When you think of social media, do you think of running Facebook contests and videos of cats playing Patty Cake? Think again. Your B2B customers are increasingly using social media to gather product information and short list vendors. This presentation covers 1) How B2B customers behave differently than their consumer counterparts, 2) How to develop and orchestrate an editorial plan to reach your B2B audience, 3) Recruiting your social media ambassadors, 4) The importance of Search Engine Optimization 5) Measuring the Share of Conversation. Alex Flagg Manager, Social Media and Digital Content Enablement HP Enterprise Segment Marketing In HP’s Worldwide Enterprise Segment, Alex leads a unique organization dedicated to increasing HP’s influence and participation in key B2B conversations with customers through social media channels. Alex is a dynamic B2B marketer with more than 18 years experience leading teams and running strategic marketing programs for HP, Sun, Microsoft, and AT&T. In his advertising career, Alex was among the first to buy online media in 1995 and helped shape the industry by proposing the first Internet advertising standards. Alex has a deep understanding of how to create engaging B2B editorial content, how to leverage social media to maximize content reach and how to utilize search engine optimization to ensure content find-ability and relevance.

1. Leveraging Social Media to
Reach B2B Customers
Alex Flagg
Manager, Social Media and Digital
Content
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
The information contained herein is subject to change without notice

2. Introduction
• 15 years in large enterprise marketing
and advertising for HP, Sun, AT&T,
and Microsoft
• Leads a team of 20 social media,
search engine, and digital content
practitioners
• Passionate about cracking the code to
B2B marketing
• Trivia: grew up in NYC, Broadway
actor, fluent in Italian
Alex Flagg
Manager, SoMe & Digital Content
HP Enterprise Marketing
Email.: Alex.flagg@hp.com
linkedin.com/in/alexanderflagg
Twitter: @alex_flagg
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

3. Agenda
• How B2B customers behave
differently than their consumer
counterparts
• How to develop and orchestrate
an editorial plan to reach your
B2B audience
• Recruiting your social media
ambassadors
• The importance of Search Engine
Optimization
• Measuring the Share of
Conversation

4. What‟s the difference between the B2B and
B2C consumer?
B2B - What you might
B2C - What you might
buy for an entity with
buy for yourself with
many stakeholders
your own money
using their money

5. The B2B high-tech purchase process –
generally more complex than consumer
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

6. Customers have shifted destinations & habits,
new opportunity, new approach
Traditional Credibility rating
traditional channels
Information
Broadcast Analysts 23%
we control
Publications 19%
Advertising 15%
Now
Credibility rating
Information the interactive channels
community Engage Peer to Peer 68%
controls Search 39%
Vendor web 39%
Communities 27%
Sources:
Credibility ratings: ITSMA “How Customers Choose” Study, 2009
EB customers leading in Social Media: Forrester‟s North American Media Survey
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

7. B2B buyers increasingly going digital
• 81% of customers say digital
content improves likelihood of
vendor making short-list for
purchases
• 76% say digital self service
shortens sales cycle, many by up
to 35%
• Customers say they have doubled
importance of digital info sources
from a year ago and will double
again
Sources: Marketing Leadership Council, IDG Digital Content Study, July 2010

8. Forrester Research, Inc., The Who And How Of Influencing Customers’ IT Decisions, August 25, 2011.
B2B customers are engaged in digital
Forrester Research, Inc., The Who And How Of Influencing Customers‟ IT Decisions, August 25, 2011.

9. Why do business decision-makers participate?
Forrester Research, Inc., The Who And How Of Influencing Customers‟ IT Decisions, August 25, 2011.

10. Social Media channels becoming more influential
Forrester Research, Inc., The Who And How Of Influencing Customers‟ IT Decisions, August 25, 2011.

11. …but traditional / WoM is still the tops
“Across all stages of the technology initiative, which of the following
information sources influence your purchase decision process”
• #1 Web sites
• #2 Colleagues within your
organization
• #3 In-person trade shows,
events or conferences
• #4 Vendor salespeople
Forrester Research, Inc., The Who And How Of Influencing Customers‟ IT Decisions, August 25, 2011.

12. So what can you hope to accomplish through
your B2B social media strategy?
A million friends and
followers?
Engagement?
Leads?
Sales?

