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People seldom leave a website when they’re thrilled by what they find there (unless their office is on fire). Great, catchy websites not only have a wow-factor in the way they find their way to a wider audience, they have a certain ‘stickiness’-factor to them. People intuitively have learned to browse, select and skip from the boring, the irrelevant and the in-your-face-sites to the websites that make a difference. When there is too little stickiness, people turn to the nearest online exit as shown in the infographic below.
Well over 200 B2B companies (North America) were surveyed Q1 2012 to assess the state of affairs when it comes to B2B lead generation. The differences between those companies that use CRM and Marketing Automation and those that do not sometimes don’t seem all that massive. Yet the delta is significant when it comes to the volume of leads generated and the happiness with the quality of leads generated.
An excellent customer experience lays the foundation for higher conversion rates and healthier revenue.
In my previous post I reflected on the comparison between the 2009 and 2011 editions of Gartner’s hype cycle1 for emerging technologies. I already noticed social technologies to have – by and large – moved off the Gartner hype cycle altogether. This would imply their adoption has grown to at least 30% market penetration. Surprisingly indeed, when looking at the speed of uptake in certain business to business verticals. Let’s take a closer look at some key trends here.
Corporate blogging – 2 to 5 years of mainstream adoption
2009: on the slope of enlightenment
2012: off the Gartner hype cycle (yet no mainstream adoption yet when it comes to B2B business).
Microblogging (Twitter) – 2 to 5 years of mainstream adoption
2009: on the downside of the peak of inflated expectations, (…) is starting to earn its place alongside other channels such as email, blogging and wikis
2012: off the Gartner hype cycle (yet no mainstream adoption yet when it comes to B2B business)
Online Video (YouTube and others) – 2 to 5 years of mainstream adoption
2009: in the peak of inflated expectations
2012: off the Gartner hype cycle (yet no mainstream adoption yet when it comes to B2B business).
Social software suites – 2 to 5 years of mainstream adoption
In 2009, according to Gartner: ”Within businesses, there is strong and rapidly growing evidence of experimentation and early production deployments. (….). Disillusionment is beginning based on the realization that, even with a suite, much work must be done to build an effective social software deployment“.
In 2012 social software suites are sliding into the trough: disillusionment indeed has materialized, when looking at Gartner’s Hypecycle for Social Software.
1 The Gartner hype cycle describes a one-off picture of the maturity, adoption and business application of over 1900 specific technologies and trends.
Gartner’s Hypecycle for Social Software 2011.
Whilst the overall 2011 Gartner hype cycle for emerging technologies contains fewer social technologies, the dedicated hype cycle for Social Software is a source of new social abundance. The entries in bold are the ones that B2B commercial executives eg marketing directors and sales directors to my opinion should seriously keep track of and consider to timely take advantage of in their business to business sales, marketing and service efforts.
On the rise
On the Rise in the social software hype cycle are MDM of Social Data, Video Content Management and Delivery, Social Content, Security Applications Embedded in Social Media, Social Media Compliance, The Collective Social-Learning Platform, Crowdsourcing, Enterprise Internet Reputation Management, Simultaneous Collaborative Editing and Social Media Metrics.
At the Peak
Expertise Location and Management, Social Network Analysis, Social Software Standards, Cloud Collaboration Services, Social Analytics, Social Profiles, Activity Streams, Cloud Email, Mobile Collaboration Client.
Sliding Into the Trough
External Community Platforms, Content Analytics, Social Media Consulting, Unified Communications and Collaboration, Personal Subscriptions, Social Software Suites, Internal Community Platforms.
Climbing the Slope
Consumerization, Idea Management, Mobile Social Networks, Social-Media Monitors, Dedicated Email Services
Entering the Plateau
Folksonomies/Social Tagging, Social Search