Comments on: Social media for Sales and Marketing departments http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php Channelship's video blog offers a fun, simple and easy way to learn about web and social media topics in plain English Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:29:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Channelship http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-459 Channelship Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:04:19 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-459 Thanks for the question Frank.<br>I definitely believe that social media can be applied for B2B as well. AS I mentioned during the live session, to me is all about the content and the story behind it. Neville also made the point that as long as there are people interacting with people, there's no different in B2B or B2C (Check minute 46th from the recording above)<br>Regarding examples, a few months ago I came across <a href="http://socialmediab2b.com/" rel="nofollow">http://socialmediab2b.com/</a> I found it a great source of information about social media for B2B. You can get get studies, trends and very interesting articles. Hope it helps :) Thanks for the question Frank.
I definitely believe that social media can be applied for B2B as well. AS I mentioned during the live session, to me is all about the content and the story behind it. Neville also made the point that as long as there are people interacting with people, there's no different in B2B or B2C (Check minute 46th from the recording above)
Regarding examples, a few months ago I came across http://socialmediab2b.com/ I found it a great source of information about social media for B2B. You can get get studies, trends and very interesting articles. Hope it helps :)

]]> By: Channelship http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-458 Channelship Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:50:35 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-458 Nice one Laurentia.<br>You could indeed. The funny thing though is that if you take social media as this "testing space" so you can then get it right on TV afterwards (i.e Lyon Tea) you may find out later than more people viewed your ad on social media than TV :s<br>Social networks are a great place to test ads, products, services, etc. It's important though that for "testing purposes" in this case, you have the mechanism clear. Remember that way you put online stays there! If you didn't have the "testing" plan clear and that product, service, etc goes wrong or delivers bad feedback... then all that info is out there, making it tough for the team to work on a comeback.<br>Simply, have a plan, listen to what people are saying about your product/ad, reply promptly, make them feel exclusive! Enjoy the journey :) Nice one Laurentia.
You could indeed. The funny thing though is that if you take social media as this “testing space” so you can then get it right on TV afterwards (i.e Lyon Tea) you may find out later than more people viewed your ad on social media than TV :s
Social networks are a great place to test ads, products, services, etc. It's important though that for “testing purposes” in this case, you have the mechanism clear. Remember that way you put online stays there! If you didn't have the “testing” plan clear and that product, service, etc goes wrong or delivers bad feedback… then all that info is out there, making it tough for the team to work on a comeback.
Simply, have a plan, listen to what people are saying about your product/ad, reply promptly, make them feel exclusive! Enjoy the journey :)

]]> By: Channelship http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-457 Channelship Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:38:50 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-457 That's a brilliant question Rosemary. I bet many people in Sales & Marketing are wondering the same...<br>Everything comes down to: the size of your company, the amount of people that will be able to help, the budget and ultimately, your strategy.<br><br>If you had only one member dealing with social media, that's OK as long as everybody in the company or at least that department can learn about the experience as well. If you can involve more staff I would strongly recommend you to do so. This way the adaptation and learning curve would be shorter. Also, imagine if that person in charge of social media for the entire organisation leaves the company? There would a be a lot of catch-up and you'd probably end up going a few steps backwards :(<br>If you are part of a big organisation, especially with several markets in different regions, the approach of having specific teams looking after the communication and interaction of each regions is not a bad idea at all. If you look at <a href="http://wholefoodsmarket.com" rel="nofollow">wholefoodsmarket.com</a>, for instance they started with one or two people managing their Twitter @wholefoods and Facebook accounts until they decided to go BIG and offer dedicated local "dialogue avenues" in each area.<br>Going back to your question, even if you're planing to go HUGE at some point, it's always better to take social media one step at a time :) That's a brilliant question Rosemary. I bet many people in Sales & Marketing are wondering the same…
Everything comes down to: the size of your company, the amount of people that will be able to help, the budget and ultimately, your strategy.

