Social Media and Employee Brand Ambassadors Cloud Computing

Presentation delivered at HostingCon 2012 - Social Media and Employees - why and how its important to activate employees.

Transcript

1. Energize  and  Incen-vize  Your  Employee  Brand   Ambassadors     Presenter:  William  Toll  Marke2ng  Consultant  Twi7er:  @utollwi  
2. Marketing & Product Management Executive • 1999 ValueWeb (Now Hostway) • 2002 NTT/Verio • 2004 Affinity Internet (Now Hostway) • 2006 Intermedia.NET • 2008 NaviSite (Now a Time Warner Cable Company) • 2011 Yottaa William  Toll  Twi=er/Skype:  @utollwi  
3. Commerce  is  a  social  construct  
4. Alaskan Dude
5. anyjazz65
6. zoetnet
7. Khym54
8. Mehfuz Hossain
9. People  Buy  From  People,  Not  Companies    
10. Avrenim_acceber
11. KCODE
13. Billions  of  Minutes  Monthly  
14. •  German  Internet  users  spend  more  6me  on   social  networks  and  blogs  than  they  do  any   other  online  category  of  sites,  a  total  of  12.7   billion  minutes  in  May  2011.  (Nielsen)     •  UK  Internet  users  visited  229.6  million  pages   on  Tubmlr  #2,  aLer  Facebook  20.2  billion  page   views.  (Nielsen)   http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ Social  Is  Everywhere!  
15. B2B  Content   Marke6ng   Social  Media   (Online  Media   Suppor6ng  Social   Interac6on  and   User  Generated   Content)   B2B  Socially   Influenced   Transac6ons   The  B2B  Buyer’s  Journey  Has   Changed  
16. B2B  Buyers  and  Decision  Makers:     Their  Journey  in  in  2012    
17. Today’s  B2B  Buyers  Are…   •  Empowered   –  Content  Marke6ng  Is  Educa6ng   –  Social  Media  Is  Facilita6ng   –  80%  research  before  engaging  with  a  vendor   –  50%  Expect  a  Response  via  Social  Media   •  More  Skep-cal   –  Only  31%  Trust  Industry  Analysts   –  29%  Peers   –  8%  Vendors   http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/02/cfo- content/ Maritz Research http://www.socialbusinessnews.com/ customers-want-responses-to-tweeted-complaints-but-what- about-solving-real-problems/
18. Product   Discovery   •  Awareness   •  Search   Results   Product   Selec6on   •  Content   Consump6on   •  Decision   Support   Product   Referral   •  Evangelism     •  Referrals   2012  B2B  Prospects  Journey  
19. It’s  Always  About  The  People   Viewed  3,434  Times   #  of  Followers:  58   Top  answer  has  30  votes       http://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-best- cloud-computing-platform-for-a-startup
20. #1  Organic  Result   Two  Social  IDs  listed  with  result.     The  Benefits  Are  Clear  For  Organic  Search  Results    
21. Google’s  Socially  Influenced  Search   Results   Try  it!    List  your  social  accounts   with  your  Google  profile,  then   search  for  a  keyword  in  your   industry.  
22. Cloud  and  Web  Hos6ng  Customers    Talk   Par6cipate  or  ignore.    What   will  work  beher  for  your   brand?    
23. People  Share  With  Their  Business  Network   Try  It!  Search  LinkedIn  “Status   Updates”  See  who  is  sharing   your  posts,  ar6cles  and    press   releases  with  their  business   network.    
