Social Media Marketing for B-to-B purposes

Social Media Networkingfor B-to-B Purposes

Examination Roll no.: 70059Class Roll No.: 4700

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.

There is no other low-cost promotional method that will as easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again.

But surely, a tool that makes networking so easy and more importantly such fun for the people to engage must be a potent force for leveraging one’s business whether or not the business necessarily involves the medium itself?

Nimit Kathuria

Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

University of Delhi

12 April 2010

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgement 3

Introduction 4

Literature Review 5

Key Terms 9

Industry Speak:Dialogue with Industry experts

Abhimanyu Shankhdhar, 141 Sercon Kapil Gupta, OM Logic Saurabh Parmar, Drizzlin Social Media Ankur Suri, 20:20 Social Media

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16 17 18 19

Brief case studies

Vaibhav Kanwal 141 Sercon nSys Inc. WebChutney

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20 20 20 21

Questionnaire Analysis 22

Conclusion 33

Appendices

1 Synopsis2 Questionnaire3 Additional Readings

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34 36 44

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Acknowledgments

This project would not have been possible without the help and support of, first and foremost, my supervisor, Ms. Anuja Mathur. Her expertise, suggestions and constructive criticism coupled with her calm attitude sailed the project through on time.

I am also grateful to the respondents who took out time to carefully answer each question.

Even more time was spent by the following industry experts in exploring the ideas back and forth and giving invaluable inputs: Abhimnayu Shankhdhar, Manager of Operations for Digital Media in 141 Sercon; Kapil Gupta, Robin Goel and Millie Khanna of OM Logic; Saurabh Parmar, Campaign Strategist, Drizzlin Social Media; Ankur Suri, of 20:20 Social Media.

nSys Design Systems Private Limited, where I interned for a brief time are responsible for lighting the initial curiosity in me about the B-to-B space in social media.

Dobney.com is responsible for guiding me towards the right questionnaire with their invaluable tips and suggestions.

But above all, this has been possible due to my family who put up with my demands while I was busy working on this.

Nimit KathuriaBBS III Marketing

Examination Roll No. 70059Class Roll No. 4700

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Introduction

Pepsi recently announced the decision to no longer spend $ 20 million spent on advertising each year during Superbowl, the IPL equivalent of USA (just bigger). Pepsi has been the brand associated with iconic campaigns during the Superbowl for the last 17 years. What happened? They saw more sense in spending the same money on social media campaign.

Gaurav Mohan, owner/manager of the event management company Eventwallah feels social media marketing is the cheapest way to reach out to potential businesses and consumers alike and he takes on the role seamlessly updating not just the list of events on his page but also all that he feels is remotely connected to what his community will like. Naturally, he thinks Social Media Marketing (SMM) is the cheapest way of marketing around today.

Rewind 10 years: try telling a marketer that in recent future two companies from diametrically opposite situations would be on the same pedestal, at least theoretically, and chances are you would be laughed at.

But the above two cases prove just that.

Kapil Gupta, from OM Logic, a social media consultancy scoffs at the idea that social media marketing is cheap. “There are a very few companies who know how to leverage social media properly and we charge premium prices for it”. Andy Johnson, of Think Consultancy thinks likewise. “It does not make sense for you to go into social media marketing unless you are sure you can have a dedicated team working on it 24/7”, he wrote in an email exchange.

The better way to put it would be that it is not cheap or easy to engage in SMM after an inflection point, but there’s nothing more immediate or faster than SMM to start off with.

Although, mostly it has only been tried in B-to-C scenarios, more and more companies are discovering it to be a potent tool for B-to-B scenarios too. This paper is an attempt to look into that space.

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Literature Review

Let us forget that we are talking about “social media” networking/marketing for a few minutes. What did networking mean in the Web 2.0 BC? You met a person, the CEO, the sales rep, you exchanged a few words, exchanged contact details, maybe made plans to have lunch at club on Sunday or play golf. You never forgot to send a Diwali/New Year/Christmas greeting. You made it a point to keep in touch. You called it networking.

William C. Byham, chairman and CEO of management-consulting firm Development Dimensions International, writes in Harvard Business Review that “networking is the best way to acquire crucial information about the job and succeed early. Otherwise, you might lack the facts needed for an important proposal, for example or might bring up a smart “new” idea that has failed in the past.

“As horizontal relationships become just as vital as vertical ones in global organizations and companies change direction ever more frequently, it’s critical to maintain a good network of contacts. Time spent in the early days building a network will save time down the road when you’re trying to solve problems, leverage success, and achieve success.”

Enter Web 2.0: all this and more at the touch of the button, on the move, while relaxing, 24/7. You are networking. This is not to say that social media can or should replace face-to-face interaction, but more aptly, that it can complement it rather beautifully.

In the April issue of HBR, Umar Haique, Director of the Havas Media Lab and founder ofBubblegeneration, an agenda-setting advisory boutique that shaped strategies across media and consumer industries, had the following to say:

Marshall McLuhan once famously said, “The medium is the message.” Here’s what he meant:

“The ‘message’ of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.”