If you had only one member dealing with social media, that's OK as long as everybody in the company or at least that department can learn about the experience as well. If you can involve more staff I would strongly recommend you to do so. This way the adaptation and learning curve would be shorter. Also, imagine if that person in charge of social media for the entire organisation leaves the company? There would a be a lot of catch-up and you'd probably end up going a few steps backwards :(
If you are part of a big organisation, especially with several markets in different regions, the approach of having specific teams looking after the communication and interaction of each regions is not a bad idea at all. If you look at wholefoodsmarket.com, for instance they started with one or two people managing their Twitter @wholefoods and Facebook accounts until they decided to go BIG and offer dedicated local “dialogue avenues” in each area.
Going back to your question, even if you're planing to go HUGE at some point, it's always better to take social media one step at a time :)

]]> By: Channelship http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-456 Channelship Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:17:43 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-456 Great question Guang. The answer is no. Once you pick the tools to engage in social networks and you invest a bit of time in trying to figure them out, you'll find out not only that you don't need a PhD but you could also come up with ideas on how to use any of this tools differently as well!<br>The fact that there isn't a fixed way of using these tools and also that every single brand, product, cause, etc are different, it gives you space to be creative and play with the tools until you find your way around them. Gary Vaynerchuk @garyvee is a great example of this. Great question Guang. The answer is no. Once you pick the tools to engage in social networks and you invest a bit of time in trying to figure them out, you'll find out not only that you don't need a PhD but you could also come up with ideas on how to use any of this tools differently as well!
The fact that there isn't a fixed way of using these tools and also that every single brand, product, cause, etc are different, it gives you space to be creative and play with the tools until you find your way around them. Gary Vaynerchuk @garyvee is a great example of this.

]]> By: Channelship http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-455 Channelship Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:13:06 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-455 Hi Anne Marie!<br>Yes, it is definitely a free tool (for now at least :) Sorry that I forgot to mention it during the live session. Find out more: <a href="http://nutshellmail.com/" rel="nofollow">http://nutshellmail.com/</a> Hi Anne Marie!
Yes, it is definitely a free tool (for now at least :) Sorry that I forgot to mention it during the live session. Find out more: http://nutshellmail.com/

]]> By: Channelship http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-454 Channelship Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:10:42 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-454 Thanks for your question Stephen. Even though we were short of time, your question went live at the end of the session, where Neville and I shared our thoughts. You can find the answer from minute 46 of the recording above :) Thanks for your question Stephen. Even though we were short of time, your question went live at the end of the session, where Neville and I shared our thoughts. You can find the answer from minute 46 of the recording above :)

]]> By: Christian http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-449 Christian Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:14:24 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-449 What are the tools we can use? What are the tools we can use?

]]> By: Frank http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-448 Frank Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:12:48 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-448 A lot Business to Consumer perspectives and examples here. Is Social Media applicable for Business to Business, and are there any examples/case studies? A lot Business to Consumer perspectives and examples here. Is Social Media applicable for Business to Business, and are there any examples/case studies?

]]> By: Laurentia http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-447 Laurentia Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:11:15 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-447 Could you use an ad on social media for testing? Would it be feasible? (e.g. Lyons Tea) Could you use an ad on social media for testing? Would it be feasible? (e.g. Lyons Tea)

]]> By: Rosemary http://www.channelship.ie/blog/post-2150-social-media-for-sales-and-marketing-departments.php/comment-page-1/#comment-446 Rosemary Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:07:15 +0000 http://www.channelship.ie/?p=2150#comment-446 Is it more advantageous to have a dedicated member of staff for social media marketing or is spreading the duty of keeping up conversation with customers better if it is carried out by a variety of employees from different departments? Is it more advantageous to have a dedicated member of staff for social media marketing or is spreading the duty of keeping up conversation with customers better if it is carried out by a variety of employees from different departments?

]]>