Two thirds of organisations will increase their spend on social media in 2012, and for 20% of these, social media now forms a major part of their marketing strategy.
Yet, around 15% of companies still believe social marketing is free and can wait - they don't understand the real opportunities they are missing out on.

8 Ways B2B & B2C social media differ

When you read tips for using social media you must first ask yourself whether they are aimed at B2C or B2B markets because they work differently.

For the B2C market there is a much stronger emphasis placed on conversion on the social sites and many are now capable of real time product selection and purchase.

B2B companies on the other hand, tend to have more complex sales cycles and direct conversions are less likely. Lead generation is considered a more realistic outcome which makes B2B an easier route and B2C a more difficult one. Why is this?

1. B2C is driven by relationships based on a product and its price. This makes purchases more impulsive and emotional. B2B decisions are more involved, the relationships while professional, are often more personal, stemming from careful nurturing over a longer period.

2. B2B social connections are characterised by multiple interactions which inform and educate prospects. These steps are an integral part of a company’s whole marketing strategy.

3. B2B companies will use social media to enhance their overall business value, coming across as trustworthy, responsive, reliable, because the decision process is far more rational than found in B2C social sites.

4. B2B has less to do in convincing prospects so content tends to be much shorter and they receive a lot less negative comment. The campaigns are easier to manage.

5. For B2B companies, a relationship once established on the social sites often continues on after a purchase decision has been taken, enhanced by support information and a continuing education process.

6. The B2B market is far smaller and is a lot more focused than the B2C one, therefore forming strong relationships and building a following is faster, and easier.

7. Recommendations and comments from B2B users are to be valued far more than B2C sites as they are from fellow professionals. Allowing others to view comments undoubtedly plays a part in influencing other social site users.

8. B2B products change less often than their B2C counterparts so the content has a longer life. This makes B2B sites cheaper to easier to manage.

Social media reality

Social media is a time consuming process and many companies leave it to one person to manage. In fact, the most effective way is to involve a number of contributors in sharing and distributing comment, information and knowledge. 

Useful, usable and engaging are the watchwords for social media.

With the search engines starting to index social media traffic; it is now where many people first becoming aware of a company; and the ability to engage earlier in the sales cycle; explains why investment in social media is expected to rise 20% next year.

Social media for B2Bs and B2Cs cannot be ignored if you want to stay competitive. To find out how to improve your social media position with your prospects, you can call me on 08450 740068 or email sem@e-xanthos.co.uk

Sources: B2B social media is easier than B2c. Adam Holden Bache. social Media b2B. 7 July 2011.

Google recently launched its long awaited social network rival to Facebook - its “+1” plug in (as in Plus One). 

Plus One has had the fastest uptake of any product in internet history and is predicted to reach 20 million users within the next 3 weeks.

Google will be launching a way to create business profiles latter in the year.

Business profiling is currently in beta-test mode so clicking on the link now just gives an error message.

[I put it in here, purely for reference. You can only use it once the link is turned on. Until it is, Google is actively discouraging business applications. As they say, watch this space!]

Ford Motor company has become the first business to be allowed a profile on +1 (beta-testing), posting photo caption contests and a live chat with Ford’s Marketing Director using the “Hangout” chat feature.

What’s does +1 involve?

Plus 1 helps people discover relevant content recommended by people they know and trust. If your website content / blog is recommended by lots of trusted people then that means more traffic.

• Home - the screen is similar to Facebook’s network but is more streamlined. Friends can be sorted into  groups, called Circles which only you can see all things shared in all your other Circles.
• Circles - are much like Facebook groups where you can categorize people. The process of adding people to these Circles is relativity easy and streamlined. Businesses could use this as a video conferencing tool.
• Hangouts - allow you to chat and video chat with up to 10 friends. Starting a Hangout, alerts other people in your Circles so they can join. You can limit who sees your hangouts, which is important for business.
• Sparks - is a sharing engine, adding  a "live" SERP into your social network. Adding a term like SEO, produces lists of related web pages, press releases, and videos that update every few hours. The content listed in each Spark has a Share link so you can easily share that content with your Circles.
• Photos - having the ability to share photos with your friends is key! Plus 1 lets you open and easily flip through a slideshow of all the images your Circles have uploaded.
• Security - this lets you to stop other people from commenting on the things you have shared and stops them re-sharing these within their own circles. 

Google's challenge is to get the internet community to adopt it in numbers sufficient to rival Facebook.

Plus 1 is about using the power of Google to maximise the traffic from search and social media. As Google’s algorithms continue to evolve, you ignore these signs at your peril.

Business Benefit

+1s are displayed in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) and may help with click-through rates.

At the moment it is not clear what effect +1s will have on ranking but if you are involved in technology or political opinion, it is deemed well worth signing up.

