Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

Unless the company they work for is a startup or otherwise desperate for attention, these people tend to be ground down by the risk management aspect of their jobs over time. Much like IT people, they don’t hear much from anyone inside their companies unless something goes wrong. The emphasis is on contacting rather than helping.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

MAY 19, 2014

MakerBot , a manufacturer of desktop 3D printers priced at the level of a decent laptop, is the best known of companies producing a product that has already been raised to PC-level stature in terms of its potential impact on business and society. What Caused the F-Bomb. A CEO Who Lived the Crisis in Education. Bringing Playfulness to Schools.

Conference 100

Conference Education Viral Marketing Class 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 8, 2011

The great thing about the experience was that this company is already doing social media. This company has established a highly visible presence in social media—indeed, it has won an award for it. We could all use some way to gauge our progress, especially in large, dispersed companies and marketing organizations.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Paid Search Agency PR 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 19, 2010

I want to do something ambitious and I’m hoping you’ll help. First, here’s what we do as part of monitoring: Track conversations about your company. You need to know what’s being said about your company online. Trouble is, we’re finding in our research that most companies stop here. Image by HubSpot via Flickr.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

APRIL 17, 2009

For a company’s most important (i.e., Our research shows that customers don’t think their providers do a very good job of helping them with their business issues. Marketers could help with that problem. And customers have an opportunity to get help and ideas on the issues that are most pressing to them.

Planning 100

Planning Process Work Management Verticals 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 25, 2011

Some management consulting companies have the commitment to ideas baked into the culture—you simply will not survive as a consultant if you do not create ideas that lead to new IP. Some companies get pretty formal about this, creating invitation-only SME councils with entry requirements. What do I mean by an idea organization?

Social Media 100

Social Media Organization Peer-to-peer SME 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 10, 2009

See what you think of my answers: How did thought leadership initiatives in companies begin? Other companies have adopted pieces of the academic research publishing model for their own thought leadership marketing. Why did companies start focusing on it? The journals have boards made up of top academics in a given field.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Work Management 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 16, 2009

These marketers take a direct role in finding and supporting internal bloggers and in helping them develop content. Most say that they try to suggest topic areas that fit with the company’s overall thought leadership strategy. And visitors will frame their expectations of the blogs through the expectations they have of the company.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Blogger Thought Leadership Word of Mouth 100

Chris Koch

JULY 28, 2010

Companies who want to add their voices the blogosphere have a decision to make: Do we allow individual employees to be the dominant force in our efforts, or do we keep the focus on the company by creating group-authored blogs? Some companies have decided to let a thousand flowers bloom—i.e., Image via Wikipedia.

Blogger 100

Blogger Wikipedia Work Management Social Media 100

Chris Koch

MAY 14, 2010

We’re seeing companies use social media to bring customers into the product and service development processes to collaborate on new ideas and improvements. We’re seeing companies use social media for customer support. And even small companies can benefit from having a social media council. Ideas and content.

Organic Leads 100

Organic Leads Social Media Social Marketing Organization 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

Another prominent Forrester social media analyst, Josh Bernoff, who was a co-author of perhaps the most influential book about social media to date, Groundswell , puts it succinctly in his blog post about the controversy: “If you’re creating content for a content company, that company ought to host your blog.”. Oh wait, I forgot.

Social Media 100

Social Media Forrester Media Transparency 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. Marketing is the default head of social media management in most companies. That’s why marketers have to step in and help out. Companies have strategies and goals. It’s no surprise.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 6, 2009

The winners get serious recognition for their work that helps their companies and their careers. Creating the narrative helps project members focus their efforts and will help sell the effort to others inside the business and with customers. We humans are wired for stories. What are the motivating factors?

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Budget Programs Business 100

Chris Koch

MAY 1, 2009

That can help, but salespeople and marketers need more concrete reasons to work together. Marketing can help. Marketing develops an institutional memory that can help salespeople create shortcuts by identifying what has worked in the past and what has not, what resources may be appropriate, and what company assets exist that can help.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling B2B Sales Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 8, 2010

In the course of hundreds of interviews with companies over my career, the “yes but we’re different” mantra was a familiar refrain. There is only one objective in social media and it is common across all companies—even across the infamous divide between B2B and B2C: Create learning networks. Not in our businesses, though.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 4, 2011

Publishers are left with a trickle of revenue and B2B companies discover just how uninterested a generic online audience is in their products and services. Does that help clarify what to do next? It’s a no win for everybody except the ad agencies. Even better, more than 50% of this group said they would consider sole-sourcing the deal.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