13. B2C Social Media Strategies
Consumers
Strategy Metrics
• Build • Community
Syndication
through social communities members /
channels • Influence engagement
perceptions • Positive
• Drive sales reviews / net
• Lower sentiment
Community
Creation, support costs • Revenue
Publishing & • Support calls
Management saved
13

14. B2B Social Media Influencer Strategy
B2B
customers Strategy Metrics
• Influence • Share of
Industry perceptions / Conversation/
Influencers Word of Influence
Mouth • SEO traffic /
Social • Provide blog links
Channels answers • Community
/shorten buy members /
cycle engagement
Subject matter
experts engaged • Build • Support calls
in HP communities saved
communities
• Lower support
costs
14

15. Required for success – organizational support
Organizational Commitment
• Social Media Manager
• Support from key execs
• Willingness of Subject Matter Experts to make
time
Social Media Enablement Content Enablement
• Training Subject Matter • Content creation &
Experts to engage, use tools editorial support
and platforms • Listening/trend reporting

16. Key activity – leverage your people
Who: Content team writers, bloggers,
Recruit Industry comms leads, Portfolio/service
line comms leads, fellows
What: Provide training webinars and
Train session on blogging policies, best
practices, and content creation tips.
Where: Dissiminate intelligence about where
SoMe conversations are taking place, links to
Enable blogs, COE Resources, cross-EB aliases and
internal groups
16

17. Orchestrating your ambassadors
Inputs Social Media & Coordinated
Editorial Enablement Syndication and Activity
Key Messaging
Social Media Listening – Orchestrates content across
Web, social media, eMail
BU NPIs, Launches, Events
– Align with solutions/BU‟s
Media Coverage – Managed by editor in chief Relevant
Content
– Flexible to respond „instantly‟
SEO/SEM to input from listening tools
– Feeds community members
CIO Agenda
Competitive Response
Market Intelligence
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

18. If Facebook is the barbecue, LinkedIn is definitely the office—and
Twitter is the Happy Hour after work!
-Social Media Training Camp invitation

19. Social media channels
Channel B2B strengths Activity
Blogs & Thought leadership, Blogging, moderation,
Communities Support commenting, outreach
Target audience Groups, company pages,
engagement campaigns,
recommendations
Additional reach Promotion, company pages
(awareness)
Reach, immediacy Promotion, updates,
engagement
Video format, SEO Branded channel, video
library
Lead generation Company channel, leads,
network, custom content
Awareness, SEO Monitoring for accuracy,
editing

20. Content optimization is critical
Blogger
Optimization Scorecard
submits Keywords Published by
data points provided to
content for added Blogger
evaluated blogger
review
Error scorecard
Blogger # posts Title B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 Error
Rate
Blogger1 10 7 1 10%
Blogger2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 75%
Blogger3 3 5 3 33%
Before After
2 HP Confidential

21. Title testing and optimization – results
Original title – 60 page views, 1st 45 days
The key
Capitalizing on Converged Infrastructure: A ingredients
Case Study—A-dec
Issue relevance
+400% page view Optimized for
highest volume
Optimized title – increase in 7 days
search keywords
300+ PV‟s, 1st 7 days
Focus on
Reader time value proposition
customer
problem
Reclaim 1,350 IT staff hours for
new projects - HP Converged Infrastructure Time value, does
High volume keyword it seem worth
Focus on customer problem reading?
2 HP Confidential

22. Share of Conversation
HP DELL EMC IBM Oracle Cisco
2000
7th June: HP
1800 Discover; 83%
mentions through 19th June: HP, Toshiba collaborate on
1600 Twitter cloud computing
1400
10th June: HP Discover +
CIO Forum: access to top
1200
Falconstor Software,
announcement of being selected
Panel to submit live questions.
for 201 HP AllianceONE Partner
1
of the Year Award in category of
Top dog w/in HP.
1000
HP Converged Infrastructure
Solutions - Government
800 29th June: Case Study: Health
Care Giant McKesson Harnesses
HP ALM; HP Invests in China
600
towards Cloud Computing ; HP
Discover Videos
400
200
0
5/1/2011 5/15/2011 5/29/2011 6/12/2011 6/26/2011 7/10/2011 7/24/2011
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

23. Why all this matters
Meet the new homepage
June 23, 201 –
1
“Google Hits the
Billion Monthly Unique
Visitor Mark”
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

24. Search strategy
Keywords mapped to the buy cycle
Search Volume
Awareness Customer Buying Cycle Purchase
Maximum SEO/SEM Competition Minimum
SEO SEM
Purchase most competitive
keywords
Tier I Keyword optimization Tier II Keyword optimization
Gateway pages, content creation focus Deeper Product / Services page optimization
2 HP Confidential
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

25. How it comes together
Listen Plan
Engage
Optimize
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

26. Thank You!
Alex Flagg
Manager, Social Media and Digital
Content
Alex.flagg@hp.com
www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderflagg
@alex_flagg
©2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
The information contained herein is subject to change without notice