You can put up information about new products and services with the +1 button under it, to encourage sharing.

You can +1 any advertisement or blog or search result on Google and make recommendations to friends and business contacts.

To use +1 you need a Google Account which allows you to create public and private options for sharing.

Should You sign up for +1?

As Google continues to encourage social engagement, it is important to monitor how referral and search traffic are affected by content sharing in creating visitors and leads for your business. 

Yet many smaller businesses already struggle with Google Places, so having to apply what is effectively, "Places 2", may seem somewhat daunting. Time will tell.

You can't apply for a business profile right now (and don't) but do so when it becomes ready and begin promoting it - if nothing else it will place your business ahead of the game line and give you a "history with +1” if Google decides to make it a ranking factor in the future.

Plus 1 is not the finished article and seems a little clumsy to use compared to its bigger rival, but being from Google it is hard to ignore.

Getting access to business profiles will be through Application Centre for business - although you will have to wait until Google switches it on.

Source:
Kipp Bodnar - Google+ to Hit 20 Million Users In Its First Three Weeks   Tue, Jul 12, 2011
Casey Hen, The New Google Social Network - Google+ .SEOMoz.  30 Jun 2011 02:34
Casper, Google’s +1 Button…The Benefits For Business And Consumers   June 22, 2011

British pop star Cheryl Cole has been dropped from the judging panel of the US version of The X Factor, after sources claimed producers were concerned the singer's Geordie accent was too strong for US audiences. The 27-year-old had always said she thought her audience would eventually "get used to it" but obviously not quickly enough.

How things change. Just nine days ago National Brit Treasure, Cheryl, had already become such hot property stateside; she was being showered with more film roles than she knew what to do with.

But it’s over for now. Maybe it was the accent, maybe it was the colossal hair. Whatever the reason, Cheryl Cole's American X Factor role is now officially in “the clarts!”

In a rather tentative segue, we also have to communicate with our audiences but the vast majority of them don’t communicate back.

Happy customers don’t tell you they’re happy!

90% of the feedback you get will come from 10% of your audience - and 90% of that will be negative.

Only the unhappy people talk to you and the 90% happy people stay silent, oblivious of how keen you are to hear from them. So it makes sense to focus some of your time on your 90% happy customers because it stops your decision making becoming blinded by the vocal minority.

Here are 5 ways to start addressing your audience:

1. Assume your audience is smarter than you
2. Trust that some of them will follow you
3. Look on negative comment to engage and improve a relationship
4. Explain if and when you have to say “No!”
5. Be human because they are - honestly!

Social media is particularly effective and an accepted communication channel. The people who contact you on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are potential customers or know someone else who might be, so you have to speak in a language they feel familiar, (note to Cheryl).

If you are trying to advertise your busines be respectful and above all honest in what you say. It’s quite okay to tell people about what you are doing, perhaps mention a recent press release or successful event, but don’t crow, don’t try the hard sell or come across as a spammer. Only post what your audience will find interesting and relevant using brief updates and do it reasonable regularly - but irritate or annoy them and you are toast!

It’s all about creating a reputation with people who want to get to know you a bit better. They want to engage with an actual person who is listening to what they have to say. Someone they feel comfortable with and can relate to.

If your business has been running for a while you will have an idea of who your audience is you can enhance client relationships using apps like social media dashboards - Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and MarketMeSuite, to help concentrate your marketing and freeing up your time.

Just make sure what your saying is what they are hearing and understanding. Show them you’ve got the X-factor when it comes to communicating.

Analysts are forever trying to second guess how Google will interpret the amount of action your website gets from Search with what it gets from Facebook, and how crucial this is to page rankings - and a top ranking position gets the most clicks.

The work carried out suggests that links shared on Facebook do indeed have a high impact on the search engine results pages. However, Tweets, Facebook “Likes” and Facebook “comments” have far less impact. This shouldn’t be a surprise as Google already puts shared links ahead of other social signals as they fit its current algorithm criteria better.

Shared links

Simply put, every Facebook shared link to your website content increases the chances of that content riding higher on Google for relevant search enquiries.

Your our aim is to get more people to share your content and give you more authority with Google.

How do you do this?

1. Add “sharing” functionality to your content pages
2. Blog about your content often as blogs are a great way to drum up a following
3. The more frequently you blog the more customers you will acquire (blogging two times a week is twice as likely to acquire a new customer than blogging monthly)
4. Create a fan or group page so that willing recipients leave comments, start conversations and spread your content. Yes, it can take time but the outcomes make it very worthwhile
5. Make your articles and posts interesting and relevant to your intended audience  
6. Get inside the mind of your reader - because if what you write touches a nerve or creates agreement, then you’ll more likely elicit a response - which is what matters.

