In April, we researched 100 UK decision makers’ social media attitudes and behaviours. The findings have made for interesting reading, confirming some suspicions but surprising us in other areas. Above all, they’re intended as prompts in terms of important considerations when planning social media engagement.

You can read the results as both supporting the importance of social media and illustrating why it can’t succeed on its own:

For: We’ve seen that half of decision makers feel that suppliers should be active within social media, and that a surprising number have met and given business to suppliers following a first interaction via social media.

Against: But the influence of social media dips at some key stages of the buying cycle, and more traditional channels are becoming seen as more valuable than ever before in the face of ‘overwhelming’ digital interactions.

To summarise our conculsions:

Social media has reached a point where it is almost universally used, but is at its most effective alongside other channels – hopefully we have reached the stage where it can be sensibly considered as an element of any wider marketing strategy rather than hyped as a standalone silo…

If you are interested in any further information from the full findings (over 20 different question areas and variations by size of organisation/age/job function), please contact peverett@themarketingpractice.com.

IBM has released a research piece “The Evolving Role of the CIO” alongside its transcripts of interviews with leading UK CIOs, which I mentioned in yesterday’s post. Some useful trends are highlighted by the white paper. Two of the major areas of interest are the changing nature of the role’s reporting line: the majority of CIOs – 42% of them - report to the CEO, with only 14% now reporting to the CFO. And the longevity of the average CIO is pointing up their increasing role in long-term planning: it is normal for CIOs to remain in their post for 6 years (research by Allan Alter, April 06), which is twice as long as the average CEO.

However, when looking to communicate with, and ultimately build relationships with, this particular beast a few points made in the white paper really resonated:

“The CIO is an idea position to take increasing business responsibility and control.”

“It’s one of the most dynamic and creative roles in a modern company.”

“CIOs are on the way to becoming tomorrow’s CEO”

“Key skills of today’s CIO include the ability to translate Board requirements into solutions. He needs to talk the language of the Board and the investors.”

“All innovation in our industry will be technology-led or technology facilitated.”

All of the above suggest that while the CIO no longer has to “sell the IT philosophy”, he or she is expected to be able to lead people, lead technologically and have acute business acumen. As Acergy’s CIO says in the report “tomorrow’s CIO must have the proficiency to be heir apparent to any senior executive position.” It stands to reason therefore, that the CIO of now and the future will want access to people and content that will satisfy their needs to contribute at the boardroom table.

The white paper suggests that the CIO will need to “understand the possibilities of the future” – any communications programme aiming to paint that picture more clearly for the CIO is at a distinct advantage.

10-1 doesn’t always equal 9. When it comes to running lead generation campaigns, you need to get 10 things right – leave any one of these out and 10 minus 1 will give you a 0 return. Below are the 10 areas that you need to get right.

1. Does your campaign align completely with the business’ strategy?

2. Is it thoroughly researched, does it use market and audience understanding as its starting point?

3. Does it have contact strategies for both the buyers and the influencers? Do you understand the specific types of people you are hitting and have you built communications to influence them as people?

4. Does your campaign take a holistic approach to demand generation, considering the end to end sales process?

5. Is it targeted and pragmatically creative, and does it focus on demand generation as the goal. Not every contact should be designed to generate leads, but whole programmes should be focused around moving prospects through the sales funnel.

6. Does your campaign have an integrated contact strategy? Does it maximize the recipient’s familiarity with your organization, whilst building consistency and credibility through multiple channels?

7. Does it have a ccontinuous campaigning strategy at its heart; are communications focused on building a long term relationship (lots of bites of the cherry), not sending out a one hit wonder?

8. Is it closed loop? Does it focus on lead nurturing and sales support along the length of the pipeline? Does it have a sensible and effective marketing data management process?

9. Have you set goals at the beginning of the programme that you will critically measure against at the end?

10. Will the campaign move your organisation’s understanding of its market forward at every stage?