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B2B Buyer Behavior – What Works in 2011


With the recent release of both the Buyersphere B2B research and Google Marketing Outlook for 2011, information about B2B buyer behavior and B2B marketing is only a few clicks and a pdf away. The Buyersphere surveys European buyers only, and the Google Marketing Outlook surveys primarily American marketers, which you could chalk up as the reason for two big fat inconsistencies as to where B2B lead generation will be had. But, because both groups focused upon, and agreed digital and internet sources are the most preferred, culture is sort of irrelevant. I mean, web-based activity is web-based activity, whether it comes from Ohio or Kazakhstan. At any rate, buyer behavior as documented in the Buyersphere is straight from the horse’s mouth. So, you marketing folks – listen up, and you won’t have to read 40+ pages of pdf documents.

There is one B2B marketing channel that was reported all-around to be the biggest money-sucking, budget-draining form of marketing: trade shows/offline events. Despite that marketers agree buyers prefer digital sources, 28% of marketing budgets went to trade shows: way, way more than any other form. Crazier still, 38% of marketers said they were going to spend even more in 2011. So, either trade shows are just crazy expensive, or marketers are going a little nuts with event fliers and logo t-shirts. Whichever it is, trade shows dropped from 33% to a piddly 18% in 2011, as sources that B2B buyers used at any point during a purchase process. So, a word of advice for marketing VPs: ease up on the trade show bucks.

The next inconsistency may surprise you. As said, both buyers and marketers agree internet sources are the most preferred. 40% of marketers apparently think Facebook Walls and Twitter followers are part of those preferred internet sources with the most influence. Oh contrare, according to the buyers. Only 10-12% of buyers used any social media – specifically Facebook, blogs and Twitter -to garner information at any point during the purchase process. Meanwhile, supplier websites/content and search engine research jumped from 55% to 70%, and 41% to 65%, making them the biggest sources of B2B buyer information.

So, how does this boil down for B2B lead generation, and how to get it? Well, B2B buyer behavior is definitely demanding more and more information from providers and suppliers. But, concentrating on the right sources with B2B marketing is key. So, beef up your web content, not your Facebook friends. Upgrade SEM instead of your LinkedIn profile. Hire SEO and web content writers, instead of bloggers and Tweetybirds. And, maybe reduce the whole bazillion dollar budget for event booths and hand-out buttons. Nobody wears buttons anyway.

50 Social Media Phenoms


Welcome!  It’s been months since I’ve posted to this blog. However, as you know, I’ve continued to connect with you and others on the big three social media sites. I’m elated to be connecting with you again through my blog today. In this post, I want to introduce you to some people you should know because, well, they ROCK as people and social media users!!!

What is Going to Happen to the Powerful and Influential People in Social Media Lists?

As you might recall, in the past couple of years I’ve posted a list of people who were deemed by a number of Twitter users as some of the most powerful and influential people in social media. It amazed me how much attention my blog received because I published those lists – but I’ve decided against publishing that type of list again.  The difficulty of receiving notification (in a timely manner) of all of the people who undoubtedly deserved to be on such lists was one reason I made that decision. As a result, my blog was filled with comments that ranged from encouraging to quite rude, which was great because of the exposure it afforded the people listed, my blog, and me.

However, at the end of the day I felt compelled to do something new this year.

So the list below consists of people with whom I’ve built varying degrees of relationship during my usage of social media and social networking sites. In fact, I have spent hours on the phone or in person with many of the people listed. Not only do I consider them Social Media Phenoms, I consider many of them friends. I hope that, like me, you’ll manage to build invaluable relationships with them in the days and weeks ahead. Without further ado, here are some people I consider Social Media Phenoms:
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25 Of The Most Powerful & Influential Women in Social Media 2009


It’s time to celebrate! Please congratulate 25 of the Most Powerful & Influential Women in Social Media that were hand-picked by folks on twitter. Yes, 25! I decided to shorten this year’s list because of time constraints. Congratulations ladies and thank you for all that you do!

