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Monday, March 01, 2010

Study: Most Effective B2B Social Media Tactics are IT ‘Lite’
Guest post by Ben Hanna, VP of Marketing for Business.com, the Web’s leading portal for business owners. 

According to a new study involving more than 1,700 small business leaders, companies marketing to small businesses would be well advised to focus on social media tactics requiring little IT investment, such as webinars, podcasts and establishing a presence on top social networking sites, before pursuing more IT resource intensive initiatives such as creating a company-managed online community. The study, conducted by Business.com, finds that that four of the top five most effective social media tactics for engaging small business decision makers do not require significant IT investment or involvement. The exception – company blogs – should be backed by both a strategic content strategy and the resources necessary to create this content on an ongoing basis before it allocating IT resources to blog creation or management.

The small business social media study examined the social networks and other social media resources small business owners and managers turn to for business-relevant information. In contrast to the common perception of social media as inherently “social” or interactive, study participants using social media for business were much more likely to use resources which don’t require interaction, such as webinars and podcasts (67%) or reading product reviews (63%), than they were to participate in online discussions (29%). The top five social media resources used by small business leaders are:

  1. Webinars / Podcasts – small business leaders consider webinars and podcasts to great resources for professional development, industry research and learning about potentially-relevant products and services, saving them the time and expense of attending in-person training.
  2. Ratings & Reviews – provide useful input into the business buying process, particularly those ratings or reviews provided by other small businesses using the product or service.
  3. Company / Brand Pages on Social Networking Sites – social network participation is now mainstream for U.S. adults, with 46% using sites such as Facebook and 25% participating weekly. Small business leaders are increasingly turning to these sites to find the latest information about important vendors, products and services.
  4. Company Blogs – small business leaders praise company blogs – at least, those that are “well written, current and with good thought leadership articles” – as great sources of information about business-relevant products, services and the underlying character of a company.
  5. Social Media Search – while some of the business-relevant information on social media sites can be found through general search engines, a great deal cannot. Realizing this, over half of small business leaders using social media search for business-relevant information directly on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Business.com Answers, SlideShare and many more.


B2B social media marketing initiatives require Marketing and IT to work closely together to prioritize projects, allocate resources, manage execution and maintain new systems and features. One key implication from this study for companies marketing to small businesses is that Marketing can, and should, actively pursue B2B social media initiatives which require little IT investment before taking on more resource-intensive projects.

For example, rather than placing a company-managed online community the core of the emerging social media strategy – a community where, according to this research, it will be very challenging to build participation by small business leaders – establish a company presence on one or more social networking sites and focus initial community development efforts on those sites. By focusing first on external, IT ‘lite’ social media opportunities, companies marketing to small businesses are more likely to reach a far larger portion of their target audience in the short run, begin developing a following and learn key lessons that inform what social media features and functionality are actually necessary on the company web site.

For more details, the complete research report, “Engaging Small Business Decision Makers Through Social Media,” can be downloaded from the Business.com web site at http://www.business.com/info/engaging-small-business-through-social-media.

Photo credit: p_kirn

Ben Hanna most recently led the Business.com 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study, and is a specialist in B2B online social media and marketing solutions. 

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Monday, February 25, 2008

Social Media for B2B Marketing: Don't Monkey Around
As a former classical studies major, I’m fascinated with etymology, the study of linguistics. The word that is the focus of so many marketing books – conversation – has its origins in the Latin word conversari, which means "to dwell, to keep company with." And this is entirely appropriate in the name of social media marketing, since having conversations requires spending time with people – namely, customers.

Too often in B2B marketing, we see the definition of the more personal "customer" devolve into the distant and cold "decision maker." Decision makers are relegated to the sales cycle, engaged in research and in need of information and education. The prevalent attitude seems to be that marketers develop the message and decide which information to share with decision makers. This is command and control, with unidirectional messaging at its core.

Is it any wonder then why B2B companies are slow to adopt social media as a marketing channel?

It's not that B2B customers are steering clear of social media. On the contrary, they use blogs, message boards, podcasts and online communities in their research for business solutions as well as in their personal lives. But B2B marketers don’t seem to be aware of – or worse – care about conversations that are taking place within the social media space about their brands.