I heard a great definition from my former ITSMA colleague Jeff Sands the other day: Sales enablement is helping salespeople be more credible with customers. Marketers helped salespeople put words to the insanely complex products and services they were trying to sell. What do I mean by sales enablement? But then the internet came along.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

For many companies, this translates into a wait-and-see approach to social media. For these companies, there is little reason to twitter into the wind. But social media is a vast public platform where eventually the conversation is going to get around to our companies—if it hasn’t already. I think that’s short sighted.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

For many companies, this translates into a wait-and-see approach to social media. For these companies, there is little reason to twitter into the wind. But social media is a vast public platform where eventually the conversation is going to get around to our companies—if it hasn’t already. I think that’s short sighted.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

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. Answers to these questions will help drive the structure of the program and provide a foundation for achieving ROI goals.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing Paper 100

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. Answers to these questions will help drive the structure of the program and provide a foundation for achieving ROI goals.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 18, 2009

Giving up control of what is being said about your company is difficult for most marketers. The first hurdle for B2B marketers in developing a social media strategy is presenting a case for why their companies should be involved in social media at all. Social media is different. The focus shifts from messages to conversations.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

The best documents don’t just tell employees what not to do; they also tell them what they should be doing to further the marketing goals of the company. Here are some recommendations based on a cross-section of social media policies from B2B companies, including social media policy examples from some leading B2B companies.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Guidelines B2B 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 12, 2010

The theory is that every company competes in three disciplines: Customer intimacy. These are companies that go out of their way to build close customer relationships. Customers rely on these companies to deliver reliability and quality at a low price. Operational excellence. Product leadership. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Thought Leadership Work Management 100

Chris Koch

JULY 16, 2010

I can’t name the specific companies because we’re still in the midst of the judging process, but it doesn’t really matter because the stuff is so innovative. Another company is using automated algorithms to seek out and deliver targeted customer and competitive intelligence to salespeople—on a daily basis! What is a waking dream?

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Wikipedia 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

JUNE 25, 2010

How can we help customers be extroverts? What if you post a thread on a topic that your company doesn’t want you talking about? What if you wind up looking like an idiot in front of your peers and embarrassing yourself and your company? Those numbers look bad, but we have to think of them from our customers’ perspectives.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Media Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

One of the reasons that companies used to like to advertise in publications like Fortune and BusinessWeek and in trade magazines like CIO was that they could associate their companies with the smart content that these publications produce. For many B2B companies, idea marketing is a check box on a marketing list.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

I helped host an ITSMA round table this week and a near universal complaint from our B2B technology clients was how difficult it is to launch new services in a fast, efficient way. Our client said that in the past he has devoted most of his energies to the “how” battle because his company prides itself on seamless delivery.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

I helped host an ITSMA round table this week and a near universal complaint from our B2B technology clients was how difficult it is to launch new services in a fast, efficient way. Our client said that in the past he has devoted most of his energies to the “how” battle because his company prides itself on seamless delivery.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

The ad revenues that once funded coverage of every arcane niche of technology have dried up, and so has the content that could have mentioned our companies. Demand for that content hasn’t gone away however, and companies that can provide an adequate alternative will grow their businesses more than those that can’t. Audit content.

Planning 100

Planning B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

The ad revenues that once funded coverage of every arcane niche of technology have dried up, and so has the content that could have mentioned our companies. Demand for that content hasn’t gone away however, and companies that can provide an adequate alternative will grow their businesses more than those that can’t. Audit content.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Planning Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 3, 2014

The NBA’s stats.NBA.com website, which houses player and team statistics from the league’s 67-year history, has helped double time spent on NBA.com while generating more than 9.5 Approximately 70% of the traffic to NFL.com comes from mobile devices – up from 10% just a few years ago.

Planning 100

Planning Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 23, 2009

This is helpful during important periods like new offering launches or in the aftermath of a crisis. This helps you decide which blogs you’d like to do outreach with, for example. Here is a list of companies that do some form of social media monitoring: AlterianTechrigy. Determine share of attention. Track propagation.

Social Media 100

Social Media Tools Media RSS 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 30, 2010

At ITSMA, we’re seeing four main reasons for doing it: Help. Is there a reason for you to offer whatever help you give to customers through mobile? Could your salespeople benefit from mobile access to a sales enablement application giving them advice in the field for helping customers?

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Wiki 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. That requires a culture shift in the company and new skills for marketers and employees. PR people meanwhile should use their thick skins and relationship skills to help build the conversation in social media.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 26, 2009

In my last post, I hope I convinced you why you should establish a personal presence in social media even if your company hasn’t done so yet. Paul has been a B2B marketer for years for companies like BearingPoint and Avaya and has accomplished quite a bit with social media in those jobs. I hope this post is helpful.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Personalization 100