WHEN SOCIAL MEDIA & AR COLLIDE: METHODS, MADNESS & METRICS

Transcription

1 WHEN SOCIAL MEDIA & AR COLLIDE: METHODS, MADNESS & METRICS Joshua Reynolds Global Technology Practice Director, Hill & Knowlton Presented to Gartner EMEA AR Forum, November 2009

2 AGENDA How does AR drives sales in a down economy? How are social media & AR colliding? How does all this impact AR Metrics? What is the future shape of AR?

3 WHAT COMMS CHANNELS DRIVE SHORT LISTS IN A DOWN ECONOMY? Word of Mouth Among US, UK, Canada Tech Decision Makers Q16: Thinking about the process you and your company use to identify a short list of companies to buy technology products or services from, please indicate which of these are the most important sources of information or media that regularly influence you with this process?

4 WHAT COMMS CHANNELS DRIVE REPUTATION AND IMAGE? Top 2 Box Among US, UK, and Canada Q17-23: What influence would you say the following sources of information have on your perception or image of the product or service or company that sells the technology product or service? For each, please use a 5-point scale where 1=no influence at all and 5=extremely strong influence.

5 ANALYSTS JUSTIFY TECH BUDGETS, NOT JUST SHORT-LISTS Justifying budget Creating short list Deciding finalists Finalizing decision All of the above Total US UK Canada Top 2 Box Among US, UK, and Canada Q31: Which part of your purchase decision does an industry analyst influence most (either through verbal consultation or published report): Justifying spending budget on the product in the first place; Creating a short list of vendors to consider; Deciding which vendors to invite to a final pitch; Finalizing the purchase decision?

6 DIGITAL CHANNEL REACH: UK Digital Channels Total UK Among UK Small/Medium Enterprise and Large Enterprise Q41: Which, if any, of the following digital channels do you regularly interact with? % Who Read Regularly SME Large Enterprise Digital versions of traditional newspapers and magazines Vendor-generated web sites Personalized s from a sales rep (not part of a mass mailing) Videos, images, demos and interactive online experiences RSS News Feeds Social Networks Blogs Don t know 7 7 7

7 DIGITAL CHANNEL CREDIBILITY: UK % Who Read Regularly Digital Channels Digital versions of traditional newspapers and magazines Videos, images, demos and interactive online experiences Total UK C-Suite IT Managers RSS News Feeds Vendor-generated web sites Personalized s from a sales rep (not part of a mass mailing) Social Networks (i.e. online communities of people who share interests and activities) Blogs Top 2 Box Among UK C-Suite and IT Managers Q42-48: How credible do you find each of the following digital channels? For each, please use a 5-point scale where 1=not credible at all and 5=extremely credible

8 BLOGS: NOT YET MAINSTREAM FOR B2B TECH DECISIONS More than 1/3 of Tech Decision Makers turn to blogs always or frequently to help them make business purchase decisions Always Frequently Infrequently Total US UK Canada Never Among US, UK, Canada Q49: How frequently do you turn to blogs to help you make business purchase decisions?

9 RESEARCH, INQUIRY & DIGITAL: UK CHANNELS OF AR INFLUENCE Analyst quote in collateral or on comany site Analyst speech at a conference or trade show Top 2 Box Among UK C-Suite and IT Managers Q35-40: What influence would you say the following sources of analyst insight have on your perception or image of the product or service or company that sells the technology product or service? For each, please use a 5-point scale where 1=no influence at all and 5=extremely strong influence.

10 RESEARCH, INQUIRY & DIGITAL: US CHANNELS OF AR INFLUENCE Top 2 Box Among US C-Suite and IT Managers Q35-40: What influence would you say the following sources of analyst insight have on your perception or image of the product or service or company that sells the technology product or service? For each, please use a 5-point scale where 1=no influence at all and 5=extremely strong influence.

11 DIGITAL AR METHODOLOGIES

12 Pressure Spin INTEGRATED PLANNING TEMPLATE: AR + PR + DIGITAL H&K Premise: Communications strategies work best when they are reverse-engineered from the moment of truth when a real-world decision is made. Two-way AR dialogue is relevant at every step. Myth Trusted Influencers Channel of Influence Message & Data Apathy History Need Decision Maker Risk Comms Strategy Bias Ultimate Decision Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration, Insight, & Expertise

13 DIGITAL AR PROCESS LISTEN & LEARN CONTENT CREATION CONVERSATIONS & DISTRIBUTION ISSUES MONITORING & MEASUREMENT ISSUES INFLUENCE Listen and learn from online analyst conversations Ascertain total conversation Identify the missing piece of the discussion Define your role in the online discussion Leverage digital to create content Ask questions on LinkedIn Begin Twitter conversations Blogs and comments Social bookmarks Leverage digital to distribute content Facebook Fan Pages Twitter handle LinkedIn presence Podcasts Webinars Whitepapers Event Information Blog postings YouTube Channels Set up keyword searches and measure pullthrough Benchmark frequency of keywords, share of voice Define metrics for noise in social media Gap analysis Offer a POV on key issues Prioritize topics Focus on thought leadership Take analyst debates offline Move back online once you ve won Questions are more viral than assertions 12

