infoboom

July, 2010Leslie Reiser

IBM GB Digital Marketing

Agenda• Overview• Background • Infoboom Experience• Benefits• How to participate• Next steps• Appendix

• An objective, social networking community, targeted to the unique needs of the IT profession community from midsized businesses

• A forum for dialog and discussion on relevant topics and trends affecting midsized businesses

• Connects customers to:• Each other• IBM• Business Partners • Industry experts• External bloggers with international reach and following

infoboom – www.theinfoboom.com

Insights from the IBM Midmarket Advisory council included:– Limited access to peers and other CIOs – feeling of being

disconnected– Want access to a deep level of IBM knowledge base, subject

matter experts and thought leadership to help them with strategy, planning, and other aspects of their job

– Need a ‘safe place’ to network with their peers, trusted advisors, IBM and non-IBM experts, and BPs

– Want a seat at the strategic decision making table within their companies

Additional sources of insight include:• Forrester• Gartner• AMI: quantitative data analysis• IBM CIO research• MM Advisory Network reports

• Interviews with and analysis of existing

relevant IBM programs

Extensive Research Was Conducted

Field and research insights indicate mid-market IT leaders want: • A more influential role in strategic decision-making

– A ‘seat at the table for C-level’ business/ IT issues

– Better communication of IT decisions to business audience • Help in distilling the issues “that matter”• Industry, expert and peer connections around content and key issues• Objective insight from IBM without being “sold to”

New version has greater focus on:• Supplementing contributors with relevant, partner bloggers

• Introducing a range of engagement options: polls à contributing thought leadership

• Leveraging existing social networks to lower barriers to registration: registration integrated with

LinkedIn registration

• More engaging interface to showcase range of sources and engagement options

Background

Live in 8 countries:• US/CA, UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, India, Singapore, Australia and New

Zealand• China – Summer delivery• Evaluating Germany, Spain and 6 Spanish speaking South American countries

infoboom Experience Live!

Shared Insights

• Need to find IMMEDIATE value – or they won’t engage

• Adept at avoiding advertising and marketing

• Want the participation of brands in a transparent, objective way

• Want to engage with experts and peers – around issues and content

• Heavy users of LinkedIn, Twitter; high index against rich formats like video

Deliver an experience that is relevant to a greater range of IT roles…

Target Group & Universe

Aspirational CIOs395,200

IT Professional774,800

Goals

Influence strategy & key decisions

Increase active involvement in strategy

Earn a seat in C-level decisions

CIO65,000

Target Audience: Overview

Structure designed to deepen participation by offering a greater range of engagement options; low barriers to entry (single sign-on registration) and incentives of exposure (“social currency”) will help ensure success

Opportunities for Engagement

• Join/ follow on social network• Subscribe to RSS• Poll/ voting

• Comment• Participate in Q&A, webinar• Text POV

• Host Q&A, webinar• Submit Powerpoint/ images/ content• Provide audio POV• Provide video POV

Content “Consumers” Lowest Barrier to Entry

Content “Creators” Community Sustains

Conversation

Levels of Engagement

Deepening Engagement

1. PAID MEDIA Driving Awareness

and Traffic

Email

3. SOCIAL NETWORKSDriving Awareness and Traffic

Banner Ads

IBM.com

Ibm.com/engines

11,530 followers

430,000 followers

12,043 followers

1,153,784 followers

10,564 followers

33,188followers

23,750 followers

20,000 followers

57,000 fans

123,432 members

45,563 members

38,586 members

30,506 members

infoBOOM Experience

Print

Search

2. INTEGRATIONChannels and

Campaigns

Strategies to Increase IBM Midmarket’s Social Media Presence1. Paid media2. Channel/Campaign Integration3. Highly Influential Blogger Outreach

infoboom homepage

• Supports registration via LinkedIn• Navigation structure is topic-based:

• Social Media, Business Analytics, Data Security and Risk Management, Green IT, Information Governance and Virtualization/Cloud Computing/SOA

• Showcases range of social activity from a range of sources

Social Media Article Page

• Article pages support each of the content elements and offer another opportunity to participate and receive the collective insight of the community.

• Contributors’ content will be referenced (i.e. “more from Dan”) and profile information will be persistent

Benefitsinfoboom will help you find out what is really on the mind of your customers and prospects and

help you make those connections.

Benefits for Business Partners• Demonstrate yours and IBM’s commitment to midsize businesses• Build your personal digital eminence and that of your firms• Extend your reach• Initiate and nurture relationships with clients and prospects through online discussions and

community features• Utilize the network as the first phase in your sales cycle • Showcase your expertise as a regular contributor on infoboom

Benefits for Clients• Access to peers, experts and thought leadership• Learn from peers: leverage best practices and avoid pitfalls• Showcase expertise and innovative leadership as a regular contributor

Get Engaged• Spread the word to your client base• Submit expert content• Promote and ross link from your web sites and demand generation activities• Join the conversation

Business Partner Group: Getting Started

There are three primary ways for Business Partners to get involved:

1. Promote: Help drive awareness of the experience as a valuable tool among your customers

2. Participate: Contribute perspective and interact with SMEs and community members

3. Become a content contributor: Provide your expertise in a dynamic, engaging forum to showcase your firm’s expertise and drive opportunities

We welcome your involvement in all three ways!