Today, the meaning is the message. The “message” of the Internet’s social revolution is more meaningful work, economics, politics, society, and organization. It promises radically more meaning: to make stuff matter, once again, in human terms, not just financial ones.

And that’s never mattered more. Industrial era business was “meaningless” because it was antisocial. Here’s how the DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition) defines antisocial personality disorder:

“...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.”

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It fits most organizations to a T — from Wall Street to Detroit to Big Pharma to Big Food to Big Energy. Our research suggests that 95% of organizations are unable to offer socially useful stuff that creates meaningful value for people, communities, and tomorrow’s generations.

Yet, most “social media” strategies have one or more of three goals: to “push product,” “build buzz,” or “engage consumers.” None of these lives up to the Internet’s promise of meaning. They’re just slightly cleverer ways to sell more of the same old junk. But the great challenge of the 21st century is making stuff radically better in the first place — stuff that creates what I’ve been calling thicker value.

Organizations don’t need “social media” strategies. They need social strategies: strategies that turn antisocial behavior on its head to maximize meaning. The right end of social tools is to help organizations stop being antisocial. In fact, it’s the key to advantage in the 2010s and beyond.

Here are seven social strategies that are turning yesterday’s zombieconomy upside down. They’re what I look for when evaluating investments, innovations, and ideas across the social mediascape.

Character. Most organizations have no character, in the traditional sense of the word. They’ll never stand up for what’s right, noble, or true. If they were a hyper-Dickens character, they’d be Ebenezer Scrooge squared. The character strategy utilizes social tools to help an organizations develop a moral compass, often via ethical accelerators. One of my favorite examples is Gwilym Davies’ disloyalty card, which rewards coffee-drinkers for trying out other local cafés. Now that’s a coffeeshop with character.

Control. Most organizations are run by bosses. By contrast, an organization with a social control strategy radically decentralizes decision-making, giving the control that was formerly vested in echelons upon echelons of managers directly to people, communities, and society. Think Threadless, whose corporate anarchy is upsetting the tired, increasingly profitless clothes market.

Creativity. Most organizations are, from an economic perspective, brain-dead: theyare unable to come up with newer, better ideas consistently and reliably. The result is that they defend old ones tooth and nail: a formidable source of antisocial behavior. The creativity strategy hinges on utilizing social tools to explode how imaginative organizations are. Lego’s social approach to toy production and consumption—textbook awesomeness — has turned the table on its rivals, by giving Lego the capacity to be more imaginative than they can be.

Culture. Culture is how an organization makes sense of the world, a set of assumptions internalized by all its members. Most organizations are the cultural equivalent of stone age

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tribes: focused on “the hunt,” “the kill,” and what’s for dinner today. Like stone age tribes, they’re fractious, unproductive, and easily broken. In the culture strategy, social tools are used to help an organization make better sense of the world. Accountability, roles, tasks, processes, incentives—that’s what shapes culture, and in the culture strategy, social tools are utilized to reconceive them. Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Index is a radical example of a culture-changer, altering all of the above, helping Wal-Mart’s entire ecosystem make sense of the world anew.

Clarity. The clarity strategy is perhaps the simplest. Most organizations are flying blind: they have limited visibility about changes in the marketplace. Social tools are a powerful way to gain clarity: better, faster information about what’s happening not just in the boardroom, but in the real world. My favorite example of clarity is Google’s rapid, frequent, consistent experimentation. Because of it, Google always has more clarity about what really creates meaningful value—and what really doesn’t— than rivals.

Cohesion. Relationship inflation is the most visible sign of social media decay. The cohesion strategy says: in relationships, seek quality, not quantity. One of my favorite recent examples of cohesion is “Tummling” — the art of social engagement. It’s a form of moderation pioneered by Heather Gold, Deb Schultz, and Kevin Marks. The Tummler’s job, Kevin says, is “setting the tone and establishing the norm,” deciding who speaks where and when, summarizing, and synthesizing. The goal of Tummling is to help dialogue happen—and make relationships not merely inflate, but cohere, thicken, blossom, and mature.

Choreography. Most organizations seek “high performance.” Today, performance is no longer enough: excelling in yesterday’s terms is excelling at the wrong thingsThis is downright self-destructive (just ask Wall Street). Today’s radical innovators aren’t merely mute performers, precisely executing the empty steps of a meaningless dance: they’re more like choreographers. Choreographers define the steps of a better dance — they lay down better rules for interactions between supply and demand to take place. Yelp’s getting its choreography wrong, failing to build a better dialogue between buyers and sellers (instead of just isolated, drive-by “reviews”). Etsy’s still on the brink of greatness, pioneering highly productive relationships between buyers and sellers. My favorite example is M-Pesa, which lays down a new choreography finance: from person to person, instead of bank to bank.

