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News and Events In the News Plug In: How VARS Are Using Web 2.0 for Business
News and Events In the News Plug In: How VARS Are Using Web 2.0 for Business
| Plug In: How VARS Are Using Web 2.0 for Business |
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Zencos featured in SAS VAR Newsletter article on how to start using Web 2.0 technologies. Plug In: How VARS Are Using Web 2.0 for BusinessIt’s no secret that social media is a topic among executive and marketing branches in organizations of all sizes and industries. Our last newsletter spotlight article presented a barrage of statistics showing social media’s growing popularity and effectiveness. Take baby steps Each of the three companies we interviewed was at its own stage of adoption. Zencos, a hybrid consultancy and SAS® Reseller firm, entered Web 2.0 by building upon its employees’ outside skills and hobbies. Zencos Marketing Director Brian McDonald hosts a blog for the local chapter of the American Marketing Association. “In it, we discuss best practices and share Web 2.0 strategies. Several social media experts from companies like Dell and MySpace participate in meetings where I’ve had the opportunity to learn from leading brands,” says McDonald.Angela Hall, Zencos Director of Support Services, started a blog in 2005 mainly to serve as a record of tips and tricks for future reference. “In fact, when I interviewed for my position with Zencos, I mentioned my blog. Zencos checked it out, and I was hired right away. The blog established my background,” says Hall. Their personal interest in social media seeped into the Zencos marketing strategy, which now boasts a SAS BI blog, two Twitter accounts – one each for SAS BI and Zencos proper - RSS feeds from the Web site, a YouTube Channel (zencostv) and more. “The momentum of having history, and building a following made it a bit easier to take advantage of social media,” says Hall. Another organization that’s taking baby steps is Cyquent, an IT consulting firm that works with SAS on several fronts. Cyquent offers Web 2.0 consulting development work and builds applications for clients that are creating new Web 2.0 networks. “We are at the infancy stage of using social marketing for Cyquent,” says Sagar Sowant, Cyquent founder and President, who uses LinkedIn for recruitment purposes. “LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for finding the right professionals you need.” Pinnacle Solutions, a long-time SAS partner and VAR, developed a Web site that highlighted best practices and steered visitors toward specific technologies. “It required a lot of time and resources to maintain so we scaled backed on it, but we are still exploring alternate ways to leverage social media,” says DJ Penix, President of Pinnacle Solutions. “We’re also doing quite a bit of search engine-related marketing based on the activity of these sites.” Adopting social media should be done at a slow and steady pace with a strategic mindset such that it serves as part – not a replacement – of overall marketing initiatives. According to an article in BusinessWeek that “debunks social media myths,” businesses need to consider the strategy and investment necessary to engage properly. So what’s the payoff? Just as Hall’s personal blog allowed Zencos to see her technical expertise firsthand, social media tools serve as thought-leadership devices for companies. “Social media provides Zencos a way to get more information out about our capabilities, establishing us as knowledge leaders,” says Hall. According to Sowant, Cyquent’s Chief Technology Officer Tushar Hazra blogs in his spare time on technology issues. “We’ve asked Tushar to publish his thoughts on behalf of Cyquent and educate our customers,” says Sowant. “This is information people read, and it will attract them to our Web site.” Penix warns that the overabundance of content - from personal to business - can cause one who is careless to sound boastful. He says there is a trick to knowing how to say the right thing. Hall agrees that there are dangers. So, she keeps her messages professional. “There’s no proofreading or peer reviews, and your words could be misconstrued,” says Hall. Social media requires discipline in terms of content. It also requires a discipline in terms of time expenditure. The time required to do regular updates concerns some. “If I get on Facebook, for instance, that might take a lot of my time once I connect with folks,” says Sowant. And Sowant already spends time on LinkedIn for not only recruiting but also networking, which often generates leads. “There have been multiple instances where Cyquent began a conversation with a prospect through LinkedIn because a mutual contact – or even two contacts in a chain – made the introduction.” How do you measure? Initial social media strategy discussions should identify what will be measured and what the company’s goals are – from simply making your brand more visible, approachable by customers or generating quick leads. Pinnacle considers ways to track leads from social media. “I would spend a certain amount of time doing it each week for six months. Then, I’d track the number of hits on our Web site or other tools (blogs, etc.) and track leads from those hits,” says Pinnacle VP of Business Development Ken Scales. Zencos’ SAS BI blog has seen a steady increase in hits over the years, climbing 85 percent last year, according to Google Analytics. “Web site traffic has jumped significantly as well, with several of the top 20 referrals coming from social media networks,” says McDonald. Zencos CEO David Septoff created a Facebook profile to keep an eye on his kids who were on it. Within a week, he had 40 or 50 “friends,” both personal and professional. After connecting with a SAS contact that he hadn’t worked with in 10 years, they struck up a conversation on ways to work together again. Additionally, return on investment of social media can be measured by the resulting “business process transformation,” as explained in this Advertising Age article (registration is required for link). From sharing ideas to increased communications opportunities, tools like Twitter can be effective in organizations looking to save resources. Getting started To seriously get involved with social media, read about several ways to sell social media to upper management or just champion it across your organization to participate in the dialogue about your industry, your brand.
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 27 July 2009 13:24 ) |
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