How do you get your small/VC funded company to buy into SM2?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Aaron Newman on June 30, 2008 at 6:14pm

Just let us know and we can set you up to play as much as you need. I asked Jim to give you a call to do a training session and upgrade you account.

But to answer your question, we work with alot of companies helping put together why to do this. We are definitely in an "evangalizing stage" in the industry, but I think in 2 years from now, everyone is going to have a tool to do this. We have several presentation we use and we walk through building a report with new clients to show the valuable things you can get out of social media measurement:

Compare Volume of buzz vs. Volume of buzz for competitors
Value: Gives you an idea if you need to investment more money and where to invest it to generate some buzz around your product.

Positive and Negative sentiment:
Value: Gives you a feedback loop for improving both your products and your brand

Demographic analysis
Value: Gives you insight into who is talking about you

Measuring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign
Value: Makes sure your efforts are effective before you dump more money into another campaign

Lead generation tool:
Find people in your industry or niche and get involved in their conversations. This will get them to look at your company when they need to buy something.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. For a few hundred bucks a month, it ought to be a no brainer. Let me know if I can help with anything.

Regards,
Aaron

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rebecca Povio on July 1, 2008 at 9:06am

Thanks Aaron, I will try to hook up with Jim. But, as you well know, even a couple hundred bucks a month is a lot for startup. Keep up the good work! ~Rebecca

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Connie Bensen on August 27, 2008 at 11:56am

Hi Rebecca,
I think that the key to 'selling' brand monitoring is to use many pieces. And I am in no way connected with SM2. I totally appreciate that they support my writing in this area.

What you need to sell is the premise for listening. It's the most imperative step because without it a company shouldn't engage until they know where the conversations are at or what they're saying. My list below is similar to Aaron's just said in a diff way.

I will start a list for you:
- read Groundswell (have your marketing mgr do so)

- create a list of the benefits of brand monitoring & how you can use them to:
- increase your brand presence
- respond quickly to customer needs
- gather product feedback
- head off crisis
- monitor competitors (gather feedback on sentiment & their products)
- find new niches where potential customers are located at
- gather testimonials to be used for marketing
- be creative...

Use SM2 for a period of time & create a list to show the opportunities for those things.
Connie

▶ Reply to This