Chris Koch

AUGUST 23, 2011

It’s way too early to make a call, so I’m not going to presume to know G+’s prospects for success (especially when it hasn’t even been officially launched), but there are a few things that the rise of a possible new giant in social networking points out: Social networks are porous. There are only two types of content in social media.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 23, 2011

It’s way too early to make a call, so I’m not going to presume to know G+’s prospects for success (especially when it hasn’t even been officially launched), but there are a few things that the rise of a possible new giant in social networking points out: Social networks are porous. There are only two types of content in social media.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B Thought Leadership 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

DECEMBER 2, 2011

If you had asked me a few years ago whether the traditional marketing campaign had any place in social media I would have scoffed. After all, “engaging” is one of the four components of social media management. Facebook is the fun social network. I would have had only slightly less disdain for the audience for these campaigns.

Social Media 100

Social Media Campaigns B2B Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 2, 2011

If you had asked me a few years ago whether the traditional marketing campaign had any place in social media I would have scoffed. After all, “engaging” is one of the four components of social media management. Facebook is the fun social network. I would have had only slightly less disdain for the audience for these campaigns.

Social Media 100

Social Media Campaigns B2B Thought Leadership Media 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. Lots of statistical analysis about the relative growth rates of Facebook and Twitter and the slowing of uptake for both. 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

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

I’ve been working with my colleagues at ITSMA on another survey on social media for B2B marketers that I hope you’ll take by going here. As we put together the questions, we struggled with the issue of social media strategy. Social media is no silver bullet. I resisted treating it as a standalone in the survey.

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing & Strategy Marketing Strategy B2B Thought Leadership 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

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

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. This can’t be happening—not to me.”

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Wikipedia 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

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. Use Twitter for monitoring.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Personalization 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. I really do.

Social Media 100

Social Media ROI Lead Ranking RSS 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 25, 2010

expresses shock that he turned out to be an extrovert on the Myers-Briggs personality test and wonders if you need to be an extrovert to be in social media. Reading these got me thinking that we probably need to rethink the concepts of introversion and extroversion in social media marketing. and, of course, came up with a theory.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Media Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

We’ve all been reading a lot about the social media horse race. Or will it be Twitter by a nose? For marketers trying to figure out where to put their resources into social media marketing, the horse race looks more like a crapshoot. Will it be Facebook or MySpace? We need to dig deeper to start to make meaningful comparisons.

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 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. These are not the people we imagine Twittering about their need for complex enterprise IT services.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Enterprise Management Media 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

We’ve all been reading a lot about the social media horse race. Or will it be Twitter by a nose? For marketers trying to figure out where to put their resources into social media marketing, the horse race looks more like a crapshoot. Will it be Facebook or MySpace? We need to dig deeper to start to make meaningful comparisons.

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools 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

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. Now don’t get me wrong.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 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. But focusing solely on engagement is the wrong goal.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Thought Leadership 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

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. The expectation on Twitter is that 99.9% I admit it; I’m a Twitter bigot.

Privacy 100

Privacy B2B Marketing Lead Ranking B2B 100

Chris Koch

MAY 27, 2010

For example, the Twitter stream from this thing (#MPB2B) is still going strong weeks later. 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. CK kicks butt and takes names.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing B2B Marketing Mobile Advertising B2B 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

I won’t be focusing on B2B marketing in the broadest sense anymore; I’ll be narrowing things to idea marketing (and the role that social media play in it). I know because I have a column in my Twitter dashboard that searches the term. It disregards social media. Thought leadership implies depth.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Social Media Twitter 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 29, 2009

Honestly, why do we think that sophisticated B2B buyers are going to follow our brands on Twitter or become our fans on Facebook? of consumers follow a brand on Twitter for “service, support, or product news.”. What drives consumers to follow brands on Twitter? The answer is we don’t. We don’t follow brands, we follow deals.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership Marketing Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Most journalists have discovered social media as an important research tool. Examples of how you do this are: Make them visible on social networks. Get them twittering. Twitter’s viral relationship model means that your subject matter experts can build up their networks of influence much faster than through a press release.

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 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. Social media offers some new ways for us to build emotional connections with customers by connecting them with other people and their stories. Twitter , LinkedIn, etc. These guys are smart.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Marketing Marketing Budget Thought Leadership 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? I keep waiting for Facebook to buy LinkedIn or Twitter and just put an end to the business vs. consumer distinction.

Facebook 100

Facebook B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership B2B 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 PR 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

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 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. But now I’m on Twitter and I’ve just met you, so what kind of help are we talking about here?

Twitter 100

Twitter Validation CAN-SPAM Facebook 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

DECEMBER 10, 2012

Mitch Joel has a nice post on HBR this week about bringing utility to marketing and social media. Social media hasn’t taken off for B2B because it doesn’t provide any more utility for making those things happen (except perhaps for finding old colleagues on LinkedIn).

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer B2B Social Media Mobile Marketing 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