IBM’s 2012 Global CEO Study

IBM’s 2012 Global CEO Study (PDF) revealed that, currently, social media is the least utilised of all customer interaction methods among 1700 companies whose CEO’s were interviewed for the project. “However”, the report says, “CEOs predict it will push past websites, call centers and channel partners and become the number-two way to engage customers within the next five years”.

Let me just repeat that: Social media will “become the number-two way to engage customers within the next five years”.

The Report’s Three “Key Findings”

Ironically, the three “Key findings” the report’s authors draw are actually three of the most compelling reasons that CEOs should be driving their organizations (and themselves) to become more active, more visible, more connected and more engaged online:

1. Winning the unending war for talent
2. Engaging customers as individuals
3. Extensive partnering to drive radical innovation

1. Winning the war for talent

Top performers research, target and prospect potential employers online – through search and by tapping the networks they’ve built for themselves online. As you know, pay is rarely their top criteria – and never their only consideration. People want to be happy in their careers. They don’t just seek employment: They seek fulfilment. They join cultures. They join teams. They join companies that fit with their values and lifestyles.

We recommend you make the time to get answers to these questions:

• Is your organization even on the best talent’s radar?
• How easily can top performers find you online?
• What are people saying about your company online?
• How visible and transparent is your corporate culture?
• How accessible are your teams?

2. Engaging customers as individuals

Tomorrow’s greatest brands are already driving loyalty through wholly integrated social organizations. Research from eMarketer concluded that “Top executives need to be involved in social media. 77% of buyers say they are more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media. 94% said C-suite social media participation enhances a brand image. And 82% of employees say they trust a company more when the CEO and leadership team communicate via social media.”

Simply having a website and a broadcasting via social media channels doesn’t constitute engagement. Engaging with customers as individuals is a strategic priority, perhaps you should consider doing it online yourself – on their turf, and on their terms. Increasingly you’ll find them on social networks. B2B organizations, in particular, should spend less time on Facebook, and more time on Linkedin.

Our recommendations:

• Implement a customer-centred social media listening program. The “Voice of The Customer” has never been so readily available. Embrace it.
• Use what you hear to form the basis of your optimized content strategy
• Plan and launch a blog for publishing engaging content, from your point of view.
• Welcome, encourage and reward dialogue
• Amplify your content through social media
• Continue to listen and engage with customers

3. Extensive partnering to drive radical innovation

The web is an incubator for radical innovation – from radical new technologies, to disruptive business models. You can search and you can listen – and you might just identify some prospective partners.

Strategy: Get found by seeking

Finding and engaging innovators online isn’t all that different from finding and engaging top talent and customers. If you aren’t already, you can and should be actively listening for discussion or announcements, from within target industries or technology clusters. Weekly alerts from Google Alerts or Talkwalker provide a quick, easy way to start.

When you discover prospective partners – or even interesting innovators – follow them. Share their content socially, whenever appropriate. Wherever you can add value, engage in discussion with them and their communities on social platforms – including commenting on their blog. Getting to know them socially makes initiating conversations easier and doing business more enjoyable. In the process, you’re also raising your own profile (yours and the company’s), appearing accessible, and innovators may well seek you out.

In Conclusion

If you share the CEO study group’s strategic priorities, it’s worth pointing out that they each target a group of people: Future employees, customers and future partners. Each social group has their own motivations for being online – using digital technology to network, research, evaluate and make decisions that will affect your business. From this perspective, it is increasingly difficult to understand why CEOs continue to postpone the inevitable. Now is the time to take your digital leap – while your peers are still holding back.

Linkedin was the first social network (in the modern sense) that I remember joining. I completed my profile, connected with any friends, clients and suppliers I found using the service – then routinely forgot about Linkedin in-between the occasional connection requests.

In the years that followed, Facebook and Twitter consumed my attention. Twitter was my networking tool of choice, Facebook was reserved for sharing with family, friends and a growing circle of real friends I made through twitter. Even Google Wave, Buzz and eventually Plus all got more attention from me than Linkedin.