Brands are being discussed, both positively and negatively; now marketers can follow the conversations and join in. Ignoring it won’t make the problem dissipate; indeed, businesses that continue to put off the decision to join the conversations will find themselves at a disadvantage.

But – to return to our etymology lesson – marketers need to spend time with their prospects and begin to embrace bidirectional conversation. A simple way to start is to listen. Keep listening. And listen some more. Take the time to explore the sites. Look around. Follow the conversations with RSS feeds.

Above all, resist the temptation to jump in until you understand the context. Businesses that attempt to harness the power of social networks or new media sites without realizing the generally accepted etiquette will find themselves unwelcome. It is only by listening and learning that B2B marketers will be able to start talking with their customers.

Note: this post originally appeared as a chapter in The Age of Conversation.

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Monday, October 15, 2007

A Pharma-Sponsored Social Network?
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a minute. This is potentially groundbreaking news.

The time may have come for pharma to break into the social media world. News is that Pfizer is teaming up with Sermo to create a social networking site.

Those of you who know me know that I've got a good deal of health science background - pharma, biotech, medical device and healthcare experience - and that I talk quite a deal about how pharma is missing out by not embracing social media. I recognize the inherent pitfalls; in fact, I've written about the challenges in using social media in a highly regulated environment and suggested an approach for a niche medical device maker,

So the question with the Pfizer announcement is: how did they figure out a way around the lawyers and regulators and create a social network?

The answer lies in their audience. Recognizing that the direct-to-consumer model is laden with legal statements that require a two-page buy in print and a 60-second spot on television, pharma is now figuring out a way to improve on the model is seemingly invented: the sales call on the physician. They're moving back to their b-to-b roots.

Trying to secure a 2-minute appointment with an already time-crunched physician, only to bark out some data points and leave behind a handful of free pens and samples - that never appealed to me, either as a potential job or as the proper way to interact with a customer. This model doesn't allow for the salesperson to use one of the most valuable tools they have: their ears. And Sermo themselves listened to their community. According to Sermo's CEO, physicians on the site started asking for the industry to communicate with them in a medium more convenient than sending sales people to their offices.

With the Sermo partnership, Pfizer gets access to Sermo's 31,000 licensed physicians and can interact with them directly. While the users in the network remain anonymous, Pfizer doctors who ask and answer questions are identified as being from Pfizer. The upside? The Wisdom of Crowds comes into play and the community calls out a biased post or comes to the defense of a peer. And a large population of physicians gets the same message at the same time.

The one thing I'd be interested in tracking is how this plays out with the lawyers and regulators. Will the FDA demand (and be granted) access to the network? I don't think it's such an unreasonable request. They should probably be added as members who can observe, but not participate in these online discussions.

I applaud Pfizer and Sermo for creating a way to open the door to social media for the pharmaceutical industry. Let's see how this arrangement goes and see who's up next.


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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Media You Take Is Equal to the Media You Make
With apologies to Sir Paul McCartney, a recent Wall Street Journal article Yale on $0 a Day (subscription required) made me think about how a time-tested business principle is being leveraged anew through social media channels.

The premise of the article is that more universities are using the Web to share course materials - from class plans, required readings and lecture notes, to actual audio and video of lectures. While not quite approaching the level of "distance learning" programs that offer degrees, this free-to-the-public content is allowing more individuals to share knowledge in an open source environment. Here's a quick list of some examples.


Traditionally, institutions of higher education have made lectures available to the public by allowing anyone to audit a course. Bounded only by the seating capacity of a lecture hall or classroom, this approach gave auditors the opportunity to participate in everything but the exams, and they would receive no course credit. Now, giving away content via social media makes this same knowledge available to a wider audience than previously possible.

I've been blogging in one capacity or another for nearly four years. In that time, I've found fellow bloggers and podcasters to be some of the most generous and open people when it comes to sharing tips, processes and information. In an ever-shrinking world, this is simply being neighborly; it's the essence of the "social" in social media. Since its founding, the official motto of the Social Media Club has been "If you get it, share it."

As businesses begin to explore how social media can work for them, they would be best served by keeping this premise in mind. Those that are transparent and that willingly share information with their audiences will find that they'll benefit from the customer loyalty that will inevitably be returned to them. In this information-rich era, customers can find information anywhere; companies that are stingy and hoard information will suffer.

