A story on how to tell thought-provoking corporate stories through social media and blogs. Geared mainly towards tech B2B marketers who are just getting started in marketing through social media online.

1. Digital Corporate StorytellingA Story for B2B Technology Marketers By Andrea Wahbe @TheRunningStart

2. Social Media Strategy – What does this mean? It means that you need a content strategy 2

4. Impacted the success of many digital media sales organizations including AOL and Google in Canada

5. Blogger/Canadian technology start-up storyteller for TechVibes.com and Canada 3.0

6. Want to help Canadian digital media & technology SME businesses to grow and thrive through B2B Marketing and corporate storytelling3

7. Once Upon a Time... Our Social Media Content Story Begins 4

8. Once Upon a Time, Advertising Was a Push-Based Communication Medium Marketers and media professionals had a limited number of channels to tell a story where consumers passively absorbed their message 5

9. New Media is Emerging As Traditional Media Usage Declines **Canadian weekly time spent watching TV has declined from 22.7 hours in 1997 to 16 hours in 2009 – radio tune-in has also been slowing declining Time required for each medium to reach 50 MM users* 38 years for Radio to reach 50 Million households 13 years for TV to reach 50 Million households ***The number of Canadian Internet users doubled from 12.7 Million to 24 Million in 9 years 4 years for Internet to reach 50 Million households 4 years for Facebook to reach 400 Million households ****Canadian Facebook users doubled from 7 Million to 15.5 Million in just 2 years *Source: “THE INTERNET AS HYPERBOLE: A Critical Examination of Adoption Rates,”Gisle Hannemyr, June 2003 http://hannemyr.com/en/diff.php**Source: “TV Viewing Habits”, Media-awareness.ca***Source: “Canada: Internet Usage”, Internet World Stats, September 2009****Source: Webstrategist.com, 2008 and “Facebook users by Country”, July 2010 6

10. Canada Leads the World in Online Media Consumption Online Growth in Canada vs. Other Leading Countries 7

11. What’s Next for the Canadian Marketplace? Conversational media continues to climb and is a leading medium in Canada 8

12. A New Form of Pull-Based Media Emerged 9

13. Today, B2B Marketing Relies on Content – Micro-publishers Econsultancy– Uses Twitter to promote theirpopular white papers and thought leadership research to a global audience. Mitch Joel– Grew his small digital agency of 3 employees to over 80 employees by starting out with a simple blog 10

14. Great Content Generates Sales Leads We all need to become better storytellers in order to effectively sell our thought leadership stories "The principle of Thought Leadership Marketing is simple enough: You give away a little valuable intellectual property to establish your potential usefulness to the client, in the expectation that the client will use your expertise and services. Its essence is to show, rather than tell what a company can do, and to do so in a way that positions and differentiates that company’s offering for the chosen target audience.“ - Rolf Jester, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner Source: Gartner http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=111853, Feb. 2010 11

15. Before You Start Telling Stories... Great stories don’t always need eight-page color brochures or a face-to-face meeting. Either you are ready to listen or you aren’t. – Seth Godin 12

17. Social Media (Twitter Search, LinkedIn Groups)

18. Customer/Competitor Blogs & Comments

19. Social media monitoring software(Sysomos, Radian6, HootSuite, etc.)

20. RSS feeds & Google Reader, Feedburner, etc.

21. Web analytics and third-party media measurement(Google Analytics, Omniture, ComScore, Ad Planner, etc.)Next, compile the data and start to develop your storyline... 13

23. Put yourself in their shoes

24. Think of them as potential collaboratorsand micro-publishers

25. Identify influencers

26. Consider where they are in their purchase process

27. Allocate time to listen and respond via commentsprior to telling storiesWhy should we care? 14

29. Who are you...in 30 seconds or less?

30. How does who you are help to solve your customers’ problems?

31. Explain it to your friends...do they get it?

32. Can they repeat it back to you in their own words?“I didn’t have time to write a short letterso I wrote a long one instead.”- Mark Twain - Mark Twain 15

34. Identify & engage with key influencers who will re-tell your story to othersChoose the tools that resonate most with your audience Source: HubSpot “Online Marketing Opportunity Report,” 2010 16

35. Be Aware – All Roads Must Lead to Your Website 17 Your Online www.destination.com

37. Share useful links to other relevant stories in the community

38. Build trust through authenticity – people are smart

40. Three Types of Thought Leadership Marketing (TLM) Opportunistic - Short-term programs and promotional-campaign focused on boosting interest and leads to sales of a specific offering. Door-opening - Can help establish or expand permission to play and is ongoing, although it evolves as acceptance grows to build visibility and credibility in the market. Brand Support - This is the most sustained type of TLM program and is used to reinforce the brand promise and image. Social Media Stories Source: Gartner http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=111853, Feb. 2010 19

