A revolutionary new Social Media solution has been launched – especially for the IT industry.

Channel Social Marketing (CSM) is a solution designed to help IT Vendors talk to its Partners and Resellers, promote new products and services, and ultimately boost sales.

Marketing agency Connection2 has developed a new CSM solution – a first for the IT industry.

Thomas Hughes, from Connection2, said: “This is a great communications solution for the IT community to keep in touch and share their news in the same way as many of us do on LinkedIn, Xing and Twitter ” but this is designed specifically for Vendors who are targeting Channel Partners.

“Social Media has proven by its huge uptake to be a preferred opt-in medium for more than two thirds of people (64% in UK)*.

“We felt that Vendors needed their own proactive tailor-made solution to reach their Channel sales and technical communities in a relevant, direct and personal way. The goal is to develop a complementary communication vehicle to engage with the Vendor’s Channel to facilitate easier and better business,” he added.

Connection2’s CSM focuses on four key areas to deliver the solution for its clients – processes, people, tools and different platforms.

Process
The processes are based on years of successful Channel management experience to recruit key Channel Partner individuals. Once on board, Channel Partners will receive relevant messages and seeding appropriate discussion strings. Using a ‘listen and act’ strategy, Connection2 will provide the ‘micro management’ and process scalability to follow these multiple strings through to a conclusion.

People
Properly trained and briefed people with the right level of experience and language will work to engage with indirect sales Channels through Social Media. The Connection2 team will work with marketing teams and alongside existing Channel programs and portals and use Social Media to enhance the value of local programs, incentives, new product releases.

Tools
A blend of industry standard and customised software tools will be used to monitor activity and the wider blogosphere (using client-specific key words and phrases) to provide actionable measurement and reporting.

Platform
Leveraging industry standard platforms, the important thing is that the platform provides sufficient functionality to ensure relevant ‘streams’ (typically we would start with ‘technical’ and sales marketing strings) and allow Tweets, blogs, RSS and other relevant feeds to be incorporated.

Media Contact Information

Thomas Hughes / Sales Director
www.connection2.com / www.linkedin.com/pub/thomas-hughes/0/2a9/603
thughes@connection2.com
+44 7710 360 822
1 Beacontree Plaza
Gillette Way
Reading RG2 0BS
United Kingdom