Is personalisation just another fad?

Personalised search is the name of the game, reflecting the user’s own choices plus the influence from their wider social network. Search engines recognise just how influential your network can be and are incorporating it into their own search functionality to become even more effective. (This will automatically impact on traditional SEO best practices and content optimisation techniques).

Personalisation will drive brand reputation like never before as positive feedback disseminates down through networks for every group member to see and pass on. Just imagine how negative feedback might also impact - which is why the big brands are investing heavily in social-search integration.

Sharing brand links

Brands that utilise social sharing tools and “Like” buttons lets their “fans” tell their social networks what they like about the brand content and this in turn will be displayed within their friends own search enquiries.

Google is the dominant search engine while Facebook now significantly affects the way your customers access information - so Google is bound to take notice. And so should you!

Some say it is a new way of life.

Think of the huge melting pot that is social media, creating a non-stop conversation of converging customers and colleagues, bringing together people you know with those you don’t.

It is well known that the medium that carries the message shapes the message. The freedom from deadlines and news slot constraints and the sheer pleasure people derive from its viral nature explains why social media has become a sensation, revolutionising businesses and tweeting countries towards revolution.

Social media boosts brand awareness, drives lead generation and engages communities. It influences every level of the sales funnel and customer lifecycle - and as it engages customers it extends those lifecycles, accelerates deal flows, reduces churn and improves the delivery of a better ROI.

But it is also a medium that is moving fast, in multiple directions, all at once. Companies can easily feel they are being left behind.  They may begin to “tune out” and do the bare minimum or avoid it altogether. Social media can quickly become anti-social!

Yet for all that, businesses must understand the relevance of social media because their customers will expect them to have a social web presence. It is no longer “nice to have” but “must have". Leveraging its power is then about how well and how often you do it. Half-doing it can easily cause more harm than good.

We are who Google says we are. Well, perhaps not totally!

Social media allows us to write our own online profiles and participating in social networks can turn this into  personal, search engine optimisation that can go on to dominate Google’s results pages. You have the opportunity to be the author of your own professional reputation and Google is taking a lot more notice of the traffic generated through social networks.

In years gone by, it would cost £Ms to access a mass audience. Not now. Social media opens up the vision of access to huge audiences. Its ability to target our messages to specific communities is fundamental to building loyalty, understanding, and engagement.

Social media also gives you millions of voices who can spread your message and give you feedback- if you listen and learn from what is being said to improve what you do.
It makes perfect sense that your company is active and participating in the social web.

Source: Grand Guide. Social Media for the CMO. Eloqua. 24th February 2011

Hotel owner, Duncan Bannatyne (of Dragons Den fame), has spoken out strongly about guests leaving negative reviews about his hotels on TripAdvisor (the world’s largest consumer review travel site) and how such unchallenged comments can seriously damage a hotel’s hard earned reputation.

TripAdvisor is a pioneer of user-generated content. Set up 10 years ago in USA, it allows travellers to pass on their holiday experiences for the greater good. Its 18M registered users find it immensely useful but hoteliers don’t see it that way at all.

Travel expert Sara Benson mentions that TripAdvisor used to be full of great comments from savvy, experienced travellers, but now it’s just a tidal wave of raw data. With an estimated 25,000+ legally defamatory comments currently on site both here and in the USA, hoteliers like Mr Bannatyne, are asking for changes in the law so that people making posts on TripAdvisor are visible and accountable.

Emma O’Boyle (from TripAdvisor) advises that hoteliers use TripAdvisor’s private messaging system to air their concerns, while adhering to their private messaging guidelines. Mr Bannatyne has no problem with guests giving their honest opinions but he takes issue when these same guests start “trying it on” to get a bill reduction and rages at TripAdvisor’s inability to allow him to counter spurious inaccuracies. It is not uncommon for consumers to threaten a bad review in return for a refund.

Yet travelling customers love TripAdvisor and businesses continue to preach that their “customers are king” - until negative comments arise!

And there’s the rub. If someone says something unpleasant about your business on a review site, how do you ameliorate the situation? Are these sites more interested in allowing freedom of expression in an expanding online community or are they just scared of losing out to other comparable sites, so damage to business reputations from unsubstantiated comments is simply collateral damage?

But there’s another side...

In his article: Long Live the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the world wide web, emphasises the threat of closed systems (operated by the likes of Facebook, iTunes, Friendster) as having too much influence on your freedom to comment.

Berners-Lee sees companies like Facebook chipping away at the web’s fundamental principles. Facebook is a closed silo. Once you’ve added your details, you cease to operate in an open market. You lose real control which threatens your very liberty and your freedom to say whatever you want.

