What really impresses me about SAP.com is that SAP is willing to try new things and use the home page to sandbox interesting ideas—like incorporating a partnership message into the solution pathway. SAP has also incorporated social media into the site to help sell solutions, which is a smart idea for products complicated enough to provoke questions that static text might not be able to address. But given that SAP’s services and solutions focus on social behaviors (e.g., CRM, ERP), it is notable that the site does not have a consumer-facing presentation of social initiatives to demonstrate the claim that SAP brings people and resources together. Will we begin to see linkage from these pages to the company’s Twitter or Facebook offerings? Given SAP’s interest in trying things out, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’
Five Sites to Watch in 2010 – Pt. 2 – CDW
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010CDW - Online Commerce Machine!
What caught my eye about CDW is that it is stretching the Amazon/B2C model to suit higher-end products not normally associated with retail sale—including a surprisingly large stock of Juniper Network products. CDW is a revenue-generating machine, and it has been extremely smart about integrating social media into the browsing experiences, including a prominent Twitter feed on the home page and a great “Click-to-chat” feature in the banner.
One of the primary motivators for subscribing to corporate social feeds is “to find deals,” so this hits the sweet spot. In the coming year, it will be interesting to see whether CDW really takes advantage of its Twitter feed and updates it more frequently to promote loyalty. I personally would like to see the company offer methods to share on individual product pages.
Have you seen other successful B2B online commerce models? What are your favorite/least favorite features on CDW?
Engaging with Social Media in Japan, Korea, and China
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Though the Asian countries I recently visited are at different stages of B2B adoption, they’re all acutely aware of how much social media is changing communication—making it more about engagement and less about broadcast.
And in response to these new market demands, organizations that use social media most effectively are those who see social media for what it really is: a tool for building community.
For instance, we’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about Twitter recently, but we shouldn’t forget that it’s not the brand name that’s important; it’s the activity that the tool makes possible that is important. It’s the social and business networking—the sense of community engagement—that is the key difference.
Social media pioneer Gary Vaynerchuk recently made this point well in a keynote address for Mediabistro. The first 15 minutes or so alone is highly quotable. Consider the following: “Twitter is a frickin’ marker. Facebook is Scotch tape.” How true is that?
Another lesson is that, despite different adoption curves, global B2B enterprises are beginning to use social media everywhere, so if the existing solutions don’t offer in-language versions or support, copycats and local alternatives are quickly emerging—some with even better features and functionality. Below is a quick comparison of the services available in Asia and the U.S.:
At Juniper Networks, one of my continuing goals is to nurture an understanding about the potential and variety of social media available. It’s easy to get excited about new technology when it appears, but I never let that overshadow the engagement opportunities it creates. After all, “Facebook is just Scotch tape.”
*There is no clear leader in B2B SNS at this time, since being anonymous is a part of the online culture in Japan. I suspect this is because many Japanese people are concerned that their “Internet personality” will be discovered by friends or colleagues. According to my Japanese counterparts in Juniper Networks, some anonymous power users, using “screen names,” have quite a bit of influence in the Japanese social media culture. In addition, many believe being anonymous will protect them from identity theft and potentially even some levels of online harassment. My prediction, however, given that there are over 25 million users reported as of November 19, 2009, is that Mixi may eventually transition to that B2B SNS leader.
Japan: The Changing Perceptions of Social Media
Friday, November 20th, 2009Twitter has been a huge success in Japan as an entertainment medium. In fact, @shimmage visited a bookstore that had devoted an entire shelf to books originally having appeared as tweets! But when I met with the Japan marketing team two months ago, I was told that social media such as Twitter was rarely used in a B2B context. How can a medium so popular with the general public be underused in the business community? Is Twitter a victim of its own success?
Japanese bookstore, Twitter books from @shimmage
One of the biggest hurdles of B2B adoption is that over 50% of Japanese companies block social media sites outright, such as the popular Japanese Facebook variant Mixi and Twitter. The popular conception is that such technology saps, rather than contributes to, productivity. In other words, it’s just for entertainment. It’s understandable, then, if this attitude might dissuade companies from establishing a social media presence.
Of course, we’ve seen this in the U.S., too. One of the most powerful productivity tools we now use—the almighty e-mail—was itself thought to be simply a distraction in the beginning. More recently, instant messaging was a victim of the same misunderstanding. If Twitter has been so easily adopted, it’s only been because of such historical trial and error.
We all agreed that the only thing that would change the cultural assumptions about business uses of social media is case studies of it being used in productive ways. And there are such examples. Cisco is using it in a minimal way—as a PR mouthpiece—and Oracle is taking it a big step further and adding personality, linking to blog posts, and generally being more dynamic. As a result, Oracle’s followers are growing rapidly, while Cisco is receiving a tepid response.
