While we’re not big fans of research or analyst firms providing reviews on business applications or services, we do appreciate their ability to step back and provide insight on industries or trends themselves.  This Monday, Forrester came out with a presentation titled, “Using Buyer Social Behavior to Boost B2B Social Media Success”.  Some of their report was based off of their B2B survey of 1217 technology decision-makers at companies with 100 employees or more.  You can see their presentation on SlideShare. 

There were more then a few nuggets worth noting in the report:

“Social media puts buyers, not marketers, in control.”  We’ve been saying this for awhile.  While there’s no one to blame, historically, the solution providers themselves have been the gate keepers for prospects and customers to find and share information about their business products or services.  Whenever you needed to find other customers in order to get the information needed to make a decision, who did you go to for those contacts?; the company trying to sell to you.  While there isn’t anyone that would think of buying anything in their consumer lives today without going online to look at reviews and ratings from their peers, the business world (where the dollars involved are exponentially larger) is slow to use the same common sense practice.  One of the few bright sides to today’s economy is the fact that “We’ve always done it this way.”, is no longer an acceptable answer for anything in the professional world.  Companies now realize that using this same methodology is needed not only when making an informed purchase, but also when selling to businesses in order to improve inbound marketing and make the most of their marketing budgets.

Peers and Colleagues have a major impact on decision-making. Another powerful point in the report was when they asked “Which of the following sources impact your decision-making process?” “Peers and Colleagues” was the number one answer with 84%.  Once again, people want to find out what their peers think when making an informed purchase.  Referrals matter.

More B2B companies are looking to social media.  Two other important points to note out of the research are:

• 48% plan on experimenting more with social media to compensate for budget cuts
• 22% plan to increase social media use and shift dollars from traditional channels online

And the final key point from the report worth noting is this; “Online activity changes B2B marketing practices permanently”.  There is no going back to yesterday and these trends will continue to add value and take hold in the marketplace.

Now is the time for smart companies in the B2B markets to prepare and get involved in social media.  There is major opportunity for those at the forefront to grow market share and beat out your competition.

Last week definitely ended on a high note.  Thursday night, we were one of the demos at TECH cocktail 10, which took place at a very packed John Barleycorn’s in Wrigleyville.  Over 500+ people attended. Not only was it a great event to get the word out on our site, but it was great experience for getting our pitch down.  When you’ve got less then two minutes to explain/yell what you do and how you add value in a crowded bar, you’ve got to make every word count.  We made a lot of new contacts, heard about some great companies, and went through a lot of cards, even if you exclude what Ron May took.  It was a great event and we want to give a big thanks to Eric, Frank, the TC team and all of the sponsors.  If you want to see what you missed, there are some pics of the event here. 

Friday night we made it out to the Facebook Developer Garage Chicago event at Where I’ve Been’s office in Bucktown.  The night started off with drinks, food, and socializing and then went into the presentations.  Sachin Agarwal gave the first talk on how Dawdle uses Facebook with the blunt finesse that only he can pull off in a crowded room.  Jennifer Beese, the Social Network Manager at The Printed Blog, followed up after that.  Ben Parr gave one of the best (and loudest) presentations I’ve seen in awhile and then Luke Shepard, of Facebook, talked about Facebook and how to best use Facebook Connect.  For those interested, there was a cool sidebar with Keith Schacht, from Crafted Fun and Craig Ulliott, from Where I’ve Been.  As two of the top Facebook apps out there, they both shared a lot of good ideas and lessons learned.  Thanks to the team at Where I’ve Been for being great hosts. 

It’s awesome that events like these are continuing to grow in Chicago and we’re glad to be a part of them.

Last week MarketingSherpa posted a chart showing how the most effective social media tactics are currently the most difficult to measure in terms of ROI.  In the survey, participating marketers said “Inability to measure ROI” ranks as the second most significant barrier to social media adoption. 

There are a few things in the survey worth pointing out:

1. User reviews and ratings were noted as the most effective form of social media (We agree!)
2. Advertising on blogs or social networks, while most measurable, was the least effective
3. The key word to measuring some of these tactics is “currently”. 

It’s no secret that we here at FYIndOut believe very much in the impact of word of mouth and using the same ratings and reviews practices that we do in our consumer lives for business. 

It’s also no big surprise that while tracking advertising on blog or social networks, like any other internet web page, is very easy to track and metric.  The case in point though is, how many people are going to said blogs or social networks looking for anything other then the blog post or people they want to connect with. 

