Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

He swung his expanded briefcase up onto the table, pulled out a media kit bulging with press releases about speeds and feeds and plunked it down on the table in front of me. Pledging to do more with social media isn’t the answer. Getting into social media really means getting into publishing. That’s for you,” he said.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

One of the cornerstones of a social media strategy is having a clear set of corporate social media guidelines or policies. 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. This [Choose. Blog, Space.]

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Guidelines B2B 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 12, 2010

Social media is raising the bar on customer intimacy. There has been no revolution—no breakthrough in process or practice to raise all boats. Social media is making that fact plain. I think so because social media is starting to give us a way to scale intimacy. Social media reduces the incremental cost of content.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Thought Leadership Work Management 100

Chris Koch

MAY 14, 2010

Social media creates the need for marketing to lead within the organization. At least that’s the conclusion we reached at ITSMA recently when we did our social media survey (there’s a free summary if you’re interested). We mean that within the organization the leadership of social media is falling to marketing.

Organic Leads 100

Organic Leads Social Media Social Marketing Organization 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 13, 2010

But we’re in the era of social media now, so there are breadcrumbs in the forest that lead us to a fuller explanation of who Slater is and why he did what he did. Social media fills in the background to the blowup. You can do that on a social media site called Glassdoor. We need a process and people for reaching out to them.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media SME B2B 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 30, 2009

We just wrapped up our ITSMA Annual Marketing Conference this week and the strongest current driving the river of conversation was social media. Specifically, frustration over how to use social media to reach the C-suite. In fact, it’s hard for most of us to imagine these people using social media at all.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Enterprise Management Media 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

Despite all the breathless hype about social media these days, what I hear most from B2B marketers is frustration. For these marketers, the pool of customers and prospects is small and many of them do not want to engage publicly in social media or are simply ignoring it altogether. I think that’s the right decision—up to a point.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

Despite all the breathless hype about social media these days, what I hear most from B2B marketers is frustration. For these marketers, the pool of customers and prospects is small and many of them do not want to engage publicly in social media or are simply ignoring it altogether. I think that’s the right decision—up to a point.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 25, 2009

To be successful with social media marketing, we are going to have to become social media guinea pigs. Social media will demand involvement that is much more personal. Here are five reasons why you need to get good at this stuff before your company does: Social media is real time. Social media is always on.

Social Media 100

Social Media Paid Search Agency Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

From what I can tell, the internet didn’t disrupt the basic model for the sales enablement process; it just moved much of it online. Social media changes sales enablement. Social media changes sales enablement. But then social media came along and it really did change everything. Who should own the process?

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 22, 2010

And that is a huge change in the buying process. In part it is being driven by social media. ITSMA’s annual survey of IT buyers found that this year, for the first time, a majority of buyers in the US—and 75% when you include other countries—are using social media in the purchasing process—especially the younger ones.

Lead Management 100

Lead Management Marketing Management Automation Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 22, 2011

Social media management and innovation. ITSMA’s social media research (free excerpt available) shows that marketing is responsible for monitoring social media and for training, governing, and supporting the organization in using social media. This shift in innovation has big implications for marketing. What do you think?

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management Social Media 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 10, 2012

Mitch Joel has a nice post on HBR this week about bringing utility to marketing and social media. For customers in this realm, I think utility has long meant access to their peers and to expert advice during the purchasing and post-sales processes.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer B2B Social Media Mobile Marketing 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Social media is one new way. Posted in Marketing Strategy Tagged: B2B marketing, ITSMA, Marketing Processes, Marketing Strategy, social media strategy. Posted in Marketing Strategy Tagged: B2B marketing, ITSMA, Marketing Processes, Marketing Strategy, social media strategy. How are you doing that?

Practices 100

Practices Best Practices Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 21, 2011

Social media have created so much noise that it’s becoming more difficult for the good old white paper to stand out. The social media noise is personal. But let’s look at the social media noise more carefully. We have built intimacy into the later stages of the buying process. Buyers have higher expectations for intimacy.

Social Media 100

Social Media Budget Programs Paper PR 100

Chris Koch

JULY 10, 2009

As social media becomes more prevalent in marketing, we’re going to have to rethink how we gather information from prospects. We’re starting to see social media have a positive impact on driving traffic to websites and on lead generation. Social media and lead generation go together. In our recent Web 2.0 for at least that long.

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

What types of thought leadership vehicles (councils, conferences, white papers, social media, etc.) Create a content development process. The key components of the program are: Create a publishing process and calendar. Align thought leadership vehicles to the buying process. What are customers’ areas of interest?

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

What types of thought leadership vehicles (councils, conferences, white papers, social media, etc.) Create a content development process. The key components of the program are: Create a publishing process and calendar. Align thought leadership vehicles to the buying process. What are customers’ areas of interest?

