Archive for the ‘case study’ Category

A lot of folks have been asking for B2B case studies showing social media at work, especially for smaller companies. I recently found a vendor via a complete social media experience—no direct marketing from this company at all―and I wanted to share it with you.

This will be a blind case study in the beginning, but all will be revealed at the end…for a reason.

About four weeks ago I was tweaking my LinkedIn account to find [tip: cool tool] and join some additional groups and do some more networking. And that’s when it happened. A particular group kept popping up on the LinkedIn profiles of marketers that I was checking out. Being the curious person that I am, I went to investigate.

And here’s what unfolded:

1. I did a LinkedIn group search and found the group
2. I then did a search for the group on Google
3. The group search led me to find the company’s website
4. While on the company’s site, I used a free website tool and downloaded a white paper
5. The phone rang within 20 minutes of downloading the paper (I hated this part! But was glad, in retrospect, that I gave them my name and not Mickey Mouse.)
6. I had a good 45 minute conversation about…social media. Yep, that’s right! There was a little bit of discussion about their website, the tool, their offerings, etc. but most was about social media, implementing it, how it’s changing marketing. (I loved this part! Even though I knew they are a marketing a social media application)
7. I had never heard of this company so I went to the MarketingProfs Know-how Exchange forum to further investigate and to see if anyone else had. I had a hunch, however, that the answers I received were from the company’s marketers (give them a read, you be the judge), but none-the-less I was still curious.
8. I then hopped over to Twitter to see if anyone over there had heard of the company, but it was radio silence. But, coincidently, there just happened to be a bunch of timely tweets appearing about this company and its new free tool that they released. And how the company “listened” (via Twitter) to a tweet and actually implemented the suggestions made on the tweeter’s blog. Now that got my attention!
9. I then signed up for the company’s webinar. I wish I remember where I saw the promo for the webinar, but I can positively say, I don’t think it was an invitation from the company.
10. Finally, after feeling that I did enough investigation, got a sense of what they could achieve for me [because it obviously works for them, in my experience] I signed on with this company for their services.

Cool right? A customer in only 10 social media steps. But here’s a caveat to consider…what if I wasn’t a curious person? The whole social media experience would have ended with me adding the LinkedIn group and that would have been it (at least for now). But being a marketer interested in social media and this company’s services, I wanted to follow the bread crumb trail and see where it would lead me.

So my questions are: How would you help your target audience along to participate in social media with you? How do you peak their curiosity if they are not naturally curious? Does it take a case study like this to convince marketers, and their company, that social media does work ‘in real life?’

And finally, because I really want to see if they are on their social media game and if they are listening, here’s the company name Hubspot. I’ll know for sure if they leave a comment.

Disclaimer: This is in no way a promotion for this company. If they don’t deliver, they and you will be the first to hear it from me…and that’s the beauty of social media.

Photo Credit: StockXpert