Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

Recently, I was asked by a former ITSMA client to help put together a plan for a thought leadership program for a B2B technology company that sells both products and services. It forced me to think about all the components necessary to build and sustain a thought leadership strategy. Build a thought leadership network.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

JULY 28, 2010

An interesting article this week, Brand Building, Beyond Marketing, essentially argues that the issue of brand has gotten beyond the control of marketing and is increasingly embodied in the actions of individual employees. Individuals can afford to play it safe if they want to build and keep their audiences.

Blogger 100

Blogger Wikipedia Work Management Social Media 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 30, 2010

While it may be possible to build an outstanding standalone app that wows your audience, I think the chances are pretty similar to an individual seed’s chances of surviving to become a mature oak—really slim. At ITSMA, we’re seeing four main reasons for doing it: Help. I think that’s how we have to view mobile apps for B2B marketing.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Wiki 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 9, 2010

For them to be successful, we need to help them establish their voices in a blog. SMEs with deep expertise in a particular niche can build a strong and loyal following—if not necessarily huge blog traffic. Being the first with the latest news builds authority. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how to get others to blog.

SME 100

SME Aggregators Blogger Social Media 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

More importantly, they see smart people from SAP featured in it and that helps everybody. Proving that this kind of engagement helps make customers more likely to consider the company is the next big hurdle that marketers (myself included) have to cross. I’m Watching For… Great ideas to help businesses and IT.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation B2B Marketing Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

I’m going to share my experiences in helping to build an engine for developing and disseminating good ideas for SAP (with names changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike). First, because I’ve left ITSMA and joined SAP , where I will focus on marketing the good ideas of the many subject matter experts there.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Social Media Twitter 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 12, 2010

These are companies that go out of their way to build close customer relationships. They are focused on lifetime customer value and are willing to incur short-term costs in order to build long-term loyalty and satisfaction—Nordstrom and Amex are a couple of B2C examples. Operational excellence. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Thought Leadership Work Management 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 22, 2010

Here are some metrics, mostly for blogs, that help build engagement with customers and prospects. Owning” a keyword term in Google searches is nice, but building traffic to your blog through references on other blogs and websites is the key to sustained, long-term growth. Build cross-referencing across social media tools.

Social Media 100

Social Media ROI Lead Ranking RSS 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 18, 2012

And many who do would be better off getting some help. I’m excited about the prospect of not just presenting ideas to the SCN community but also in building ideas with this community. I wanted to present the core arguments here to see what you think.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Communities Transparency 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 26, 2009

So now that we have established your personal social media goal—to be a valued member of the online B2B marketing guild—let’s talk about how you go about building your presence. Following” is a non-threatening way to build up your network of contacts without having to know any of them. Pick a tool for managing Twitter.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Personalization 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 26, 2010

One of the biggest challenges for B2B social media marketers isn’t creating content, it’s helping others create content. And while marketers can create some social media content, they can (and should) rely on their subject matter experts (SMEs) to create most of the stuff that’s going to build trust and relationships with customers.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

Then you need to get those people’s permission to build your network further. And the opportunity for real relationship building—which is what social media is supposed to be all about—in this model is limited. And the viral model acts as a nice front end for building a deeper relationship through the permission model.

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

Then you need to get those people’s permission to build your network further. And the opportunity for real relationship building—which is what social media is supposed to be all about—in this model is limited. And the viral model acts as a nice front end for building a deeper relationship through the permission model.

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 18, 2009

Social media is another channel for making the connection and building the relationship with customers. As more buyers participate in social media, and as the tools and possibilities for collaboration continue to improve, social media is becoming an indispensable channel for marketers to help buyers find one another and market to them.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 6, 2009

For us, it’s an opportunity to build a closer relationship with the winners and generate some great thought leadership. The winners get serious recognition for their work that helps their companies and their careers. But marketing should also be helping drive the business strategy and execution of the company.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Budget Programs Business 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 8, 2011

Here’s my take (I hope you will help me with your thoughts). The organization views social media as important to relationship building. We could all use some way to gauge our progress, especially in large, dispersed companies and marketing organizations. There is cultural permission to speak.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Paid Search Agency PR 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

If the vendors can’t help with the integration, IT can. This is where social media tools are helpful. But developing and disseminating content that builds relationships—think publishers and subscribers—takes different skills. You don’t even need to involve IT anymore. Marketing needs a better relationship with IT.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

In B2B, that’s not going to build relationships with customers. First, it focuses the agency on some clear goals—cranking out press releases and getting press mentions—and gives the guard dogs a degree of separation that helps with risk management. The emphasis is on contacting rather than helping. at the expense of helping.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

JULY 10, 2009

In my experience, IT prospects tend to lie about their titles and their level of interest because they’re afraid that they won’t get the best content or treatment if they admit that they’re trapped on the help desk instead of wielding that big stick of decision-making. But is that lead totally useless? I don’t think so.