1. Orli Yakuel | http://www.go2web20.net/
Alexa Rank 8,579 | Linking in 1,538

2. Ann Handley | http://www.marketingprofs.com
Alexa Rank 12,018 | Linking in 2,168

3. Heather Armstrong | http://dooce.com/
Alexa Rank 12,909 | Linking in 4,030

4. Lisa Stone | www.blogher.com
Alexa Rank 14,372 | Linking in 3,266

5. Robin Fray Carey | socialmediatoday.com
Alexa Rank 18,610 | Linking in 1,106
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Social Media Marketing Tulsa


In cities around the U.S. and abroad, Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook members are meeting in small and large groups to continue building their online relationships, offline.  That’s a logical progression, wouldn’t you agree?  Yesterday I had the privilege of leading one such meeting, titled “Social Media Mastermind Breakfast.” I’m grateful for the Tulsa professionals who were in attendance at that meeting and to show my appreciation I’ve listed their names or Twitter user names with a live link below:

1. @CindyWMorrison Emmy award winning TV Anchor & Investigative Reporter / Author / Speaker / Mom

2. @Mandy_Vavrinak Marketing, Advertising, PR, Economic Development. Mom of almost 4. Wife. Cook. Writer & Graphic Artist. Lover of technology. And Chocolate.

3. Jessica Powell President, Emerge Interactive Media

4. @JoshPeak Internet Marketing Trainer and Advisor

5. @MSwezey President @ MDS Media Group and Creator of StreetMavens.com

6. Brandon Helscel Internet marketer and director with Gold Star Referral Clubs, have networking clubs in Houston, Tulsa, Denver, friends with BNI, chambers, and general business

7. @DanielKBennett Owner, Nexus Solutions

8. Cowboy Bill Watts If you’re as old as me this guy needs no introduction or bio because of his accomplishments as a pro wrestler.

Thank you all for attending and participating in that first meeting. As you probably already know, the next meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 29th at 11:30 am. The location? The Ale-Haus European Grill & Pub located on the beautifully designed River Walk Crossing in Jenks, Oklahoma. Hope to see you there!

With your success in mind,

Ron

P.S. If you want to learn more details about how you can use various social media tools to discover, connect, engage, and serve your target audience, I recommend you read Ethically Influencing People with Web 2.0 Technology! By the way, the folks from Ping.fm have committed to attend our next meeting. We will also discover more about StreetMavens.com.

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Conformity: The Influence of Social Media?


There I was sitting at my desk, back straight, shoulders slightly forward, rubbing my beard with my hand, and contemplating what I would write about when it dawned on me! “Write about conformity aka Social Proof as it relates to Social Media,” I said to myself. Then I questioned whether or not YouTube had a video that would help demonstrate the power of groups to influence behavior. After a few minutes of searching, I discovered the following video to illustrate the topic of this post. Go ahead and click on the play button now, please.

Welcome back! Are we so easily influenced nowadays? I’ll answered that in another post with a more recent video. Right now, I want to quickly answer the question I posed in the title of my post.

Yes!  Yes, we have conformed to the influence of social media! However, the reasons that we have conformed are that we are fulfilling our basic human needs of 1) connecting with others 2) a sense of accomplishment from having influential and large numbers of connections, and 3) a feeling of uniqueness because of the diverseness of people with whom we are are connected.

Think about it.  Millions of people are utilizing social networking sites right now to communicate with family, friends, customers, and clients in an effort to sustain and improve that connection. Fifteen years ago, I don’t think this behavior was as prevalent as it is now. Why? Although America Online (AOL), Compuserve, and others were thriving back then, they were charging members a monthly fee to use similar functions that, today, Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin offer for free. Therefore, why wouldn’t we give in to the attraction of instantly connecting with people around the globe?

These top three social networking sites induce reciprocation with the force of water exploding out of a fire hydrant into the mouth of a thirsty man by offering us the ability to meet some of our basic human needs. In spite of that reality, please avoid neglecting the most intimate relationships you have in order to spend more time connecting with others on social networking sites. Why did I make that appeal? The reason is quite frequently, I hear Tony Robbins’ voice in my head saying something like, “People want to experience love, but they often settle for connection.”

