1. Complement with video

All proposals we send have a customised video that points to a branded page on our website where the prospect can learn more about the service and what they can expect. Video provides a full different taste about what you offer. Think about your training material or anything that’s been delivered traditionally for so long. Why not add a link to a video where the person that wrote that piece of  content can expand more on the subject?

2. Always use a URL shortener

We rely on Bit.ly. This service provides you with a shorter (handier) version of any long URL you might want to share. You can also customise the name of the link. It also provides valuable  insights about the amount of clicks your content is getting and the regions where those clicks are coming from. Finally, Bit.ly will generate a QR code for each shortened link. In the example above, if the prospect decided to print out the document he/she would still be able to scan that code with a mobile and watch the video!

Use QR codes also at events so people can easily scan and download your documents.

3. Allow people to interact in your ebooks or white papers

Since Twitter, avatars have demonstrated to be very powerful. Use them in your documents to provide a face for the expert writing the content and invite your audience to continue the conversation providing a link to the specific website, blog or even your LinkedIn Group! Chris Brogan did this in his first book, “Social Media 101″. That’s taking reading (one action only) to the next level.

4. Facilitate discussions with polls

Create a poll and embed it on any web page. You can do that with Polldaddy.com or why not with LinkedIn to direct people to your Group. Share a link on your document and also a QR code (for offline users) that points to that poll. Check for instant results during or after your presentation for example.

5. Include sharing options

Any promotional PDF that you share online should have a call-to-action asking users to share it more. Make it easy for them. Hubspot do this on every paper they distribute.

6. Finish strongly

At the end of any typical document, I usually see a brand, name, address and maybe email. You can do better than that. Include a video screenshot pointing to the resource online, invite your audience to join your LinkedIn Group, sign up to your email updates, share the social networks to connect with the speaker, etc. Remember to always include a shortened URL, otherwise you won’t be able to track your efforts.

How do you currently optimise your documents?

One of my favourites is “River Cottage”, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a chef well known for less dependence on the outside world, food integrity, and the consumption of local, seasonal produce.

In the latest episode, Huge came up with a few creative ideas that immediately made me think about content opportunities for B2B companies to better market their products and services.

1. Pick a Theme

This chef is constantly exploring all the angles of seasonal food. He doesn’t just do mixed ideas and dishes but rather focuses on maximising specific content. The latest episode was about “fish”

B2B pointer: Start by segmenting your solutions (products and services) by audience. If you produce a piece of content that is aimed at a specific target with a crafted title/theme, chances are the impact will be higher. Also more relevant people will find you through search engines.

2. Provide a taste of your knowledge

Huge went to a local fishmonger. The shop was displaying a rich selection of fresh fish. He asked: “What’s the difference between a local fishmonger and the one from the supermarket?” The reply was: “My customer knows more about fish“.
Then, the chef decided to take the fish to a local square where many people walked by, improvised a food stand and shouted: “This man has fresh fish and I’ve got great tips!“. Huge then started to sell the different types of fish by delivering easy recipe ideas. “This boneless piece of hake goes fantastic with olive oil, garlic and white wine…“.  In between the tips, he would fillet, marinate the fish and wrap it in aluminum foil for customers to put straight in the oven!

B2B pointer: Loads of potential customers need your solution (Many don’t know it yet). The way you get closer without interrupting, is by providing a bit of specific education (no strings attached) to help them make a decision and move forward. If, on top of that you deliver the solution on a golden tray, easy to take off your shelves (like the fish already marinated and ready to cook in the aluminum foil) you’ll improve distribution. Also, if people learn about your product and want to go ahead right now, is there a contact form, an email address or phone number easy to find?

3. Go reality-show style

Chef Hugh then went to the house of two college students that knew very little about cooking. He took them for a walk to the local fish market, taught them a bit about the different types mixed with recipe ideas, made a purchase and went back home to show them how to make a simple, inexpensive and delicious dinner.

B2B pointer: Hire a video production team. Pick a new customer or an existing one willing to explore one of your new products/services. Go out to them. Show the problem (customer’s pain). Listen, acknowledge and deliver your thoughts/approach. Even better, take that customer to your warehouse/office/factory so he/she can meet with your company experts.
Video content is very powerful and will certainly make you different. Chop the whole story into 2 to 3-minute episodes and promote them in your social media channels. Finally, do screenshots of the different story sequences and create a short ebook on PDF. The title should describe the problem you’re solving. Get it out there for free download and send it to the customer segment via email.

4. Get other experts on board!

Finally, Hugh shared the stage with two local chefs that showed us how to make a few quick meals with the catch of the day.

