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Establishing appropriate business contacts and demonstrating leadership are keys to driving business connections in the B2B world. These are tasks made simpler by the use of content marketing. It is also the reason why content marketing in the business-to-business environment continues to dominate online strategies.  With content marketing the possibilities seem endless. You can create and share information in the most innovative ways that help businesses reinvent themselves to their customers. More importantly content marketing has helped in the area of lead generation, lead nurturing and content related promotions. But how does it help?   Lead Generation Traditionally inbound marketing has been used to generate leads for companies, however with proper content strategy, the tides are turning. Companies that are maintaining various different types of media such as blogs, video, white papers, news, and the like, are all benefitting from the search engine optimization that this content brings.   B2B brands are online building communities. These are commonly found through organic search engine results or through referrals by other customers, which often result from these customers engaging with online content.   Obviously lead generation is important, but it’s also important for these leads to be genuine and to be careful that you’re not creating content for the sake of it. Buyers are completing 57% of the decision making process before they even speak to your sales team, making quality of your content becomes even more important.   In a survey of 400 marketers in the B2B world, 82% of them were using content marketing. As the most utilized marketing strategy (far above search engine marketing in second place) it is a ‘given’ practice in the business world. The large take up rate means that your customers expect you to have content. One of the main reasons that it continues to grow with markets is the fact that it not only quantifies genuine lead generation, it does so at a considerably smaller cost for the business. Markets from the same survey were spending less than a third of their marketing budget on content management.   Lead Nurturing Once the customer has contacted your sales department, your content will help maintain the customer/brand relationship. Decide what you want your content strategy to entail, whether you implement more automated content (but be careful about the engagement aspect of this), or attempt a more hands on community management strategy.  The way that content marketing can be incorporated into your strategy is to fully understand the exact information your customer seeks in each of their decision making processes.   By knowing the problems that your customer may be facing, your content design will lend itself to alleviating purchase anxiety, a common issue in the B2B world due to the transactional values involved. When your company gives the business customer information on potential issues, you’ll achieve better success in closing the deals. Again the content is relevant in aiding in problem solving for your business.   Traditionally marketing methods have eroded the concept of trust. It is almost impossible to build a relationship with your customer via these methods. One common example of how this relationship has broken down is the fact public relations efforts are now seen as a ploys. Print, television and radio are noise avenues of advertising messages that probably infuriate receivers rather than engage them.   Content marketing has allowed business brands to create online communities and customers respond favorably to being involved with the brand. The right content offers company a way of transparency because it’s not utilising the predictable efforts of mainstream that your sophisticated buyers may now be immune to. Don’t get us wrong, traditional media will continue to have its place, but providing valuable information to your customer with great content will assist you more with customer relationships.   The maintenance of content that is relevant to your business will also ensure that customers do repeat business. It will help your company by moving the transaction up the ladder. Content marketing can also make partnerships and even joint ventures possible with information that nurtures the relationship process.   Content Related Promotion Because there is so much information online, it is easy for content to get lost on the Web. Therefore by monitoring and consistently promoting your information you can build a stronger relationship building process that is inherently associated with B2B customer acquisition and retention.   Search engine optimization gives you visibility. On search pages when you’re using the right strategy you can high attraction rates. Without the right content behind that search, the probability of converting the sales is low. The search engine optimizing shouldn’t dominate the marketing strategy because it’s not going to keep business customers around for long. What will keep them with you is your content. SEO should be a supporting effort to content marketing. Once in place it will create a cycle of repeat business back to your site.   Promoting across a multitude of media (video for example is an impressive and highly effective medium for you to visually stimulate customers) gives your business greater visibility. This diversification will also assist linking strategies to other vested parties, not just sale targets.   When it comes to marketing in modern day business, we’re faced with new set of challenges as the digital age rolls on. No longer does one size fit all in the marketing world. Your content management should be a key area to adapting to these changes. It will also continue to drive customer acquisition and maintenance to give you success in the B2B environment.  

