Use of Social in Lead Passing ! Part 2 of Social Selling - #getsocial11 #sales #gitomer #ls11
A few days ago, I posted on how we are using Twitter to get leads into our system.
I received several comments and questions about lead passing. Let me share with you a few examples of how we use social to pass leads! Afterall, we do not want to throw those new leads away!
A potential customer from "Endicott College" is navigating IBM's solutions for Higher Education and online collaboration for virtual students. As they explore the site, an ibm.com representative is notified and asks the customer if they want to chat via instant messaging.
After a couple conversation, connecting on LinkedIN, and additional information is provided, the customer wants to see how the product works and talk with other customers.
The ibm.com representative checks the Social CRM system at IBM as well as searches for product experts and local representatives close to Endicott College campus. The ibm.com representative also posts his/her micro-blogging status internally about the interest in online collaboration from Endicott College.
Within hours, multiple people inside IBM comment on his/her status. Some comments are from peers working with other customers in Higher Ed and wanting to get ideas for solutions. Some comments are from local resources at IBM that are familiar or alumni at Endicott College and want to make sure they get connected with the right IBM resource.
It even caught my attention as I was going out to meet with another University in the fall. The power of internal micro-blogging is not necessarily about the mass followers and tippers as it is in the consumer space like Twitter and YouTube. The power is in the more granular details provided in a secure manor while still leveraging the tippers inside your organization firewalls.
All IBMers had access to this micro-blogging status and unlike Twitter, he/she was able to post the customers name. IBM guidelines prevent employes from specifically sharing customer names unless authorized. Had it not been for he/she stating she was working with "Endicott College", the thread would not have generated local responses and the details that followed.
Get Bold! Coming out September 15! Free Chapter 1! #getsocial11 #ls11
Team:
I am honored to have been asked to write an IBM point of View on Social Business. This book, called GET BOLD, comes out on September. It has inside its covers over 70 case studies from Great and Leading Clients like: Celestica, Avery Dinenison, IBM, Cemex, and more.
Compliments of IBM, here is Chapter 1 to you to see what it will contain!
Social Business: Selling with my fav Twitter! An IBM example! #socbiz #ls11 #ibm #ibmpartner
Yes, you all know I love Twitter! But did you know that it is a powerful business tool?
In IBM, our ibm.com team must attract a high volume of leads from a new set of customers. Since Social has become a tool for getting information on products and services, we wanted to explore how to leverage word of mouth. For instance, after a Twitter search or deeper conversation in a LinkedIn group or forum, potential buyers might ask companies for more information, but they also often turn to their peers, other clients and trusted advisors.
So our ibm.com team decided to go social. Our inside sellers drove prospects to their Rep Pages –- personalized ibm.com pages that play a “virtual business card” role for inside sellers. These pages have relevant information to clients, enhance the relationship, and give clients one-click access to interact with their reps.
After training on how to engage and nurture potential clients, the ibm.com team built Twitter profiles to establish a presence in the social networking world. The ultimate objective of this pilot was for sellers to use social media to add value to conversations and build a pipeline of leads.
We (IBM) also worked with an outside firm to identify the most prominent influencers in the our space, so sellers could then follow them and comment on or retweet their posts and learn and connect. We developed a unique engagement strategy for each influencer, based on their activity and what they were saying.
To make it easy to maintain their Twitter presence, sellers also have a social message calendar, accessible via the feed reader function within Lotus Notes. The calendar features time-sensitive messages reps can tweet, with enough content for three tweets a day.
Over a 7 month period, these ibm.com teamates increased their Twitter followers by 5X
In the first two weeks of this effort, sellers’ Rep Page visits rose by 106 percent --thanks to a systematic pattern of Twitter mentions. The sellers reached 1.9 million contacts.
As we move ahead, social selling success will be reflected by the rep’s Klout score, that we discussed on yesterday's blog post. which gauges influence in the social world, an increase in the number of direct Twitter followers, and relationships developed with key influencers.