B2B pointer: Think about your partners, contractors, sales team, etc. These folks know your solution really well! Let them show your audience how to get the most out of it in their own style. This move will not only give you the chance to showcase the diversity of experience within your company but also, it’ll save you a lot of time if you were thinking about creating content just yourself or your department.

Has any show sparked business ideas for you recently?

A few weeks ago, we wrote a post about how cluttered Twitter is. It doesn’t matter any more how many followers you have since your message barely gets seen.

On Tuesday, I read this other post where Niall Harbison from Simply Zesty, wrote about how difficult it is for brands and companies to get exposure on Facebook unless they invest money in ads. Number of fans, again is not enough folks. He ends the post saying “Basically if you want exposure on Facebook now you need to pay. Simple as that. Facebook have done a wonderful job of locking every area of the platform down so as they control most of the ad revenue that flows through it. Even the feed is getting harder to access and with ads coming there this month things will get even harder…”

Companies approaching social media as a mere distribution channel will have to think harder and re-visit their budget for 2012 if they want to see positive results.

So, what could you do?

Here are only four suggestions that will hopefully make your decision a bit easier:

1. Only measure what matters: This means that you will have to rework your objectives and KPIs for your existing social media platforms. For example, if before you where tracking “number of followers” as a key metric on Twitter, it’s time to bring that to the bottom of the list (or even not make it a KPI) and maybe focus on something more useful such as “number of interactions, number or positive mentions, number of sales queries”, you get the idea. If you can demonstrate a growth in these figures, it’ll be easier to make a business case to dedicate more time to specific platforms that impact the bottom line.
2. Scan your audience: Ensure you understand who are your LinkedIn-company-page followers (linkedin.com/company/yourcompanyname/followers) and who is in your email database. Take the time to go through the names and companies. You’re putting all this effort in social media and as a result you’re building a valuable audience. Don’t think of them as just a “bunch of people”. If you take the time to understand who they are you’ll be able to serve them better, avoid spending unnecessary time pushing more messages and also detect any positive or negative trend on the kind of professionals your content is attracting. Investing time in your existing audience pays off, investing time in pushing random messages here and there (noise), doesn’t.
3. Facebook is no longer free: Those companies fast enough to invest in strategic and creative Facebook advertising will be seen and stay ahead of the game. In parallel, you should keep posting everyday and talking to your fans of course.
4. Integrate as much as possible any offline with online actions: This can take a bit more time but if it’s done well, it could deliver very powerful results for your company.
   Complement all current gaps in customer interaction with online interaction. As a result, your customer or prospects will keep you fresh in their heads. For example: write down in detail your sales funnel. Include every single step. Some people know this as the AIDA model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action). Then, these type of questions should follow: What do we do currently to get a prospect talking to us? What do we do with prospects that are nor ready to buy righ now? Do we communicate / stay in touch with recent customers from the past three months? How and when do we knock on the door again?

In 2012, we will have to  get more creative. Publishing a few messages and having thousands of fans and followers won’t cut it any more. How are you going to make the most of your social media time to avoid the noise?

There are two vaults we need to open (or improve)  in 2012 and more importantly, use wisely:

Open your knowledge vault

If there’s one major mistake that companies and brands keep making year by year is to keep betting most of the chips on “interruption marketing”.  I still see loads of organisations delivering “we’ve been 20 years in business” as their unique selling point or differentiation factor. We can do better than that.
Turn it around by sharing nuggets of the knowledge that you’ve phenomenally achieved during all these years. One of the best ways to do that is through a company blog but, please do not focus on the technology or think this is something for the “social media person” to be hired (hopefully) next year. This is your knowledge vault remember? This will be your golden avenue to share with the world “knowledge gifts” (no strings attached) that will help your audience of prospects and customers to make better decisions, to find you, to come back to you and more importantly, to trust you.
The fact that you will share business solutions (in the form of a blog post) for problems that people have doesn’t mean that they’ll get the advise for free and run away. Many professionals think this way.
Your company blog and outposts (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube accounts) are in charge of connecting with people that are looking for what you have but still don’t know that you exist or for those who know you exist is helping answer the question “why should they go with you?” Your content should make that decision a no-brainer for them, whenever they’re ready to make a move.
Connect at a deeper level with your audience by listening to what they’re saying and write effective content as primary and nuclear fuel to propel your business beyond the competition.

Open your ideas vault

Facundo and I have been using for a few years two main platforms to save all different types of ideas (personal, for the business, for blog posts, new ventures, etc): Google Docs and Evernote. The latter is very handy since you mostly manage it through the mobile app on the go. You may take a picture of something, record your voice or write the idea, label it and it will stay there!
Imagine, in a 12-month period, the hundreds or thousands of ideas that you and  your team will come up with. The problem is that if you don’t save them somewhere, they’ll be gone with the wind and you’ll miss out on potential solutions that could make your business more effective, innovative,  profitable, fun and memorable.
Take the lead to create a space to save all ideas. If people tell you “I don’t have good ideas“, reply: “…tell me all the bad ones you have“, as Seth Godin would say.