A Giant Wake Up Call

Click to Enlarge

According to the research behind this truly awesome “The Growing Impact of Social Media” infographic from Morrison Foerster’s Socially Aware Blog – the average social media user spends 17 minutes on Linkedin for every 6.75 hours they spend on Facebook. If you’re an “average” user using social media to grow your B2B business, I’m here to suggest your priorities need rethinking.

Ignoring Linkedin is No Longer An Option.

As we suggested in “The View From Here – 2013 Web Presence Priorities“, Linkedin can be a useful prospecting tool and reliable source of leads for B2B Marketers. As if to underscore our observation, recent research reported that, in 2012, LinkedIn replaced Facebook as the top social media platform among “Inc. 500″ listed companies. If you find that surprising – especially in light of Facebook’s significant user base (In Canada, 18 million versus Linkedin’s 6.5 million Canadian users) – consider this: Most of Facebook’s users aren’t on Facebook to “do business”.

People are On Linkedin to “Do Business”

• To recruit or be recruited by other business people
• To research and explore potential business opportunities – with prospective customers, vendors and partners.
• Linkedin is built for “Doing Business”

Unlike the other social networks – each of which are essentially in the business of selling users to advertisers – Linkedin’s users are it’s customers, which gives the company a much clearer purpose: “Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful”. Clearly, it is time for most of us to become familiar with and learn to use Linkedin’s full-featured business toolset strategically – to achieve our business objectives.

We plan to cover Linkedin in finer detail in upcoming posts, exploring strategy and tactics for:

• How to optimize your Linkedin presence
• How to use Linkedin for prospecting
• How to drive more leads from Linkedin to your website for conversion

In the meantime, here are 5 things you should do on Linkedin right away:

1. If you haven’t already, complete your Linkedin profile. The more complete your profile, the more likely you are to get found in search – including Google searches for your name. I recommend using Linkedin’s handy “Improve Your Profile” tool.
2. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to add skills to your profile. Think of skills as keywords. What do you want to be found for? Your network connections can also easily endorse your skills with one click. Endorsements can be great conversation starters if you are looking for an opportunity to reconnect.
3. Check out your Linkedin news feed. Your connections are probably sharing good business-related content. Take the opportunity to read what they’re sharing. If you find something your network would find valuable, re-share.
4. Update your contacts database using Linkedin’s “Add Connections” functionality. Every connection you add in Linkedin expands your network – and prospecting opportunities.
5. Make Linkedin part of your daily social media workflow: Share content, look for opportunities to connect or re-connect with people in your network.

Last but not least:

If you have any Linkedin related topics you would like Digital Giants to explore in more detail, please drop us a comment below, or contact us directly. If you enjoyed this post you may also want to subscribe to our newsletter.

Apart from publishing content, Google has made it easier for you to demonstrate and claim your subject matter authority in search rankings.  Further down this post we provide you with instructions on how to claim your Google authorship.  Right now, we want to review how you are publishing optimized content to your blog and distributing it through social media.

What? You’re not publishing optimized content on a regular basis?

If not (and please don’t shoot the messenger) you are probably invisible to search engines, or will be very soon. By invisible, I mean outranked and outflanked by competitors who are reaping the rewards of publishing new, optimized content on a consistent basis:

• Getting discovered online by your customers
• Establishing themselves as trustworthy subject matter experts
• Generating and nurturing leads
• Closing sales and growing their business

Allowing competitors to claim subject matter expertise can dilute your own credibility.  Don’t let that happen. Commit to blogging. Making your content more visual is impactful and it’s multiple forms can make it convenient for you and for your staff to take part.

Blogs Outrank Social Networks for Consumer Influence: New Research

According to Technorati’s new research, Blogs were found to be the third-most influential digital resource (31%) when making overall purchases, only behind retail sites (56%) and brand sites (34%). In fact, blogs were found to be the fifth-most trustworthy source overall for information on the internet. YouTube, Facebook and Google+ are the most popular social properties for consumers.

