I Wish I Had This a Few Years Ago

(Guest post by Nick Kuppers)

As VP-Sales of a technology company based in The Netherlands, I was challenged with introducing our technology to the U.S. market a few years ago.  We were selling an XML database - an excellent fit for managing very complex content, such as technical publications for aircraft.

We won several great deals in the U.S. with companies like Boeing, Harley-Davidson, and Northwest Airlines.  The only problem was that very few people knew about us.  We did not have an office in the U.S., and we did not have a huge marketing budget, so we could only attend a few trade shows each year.  And social media didn’t exist yet.

If only I had the possibility to present our company to the world in a resource guide network like the ones that are launched today and could have participated in webcasts periodically to show off our uniqueness to the tech pubs community.  I am sure we would have been invited to more RFI/RFP processes that were out there.  And we would have been able to grow our U.S. presence a lot faster.

Fortunately for us, we were ‘discovered’ by one of our big competitors and were acquired by them before we even began to establish our U.S. presence.

Check it out for yourself, the Site Solutions Summit Resource Guide Network recently launched for the Clinical Research Sites community: http://network.sitesolutionssummit.com/sites

Bringing the ‘Latest’ on Your Industry 24/7

A Social Network is made up of a set of individuals and organizations, and the relationships, connections, and interactions between them. Social networking services - or social media - like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter focus on building relations among people who share a common interest and/or activities. Users of these services have a profile, they have social links to other users, and they interact through email or instant messaging.

Media networking services focus on sharing social and other media among professionals who share a common interest. Webvent for example, is focused on connecting buyers and vendors in specific industries or marketplaces. It provides buyers a rich media experience and interactive self-education opportunities, while controlling how they engage with vendors. Users can search on any keyword through the database of videos, white papers, case studies, and blogs.  They download relevant information, join webcasts, and learn from industry thought leaders. They see how they’re linked through social networks with other professionals, and connect through email.

Like social networking services, media networking services are free and easy to use. Income is generated through advertising.

Uniting the social networks of individuals and organizations in the context of a specific industry or marketplace offers great value to industry associations and publishers - and their members or subscribers. It helps them offer the programming and services to their members far beyond the monthly publication or annual event: it brings the ‘latest‘ on your industry from thought leaders, vendors, influencers, and other subject matter experts, to your member’s desk 365 days of the year. And it opens up whole new revenue streams from advertising and sponsorships.

Buyers Guide 2.0

Most organizations today have a website, a blog, and newsletter; they publish case studies and white-papers, and run webinars - telling the world why they are so successful and great to work with. To this, cutting-edge marketing organizations add a YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Twitter account, because they want to join the conversation and leverage the social networks.

What’s often missing though is context. And context is very important because it influences the meaning of the content you are sharing. You can write a great blog post, but when it’s shared with the wrong group it loses meaning. Same with Twitter: you can tweet great things, but when you’re not reaching your target audience it has limited value. Having a great video on YouTube is wonderful, but only if the right people watch it. These activities have little meaning when found by the wrong audience, but may have a lot of meaning to a community who keep themselves informed on a specific topic.

Adding context to your marketing and communication activities is the biggest value that a networked buyers guide brings to the table. Buyers guides are already organized around a topic or specific industry. Organizations listed in the buyers guide seek exposure to people interested in that topic or industry. So as a vendor, uniting your communication and marketing channels in your buyers guide presence makes a lot of sense. It is the right place for your blog posts, videos, and white-papers to have the most impact, and it saves the buyer a lot of time searching the web for relevant information.

At Webvent we work hard with our customers to build the next generation of buyers guides. The Buyers Guide 2.0 so to speak, which provides the right context for your communication and marketing activities.

Putting the Buyer back in Buyers Guide

In their widely-acclaimed book ‘Putting the Public Back in Public Relations’,  Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge describe how social media changes the rules of public relations; how blogs, social networks, and online forums have changed the dynamics of influence. Today, new information is readily shared among peers and monologue has changed to dialogue, bringing a new era of PR.

