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.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing Work Management Media 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 18, 2009

In a recent post, I offered some hard research data to support the growing importance of social media to B2B. But this time I want to address the legitimate concerns that ITSMA clients give us when we talk about the wonders of social media. What’s really different with social media? The End of Control.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Social Marketing B2B Marketing 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. I want to do something ambitious and I’m hoping you’ll help.

Social Media 100

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

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Guidelines B2B 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 18, 2012

Social media is biased toward English. One of the best aspects of social media is the opportunity to put ideas to the community and gather feedback. Fighting The Good Fight In Social Media (pr.typepad.com). Why do we assume that anyone can channel passion into his or her writing? Related articles.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Communities Transparency 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 12, 2010

Social media is raising the bar on customer intimacy. Rooted in Michael Porter’s timeless work in business strategy, Treacy and Wiersema took it a step further with their three “value disciplines.”. Social media is making that fact plain. Social media reduces the incremental cost of content.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Thought Leadership Work Management 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 30, 2009

Who says B2B marketers are lagging in social media? Of the top ten posts on my blog this year, only one did not involve social media. I think the social media phenomenon is the most exciting and important thing to hit communications in my lifetime. The four components of social media management.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Social Marketing B2B Marketing 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?

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Social Marketing 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

Social media experts often chide marketers about control. The experts say that in the new era of social media, marketers need to stop delivering tightly-scripted, one-way messages and start engaging in uncontrolled, transparent conversations with customers and prospects wherever those conversations happen. Transparency?

Social Media 100

Social Media Forrester Media Transparency 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 23, 2011

One writer claims that the attraction of G+ is the opportunity to start over in social networking. The argument is essentially that we’ve screwed up everything in Facebook and G+ is our social media morning after pill. There are only two types of content in social media. Short or long.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 23, 2011

One writer claims that the attraction of G+ is the opportunity to start over in social networking. The argument is essentially that we’ve screwed up everything in Facebook and G+ is our social media morning after pill. There are only two types of content in social media. Short or long.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B Thought Leadership 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

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

The number of B2B buyers who are ready to buy as soon as they engage with our marketing is small—and social media will make it even smaller. This is where social media comes in. There is no social media strategy, only marketing strategy (thecustomercollective.com). Related articles by Zemanta.

Social Media 100

Social Media Lead Generation B2B Thought Leadership Generation 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+. I’ve rolled all that up into an approach that I doubt constantly.

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+. I’ve rolled all that up into an approach that I doubt constantly.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Twitter Social Networks 100

Chris Koch

MAY 20, 2011

Many marketers involved in social media management tell me that they struggle to get their subject matter experts engaged in social media. Create an idea network as the basis for social media. When ideas are an expectation, social media participation is easier. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 8, 2010

There is too much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth about social media objectives and strategy these days. We all assume that our organizations are unique and that we must devote great sums of time and money to figuring out what our particular motivation is for social media and how we will carry it out.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

We wrote about the typical concerns of a C-level executive, such as strategy, leadership, organizational design, and change management. Today, more salespeople are able to have business and strategy discussions with customers and take the time to listen to their needs. Pledging to do more with social media isn’t the answer.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 15, 2011

Social media (along with skimpy marketing budgets) are causing a transformation in marketing to a degree that we haven’t seen for a lifetime. In my seven years as a social media acolyte, I’ve spoken with many marketers who grew up at the knee of message-based marketing. Image via Wikipedia. Not gonna happen in B2B.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Wikipedia 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

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. That was the why of social media. I’m going to attempt to explain it by humbly offering my own initiation into social media as a guide. Social Media B2B.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Personalization 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. I call this the relationship model of social media—it’s the underlying driver that attracts people to use it.

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 22, 2010

I wish I could say that social media leads to sales. So when we think about social media ROI, we need to make a leap of faith. To make ourselves feel a little more comfortable with this idea, we may need to categorize social media with something whose hazy ROI we’re more familiar and comfortable with: PR.

Social Media 100

Social Media ROI Lead Ranking RSS 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 100

Social Media Paid Search Agency Social Marketing B2B 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. At its most basic, social media monitoring starts with what is known as the “vanity search.” See the distribution of conversation. Track propagation.

Social Media 100

Social Media Tools Media RSS 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. I call this the relationship model of social media—it’s the underlying driver that attracts people to use it.

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 29, 2009

Even if we believe deeply in the power of social media, we all have that gnawing feeling deep in our guts that says that there’s little reason for a busy, intelligent person to want to receive frequent updates about our brands when those brands produce complex services and products with two-year sales cycles. The answer is we don’t.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership Marketing Management 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 5, 2011

Recently, I was preparing a workshop on social media for an ITSMA client. The marketer in charge of the company’s social media effort gave me a clear edict: “Look, I don’t want you focusing on Facebook, okay? We don’t see the value of it for B2B and we want it off the table. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Facebook 100

Facebook B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership B2B 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 5, 2010

We’re seeing mobile be part of an integrated approach to social media, not as a standalone. Tags: Mobile Marketing Social Media Apple B2B marketing Business Content Management ITSMA marketing Mobile Computing Site Management social media management social media strategy.

Wiki 100

Wiki Urgency Marketing Mobile Marketing Content 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Their strategies take two basic approaches. The blogs are an integrated part of the corporate marketing strategy and are usually hosted on the corporate website. Most say that they try to suggest topic areas that fit with the company’s overall thought leadership strategy. How are you handling your corporate blogging strategy?

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Blogger Thought Leadership Word of Mouth 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.

Twitter 100

Twitter Web 2.0 Social Media Communities 100

Chris Koch

MAY 27, 2010

I met two of my favorite B2B bloggers at the event: Christine Kerley (AKA @ cksays ) who writes CK’s Blog and Jeff Cohen (@ jeffreylcohen ) who, along with Kipp Bodnar writes the Social Media B2B blog. How to use social media for B2B (christopherakoch.com). CK kicks butt and takes names. Cohen on Vimeo.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing B2B Marketing Mobile Advertising B2B 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

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Most journalists have discovered social media as an important research tool. Don’t require them to come to you before scheduling interviews or responding to customers and influencers through social media. Thanks for the great comments on last week’s post, “Is the Era of PR Over.&# christopherakoch.com).

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 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.

Practices 100

Practices Best Practices Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 3, 2014

Research by my colleague Rob O’Regan has found that hanging onto the kind of global popularity enjoyed by Man U requires focusing on four key channels: Social media. As part of its sponsorship of UK soccer team Tottenham Hotspur, Under Armour ran a social media contest that attracted entries from fans in more than 50 countries.

Planning 100

Planning Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing & Strategy 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