On a general theme of ‘change’ discussion points were varied, but among the hotter and more topical issues of the night were the mystery, or rather demystification, of social media. The best advice seemed to be to not to listen to advice as no-one has the definitive answer – but where talking through and defining a strategy  was seen as fundamentally important .

The conclusion was that ‘change’ is here to stay. It’s the one constant in life. And its inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Watch the Brand on the Run Video

Great Turnout. Stunning Venue

England at Wembley and London on G20 lockdown mode, the turnout proved there was still only one place to be on the night of 1 April……the Billiard Room at The Sanderson Hotel.

The room, with its low-key clubby vibe, antique silver-leafed billiard table, whimsical, lodge-like antler furniture and original 1950s stained glass windows provided the perfect accompaniment to an evening of industry debate.

More Brand on the Run

To attend the future Brand on the Run events, please get in touch tell us a bit about yourself and what you’d hope to gain from attending.

Thank you to our partners Man Bites Dog, Great Guns Marketing and Brandcast Media.

Creative genius

Creativity is subjective. What may appear great to one person may not make sense to another. Whilst creative genius is considered to originate from a single moment of inspiration, it is more often the collaborative outcome of strategy, creativity and context. So in a marketing environment, it’s not just up to the creative department to be creative. Planning and delivering a relevant and sticky campaign that is seen, appreciated and even loved by the intended audience isn’t easy. It’s hard. That’s why it’s not seen very often. Delivering a unique, interesting, original and engaging concept that works cross-channel is everyone’s responsibility. At Birddog we call a great team of people working together ‘genius’.

Amazing results

To get amazing results you need to truly connect with your audience. Merely knowing where to find them from the data provided or the list sourced isn’t enough. You have to have an understanding of what they think, what they need, when they need it and where they want it. You need to watch, listen and speak to your target to keep your finger on the pulse. You then need to act upon what you know time and time again for results to be (and continue to be) amazing.

Measuring engagement is the subject of ongoing discussion. ‘Engagement’ represents more than ‘number of responses’ and brand engagement encompasses a wide variety of measurement matrices. There is not just one solution to social media and social media measurement – it’s up to the company to find what works for its business.

Intertwined

World-class engagement needs to be fully integrated between all communication channels – offline, online, above the line, below the line, through the line. It can’t just work in isolation on television, an exhibition stand, in your industry publications or on your website.

World-class engagement requires consistent delivery through all advertising, it needs to be disseminated into social media conversations and networks, your internal and external PR. Internal communications need to be the same as external communications so that there are no conflicting messages. This way the audience is engaged at every brand touch point with exactly the same message.

But intertwined? Intertwined is about the cultural linking of communication within a group. Does the communication fit? The message needs to be fully intertwined between the organisation, the audience, the brand, the product, the experience.

World class engagement has people talking about it. It gets passed on. The story will be retold and retold. And that’s the beauty of a well executed good idea.

How many campaigns have failed to engage their audience and which campaigns do you feel have achieved ‘world-class engagement’? How many examples of ‘World Class Engagement’ can you think of? We’d love to hear your views – please post a comment below.

Managing Director, Birddog

While millions of consumers ‘Facebook’ each other every day, B2B marketers remain scared, ignorant and at the very least slow to adopt social media methods. The conversation to date has been about web 2.0 technology – the engineering. But once the technology is accepted, the issue becomes how to use and crucially, how to  use it creatively to differentiate and benefit brands. What do we do with this stuff?

This webcast will explain how clients and media agencies can remain creative in their thinking, approach and use of social media. You’ll see current industry examples of B2B social media practice and point towards creating a more ROI future from B2B social media marketing strategy.

If you’re considering how to integrate Social Media within your existing B2B marketing activity, you should tune into this webcast.

Details

Title:    Creative in a Web 2.0 World
Day:    Thursday March 11th 2009
Time:    15.30-16.30 GMT

Book your place

Book your place today (so you don’t move onto something else and completely forget).

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Networking isn’t new to business. Business networks are old school. So why are we reticent to adopt online networks or ‘social’ networks? And why aren’t we seeing more B2B brands adopt social networking? Complacency? Fear? Based on consumer (audience) adoption alone, businesses have no choice but to follow the audience or lose share to competitors. The key is ‘conversation’ and ‘relationships’. Conversations are what happen in social media. Relationships are a result of conversations and relationships are what build deeper connections and positive feelings towards your brand. Conversation is not a panacea – it has no intrinsic ROI. But it’s a start.