It’s Still Not Too Late to Stake Your Claim

Today, publishing a blog is the single most important step to getting found online. B2B companies with blogs generate 67% more leads per month on average than non-blogging firms. Earning your prospect and customer trust online requires demonstrating your subject matter knowledge, your experience, your passion. A blog is a magnificent avenue for demonstrating proficiency, while educating and informing people about your products and servcies at the same time. Content you own and publish online lasts forever and always directs people back to your business online, other forms of marketing don’t have the same longevity.

Staking Your Claim:

Perhaps we have convinced you and you are ready to get started publishing your own content. For all the right reasons, you’ve decided to start blogging. You accept that publishing fresh, optimized content on a consistent basis is the dominant force in getting your products, services and brand discovered online. You understand that blogging helps you engage with prospects and customers, demonstrate your subject matter expertise and build trust among your audience. You want to beat your online competitors to the leads and sales. Congratulations on the most important marketing decision you’ve made in this century.

Getting Started with Optimized Content Marketing

You’re going to need a strategy and plan. But even before we go there, we want you to take a step your competitors probably aren’t aware of and may overlook for sometime to come. And since we both know you are late to the game, I thought you might appreciate a head-start.

One relatively new and critical element of optimizing both your content and overall web presence is connecting it – with you. Yes you. The online you. The networked you. You, the author and/or publisher of extraordinary and valuable content.

Google Authorship – Your Secret Weapon

Around the same time that Google rolled out its famed “Penguin” update (designed to improve search results by filtering out “spammy” websites) – Google also introduced a new concept commonly referred to as “Authorship”.

Why “Authorship” Matters to Google.

Google needs reliable signals for predicting the quality of newly published web content. So the idea of tracking authorship – associating, you as an author, with the search relevance of the web content you publish – became important to Google.

Why Google Authorship Matters to You

Let’s face it. What matters to Google… matters to you. Search is still the predominant means of getting your products and services discovered online. At 67% market share, Google still dominates search.

How to Claim Your Google Authorship

In order to build a reputation for your writing online, you can link your content to your Google+ profile. Daniel Cristo, director of SEO innovation at Catalyst Online shared the importance of focusing on your Google+ profile at the 2012 SESConferenceExpo Chicago. Producing optimized content that engages will enhance your authority, the author’s authority, instead of only page or site authority in search engine rankings.

Take the all-important first step to claim your Google Authorship, and commit to an optimized content marketing strategy with blogging at the core. If you need help with a plan and how to spread your content, we would be happy assist.

Case in point:

Digital Giants used optimized content marketing to propel Ontario’s injury lawyers firm, Ferguson Barristers LLP to 50% growth in new business.

What is “optimized” content marketing?                  

Optimized content marketing is where content marketing, search engine optimization, and social media intersect. An optimized content marketing strategy comes into play in matching your understanding of exactly what your prospects and customers need to know… with keywords that drive organic search traffic and conversions – then socializing your content in relevant and compelling ways, through your organization’s social networks.

Key Benefits of Optimized Content Marketing

• Improve visibility and prolonged organic search rankings
• Increase impressions and engagement with your content
• Build authority, trust in your brand – expanding your web presence
• Increase volume of clickthroughs, conversions and leads generated
• Lower cost per lead and decreased overall cost of acquisition

A Word of Caution:

“Benefits” almost seem to imply that optimized content marketing is somehow “optional”. It isn’t. The internet has made it easy for customers and prospects to evaluate before they commit to purchase – by searching before you buy. In fact, 9 out of 10 business buyers say when they are ready to buy, they will find you. The majority of those buyers, 81% of them start the process with a web search. (http://www.slideshare.net/G3Com/content-preferences-surveyfinal)

Content Quality

To succeed today, your organization must consistently create and publish content that your audience will find value in. If your content isn’t interesting, useful, or engaging people will naturally stop paying attention. By contrast: Fresh, relevant, timely, and optimized content leads to search visibility, social sharing and interest in taking the next steps toward consideration and purchase.