Using the social to “build buzz” and “push product” is about as smart as using a warp drive to visit your local Wal-Mart. Social tools today are used mostly as a new “channel” to push the same old useless stuff of the industrial era at hapless “consumers.” That’s meaninglessness at it’s finest. It’s the least productive — and most soul-deadening — use of a formidably powerful tool.

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Social media strategy fits inside a marketing (business, corporate) strategy, and isshaped by it. Social strategy fits outside business and corporate strategies, and shapes them. Social strategies are about rewriting the logic of the industrial era entirely, shifting gears in how we think, envisioning a broader, more powerful, more challenging use of social tools. They are about developing the capacity to understand an organization’s role in society, and how to play a more constructive one, wielding sociality as a source of advantage — by acting radically more meaningfully than rivals.

Social strategies are about reinventing tomorrow. Their goal is nothing less than changing the DNA of an organization, ecosystem, or industry. Want to get radical? Stop applying 20th century principles (“product,” “buzz,” “loyalty”) to 21st century media. The fundamental change of scale and pace that social tools introduce into human affairs — their great tectonic shift — is the promise of more meaningful work, stuff, and organization. Start with “the meaning is the message” instead.

Key Terms:

1. Facebook:

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Since September 2006, anyone over the age of 12 with a valid eFacebook user. Facebook's target audience is more for an adult demographic than a youth demographic. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by workplace, school, or college.

Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information and other personal information. Communicating with friends and other users can be done through private or public messages or a chat feature. Users cansome of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising. To allay concerns about privacy, Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see what parts of their profile.

The website is free to users and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads. By default, the viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same network and "reasonable community limitations".

2. Twitter:

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are textthe author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribersSenders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Since late 2009, users can follow lists of authors instead of following individual authors. All users can send and receive twe

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Since September 2006, anyone over the age of 12 with a valid e-mail address can become a

arget audience is more for an adult demographic than a youth demographic. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by

Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information and other personal information. Communicating with friends and other users can be done through private or public messages or a chat feature. Users can also create and join interest and fan groups, some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising. To allay concerns about privacy, Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who

profile.

The website is free to users and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads. By default, the viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same network and "reasonable community limitations".

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Since late 2009, users can follow lists of authors instead of following individual authors. All users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or

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Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. mail address can become a

arget audience is more for an adult demographic than a youth demographic. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by

Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information and other personal information. Communicating with friends and other users can be done through private

also create and join interest and fan groups, some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising. To allay concerns about privacy, Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who

The website is free to users and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads. By default, the viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same network and

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on

who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Since late 2009, users can follow lists of authors instead of following individual authors. All

ets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or

external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gainedworldwide. It is sometimes described as "SMS of the Internet." The use of Twitter's application programming interface for sending and receiving text messages by other applications often eclipses direct use of Twitter.

What we have to do is deliver to people the best and freshest most relevant information possible. We think of Twitter as it's not a social network, but it's an information network. It tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world. —Evan Williams

Wikipedia notes the following usages of Twitter:

Use in campaigning Use in legal proceedings Use in education Use in emergencies Use in protest and politics Use in public relations Use in reporting dissent Use in space mission news Used to survey opinion Use in business Use in fund raising Use in prank

external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. It is sometimes described as "SMS of the Internet." The use of Twitter's application programming interface for sending and receiving text messages by other applications often

e have to do is deliver to people the best and freshest most relevant information possible. We think of Twitter as it's not a social network, but it's an information network. It tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world.

Wikipedia notes the following usages of Twitter:

Use in protest and politics

Use in space mission news

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external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS

notability and popularity worldwide. It is sometimes described as "SMS of the Internet." The use of Twitter's application programming interface for sending and receiving text messages by other applications often

e have to do is deliver to people the best and freshest most relevant information possible. We think of Twitter as it's not a social network, but it's an information network. It tells

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3. LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 11 February 2010 (2010 -02-11), LinkedIn had more than 60 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

Membership

LinkedIn has more than 60 million users worldwide, of which approximately half are in the United States. 11 million are from Europe. With 3 million users, India is the fastest-growing country as of 2009. The Netherlands has the highest adoption rate per capita at 30%.

Features

The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual, trusted contact.

It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.

Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates. Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their

existing contacts can introduce them.

The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either a preexisting relationship, or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participates in EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.

LinkedIn also allows users to research companies with which they may be interested in working. When typing the name of a given company in the search box, statistics about the company are provided. These may include the ratio of female to male employees, the percentage of the most common titles/positions held within the company, the location of the company's headquarters and offices, or a list of present, past, and former employees.

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The feature LinkedIn Answers allows users to ask questions for the community to answer. This feature is free and the main differences from the latter two services are that questions are potentially more business-oriented, and the identity of the people asking and answering questions is known.

4. YouTube:

YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google. The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, the BBC, UMG and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.

