Web Briefing

Why Marketing Must Be the Catalyst for Social Media—and How to Do It

May 11, 2010
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Also on May 12, 2010

(Free for ITSMA members)

Overview

In ITSMA’s recent social media survey, we found that in most organizations, marketing is the catalyst for social media being used by others in the company. In this online briefing, ITSMA’s Chris Koch and Katie Espinola will examine marketing’s role as the catalyst and will offer case studies from top B2B technology companies. Some of the issues we will explore include:

Finding and supporting subject matter experts to participate in social media channels
Training employees in social media
Creating guidelines for social media usage
Fitting social media into current marketing organizational roles

This Briefing is complimentary for ITSMA members and $195 for nonmembers.

Presenters

Chris Koch
Director, Research and Thought Leadership

Chris Koch works closely with ITSMA’s leadership team, executive councils, business partners, clients, and subject matter experts to carry out surveys and develop compelling research and thought leadership on marketing and sales trends, solutions, and technology industry issues. An award-winning writer and editor, Koch brings over 25 years of experience in journalism, and more than 10 years covering information technology and business. Koch most recently served as executive editor for CIO, a trade magazine for chief information officers and other IT leaders. Before CIO, Koch was a communications manager in marketing for Computer Sciences Corporation, where he developed and wrote thought leadership content on business and IT strategy for internally-generated publications and the general press. He also helped edit and promote The Discipline of Market Leaders, a best-selling book on business strategy.

Katie Espinola
Senior Research Analyst

Katie Espinola is a Senior Research Analyst at ITSMA who manages research projects and researches and writes membership deliverables. Katie is responsible for managing ITSMA’s highly regarded Competency Assessment Program and online member surveys-including the essential annual ITSMA survey on Services Marketing Budgets and Trends and ITSMA’s annual study of B2B buyers, “How Customers Choose.” Katie is experienced and knowledgeable in conducting both primary and secondary research and in using research data analysis software tools, such as SPSS.

General Information

ITSMA’s Online Briefings offer recent research findings or survey results from thought leaders on a variety of services marketing topics. The Online Briefings can be viewed individually, or in groups composed of people within the same company. The briefings are available anywhere in the world that has telephone service and access to the Internet. A typical program runs 45 minutes followed by 15 minutes of questions and answers. The person making the online presentation speaks into a telephone and advances the visual portion of the presentation via their computer connected to the Internet. At the end of the presentation. and at the presenter’s discretion, the listeners are invited to ask questions. Each listener with a question identifies him or herself and is listed in a queue and taken one at a time by the presentation monitor. The monitor also manages the question and answer session by giving each questioner access to the phone line to communicate with the presenter.

This briefing will be administered by BT Conferencing. All participants are required to test their browsers 24-48 hours prior to ensure compatibility. This test can be done by clicking here: Check your system. You will receive a pass code and dial in number three business days prior to the briefing.

Technical Requirements

The technical requirements for this ITSMA online briefing are:

Direct or dial-up Internet connection of 56Kbps or higher.
A separate telephone line to access the audio teleconference.
If participating from your company, ask about your company’s Internet Firewall 48 hours prior to the event. This will enable your IT technician to reconfigure your connections if necessary to ensure access to the Internet portion of the briefing.
No plug-ins or software downloads are required.
System Requirements: Windows 2000 or higher, Internet Explorer 6.x or greater, Netscape 7.2 or later. The following operating systems will work with limitations: Windows 98 SE, NT Server or Workstation 4.0, Mac OSX 10.3 with Safari 1.2; Solaris 9 with Netscape 7.0 or Mozilla 1.4, Sun JVM 1.4.2.

Fees and Registration

Aside from the telephone call, the fee for the presentation is complimentary for active ITSMA members, and $195 per location for non-members.

Note: Registration is on a first-come/first-served basis.

ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions. As part of our annual client program we work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services firms to generate new business, strengthen customer loyalty, and increase brand differentiation. Through research, consulting, training, and community we provide the insight companies need to improve marketing impact, sales performance, and business results. ITSMA is based in Lexington, Massachusetts, and has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Learn more at www.itsma.com.