UPDATE: Since posting this yesterday, I discovered that IBM is calling for media companies to loosen the grip on content, according to Online Media Daily. IBM would like to see big media cooperate in allowing the legal reuse of content for mash-ups, overdubs and other ways "that celebrate their favorite branded content in new and creative ways."

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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Putting the Social in Social Media
Bloggers need to get out more. That's my theory, anyway.

This whole movement of "social media" has truly taken hold, but as I look around (at the airport, in public settings, and even at myself) I see an overdependence on the keyboard. The completely mobile nature of our electronic devices, coupled with technology and software that is more user-friendly than ever, is colluding to make us - ironically - more isolated from human contact than ever.

While it's very easy to sit behind a desk and blog away every day as a connector or an influencer, I was reminded over the weekend of the importance of being social - that is, taking social media to its natural end: getting out there and meeting people. I track my blog statistics with Google Analytics, Sitemeter, Feedburner and FeedBlitz. I know my blogs are being read. But for any marketer, the real question is "what does my audience think of my brand?" If your blog isn't generating comments, it's very difficult to gauge that level.

Over the weekend, I was at a conference that a number of my readers attended. I was approached by dozens of them, who told me how much my blog meant to them, it was the first thing they read in the morning, I'm providing a valuable service, etc., etc. While it was flattering (and what artist doesn't love flattery?), I walked away greatly affected by the experience. I suddenly understood that in addition to simply knowing how many people read my blog, I now knew what they thought of my blog. Talk about great feedback - not to mention inspiration that keeps me motivated to continue the hard work of maintaining my blogs.

My advice to any blogger or podcaster in the B2B (or B2C) market: get out there! Go to conferences that are germane to your topic and where you think your audience might be. If they're local, invite your regular commenters to lunch and pick their brains. Yes, you should answer comments and emails sent through your blog. But above all, make the human connection that this revolutionary technology affords us.

Sitting with your laptop won't sustain long term relationships. You have to sit with people too.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Newsletters: What's a Small Business To Do?
We have a number of larger clients who have pretty successful newsletter programs - either in-house or through our agency. They have a significant amount of resources to throw at the project on a monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly basis. But what is a small business owner to do when they want to keep customers and prospects up to date, but don't have the big budget or sophisticated email systems?

Personally, as business manager for a literary publication with a subscriber base of approximately 1,000, I have experienced this dilemma. I grew my email database to nearly 700 names and every quarter, I blasted out a PDF of a 4-page newsletter. It was time-consuming, cumbersome, and it froze up my email system. Then I had to manually deal with opt-outs, bounces and the like. I got so fed up, I started a blog - which can be thought of as a type of newsletter, just one with two-way conversation that's updated much more frequently.

Well, I'm happy to say I've just discovered Letterpop, which makes newsletter creation a snap. I haven't tried it out yet, so I can't comment on all of the features, but from what I understand, it takes the hassle out of design and directly handles all email issues, including opt-out language that will allow your customers to easily unsubscribe if they wish. This really bears some deeper exploration.

We're still on the cutting edge of RSS - despite the integration into the latest browsers, it still hasn't caught on. There's promise there, though. In the meantime, FeedBlitz or other email-based notification programs serve the very same purpose as an e-newsletter program, and give credence to some claims that email is on the rise as a marketing tool in 2007.

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Wednesday, November 15, 2006

On Corporate Blogging
Following on the tail of my previous entry, Social Media in a Highly Regulated Environment, I'd like to share Peter Delegge's 15 Rules for Corporate Blogs, as written on Marketing Today.

If you'd like the full details for each line item, take a look at Peter's blog.

  1. Don’t treat corporate blogs like another corporate communications or marketing communications device, it’s significantly different.
  2. Don’t blog without a solid, compelling case and proper resources.
  3. Have solid executive backing before you blog.
  4. Choose your bloggers carefully.
  5. Authenticity is critical.
  6. Thoroughly train your bloggers and require an internal blogging test period before a blogger is “certified.”
  7. Assign a blog approver for each blog who has some degree of subject matter expertise, knowledge of company policies and public relations.
  8. Don’t hide from the tough stuff. Be willing to admit mistakes.
  9. Create a blog crisis communications plan.
  10. Moderate blog comments.
  11. Make your blog part of a communications plan – not the whole of it.
  12. Monitor your corporate blogs.
  13. Determine measures of effectiveness up front.
  14. Consider that the blogosphere expects your blogs to be a marketing and PR mouthpiece. Always keep this in mind and prove them wrong.
  15. Manage your brand online: monitor what people are saying about your brand online. [Jaffe Juice has a good summary of what to monitor - ed.]
And here I'll add the following:

16. If you're going to start a corporate blog, be ready to stick it out - stay in it for the long haul and be patient in waiting for results.