14 AR LIFECYCLE: THE DIGITAL HANDOFF Announcement Inquiry Pre-Announce Conversion Inbound Outbound Inbound & Outbound Long Lead Consult Message Develop/ Test Competitive/ Market Intel Analyst Pre-Brief Media Reference Announcement Day Follow-Up Sales Outreach Engagement Customer/ Investor Reference Number of Analysts Engaged Digital Mode: Monitor Digital Mode: Engage Digital Mode: Measure

15 EVENT BEST PRACTICES Twitter Live Blogging Content Aggregation Anticipate hot topics and prepare your responses handle Create short, descriptive and memorable hashtag for event Begin promoting Tag and Handle in advance of event Solicit responses and feedback via Twitter in advance and at event Monitor and respond to replies and tagged Tweets Assign owner to monitor the activity on Twitter, responding and reporting it to key presenters in real time Retweet interesting content from the community Announce live blogging coverage in advance and at event Assign blogger to write posts Blogger should become familiar with event schedule and background/bios of VIPs Check Internet access before event begins During event, blogger should take notes in the style of meeting minutes : Only post most interesting and provocative points Blogger should add brief insights or reflections to provide readers with a POV Before event, consider which activities will make great content Think: Photos for gallery on Flickr Video for YouTube channel Audio clip / Webcast to feature on blog or Web site Assign owners to capture content Aggregate and distribute content across platforms: Twitter feed should hyperlink to Facebook page, which has portals for picture gallery and video archives

16 Reputation PERSONAL VS. BUSINESS PERSONA PERSONAL BUSINESS Personal authenticity be yourself, but avoid over-sharing Focus on interests and events, not business You always represent your employer and clients. Use the Mom test. Corporate authenticity stay on message, but be transparent in your role Focus on business outcomes, not personal topics You always represent your employer and clients. Anticipate topics and be ready.

17 METRICS

18 AR METRICS: OPTIONS Spoken word analyst audits Message resonance in analyst research Analyst quotes in articles and press releases Number of Analyst Champions secured Frequency and caliber of analyst interactions Analyst satisfaction surveys Internal satisfaction and AR impact surveys Internal testimonials

19 SPOKEN WORD AUDITS Vendor 1 Vendor 2 Vendor 3 Vendor 4 Vendor 5 Ability to Sell Short List Relevance of Message Question: On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest score and 5 the highest score) please rank each of the following vendors for ability to sell, likelihood of short-listing, and relevance of message.

20 FAVORABLE POSITIONING IN PUBLISHED ANALYST REPORTS IDC Gartner Forrester Q306 Q406 Q107 Q207 Q307 Q306 Q406 Q107 Q207 Q307 Q306 Q406 Q107 Q207 Q307 Q306 Q406 Q107 Q207 Q307 Vendor 1 Vendor 2 Vendor 3 Vendor 4

21 DIGITAL AR METRICS: REACH

22 DIGITAL AR METRICS: PROMINENCE Influencer Index Scott Belcher 24.9 Hugh Taylor 23.5 Richard Blumenthal 22.9 Beth Daley 21.6 Michael B. Farrell 21.1 Heather Patisaul 21.0 Heather B. Adewale 20.9 Wendy N. Jefferson 20.9 Hong-Sheng Wang 17.3 Robert Carey 16.6 Aaron Lohr 16.5 Janet Raloff 16.0 Charles Gelman 15.6 Martin Philbert 15.6 Norris Alderson 15.6 David Gutierrez 15.5 Dan Shapley 14.6 Andrea Gore 14.5 Liz Szabo 14.5 Margaret Hamburg 14.1 Twitter User Index DropGuard 27.9 GeneRef 21.9 mednewswise 20.7 seacali 20.7 snblogs 20.7 wilsondasilva 20.7 pregnantmom 20.0 mae BuyVemma 18.6 canadadrug 18.6 Drugmart 18.6 heartdisease 18.6 MonavieMoney 18.6 VemmaMLM 18.6 vemmanutrition 18.6 lovessecret 18.4

23 AR METRICS: COMMON MISTAKES Not mapping to business and marketing objectives Measuring output more than outcome Measuring sentiment over service level Focusing on quantity vs. quality Failing to benchmark progress Failing to normalize results

24 PREDICTIONS AND TRENDS

25 INFLUENCER RELATIONS IN 2010 Boundaries blur, job titles morph Skills keep constant Listen Think Talk Measure Analytics thrive Measure impact on sales and corporate valuation LinkedIn as AR tool EMEA leads Digital AR evolution

26 FOR MORE INFORMATION... Joshua Reynolds Global Technology Practice Director Hill & Knowlton