Social impact

Before the launch of YouTube in 2005, there were few easy methods available for ordinary computer users who wanted to post videos online. With its simple interface, YouTube made it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to post a video that a worldwide audience could watch within a few minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned video sharing into one of the most important parts of Internet culture.

An early example of the social impact of YouTube was the success of the Bus Uncle video in 2006. It shows a heated conversation between a youth and an older man on a bus in Hong Kong, and was discussed widely in the mainstream media. Another YouTube video to receive extensive coverage is guitar, which features a performance of Pachelbel's Canon on an electric guitar. The name of the performer is not given in the video, and after it received millions of views The New York Times revealed the identity of the guitarist as Jeong-Hyun Lim, a 23-year-old from South Korea who had recorded the track in his bedroom.

YouTube was awarded a 2008 George Foster Peabody Award and cited for being "a 'Speakers' Corner' that both embodies and promotes democracy."Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Providing a safe home for piano-playing cats, celeb goof-ups, and overzealous lip-synchers since 2005."

5. Blog:

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A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

6. Corporate Blog:

A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads.Although there are many different types of corporate blogs, most can be categorized as either external or internal.

Internal Blogs

An internal blog, generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view. Many blogs are also communal, allowing anyone to post to them. The informal nature of blogs may encourage:

employee participation free discussion of issuescollective intelligence direct communication between various layers of an organization a sense of community

Internal blogs may be used in lieu of meetings and e-mail discussions, and can be especially useful when the people involved are in different locations, or have conflicting schedules. Blogs may also allow individuals who otherwise would not have been aware of or invited to participate in a discussion to contribute their expertise.

External Blogs

An external blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services (or the end of old products), to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues. It also allows a window to the company culture and is often treated more informally than traditional press releases, though a corporate blog often tries to accomplish similar goals as press releases do. In some corporate blogs, all posts go through a review before they're posted. Some corporate blogs, but not all, allow comments to be made to the posts.

External corporate blogs, by their very nature, are biased, though they can also offer a more honest and direct view than traditional communication channels. Nevertheless, they remain public relations tools.

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Certain corporate blogs have a very high number of subscribers. The official Google Blog is currently in the Technorati top 50 listing among all blogs worldwide.

Marketers might expect to have product evangelists or influencers among the audience of an external blog. Once they find them, they may treat them like VIPs, asking them for feedback on exclusive previews, product testing, marketing plans, customer services audits, etc.

The business blog can provide additional value by adding a level of credibility that is often unobtainable from a standard corporate site. The informality and increased timeliness of information posted to blogs assists with increasing transparency and accessibility in the corporate image. Business blogs can interact with a target market on a more personal level while building link credibility that can ultimately be tied back to the corporate site.

CEO Blogs

Although there are debates on whether CEOs should blog or not,blogging among CEOs is becoming popular.

7. Corporate website:

A corporate website or corporate site is an informational website operated by a business or other private enterprises.

Corporate sites differ from electronic commerce, portal, or sites in that they provide information to the public about the company rather than transacting business or providing other services. The phrase is a term of art referring to the purpose of the site rather than its design or specific features, or the nature, market sector, or business structure of the site operator.

Nearly every company that interacts with the public has a corporate site or else integrates the same features into its other websites. Large companies typically maintain a single umbrella corporate site for all of their various brands and subsidiaries.

8. Wikipedia:

Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia's 15 million articles (3.2 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site.

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Although the policies of the Wikipedia strongly espouse verifiability and a neutral point of view, critics of Wikipedia accuse it of systemic bias and inconsistencies (including undue weight given to popular culture), and allege that it favors consensus over credentials in its editorial process. Its reliability and accuracy are also targeted. Other criticisms center on its susceptibility to vandalism and the addition of spurious or unverified information, though scholarly work suggests that vandalism is generally short-lived, and an investigation in Nature found that the material they compared came close to the level of accuracy of Encyclopedia Britannica and had a similar rate of "serious errors".

Wikipedia's departure from the expert-driven style of the encyclopedia building mode and the large presence of unacademic content have been noted several times. When Time magazine recognized You as its Person of the Year for 2006, acknowledging the accelerating success of online collaboration and interaction by millions of users around the world, it cited Wikipedia as one of several examples of Web 2.0 services, along with YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook. Some noted the importance of Wikipedia not only as an encyclopedic reference but also as a frequently updated news resource because of how quickly articles about recent events appear.

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Industry Speak:

Dialogue with Industry experts

Abhimanyu Shankhdhar, Manager Operations, Digital Media141 Sercon

First a distinction needs to be made between digital marketing techniques (DGM) and Social Media Marketing (SMM). DGM is one-way while SMM uses user-generated content. SMM is advantageous because:

1. Direct response2. Customer approaches you3. Cost-effective4. Right now we have early mover advantage5. Immense exposure (if all the people on Facebook were to be put together on a nation, it

would be the third most populous one) – if you reach a mere 0.1% of those, your work is done.

For SMM you have to first find the target audience.

