To be a high-tech marketer these days is to have it slightly better than most – small degrees in a recessionary economy, but better nonetheless. Tech companies are outperforming analysts’ earnings estimates as Droids, iPhones, and Torches find thumbs more than willing to take the first step toward carpal tunnel. But how do the best high-tech companies – particularly those in the B2B space – keep positive momentum while douple-dip fears stoke market stagnation?
The ubiquitous (and I can’t say illogical) choice is social media, utilizing their built-in technological advantage to engage customers who are by no means digital neophytes. Yet here’s the rub – our research shows that driving B2B loyalty requires insight marketing, marketing grounded in the supplier’s ability to use content to disrupt how prospects perceive value. That’s an incredibly high bar to clear through social media, particularly when sub-par online content just feels like traditional brochures or white papers ‘pushed’ to another channel. High tech marketers must exercise incredible care to respect the inherent interactivity and customer-led nature of social media. Proper execution requires two frameworks: one for managing entry into social conversation with frame-breaking content , another to manage the social media enterprise more generally.
Enter Cisco on both counts. In its drive to push into product and service adjacencies, Cisco needed rich content but also customer permission to enter the space. Rather than dive in head first and risk outright rejection from the target audience, Cisco sought influentials’ social media ‘watering holes’ that were potentially overlooked. Once found, Cisco acclimated to the existing conversation, deliberately merging their content with the topics prevalent in customer discussion, constantly listening to ensure tone and substance matched appropriately (see graphic below). Only with social permission granted could Cisco fully convey the expertise it possessed, cleverly pushing customer thinking toward its differentiators in the discussed adjacencies.
Given that high tech marketers tend to be more active in the social media-sphere, fostering firmwide collaboration on all social efforts is no small feat. Whether it’s brand building or product adjacencies, our research highlights strong marketing leadership as a hallmark of successful social enterprises. Cisco wins here too. With a social media Center of Excellence focused on expertise building, Cisco’s Social Media Marketing Director looks to drive adoption across the enterprise, but adoption aligned to a common strategy. Evangelism is often priority #1, but policy oversight and change management come in a close second to ensure that common strategy doesn’t become multiple priorities.
With a content-rich strategy combined with credible oversight, high-tech firms can quickly reap the rewards from insight marketing combined with social media. Technology always forges ahead; hopefully high-tech marketing continues to follow suit.
MLC members, for more on Cisco’s social media work, please read the key findings from our 2010 research pieces: Insight Marketing: Shaping Customer Decision Criteria to Your Advantage and Closing the CMO Leadership Deficit in Social Media.
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