24. Why?   •  66%  of  those  who  have  Tweeted  about  a  bad   experience  have  never  received  a  response   from  the  offending  company?     Do  you  want  your  company  to   be  non-­‐responsive?   Maritz Research http://www.socialbusinessnews.com/customers-want-responses-to-tweeted- complaints-but-what-about-solving-real-problems/
25. Your  Compe66on  Is  Doing  It…  
26. Example:  Twiher  and  Media  Influence   Media  and  Analysts  recognize   ac6ve  brands  and  employees.    
27. Your  Employees  –  A  Great  Brand  Ambassador   Team    
28. Robert  Markey  co-­‐author  of   “The  Ul-mate  Ques-ons  2.0:   How  Net  Promoter  Companies   Thrive  in  a  Customer-­‐Driven   World”   Loyal,  passionate  employees  bring  a  company  as   much  benefit  as  loyal  passionate  customers.  –   They  stay  longer,  work  harder,  have  more   crea6vity.     They  also  bring  more  great  employees    -­‐  it’s  a   con6nuous  stream  of  benefits.   Employees  –  Your  Best  Brand   Evangelists  
29. Company   Twi=er  Followers   Company   Twi=er  Followers   Employee   Twi=er  Followers   Employee   Amazon  Web   Services   17,722/955   Jeff  Barr   Werner  Vogels   12,475/9,687   34,873/6,068   Equnix   3,217/2,085   Sam  Johnson   5,453/41,180   GoGrid   9,386/3,388   Michael  Sheehan   7,713/28,179   Joyent   9,175/3,048   Jason  Hoffman   4,009/11,868   Network  Solu6ons   9,599/25,489   Shashi  Bellamkonda   18,524/77,078   Rackspace   23,994/7,536   Robert  Scoble   270,172/59,312   Telex   2,005/1,727   Joe  Weinman   2,778/4,125   Virtustream   801/527   Ruven  Cohen     28,385/16,057   Service  Providers  and  Brand  Evangelists   Employee  engagement  and  reach  is  greater  than  the  brand.  
30. Company   Twi=er  Followers/ Tweets   Employee  on   Twi=er   Twi=er  Followers/ Tweets   AlertLogic   825/1,388   Misha  Govshteyn   909/1,173   CA_Cloud   2,238/1,468   Andi  Mann   5,158/17,042   CloudStack   3,052/360   Joe  Brockmeier   3,581/15,237   CloudScaling   2,307/707   Randy  Bias   6,821/14,323   EMC  @CloudEMC   2,102/755   Christopher  Kusek   21,040/56,233   Eucalyptus   2,501/533   Marten  Mickos   8,062/3,089   Juniper   17,792/3,080   Christopher  Hoff   9,745/64,244   Mimecast   1,667/1,875   Jus6n  Pirie   4,335/9,378   OnApp   897/1,539   Ditlev  Bredahl   7,992/4,167   SuperNAP   354/98   Mark  Thiele   2,255/19,108   Vmware  Service   Provider   2,244/2,904   Joe  Bgauley   3,174/15,149   Cloud  and  Web  Hos6ng  Vendors  and  Brand  Evangelists   Employee  engagement  and  reach  is  greater  than  the  brand.  
31. http://www.google.com/s2/search/social Why?  –  Google  Knows  Your  Network…And   Who  Has  Influence…   Google  knows  who  I  am  connected  with  and  how  I  am   connected  with  them.    Google  knows  who  has  influence.  
