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. But then social media came along and it really did change everything. But then social media came along and it really did change everything.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 23, 2009

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I think that monitoring social media is one of four key aspects of a social media engagement strategy. Social media monitoring is a way to figure out what’s being said about your brand and reveals opportunities for engaging in conversations with customers and influencers.

Social Media 100

Social Media Tools Media RSS 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 9, 2014

Blogs, social media, and even videos have much more power to offend people. In social media the conflict can become exponentially worse because it can be crowd sourced. From infancy, we are trained to respond to social cues. However, e-mail is not the only culprit here. Slices the workday into impenetrable chunks.

Distribution 100

Distribution Training Opinions Trust Marketing 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

MARCH 19, 2010

I’d like to create a guide for how to use social media in B2B that does not involve talking about the specific tools—as least not in the top line. I think it’s important to try to do this if we’re going to get social media integrated with the rest of marketing. Find and track the relevant conversations in social media and online.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Media 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. And until Hurd was fired, his picture went next to that 2.4

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B SME 100

Chris Koch

MAY 6, 2011

Measuring influence is the new obsession in the social media world—adding another layer of anxiety to the dark cloud of existential dread that is marketing ROI. Social media present us as individuals seeking status within a community, which is something that humans have been working at since our days as monkeys. Image via Wikipedia.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing Work Management Media 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 16, 2011

It got me thinking, what if a similar easy button comes along for online marketing? The “voluntary policing” being done by the ad industry today online is at best an uneasy truce with an internet public not yet bothered enough, too lazy, or too uniformed to do anything about shutting off the cookie oven for good. They really do.

B2B 100

B2B Privacy Click Rate Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 16, 2011

It got me thinking, what if a similar easy button comes along for online marketing? The “voluntary policing” being done by the ad industry today online is at best an uneasy truce with an internet public not yet bothered enough, too lazy, or too uniformed to do anything about shutting off the cookie oven for good. They really do.

B2B 100

B2B Privacy Click Rate Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 5, 2010

We’re seeing mobile be part of an integrated approach to social media, not as a standalone. The other company has a mobile application for its private, gated online community so that mobile members can keep up with message boards and forums that change frequently (there are over 100 subject-oriented communities within the site).

Wiki 100

Wiki Urgency Marketing Mobile Marketing Content 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 16, 2010

We just completed our ITSMA survey on social media. Marketing owns social media management. In our survey, we asked, “In your company, is marketing the catalyst for social media being used by others in the company (product development, HR, etc.)?” Will social become a silo within marketing? But one finding sticks out.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Social Marketing 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. All through 2010, marketers have been telling us that they are having a harder time getting their content noticed.

Social Media 100

Social Media Budget Programs Paper Stats 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 12, 2009

We’ve all heard a lot of debate lately about whether social media is an evolution or a revolution. Look at it this way and social media inevitably becomes evolution, as social media researcher Josh Chasin convincingly argues here. But I think we lose sight of the revolution by looking at social media in isolation.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Paid Search Agency Viral Marketing 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

APRIL 28, 2014

For example, we figure out how to get a free WordPress blog ourselves online or through word of mouth and then we learn how to collaborate with others through social media. Pretend the Industrial Revolution Never Happened.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation Word of Mouth Internet Marketing Cross-Selling 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

Social media are growing up. Clearly, there’s a growing hunger for thought leadership in social media. Our prospects and customers want us to cut through the noise of social media just as they’ve wanted us to cut through the noise of every other communications channel that came before.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Thought Leadership Social Media Storytelling 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Most journalists have discovered social media as an important research tool. Beyond discovering and prepping spokespeople for the company, PR becomes responsible for making them nodes on the online network that can be easily found by influencers and customers. Examples of how you do this are: Make them visible on social networks.

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

Buyers are spending much more time online than they used to. No doubt that number has continued to go up—especially with the rise of mobile and social media. What does online search have to do with selling? A (fairly old) study by Forbes and Google found that 80% of C-level executives perform at least three web searches per day.