A barrier to participation is that the new social networks take time. Just as the old ones do. There’s also got the added barrier of technology. People need time to get to know how to use a social network. They need time to build up their network and they need time to understand the dynamics of that network. Just like all clubs have codes of behaviour so do social networks.

So what is a social network?

Social networks are places where groups of people connect online to communicate with likeminded people. Social networking involves a collection of activities over a range of different sites. It’s not all about Facebook. Social networks occur in the blogosphere (Twitter), communities (Second Life), discussion forums, social networks (Linkedin, Facebook, MySpace), video sharing (YouTube), and photo sharing (Flickr).

Social networks started popping up in 2001 and now have millions of users worldwide. They’re the new alternative to email and IM as a way of communicating with friends. This trend hasn’t spread to business in the same way yet, but are employees are bookmarking networks to share content, micro blogging to share information, and networking to share ideas and as a recruitment resource. They are effectively creating relationships and positive connections with their brands.

So, how can B2B marketers use social networks for business?

Social networks aren’t just for consumers or for B2C marketers. B2B marketers can use social networking to improve lead generation, create deeper customer relationships, for new product development, for research, as channel for PR, as a channel for 1:1 conversations, to build brand equity.

B2B marketers can use Twitter to communicate with people who are already talking about subjects their business’ cover. This is particularly relevant to telecommunications and technology businesses. Twitter is dominated by early adopters, opinion leaders, technology geeks, marketers, sociologists amongst a whole range of other people.

Linkedin and Facebook are being used for creating business groups to discuss industry topics in their industry. People are connect through Facebook because of its’ sheer size and through Linked In because it is a more professionally focused network. Linked In is also used to disseminate information about a person and what they are doing within a network.

As B2B marketers you need to be selective about which social networks you choose. Targeting a social network is just as important as with any other 1:1 marketing. The difference between social networking and direct marketing is participation. It’s an ongoing conversation not just a single response. Brands can no longer simply ‘push’ their marketing messages. They have to draw interest – ‘pull’.

This is where the word social comes into play. Be social, talk to people, debate issues which are happening within your industry. Learn, share, benefit. Don’t just say you’ve got a great service, send out offers, send out links to your site and expect people to be interested.

Once you have built up a network, are communicating with others on subjects you are mutually interested in and have your chosen subjects, you will build up trust. If someone trusts you and wants your services, they will ask. If you think they need your services, you can point the person to relevant places (on your site) where they can find out information about a particular business issue they’re asking about. Relevant, timely, considerate and helpful. Not pushy.

The benefits of social networking for business include:

Monitoring conversation

Keeping tabs on what your customers are saying about your brand. How much do you know about what your customers are saying about your business or what your prospects are saying about your industry? Social networks offer business’ real-time finger- on-the-pulse way of to manage customer service. They help manage positive and/or negative PR offer insight into customer requirements to help feed innovation and allow businesses to control response and positively manage perceptions.

Audience reach

If the people who use and buy your products are already communicating in social networks, it makes sense that you should be there too, building a presence and getting to know these people and what they want.

Thought leadership

Use social networks to show off thinking and to gain more knowledge from other leaders. Social networks are where the conversations are happening in your industry. Being part of these conversations helps business thinkers and entrepreneurs shape future strategy and innovation. They provide an opportunity for you to be a leading voice in your industry.

Word of mouth

Create a buzz about your brand by being present in social networks. Engaging with people at a one to one level through social networks creates a deeper connection between them and the brand, it is a much more involved experience than an advertising campaign and it’s two-way marketing that creates the pull factor, a more cost effective way of marketing.

Networking

Traffic generation, selling, brand awareness, brand engagement

Inter-office IM

keep up to date on what your colleagues are doing. Are they researching something that would be of value you to you? You’d hope so…

What should you expect?

Results are not instantaneous but Birddog believes conversations with customers and prospects help B2B marketers build relationships. Or is that just something that’s said in the boardroom?  Connecting with people in social networks can turn into business if you create the right relationship. Social networks are an invaluable resource for generating and converting leads through conversation. Social networking isn’t going away. If you don’t already have your strategy in place and want to build relationships with your audience, see profitable revenue growth and be on top of the talent pool for your industry then consider social media mandatory.

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