Case study: Lead generating B2B Content Community – My Meeting Professional
March 14th, 2012 by Lloyd Gofton
B2B Social Media Campaign
A lead-generating social media and content based programme aimed at business decision makers and influencers delivers leads in excess of £500,000 in first six months. Core community website supported with LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook activity.
My Meeting Professional (MMP)
Overview: The My Meeting Professional customer community was developed by Liberate Media to deliver customer leads for iBAHN (EMEA), focused on its Enterprise Conference Solutions (ECS) division. This was achieved by developing a non-iBAHN branded resource of content focused on the events sector to answer key technology/connectivity challenges that face event organisers. This allowed the campaign to engage with the target audience on a deeper level by educating rather than selling, and enabled iBAHN EMEA to developed relationships that had previously been unachievable.
Results: First six months
• Six leads secured during first six months, providing business opportunities in excess of £500,000
• Established My Meeting Professional as a useful content hub and learning tool for the meetings sector
• Social campaign positioned MMP with meeting/conference influencers and corporate customers
• Offered hard evidence of the strength of a social approach for iBAHN
Client Quote: Carolyn Sait, PR Director, iBAHN EMEA: “The success of the My Meeting Professional campaign (MMP) is evidenced by the excellent leads and income delivered to the business, but also by the case study it provides on how a social approach delivers real benefits to the business as a whole.
“Building relevant content and encouraging useful conversations via MMP has opened opportunities and allowed iBAHN to explore a more direct style of customer engagement.”
Objectives
• Develop My Meeting Professional into a useful content community for the events sector.
• Build awareness and understanding of MMP to open opportunities that are not available to the iBAHN brand alone.
• Generate leads for iBAHN’s Enterprise Conference Solutions (ECS) division.
• Improve iBAHN’s network in the events sector by closer working with new partners and organisations.
• Share iBAHN content with influencers and the market as a whole.
Delivery
• Developed campaign and refine with client – build site and populate with content.
• Managed ongoing website development from launch onwards.
• Identified, negotiate and secure content partners for MMP.
• Developed MMP social campaigns via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
• Engaged with key industry blogger and influencers to drive engagement.
• Updated content on a daily basis via main website and social channels.
• Developed video content to promote My Meeting Professional.
• Measurement and analytics reporting delivered to refine campaign.
The campaign
My Meeting Professional is the content portal for event and meetings planners, sharing the latest views and news in the events, conferences and meetings sector but most importantly, MMP enables professionals in these areas to learn, share and develop their skills.
The campaign was developed by Liberate Media on behalf of iBAHN, a global broadband technologies provider for the hospitality industry.
Originally developed as a project linked to iBAHN’s EMEA communications campaign, MMP’s primary role was to raise awareness of and deliver leads for iBAHN specialist events division, iBAHN Enterprise Conference Solutions (ECS).
iBAHN ECS provides a fully managed network, as well as hardware and connectivity to facilitate every type of meeting for large corporate clients, including conferences, launches, training, etc.
Launched in mid-2011, The My Meetings Professional community had surpassed all expectations in its first six months by bringing the iBAHN brand closer to the events sector. MMP has also developed business opportunities that continue to deliver and a resource to help the community understand and build knowledge of the growth of hybrid events.
Issues covered on MMP have included the technical complexities of events set-up and management, the technology expertise demanded in planning and producing events, network and internet connectivity needs and the effect of mobile networked devices at events, among many other themes.
Content partners
The content offered via the community was developed by Liberate Media on behalf of iBAHN and has been supplemented by content partners who were invited to take part, including Big Hospitality, Velvet Chainsaw, Symon Dacon, Ready2Spark, Planet Planit and Inspired Live Experience. Each of these content partners provides expert knowledge to build the conversation via MMP and grow audience interest.
Social Media support
Twitter
The Twitter campaign was developed as a separate communications channel, updated daily with three main focuses:
1. Engage with the My Meeting Professional community daily to drive interest and conversation.
2. Allow any developments and announcements to be communicated immediately, including new content, announcements, and comment on industry issues.
3. Drive traffic to the main campaign website.
LinkedIn
The LinkedIn campaign was a crucial tool to drive the profile on the main MMP spokesperson and to provide the link between the content online and discussions with meetings professionals, using these three focuses:
1. Help MMP’s core spokesperson to engage in direct conversation with leads.
2. Develop relationships with key events influencers.
3. Engage with events discussion groups on LinkedIn to build the MMP debate.
Facebook
The Facebook campaign was developed primarily to share content from the MMP campaign and offer further insight into relevant events with these three focuses:
1. Act as a sign post to the main MMP website by sharing key posts.
2. Share updates and images from events attended.
3. Develop conversation with MMP fans and followers.
YouTube
The YouTube campaign was developed to act as a resource for relevant videos posted on the main MMP community website, with three main focuses:
1. Share original video animations developed for the main MMP community website.
2. Share videos from events that MMP and partners attended, or useful videos shared by the community.
3. Act as a signpost to direct traffic and interest to the main website.
Results
The headline result for the MMP campaign is the delivery of leads worth in excess of £500,000, which has been made possible by the engagement that has taken place offline and online, particularly via the various social media campaigns. By listening to MMP’s community and engaging directly, MMP has projected a knowledgeable persona and secured motivated advocates who have in-turn recommend the campaign and helped to build the success to date.
Further analytics available on request:
Visits: An average of 600-700 visits to the main campaign site per month.
Page views: An average of 1800 page views per month.
Time on site: 3.50 – 4.30 minutes per user.
Content: Over 300 blog posts were developed during the first six months of activity. Two animated videos were also developed for MMP.
Twitter account has over 700 followers and over 1000 tweets were posted with regular conversation and engagement on a daily basis.
LinkedIn account has over 2000 direct, sector-specific business connections, with a platform reach in excess of 3,500,000+LinkedIn members. MMP is a member of 25 event-focused groups on LinkedIn and posts regularly to these as relevant opportunities arise.
Client quotes
Mike Clanton, MMP team leader and EMEA manager iBAHN Enterprise Conference Solutions (ECS) says: “We saw the urgent need for an event sector hub that connected professionals and delivered accessible information at the right time.
“The technical requirement for event planners has grown rapidly over the past 18 months. They now need to understand a range of connectivity technologies and work with partners if they do not have that knowledge. To ensure maximum return on investment, event planners have to make network connectivity a central element of all meeting design.
“We’ll be helping to support this requirement, building partnerships that add more relevant and essential information to MMP in 2012, ensuring the community builds its knowledge and finds the best guidance.”
Graeme Powell, MD iBAHN EMEA, comments: “My Meeting Professional has certainly made its mark in 2011 and we are committed to developing it further this year, providing much needed technical and market sector advice for event and meetings professionals.”
Liberate Media contact
For further information, please contact:
Lloyd Gofton
Liberate Media
07919 353484
Lloyd@liberatemedia.com
@LiberateLloyd
Tags: B2B, case study, content community, digital pr, earned media, facebook, LinkedIn, My Meeting Professional, Social media, twitter, youtube