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.Social media provides a platform for helpful expression.However, if used incorrectly, dissent can be swift and brutal.As long as you’re focused on providing relevance and value, without being pushy or disrespectful, you’ll find a warm reception.Virtual engagement depends on personalized interactions.When you know your company’s story theme, you can carry that tone and style across to a company presence or even have it reflected in the passion of the employees and customers who interact with others about your company online.This is the time to be individual and unique—not to sound like everyone else.To benefit from the viral behavior of others, your content must include ideas people want to talk about and share.It’s got to be considered valuable from the audience’s perspective.A number of companies do this really well.Two examples in this book are HubSpot and Marketo.Both these companies work tirelessly to provide content that helps their customers and prospective customers to solve issues that are top-of-mind in relation to the reasons people need their products in the first place.But there’s a distinction that sets them apart.Both companies do so regardless of whether or not you buy from them.They openly solicit feedback and invite conversations within social networks, and both companies provide valuable, fresh, and highly relevant content on a consistent basis.Through their employees who interact with others online, the companies have developed individualized personalities.You wouldn’t mistake either of them for another “similar” company.Both Mike Volpe and Jon Miller and their staffs work tirelessly to keep delivering innovative content their audiences want and respond to.And both companies are growing remarkably fast—even during a time of economic uncertainty.PARTICIPATION SPEAKS VOLUMESParticipation refers to the responses, interactions, and dialogue your natural-nurturing campaigns and content motivate.Marketers need to be conversationally prepared to interact with prospects in as close to real time as possible.These interactions need to be focused on being helpful and extending the value delivered by whatever content or outreach attracted the prospects to your company.Participation is like intelligence gathering.Every interaction you have with prospects can be a valid source of insight that helps you to tune your story to match their needs.And knowing sure beats guessing.Participation is often difficult for B2B marketers who haven’t embraced the fact that their customers and prospects are now in control of the conversation, along with their buying journey.It requires an outward-in focus.It’s also important not to forget that participation is a two-way street.It’s not just about your comment on a blog post or a Twitter response with a URL that directs someone to your content.Participation is about developing a style and openness that encourages others to initiate interactions with you and your company.Quit thinking about your prospects as the vice president of whatever, and start thinking about them as Mary, Joe, and Sam.Just because it’s a B2B complex sale doesn’t mean you’re only dealing with their profession.People buy from people they like and trust.Peer-to-Peer ConversationsA peer is someone who is considered to be equal to another in relation to the context of the interaction.People put more trust in people “like” them than in any other source of information.They’re more inclined to respond to someone they consider to be a peer than they would to someone considered more impersonally—such as a marketer or salesperson.This is why context, tone, and style are so important to content and communication development—even more so in a social network.There’s a fine line between being a peer and being a valued expert and trusted advisor.Marketing and salespeople increasingly have to straddle that line.Peer-to-peer conversations come in a variety of different flavors.They can exist between colleagues who are working on the same project or who just work for the same company.Peer conversations take place between colleagues with similar expertise who work at different companies but have developed a professional relationship.These conversations also can exist between marketers and prospects and salespeople and buyers.You probably already have a LinkedIn profile.If you don’t, go get one; they’re free.What makes LinkedIn a wealth of persona marketing information are the profiles, groups, and answers.Search for prospects by company affiliation or name.Scan their profiles for pertinent clues about their interests.Any questions they’ve asked or groups they belong to will be attached to their profiles, provided that they’ve enabled visibility.Reading their summaries and employment descriptions can provide verification that your personas are on the right track.Additionally, LinkedIn members now have the capability to pull through their blog posts, tell you what books they’re reading, and provide updates about their status (almost a mini-imitation of Twitter, but not as timely).There are a number of groups for professionals and networking and conferences organized around a myriad of topics [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]