Michael Rabinovici

Social Media Marketing in B2B vs. B2C, what’s the dif?

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As companies and internal marketing departments evolve their social media strategies and refine their tactics, research is becoming available to shed light on these efforts.

One area of particular focus has been the potentially different impact that social media has on B2B marketers in relation to their B2C brethren.  In a recent study titled “2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report” Mark Stelzner asked marketers how they’re using social media, and more than 1,900 business-to-business (B2B) marketers shared their insights.

Here are some highlights:

•    Of the B2B marketers who took this year’s survey, over 93% use social media to market their businesses. While that’s slightly below their consumer-focused brethren (95.2%), there’s been a significant increase since the 2010 survey when only 88% of B2B marketers responded affirmatively.
•    Over 56% of B2B marketers acquired new business partnerships through social media (compared to 45% of B2C marketers)
•    Nearly 60% of B2B marketers saw improved search rankings from their social efforts (compared to 50% of B2C marketers)
•    B2B marketers are better able to gather marketplace insights from their social efforts (nearly 69% vs. 60% of B2C marketers)
•    The one area where B2B marketers significantly lag behind their B2C counterparts is in developing a loyal fan base. 63% of B2C marketers found social media helped them develop loyal fans, compared to only 53% of B2B marketers.

For more information on the report click here.

For more mind blowing research and insight about social media and mobile marketing, follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mikerabinovici or email me at michael at ar-com.com

Michael Rabinovici

Content Marketing – Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends for 2012

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Content marketing is gaining an increasingly important role for B2B marketers, and in companies’ overall marketing strategies .  Below you will find a link to the 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends survey put together by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.

For purposes of the research, the survey defined content marketing as follows: “Content marketing/custom media (sometimes called custom publishing, custom content, or branded content) is the creation and distribution of educational and/or compelling content in multiple formats to attract and/or retain customers.”
Here are some highlights:

• On average, B2B marketers employ eight different content marketing tactics to achieve their marketing goals.

• 60% report that they plan to increase their spend on content marketing over the next 12 months.

• Marketers, on average, spend over a quarter of their marketing budget on content marketing.

Industries with the highest rates of content marketing adoption:

• Professional Services………………………………..94%

• Computing/Software…………………………………93%

• Advertising/Marketing………………………………89%

• Healthcare……………………………………………………….89%

• Business Services……………………………………….84%

• Manufacturing/Processing…………………….83%

For a free copy if the report – Click Here

How is your company leveraging content marketing?  What results are you experiencing?  Leave a comment below or email me at michael at ar-com.com

 

 

 

Michael Rabinovici

It’s the End of the Mall as We Know It and I Feel Fine

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Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Gary Schwartz, CEO of Impact Mobile, and author of the recently published “The Impulse Economy”.  In it, he discusses the impact of the mobile revolution on traditional retail.

Click here to listen to the podcast (Length –  22 minutes and 54 seconds of wholesome goodness).

The Impulse Economy – Click here for your copy

“We live in a world where our mobile devices have become extensions of ourselves. We depend on them for instant connections to entertainment, social media, news, and deals. The phone has become our ticket, loyalty card, and catchall wallet. Networks are faster, phones are smarter, and the mobile shopper is ready to spend money now. What can a business do to maximize the mobile buying power of the new impulse consumer?”

Michael Rabinovici

Bringing Social Media into the Strategic Planning Tent

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A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of presenting at Federated Business’s Strategic Planning Skills event.  When the invitation to present arrived a few months earlier, the topic at first blush seemed a little awkward.  Once I started to research it, I was amazed at social media’s potential impact on all the key facets of corporate strategic planning:  Sales & Marketing, Legal/Regulatory issues, Human Resources/Recruiting, and Customer Service. View or download the presentation at the link below – mind bending stuff, I promise.  Looking forward to your comments.

http://slidesha.re/social-media-in-the-strategic-planning-process

Michael Rabinovici

OMG, is Social Media just a fad? Part I

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September is on the calendar and school back in session.  While enjoying the sunshine by the lake, I still received a steady stream of questions about this crazy world of social media.   One of the more common ones – Is this thing here to stay? Is it worth investing marketing dollars in? Will it be a distant memory come next year or the year after?

My views are on the record but I think it is important highlight a number of points:

First, is social media marketing based on completely new principles?  No.  The fundamental principles of sales and marketing that have been with us since we started selling to each other still apply.  What social media does is provide us with a revolutionary set of tools to apply these principles with.  These tools deliver nuggets of timely relevant information – a perfect fit for the ADD society we currently live in.