Discussion forums are a powerful way of keeping yourself at the top. As long as you keep posting good stuff, it is good.

Blogs, in themselves are not a well-paying strategy as is being a part of the bloggers’ network.

LinkedIn: career conscious people come here. One of the top 5 B-to-B sites (others being, in no particular order: Twitter, Orkut, FB and blogs). Discussion boards most popular.

Facebook: you have to engage. That’s the keyword.

Wikipedia: a good amount of controlling is happening. Golden rule #1: every business should have a wiki page.

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Kapil Gupta, OM Logic

Social media is one of the best mechanisms of marketing but it is not cheap. SEO1 is cheap.

It is about expertise in marketing not technology. It’s very complicated.

For B-to-B:

1. Promoting your content2. Participation in forums, blogs – works amazingly well for B-to-B3. Viral

It normally works for large companies. Small companies remain focused on lead generation rather than brand awareness which is what should be the objective.

LinkedIn

Works well for the following features:

Q&ADiscussionAsking questionsRecommendationsNews Articles

Twitter is just great for creating a buzz around any product/concept.

YouTube videos are good. Businesses post videos but first have to ask themselves whether the content interests anyone else other than themselves?

1 Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion.

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Saurabh Parmar,Campaign Strategist, Drizzlin Social Media

B-to-B space is very immature in India.

By definition B-to-B is for one person, whereas this medium is for reaching out to a lot of people at once.

Online presence does not mean SMM.

One good example of B-to-B: AmEx Open Forum directed at SMBs. Generates a lot of discussion, which is the crux of social media.

There is a dichotomy in B-to-B: you target people whereas they think as executives. Constricted as a medium.

LinkedIn: excellent tool to display thought leadership; makes sense only when you have content even time-lagged executives will find interesting. Similarly for SlideShare.

Freelancers can make better use of the medium.

It’s not about the tool at all. A blog can be as effective as your LinkedIn page if the content is good.

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Ankur Suri, 20:20 Social Media

Excerpts from an e-mail exchange:

“Key insights:-

Create a platform for your partners/prospects/clients to connect with you and each other- A community created by you helps you upsell your products/services to your partners/prospects/clients who connect with you.

Help build conversations and connections on such a platform: case-in-point: Dell “Take your own path” for SMB B2B marketing & VISA Small business network.

Create periodic campaigns on the web platform-For existing members to increase their engagement with you; and for recruiting and engaging new members.

Remember: Social media is always about creating conversations, and not selling your products/services. The sale is the end point where you want to lead clients as a company, not the first point of conversation. Soft selling always works better than in-your-face hard-sell.

”

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Brief case studies:

1. Vaibhav Kanwal(freelance web developer)

Vaibhav Kanwal is a 21 year old student of Bachelor of Computer Application in the GGIP University. An unapologetic geek, he started a blog callingallgeeks.com on WordPress platform when he was 18. After nurturing the blog for two years and writing about web related issues, he sold it at a neat profit of $170. Although, the blog wasn’t much of a success, in doing so, he had earned himself a decent following of fellow “geeks”. Not wanting to let go of that following and sensing an opportunity in the then new platform called “Twitter”, he started a profile which ultimately encouraged him to start another blog, this time called programmingkid.com. A conscious move to get away from the “geeky” image to gathering a more mature and professional air, the blog was a bigger success than before. But he understood that blog and the Twitter following in itself (which by the way has reached over 500 people and bots) was not an end in itself. Sensing an opportunity in the outsourcing potential of his natural propensity of web developing, he registered in popular web developing forums like “digitalpoint.com”,“webmastertalk.com”, “labnol.org”, “wordpressforum” where he not only promoted his blog but also started networking with potential clients. He even registered in forums dedicated to freelance designers like him (e-lance, rent-a-coder, guru.com). The result was a bigger success than he had imagined. He started getting offers from across the globe (just the US actually) with offers to create web pages. With a steady income of around $200 a month, he is now considering hiring another person to deal with more clerical coding and spending $100 on advertising. And yes, he is yet to graduate.

2. 141 Sercon

Just a brief example: the head of the parent company Vijay Singh runs a blog with a decent following. It is expected that being at a senior position, there are other people who have come along with him from the same background and have reached similar positions in their respective professions. So, these “other senior people” also follow his blog. One such person turned out to be the current General Manager of India’s leading hospitality chain and got interested in one of the ideas Vijay Singh had written about in the blog. This interest led to an active presentation by the 141 Sercon staff in to how they could solve the chain’s marketing problem, which in turn led to one of the biggest clients Sercon has had.

3. nSys Inc. (semiconductor verification IPs)

nSys Design Systems uses LinkedIn extensively to build relationship with engineers in companies that may be potential clients. With the absence of opportunity of real world networking (majority of the clients being situated in either USA, Israel or Bangalore), that is the best way available to them. Engineers are encouraged to constantly post updates on LinkedIn.