If you'd like to add something that hasn't been covered above, I'd appreciate the input.


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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Social Media in a Highly Regulated Environment
One of the sessions at the recent SCNR inaugural Research Symposium concerned corporate blogging - great topic for a B2B blogger, no? Since I've covered the symposium in another posting, I'll focus here on a question I asked the panel.
Can blogging - or any type of social media - be supported in a highly regulated industry, such as pharma?
It's a question I've been grappling with as I've presented the concept of blogging and podcasting to one of my clients in the biopharma space. It's a fundamental question that gets to the core of the value of social media. That is, if you'd like to start a blog and your company requires a high level of involvement from the legal department, your blog is going to sound more like a corporate communications piece and will be less authentic - thus negating the very reason for having a blog.

First things first: according to Christopher Barger, IBM's Blogger-in-Chief, companies need to realize that social media is happening around them whether they like it or not. Acknowledge it. At the very least, monitor what's being said. And if you can, participate. And that requires having a good corporate blogging policy.

Okay, fine. "IBM isn't a pharma company," you say. But it's a company that has many stakeholders. According to a recent MedAd News article Lost in the Blog, "People are talking, and the pharmaceutical industry needs to get in on the conversation." There are numerous blogs about pharma companies, but I'm not aware of a single one by a pharma company. If one jumps in, the only question is what the FDA will allow. The agency has been watching the space and will undoubtedly crack down when a company steps over the line.

The fact that no corporate blogging is happening in pharma is probably because pharma is a conservative industry which is understandably concerned about lawsuits and regulatory hammers coming down. As with any regulated industry, pharma is used to a push-marketing style. But this simply won't be sustainable as a strategy in the future. With consumers being more in control of conversations and messages, the rules have changed.

So, if blogging isn't the answer, then perhaps a sponsored community is. GSK, Lilly, Pfizer and others have established communities around diseases that their drugs address.

Let's face it: blogging isn't for everyone. MarketingEdge's most recent podcast The Great Blog Debate is an excellent (dare I say "great"?) discussion about when companies should blog - or not. It's worth a listen.

And the ANA Marketing Maestros' entry B2B Blogs More Important than Ever contends
While you may not be ready to start your own blog, you better now become cognizant of what others are saying about your company, your products, and how your serve your customers. Your business life might just depend on it.

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Saturday, November 11, 2006

Take Your Technology To Work Day, Part 2: Blogging
In Part 1 of this series, I wrote about some unique business uses of the iPod. Today, I'd like to share a rather unconventional use of a blog in a business setting.

A few weeks ago, we were invited to present a final pitch with a large national client. We diligently undertook our usual thorough approach on research, strategy, creative and media. We had some great thinking and concepts to share. But the prospect gave us a real chance to shine when they included this question in the prep materials for the pitch:
What's one thing we haven't asked you that you can tell us about yourself?
While some agencies might talk about awards, or present previous campaign materials that they're proud of but which may not apply to the core presentation, we chose a different direction. We wanted them to get to know us as people - the people who would be running the account. We also wanted them to get a feel for our approach to new media/social media.

So we created a pitch blog. Yes, that's right, I coined a term. I'll say it again: a pitch blog.

The blog postings captured our thinking from the time we heard about the opportunity, to summaries of some primary source interviews and research, to thoughts on strategy within their industry. It culminated with a short video we shot around the office in a casual setting.

The sidebar was set up to really showcase our individuality and quirkiness. Here's a quick rundown of what we created:

- A donut survey powered by Slide.com. ("Donuts - is there anything they can't do?")

- An iTunes mix of our favorite songs.