32. Your  Web  or   Cloud  Hos6ng  Site   Gets  Traffic  From   Social  Signals     Visitors  Share   Your  Content,   Promo6ons,   Support  Pages   Friends/   Followers:  Click   Links  and  Share   more   Increased  Sales,   Higher   Conversions,   More  Referrals   Why?  –  Revenue,  Lower  COCA,    Churn  and  SEO  
33. Who  is  doing  it  well?     Web  Hos-ng  &  Cloud  Examples:    
34. HostDime  
35. HostDime  
36. SoLLayer  
37. Name.com  
38. 38   Dell’s  Cloud  Compu6ng  Efforts  
39. HostDime  and  Name.Com   HostDime has 7 employees that have access to post on Twitter and Facebook – from Marketing, Sales, Client Relations and Management. @DanSilber and @vikkiorlando lead the efforts there. Name.com has a Community Evangelist, Jared Ewy @namedotcom He is working on a policy to get more employees involved. He says, the key recommendation is to make sure they “be themselves and converse”. Name.com Example of success. They helped a customer get their domain back from someone in the Ukraine. This was done via a “Stolen Domain” effort using Social Media. Via e-mail interview July 2012 with Jared, Dan and Vikki
40. Social  Media  Employee  Brand  Ambassadors:   An  Ac-on  plan:    
41. • Where  are   they?   • What  are   they   saying?   Listen   • Be  Human   • Be   Responsive   Engage   • Shares   • Referrals   • Rewards   Inspire   Your  Brand  Ambassador    Social   Media  Plan  
42. Listen   • Discover where your #B2B buyers are talking. What social networks are they on? • What are they saying? Reviews? Recommendations? • How are they saying it? What words do they use? • How connected is their community? How influential are they? How  To  Implement:  Listen  
43. Engage   • Your employees and customers are part of the community – encourage them to participate. • Guide your employees. • Participate in the conversations. • Offer help, advice, service. Don’t sell! • Be human. Be authentic, don’t mask your identity. • Be transparent! We all make mistakes, own up to them. How  To  Implement:  Engage  
44. Inspire   •  Make it fun, make it social. •  Add sharing buttons •  Enable reviews, foster methods for generating user generated content •  Surprise them! •  Create inspirational video content •  Create promotions and contests for customers to join •  Be transparent – buyers love to see the story from the inside •  Reward your employees that engage! •  Give them points, days off, recognition or $$ •  Never give up! Silence is defeat! •  Build trust and passion or your brand will die. How  To  Implement:  Inspire  
45. Role Content Channel Sentiment Urgency Product Marketing Customer Care/Ops Influence Response Message Strategy A  Role  For  All  Employees  
46. •  Listen  –  decide  where  and  what  voice  will  work   •  Ask  for  volunteers  –  don’t  force  employees  to  par6cipate   •  Let  them  pick  their  networks  –  let  employees  decide  where    they  will  par6cipate   •  Guide  them  on  a  “public  persona”-­‐  teach  them  the  norms  and  boundaries   •  Work-­‐Life  Balance  Discussion  –  review  the  benefits,  show  examples   •  SEO  Keywords  –  share  the  words  that  maher,  remind  them  to  use  them  naturally   •  Content  Calendar  –  share  the  PR/Content  calendar   •  GaggleAMP  –  use  a  tool  like  GaggleAMP  or  HootSuite   •  Reward  them  –  Points?  Recogni6on?  Days  off?  Money?   •  Rules  –  Publish  a  Social  Media  Policy  that  makes  sense  for  your  business.   •  Disclosure  –  Make  sure  employees  understand  the  law   •  How  to  Ask  For  Help  –  Remind  them  how  to  reach  out  for  help     •  Crisis  Plan  –  Have  a  plan  for  outages  or  when  brand  reputa6on  is  at  risk   How  to  Get  Started  
47. Tool  Example  GaggleAMP  –  A  Great  Service  To  Manage  The  Message   Pre-­‐write  the  messages,   enable  employees  to  share   all  with  a  “gamifica6on”  and   analy6cs  focus  for  ROI   tracking.  
48. Social  Media  Policy  Examples  
49. Tweet  received  In  response  to   content  I  shared  with  my  social   network.   Tweet  received  in  response  to  a   Tweet  about  some  direct  mail  I   received.   Tweet  received  in  response  to  a   blog  post  I  wrote  with  a  ques;on   on    GaggleAMP’s  roadmap.   Inspire   Engage   Listen   Examples:  Doing  It  Right  
50.   Is  your  Web  Hos-ng,  Cloud  or  Vendor  business   social?     What  is  working  for  your  business?    
51. William Toll Twitter/Skype: @utollwi william@williamtoll.com Thank  You