41. What Kinds of Stories Resonate With Customers? Industry News – Comment on an article, and share additional insight Answer Questions – Use comments on other posts and in LinkedIn Groups and Quora as inspiration Provide How-to-Based Content - Numbered lists work well (i.e. 5 ways to tell a great story) Encourage Conversation – Ask a question about an industry trend and provoke conversation (encourages inbound links through social media) Syndicated Stories – Invite guest bloggers to keep your articles consistent when you don’t have any content – offer a link back to their site Share Insightful Data – Have interesting research or analytics data that could help others? Share it and provide your analysis and invite customers to follow-up for more advice. 20

43. Create an editorial calendar & continue to monitor listening tools

44. Create a promotional schedule to communicate your new stories to your customersExample of a Twitter Scheduling Matrix (via @FlowTown) 21

46. Emulate other great storytellers and influencers

47. Authenticity/Transparency

48. Engagement

49. Consistency

50. Provide a call-to-action

51. Use analytics data & listening tools to identify other stories

52. Test, measure and adapt your story as it unfolds22

54. Be mindful of who is telling your story on your behalfThink about who you want to be telling those stories to your audience(i.e. an intern may not be the best representative of your brand). Interns may understand the tools but not the strategy and messaging behind your story.

55. Think like a publisherIf you’re not thinking like a media publisher, you’re missing out on theopportunity to drive thought leadership and mindshare in your industry.Having a great content strategy drives your social media and digitalmarketing strategy. 23

56. Notes on Storytelling Tools The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. – Oscar Wilde 24

58. Blogging frequently generates more leads. According to HubSpot, companies who blog generate 55% more sales leads than those who do not

59. Countless reasons why blogging every week is important (i.e. Search engines rank fresh content higher, you are perceived as a thought leader, etc.)25

60. Blogs – Time-Saving Tip Create an editorial calendar to plan out your ideas and time in advance 26

62. Find trending hashtags and keywords at search.twitter.com to use in your Tweets

63. Schedule Tweets in advance using TweetDeck or HootSuite. These tools can also help you to grow and manage your client list

64. Get listed on sites like Twellow and WeFollow to grow your opportunity for more followers in your industry categories.

65. Monitor your influence via Klout.com or TwitterGrader.com

66. Follow and engage with others – roughly 30% of people you follow will follow back27

67. Twitter – Time-Saving Tip Schedule Tweets in advance and manage multiple social media profiles at thesame time using HootSuite Publisher or TweetDeck 28

68. LinkedIn – Best Practices Make sure to build-out your LinkedIn company page and make it as robust as possible Company Profile of Sequentia Environics is a great example (includes recent Tweets and blog posts – plus interesting services section) 29

70. Be careful not to share as often as on Twitter – over-sharing can be a turn-offvia LinkedIn and Facebook update streams.

71. Encourage other members of your team to share your stories as well via their own networks – helps to amplify your stories.

72. Join LinkedIn Groups (or create one) that focus on your industry or product.Actively participate in group discussions and answer questions about your industry to position your company as an expert in that area.

73. Create an office policy around what stories to share where and when in order to manage the flow of information being sent out.30

75. Createa free user channel on YouTube. Instructions can be found here:http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=94526

76. Invest in a small digital video camera to conduct your own interviews with people that attend your demo booth at conferences or to videotape your presentations in the future. Give viewers an inside glimpse into your business and what goes on “behind the scenes.”

77. Vimeo is an alternative to YouTube – you can use both or one or the other (whichever you prefer)31

78. Video – Great B2B Technology Video Example 32

79. Best-Selling Stories and Storytellers If you keep telling the same sad small story, you will keep living the same sad small life. – Jean Houston 33

80. Best-Selling Stories and Corporate Storytellers Deloitte “iDeas Blog” – Canadian Digital Industry Trends Extend reach beyond your own blog 34

81. Best-Selling Stories and Corporate Storytellers HubSpot.com – Online Marketing Thought Leadership 35

82. A Cautionary Tale – Your audience controls your destiny 36

83. Recap – Highlights from my story Identify your audience and listen to their needs Determine the best channels/tools to tell your story Develop thought leadership stories that provide value and engage potential customers in order to generate sales leads Be aware of how and when you tell your stories to your potential customers Measure your results and tweak stories and channels as you learn what works best for your product or brand 37

84. This is the end of my story – but only the beginning of yours... Thank You! Andrea Wahbe@TheRunningStartwww.therunningstart.ca 38

86. Compelling sales presentations, speeches and winning pitches

87. B2B marketing strategy and planning

88. Audience research and data analysis

89. Digital media sales strategy@TheRunningStartandrea@therunningstart.ca647-244-8595 39