- A plug-in of our favorite YouTube videos. Here's mine:


- A Meebo plugin that allows the prospect to IM me with any immediate question or feedback

- A Gaping Void widget with the cartoon of the day

- A link to a custom-built del.icio.us page with articles of importance to their business, tagged by the agency

I should probably pause for a moment to let you know that we won the account. They were impressed with our approach, thinking and hard work. The blog may have had something to do with it, too.

Next up in Part 3: what to do now that the pitch is over.

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Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Social Media in the B2B World
I work at a BtoB agency (or B2B agency, if you prefer). As such, I've tried to take a B2B angle on social media marketing on this blog. It hasn't been easy all of the time, as the social media craze is really caught up in the B2C space. But whenever a cool widget, application or service is trumpeted, I always look for a creative way to apply it to the B2B space.

Well, I'm happy to say that it looks like this might be catching on. In the Marketing Today Blog, Peter DeLegge posted Social Media, Blogs, Message Boards...It's Not Just a B2C Thing. It's a great post that sums up everything I believe about social media in the B2B world. Here's a quick excerpt:
Whether marketers and PR professionals like it or not, the folks we market to can now have a real voice and we would do well to take this seriously. More than that, it no longer requires money and influence to be heard; it requires being at the right place with a message that resonates.
Amen to that, brother.

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Thursday, November 02, 2006

Check Your Online Budgets Now
According to a post by the Center for Media Research, Omniture has developed a white paper that predicts the near future of BtoB marketing turning more significantly toward online. Omniture asserts that in order to take advantage of the Web 2.0 environment, businesses not only need to embrace the trend, but need to be ahead of the curve.

According to the report and the Direct Marketing Association:
"By 2008 online marketing efforts will be the dominant media for business-to-business initiatives. Traditional direct mail, industry print, and events and promotions will take a back seat to more efficient and sophisticated online efforts. A Forrester Research study in 2005 indicated that by 2008, online marketing will be more ubiquitous than anything except in-person events (including sales calls)."
When you consider that 45% of B2B decision makers spend 5 or more hours a week online researching products, according to the CMO Council & KnowledgeStorm, it follows naturally that more budget should be spent on online marketing to this group. Consider the challenges:

Top B2B Marketing Challenges

Challenge

% of Respondents

Reaching decision makers

63%

Deepening relationships with customers

63

Measuring marketing results

57

Generating more leads

56

Improving lead quality

52

Increasing product awareness

52

Developing brand awareness

49

Source: Omniture Online Marketing Guide, 2006


One way around the perennial challenge of getting in front of the right executives for lead generation and better relationship marketing is targeted niche material online that speaks directly to their needs.

Take a look at trends in marketing tactics from the last two years versus what is predicted for one year from now:

B2B Marketing Tactic Trends (% of respondents)

Tactic

Used in 2004/05

Expect to use in 2008

In-person events

60.2%

60.8%

Direct mail

56.2

48.7

Online marketing

48.7

54.6

Newspapers

46.9

35.6

Custom publications

45.8

44.1

Industry specific/trade magazines

45.4

48.3

Printed newsletters

43.5

35.1

TV

41.4

44.1

General business magazines

41.3

38.6

Public relations

37.7

41.6

Radio

35.3

33.0

Printed directories

26.8

24.8

Source: Omniture Online Marketing Guide, 2006


Now is the time to begin building best practices in online marketing tactics. Be it new media, "traditional" online strategy, or some mix, it's important now more than ever to embrace lead with these options.

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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Take Your Technology to Work Day, Part 1: Podcasting
Great article in the Personal Journal section of The Wall Street Journal today: The Boss Puts the iPod to Work (free access until 11/2/06).

Evidently, some managers have come to embrace the iPod as an enabling technology that goes beyond listening to music or watching TV episodes. Some business uses of the iPod include:
  • Language classes for employees
  • CEO announcements
  • Sales seminars
  • Audio and video training files
Siemens discovered that it could cut down on the $125,000 it spent on each sales seminar (there are typically 4 per year) by purchasing 100 iPods for its staff at a total cost of $30,000. And companies are discovering the joys of productivity, as employees can listen to company podcasts while commuting or doing other work.

It's encouraging to see that this "new" technology (well, not completely new - the iPod just turned 5) is being brought into the mainstream. As the market continues to mature, I'm sure we'll see other great examples of business uses of blogs and iPods, among others. Have you got any examples? Let me know.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in this series, where I'll talk about a unique new use of blogs that we're trying at my agency.