  Once you are able to answer these questions you will be all set to scale your social media marketing strategy to size! For more detailed information, please click here.  

***These and more stats can be found via DigiDay.   Video storytelling is becoming the advertiser’s dream with everything from YouTube videos to the shorter Vine and Instagram Video destinations which all act as a persuasive brand medium.  While commercials have always been a way to reach people, as the consumer audience is increasingly moving towards mobile and online and away from traditional television viewing, these outlets allow these target audience members to be reached in a more personally engaging way.   By optimizing your content for the most platforms and mediums possible, you are increasing your changes of appeal to audiences through variety and pure volume.  Dynamic content grows audiences, which is why visuals are an important element of content marketing.  Even when incorporating blogs into your strategy accompanying them with images, and ultimately infographics that help summarize the blog’s material, can help keep a reader’s attention.  Strong text content connects audiences to brands through a more conversational outlet, while the visuals help keep their attention once you’ve reeled them in.  Ensure that you don’t miss out on this next wave of marketing, and cover your bases with written, static images, and animated visual content. By Jess Spar

“Your call is important to us, please continue to hold.” 30 minutes later, now conscious of your phone bill at the end of the month and fists clenched you are put through to a customer service agent only to be told you’ve come through to the wrong department.   This is an all too familiar scenario for many across the world trying to get assistance or vent their frustration with a product/service which just isn’t doing what it is supposed to do. There is good news however, for those of you with high blood pressure, social media is becoming the fastest and most direct way to get your consumer issues heard by the right people. 30% of big brands now have customer service on Twitter. For those angry consumers this allows them a short cut to the decision makers and people responsible for the image of the company. There is a sense of customer empowerment in this switch away from traditional customers as they know they are airing their grievances on a public platform and the response they receive will be seen money.   For companies utilizing social media for customer service purposes, inaction is not an option. If they get it right, not only will customers continue to buy from them (and buy more and more often) they’ll become advocates for their brand. More than this, they’ll achieve this while actually spending less on service and support.   While Twitter has been making huge in-roads into social customer service for many years the big player within social customer service is still Facebook. The importance of Facebook cannot be underestimated. A whopping 80% of US social media users preferred to contact brands through Facebook. The billion user behemoth is still the undisputed king in terms of social media customer service.   At Social2B we looked at customer service on Twitter in 2011. Two years down the line and what changes can be seen in this evolving sector within social media?   24/7 customer service: Admittedly this is not something that all brands can manage as it requires a large commitment but it’s something that for multinational companies, such as airlines who operate services 24 hours will need to be considered.   Faster Response rates: As the number of social media users increase and the speed of a brand’s response can be seen by millions, fast responses are perhaps the most challenging feature of social customer service. On Facebook for example, SocialBakers this year found that of the major brands surveyed, response times had increased 143% year on year! Businesses are definitely sitting up and taking notice of the importance of social media customer support.   Greater Engagement Levels- The switch to social media customer service is now in full flow with 85% more questions being asked to brands on Facebook in the SocialBakers survey than were asked in 2012. Customers have really bought into the notion of social customer service and this number is set to increase throughout this year.   Multi-Channel Customer Care- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ are amongst some of the channels being used by companies for customer support.   New Developments in Social Media Post Tracking: Earshot has recently unveiled a social media consumer relationship management tool that allows social media departments to observe Facebook posts, Instagram pictures or tweets in the nearby area that are about their brand. It all sounds very CIA but this development should assist brands in responding to customers while they are using their goods or services. Imagine being in Macy’s and tweeting about it only for Macy’s to then tweet you back with current promotions and recommendations! Expect more developments online CRM.   Companies have long since realized that social media is an integral part to their marketing activities. Now more than ever it can be said that customer service is truly going social.   Source: Clickipedia   By Sam Shedden    