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing Paper 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Meanwhile, social media technology is changing constantly. Tags: Blogging Marketing Strategy B2B marketing blogs Marketing Processes social media strategy social media technology. Technology inflexibility. What do you think? How are you handling your corporate blogging strategy? Tweet This Post.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Blogger Thought Leadership Word of Mouth 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Social media is one new way. Tags: Marketing Strategy B2B marketing ITSMA Marketing Processes social media strategy. Many of the tools are free so the time we devote to them becomes the thing that we need to innovate on and improve. How are you doing that? What else are you doing to improve marketing? Tweet This Post.

Practices 100

Practices Best Practices Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 2, 2010

This may be the ultimate question in B2B, especially as we struggle to integrate social media into the overall marketing mix. Those two things are built into the process. Social media offers some new ways for us to build emotional connections with customers by connecting them with other people and their stories. Tweet This Post.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Marketing Marketing Budget Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Most journalists have discovered social media as an important research tool. Think of the traditional PR process as a supply chain with four steps: Subject matter expert identification and preparation. Those people may receive media training, presentation and speaking training, etc. Or interview them and ghost write the posts.

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 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. Have you noticed what’s been happening to the media lately? How to use social media for B2B (christopherakoch.com).

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

As the media melts away, companies can’t link to or highlight objective sources on the website. The process is incredibly expensive and inefficient. The process of getting subject matter experts placed in publications or other third-party content channels is awful for everyone involved. They do their research on the web.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

But it’s less familiar to lower-level buyers, who are only beginning to calculate this piece as the economics of social media open up the privileges of relationship from cheesy tchotckes at trade shows to online social networks. We should expect those prices to change as social media takes hold among buyers. Account history.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

But it’s less familiar to lower-level buyers, who are only beginning to calculate this piece as the economics of social media open up the privileges of relationship from cheesy tchotckes at trade shows to online social networks. We should expect those prices to change as social media takes hold among buyers. Account history.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

No doubt that number has continued to go up—especially with the rise of mobile and social media. As buyers do more searching, they are stretching the buying process earlier and earlier, to the point where they may not have a specific product or service in mind when they search. That was in 2009.

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 100

Chris Koch

MAY 21, 2010

Social media is beginning to teach us that long qual forms are going the way of the dodo. Especially as social media takes off, we’re finding that prospects and customers have less and less patience for giving us that information. I find much more value in Twitter than in any of the other social media networks.

Privacy 100

Privacy B2B Marketing Lead Ranking B2B 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

Lately, as traditional media fall away, marketers are getting the message and creating content that looks just like the stuff that readers love from traditional media: news, advice, and new thinking that is not meant to manipulate them into buying something. And they’re linking this content to their social media management strategies.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Of course, devising those incentives, putting them in place, and driving the cultural change necessary to make them stick is a maddeningly complex process that helps keep consultants and academics in business. Take advantage of social media platforms to create information sharing groups for salespeople. Information. Make it social.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services B2B Sales Consulting Marketing Automation 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Of course, devising those incentives, putting them in place, and driving the cultural change necessary to make them stick is a maddeningly complex process that helps keep consultants and academics in business. Take advantage of social media platforms to create information sharing groups for salespeople. Information. Make it social.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Consulting B2B Sales Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 18, 2011

They want more strategic answers, such as whether marketing is increasing the velocity of contacts through the buying process and reducing the time and effort that salespeople need to expend in making a sale. A lead management process gives you the ability to get the right content to the right people at the time they need it.

Work Management 100

Work Management Thought Leadership Marketing Management Paper 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 16, 2010

How to use social media to create thought leadership. In the nearly three years I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve been relentlessly chronicling my pursuit of the developing story of social media for B2B marketers and absorbing your comments and real-world stories. Why creating a summation narrative is better than reuse. Create new IP.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 1, 2010

It’s a warm-up for the great dialogues we’ll be having at MarketingProfs’ SocialTech conference later this month in San Jose, where I’ll be speaking about social media and the B2B buying process. All the top social media pros will be there and the focus will be all B2B. traditional media companies. I can’t wait.

Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

Marketers need to persuade the marketplace through the media that the crisis is being dealt with professionally and properly and there is clarity around the governance of the organization. Marketers should focus on getting that message out, not directly but through the media in as controlled a way as they can.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 28, 2010

Here’s a list of things I wish we would stop doing and thinking as of December 31 st : Social media. Social media cause people to waste time at work. Social media relationships are shallow and meaningless. Soon, we’ll be able to automate our social media relationships through bots that can judge sentiment.

Planning 100

Planning Work Management Paid Search Agency B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

It is a process for developing and disseminating ideas through various channels that build a relationship with prospects and customers. What types of vehicles (councils, conferences, white papers, social media, etc.) Create a content development process. The key components of the program are: Develop a publishing process.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Gartner Planning 100