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Monday, October 23, 2006

Why Blogging Matters
As usual, Logic + Emotion has a great perspective on blogging. This time, Dave Armano has taken part in a group post with other high-power bloggers.


Together, they develop 6 Degrees of Perspective on Why Blogging Matters:. I'll just cover the highlights here; definitely check our their longer post if you need some proof points to incorporate blogging as a standard practice in your company's or client's marketing efforts.

#1 - PR and Blogging – A Love Story or Peaceful Coexistence
Covered by Dan Greenfield, VP of Corporate Communications at Earthlink -Bernaisesource

#2 – Blogging and the “new influencers”
As seen by Eric Kintz, VP of Global Marketing Strategy at Hewlett-Packard - Marketing Excellence

#3 – The role of blogging in the changing world of advertising
From the perspective of Will Waugh, Senior Director of Communications at ANA - Marketing Maestros

#4 – The role of blogging as part of an integrated web strategy
With a view from David Charbuck, VP of Global Web Marketing at Lenovo - Charbuck

#5 – Drive Harmony in Conversational Touchpoints
The opinion of Peter Blackshaw, CMO, Neilsen Buzz Metrics - Consumer Generated Media

#6 - Creativity, Innovation + Blogging
As host, David Armano, VP at Digitas gets to go last, with some sub-points on the usefulness of blogs:
  1. Instant feedback from a qualified network of peers
  2. A digital journal, scrapbook and sketchpad
  3. The ultimate marketing and brand challenge

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Sunday, October 01, 2006

Giving Second Life a Second Chance
I first took a look at Second Life about four months ago, when I created an identity and promptly didn't do anything with it. Frankly, the concept of creating a persona in a "meta" universe just didn't do it for me - it was too similar to Dungeons & Dragons.

Lately, I've been hearing about Second Life at every turn: advertisers such as Toyota, Sun Microsystems and Wells Fargo are turning up there; Leo Burnett just added a presence, evidently to link their creatives and to better understand the space.

What's all this about, then? Real entities setting up shop in a virtual world? I suppose it's the next logical step from MySpace, in which it's a two-dimensional world. Second Life, in short, could be considered a mashup of MySpace and SimCity. Take the social networking aspect of the former and combine it with the ability to create something physical in the latter, and you've got the setting for unlimited advertising.

The Economist does the subject a bit of justice with Living a second life.

I think it's a little early to expect masses of people to create critical mass on Second Life, especially with so many other forms of social media that are easier to understand and implement. I can see the future potential of a BtoC advertising presence. At this point it's tough to see a strong BtoB application. One might be a life sciences company setting up a virtual call-in site or center of excellence for customers to interact with their experts for advice.

But mainstream this is not. Let's face it: some individuals are still striving to get a first life.

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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Trail Blazers
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. Am I blushing yet?

Todd Defren of PR Squared fame picked up on my mention of Trailfire and went one step further: he created an awesome trail on the Social Media Press Release. Prepare to be enlightened about the SMPR.

If you had any doubts about the power or functionality of Trailfire, this should set your mind at ease. This is an incredibly powerful tool with some rich B2B potential.

Now, rather than relying on a paragraph full of links that readers might click indiscriminantly (if at all), you can bring prospects, clients, employees, readers, etc. on a guided tour through sites of interest while telling them a story about why each page is important.

Being able to lead your audience in a stepwise fashion while creating context around each page is a huge deal. The ability of Trailfire to personalize this experience, as if the trail owner is communicating directly with the reader, cannot be overstated.

The only improvement I would like to see is some degree of feedback aside from the mail icon in each trail mark. If a reader could IM the author or comment on a trail mark, this could lead to more converations rather than commentary.

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Friday, September 15, 2006

Behold, the Power of Blogs
Following up on their study on the use of podcasts in the B2B space, KnowledgeStorm and Universal McCann commissioned a joint study on the emering role of new media specifically on the effect of purchasing decisions in the IT space.

The study concluded that IT purchase decisions are heavily influenced by content found in blogs.