  Whatever your opinions on the US government shutdown- and there are many- we can see the extent to which social media has taken on an important role in information sharing and assimilation. Social Media outlets such as Twitter are helping people to express themselves and get involved in current affairs which can be a positive thing for any democratic society. Government officials are able to monitor and gauge public opinion and analyze what’s trending within public opinion. We are soon to be living in a hashtag democracy.   By Sam Shedden

Earlier in 2013, Facebook jumped on-board the hashtag “#” bandwagon and started supporting hashtags. Facebook was late to the party (I mean #latetotheparty).   Hashtags are a phenomenon started by Twitter in 2009, who introduced them so users could mark keywords or topics in a Tweet.  Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and almost every major social media platform (with the exception of YouTube) are now using hashtags. Hashtags have even managed to make the jump online to traditional forms of advertising like television and print. Rarely an advert is seen now that does not have its own hashtag which consumers are then encouraged to adopt so they can represent their favourite brands on social media.   The “#” formerly known as the pound sign is so commonplace in the social media environment that it has to be considered as a significant tool for any social media marketing campaign. The power of the hashtags is well known to social marketers. Its usage allows brands to identify what is currently trending and to engage with people while promoting their own content simultaneously. When hashtags are used correctly they can extend your reach across the web and bring you swarms of followers to your content but what is the best way to implement them.   Create a Buzz Through Interaction Get some buzz created around your product. Use hashtags to interact with your customers. Ask your followers questions to encourage engagement with your product. The 2012 #MakeItCount campaign from Nike is a perfect example of social media engagement. Nike asked fans what they were doing with their lives to make it count. It generated a lot of buzz on twitter and the promotional video alone has had 9.8m views on YouTube.   Customise Your Hashtag Create a hashtag identifier unique to your brand or product. A bit of creativity will resonate with customers and everyone secretly loves a good slogan. A little bit of humour works well also. K-Mart did this very successfully and recieved thousands of likes and shares with their respective #ShipMyPants and #BigGasSaving campaign.   Hashtag Searches Search for specific terms relevant to your industry, it is the best way to keep up to speed with the developments happening within your market. Investigate the competition to ensure your keeping ahead of them or invest in hastag tracking tools to analyse the data around specific hastag use.   Pair with Popular Tags There’s nothing wrong with piggybacking your hastag onto a trending topic. For example #hashtagstats would link with #analytics or #socialmedia. Picking pairs that have a clear connection will allow your hastag to have maximum impact.   Offer Incentives Online audiences are a demanding bunch. If you want them to re-tweet your posts and help with your marketing activities you may have to give them something. Providing your customers with incentives in the form of discounts based on how many re-tweets you receive or a competition prize offered to the person who comes up with an idea for your brand is a very effective strategy.   However as with any social media strategy there is always the possibility that things might not turn out exactly how you wanted which can lead to embarrassing situations #Fail. Try to avoid breaching hashtag etiquette. Stringing too many words together in one hashtag well not go down well with unforgiving tweeters nor will jumping on a trend with absolutely no relevance to your post (see #Fail).   It costs nothing to start a basic hashtag campaign so why not give it a go. Just remember to keep it concise, relevant and have a strategy. Lastly try to keep the hashtags on the screen, don’t be that person who uses hashtags in normal speech.     By Sam Shedden    

