When I graduated college, I thought (B2B) = Boring! But, I was never very good at math. I quickly discovered that even in the Brave New Media World you don’t have to be shleping the latest energy drink to have a creative online marketing program. Granted, I will never be the creative genius behind a superbowl ad (despited the fact I once heard a rumor that graphical programming is used to create the “invisible yellow line” on the field); however, I have utilized communities, blogs, social networks, viral videos and of course Twitter to connect with users in a meaningful way.
I would love to chat with other B2B marketers, fellow community managers, and social media strategists at SXSW!
Susan Zellmann-Rohrer and I will be leading a core conversation on Saturday, March 14 at 11:30 a.m. called ”Nerd Network: Building an Online Community for Developers.” Please join us to engage in meaninful dialog to learn how social media technologies, like online networks and blogs, can improve products, increase customer loyalty, drive revenue, and reduce support costs.
Specifically, we want to talk to you about the following 10 quetions:
- How do you sell your community project internally and get past legal at a large, tech company?
- What are the goals, strategies and metrics surrounding a successful B2B online community?
- What marketing tactics work best for launching, promoting and recruiting members into a B2B community?
- What are the differences between marketing to nerds and geeks?
- Who “owns” technical communities (marketing, support, product, Web, IT) and what is the team structure?
- How do you reward participation in a technical community (i.e. access to product roadmaps, escalated support, discounts, merchandise)?
- Which social sites (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) and technologies (wiki, blogs, RSS) resonate best with a technical audience?
- What’s it like doing social media strategy for “the man?”
- How do you integrate online and offline community strategy?
- What is the next big thing in B2B communities?
If you have other questions you would like us to ask this audience, please submit them here!
Look forward to seeing you at the event.
For a summary of the session, check out this blog post written by the awesome Rebecca Caroe
http://creativeagencysecrets.com/2009/03/14/nerd-network-building-an-online-network-in-b2b/.
[...] the benefit of day-to-day high-tech PR work. The material we promote may not be our hobby, but it’s always changing, which keeps the content fresh. And that’s [...]