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JULY 16, 2010

Because you are helping them create a waking dream to play with. I’m guessing this is one of the reasons that bad books sometimes make great movies; the director has that much more freedom to create that waking dream for him or herself and then build it for the rest of us. What is a waking dream?

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

you need to know how to monitor well before you can engage well, and you certainly need to know how to engage well before you can start building community. This week, Jeremiah Owyang published a great framework of things that marketers have to do to listen well—including a list of vendors who help marketers listen.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

you need to know how to monitor well before you can engage well, and you certainly need to know how to engage well before you can start building community. This week, Jeremiah Owyang published a great framework of things that marketers have to do to listen well—including a list of vendors who help marketers listen.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

We’re building the publishing engines in our marketing groups, but I think we’re leaving this larger issue of themes and marketing by association out of the process.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

Marketers can replace offers with survey questions once in awhile to help build an understanding of timely issues to drive future content. Most magazines do annual reader surveys to ask subscribers what they think of the magazine and what could be improved. Through these surveys, they construct archetypes of the typical reader.

Planning 100

Planning B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

Marketers can replace offers with survey questions once in awhile to help build an understanding of timely issues to drive future content. Most magazines do annual reader surveys to ask subscribers what they think of the magazine and what could be improved. Through these surveys, they construct archetypes of the typical reader.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Planning Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

They have genetic tendencies towards extroversion, confidence, hope (some would say denial), relationship building, and the real differentiator: emotional perception—usually expressed as the ability to “read people” (and one’s self). I do think there is a gene for sales. Great salespeople truly are born, not made. Information.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Consulting B2B Sales Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

They have genetic tendencies towards extroversion, confidence, hope (some would say denial), relationship building, and the real differentiator: emotional perception—usually expressed as the ability to “read people” (and one’s self). I do think there is a gene for sales. Great salespeople truly are born, not made. Information.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services B2B Sales Consulting Marketing Automation 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

But bad behavior inevitably makes its way back to the brand, while good behavior demonstrates that a company is able to handle negative feedback gracefully and builds empathy. For example, Cisco has an e-mail alias called “internet postings” where employees can get help. Make it clear: no disparaging remarks about third parties—ever.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Guidelines B2B 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 16, 2009

I’ve already developed what I think is a powerful network of B2B and social media thinkers that is in essence an ad hoc online community.And I have lots of people working to build that community for me. I immediately started to feel a responsibility to start Twittering links that I think could help others in my position.

Twitter 100

Twitter Web 2.0 Social Media Communities 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

And in Gartner’s defense, sometimes IT can be so complex and confusing that it really does help to have an acronym for talking about things. So I’d like to try, with your help, to nip TLM in the bud before it gains the power to make us all miserable. Build an idea network. Now, I don’t mean to single out Gartner here.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Gartner Planning 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 1, 2010

Ideas that educate customers and prospects about important business and technology issues and help them solve those issues—without selling. Another way is by picking themes to help guide your TL development. Smarter Planet helps SMEs at IBM focus. Marketing is helping develop offerings. Please add your thoughts!

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 3, 2010

Writing style guides can also help, but who has time to plow through them? Gaining a reputation as the first with the latest news in your chosen subject area increases your relevance among others in your network and helps attract new followers. But developing a social media voice is a more complicated proposition.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 3, 2010

Writing style guides can also help, but who has time to plow through them? Our helpful deeds in social media are often seen by many others who spread the help farther and enhance our reputation. But developing a social media voice is a more complicated proposition. But these policies are more like guardrails than signposts.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

JULY 9, 2010

Case studies are great for building trust, but they don’t do something that video games do by default: put the user at the center of the experience. It’s hard to utter thought leadership in the same breath as video games, avatars, and conversation balloons, but all of these pieces have converged. Think about it.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Marketing Management Cross-Selling 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

Digital marketing has reached the budget tipping point—with help from the recession. Marketers are building online communities—fast. By October, 77% were using online as a recession fighter. Overall, more than 77% of marketers say they plan to increase their online spending in 2009-2010, according to ITSMA’s Marketing Pulse survey.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Work Management 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 16, 2011

Add the “s” on the end, and you describe the crapmeisters who try to convince you that you need their help. The dead guy(s) who used to build them or the president? Put those three letters together and you know what I’m talking about, right? So why not just spell it out? The quality of your marketing ideas and c#ntent do.

Wikipedia 100

Wikipedia Opinions CAN-SPAM Search Marketing 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 16, 2011

Add the “s” on the end, and you describe the crapmeisters who try to convince you that you need their help. The dead guy(s) who used to build them or the president? Put those three letters together and you know what I’m talking about, right? So why not just spell it out? The quality of your marketing ideas and c#ntent do.

Wikipedia 100

Wikipedia Opinions CAN-SPAM Search Marketing 100