Posts Tagged ‘social media’
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
A quick search on Google indicates that surveys about business-to-business (B2B) marketing priorities tend to concentrate on tactics–rather than strategy. They also tend to focus on investments in various types of promotional activities, rather than the greater marketing picture. As for strategy, at least one survey seems to indicate that in a tight economy, B2B companies rank demand generation first and then raising awareness.
What happened to the focus on the customer?
The irony is that gaining deeper insights into customer, or prospect needs, rarely shows up as a priority, let alone a high priority. Why not?
Tags: B2B marketing, customer case studies, customer intimacy, demand generation, lead gen, listening tools, marketing priorities, marketing research, sales, sales enablement, social communities, social media, surveys, usability testing, win/loss
Posted in Buying process model, Internet marketing, Marketing communications programs, Marketing strategy, social media | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Last summer, Robert DeSimone of MediComm Consultants, Inc., a colleague from the Medical Development Group, mentioned that several of his clients had inquired about social media. Recognizing that medical device companies face special marketing challenges because they are regulated by the FDA, we decided to go right to the source. Here’s what we learned:
Is social media part of the medical device marketing mix?
Our primary objective was to learn whether and how medical device companies are using social media to communicate with prospects and customers, and the effect that FDA regulation or the lack thereof, is having on these activities.
Tags: marketing communications, marketing mix, measurement, medical development, medical device, press releases, qualitative research, social communities, social media, survey
Posted in health care, Marketing communications programs, social media, social media marketing | 5 Comments »
Monday, November 9th, 2009
More often than not, when I’m invited to speak it’s about marketing strategies that businesses can use to attract and capture businesses from other businesses. Typical topics include “Getting into Your Buyers’ Mind”, “Developing Compelling Value Propositions”, “Systematically Creating Referrals”, “Online Marketing”, and lately “Social Media Marketing”.
This month, however, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tufts alumni on how to use social media marketing techniques to land their next position. I don’t know which was more exciting doing the actual presentation–or preparing for it.
Tags: job search, LinkedIn, social media, social media marketing, Tweetdeck, Twitter
Posted in Marketing strategy, social media, social media marketing | 5 Comments »
Friday, August 7th, 2009
One of my clients, a membership organization, is facing a challenging problem. The Board would like to recruit younger members to ensure that the organization continues.
One of the issues our team has been trying to address is, “How do you attract and retain new community members—when these prospective members start out with little in common with current members?”
Luckily for me, I attended a social media breakfast in Boston(#15) this morning. There, Communispace CEO, Diane Hessan, was the last speaker at an event entitled “SMB15: The Power and Peril of Online Communities.
This is a preview of
Social Media Breakfast (SMB15) serves up great insights and recommendations
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Read the full post (1334 words, 7 images, estimated 5:20 mins reading time)
Tags: campaign, Communispace, community manager, community members, Community Roundtable, health care, health care providers, healthcare, listening strategy, LiveWorld, Marketing strategy, marketing tactic, medical device companies, membership organizations, on-line communities, online communities, online community, SMB15, social community, social media, social media breakfast, social media communications, Twitter
Posted in Marketing communications programs, Marketing strategy, social media, social media marketing | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 19th, 2009
By Barbara Bix -
Blogs and Linked In and Twitter, oh my! So much information, so little time… It’s all a bit overwhelming.
Imagine my relief when Peter Buechler, publisher of the Marketing Guy 2.0, told me that help was on the way. Full of hope and expectations I set off to attend this morning’s breakfast meeting: Social Media Overload—How to Make Sense of It All.
Tags: content aggregator, marketing research, metrics, social information, social media
Posted in social media marketing | 5 Comments »
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Social media, so what? One way or another, that’s what a lot of people that I know are asking. Here are snippets from five conversations I’ve had in the last week—followed by my own observations.
So what’s the big deal?
Tuesday morning, I gave a presentation on Social Media 101 to the Boston Chapter of the Wharton Alumni club. There was a lot of interest and a lot of questions about how members could use social media to increase their revenues.
Tags: business objectives, campaign, content consumer, content creator, direct marketing, social media, social media marketing, social media marketing plan, social media marketing ROI, social media marketing strategy, social media metrics, social media platforms, successes, Twitter
Posted in social media marketing | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 11th, 2009
Although social media adoption rates are still relatively low—more and more companies are jumping in. And, as they do, we may see a dramatic shift in marketing spending patterns.
Today, most B2B companies are just dipping their toes in the social media waters. Some have launched blogs. Others are experimenting with Twitter. Still others are adopting a wait and see attitude.
Yet, if the conversation at a recent event hosted by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council is any indication, most B2B marketers are ready to move forward. Right now, their biggest challenge is figuring out how to justify social media investments to skeptical management teams.
This is a preview of
Social media adoption: How will marketing spending patterns change?
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Read the full post (851 words, 1 image, estimated 3:24 mins reading time)
Tags: B2B marketers, marketing budgets, marketing investments, marketing spending, online marketing, online word of mouth marketing, social media, social media campaigns, social media marketing, social networks
Posted in social media marketing | 1 Comment »
Saturday, March 21st, 2009
Google the title of this article and you’ll find lots of statistics on who reads blogs. That said you may not know anyone who reads blogs. I believe that blogs are worth writing—even if no one reads them right away.
The reason? When readers are ready, the blogs will still be there. And that’s the power of on-line content.
Blog statistics track traffic and level of interest
I know this from direct experience. According to the statistics my blog collects, a lot of visitors find my blog posts weeks or even months after I originally publish. Most of these latecomers find my site when searching for information on a particular subject. Many stick around long enough to read several other posts. A smaller, but significant, number subscribe so they can receive future posts.
Tags: blog statistics, business model, content strategy, marketing campaigns, Marketing strategy, new media, return on investment, search engine rankings, social media, word of mouth marketing
Posted in Internet marketing, Marketing strategy, social media | 1 Comment »
Sunday, March 1st, 2009
By Barbara Bix -
A lot of the work I do is at the intersection of health care and technology. Yet, I didn’t hear about last Thursday’s conference on Transforming Health Care until a few weeks ago. No else did either.
In fact, organizer Steve Wardell only began publicizing the event in the last 6-8 weeks. Yet, more than 600 people attended—including many local luminaries who not only follow, but make health care news in Boston.
So what attracted the crowd? I believe that in this case the medium was the message.
This is a preview of
Social media works—more than 600 attend Boston health care conference
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Read the full post (578 words, 2 images, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)
Tags: blogs, health care payers, health care providers, health care software, health care technology, healthcare technology, linked in, social marketing, social media, Transforming health care, Transforming healthcare, tweet, Twitter
Posted in health care, social media | 1 Comment »
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
Wikipedia defines social media as “primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. Examples of tools this source cites include blogs, wikis, podcasts, and information sharing cites such as Linked In and Flickr.
Call me old-fashioned but I tend to think of interacting with machines—rather than directly with other people—as antisocial. But let’s not quibble over terms. Social media is all the rage at marketing conferences these days, so it’s fair game for this blog.
What got me thinking about this topic today was an event that I attended earlier this week at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MTLC).
Tags: audience, blogs, broadcast media, direct marketing, effectiveness, marketing communications, podcasts, privacy, relationships, results, social media, targeted messages, wikis
Posted in Internet marketing, Marketing strategy | No Comments »
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