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 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

JUNE 16, 2009

The two subject areas I’m most interested in in my role at ITSMA are B2B marketing in general and social media in particular. Indeed, I was surprised to see that some well-known social media and marketing experts who I think have interesting things to say followed me back after I followed them. An entrée to the cocktail party.

Twitter 100

Twitter Web 2.0 Social Media Communities 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. I think the inherently casual (social!)

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

We’ve all been reading a lot about the social media horse race. For marketers trying to figure out where to put their resources into social media marketing, the horse race looks more like a crapshoot. That’s because unlike Microsoft Windows, all the different social media tools are based on universal technology standards—i.e.,

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

We’ve all been reading a lot about the social media horse race. For marketers trying to figure out where to put their resources into social media marketing, the horse race looks more like a crapshoot. That’s because unlike Microsoft Windows, all the different social media tools are based on universal technology standards—i.e.,

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 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. Culture, both corporate and social, affects the price that buyers are willing to pay for content.

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. Culture, both corporate and social, affects the price that buyers are willing to pay for content.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

And they’re linking this content to their social media management strategies. The nice thing about online is that its hierarchical structure makes this kind of integration easy. But that’s only part of the answer. A simple entry point leads to deeper and deeper related content.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

Pledging to do more with social media isn’t the answer. Getting into social media really means getting into publishing. I think the suspicion that we see of social media, which is justified, is mixed with fear. But as we shift to a content focus, it is all online and its impact is invisible. The model needs transforming.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

With customers able to do so much research online, the way to get in the door these days is to have information that isn’t readily available elsewhere. Make it social. Take advantage of social media platforms to create information sharing groups for salespeople. This is the one that’s actually within marketers’ control.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Consulting B2B Sales Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

With customers able to do so much research online, the way to get in the door these days is to have information that isn’t readily available elsewhere. Make it social. Take advantage of social media platforms to create information sharing groups for salespeople. This is the one that’s actually within marketers’ control.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services B2B Sales Consulting Marketing Automation 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 14, 2011

Social media a-lister Chris Brogan, who had a policy of following back everyone who followed him, deleted everybody before finally settling on a few hundred people to follow and shifting his attention to the new social network on the block, G+. Lots of people seem to be having Twitter identity crises these days.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Twitter Social Networks 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 14, 2011

Social media a-lister Chris Brogan, who had a policy of following back everyone who followed him, deleted everybody before finally settling on a few hundred people to follow and shifting his attention to the new social network on the block, G+. Lots of people seem to be having Twitter identity crises these days.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Twitter Social Networks 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

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. What are some qualities of a good social media voice?

Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

MAY 13, 2011

I take a perverse pleasure in reading my Twitter DMs, 99% of which are of the automated variety, looking for the heartfelt sentiment that goes out to me and thousands of other close personal friends every day from people I’ve started following.

Twitter 100

Twitter Validation CAN-SPAM Facebook 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

We’re all getting constant advice—hectoring, even—about how we need to make social media a key part of our B2B marketing strategies right now. Two main threads underpin the logic behind these urgings: Your customers are becoming more active in social media, so you’d better get with it. How strong do you think the arguments are?

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Work Management 100

Chris Koch

JULY 9, 2010

An example of what I’m talking about is IBM’s Innov8 online game. Tags: Mobile Marketing Thought Leadership B2B marketing Marketing Strategy Social Media Video game. Ask anyone forced to sit out a video game session while his (gamers are mostly guys) friends play and they’ll tell you that experience trumps observation every time.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Marketing Management Cross-Selling 100

Chris Koch

JULY 29, 2011

McKinsey recently learned a difficult lesson about what happens when the world takes your thought leadership marketing seriously—and when you lack the ability to respond in the moment through social media. Despite its prowess in thought leadership—McKinsey is simply the best—the firm is falling dangerously behind in social media.

Social Media 100

Social Media Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Companies 100