Bringing social to B2B!

When we talk social, social media, social business, …. everybody tends to stick to the B2C world…nevertheless “social” should be a part of B2B as well. At the “B2B goes Social” – symposium (at Nyenrode Business University – Breukelen/Utrecht) 5 inspirational speakers offered a frame-work to bring the social into B2B.

Everybody is doing social (media) today, social media is bringing people together, sharing thoughts ideas and is starting the conversation. Social media are building a community around your brand, company or organisation.  B2C is doing is this for 3 (-5) years already, but since B2B always tends to lack behind B2C a couple of years it time to act as a B2B company and start building a community around your organisation.

Big Brains For Life – Get in touch with digital reality

Most of the time, you get my reports on events afterwards…since I’m organising one myself, you get an invitation up-front!

On December 21st, 2011 University College Karel de Grote is hosting the first (ever) Big Brains for Life event on Digital reality. This event is in support of Studio Brussels Music For Life charity. All revenues are in favor of this charity which supports Red Crosses kids diarrhea program in Nepal.

Social Business Strategy is more then social media

A major thanks to Yves Van Seters who gave a cool presentation at LeadsUnited Social Media Catch Up (#LUsmCU) on how IBM uses a social business strategy instead of a tight social media policy! IBM proves with this case that social media is more then just a marketing or communication tool….All 400 000 IBM employees are brand/company ambassadors, and IBM facilitates them on how to….with few policy rules, but with good training!

Most companies struggle with this huge paradox….they see great advantages in using social media regarding brand reputation, CRM, advertising, … but struggle with:

• employees tweeting and Facebook posting in support of an ad campaign. Do they have guidelines on what to do? Are they allowed to access Facebook during work hours….
• customers reacting through Twitter and Facebook on a poor service or unavailability….if social media is run by your communications officer(s). He needs to take this up to sales and distribution, or your brand images will deteriorate….but what if your communications officer (isn’t around or isn’t paying attention? – he is only human!)
• social media influentials (like blogger, …) are better used as insiders….but can you lever important information on to company outsiders?
• …

With a social business strategy in place, your employees are trained and facilitated so they know how to behave in the social (media) world…All those company ambassadors will pick up more information then your complete communications department and last but not least they will have the network you’re dreaming of to get your message across.
And they will have connections with influencers….and they will leak the right amount of information at the right time (like Apple does all the time).

So big CEO’s, CIO’s, CTO, … and all other leaders out there….choose a social media strategy above a social media policy. This will take strong leadership….but the outcome will be even better! A social company!

It’s been a while but I feel the need to add a flat statement:

“Social business strategy is more than just social media use for commercial purpose. Social business hits the heart of the organisation.”

Social Media Use by Belgian Companies – Work to be done!

A survey by Leads United on social media use in Belgian companies

The Social Media catch up Forum (#LUsmCU) this morning showcased the staggering results. The research was conducted for the 4th time and even shows how fast Social Media is taking (or not) taking the stand in businesses nationwide. First the good news…97% of the surveyed companies knows the term social media (where in 2008, when the first study was done only 66% knew Social Media). Most communication managers have full access to social media, where most employees are blocked from social media during work. Oh boy, those companies certainly haven’t heard from smartphones, and free time where those employees are online and dealing with social media (and probably telling about the company…)

That’s the better part of the story…now for the fun part…or the sad part:

• only 27% have company-guidelines regarding social media and social media use. As Yves Van Seters (IBM @YvesVS) points out later this morning, it’s not about the social media guidelines, it’s about the social media strategy. But a staggering 49% isn’t even planning on implementing any social media guidelines (I guess those companies still believe social media is fad, and certainly not for business use!).
• 66% of the companies has no training for his employees (nor have they any training planned). They feel generation Y will bring it on their own. (I guess they will, but is the company ready to work and deal with generation Y?)
• 54% doesn’t monitor social media for their brand, company, …. with a small 10% monitoring professionaly!
  When they get a negative response through social media 31% won’t react to it and 20% won’t answer openly.(These companies still believe customers are stupid…and probably never heard of the empowered customer)
• 44% of the companies don’t measure ROI of Social Media

I found those results shocking since we live in 2011, where social media is part of our society and digital natives are entering the professional world. Work to be done…