Second, you don’t have to take my word for the impact social media and networks are having.  You need simply look around you.  What other companies in history have accomplished what Facebook, LinkedIn, or Groupon have in the same amount of time?  Many other companies over the years have also had a great impact, but none that fast.  This does not mean that these companies will be around forever but the speed at which users have adopted their services is nothing short of astounding.

I’ve heard it said in the past by business experts that really successful companies are great for a generation and then begin to fade or have less impact .  It is possible,  given the speed at which some social media/networking companies have grown, that they may also see their influence diminish faster.  Assuming that’s right, does that mean you should keep your company out of the social media world for the next few years and wait until it all shakes out?  Good luck with that.

Third, you can also take a look at recent studies from respected organizations to get a third party view of where the social media world is at.  In my next post I will give you some highlights of a recent study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

In the meantime, for the latest on social media and Web marketing for corporations follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mikerabinovici.  

Michael Rabinovici

Go Mobile or Go Home

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A recent study covered by the tech site Mashable indicates that consumers are now spending more time on mobile apps than the Web. In June, consumers spent 81 minutes per day using mobile apps, compared to 74 minutes of Web surfing (see chart below).   This change in user behaviour is further confirmed by a recent report by Mary Meeker, a partner at the legendary venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which found that for the first time combined tablet and smartphone shipments eclipsed those of desktops and notebooks.  All this data also backs Wired Magazines’ article last year “The Web is Dead”, which predicted that apps would soon overtake the Web.

What does that mean for your company? If you’ve developed and implemented a mobile strategy, you are well positioned to benefit from this coming shift.  If you have started to give some thought  to this and you move the process into high gear, you should be OK as well.  If you’ve done neither, you better drop everything else and make this your top priority.  Now.

Will mobile rule everything? No.  But a significant segment of your current audience and your future one will spend an increasing amount of their time on their mobile devices.  The question all companies have to answer is whether not they will be able to serve and create value on the devices and media on which their customers choose to spend their time.

You can find a links to the reports mentioned above here:
Mobile Apps Put the Web in Their Rear-view Mirror
Top 10 Mobile Internet Trends

 

 

Michael Rabinovici

Groupon Groupoff

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Chicago based Groupon ("group coupon")  is one of the great technology stories in recent memory.  For those of you who still spend most of the time in the physical world, Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website localized to major markets that promotes itself with the now well-known tag line: 1 Ridiculously Huge Coupon A Day.  It’s been described as the fastest-growing company in Web history.

Here’s how it works:  your business gets exposure to Groupon’s gigantic user base and, in return, you give potential customers a juicy discount.  Whenever Groupon collects money on behalf of merchants from selling  coupons on its Web site, it keeps an average of 50%. The twist – the deal is on only “on” if a pre-determined number of people sign up for it (usually 10 or more). The platform is used daily by a multitude of businesses, ranging from small enterprises to large brands such as the Gap and the Toronto Raptors.

Here are some Groupon highlights:

Launched November 2008
Number of subscribers who receive emails with “Coupon of the Day” offers – 50 million
Revenue (2009 est.) – US $30 million    Revenue (2010 est.) – US $760 million    Revenue (2011 est.) – US $2 billion
Number of employees (2009 est.) – 120  in 30 cities          Number of Employees (2011 est.) – 5,000 in 565 cities
Buyout offers  –  Google made an offer for $6 Billion (offer was turned down)
IPO  – rumours of an IPO within the next 24 months at a valuation of $20-$25 billion

Now that we’ve established that all is well for Groupon, how is it working out for the merchants?  Stay tuned for my next post.

Michael Rabinovici

Building Brands and Booking Business with Facebook

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When it comes to leveraging social networks for building your brand and generating leads, Facebook has not typically been the first site that comes to mind.  That honour usually went to LinkedIn and small business-focused Networks. Well, the times they are a’ changing. Facebook is increasingly becoming the focus for companies and professionals who are looking to leverage its fast growing user base, currently pegged at 600 million users. If you’d like to learn how to use Facebook for business, here are some good links collected by the smart folks at Mashable.

·  Essential Apps for Building Your Brand’s Facebook Page

·  Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page

These links should provide you with a good starting point for a Facebook campaign. Please share any experiences your company has had with Facebook in the comment box below.