Monitoring B2B:A Different

Approach to Social Media

Presented by Aaron Weber, Data & Analytics Manager

Why Social Media Matters:• An average of 900,000 blog posts a

day

• There are over 3.4 million English-language Wikipedia entries today

• 4-6 Million tweets an hour on average

• Over 30 Billion pieces of content (videos, notes, status updates, pages) shared on Facebook in a month

• Google has over 1 trillion unique urls in its index

Not Monitoring Social Media?What are you missing?

• Unfiltered feedback from potential customers via product information and reviews

• Untapped communities who are passionate on your subject or service

• Current and potential brand evangelists

• Vital information about how your brand is perceived

• Competitive business intelligence

Help Your Business With:

B2C Online: Why it Works• Adult consumers turning more

and more to the Internet as a primary source of information about products and services they are interested in

• Culture encourages and fosters sharing of opinions and points of view

• Barrier-less communities mean more people can connect around shared passions

• Consumers have come to expect engagement from brands and brand agents

B2B: A Different Set of Challenges

• Business privacy issues may prevent potential customers from identifying themselves.

• Specialized industries often mean communities are smaller and more difficult to discover.

• Regulatory issues can make brands hesitant to engage consumers directly.

• The discussions around B2B concerns are often anchored in language that is difficult to sift through.

Solving the Challenge Requires:

• A monitoring solution that can measure the relevancy and influence of a topic, not just an author

• Specialization in understanding the language of B2B, and how to sift content from noise

• Control over how much or how little information you receive in order to tailor resource-aware strategies

• Charting and visualization tools that render disparate data sets into actionable intelligence

What Data Matters?

• Semantic Results: Are you and customers speaking the same language?

• Sentiment: Is the language around your topic positive, negative, or neutral? Does that sentiment come from you? Or from your audience?

• Volume/Frequency• Where does it live?

Case Study: 3PL BrandsArends, Inc. asked us to look at discussion around key players in the shipping and logistics space:

Hub GroupUnion PacificC.H. Robinson

J.B. HuntSchneider National

• Where does their information live?

• What is the sentiment around each brand?

• What is the language being broadcast?

• Do they control their message?

Where Do They Live?

Examine where information resides.

Discover how effectively a brand is broadcasting.

Does the brand control their message?

Use site types to predict what types of information a customer or prospect is more likely to discover on their own.

Tailor communication strategies to target places where conversation already occurs.

C.H. Robinson

Where Do They Live?

Examine where information resides.

Discover how effectively a brand is broadcasting.

Does the brand control their message?

Use site types to predict what types of information a customer or prospect is more likely to discover on their own.

Tailor communication strategies to target places where conversation already occurs.

J.B. Hunt

Where Do They Live?

Examine where information resides.

Discover how effectively a brand is broadcasting.

Does the brand control their message?

Use site types to predict what types of information a customer or prospect is more likely to discover on their own.

Tailor communication strategies to target places where conversation already occurs.

Schneider National

Where Do They Live?

Examine where information resides.

Discover how effectively a brand is broadcasting.

Does the brand control their message?

Use site types to predict what types of information a customer or prospect is more likely to discover on their own.

Tailor communication strategies to target places where conversation already occurs.

Union Pacific

Where Do They Live?

Examine where information resides.

Discover how effectively a brand is broadcasting.

Does the brand control their message?

Use site types to predict what types of information a customer or prospect is more likely to discover on their own.

This allows companies to tailor communication strategies to target places where conversation already occurs.

Hub Group

Understanding Sentiment

Compare the sentiment around each brand. Understand how information may influence customers and how the brand is perceived.

Semantic Analysis:

Break down the language around each brand.

Discover what terms the brands are broadcasting and the terms customers are likely to use.

Semantic Analysis:

Break down the language around each brand.

Discover what terms the brands are broadcasting and the terms customers are likely to use.

Semantic Analysis:

Break down the language around each brand.

Discover what terms the brands are broadcasting and the terms customers are likely to use.

Semantic Analysis:

Break down the language around each brand.

Discover what terms the brands are broadcasting and the terms customers are likely to use.

Semantic Analysis:

Break down the language around each brand.

Discover what terms the brands are broadcasting and the terms customers are likely to use.

Visualization

Render brand pages into a 3D map.

• Visualize influence• Understand brand information clusters online

What we learned:Hub Group dominates discussion in sheer volume, but the message being broadcast consists of nothing but corporate communication and financial material. It contains little to no information around Hub Group products and services.

Opportunity:Re-tool Hub Group’s communication resources to focus on useful information for clients, not just investors.

In Summary:As more and more customers live online, understanding your own brand’s share of voice is key to developing and growing successful

• Marketing initiatives• New business development• Customer interactions

Social Media Monitoring should supplement and support your traditional data sets, not replace them.

Integrating Social Media into your business plan (rather than monitoring as an afterthought) ensures that your efforts support your overall strategy, not just a tactic.

Thank you from

For more information, please visit spiral16.com or email contact@spiral16.com

Special thanks to the organizers ofSocial Tech 2010,

Arends, Inc., and Hub Group for support and permissions.