It is easy to draw a parallel with buyers guides. As with public relations, the old top-down ‘push’ model is becoming a thing of the past. Fewer people read generic messages and news releases because we have better sources of information: objective information from influencers and peers. The same counts for buyers guides. Buyers today are less interested in static listings, put together by which vendor pays the most. They want objectivity: to hear from their industry’s thought leaders and their customers. They want to hear success stories and learn from their peers. 

Solis and Breakenridge teach us in their book that social media is reinventing the aging business of PR. At Webvent we believe it is also reinventing the aging business of published buyers guides.

Why Do Suppliers Join an Association?

Regardless of all other stated intentions, suppliers join an association because they believe it helps them drive more business to their doorstep. Membership in the association provides them with programming and services, which can result in new business opportunities.
To accomplish that, associations offer several tools to their members:
•    Networking events
•    Membership directory
•    Suppliers directory

In the offline world, these tools are valuable but limited - by time and location. But when placed online, these limitations disappear.  For example: members presenting webinars of interest to the association community brings networking opportunities regardless of location and time. And members sharing content like webinar recordings, videos, and white papers through the buyers guide, makes the guide a valuable source of information – far beyond simple contact details.

When the Association’s programming and services are such that any supplier member can ‘push out’ information – to demonstrate thought leadership, share content, and deliver a positive experience to potential buyers or business partners, it will help them feel good about their involvement in the association. 

Webvent provides networked webinars and buyers guides for associations – please comment below and let us know what issues your association faces with your online events and suppliers directory.

Schools Abroad Benefit from Webinars

Many countries have school networks outside of their homeland, designed for their citizens working abroad who want their children to learn its home culture and language.  Typically, these schools are located around major world cities and schooling is offered for around 3-5 hours weekly outside of regular local school hours.

The main reason for teachers at these schools to join webinars about topics related to schooling is to achieve a higher level of education for their students.  These part-time teachers and school directors are isolated within their city, and want to learn and share best practices with their sister schools around the world.

The home country may schedule annual conferences with workshops and in-person meetings, however, because of timing issues and traveling cost, it’s only feasible for a limited number of teachers to return home to join these conferences.

Webinars can be scheduled on a frequent basis, and when recorded these can always be viewed afterwards from any timezone.  Additionally, webinars allow the schools to keep in touch with each other, and collaborate on a more personal level.

At Webvent, the Dutch schools are united into a global community, which makes it easy to connect any time for specific questions. Regional teams meet regularly online, and participants who otherwise would not meet get to know each other over time.

Recently, the Dutch schools community (NTC schools world wide) got media attention with their advanced online initiative in using webinars to educate and network with each other:
1. Dutch online expat magazine

2. Dutch education abroad magazine (Stichting NOB)

To Buyers Guide Publishers: "Allow Your Vendors to Join the Conversation"

Traditionally, Buyers Guides are static publications ranking the products of different vendors according to the insight of an industry expert. The publisher generates income by selling the publication and its updates, and by selling advertising space to vendors.

Sometimes these publishers are criticized for having a selection process of products determined by only a few individuals, and not actually having used all the products in contention. Also, people bring into question the accuracy of the information provided, and a bias towards certain vendors based on advertising revenue.

On the other hand, just listing contact information of all vendors in one place, without any selection process, misses several benefits. One of these benefits is search optimization: based on keywords or categories defined by the publisher, a buyer quickly gets focused search results.

With Webvent’s dynamic buyers guide technology, however, associations and publishers can allow any vendor listed in the Buyers Guide to join the conversation among buyers, industry experts, and competitors - and let them speak for themselves. Vendors can demonstrate thought leadership on specific topics through webinar presentations, and share success stories through videos, case studies, and blogs, without ‘harassing’ potential buyers with their sales pitch.

Buyers Guides are a great tool for organizations searching for a new vendor, or starting a new RFP process for a complex product or service. In a well-organized Buyers Guide, a buyer gets to hear all sides of the story and enters the purchasing process as a better-informed party.