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

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 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. Return on media impact.

Social Media 100

Social Media ROI Lead Ranking RSS 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 25, 2011

But then this got me to thinking, without a commitment to ideas throughout the organization, all these dollars we’re starting to spend on social media will be wasted. In other words, unless we become idea organizations, we’re not going to have much to say to customers, prospects, and influencers in social media.

Social Media 100

Social Media Organization Peer-to-peer SME 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

APRIL 8, 2011

I was thrilled to run a social media workshop this week with a large B2B technology and services provider (and ITSMA member). 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.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Paid Search Agency PR 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

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

We can’t just become publishers, we also have to become advertisers. For centuries, publishers had an uneasy, co-dependent relationship with advertisers. A wall existed between publishers and advertisers. And they’re linking this content to their social media management strategies. Let me explain. What’s the point?

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 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. christopherakoch.com). Tweet This Post.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing B2B Marketing Mobile Advertising B2B 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

Social media changes sales enablement. But then social media came along and it really did change everything. Salespeople are becoming heavy users of social media, and it takes less than a minute to set up an internal-only micro blogging network, wiki, or online community for them to share their own words with each other.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 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 21, 2010

Social media is beginning to teach us that long qual forms are going the way of the dodo. For Facebook, it’s personal information that advertisers can use to target us. Especially as social media takes off, we’re finding that prospects and customers have less and less patience for giving us that information.

Privacy 100

Privacy B2B Marketing Lead Ranking B2B 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

Customers become highly sensitive to a company’s marketing and advertising messages in the aftermath of a crisis. 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.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

JULY 22, 2011

Here’s the kind of pressure that social media puts on us: After not posting anything to my blog in nearly six weeks, I feel compelled to offer an explanation. Social media are like a school of sharks; keep moving forward or sink lifelessly to the bottom. Isn’t that sad? Hey, but that’s how it is.

Work Management 100

Work Management Marketing Management Social Media B2B Marketing 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. IBM does that.

Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

And yet we keep spending hard-earned shareholders’ dollars creating these shallow soundbites that are supposed to protect our brands, even though the transparency of the internet, and now social media, have rendered such defenses useless. Not that the defenses were much more than Maginot Lines to begin with.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

And yet we keep spending hard-earned shareholders’ dollars creating these shallow soundbites that are supposed to protect our brands, even though the transparency of the internet, and now social media, have rendered such defenses useless. Not that the defenses were much more than Maginot Lines to begin with.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 3, 2010

When people ask about how to use social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, I suspect that they are really asking about how they should sound in those tools. But developing a social media voice is a more complicated proposition. A good starting point is to create a social media policy for the organization.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

AUGUST 3, 2010

When people ask about how to use social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, I suspect that they are really asking about how they should sound in those tools. But developing a social media voice is a more complicated proposition. A good starting point is to create a social media policy for the organization.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

No doubt that number has continued to go up—especially with the rise of mobile and social media. A (fairly old) study by Forbes and Google found that 80% of C-level executives perform at least three web searches per day. That was in 2009. What does online search have to do with selling?

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 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