2012 is another chance to make every minute count, every penny. Look around your business, your context. Are you saying you’re doing things differently already? Try harder because you are not. Do you have great ideas but the C suite can’t envision them? Get creative or get out of the comfort zone.

2012 is your best shot.

Yesterday I started using the free Cardmunch app, built by the LinkedIn team. Here’s how it saves you time:

* Scan the business card (like in the picture) and if you’re happy, upload it.

* The app will process the data on the card and match it with the same person’s LinkedIn contact!

* Finally, you will get a record of the card at the very top of the contact page and if you scroll down you will see more valuable information about the professional plus all connections in common.

* You can also add notes for each card.

* From now on, all business cards travel with you and every time you pull one, you will get a lot more than a piece of paper

Have a look at Cardmunch in action:

Note: This new iteration of the app went live yesterday. Currently, it’s only available for iPhone and in the following countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and US.

Have you tried it? What do you think?

Anyone could give a shot at using storytelling for their company or brand, but chances are you’re going to spend some quality time finding a good angle. It’s worth it, since it is often this what makes all the difference.

In the museum case, they could have chosen a basic storytelling move, maybe by adding sound to the statues of Charles II, John Flamsteed (first astronomer) and John Harrison (clockmaker). Instead, they decided to go with live actors and you know what made it even smarter? They could have had artists impersonating the very main characters but instead the stories where told by random citizens of those years. For example, a man that lived close to the observatory would tell us about the building, how the Greenwich Meridian was created and why it was moved a couple of times. Then, on the second floor, a lady by the name Ruth, told us about her family business - selling the time - in the streets of London, including what a day in her life was like.
I found that fascinating. If we were to go back in time that’s exactly what we would probably be: “random citizens”. The story became more engaging since we were able to learn history through the same lenses.

What are the takeaways for your business?

1. Pick a good angle for your story: Ask yourself, “if my prospect will potentially look for what’s on my company’s shelves and didn’t know we exist, how can we conduct a story in which she/he can feel identified and closer to my brand?
2. Pick a good character: Give this person / animal / thing,  a name. Make it unique so the message amplifies easier and the character resonates longer in people’s minds.
3. Inject humour: What your character says, along with good body language will make your story memorable. The artists from the Royal Observatory would always do something small, simple, silly to keep us hooked and smiling. Cisco are great at this:
4. Repeat your story in strategic spots online and offline: Maybe the video you made is not exactly for all segments. Think about where can these people see your message online (e.g. specific pages of your website) and offline (e.g. specific events)

Have you used storytelling in your business? Could you name some good examples you’ve seen?

Besides the traditional activities that you have been executing all these years, here are a fresh bunch of social media ideas by platform to boost event results (please share more tips in the comments below):

Main content hub (or Blog)

• Create a microsite or dedicated landing page for the event with all the relevant information. This should be built several months before the event if possible.
• Publish blog posts about the event but more importantly around the main topics to make it more engaging. Remember that there will be a lot of people that are not aware of the event, so if you focus on providing valuable what’s-in-it-for-the-audience content, many will feel identified with certain problems and feel  that the event is a must.
• Consider using Tumblr.com. If you’re short of time, Tumblr could help you launch a blog as landing plage for the event. You can easily publish videos and photos during the event straight from your mobile, on the go.
• Implement a chat widget for live chat. We use Zopim.com. It will give you powerful, real-time insights and the ability to chat with people that have questions before and during the event for instance.

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

Foursquare

Email Marketing

YouTube, FlickR, Slideshare

I started off by reading online reviews but didn’t help much since all the consoles seemed to have clear advantages. The next step was to ask a couple of friends personally. I ended up hearing great things about PlayStation and Xbox (Good bye Wii).
On October 24th,  I decided to ask my Facebook and Twitter friends (with an obvious “I’m-ready-to-buy message) but, since I tagged the manufacturers, I really expected them to reach out to me first and help me decide or offer a special deal. I also used hashtags (#gameconsole #videogames) so my message could be discovered by other people or companies that might have wanted to help me.

The Results: Are you surprised at all?

Xbox, PlayStation and Wii never appeared. Maybe they’re too busy counting money and didn’t find time to help a prospect ready to buy…
Their Facebook pages have millions of fans. The walls are restricted to their posts only so, we could say that based on that setting, they didn’t see my message.
But Twitter? It’s very easy to see who’s talking to you on Twitter. It should be used by these brands as a customer service tool but hey, if you have a PR company, busy pushing messages there, they might have better things to do than talking to a prospect or customer, right?