You’re probably asking, “Why would someone do that?” A loving relationship, while incredibly rewarding, can also be extremely painful. That’s why some people will settle for casual and friendly relationships. Even worse are the people who would rather love, and connect with, their pets than real people. Don’t get me wrong I love Samson, our Jack Russell Terrier but the most phenomenal experiences of my life have come from my loving relationships with my wife, children, family, and friends. I am reminded of a phrase that dates back to the seventeenth century, which reads, “No man (or woman) is an island.” Stated differently, no man (or woman) is meant to be alone. I have definitely conformed to that influence. Will you?

With your success in mind,

Ron

Relevant Sources:
Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D., (1984) Influence: The New Psychology of Modern Persuasion
Tony Robbins, (1991) Personal Power II, The Driving Force: The Six Human Needs

Seven Top Immediate Influence Posts


Eventually any blog will have posts that are very popular for a number of reasons.  This blog isn’t an exception.  Over the weekend, I reviewed Google Analytics and the list you see below quickly emerged.  Enjoy!

7.  Strategic Influence Objecting Number Two Example:

It is almost 2009! You’ve probably been thinking about what goals you want to achieve in the new year, have you not? In the days and weeks ahead, you will have many decisions to make about what actions to take to bring about the realization of your goals.

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6.  Ten Honest Things About Me You Don’t Want to Know:

On Monday, January 12th, I was tagged by MultiMedia Producer, Angel McClinton to reveal ten honest things about myself.  Unlike the incredibly talented Angel McClinton, I haven’t included a video presentation with my ten things.  Before I get started, you might want to click on Angel’s name to see her video and forget all about reading my ten things.  Just kidding.  Kinda!

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5.  What Stops People From Achieving What They Want:

Happy New Year!!!

2008 is behind us now and a new year has begun! By now, you’re off to a great start on achieving the goals you’ve set for 2009. However, you have probably run into some opposition. Typically, opposition shows itself in two ways – but I’m only going to write about one in this post. Ready?

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4.  One Big Web 2.0 Influence Mistake That Will Ruin Your Reputation:

On Friday, January 9th I tweeted a statistic Tony Robbins revealed while being interviewed by one of Success Magazine’s writers.  The statistic is related to the number of people who won’t follow through on the resolutions aka goals they set on New Year’s Day.  Tony said, “98% of the people who set resolutions will give up within six weeks.”

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3.  How to Deeply Influence Yourself and Others:

James Van Fleet once said, “Always think in terms of what the other person wants.”

During my nearly 10 years of marriage, I’ve discovered that one of the keys to a successful relationship is thinking in terms of what my wife wants.  For instance, there are times when my wife wants to watch a romantic movie when I’d prefer to watch an action movie.  You might be saying,”Great!  Let her watch her romantic movie and you go watch an action movie on another television.”  Good idea, my rational thinking friend.  However, if I were to act on that type of thinking my wife wouldn’t get what she really wanted it from the experience.  Connectedness. Guess what?  I want to feel that too.

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2.  50 Most Powerful and Influential Men in Social Media:

Last week, as you probably know, I published a list of the 50 Most Powerful & Influential Women in Social Media. It caused quite a stir on the internet. In fact, this blog was visited by over 2,000 unique visitors the day the list was published. I truly appreciate each of you who visited that day and the following days.

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1.  50 Most Powerful and Influential Women in Social Media:

In every industry there are a few people who are inarguably outstanding at what they do. In addition to that, they are typically charismatic, energetic, and creative. In an effort to find some of these people I asked my twitter friends to nominate people who they thought were some of the most powerful and influential women in Social Media. It was no surprise that they quickly and enthusiastically responded with the list of ladies below.

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With your success in mind,

Ron Hudson

One Big Web 2.0 Influence Mistake That Will Ruin Your Reputation


On Friday, January 9th I tweeted a statistic Tony Robbins revealed while being interviewed by one of Success Magazine’s writers.  The statistic is related to the number of people who won’t follow through on the resolutions aka goals they set on New Year’s Day.  Tony said, “98% of the people who set resolutions will give up within six weeks.”

As you may imagine, I tweeted Tony’s comment because it seemed like useful information to share.  What happened afterward was absolutely mind blowing!  A guy retweeted my tweet but added a link to it without my approval.  I was displeased with this twitter user’s blatant disregard of etiquette, and I immediately tweeted a message politely requesting that he refrain from such behavior.

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