Social media adoption is on the rise, and Juniper Networks has jumped into the game with both feet. Who wants to miss out on the benefits of a productivity tool? But certainly, more companies need to step up and prove its use. It’s still a greenfield opportunity. What other Japanese B2Bs are using it well? I’d love to hear from you.
To tweet or not to tweet? Some best practices for B2B Twittering.
Monday, September 14th, 2009
Tweet Or Not Tweet
Think Twitter’s a passing fad? Or maybe that it’s just for kids of consumer marketing? So did one of our Marketing Managers, Jeff Mattan. But Jeff has gone from skeptic to enthusiast in under 60 days. (Don’t just take my word for it. Go see him in action @JUNOSJeff)
Along the way, he’s learned some interesting things about the value of Twitter to the B2B enterprise, what works and what doesn’t, and how to tweak your tweets to maximize exposure, earn devoted followers, and drive traffic to other social media sites like Facebook , the JUNOS board on J-Net Community, YouTube, or other juniper.net/JUNOS pages.
Before we get into those suggestions, I feel like we should address, in the simplest terms possible, the basic question that B2B corporations face regarding Twitter: Why should we use it? Here’s a short list of the ways Twitter is being used:
B2B Twitter uses
- Update customers on special offers, product releases, etc., to drive sales.
- Offer an alternative customer support option.
- React to customer feedback.
- Offer an alternative subscription method for updates.
- Relate and promote company news.
- Promote updates to the company blog or other social media — new YouTube videos, Facebook posts, etc.
- Use it as a conversational tool for gathering market intelligence.
- Give a personality to corporate communication.
Do you know of any uses I haven’t mentioned? I’d love to hear them. The uses for Twitter are growing almost as rapidly as its users, so I won’t be surprised if there are a few I haven’t written down. But the list above should give you an idea of how powerful the media has the potential to be. Keep reading for my view on best practices.
So let’s say you want to give it a try. How should you begin? With the support of many different conversations I came up with the following seven guidelines for using Twitter:
- Listen to what they’re saying about you. Spend some time on Twitter listening to customers, partners, and competitors and searching for mentions of your brand. Then tailor your approach and messaging to the perceived issues and needs.
- Define your objectives. According to Forrester, “Twitter is simple and flexible; we’ve seen companies use it to gather research information, to spread marketing messages, to sell, to provide support, or even to collaborate with customers on product features. The key is to pick one of these objectives and concentrate on it.” When you come across a Twitter account called Oracle Certification you know exactly what you’re getting. The result is an audience with satisfied expectations.
- Find your advocates. Remember that because on Twitter people choose to follow you, there will be a high concentration of your advocates, early adopters, and influencers among them. This can shape the kind of content you’re broadcasting and also what you listen for when receiving feedback.
- Identify yourself. (Then be yourself.) People want to know who they’re listening to — before they decide to listen. It’s important for everyone who uses Twitter to make it clear who they are and what their role is at your company. With that in the open, they should be encouraged to be themselves and to be friendly and personal, so whoever is following the user feels like they’re being spoken to by a real person, not simply a mouthpiece. “You can be all business,” Jeff told me, “but you need to put personal stuff in there, and show you’re a human being.”
- Provide clear guidelines. Whoever is tasked with using Twitter consistently — whether that’s individuals or teams, and especially if it’s a rotating responsibility — there should be guidelines in place for how it’s being used, how content is formatted, and what sort of content is allowed.
- Always add value. Remember who is listening, and why, and be considerate of their time and attention. When you say something, make sure it’s adding value to the discussion or to the audience’s relationship to the account holder. …… “There are many ‘experts’ on Twitter, and they send hundreds of updates a day,” Jeff explained to me. “That to me is overkill and kind of says, ‘Nothing is important, so I’ll just send everything,’ even though they think it is important at the time.”Jeff is actively working on getting people from the Juniper Networks development teams involved, because he’s found that his followers really want to get their perspective on technology issues. It’s this kind of dialogue that can enrich a corporation’s understanding of its potential market.
- Monitor mentions of your brand. The reputation of your company can be affected at any time, day or night. Fortunately, media such as Twitter help you participate in the process. By monitoring and tracking who is mentioning your brand and what they’re saying, you can react and respond in real time, 24/7, wherever you are.
As always, I encourage you to check out Juniper Networks’ Twitter feeds, and let me know how well we’re doing eating our own dog food. We’ve got a few accounts going in addition to Jeff’s, so depending on what kind of information you’re interested in, you can sign up for one or more. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, let me know!
- Corporate – http://twitter.com/junipernetworks
- JUNOS Adoption – http://twitter.com/junosjeff
- Solutions Engineering – http://twitter.com/junipersolution
- Australia – http://twitter.com/juniper_aus
- My own – http://twitter.com/socialtis
Suggested reading:
- Diane Clarkson, “How Twitter Can Influence eBusiness,” Forrester, May 14, 2009
- Jeremiah Owyang, “Using Twitter for Groundswell Objectives,” March 3, 2009