Some top-level results about blogs:
  • 80% claim to be blog readers, with 51% reading blogs at least once a week
  • 53% read blogs weekly for business information, while 57% read blogs on technology topics each week
  • 70% of survey respondents recommend or pass along content from blogs at least once a month
  • More than 53% of survey respondents felt that content they read in blogs already impacts their work-related purchasing decisions
And some highlights regarding RSS:
  • 59% of respondents said they are "somewhat" to "very" familiar with RSS
  • 31% subscribe to RSS feeds or readers
  • 79% of respondents said they are accessing RSS feeds on specialized news topics, covering specific industry or company information, while only 36% of respondents are accessing blogs via RSS feeds
Worth noting:
"New online media formats, such as blogs, will help companies better address shifting preferences and opinions in the B2B marketplace. Marketing campaigns will achieve even greater results because companies are now able to truly listen to and
come to understand their audiences' needs and wants through these mediums."



Update (9/22/06): the ANA blog notes that B2B blogs are more important than ever.

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Podcasting: It's Not Just for Kids Anymore
KnowledgeStorm and Universal McCann have embarked on a series of studies regarding the emerging role of new media on marketing. The first focuses on the penetration of podcasting in the B2B space.

This is one of the first surveys focused specifically on the B2B audience and it clearly shows that podcasts, blogs and other new media types are viable mediums for reaching B2B technology buyers.

Podcast usage among B2B technology buyers is significant and growing:
  • 41% of survey respondents claim they have listened to podcasts on more than one occasion, while 13% stated that they "frequently" download or listen to them.
  • 32% of survey respondents stated their usage of podcasts has "Increased" or "Significantly Increased" in the last six months. The same question yielded 39% for blogs.
  • B2B technology buyers are listening to podcasts for business interests, specifically technology-oriented topics
  • Nearly 60% of respondents said that information on business or technology topics, currently delivered as white papers or analyst reports, would be more interesting as podcasts.
  • 55% of respondents would be more likely to consume white papers and analyst reports if they were delivered as podcasts.
And perhaps the biggest opportunity can evolve from this finding:
  • 57% of the frequent podcast users stated their biggest challenge with podcasts is the scarcity of interesting content
Stacy Malone, vice president, interactive media director at Universal McCann concludes:
"Business and technology-related subject material is a perfect match for podcasting content. Podcasts are no longer being used only for pure entertainment value. They are turning into an indispensable, business-critical information tool."

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Posted by Scott Monty at 3:29 PM
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About Scott

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The best way to describe Scott is "Renaissance Man." Friends and colleagues that know Scott from one facet of his life are very frequently surprised to learn of his interests and talents in other areas.

Scott is a marketing and communications professional focused on the digital industry — specifically on social media. His career spans a number of industries such as healthcare, pharma, biotech, travel, automotive, tech, and communications, and includes a wide range of clients, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

Currently on the staff of corporate communications in Ford Motor Company, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. He is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.


Prior to joining Ford, Scott served as Consigliere for crayon and spent a number of years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a boutique BtoB agency specializing in health sciences & high tech.

In addition to his consulting and agency background, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog, a literary undertaking. Scott has been featured in numerous news and business publications, on a variety of podcasts, and on national television. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events.

Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Detroit area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.

Oh, and one last little-known fact: Scott coined the term "tweetup."

You may download a headshot here, courtesy of C.C. Chapman and a PDF version of Scott's bio here.


Books in which Scott's work is featured:
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Speaking Events

Scott speaks on social media at events, seminars and conferences around the world. His topic generally focuses on corporate use of social media, becoming an online spokesperson, and specifically on the progress that Ford has made in the recent past. If you're interested in booking Scott to speak at your event, please send an email to speaking [AT] scottmonty [DOT] com. Scott's bio and headshot can be found in the "About Scott" tab above.






Some previous engagements include:

BlogWell - How Big Companies Use Social Media - Minneapolis - August 13 Keynote at OMMA Global Sept. 21, 2009

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Brand Camp '09 "I am Speaking at" Widget 135px Direct Marketing Association International conference, Oct. 18-22, 2009



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Who is Scott Monty?

Hi, I'm Scott. I'm the head of social media for Ford Motor Company. This is my personal blog, where I share my perspectives on social media - the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web - for marketers, agencies, the enterprise and the individual. This blog contains my personal views.

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