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Industry videos are created to showcase thought leadership in the industry. Webinars are in the fray. This is a strategy that is paying well for the company till now.

4. WebChutney

WebChutney is a web-based creative agency. They run a blog unlike any other. Unlike any other corporate blog, they hardly take themselves seriously. You will never see their Flickr2

page/Facebook page/blog with any posts of any of their team holding forth on web 2.0 activities in an all-serious tone. Instead they only post about the crazy party/outing that they had the weekend before and how much drunk each of them got and what they did after that. At first it may seem like an ill-thought strategy or not a strategy at all. But there is nothing ill-thought about it. There is a lot of serious thought that has gone behind making this. Because, well, it’s not just about that. They have very subtly created caricatures out of their employees so that even a discerning reader gets familiar with the people that populate the company. And not to forget they leave out no opportunity to mention all the awards that they have won. This familiarity with the people and advertising the awards is expected to make one want to be a part. WebChutney has clearly and cleverly sought out their target audience: a) potential clients and b) potential recruits. And their belief is that if any person is going to search for them with any of these two tinted glasses, chances are they will want to associate with such a company.

2 Flickr.com is an image hosting website

Questionnaire Analysis

1. Perception of importance of various websites:

Naturally, mostly everyone perceives their home website to be an by Facebook and “discussion forums”. Although “Facebook” comes in as no surprise, being the modern equivalent of magic lamp on Internet today, “discussion forums” are surprisingly popular. Thought to be passé, they still are one’of any industry. On the other hand, YouTube, thought to be popular scores a low point of 5.8 showing many companies which haven’t adapted to the use of instant video upload yet.

2. Preference of Networking over

A majority of respondents are convinced of the superiority using “networking” over “advertisement”. The reason behind that maybe forthcoming in the following:

8.814.7

8.8

0

5

10

15

20

25

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter YouTube

Perception of importance of various websites:

Naturally, mostly everyone perceives their home website to be an important address followed by Facebook and “discussion forums”. Although “Facebook” comes in as no surprise, being the modern equivalent of magic lamp on Internet today, “discussion forums” are surprisingly popular. Thought to be passé, they still are one’s best options when looking for any niche topic of any industry. On the other hand, YouTube, thought to be popular scores a low point of 5.8 showing many companies which haven’t adapted to the use of instant video upload yet.

Preference of Networking over Advertising

A majority of respondents are convinced of the superiority using “networking” over “advertisement”. The reason behind that maybe forthcoming in the following:

5.8

20.5

8.8 8.85.8

YouTube Home Website

Corporate blog

Blog by the head

of the company

Wikipedia Discussion Forums

Networking

Advertising

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important address followed by Facebook and “discussion forums”. Although “Facebook” comes in as no surprise, being the modern equivalent of magic lamp on Internet today, “discussion forums” are surprisingly

s best options when looking for any niche topic of any industry. On the other hand, YouTube, thought to be popular scores a low point of 5.8 showing many companies which haven’t adapted to the use of instant video upload yet.

A majority of respondents are convinced of the superiority using “networking” over

14.7

3.3

Discussion Forums

Others

Networking

Advertising

3. Perception of cost-effectiveness of Social Media Marketing techniques

The same percentage of respondents feel that social media marketing techniques are cheap, giving an insight into the previous response.

4. Internet as a medium of advertising:

Despite preferring networking over advertisement, an overwhelming majority still does nowant to let go of the “safe” option of advertisement.

effectiveness of Social Media Marketing techniques

percentage of respondents feel that social media marketing techniques are cheap, giving an insight into the previous response.

Internet as a medium of advertising:

Despite preferring networking over advertisement, an overwhelming majority still does nowant to let go of the “safe” option of advertisement.

Cheap

Not cheap

87.5

12.5 Advertise on the Internet

Don't advertise on the Internet

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effectiveness of Social Media Marketing techniques

percentage of respondents feel that social media marketing techniques are cheap,

Despite preferring networking over advertisement, an overwhelming majority still does not

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5. Allocation of marketing budgets by organizations:

The sample organizations show a propensity towards spending more on social media than on other channels, either in terms of time or money:

6. Perception of what exactly constitutes “social media marketing”:

Industry experts firmly maintain, with good reason that “banner advertising” and “email newsletters” are not a part social media marketing; rather part of digital marketing techniques.

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1253

6

Advertising

Conferences

Social media

Others

14.3

14.3

16.6

19

21.4

12

2.4 Banner advertising

Email newsletter

Fan page/community on FB/Orkut

Blog

Updates through micro-blog

Relationship building through LinkedIn etc.

Podcasts

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That, however does not stop almost one-third of the respondents to mark these as part of SMM.

7. What is sought through the SMM techniques:

Opinion on this front is fairly divided with a tilt towards those who are in it for merely building brand awareness rather than any palpable orders.

8. Sources of learning about SMM techniques:

7.5

15

17.5

7.5

40

5

10

15

20

25

30

TV

What is sought through the SMM techniques:

Opinion on this front is fairly divided with a tilt towards those who are in it for merely building r than any palpable orders.

