360DigitalInfluence

A couple weeks back, a colleague of mine on the account side came to me with a question:

“We just scored this amazing media placement for one of our clients in [Tier-One Publication]. Do you have any ideas for how we can get some additional traction for the article?”

Harkening back to my days as a lowly Assistant Account Executive, presenting my SVP with a similar piece of media coverage that I no doubt, spent countless hours pursuing and securing, I remembered his response: “That’s great. But did you get the Journal yet?!!”

Subduing my urge to respond in a similar fashion and saving my colleague the dejection that I had felt, I provided a more constructive response.

The fact is, media column inches have been shrinking at an exponential rate. Newspapers are shutting their doors with a few viable ones moving their operations online. To compound the issue, marketing budgets are decreasing as companies look for efficiencies in generating awareness for their brands. What does this all mean? It means that that piece of coverage you secured in Wired or in Crain’s New York Business is ten times more valuable today than it was, say, five years ago.

So then how can we extend the life of that press coverage? Here are some tried-and-true methods, as well as some new thinking:

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We have been hearing a lot about the idea of Social CRM or sCRM as the next big wave in the customer relationship lifecycle. As more and more of us move our interactions not only with each other, but with brands to the online arena, many brands are scrambling to put in place the people and processes required to engage with today’s social customer.

I recently read that the social customer is the one who owns the relationship, and that it is the job of the brand to earn the customer’s trust. While this may not seem like a far departure from traditional customer relationship management (CRM), the process of managing, massaging and nurturing these relationships has shifted dramatically.

So what is Social CRM and how does it differ from Traditional CRM?

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In my 7+ years working with professional services firms and B2B brands, I’ve experienced first-hand, the conservative nature of these companies and their marketing practices. So imagine my surprise in 2009, when these generally risk-averse companies began flooding my inbox with requests for counsel on the implementation of social media programs.

B2B marketers, long considered by some to be two-steps behind their B2C counterparts, are beginning to dip their toes in the unfamiliar waters of social media, as they quickly realize how they can pinpoint buyers, generate leads, and provide more accurate program measurement.

Even as social media use in B2B marketing continues to grow—57% of B2B marketers are currently using some form of social media in their business, up from 15% in 2007¹–many in the C-suite continue to have their doubts. For the past two years I’ve heard from clients, “social media is only for young people,” “my customers aren’t reading blogs,” “my clients aren’t engaging in social media,” “it’s not worth the risk,” “I can’t measure it,” and my personal favorite, “social media doesn’t apply to B2B.”

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