Tag: facebook

Can B2B Marketers Capitalize on March Madness?

basketballAn estimated  62 million people will fill out a March Madness bracket this year.  Last year 20 million watched the NCAA Basketball Championship game. Clearly, the audience for March Madness has grown way beyond the college basketball fan.  When new words are created around an event [bracketology], you know you have reached the big dance.

March Madness draws people together around a common interest, and for a few short weeks in March, there is always something to talk about at the water cooler. With the popularity of mobile devices, March Madness has continued to grow, with people accessing games and scores from anywhere. And March Madness fans have also taken to social media channels. The NCAA Facebook page has more than 259,000 “Likes” and the official @marchmadness Twitter feed boasts more than 47,000 followers.

The opportunity to reach an audience through the NCAA Basketball Championship event hasn’t been lost on marketers. According to Kantar Media Intelligence, ad revenue in 2011 reached an all-time high of $738.0 million, up 20.2 percent from the prior year. But what about March Madness as an opportunity to build community among your B2B customers and prospects? Consider these examples:

  • Northwestern Mutual used an email and publicity campaign to invite their customers and prospects an opportunity to participate in an  NCAA® March Madness® Bracket Challenge.
  • Law firm HRMA of Southwest Florida used the March Madness theme to launch an event about social media issues.
  • Garden and Gun magazine used the opportunity to create “The Ultimate Southern Food Bracket.” In a first round match up, country fried steak beat out pecan pie.

I believe March Madness offers an opportunity for conversations and engagement with B2B customers and prospects online. Center a campaign around a local team, and ask customers to engage.

Nothing gets folks more engaged than competition. Host a bracket contest or find out which local team has more support. The water cooler is now virtual, on Facebook, LinkedIn and  Twitter. Are you ready to get in the game? Maybe you’re already there. Share how you take advantage of interest in March Madness.

Content For Biz Most Popular Posts In 2011

The Content For Biz most popular posts for 2011 surprised us in some ways. The list contains how-to’s, but also an industry specific post.  The favorite topics reflect our position as journalists who understand content marketing. The most popular posts reference audiences, press releases, content strategy and credible sources as well as methods.

Sharing of posts through social media sites helped us garner more page views. A few of the posts were picked up or shared by Internet leaders including Chris Brogan, Denise Wakeman and Mari Smith. We see a big spike in page views when that happens. Mentioning Facebook and LinkedIn in a title seem to generate traffic as well.

Take a look at our list and add a link to your own Top Ten posts in the comments below.

10. 7 Tips for Getting Your E-newsletter Read

9.  How To Position Your Call To Action

8. The Best Press Release Distribution For B2B Companies

7.  Facebook Tips From LinkedIn Groups

6.  Keep Your B2b Web Content Current And Long Lasting

5.  What Should I Pay A Content Writer?

4.  Are the top 10 Construction Management Firms Missing the Boat on Blogging?

3. A Visual Content Strategy Engages Audiences

2. How To Find Credible Sources For Articles, Blog Posts And Whitepapers

And here in our top spot is the most popular post in 2011:

#1 Secrets Of A Content Sleuth

 

Go ahead and share a link to your Top Ten posts list in the comments below. Will you being doing anything differently on your blog for 2012?

How to Extend the Life of Your B2B Event with Social Media

How to promote events with social mediaEvents represent  a significant investment for many B2B companies.  Marketers go to great lengths to ensure their event features the right content or entertainment; is held at the perfect venue;  and includes memorable food and beverages. However, it used to be that once an event was over,  there was very little opportunity for marketers to engage customers or prospects who were unable to attend.  There were also very limited ways  to engage with attendees after the event.

Social media has changed all that. It provides companies with an opportunity to extend the life of their B2B events by creating a way to experience the events online. It also allows marketers to use social media channels to reach out to attendees and non-attendees in new ways — often with a multimedia experience. Here are five ways to make social media part of your B2B event strategy.

1. Prior to the event, create a hashtag for the event on Twitter. Hashtags  help people find your event on Twitter and see what people are saying about it. Encourage people to talk about their plans to attend the event. Talk about speakers, content, who’s attending, etc. Remind attendees of the event hashtag before, during and after the event.

2. Before the event, engage prospects with a survey designed to identify their needs.

3. Share photos and videos on Facebook and through social sites such as YouTube and Flickr.

4. Share speaker slides on SlideShare, as well as through your event home page .

5. Interview customers at the event to share what they liked about the event. Post videos on You Tube and your event homepage.

Who’s Doing it Right on Social Media Channels

On John Deere’s Facebook page, you will find an amazing time-lapse video for the Can Do Project – They built a combine out of more than 350,000 cans of food. It took five days to build,  but you can watch it under three minutes.  Even if you missed the event itself, you could still learn about the experience.

Western States Cat does a great job of promoting its Dump Hunger campaign on Facebook. This year their goal is to collect 300,000 pounds of food.

You have to love Bacon Fest Chicago. They keep the excitement for this event  building through their blog,  a You Tube channel and an engaging Facebook fan page.

With a little planning and good use of social media tools, you can keep generating social buzz for your B2B event, long after the event is over.

Are you overwhelmed by social media? Content for Biz can help you formulate a strategy that makes sense for your business.

Improve Response to Your Facebook Posts

Facebook Like ButtonA 2010 study from Vitrue, a social relationship management platform provider,  offers some insight into what it calls “ The Anatomy of a
Facebook Post.”

The research is based on more than 32,000 Facebook posts representing a wide range of clients and 42.6 million Facebook fans over about a four-month period.

Engagement is measured by comments, likes and shares/divided by the number of fans for a particular stream or page. Data was also analyzed for  two subsets: consumer package goods and quick serve restaurants.

Here are the key take-aways:

1. Use an Image

Image posts scored highest. They scored 22% higher than video posts and 55% higher than text posts.  Image posts received 54% more engagement than text posts.

2. Don’t Miss Fridays

Overall, fans engage more on Fridays than any other day, and least on Sundays. Friday posts were  just 7% more effective than Mondays, but  67% higher than  Sunday.  The most effective post day varies by industry.  Wednesday proved best for quick service restaurants, while  Thursday was highest among consumer package goods companies.

3. Consider a Morning Post

Posts made before noon achieved 65% higher engagement among fans. This same  true for consumer products goods, but for quick service restaurants, the opposite was true.

Thanks to Vitrue for providing information to help better engage fans on Facebook. You can download the full report here.  Give these strategies a try and let us know how they work for you.

If you like this, you might also like:” How to Measure Social Media Using Benchmarks.”

Storify Content Tool Gathers Social Media Reactions

Storify, a content curation tool, went public today.  Storify allows you to search multiple social networks including twitter, Facebook, and YouTube from one site, grab entries, and organize them into a story. Businesses can compile customer reactions to products, services or events.  Go to the Storify website and open an account or sign in using your twitter account. Add a title and brief introduction text, then start selecting entries from social networks. Click on the embed story button and insert the code on your site, much the same way as inserting a video from YouTube. Here is what I created in just a few minutes time.

Included are some tweets, a blog post, and a video from YouTube. See what you can do or ask a content writer for help in creating a story for you. A content writer can add context and help you choose what entries are best for meeting your business goals.