Sources of learning about SMM techniques:

17.5

20

15

7.5

Brand Awareness

Exposure

Leads generated

No. of hits on the website

Building a professional relationshipNo. of user queries

Link Bait/Viral

21 2125

Blogs General newspapers or magazines

Specialist magazines

26

Opinion on this front is fairly divided with a tilt towards those who are in it for merely building

Brand Awareness

Leads generated


Building a professional

No. of user queries

25

Specialist magazines From friends or colleagues

27

9. Scores (reverse ranking) for perception of importance of the various websites:

10. Perception of effectiveness of various websites in relation to the given parameters:

0123456789

10

Facebook Home Website

Corporate blog

Discussion Forums

Twitter YouTube Blog by head of

the company

Wikipedia LinkedIn

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter YouTube Home Website

Corporate blog

Blog by the head

of the company


No. of user queries

28

012345


Corporate blog

Blog by the head

of the company



012345


Corporate blog

Blog by the head

of the company


Link Bait/Viral

0123456


Corporate blog

Blog by the head

of the company


Building a professional relationship

29

01234567

Brand Awareness

01234567

Exposure

30

11. Respondents profile:Age:

0

1

2

3

4

5

6


Corporate blog

Blog by the head

of the company


Leads generated

50

37.5

12.5

20-24

25-34

35-44

Perception of nature of job:

Size of the companies:

37.5

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0

Just one/self employed

2-10

11-50

51-100

101-500

501-1000

Over 1000

Perception of nature of job:

50

12.5

10 20 30 40 50 60

31

32

Geographical scope of the companies:

37.5

25

37.5

Multinational, HQ in India

Multinational, HQ overseas

India nationwide

Local/Regionally based

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Conclusion

Social media networking for B-to-B purposes is still at rudimentary stages in India. It is mostly the small firms that are making use of the opportunity. And for good reason. As discussed earlier, SMM may be cheap (or cost-effective, if you please), but only up to an inflection point. It works best for your company when you are at a level where you can oversee all the aspects yourself.

Another key learning has been looking at the perception of what constitutes SMM. Most of the firms have a misconception as to what SMM really means. The responses show that an astounding 28% respondents believe that email marketing and banner advertising are part of SMM.

Engagement is the key word in SMM. The content has to be compelling enough for people to be moved to respond, preferably positively. As Saurabh Parmar tried to emphasize, the medium is not important, it is the message that matters and if the company have got that right, half the battle is won.

B-to-B works best when you have to keep up/building the professional relationship. Although it cannot replace real world networking, it can complement it to a large extent.

B-to-B also works rather well in scenarios where the goods delivered are themselves through the same channel (i.e. the Internet) as has been the common feature of all the above case studies.

There is nothing to prove or disprove the hypotheses that Facebook and Twitter are not useful tools of B-to-B SMM.

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Appendix 1:

Synopsis

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.

There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again.

It is generally believed that if one is selling products/services or just publishing content for ad revenue, social media marketing is a potent method that will make your site profitable over time.

But surely, a tool that makes networking so easy and more importantly such fun for the people to engage must be a potent force for leveraging one’s business whether or not the business necessarily involves the medium itself.

1. Rationale:

To analyze how businesses are coping up with and leveraging new media to their advantage in not only building up a database of prospects but also turning them into clients.

a. Secondary searches: a vast literature comprising of blogs in addition to books isavailable on the subject of social media.

2. Scope: Plan to study businesses with a business-to-business model.

3. Objectives:

To gain insights into the emergence of the effects of Internet for business

a. To analyze which approach works best for B-to-B modelsb. To analyze how effective are the following tools for B-to-B models:

i. Bloggingii. LinkedIniii. YouTube videosiv. Facebookv. Twittervi. Wikipedia

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4. Research Methodology:a. Type of research: Descriptive and exploratoryb. Sample units: B-to-B organizations and industry expertsc. Basis of sampling: convenienced. Sample size: 8-10 organisations

4. Collection of data:

a. Primary sources: Qualitative dialogue with organizations using the media and industry experts

b. Secondary sources:

i. Blogsii. Journals

5. Analysis of Data:

Appropriate statistical tools will be used

6. Hypotheses:

a. Facebook and Twitter are not effective tools for B-to-B networkingb. Blogging, conducting webinars, uploading industry videos and building up contacts through LinkedIn/Jigsaw are useful tools for B-to-B networking

8. Limitations:

a. The study is expected to be limited to small-to-medium size companiesb. The study is expected to be restricted to companies based in Delhi

Bibliography:

1. http://www.doshdosh.com/the-importance-of-social-media-marketing/

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Appendix 2:

Questionnaire

We are conducting a survey about Social Media Marketing Websites for academic purposes and would like to know your views and opinions. Would you mind spending a few minutes helping us by completing this questionnaire? Your answers will be kept confidential.