Optimizing Your Content

As you can imagine, there are several lenses through which content can/should/must be optimized.

• Search visibility
• Consumption
• Engagement [aka your “beautiful content” content]
• Conversion
• Web analytics

We’ll cover each topic in some detail in upcoming posts. Circle back, or subscribe to our newsletter for the latest.

Where are you in your optimize content strategy?

If you are lost, or simply not getting the results you want, consider getting in touch. For a limited time, we are offering qualified prospects free keyword analysis and optimization recommendations. To learn if your business is qualified, simply introduce yourself to @bedigitalgiants or via our contact page.

2013 Web Presence Priorities

• CONTENT – Content isn’t king. Quality content is. Focus on quality over quantity todemonstrate your authority online.
• OPTIMIZATION – Optimize for search, sure, but don’t stop there. Optimize for consumption, conversation, connection and conversion.
• CONSUMPTION – How we consume content is changing. Think tablets and smartphones. Thinksmaller articulation. Say more with less, say more with images.
• PLAN TO GROW – An optimized content marketing plan isa proven way to achieve ________(insert goal here – raise awareness, increaseleads, increase conversions, sell more.) Ready?
• CONNECTIONS – In case you missed it: LinkedIn has morphed from “That resume site” into “The B2B LeadGen Network”.
• LISTENING – In B2B, It’s not just about leadgen. “Voice of the customer” has never been so readily available, embrace it.
• DISCOVERY – Can someone looking for your services and expertise find you or your company on LinkedIn?
• STAKE YOUR CLAIM – Claim your authorship. Demonstrate your authority and prove your expertise. Build your web presence with an optimized content strategy.
• TO BE GREAT – Integrate: Tomorrow’s greatest brands are already driving loyalty through wholly integrated social organizations.
• BROADEN YOUR REACH – Explore more social networks (for yourorganization) because your customers might be spending time on Google+, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest and SlideShare.
• USABILITY – Can I find you and interact with your content using any device? Consumers use a variety of connected devices to access social media and the web.
• ECONOMIZE – Do more with less. Analyze what you’re measuring to gain further insight and drive your strategy.

Your Turn

What are your thoughts? What priorities are on your list?

However, most of my early days were exactly the opposite. I was intensely focused on the next day of work. A few years in, social media appeared on the screen and I started teaching myself everything and then learned on my own how to (survive) operate a business. I could bore you with a bunch of details but I’ll save those for my memoir.

Forward to today – the first official day of business for Digital Giants – our new full service digital strategy-marketing and web presence firm.

Now that the Giants have entered the building- What can you expect?

Digital Giants primary focus is on crafting and implementing mind blowing web presence strategies for B2B and B2C companies, within a variety of industries. Our core services include:

• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Search Marketing
• Web Presence Optimization

Why the change?

When I founded MH Connect, we still used fax machines more than emails. Starting as the sole employee and owner, I built the foundational goals of the firm off of the word ‘Connect’. I worked to evolve and grow the company through focusing on strengthening and building client relationships along with increasing my presence throughout social networks.

I knew that with the growth and expansion of the firm it was time for a change.

This realization lead me to the creation of Digital Giants…

Why Digital Giants?

Our team decided upon the name Digital Giants, as we wanted a name that portrays the ultimate goal of what we want to achieve for our clients – not to mention that it sounds AWESOME.

Although the word “Connect’ has been removed from our name; this is still an integral aspect of what drives, motivates and empowers us to become thought leaders within the industry.

I am extremely pleased to announce the launch of our website: www.bedigitalgiants.com and encourage you to connect, engage and share your thoughts with the Giants through our website and social networks!

Let’s be Giants Together. 

Marc Hill | @mhill

Tim Hendry | @TimRhendry

Brendan Matheson | @GotBrendan

Jon Aston | @JonAston

Lydia Gould | @LydsTalk