Tag Results
4 posts tagged B2B
SlideShare PRO Now Business essential
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 “The access to this content has been revoked by the author” is the message shown when revoked presentation links are opened.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!
________________________________________________________
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
B2B Social Media - Getting Started Slideshare
Put the building blocks in place. Get practical - Measure & report along the way.
Find and work with influencers, discover insights!
I use these basic building blocks in my day to day work at Philips. I feature a few techniques and tools in this slideshare but of course there are many others, which I would select depending on the circumstances.
View more presentations from Clive Roach
____________________________________________________________
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 | So.cl
B2B Social Media - Gaining support of the C-suite and beyond
An interview with Clive Roach by Christine Overby, an analyst for Forrester research - April 2012
Christine Overby: Adopting a social mindset requires a change in culture. Tough to accomplish. Now layer on top the added complexities of a B2B sales cycle, strict industry regulations, and dozens of regional markets. Welcome to the world of Clive Roach, Social Media Strategist at Philips Healthcare and keynote at our upcoming Forrester Interactive Marketing summit in London on May 23. Clive has managed through these complexities to create successful B2B influence marketing programs in customer communities like Philips NetForum and public communities like LinkedIn. I recently caught up with Clive to learn more about how he did it. I hope to see you in London where Clive will share the full story!
Christine Overby:
What’s unique about nurturing influencers in a B2B environment?
Clive Roach: Building relationships is the key aspect of nurturing influencers in a B2B environment. In many B2B industries the sales cycle can be quite long, and much longer than in B2C situations. It is important to work towards long lasting relationships, where you can learn about the needs and interests of the influencers that you have identified and that you supply them with information and continue to have dialogue that is useful to them. In that way both parties have a win-win outcome. It is also possible to find out the channels within which they are most effective.
Christine Overby:
You gained the buy-in of Philips board on your social media strategy proposal. What tips would you give to others to gain the support of the C-suite?
Clive Roach: My advice would be to position social media as an interactive marketing channel and not as a geeky new thing that the IT department is testing out. Select an important business objective and carefully develop a strategy that will clearly demonstrate the huge impact that is available. In the past, I successfully used Twitter and Linkedin to demonstrate how sales leads could be gained. Start small. Plan a concept that would work at a country or regional level, and that has business objectives and processes defined and well documented. Naturally, the success metrics should be aligned with the objectives. Early successes will then become the proof points that bring C-suite approval to allow deployment to other areas that will bring in investment to expand.
“The goal is not to be great at Social Media. The goal is to be good or better at business because of Social Media”
Christine Overby:
What are the special considerations that you made when implementing social programs in the healthcare space?
Clive Roach: Philips already had the basic building blocks in place. We had a social media policy, a strategy framework, a cross functional team to share early success and lessons learnt across the company, and we had carried out many benchmarking exercises. The next key component specifically for Philips Healthcare was to create a social media guideline for our legal and regulatory compliance. I chaired that group for several months. This was an important step for Philips Healthcare because we operate in a regulated industry.
Christine Overby:
What must marketers keep in mind when they localize their social programs?
Clive Roach: Within Philips Healthcare, local social media programs must show that they have used our internal strategy framework to ensure that they have chosen the right objectives with aligned metrics. They should also have editorial content planned and be targeting the most appropriate channels. In addition, local programs must conform to the company branding and naming guidelines and have budget available. However, from experience, resource management is the area that must be carefully assessed. Resources are often less available at a local level, and this is where extra vigilance is needed.
Christine Overby:
We’ve found that, generally, a growing number of people believe the time they spend on social platforms is wasted. How do you ensure that Philips’ social programs continue to offer value in return for people’s time?
Clive Roach: I used to hear this said a lot when I first moved fully into Social Media. It is important to treat social media with the respect it deserves in 2012. In 2009 there were many examples of companies just diving in and after a short while often walking away when the initiative failed because there was no planning and no business objectives set. That was three years ago. Now companies must plan to integrate social media into its digital marketing eco-system and tie it in with offline activities where there are business goals to be met.
My advice is to always develop social media metrics that show results aligned with your objectives, which in turn should be aligned with the relevant targets of your organization. Throw in some competitor benchmarks as well, and you cannot go wrong with that approach. In Philips Healthcare I created dashboards for all our leading social media channels. The metrics range from Purchase consideration, NPS, influence and Top of mind awareness for Philips to more operational metrics like effective reach, subscriber numbers and video views. I can show success because as we have reached targets and thus showed that social media was a good investment. We also celebrate our success and share that good news internally within Philips, especially using our internal enterprise social media application.
____________________________________________________________
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 | So.cl
______________________________________________________________
Source: Forrester Research, Inc., Q&A with Clive Roach, Social Media Strategist at Philips Healthcare, 25th April 2012
B2B Pin it to win it
Pinterest can work for B2B as well as B2C
Pinterest is a hit, that is clear, but one of the first myths is that it is for business to consumer (B2C) use only.. WRONG!
B2B companies must do their homework first before creating a Pinterest channel. Checks need to be done if the end users of your product are already on Pinterest.
There are a lot of great tools on their way, but I have found a lot of great accounts simply by using the Pinterest advanced search. For example, I currently work as the Social Media strategist for Philips Healthcare, in a regulated industry. What would be the probability that Healthcare would not be represented in Pinterest? Most people think Pinterest only has boards around themes like food recipes, design and pictures of sea and cliffs, and with a business to consumer (B2C) focus. Well, I did a search and found over 400 boards in Pinterest about Healthcare. 400 boards means that there are many more pins about Healthcare!
For any business to business (B2B) company, the same good practice guidelines to be effective in Pinterest apply just as much as they do for business to consumer (B2C) companies. Regulated industries like Finance and Healthcare still need to apply their legal and regulatory checks.
Be innovative!
Think outside the box to make your approach innovative. Express your story with visuals, it can be a a really strong marketing channel, and do remember to be social in your pin descriptions to draw out discussion and debate. Here is a clever use of Pinterest by Asos. B2B companies should see examples like this as expressing how far they can “push the envelope”. Asos asked their community to take a picture of the contents of their rucksacks, and then asked them to email it to them. They then put all the pictures up on a Pinterest board, and will award a prize to the best one. They also would add additional points for innovative bag contents. Have a look at how it is progressing.
Sales, SEO, and web traffic benefits
B2C companies are seeing sales uplifts due to Pinterest. In a guest post on VentureBeat, Convertro CEO Jeff Zwelling reveals that Pinterest has been making huge gains for his company’s clients:
“In Q2 2011 Pinterest.com represented 1.2% of social media revenue for e-commerce sites. It now represents 17.4% and is quickly gaining on Facebook. (That shift from 1.2% to 17.4% is based on measurements we made across 40 of our client sites — most of which are top 500 internet retailers.) We project Pinterest will be responsible for 40% of social media e-commerce transactions by end of Q2 2012, reducing Facebook’s share to slightly under 60% from 86% a year ago”.
For B2B, there are benefits more in the direction of using Pinterest as a traffic generator to your company blog or website. This is very important for B2B! If people click on your picture they can land on your website. Make sure that you are using the right keywords on Pinterest to ensure a better Google ranking for your company’s website!
I love Pinterest
I am in Pinterest everyday, it is addictive 
Pin it to win it
I love this infographic. It might give you some more clues as to how to place Pinterest in your B2B digital marketing eco-system. It is from MDG advertising.
![Marketer's Guide To Pinterest: Pin It To Win It [infographic by MDG Advertising]](http://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/infographic-marketers-guide-to-pinterest.png "Marketer's Guide To Pinterest: Pin It To Win It [infographic by MDG Advertising]")