Many thanks to Kelly Meade and Diane Karsch for their work here at IBM on this Social Selling Initiative!!!
Social Business: What do you think about Klout? #socbiz #ls11 #ibm #ibmpartner
There are huge debates on the value of Klout. (Don't know what it is ? Go to Klout.com and check it out!) Klout currently tracks a user’s Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Foursquare activity. It is reportedly looking at Google+ integration!!
My Klout score to date is 61.
I have been reading about it for a while.
From the Klout blog: "We think you are influential. Klout isn’t about figuring out who is on the 'A-list.' We believe that every person who creates content has influence. Our mission is to help every individual understand and leverage their influence."
Do you use Klout? I have noticed some putting their Klout score on their business card (which is interesting as it changes weekly for me!)
Let me hear from you! Sandy
Social Business: CEOs in Social Media; #getsocial11 #ibmpartner #blogher
At Blogher, Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepisco, spoke to 3500 women at Blogher on Saturday. She really set the pace saying that the future of Pepisco is Digital!
Why don't more CEOs leverage Social? Or do they?
A majority 64 percent of CEOs are not using social media to engage with the public and other stakeholders, according to a new study from PR firm Weber Shandwick.
Here's the facts that I gathered on CEOs using Social.
- George Colony, the CEO of Forrester, had an interesting view on CEOs This is taken from his interview withBarb Dybwad . "I polled the audience and asked, “How many people in this audience have a CEO who they think could be social?” And I would say it was about 10%. Yeah. So that’s today — five years from now you put the numbers out. Maybe 20%? And maybe 10 years from now — I think it’s going to be 50% in 10 years. I think boards are going to be looking for people who can be social. Now in crisis, look at Toyota. The CEO of Toyota had a blog, but it was in Japanese. And it was about driving. So, he sells most of his cars to in English-speaking countries, and no one could understand it. That would have been a very good tool for him to use during this crisis, I think, to hear from the CEO in the CEO’s voice. He came and testified in front of U.S. Congress, so he could have preceded it with some talking about it socially, and that would have helped their cause I think."
- On LinkedIn, there are 1.3M people who are listed as CEOs. Many of them are firms that market to CEOs, but I would estimate about 1M CEOs are on linkedIn. I could not tell how active they are.
- From PR firm Weber ShandwickThe study also found that the most admired CEOs had a greater online presence (41 percent) than those who were less admired (28 percent). CEOs with more years on the job tended to be heavier social networkers. And CEOs running American companies proved more socially active online than those in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), Asia Pacific, and Latin America.Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20019465-93.html#ixzz1UYBtOVore
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Great case examples. I love Bill Marriott's blog, It is sassy, informative, and transparent http://www.blogs.marriott.com/ On Twitter, I love Zappos's Tony's tweets, and on LinkedIn Gary Kelly, the CEO of Southwest Airlines, and his use of Answers. I'd love to know your FAVORITE CEO bloggers, twitters, etc!
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Indra Nooyi Sets Pace at Blogher. I found that Indra set the pace for other CEOs at Blogher on Saturday by recognizing that her company's future is tied to digital!
What do you think? Should CEOs be Social ? Or not?
Social Business: Top 5 Tips on Video Blogging Success! #getsocial11 #ls11 #ibm #ibmsocialbiz #blogher
I am at BlogHer today -- Saturday -- and in the session on Video Blogging! BlogHer was held in San Diego this week with nearly 3,500 woman bloggers in attendance!! Women who blog are influencing purchasing
Vidoe in blogs could be as simple as adding video to a current blog, or hosting a show online using video. Video is the most trusted media online today so experiment with this form of communication!