Our post from last week was about Twitter for business and how your message gets lost. That was proven again in this experiment.
Facebook was clearly the only saviour. The platform facilitated the connection between my message and my friends (thank you guys!). Despite any comment we might have about Facebook’s algorithm, my post was clearly seen and received immediate feedback the very same day.

On November 6th, I bought an Xbox 360 game console (special thanks to Benito!) with an additional wireless controller through Amazon (Better price and free shipping).

What decision/s have your social media connections helped you made recently?

Here’s the deal: The more people you “follow” the busier your stream gets and the harder it is to digest the information. Only a minority of users know how to use Twitter really well, building a true listening station so you can read specific conversations, avoiding the clutter.
There’s an increasing amount of people using Twitter. The number of people they’re following happens to be increasing as well. The problem: There’s too much noise and people don’t see your message as often as they used to.
Those of you that have been using Twitter for a few years: Do you remember when you published a shortened URL in 2008 or 2009 and tracked the clicks along with response time? Your content would have traveled very far in a matter of seconds and get at least 5 to 10 immediate clicks. Now, you’ll be lucky if you get 1 or 2 clicks in an hour. Don’t take my word for it. Gary Vaynerchuk is going through the same problem…

So, is Twitter a bad tool now?

Twitter is still a powerful, real-time communication tool that can help you connect with customers and prospects. You will perceive the most value when people talk to you (publicly or privately) and you’re able to conduct short conversations.  Publishing doesn’t have the same impact and your content won’t resonate much. Last year, Brian Solis said that the life span of a tweet was one hour. I believe, nowadays, that has probably dropped to one minute possibly.

Conclusion

When you define your customer/community and start working on your social media strategy, do consider Twitter but be very careful on the expectation.
If you’re a big brand or company that has a big portion of the audience on Twitter and/or many mentions already, you may expect to receive immediate interaction and faster results. On the other hand, if you are a small or medium sized business, you may find Twitter a good place to listen to strategic conversations and also have a dedicated real-time channel, available to connect with customers and prospects. However, do not count with a quick, tangible ROI.

How is Twitter working for you currently? Share your story below.

We did a post last year about Foursquare for business networking, but I came across a great video interview with a company that provides feedback on how and why they use this platform.

The Corcoran Group sell multimillion dollar apartments, mainly in New York. Their approach consisted on leaving “tips” for specific locations such as shops, bar, restaurants, etc. Why on earth would a busy, money-making company, be leaving tips on Foursquare?

Matthew Shadbolt, Director of interactive marketing, shares some great insights  (short video at the bottom) but, here are three BIG ones:

• “The idea of how you find a great apartment, has much more to do with what’s around the building or apartment itself, just as much as what’s in the apartment. We call this: going beyond the four walls”.
• “We believe it’s helpful to guide people around the city through the lens of the Corcoran group’s expertise”.
• “Foursquare is a great place for us to share local insights and expertise and transfer what real estate agents have always done but in the mobile space and in a more meaningful and helpful way to our audience”

What I love about this approach is that is focused on helping prospects and customers in line with business objectives, rather than interrupting them with marketing messages. By facilitating the access to deals, they’re presenting themselves as a company that knows the area,  improving their positioning in people’s minds.

Thinking beyond four walls

This post is not just about Foursquare. The idea is that you can see more than your own company in the big picture and work in sync with an ecosystem that will make your brand more powerful than if you’re the only one pulling from the rope.

I can hear already Management asking: “So, what’s the return on investment for every tip, tweet, video we post?”. That’s a valid question, but it’s up to you to broaden their views, painting a bigger, more beneficial picture about how can your company be more successful. It will help to first build a strong purpose to back up any plan. In the case of Corcoran Group, they didn’t start with “we aim at X amount of tips that will return X amount of leads”. There’s nothing wrong in measuring that. It’s better to understand first the “why” behind what you’re doing. Example: “We believe it’s helpful to guide people around the city through the lens of the Corcoran’s group expertise”. Find your angle.
Obviously, as Matthew explains in the video, Foursquare is not a stand-alone tactic but rather one piece within their overall strategy.

Tactics don’t last forever. Twelve months from now, the company might no longer see big value in Foursquare and may move on to another platform. If your problem is time, simply don’t juggle with five platforms at the same time. Start small. Focus on small wins that can demonstrate specific results and you’ll gain trust from the board. Hopefully, time and also resources will be allocated to your social media programme gradually.

What social media ideas have you tried beyond the four walls?