social media

The 5 key ingredients for Twitter success

By Inka Wibowo As B2B marketers, everything we do comes down to one goal: creating buyers. To do this, we often need to start at the very beginning – even before buyers know who we are, what we do, and that they have a problem we can solve. We get buyers started on this journey by reaching out to them, and initiating a conversation – a conversation that we hope will one day create a troubled and qualified buyer. Social media is one way to start this conversation, but with so many different networks at our disposal, READ MORE ›

By Inka Wibowo|Tactics|

Is Google+ relevant to B2B marketing?

By Inka Wibowo When it comes to Google+, the B2B marketing community seems to be divided into three distinct camps. There are those who live and breathe it, hailing it as the next big thing in social media. There are those who understand that it may one day be a key part of their marketing mix, but for now can’t justify doing any more than setting up their profile and posting every once in a while. And then there are the cynics, who view it as Google’s adventurous yet ill-fated attempt to compete with the likes of READ MORE ›

By Inka Wibowo|Tactics|

Social Media: A Team Effort Between Marketing & Sales

Surveys of B2B marketing budgets consistently show that a higher percentage of marketing resources are being invested in content development and social media than ever before. But business social media is too important to be left to the marketing department alone—it needs to be a team effort between marketing, sales and other customer-facing employees. In addition to the obvious advice to make all of your invaluable content social-media friendly and easily shareable, I’d like to suggest 7 simple steps that could help the whole organization to come together to fully realize the potential of business social media. READ MORE ›

By Bob Apollo|Sales, Tactics|

Blogging: The Swiss Army Knife of B2B Marketing

Don’t be fooled by its unglamorous appearance and unassuming nature. Your blog is your most powerful survival tool in the B2B marketing jungle. Just like a swiss army knife, it can perform a multitude of functions required for survival. These functions include : Traffic Generation It doesn’t matter how amazing your website is if nobody comes to visit. But how does one go about attracting new website visitors? Writing blog posts and distributing them via social media, social bookmarking sites, RSS and email will help you to get found by new people. SEO One of toughest challenges in READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Tactics|

Social media: from B2C to B2B

Although B2C companies were first to jump on the social media bandwagon, B2B companies are starting to recognise that social media can also work in a B2B context. But, as a B2B marketer, where do you start? We hosted a Funnel Masters dinner (alumni of Funnel Academy and other funnel zealots) recently, and this is what they concluded: 1. Start with the basics, and decide where social media can add value (if at all). The first rule of thumb is – don’t do it just because it feels like everyone else is. Social media may make no READ MORE ›

By Annelies Huls|Strategy, Tactics|

How B2B firms use LinkedIn for effective lead generation

When I ask Australian B2B firms if social media and LinkedIn in particular has a place in their communications and marketing strategy I generally get a look that could best be described as worried or hesitant and occasionally dismissive. If I go on to ask them if they think LinkedIn can generate real leads for their business, that worried look disappears and is replaced with looks of disbelief and guffaws of (usually) well meaning laugher. Many B2B firms are struggling with what to do with social media. They know they need to do something, that they should READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Tactics|

B2B: Embrace social media for attendance & revenue

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Social media has opened up an entirely new forum for B2B marketing, but many-a-marketer has dabbled and withdrawn from any serious use of these platforms. Even so, best practice for B2B marketing using web 2.0 functionalities has become a serious and sophisticated element to many Funnel Plans. So how do B2B marketing professionals create the ‘right buzz’ around what they’re doing? That’s the question Aaron Kahlow aims to answer in his DemandCon presentation. As CEO of Online Marketing Connect, and Chairman & Founder of the Online Marketing Summit and READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

Creating Convergence between sales and B2B marketing using Social Media

B2B marketing can be a thankless task. There is a moment in every business where marketing hands off to sales. Planned or not, B2B marketing has created an opportunity, and sales is getting its chance to create a customer. At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Did marketing create enough interest? Can sales create enough curiosity and trust? Did they both do their part in getting the prospect to “tell me more?” I’ll be speaking at the DemandCon conference in San Francisco in May this year, and am joined by some luminaries of the industry. Amongst them, READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

How do you automate the buyers journey in B2B marketing using social media?

In B2B marketing we can learn a lot from our consumer cousins. But there are some tactics that while working well for B2C, just don’t work in the complex sales environment of B2B. One such tactic is still being hotly debated; and that's social media. what is its role for B2B marketing and what is the best practice for social media? The general notion is that if you’re putting your business out there by Tweeting and using Facebook you can cross ‘social media’ off your to-do list. Climbing numbers fo ‘followers’, ‘friends’ and click-throughs are surely testament READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

Six steps to build your credibility

Chris Fell, Managing Director of g2m Solutions, writes... A recent blog article from Hubspot focused on how small and medium businesses should take the time to build credibility for their companies. They made the point that with emerging new media technologies and online tools, building reputation as a small business and communicating with customers has never been easier. Let's look at a few ways small business owners can build credibility on their own. 6 steps to building small business credibility 1. Start a blog - Starting a blog for your small business is a way to not only improve READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Strategy, Tactics|