For Social Business, here is one of my first videos. Your comments?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l48k8YfTkFc&feature=related]
Top 5 Tips I learned in the session:
1. Tools. Make sure you use a good camera and great audio system. People will tolerate an ok picture but the audio must be understandable. While many people use the iPhone for video, most said the best was the Canon 5U
2. Great links that were discussed that I was not aware of! Biglive -- for charging for your videos, youtube.com/playbook for great video tips like SEO; trafficgeiser.com & Tubemobile both for ways to watch traffic. Also use "smoosh it" plugin on @wordpress to smoosh your older and current photos on blog to complement your videos. Cool one! Steps to get your link right for promotion of all your videos, not other recommended videos from YouTube: upload viceo to youtube, go to your channel, click on the video you want to promote within your channel, and then use the url at the top from that click, not the suggested url.
3. Drive to integration of your online prescence. For the videos, have consistent opening and closing and include where you "live online". So your twitter id or your blog. Unless you "live" in YouTube, make sure you are getting them over to your homebase! At the end of a lot of videos, it freezes on the last screen. So give them something to remember.
4. People Driven. Remember, there are people behind all these networks. It is all about understanding what people are looking for, and how you can assist them. You have to engage people 1:1. Add value, provide good content consistently, and have active engagement w/ audience & reach.
5. Livestreaming. Using gaming techniques -- like join the conversation at 2PM, create a scarcity to your livesteam. Check out ustream and livestream.
We concluded with the monetization of videos. For example, in beta, there is an application, so that you can get paid for your videos. One example was a person who does training and in a private password protected site, she posts her training videos for those who attend her class as a differentiation! There was a discussion of using blip as well to make money.
Anyone out there with more tips of videos?
Social Business: 3 Common Mistakes I see #socbiz #ls11 #getsocial11 #ibmsocialbiz
All: I have been doing a LOT of meetings with companies starting their Social Business journey and the top 3 mistakes that I see people begging advice on is the below!
1. Social Media and building communities is not a PR, Communications and Marketing task only. It needs commitment and engagement from the whole team. That's why it is Social Business, not just Social Media!
2. Social Media is risky. How do I eliminate the risk? The answer is, you can't! There are ways to mitigate the risk but the risk is there as it is in many cases. I recommend a Repuation Manage proactively monitor this online but that you have a Risk management plan.
3. You can not outsource Social. Some of our leaders asked me "who writes your blog?" They wanted to hire external ghostwriters for a blog etc. I recommended not to do it because the success of the Social channels depend on personality and authentic writing & communication. This needs to be personal.
Social Business Word of the Week: Engagement: The Energy of Social! #socbiz #getsocial11 #ibmsocialbiz #ls11
Today, our Social Business word of the week is Engagement.
My thought is that Engagement is the Energy of Social Business.
Engagement is about your connection with your clients, influencers, and others. Your emotional connection with your client or employee usually created by exceptional experiences that are integrated, interactive and identifying. A Social Business connects people to expertise. It connects individuals whether customers, partners or employees as networks of people to generate new sources of innovation, foster creativity, and establish greater reach and exposure to new business opportunities.
It establishes a foundational level of trust across these business networks and thus a willingness to openly share information, developing a deeper sense of loyalty among customers and employees. It empowers these networks with the collaborative, gaming and analytical tools needed to engage each other and creatively solve business challenges.
How do you engage?
Social Business: Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, and ?! #socbiz #
Thinking through the "uses" of social, the list below came from a worksession in DC where we were more focused on the use of Social Tools vs just the Tool itself.!
Did we leave anything out?
- Lifecasting - like blogs where you document your activities or thoughts
- Crowdsourcing - like ideation --> innovating!
- Gaming Dynamics -- to make everyting funner!
- Real time communication -- the most common I think! like IBM connections, Twitter, Facebook!
- Social Commerce like groupon, Gilt -- Timed offers that will run out if the group doesn't come together!
- Social Review - going shopping with your 1000 best friends! Like amazon, yelp, tripadvisor!
- File/Content Sharing - like Slideshare and Youtube!
Questions that you should think through!
- In what ways is your company doing a great job of unleashing human potential to creat value
- Which human drives or behaviors patterns could you tap into more?
- What are your greatest opportunities?
- Which social Tech can help you amplify and accelerate those opportunities?
- How will you activate your organization an dothers to do this?