Social Media Fuels Dynamics Partner's Blog Success
Building an effective social media presence takes time -- more time than most partners imagine is realistic for them to take on. Daily blogs, frequent Tweets and consistent activity on LinkedIn sounds like something only a big partner can manage.
One regional Dynamics partner, however, has found a method to handle the work and is reaping the rewards.
Put a System in Place
Marcia Nita Doron is the marketing director (and singular marketing resource) for Altico Advisors, a Dynamics GP, CRM and integration partner. When Doron's boss returned from a partner leadership session last year, he had been convinced that to be effective with social media, Altico needed daily blog posts. When her initial shock wore off, Doron decided to figure how she could make it happen.
Doron's system includes blocking off every Wednesday to collect content. As a Microsoft Dynamics CRM user working for a professional services company, she is able to write some of the blog posts herself. Next, she visits sites of interest to her target prospects and looks for articles that she can comment on. Through content curation she provides a valuable service in bringing attention to articles that her prospects will find interesting.
To keep the quality of content high, Doron also looks for ways to make it easy for Altico's consultants to share their knowledge. During a company meeting, she asked for their assistance in very specific terms, suggesting four specific topics. "We have developed a culture where all employees contribute blog content," Doron said. "It really helps develop original content and lends credibility to regular blog posts."
Automate Social Media Feeds
To drive more readers to the blog posts, Doron uses Butterfly Publisher to promote through Twitter and other social outlets like LinkedIn. The service automates the entire process to minimize the time commitment. "That's the easiest part," Doron said. "The hard part is getting the blog post ready. It's five minutes to send it out with the aggregator."
The "hard part" Doron refers to is applying the best practices she has learned over time to improve the effectiveness of blog posts, including:
- a clever title that includes key words
- an interesting graphic
- links to other pages on the Web site
The final step in Doron's process is to send out the weekly newsletter, which she also completes through Butterfly Publisher. The service creates and sends out a newsletter with blog post summaries to Altico's prospect e-mail list.
Increasing the Number of Closed Sales
Results from Doron's initial efforts were immediate. Three days after Doron started with daily posts, the Altico Advisors blog was indexed by Google. That immediate positive outcome was reinforced in the following months as Google analytics reflected an increase from 1,200 to 2,500 average visits per month.
Doron understands that while visits are great, "the whole purpose of this is to increase the number of deals we close that we can directly relate back to marketing." Based on careful lead tracking, 19 of Altico's 46 customer adds in 2012 were initiated via the Web site.
Not Just a Young Person's Game
Doron points out that while she is not a millennial, she has mastered the marketing tactics of the new age. Embracing the journey, she has had to learn to communicate within Twitter's limit of 140 characters and become fluent in new terminology.
Doron believes the factors that have led to her success can be employed by every partner to build an effective social media program, including:
- Frequency is incredibly important. Blogging once a month is simply not enough.
- Find relevant material to share with your prospects.
- Make writing blogs a priority and get buy-in throughout the organization.
As Doron has found, with some discipline and the right tools, even a one-person marketing team can make a social media program work.
How are you keeping your blog fresh? Add a comment below or e-mail me and let's share the knowledge.
Posted by Barb Levisay on January 24, 2013