Audience Assessment: The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy

Posted by Dean Whitney on 16 November 2009 | 0 Comments

Tags: b2b, social media

In this series of articles, I will outline a social strategy that is essential for B2B brand managers to understand when getting started in social media.

The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy

Usability Guru Jacob Nielson's 90-9-1 Rule for Social Design stated that 1% of users contribute most of the content, while 9% contribute periodically and 90% are lurkers, or simply consume content. For B2B marketers, a small percentage of your audience will actually create content that promotes your brand, while many more may bookmark or mention that content on Digg, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, etc. Most of your audience will just take notice. You may know many people that are target buyers of cars, but there are only a few of them you may ask advice about buying a car. In social media, it's equally important to target the influencers - not just your target buyers.

Influencers (1%):

The people who create content online are influencers who promote brands they like. They have established a reputation through their accomplishments and by delivering consistent value through their insights and opinions. They have developed a following. This is a sophisticated, intelligent and Internet-savvy audience. They can make or break a brand, see through marketing propaganda and have a low tolerance for spam. Who are the influencers for your target customers? Who are the thought leaders in your industry? What are their Internet habits, what blogs do they read, what social networks do they participate in? This segment of your target audience may not represent a significant percentage of your revenue but they can potentially drive more awareness and trust than you can.

Brand Advocates (9%):

Brand advocates are target buyers and influencers likely to promote content and mentions created by people they follow and respect. When serial entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki tweets a links to a blog article and suggests its great insight for marketing professionals, I will often 'retweet' that update even before reading the article. So far I have never been disappointed. Guy's judgment is consistent and his ideas and perspectives have been a significant source of inspiration and knowledge over the years. I have become a "brand advocate" for many brands Guy has promoted, as many of the products and services he has recommended, I have used with great success and recommend them to clients as well.

Target Buyers (90%):

Of course, you need to optimize the experience to service the 90% of the consumers of your product that may not participate in the conversation, but who represent the highest portion of revenue opportunity. Make it easy for them to understand your value proposition, to see what real people are saying, and to discover that your solution has social status. There are many ways you can fine-tune the experience and make sign-up or conversion more effective buy reducing friction and increasing incentives. Your ongoing program should be able to uncover insights from real consumer interactions so that it can be come increasingly accurate in acquiring qualified lead and reducing attrition observed on lead capture forms - a topic we will discuss further.

The Ten Tips: Going from Zero to Social and Beyond

1. Your Website is the Hub
2. Audience Assessment: The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy
3. Discover the Right Keyword Search Phrases (KSPs)
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
5. Campaign Strategy
6. Social Media Operations
7. Customer Acquisition
8. ROI-based Planning
9. Social Media Monitoring
10. What's Next