media and you need to monitor this. Clients, employees, suppliers and influencers might already be talking about your company. It is very important that you know what they are saying so you can respond to this. A small comment might be the start of a major crisis, but also new trends might be revealed and new opportunities discovered.
Twitter is inmiddels uitgegroeid tot een fenomeen en eigenlijk niet meer weg te denken als we het over web 2.0 en PR 2.0 hebben. Zoals in elk community – een plaats waar mensen fysiek of virtueel elkaar ontmoeten – zijn er ook voor Twitteraars sociale gedragscodes. Overtreed je deze gedragscodes, dan is de kans groot dat jouw ‘followers’ al gauw ‘unfollowen’.
Gebruik je Twitter ook voor professionele doeleinden, dan geldt deze redenering des te meer: je zal niet alleen jezelf in een negatief daglicht brengen, maar ook je werkgever (of erger nog: je eigen bedrijf).
De voordelen
Bekeken vanuit een bedrijfscommunicatie standpunt, heeft Twitter een reeks belangrijke voordelen ten opzichte van andere, reguliere PR kanalen. In volgorde:
1) Snelheid: Twitter is sneller dan nieuwssites of blogs en laat toe op slechts enkele seconden nieuws te verspreiden.
2) Directe communicatie, zowel 1-to-1 als 1-to-many, met dadelijke feedbackmogelijkheid. Twitter is nog invasiever dan mail.
3) Verspreiding: belangrijke (of leuke) actualiteit kan op enkele minuten de wereld rondgaan (via retweet: het overnemen van de posts van anderen en deze door te sturen naar een nieuwe doelgroep)
4) Monitoring: het volstaat zich aan te sluiten bij de juiste twitterfeeds en het nieuws komt automatisch bij je binnen. Zo blijf je in real-time op de hoogte van bedrijven, poducten, diensten, of gewoon interessante mensen.
Vanzelfsprekend zal de fervente Twitteraar hier nog een reeks voordelen kunnen aan toevoegen.
De gevaren
Bedrijven kunnen Twitter gebruiken om interactief te communiceren met hun doelgroepen (klanten, stakeholders, pers, ...). Het woord interactief is hier cruciaal: de doelgroepen kunnen reageren op de tweets, en doen dit vaak niet zoals je als bedrijf zou willen. Daarom is het noodzakelijk erg kort op de tweet te spelen, en voldoende resources beschikbaar te hebben om een gepaste opvolging te geven.
Ons advies
1) Denk 7 keer na alvorens Twitter te gebruiken voor commerciële doeleinden. De geïntegreerde communicatiestrategie gemaakt door uw communicatiemensen kan met enkele foute Twitterposts voer voor de kat zijn.
2) Twitteren als PR tool vereist een duidelijke strategie, vraagt om opvolging (monitoren wat er over jezelf, je bedrijf of product wordt verteld) en een interne policy.
3) Twitteren is NIET gratis: het kost tijd – en dus ook geld. Zelfs occasionele Twitteraars spenderen al gauw enkele uren per week, louter aan het lezen en opvolgen van de inkomende tweets.
4) Probeer niet (alleen) je product of dienst te verkopen via Twitter; dit kan gaan irriteren en zelfs als spam worden gezien. Interesseer mensen voor je product. Als je dan toch een nieuw product wilt aankondigen, wees dan innovatief en denk na over het USP van je product. Probeer volgers dan enthousiast te maken, bijvoorbeeld door slechts een deel van de informatie te geven zodat ze zelf initiatief nemen en vragen gaan stellen.
5) Wees eerlijk. Twitteraars reageren snel (onder elkaar) als ze onraad ruiken. Twitter over bezigheden, successen, maar ook over tegenslagen en/of teleurstellingen. Zolang je open en eerlijk bent, blijf je echt en nemen stakeholders je ook serieus.
6) Stel een Social Media Policy op !
Managing Director Out of the Crowd
Marketing & communicatie voor IT, B2B en technologie