Q1. What is the name of the company/business you work for/own? And line of business:

_________________

Q2. Is your business totally based on B-to-C interactions (if “NO”, continue marking, otherwise STOP)?

Yes� 1 No� 2

Q3. Are you the person responsible for deciding whether your company uses social media marketing/networking websites?

Yes� 1 No� 2

Q4. Do you use/intend to use social media marketing/networking websites at all?

Yes� 1 No� 2

Q5. Do you use/intend to use it for (if you mark option 1, please continue marking, otherwise STOP):

B-to-B purposes� 1 B-to-C purposes� 2

Q6. Which of the following social media marketing/networking websites have you used/intend to use?

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LinkedIn ...................................................................�

Facebook..................................................................�

Twitter .....................................................................�

YouTube...................................................................�

Home Website .........................................................�

Corporate blog.........................................................�

Blog by the chairman/CEO/head of the company...�

Wikipedia.................................................................�

Discussion Forums ...................................................�

Others (Please specify) ............................................�

None of these ..........................................................�

Q7. Do you prefer networking over advertising?

Yes� 1 No� 2

Q8. Do you advertise/intend to advertise on the internet?

Yes� 1 No� 2

Q9. Do you think social media networking for B-to-B purposes is cheap?

Yes� 1 No� 2

Q10. How much budget do you have for marketing?

Cannot reveal �

Q11. The majority of this will go in for?

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Advertising...............................................................�

Conferences.............................................................�

Social media.............................................................�

Others (please specify) ............................................�

Q12. Please explain what social media marketing means to you.

Q13. Please explain what social media networking means to you.

Q14. Is there a difference between social media networking and marketing? If yes, please elaborate.

Q15. Can social media marketing replace real world networking?

Q16. Is Internet a superior tool of networking over physical networking?

Q17. Please tick on all options that you think are a part of social media marketing (multiple options accepted)

P.T.O.

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Banner advertising...................................................�

Email newsletter......................................................�

Fan page/community on FB/Orkut..........................�

Blog ..........................................................................�

Updates through micro-blog ...................................�

Relationship building through LinkedIn...................�

Others (please specify) ............................................�

Q18. What results do you seek when opting for social media marketing?

Brand Awareness.....................................................�

Exposure ..................................................................�

Leads generated ......................................................�

No. of hits on the website .......................................�

Building a professional relationship ........................�

No. of user queries ..................................................�

Link Bait/Viral ..........................................................�

Others ......................................................................�

Q19 How do you find out information about Social Media Marketing Websites?

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TV.............................................................................� 1

Blogs ........................................................................� 2

General newspapers or magazines..........................� 3

Specialist magazines ................................................� 4

Direct mail................................................................� 5

Leaflets.....................................................................� 6

From friends or colleagues ......................................� 8

Other (PLEASE WRITE IN)______.............................� 9

None of these ..........................................................� 10

Q20. Please rank the following websites for networking/marketing purposes?

LinkedIn ...................................................................�

Facebook..................................................................�

Twitter .....................................................................�

YouTube...................................................................�

Home Website .........................................................�

Corporate blog.........................................................�

Blog by the chairman/CEO/head of the company...�

Wikipedia.................................................................�

Discussion Forums (specify which) ..........................�

Others (Please specify) ............................................�

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Q21. Please mark an “X” in the box for the website which you feel is the best in the aspect of:

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Q22 Do you have access to the Internet at home or at work?

Yes - at home ...........................................................� 1

Yes-at work ..............................................................� 2

Yes-both...................................................................� 3

No ............................................................................� 4

Q23 How old are you?

15-19........................................................................� 1

20-24........................................................................� 2

25-34........................................................................� 3

35-44........................................................................� 4

45-54........................................................................� 5

Website:

Basis of:


Corporate blog

Blog by the head of the company

Wikipedia Discussion Forums (specify which)

Others (Please specify)

Brand Awareness

Exposure

Leads generated


Building a professional relationship

No. of user queries

Link Bait/Viral

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55-64........................................................................� 6

65+ ...........................................................................� 7

Q24 Which of these best describes your job?

Managerial...............................................................� 1

Professional .............................................................� 2

Clerical .....................................................................� 3

Skilled Trades...........................................................� 4

Manual worker ........................................................� 5

Entrepreneurial........................................................� 6

Other PLEASE WRITE IN ______ ..............................� 7

Q25 How many people work for your company including the head office and any regional depots?

Just me/self employed ............................................� 1

2-10..........................................................................� 2

11-50........................................................................� 3

51-100......................................................................� 4

101-500....................................................................� 5

501-1000..................................................................� 6

Over 1000 ................................................................� 7

Q26 What is the geographic scope of your company?

Multinational, HQ in India .......................................� 1

Multinational, HQ overseas.....................................� 2

India nationwide......................................................� 3

Local/Regionally based ............................................� 4

Thank You!

Social Media Marketing for B-to-B purposes

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