Will we all end up like those in China, Burma or Iran - without realising it?

Berners-Lee believes the social networks constitute a danger to continued open standards and neutrality. Perhaps, Duncan Bannatyne’s battles with TripAdvisor are another step in curbing our freedom of expression!

However, Patricio Robles, a reporter for E-consultancy, talks about the web being a market place with multiple vendors. If you don’t like iTunes you go somewhere else. Can’t find a store you like? Well, you’re free to start your own! Robles says the belief that there are people out there who know what’s best for you, is frankly fanciful. 

Social comment is now mainstream and user based content accounts for 25% of all traffic to the websites of the top 20 global brands. These big brands wouldn’t change this for the world.

Like stone, paper, scissors, the freedom to click will continue to beat any attempts at censorship within social media sites.

Principle Sources: Kira Cochrane:. Rooms with reviews. Guardian News and Media. 25th January 2011
Tim Berners-Lee:  Long live the web.  www.scientificamerican.com 22nd November 2010
Patricio Robles: Berners-Lee: the most popular services are bad for the web. E-consultancy. 24th November 2010.
 

Some facts that might change your ideas on Social Media:

• To reach 50 Million users took Radio 38 years; TV 13 years; the internet 4 years and Facebook? 200M+ users in 1 year
• If Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest, behind China and India
• Facebook accounts for 50% of mobile internet traffic in the UK
• 25% of search traffic for the world’s Top 20 brands are links to user generated content
• There are 200,000,000 blogs and 34% of bloggers post opinions about brands and products
• People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than Google ranking
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendation. Only 14% of them trust advertisement
• Only 18% TV advertisements generate a positive ROI
• Kindle ebooks outsold paper books over Christmas
• 60 million status update on Facebook daily
• 80% companies use social media for recruitment - (e.g. LinkedIn)    

Social media is fundamentally changing the way we communicate and its rapid expansion into our everyday lives cannot be ignored. With 50% of the world’s population under the age of 30, their expectations are very different from previous generations.

Now is the time to start addressing how you will interact with your customers. How well you do this determines what they say to their friends via Facebook and Twitter and this has a significant impact on your brands and services. Word of Mouth rules!

Consumers are driving internet content and technology uptake. These consequential outcomes will invariably impact on business strategy, for both B2Cs and B2Bs.

It is not now about if you do social media, but how well you do it!

Recommended Source: Erik Qualman - Socialnomics.  20th January 2011. Reelseo.com

As the Managing Director of an online marketing agency, you might expect me to be unreservedly enthusiastic about the possibilities of the Internet. I can certainly get very excited about what the intelligent use of the Internet can do for a business. But even if you don’t find the Internet inspiring, you’d have to admit that it is hard to manage without it if you want to stay competitive. For most people, the Internet no longer feels like something new. There’s a younger generation now already in work that has no memory of the day their company “went online”. Instead, for these people, the Internet is something they’ve grown up with and take for granted. This generation was sending emails almost as soon as it learned to read and write.

The Internet has changed people’s habits. People who would once have kept a diary now write a blog. Facebook and other social media sites have led to the creation of online communities. There is a vast pool of opinions and ideas from user generated content that companies now want to tap into as a way of gauging customer responses to their products. You don’t have to listen in to pub conversations to find out about what petrol-heads think about the new gearbox on the 1.6 GLS, because you can read their views on a forum site.

But employers know that not every new habit is a good habit to get into. Businesses know how easy it is for “checking something on the Internet” to become an excuse for aimlessly surfing the Internet in the company time. Employers want to hire staff with good computer skills, but they don’t want to hire someone who’s going to waste time on Facebook or instant messaging. It’s easy for someone to pretend he’s working if he’s typing something at the computer screen, but what he’s actually doing is as bad as chatting to a friend for hours on the phone. It’s just silent, so the offending behaviour is less obvious.

And there are more serious concerns than the damage this sort of thing does to productivity. The main one is the threat to security. Issues of commercial confidentially are especially important in a country like Britain, where increasingly information itself is the product. Businesses are becoming more and more worried about employees revealing commercially sensitive information, whether in emails, or, worse still, on social media sites, where many more people can read it.

None of this is to suggest that social media is a bad thing, or that we should get busy trying to put a stop to it. Because, obviously, you can’t. It would be as self-defeating as trying to squeeze the toothpaste back into the tube. Instead, from a business perspective, it’s more sensible to embrace the potential of social media. Social media sites allow for market research using comments that are unprompted. And businesses can access an online audience of potential customers through their blogs. If the Internet has brought with it some new challenges, it also offers the employer new opportunities as well. Provided a business knows how to protect itself from the risk, most companies can still benefit from embracing the opportunities they represent.