SVForum Marketing SIG Hosts SVESMC Community to Talk about Social Business

November 30, 2011 — Laura Ramos

Like the title of this post? I’m trying to fit in all the right buzz words and acronyms to describe a panel discussion that I will moderate December 12.

Speaking of buzz words, here’s one that has become so broad and overused as to be practically meaningless: SOCIAL MEDIA.

For all the hype and interest around social media in B2B marketing, a realistic survey of the landscape shows that there’s more talk than actual practice and, of those practicing it, most aren’t getting the results they expect. To go beyond “social media 101″ — and the useless puzzling over whether to use Twitter, LinkedIn or some other platform is the right choice for B2B marketing — a group of folks that I highly respect will get together during a meeting of the SVForum’s marketing special interest group and talk about the challenges and opportunities for making business more social in 2012.

You can register for the event at the SVForum site, or learn more about the panel from this great blog post by Mark Helfen. The event takes place Monday, December 12 at EMC’s 2831 Mission College Blvd address in Santa Clara.

As business moves beyond social media to social interaction, many B2B marketers still struggle to understand where social fits in daily business activity. As social spreads from early-adopter, technical enthusiasts through marketing, sales, customer support, and product/service development, business people need to consider how to use social to collaborate with customers and support, engage, and delight them. And how to include technology partners, channels, and suppliers in the process. And how to do this without adding unwanted risk to the business.

The Silicon Valley Enterprise Social Media Council (SVESMC) is an informal community of social practitioners who influence strategy or lead programs at predominant valley companies like Adobe, CA, Cisco, eBay/PayPal, Symantec, and Xerox. We don’t claim to know everything about social media or to have solved all of its intractable problems.  But we will share our perspectives on where we have been successful, where we’ve fallen short, and where we believe the true future of social belongs in business.

If you are local to the Bay Area, please join us two Monday’s from now to hear first-hand about how social continues to shape corporate culture, customer interactions, and innovation in the fast pace of the valley. I promise an evening of interesting conversation with a few laughs thrown in. (But I can’t promise that the buzz words won’t flow freely…. see you there?)

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , . 1 Comment »

“Between the Lines” – Xerox Shares a View on the Future of Documents

November 21, 2011 — Laura Ramos

"Between the Lines" by John Kelly of Xerox

One of our top Xerox executives — and my boss’s former boss — recently published an ebook about documents in business and why documents will remain important. (Note, a document does NOT mean a printed page in this context — what a novel concept for Xerox, huh?)  I’d like to invite you to download and enjoy this ebook over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I would also like to plagiarize heavily from a great blog post that Karen McDermott, one of my colleagues, wrote last week. I think her perspective is clever and interesting — so I have basically replicated the post here:

A Businessweek article from 1975 entitled, “Office of the Future” predicted the paperless office. In this article, George E. Pake, the head of the (then) newly formed Palo Alto Research Center, predicted“… that in 1995 his office will be completely different; there will be a TV-display terminal with keyboard sitting on his desk. “I’ll be able to call up documents from my files on the screen, or by pressing a button,” he says. “I can get my mail or any messages. I don’t know how much hard copy [printed paper] I’ll want in this world.”"

Fast forward 35+ years and that “TV-display terminal” (better know as a computer screen) that George envisioned sits on our desks – but we still have a lot of paper sitting there, too. What happened? Maybe the future of the lowly document is more resilient than we first thought.

John Kelly, Executive Vice President, Major Account Development at Xerox, published a book called “Between the Lines”, that looks at the future documents as we know them today. You can read the ebook on your Kindle or iPad, or print it as a PDF if you’re still a “paper person”. (We are “digital vs. physical” neutral on this one.) But do have a look, especially at the first chapter. While Xerox moves, together with our clients, into more and more digital media, we still recognize the role that the document — as the primary person-to-person and human-to-computer interface — plays in our lives and the value it delivers to business regardless of its physical form.

John’s book is full of real world examples about how companies use documents to reduce costs, improve investment returns, and achieve other business advantages you might not expect. It also talks about futuristic technology like erasable (reusable) paper. Here’s your chance to get a glimpse at other innovative technology that — like the computer screen — might become commonplace over the next decade and beyond.

I hope you will download it. It reads quickly and may get you to look at documents in a whole new light.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

Successes and Shortfalls of Marketing Technology: As Shared with the Milwaukee BMA

November 14, 2011 — Laura Ramos

Xerox Document Services - Example of Thought Leadership on Sustainability

From social media to sales enablement, I have found new marketing technologies are abundant, often replacing established tools in the marketing programs and operations toolbox.  In my relatively brief time here at Xerox Document Services, we’ve enjoyed the opportunity — and challenge — of adopting a variety of new technologies with a mix of successes and shortfalls.

On November 10, I had the honor of delivering the keynote presentation to the Milwaukee chapter of the BMA. (The BMA is an organization I shamelessly plug to all B2B marketers.) I shared a few lessons that we’ve learned rolling out social media, lead management automation, and guided selling tools in our professional services organization where sales coverage runs the gamut from geography to industry.

It was a frank recounting of the challenges and problems many marketers face with new technology adoption across a range of programs, campaigns, and operations. It was the ”practical experience” view to the perspective  that Debbie Qaquish, Chief Revenue Officer of the Pedowitz Group, shared on how revenue marketers are changing the landscape of the industry through lead management automation. 

You can find the presentation on the Milwaukee BMA site, scroll to the bottom as the presentation is the last one featured on this page.  In it I talk about:

1) The state of B2B marketing and how the explosion of online tactics has made it harder for marketing to escape the execution treadmill and demonstrate its true value to the business.

2) How Xerox Document Services uses an online destination and social media to share thought leading perspectives from some of our key executives.  On this site, we talk about sustainability, change management, transforming enterprise marketing, innovation, and the future of documents.  Topics completely unrelated to copiers and printing.

3) Demand generation and lead management: how we use industry experts and clear, specific targeting to develop a perspective on key issues — like the future of the insurance industry — and share these with current clients and prospects. And how we keep the conversation going.

4) A cautionary note about guided selling and sales enablement and how the most exciting new technologies may be a bit much for your sales people to digest in one swallow.  Instead start with something they know (powerpoint slides) and give them a tool that enhances their effectiveness and professionalism when presenting in front of clients.

I also shared the following lessons with the 40 or so BMA members and guests who joined us for dinner and the evening presentation:

  • We are never finished.  Technology makes many new marketing approaches possible, but you have to keep feeding the machine.
  • Choose carefully, understand impact/risks of the new technology approaches you want to try.
  • Get inside your business financials to select metrics. If your programs and technology don’t show results in the language of business, you will fail to gain support.
  • Partner with sales, but gain senior management support. If the “big boss” doesn’t demonstrate both interest in and commitment to your implementations, then the road to success will be long and difficult.
  • Focus on audience and objectives first, the rest will follow. This is the POST principle.
  • People, process, and change management are more important than technology. Technology for technology’s sake is never a good thing.
  • Content generation is biggest success factor and hurdle. Figure out how to keep the content coming.
  • Use reporting to improve marketing, not just “prove” it.
  • Don’t be afraid to fail.

If you can relate to the contents in the presentation, let me know how.  Also, join your local chapter of the BMA. It’s a wonderful organization that I know helps to improve the business marketing profession.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 45 other followers