SlideShare? So what? SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. It has 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million pageviews, it is amongst the most visited 200 websites in the world.These 3 numbers mean that businesses must sit up and take notice, but just how can businesses make effective use of SlideShare?
I am of the opinion that SlideShare PRO could be an essential element of any company’s content marketing portfolio.
SlideShare PRO has analytic options that will prove to be very attractive for businesses B2C and B2B and in particularly for B2B. SlideShare has come a long way since it was announced that it was acquired by LinkedIn.
SlideShare PRO
SlideShare PRO offers extra benefits for uploading including videos, however I recommend the analytics dashboard, lead capture and tracking presentations as the pearls of the PRO portfolio.
I looked at many large companies using SlideShare and found that not many of them had opted for the PRO version. Pricing is shown here.
Tracking presentations with SlideShare PRO “Send Tracker”
Imagine being able to send a SlideShare presentation link to a business prospect and then being able to see reporting about it being opened, and the most viewed slides? With PRO, that is what you get!
Here is an example where a presentation was sent and the link opened 3 times. I can see how the presentation was viewed on each occasion it was opened.
The presentation does not open in the normal view. This is another major factor that makes the “send tracker” so good for business use. It has a special view that removes all the links and navigation links so you know that the recipient is only looking at your presentation and not distracted by ads or other menu options.
(Recipient view of presentations sent via “send tracker”)
I can also see which “send tracker” presentations were not opened over time. SlideShare allows me to revoke access to them if I decide that I do not want them to view it anymore. I tested this. “The access to this content has been revoked by the author” is the message shown when revoked presentation links are opened.
PRO provides the option to upload to private mode or to edit an existing public upload and then change it to private mode. Only account owners see private uploads, but you can send private uploads as well as public ones via “send tracker” to other selected recipients.
My only issue with the “send tracker” is that the email sending did not work for me in FireFox, Internet Explorer or Chrome, so I had to use the option of copying the link and sending my own email. I suggest doing a trail to see how it works for you before going live.
Lead capture
SlideShare PRO enables lead capture via a form. You can create a form just after an upload or to an existing upload via the “my uploads” menu choice. Here is how SlideShare describe the process:
“LeadShare is SlideShare’s (patent pending) service to allow businesses to collect customer leads through their presentations, documents and videos. When you activate LeadShare, there will be three ways that viewers can contact you about your product or service:
- When the viewer tries to download the original presentation/PDF file, they will be asked to fill out a short contact form.
- When the viewer is browsing through the presentation, the contact form will show up (after slide 10, at the end, or via a permanent display button on the player).
- If the presentation is embedded on a blog, website, forum, social network etc., the lead form will appear there as well.
Any of these three options can be used to capture lead that will show up in your account under the LeadShare section of your PRO Dashboard (and gets emailed to you). You can follow up with each lead individually for your business prospects”.
What I like about the lead capture process is the integration possibilities with SalesForce CRM, using Slide2Lead, a free application that can be installed from the SalesForce AppExchange. For more information on this key topic for businesses, consult the FAQ for lead capture.
Here are some best practice tips for lead capture using SlideShare PRO.
SlideShare also has a mobile web site
Give it a go, it works well. Go to your profile and select desktop version to gain access to the PRO account dashboard.
Conducting meetings
SlideShare PRO has the option of conducting online meetings on the fly or they can be scheduled. Firstly you select a presentation (video uploads cannot be selected). Then you can select a local conference number and you are given a code. Alternatively, you can invite people from your Facebook or Twitter accounts or via email to the meeting. There is an end meeting button.
Custom designs
Slideshare PRO users can select from a choice of backgrounds from the “Display settings” menu option of the PRO dashboard. Theme customization is also possible but only to gold and platinum users only.
I picked the Ninja theme, but that is typical of me don’t you think?
Action plan going forward
If you have previously used SlideShare as just an upload and forget source for PDF files then think again. The new SlideShare has a crisp new appearance and some great options for business users, in particular B2B. Lead capture and send tracking are just two of my favorites. If you are still not convinced, then read some of these case studies. In the Marketo case study example they used trigger alerts to their sales development team when certain keywords were typed into the comment section of the download form within SlideShare. How cool is that?
Take stock of where and how you are using SlideShare, start a pilot to see how it could be used with certain types of ongoing activities or campaigns. Check the PRO dashboard to see the downloads, the regions around the world where the download occured and also the section that lists the names of the people who downloaded. Make sure you moderate the comment sections for all your uploads as you would for any social media enabled platform.
Lastly, here is a book that you might find useful on this topic by Todd Wheatland. It is called “The Marketer’s Guide to SlideShare: How to Build Your Brand, Generate Leads & Create Opportunities”. I recently was in a webinar where Todd was the guest speaker and I can confirm that he knows what he is talking about!
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About The Author:
Clive Roach is the social media strategist for Philips Healthcare. He is active with strategy development, activation, governance, projects and educational training activities for all aspects of social media within Philips Healthcare. Clive has been working in the eMarketing area since 1997, and previously held roles in engineering, design and sales. Clive is also practical in addition to his current strategic role. In addition to this blog, he tweets daily on three Twitter accounts, has two Facebook fan pages, Google+, Pinterest, So.cl, Instagram, and participates in many other social networks.
Connect with the author via: Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn | Facebook fan page | SlideShare
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