  Can Legal Systems Around the World Keep up with Social Media? What happens on social media is important. In 2013 72% of US adults use social media sites which means there is more adults who use social media than there are people who vote! Social media can influence political discussions, boost ailing businesses and repair or ruin a reputation. The significant impact that social media plays in our day to day lives has not gone unnoticed by legal systems around the world.  Regulating the internet and social media is possibly one of the biggest challenges currently facing the modern democratic legal system.   The basic principles of freedom of speech rightly have remained unchanged, but the way we communicate has changed. We have nearly unlimited access to online content and more ways than ever before to express our view. It has become increasingly easier for people to break the law (intentionally or unintentionally) online.  Defamatory comments, copyright infringements and violations of court orders are sometimes only 140 characters away.   Can the internet be adequately policed? Should it be, or would that steer democratic countries down the dark road of censorship?   Fair Trial There are more lawsuits relating to social media comments emerging each year as the law has started to clamp down on comments. Yes, in democracies we have freedom of speech but that doesn’t mean that an individual can literally say whatever they want to anyone. In previous times comments made around the water cooler stayed around the water cooler. Now we can broadcast our thoughts to thousands of people in an instant.   Let’s avoid complicated legal jargon and keep it simple: Opinions are one thing but stating something as fact (if it’s not) can get you into trouble. If you have a big following and don’t have a rudimentary understanding of defamation law you run the risk of getting SLAPPed with a lawsuit designed to shut you up. Just be careful how you word your posts.   Legal systems are not known for being dynamic, like a SUV on an icy road, they turn slowly. Yet there is need for change to protect the justice system itself as well as online users. In recent years there have been many instances, particularly in the UK and US of jurors being found in contempt of court for using social media. In London for example a juror posted on Facebook his glee at being able to convict an accused paedophile, while in Arkansas a death-row inmate was given a new trial after two jurors had tweeted  their thoughts and opinions about the case. Jury deliberations must always be confidential and can’t be opened up to external influence or it will damage the accused’s right to a fair trial. Clearly new methods to ensure the fairness of a trial need to be adopted. In some cases social media can be used to improve the process. Californian lawyers have actually screened jurors via their Facebook and Twitter pages to determine their neutrality.     Censorship and Freedom of Speech Censorship is not wanted. Social media is a great medium for dispersing ideas and content across the world. I think a general misconception some have is that social media is private speech. Unless you have strict privacy settings it is not.   I don’t think the legal debate surrounding social media needs to be focused on Censorship vs Freedom of Speech. For century’s activists in countries across the world fought -and still fight in some countries- for the right to be able to express their views and for individual citizens to be heard. Social media gives anyone with the access to uncensored internet the chance to express their opinions to a large audience and interact with like-minded people.   The legal systems across the world will need to adapt to protect the fairness of trials and impartiality of jurors. Social networks have enabled us to all become publishers and with that comes the ability to spread positive and negative messages.  As for social media users, particularly professionals, a very basic knowledge of libel and copyright laws would certainly not hurt.   By: Sam Shedden  

Engage 2013, event held by SocialBakers, was a learning experience for all. Expert social media marketers and directors from around the world flew in to New York City to teach those in the digital world the ins and outs about social media marketing. From Australia to England to South Africa, the expert panel gave insights from different national techniques and political views making the marketing world even more intricate.       The Women Extraordinary women from companies around the world came and shared their ups and downs and turned their learning experiences into advice for future references. Here’s a quick synopsis of a handful of the women that gave great advice and raised the bar for future social media marketers:   Katy Phillips (from United States), Senior Analyst of Social Communications from American Airlines, established a 24 hour 7 day a week customer service social media outlet to satisfy inquiries and concerns for almost 700,000 twitter followers. Karen Le (Australia), Head of Social Media of Telstra, confirmed that crowd support and the power of word of mouth is extremely crucial especially in her population of 22 million people where 15 million people have mobile devices. Sam Wilson (South Africa), Digital Editor of Woolworths, explained how she tried to make the best of political turmoil in her native land and how to learn from social media faux pas, especially when they can offend people and ruin a brand reputation. Sabeen Ahmad (New York City), Associate Director of Social Media Strategy for iCrossing, took the topic of the event to a finalized standard; it is not about quantity but engagement with customers: there is content, you have a community, and then you want to amplify your message.   The Men Jan Rezab (from Prague/now in New York) , CEO of SocialBakers, encouraged companies to find help as soon as they found themselves in a crisis (before slowly drowning like Abercrombie & Fitch) and to avoid blasting advertising to blank targets. Yossi Erdman (United Kingdom), Head of Brand and Social Media from Appliances Online, exemplified how humor can reach audiences and the power of positive and negative feedback from customers via social media can help a company morph to the best it can be. Jeremie Moritz (France), Social Media Manager of Pernod Ricard, gave great advice on how to take old fashion rules from a historic company and turn them into ideal social media branding tools for the future. And Matt Cahill (New York), Associate Director of Analytics and Insights for Havas Worldwide, reinforced the need to do what is right for your company, do not follow a trend that works for others, do what works for you and do less of what doesn’t work-plain and simple   Top 3 Suggestions from Engage2013 1. Engagement is Paramount- we’re moving away from the automated telephone customer service to personal phone calls, tweets, and posts. 2. It isn’t always apples to apples- you have to strategize for you own company in order to succeed, don’t necessarily follow the herd. Basically do more of what works and less of what doesn’t (go figure)! 3. Aim for the target- well establish a target, don’t blindly gamble money on social media but aim for a goal and strategize how to get to that goal/audience.   (Courtesy of Twitter #Engage2013)   By: Mary Zawistowski  

