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February 17, 2011 In Social Media

Business and Social Media: Cisco Case Study

NetProspex recently posted several social media case studies on their blog, and in reading them, we found the notes on Cisco’s B2B Social Media Marketing success to be particularly interesting.

According to the post, Cisco recently won the National/International B2B Manufacturer category in the 2010 B2B Twitterer Awards. The company has successfully implemented a B2B social media marketing plan that saved them more than $100,000 for a recent product launch, proving that social media marketing can, in fact, have significant bottom line results for businesses.

The processes used by Cisco for their social media marketing (SMM) can work for any sized B2B company. No matter the budget, there are specific steps that can be put into place to enhance the success rate of SMM and allow for increases in sales as a direct result.

Some of the Cisco SMM processes to consider with your B2B marketing plan:

  • Have specific corporate guidelinesfor the interaction of staff within the SMM plan.
    • The Cisco SMM guidelines outline how staff should navigate their existing social media sites, profiles and pages as well as how they should effectively engage the Cisco audience in each of these mediums.
    • The guidelines help ensure that anyone who touches the Cisco SMM sites maintains the message and tone that Cisco needs for their latest campaigns.
  • Open your social media efforts to your customers and target market.
    • Cisco has created a landing page on their server that incorporates content and links from each of their social media sites, pages and profiles to educate readers of their ongoing SMM efforts as well as their current promotions, deals or offers. It’s a powerful hub for their social media marketing.
  • Listen as much as you talk.
    • Cisco has implemented a multi-tier social media monitoring system that resulted from five stages of listening trials starting with traditional forms of listening like focus groups, to implementing and adjusting social media listening tools until they saw quantifiable results.
    • It’s important for every company to test their social media monitoring to achieve the marketing goals set for SMM, whether it is brand building, lead generation or sales.

Cisco has seen the cost-effective, bottom-line results that an effectively implemented and monitored social media marketing plan can drive. Keep their efforts in mind when assessing your SMM plan.

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