• The transparency and authenticity that social media provides can be a strong benefit for IBM experts and Business Partners/ISVs

• Infoboom provides an excellent way to showcase your firm’s unique expertise and offering portfolio through a meaningful dialogue that will resonate with customers

• With some guidance and this structured program, deeper connections can be made with valuable audiences

• We’re looking forward to your contribution to make this effort a success……

Marketing ideas to leverage and promote infoboomIf you’re planning: Consider the following: Reference Material

Demand Generation Activity 1. Promote infoboom via external e-mail and e-newsletters

2. Reference active post(s) or subject matter expert (SME) tied to your topic

3. Promote SME post(s) and encourage CIOs and IT Leaders to engage with SME(s) on infoboom - ask questions, share ideas

4. Identify SME(s) to post new content or participate in existing discussions

- See sample email for promotions in backup

Links to infoboom 1. Add infoboom link to your email closing2. Link to infoboom from your website and

landing pages, including event registration pages

3. Add infoboom to banner ads4. Add infoboom link to your LinkedIn profile

– Add the infoboom URL (http://theinfoboom.com/) to your LinkedIn Profile; proposed title: "IBM e-community for IT Leaders"

Sales enablement 1. Educate sellers on value of infoboom2. Ask sellers to add infoboom to their email

signature3. Encourage sellers to set up LinkedIn profile and

add infoboom link that profile4. Arm sellers with email content regarding topics

and experts; ask sellers to send to appropriate clients

- See sample email for promotions in backup

Next Steps

• Familiarize yourself with infoboom• Identify ways to participate• Things to keep in mind:

– infoboom is about thought leadership and branding…. Not marketing– participate in a transparent, objective way– engage with experts and peers – around issues and content

• Integrate infoboom into your co-marketing plans• Evangelize to your customers

Appendix

Current Metrics as of June 21, 2010

• Total membership now stands at 4,848• The average time spent on infoboom is 9.47 minutes (IBM.com = 3.3 minutes) • 26% of our visitors become members, as compared to between 1%-10%

industry average• Members from 87 countries

Sample Email to promote infoboom

Suggested email: Please feel free to customize the email content to suit your needs. Remember to convert links to hypertext.

(Suggested Subject) The IT Community fueled by the voices of midsize businesses

Dear (insert appropriate name)

First, I'd like to thank you for your business with <INSERT COMPANY NAME> and IBM. We admire the thought leadership you’ve demonstrated using our products and solutions and we value being your strategic partners in your innovation plans. On behalf of our team and IBM, thank you.

Because of your innovative leadership, I thought you might like to know about <link: http://theinfoboom.com/> a professional e-community designed for IT leaders of midsize firms. If you haven't already joined, I encourage you to become an infoboomer to access industry experts, IBM experts, expand your network, collaborate with peers and gain IT and business perspectives from across the Web. Several of your peers have been featured experts including:

• Maricel Cabahu, CIO for Yaskawa Electric America, Inc. shared her vision:.” “Our vision is to create a single cohesive, collaborative site where all of our partners can go to learn about a product, trouble-shoot any issues or place an order.” http://www.theinfoboom.com/articles/leapingwith-faithinto-social-networking/

• Dave Corchado, CIO for iCrossing’s global information technology (IT) strategy states that “A downturn presents an excellent opportunity for an organization to look inward, and shift focus back to the fundamentals.” http://www.theinfoboom.com/articles/focusing-on-fundamentals/

• Barbara Pernici is full professor of Computer Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, described how “management of IT processes, systems and data centres has emerged as one of the most critical environmental challenges and new research directions are being taken towards energy efficient management of data centres.“ http://www.theinfoboom.com/articles/energy-efficiency-in-data-centers/

Since May 2009, infoboom has featured over 4 dozen CIOs, IBM experts and analysts willing to share their stories and advice. While you're there, check out the posts on Social Media for IT http://www.theinfoboom.com/?topic=social-media-for-it-leaders, Business Analytics http://www.theinfoboom.com/?topic=business-analytics, Data Security and Risk Management http://www.theinfoboom.com/?topic=data-security-and-risk-management, Information Governance http://www.theinfoboom.com/?topic=information-governance, Green IT http://www.theinfoboom.com/?topic=green-it and Virtualization/Cloud Computing/SOA http://www.theinfoboom.com/?topic=virtualization-cloud-computing-soa.

I look forward to seeing you on infoboom

Sincerely,XXXXXXXXXX