Making a soft drink does not take that much money to create; the money goes into the packaging. Red Bull has made their packaging their product. When Red Bull was created, they created the energy drink industry. The closest competitor in energy drinks is Monster, even Coke and Pepsi have tried to come up with their own energy drinks but Red Bull has overpowered them by using outside strategies, staying away from generic branding, and attaching themselves to extreme events. According to Red Bull it seems better to stray away from the group and not play it safe when it comes to marketing. Get involved with ‘crazy’ ideas and see your brand get ‘crazy’ famous.   By Mary Zawistowski  

    It is no exaggeration to say that if you're not social, it's like you're not even there. Social media has become critical in creating a buzz around new products/businesses and marketing in general. Creating a buzz around a new product or service is an integral part of any online marketing campaign. The aim of buzz marketing is to get people talking about your brand by raising awareness of your business in exciting and engaging ways. If you can get enough of the right people onboard then they will act as brand advocates and influence others to check out or purchase your product. It’s estimated that a staggering 80% of our purchasing decisions are based on recommendations! There are a number of techniques the savvy online marketer can deploy to create that all important buzz that will have customers and prospects swarming round their product.   “What’s In it For Me?” Online shoppers are a shrewd bunch. As soon as we open our web browser there is a seemingly unlimited amount of information available to us and oodles of companies trying to grab our attention towards their products. With all that choice attention spans are mercilessly short and you’re going to have to provide an incentive for some people to promote your brand. Social media competitions are a great way to do this and prove to be popular. One third of all global consumers surveyed in a recent poll entered a brand or product sponsored contest in the last month. Chips maker Lay’s designed a great campaign around the creation of a new flavour. Their “Do us a flavour” app had over 740,000 users trying to design the new flavour. Avoid “The 100th person to retweet this wins…” it’s a dull approach to competitions and bit of a Twitter no-no. Be creative.   Blogs OK I realize it is a bit self-indulgent for the author of a blog to recommend blogs. But if you don’t believe me about the value of the blog then look at the big boys: 34% of the Fortune 500 companies have a public facing blog and the number using blogs has increased year upon year. Blogs are simple to start up and you will be surprised and how many people will read them and the buzz they can generate. Playstation.Blog is an excellent example of a corporate blog where game developers invite feedback from fans as they construct games. The developers get some great insight and the fans feel part of the creative process.   Interaction Creates Attraction As cheesy as that sub-heading may be, (I love a rhyme) interaction with users is arguably one of the most important parts of generating buzz and attracting more interest in your brand. Invite comment on your posts, ask for feedback on your product, join groups, upload videos of the product in action and engage with your followers whether that be on Twitter, Facebook or any other social platform. Once meaningful conversation gets going and more people become involved that is when a real buzz will start to centre on your product.   Influence the Influencers This is a becoming a big trend particularly on Twitter. If you can get someone influential- an industry expert, journalist or if you’re really lucky Justin Bieber- to endorse your product this will help greatly in building that buzz around your event/product. These influencers often have thousands of followers and can greatly increase awareness of your product. Don’t forget about Joe Bloggs your brand advocate though, they are just as important as the influencers. When creating a buzz through social media around anything be it an event, new product launch, or a business launch it’s vital to remember you are building an online community centered on your product/business. It’s that community which will propagate your marketing efforts and ultimately the social media community who will create the buzz for you, summarized neatly with 4 C’s: “Customers, Conversations, Community, and Commitment.”   By Sam Shedden

