If you’re a B2B company and think that social media is primarily a channel for B2C’s, think again. According to just released 2012 IBM Global CEO study more than 1,700 Chief Executive Officers from 64 countries and 18 industries worldwide, social media will go from the least used customer engagement tactic to the second, only surpassed by face-to-face interaction in the next 3-5 years. Why? Because social media is a very effective and low cost means for connecting with customers, sales prospects, media, partners and employees.

As you can see in the chart below, only 16 percent of companies are using social media to connect with customers, but that number is expected to increase to 57 percent within the next three to five years. The CEOs in the study predict that social mediawill push past websites, call centers and channel partners as the number-two way to interact with customers.

Social Media Readiness Checklist

It’s easy to get excited about the social media hype, but creating a social media program is more than just setting up an account and waiting while the leads come pouring in. It takes a little bit of research and forethought to determine what your social media program will be before you jump in.

Here are 4 questions to consider before launching into social media:

1. What do I want to accomplish with social media?

Social media can be used in many different ways for your business – brand awareness, customer service, lead generation, building customer relationships, etc. Pick the direction you want to go in so that your efforts don’t get diffused in too many directions.

2. Where is my audience?

Don’t get caught using the wrong network. It could be disastrous. Where are you existing and potential customers, as well as your competitors hanging out? How are they interacting?

Use “listening tools”  such as Google Alerts, Google Blog Search, Twitter Search and Social Mention to help you with some of the work.

3. What do I want to share?

What kind of content do you want the company to share? What cannot be shared? Content, as always is king. Good content can come in a variety of formats such as blog posts, videos, case studies, white papers, etc.

It’s important to set up a frequency of posts and provide information which is useful to your readers.

4. How much time will I spend on this?

Although being part of social networks is free, social media is NOT free. It takes time, resources and commitment in order to make this successful. You’ll need to figure out who will be managing the efforts, be it you, your staff or outside consultant.

Social media can be a great addition to your other marketing tactics. And although you could be a user on Facebook, Linked in, YouTube, etc. in your own personal time, don’t get misled that it’s just as simple to get started. Take some time to think through the checklist and map out your plan before getting started and you’ll see much better results.

Sources:

• Marketing Professionals, “A Step-by-Step Guide to a Successful Social Media Program”
• Marketing Professionals, “The Slowpoke’s Guide to Digital Marketing”
• Inbound Sales Network Blog “Is your company ready for social media?”
• Superoffice CRM 

In September 2011 a small company had 1 600 fans on Facebook. The company had no clear Facebook strategy and there was little activity on their Facebook page. Less than a year later, the company has over 100 000 fans, a very active base of enthusiastic fans and a Facebook page that contributes significantly to the bottom line! What happened  during this year? What can we learn? Strategy is simple. Execution is difficult!

Some Experts will tell you that you have to develop a detailed plan, set specific goals and get management on board  before you start. Other experts have a more practical approach to success with social media. I think this story will show that the practical approach is more effective .

In order to succeed on Facebook, you need to attract and engage fans and measure effect in order to share success stories. Here´s the story.

1. Just do it

Some activties require little planning. I consider them “no brainers” when it comes to any Facebook effort. Here´s a short checklist:

• Set up a Facebook page and invite employees and friends
• Reserve a simple URL for your page
• Implement Facebook plugins on your website
• Start using “sponsored stories“

When you start implementing, you trigger reactions from other people in your organization. You get people to think and you create a positive “sense of urgency”. You might even inspire other people to take action! You´ve essentially kick started your company´s social media efforts. No planning or meetings required. Just do it!

2. Do some research

You don´t have to reinvent the wheel. Look at what other companies do and emulate them until you come up with something truly unique. Expand your horizon. Look across countries and industries for inspiration. Read reports and blog posts about Facebook success stories. Learn from the best companies in other countries:

• Who´s the best? Make a list of the 5 leading companies in the world.
• What do they do on Facebook? How do they use Facebook on their own websites?
• What do they publish on their Facebook pages?
• How are they different?

3. Choose a general direction and implement like hell

After you´ve completed step 1 (Just do it) and step 2 (Do some research), you´re ready to really get going with your social media efforts. Test different approaches and adjust along the way. Remember that ideas have no value if you don´t implement.

• Contests & promotions
  Facebook promotions are a great way to attract fans. In September the Norwegian company used Wildfireapp to launch a promotion. The first attempt failed, but in October they launched a new promotion using a quiz-app from Offerpop. The second promotion was successful and the fan-base  grew to 5000 fans.
• Simplicity is genious
  In November the company launched a Facebook Christmas gift app. The idea behind the app was to make it easy to give Facebook friends Christmas gifts. The service had several social mechanisms to maximize viral exposure.  It´s also worth noting that Walmart launched a similar gift app around the same time. The app was not a commercial success, but the company gained some valuable social experience!
• Christmas calendars 
  Alot of companies launch Christmas calendars before Christmas. It´s quite boring, but it works. People love quizes and contests with daily prizes. If you add a grand prize at the end, you´re guaranteed success. Read more about the Facebook activity that lead to 45 000 new fans.
• Copy Groupon
  Groupon offers daily deals to a large customer base. If you have 100 000 Facebook fans, it´s worth trying daily deals towards your own fans. Only approx. 16% of your Facebook fans see any given post (source: Facebook – don´t remember exact source..)so you can post almost daily without wearing out your fans! Don´t abuse it and remember to focus on relevancy!
• Common sense
  Mark Zuckerberg once said: “Communities already exist. They´re already doing what they want to do. The question you should ask is how you can help them do that better”. This is key to success with social media. What are your customers, partners, employees already doing? How can you make it easier for them to do what they´re already doing?

4. Measure results and share success stories

It´s much more fun to share success stories when you know the exact numbers at the beginning of your quest. Before taking on a new project, it´s essential to look at the numbers. There´s a variety of good tools out there: Facebook insights, Allfacebookstats and Socialbakers are good tools that make it easy to track progress.

Next steps

The story about the small Norwegian company that gained 100 000 Facebook fans in one year shows that you can succeed on Facebook without extensive planning and huge budgets. The key is to choose a general direction and implement like hell. It´s hard work and somebody has to take action. We hope that this short story inspires others to share success stories!

Sources:

• What would Google do? (page 48, Jeff Jarvis)
• Case study of how to build a large Facebook fan-base using Offerpop (Offerpop 2012)
• Wildfireapp
• Socialbakers social media measurement
• Allfacebookstats
• The importance of execution (Derek Sivers, 2009)