Social Media

For anyone who believes the best social media ideas come of out of New York, Chicago or other major cities, you better think again.  Originally famous for the 1982 World’s Fair, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and Bush’s Baked Beans, Knoxville is now burgeoning with social influence as the home to SOCIAL SLAM.

This week a client of ours participated in Philly Tech Week by presenting a seminar on how a business can embrace social media tools to build their brands, while also keeping an eye on protecting its  core ideas and identity and ensuring not to infringe on that of others.

In just two weeks, a couple of us from Marketri will be off to an awesome social media and marketing conference called Social Slam. I’ve been getting excited about what we will take away from the event. I am hoping to learn about up-and-coming social media trends from industry experts. I’m also looking forward to some great networking opportunities and establishing some new connections. While simply attending this conference will be beneficial, I began to wonder if there are any other ways that we can maximize the benefits of attending this event. The answer of course is yes, and the way to do it is through social media!

This post is a guest blog post by Neil Edwards, Managing Director, Strategic Marketing Consultant and Co-owner of The Marketing Eye, a provider of outsourced marketing services in Uckfield, East Sussex in the United Kingdom.

As 2012 approaches, it is clear to see that social media should be a focal point in your B2B marketing plan and strategy. Social networking sites can be a great way to connect with potential prospects as well as peers in your industry, plus these sites are incredibly useful for furthering your content marketing initiatives and driving traffic back to your Web site. Although B2B companies often receive a bad rap for being slow to adopt social media, we hope that by now you have hopped on the bandwagon and are enjoying the benefits of social media marketing. If that is the case, you should also be aware of common social media sins that B2B marketers are known to commit. Check out our list of B2B social media sins and learn how you can avoid these faux pas.

We often hear the words marketing and business development uttered in the same breath, or even used synonymously. While these two departments certainly cover similar ground and ultimately contribute to the growth of a firm’s business, they can be quite different and should each have clear and distinct responsibilities. By clarifying what each department is responsible for and communicating these responsibilities up front, professional service firms can better play on the strengths of each department and have them collaborate with one another for greater success.

It’s time for our weekly B2B Marketing Roundup with our favorite blog posts covering B2B marketing from the week! This week’s posts include impressive stats on B2B social media and marketing, tips for obtaining effective client testimonials and others. What’s on your B2B marketing reading list this week? Be sure to let us know.

Just in the past week, I have been asked the following questions by Partners from two different accounting firms: “Is all of this social media stuff really necessary?  If so, how can I possibly be productive?”  This is quite a dilemma especially in the world of professional services where time equals money.  Both of these Partners bill their time at $350 per hour.  The opportunity cost of a three minute tweet becomes over $17.00.  When time is limited and you think in terms of dollars and cents, what social media commitment level makes sense?

Although there have been countless reports of the benefits of using social media for business, it is not uncommon for us to run into clients who are resistant to the idea of getting involved with social media, especially in the professional services space. Some of the common fears cited are losing control of their message or being unable to manage their image through social media. There seems to be a fear that if you go online, you can lose control. The truth is that you can lose control of your message in any medium, but social media sites offer a great way to keep track of your company and the message that you are communicating. Using social media is one of the best ways that a company can engage with potential customers and communicate their message in real time. Not only this, but there are countless tools that can help you manage and control your online presence. One that I’ve enjoyed investigating recently is Twylah.