But before we look ahead it’s important to recognise the scale of content marketing activities in 2013. WebDAM found that last year “78% of CMO’s think custom content marketing is the future of marketing” and by the end of 2013 “50% of all companies have content marketing strategies”. If we look specifically at B2C marketers, 86% now use content marketing (Content Marketing Institute)!  So what does 2014 have in store for content marketing? What predictions can we make?   Defining Content Marketing Marketing blogger and Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers believes that for some marketers (including those who currently utilize content marketing as part of their marketing strategy) content marketing remains a somewhat ambiguous concept that still requires a recognised definition.  In 2014 marketers will be able to “explain what content marketing is and how it aligns with their larger business goals.”   Going Mobile With desktop computer usage in decline we are switching to mobile devices like tablets and smart phones to access the internet. In 2014 we can expect to see a greater drive towards mobile friendly content. Search engines already position non –mobile friendly sites lower down their result pages. Mobile friendly content will be a necessity.   User Interface “Don't let brilliant content and amazing design be undone by a poor interface” says Neal Anderson, Digital Director of London based marketing firm in an interview with The Guardian. The term “quality not quantity” is not a new phrase associated with content marketing, but in 2014 as the volume of content increases this will ring truer than ever before. Expect to see more focus on the user experience as a way to differentiate your content from the rest.   Content Consumption Analysis OK so we all know quality is essential in content marketing but how do you know if you’re really producing content that’s engaging your audience? It can be tricky enough for content marketers to create content that engages with their audience but on top of that challenge they must also figure out which tactics give them the best return. Content analytics are vital for marketers to understand the effectiveness of their content and to adequately understand their audience.  In 2014 gathering information from content consumption will increase in importance. Econsultancy believes in 2014 tracking content consumption habits will tell marketers a lot more about ourselves than relying only on “historic demographic, transactional or social data”.   Emerging Digital Platforms This year there has been a huge rise in the use of visual content. Short-form media like Vine, Instagram and Snapchat have become popular with marketers and these emerging platforms will continue to grow in importance in 2014 as marketers seek to hold the ever-shortening attention span of customers and prospects. Digital marketers will need to understand the changing distributions platforms of the New Year. Previous methods of content marketing revolved around using “destination sites” as the hub for your content. The new model will be based on integrated, distributed content across earned, owned and paid platforms.   Roll on 2014! It’s a great time to be a content creator. In 2014 we will see a comprehensive shift from single channel to multi-channel media experiences and brands will need to respond to this shift by having content across multiple platforms. Next year content marketing is going to be bigger and better, expect to see a greater increase in video content and heavier investment from big brands. Make sure you’re ready for 2014; create strategies for the effective distribution of your content now.   By Sam Shedden

    Gamification as a Driver   As the infographic above shows, gamification drives other site actions that facilitate user engagement and brand awareness. Therefore, businesses seeking the most ROI for their gamification efforts need to invest in a solution that incorporates loyalty-building game elements with social plugins that act as catalysts for nurturing consumer engagement.   Looking for more on Gamification? For a step-by-step guide on how to leverage gamification to positively impact ROI, download the free white paper, 5 Keys to Winning with Gamification.   Emma Tzeng (@emmatzeng) runs content strategy and production at Gigya. When she isn't blogging, she can be found hiking the hills of San Francisco, eating an inordinate amount of ice cream, or documenting her travels. She can be reached at [email protected].  

  Michelle Smith is a freelance writer with a focus on technology and social media. She can be found typing away on her laptop in Boca Raton, Florida. Michelle welcomes your feedback