In regards to being able to metric social media, I would argue that it can be done; it’s just that most marketers aren’t looking at it that way.  Is there any reason you can’t create special landing pages just as you would for a TV or radio spot for your various social media interactions and create goals and conversion rules in your analytics tool of choice to monitor that?  The difference is that when you’re engaging in most of these tactics, it’s building a relationship and presence of mind with prospects who may not be looking for what you’re selling immediately.  You’re not posting an ad on a website before the holidays where someone clicks and buys.  You’re participating in various activities online and contributing information that people care about so that when they are looking for what you offer or one of their friends/peers asks them, your company comes to mind. 

Long story, short; just because you can’t put a chart with short term gains together for your CMO or CEO, don’t throw your social media strategy out with the bathwater.

Almost every day we meet other entrepreneurs, some of which are looking for funding.  While we currently are not, we still go out of our way to have things in order should we need to go down that path.  At a time where VC and Angel funding are on the decline and some VC firms are struggling to find funding themselves, I thought I’d muse over what it would be like if the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) was turned into a VC fund. 

The Preparation (For the “unproven” entrepreneur)
Instead having to go through the “hassle” of:

• Knowing the market you’re getting into,
• Busting tail nights and weekends of your own time to build your product or service on your own dime and at the expense of your family and social life,
• Proving if a need or value to your product or service exists,
• Understanding how much people would be willing to pay for it,
• Having an intelligent thought process behind how and when your company will be profitable,
• Thoroughly knowing your burn rate and proving that you’ll keep it as low as possible,
• Proving that you’ve got a quality team because you don’t have the money to continually screw up or carry dead weight, and
• Having a deep understanding of who your competition is/will be and how you will differentiate yourself and be successful against them; 

All you have to do is figure out what suit to wear and memorize “Without us, the whole economy will fail.” 

The Presentation(s) (Multiple in the real world, One for TARP)
Instead going through a presentation:

• That (per the people you’re trying to get to invest) needs to be descriptive but succinct, qualitative but to the point,
• Knowing that you may have to start over a few times as people come in late,
• Being hammered with questions by people that know what they’re talking about (if you’ve done your research and selected firms that know you’re area and can help you out with expertise and connections as well as money) that try to poke wholes in your plans for which you have to have a solid answer for right there, 
• Addressing multiple what-ifs, and
• Keeps you on your toes for the whole time you’re there knowing that the most you should probably hope for is a follow up call to share more info; 

All you have to do is give a high level description of your “plan”, suggest that you’re going to hire a ton of people up front who’s jobs, and hence the economy, depend on this money and then kick back and zone out while you take thirty minutes of verbal abuse from people that don’t know what they’re talking about.  

How awesome would that be? Millions of dollars for less then an hour of listening to people on a soap box! 

The Follow Through
So now that you’ve got the funding, instead of:

• Busting your tail even more because others have trusted you with their money
• Learning as much as you can as fast as you can from your new advisors
• Working with your investors to take advantage of their network and making damn sure you represent them and your company well as they’ve tied their reputations to you
• Executing your plan while trying to make as few mistakes as possible
• Hiring quality people that fit with your team only when you’ve needed someone in that role for a month already and not because you think you should have a Director of Business Development because other companies do even though your product isn’t ready yet
• Making sure you have a good story to tell at your board meeting every six weeks and showing that you’re meeting your commitments  

All you have to do is give yourself a bonus for getting that funding, think about what you’re actually going to do, and have a few meetings to try and get something going until you need to go back and ask for more money. 

That’s a good dream.  OK, now back to the real world and busting tail.

I read a blog post by a great Chicago company called Gaspedal that pointed out a study on how Americans expect companies to have a presence in social media.  The study was performed by Cone in September 2008 and refers to the 60% of Americans that use social media.

Of that 60%, the study showed that:

• 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media
• 56% of users feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment
• 41% think that companies should solicit feedback on their products and services
• 37% Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand 

These numbers show the continued trend of people feeling more comfortable with social media and wanting more companies to stick a toe in the water and get involved.   

One thing that you won’t see in any study is that users want to be flat-out sold to via social media.  They’re really looking to have a conversation and be acknowledged.  

So while more studies will come out showing an increase in this trend, the interesting part is going to be watching how companies take up this task and get involved and integrate social media into their customer relationships as well as their own organizations.