Icertis: A Social Media Strategy Built on the Dragonfly Model

Who is Icertis? “Icertis is the leader in providing enterprise solutions in the Microsoft Cloud. We are one of the few technology companies globally that builds and implements cloud native product and solutions that address specific business needs of enterprises.” Key Applications: Contract and Compliance Management Transportation Management Channel Partner Relationship Management

Focus Grab Attention Engage Take Action Human Actionable Testable Clear Happiness Set short- term, micro- goals. How will you measure your success? What listening/anal ytic tools will you use? How does your goal align with the values and needs of your audience? Be specific and focus on a single problem/issu e. Does your audience care about your goal? Goal Setting Tailor your goal to your audience using the data you’ve collected. Experiment Gather Data Analyze Revise

Grab Attention Engage Take Action Focus Personal Visual Visceral Unexpected Create content w/ a personal hook in mind. Show, don’t tell. How can you convey your content visually? Infographic Video Tap into the emotions of your audience. What is your audience curious about? Reframe a common problem of interest. Experiment Gather Data Analyze Revise

Grab Attention Engage Take Action Focus Tell a story. Empathize Be Authentic. Match the Media. Is your content compelling? Listen to your audience. What is important to your audience? Let your love for your own business come out in your content. Observe the ways your audience uses the channels they’re on. Don’t present the same content in the same ways through the same channels. Is your content memorable? Does your content convey information your audience needs/wants? It’s OK to use first-person. Experiment Gather Data Analyze Revise

Grab Attention Engage Take Action Focus What is your relationship to your audience? Ask Make the action easy. Tailor the action. Close? (Family/Frien ds) Your audience relationships dictates the “Ask” What is important to your audience? Make the action concrete – click, forward, like, download, etc. Does taking the action benefit your specific audience in some way? Is taking the action going to be fun or engaging for your audience? Far? (Customers/Cl ients/Fans) Minimize steps to complete. Make the action clear. Does the framing of the action inspire trust and a willingness to share? Experiment Gather Data Analyze Revise

3 Overarching Goals: Generate Leads Establish Key Icertis Figures as Industry Thought Leaders Improve Brand Awareness

Focus Grab Attention Engage Take Action Who are Icertis' potential leads? Top executives (CXOs, VPs, Directors) of companies operating in banking and insurance, logistics, manufacturing, retail and media industries What are their preferred business channels? 47% still prefer s with vendor sales person 72% look actively to the product before scheduling a meeting Microgoal #1: increase by 25% product demo downloads in a month What about social media? only 16% use social media to engage in business conversations Projected to become 57% in 3/5 years Sources: IBM Global CEO Study, May 2012; Technology Buyer Insight, Forrester Research, 2010

Focus Grab Attention Engage Take Action LinkedIn is the social media tool to reach Icertis’ potential leads. Why? Sources: Marketing LinkedIn, May 2012; The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks, November million business leads in India, 1/5 business decision makers 220 million business leads in US 8/10 business decision makers 50% of executives rate LinkedIn a good resource for recommendations for enterprise software products 24% of C-Level executives state that LinkedIn influenced a purchase decision 88,000 IT leads are on LinkedIn 93% of executives is already using Social media Microgoal #2: increase by 25% followers on LinkedIn page

Focus Grab Attention Engage Take Action Currently Icertis uses LinkedIn mostly for recruiting purposes. How to stand out? Exploit all the opportunities of a company page (ex.: Microsoft LinkedIn page) Good practices: Post frequent status updates; add informative description about customers; insert website link and the blog feed URL; build a product and service page; embed links to YouTube; seek recommendations for the products; check analytics; consider LinkedIn advertising Create a LinkedIn Group (ex.: Dell Business Solution Exchange) Good practices: create valuable brand contents with articles, reports, webinars, infographics etc; use the Announcements strategically creating an marketing strategy

FocusEngage Take Action In order to engage LinkedIn followers: o Post on regular basis, at least once a week and include rich media. You can reuse the same content for the Group and the status update, just find a different angle o Make it all about the followers, providing interesting added-value content about the cloud industry. Use Content Strategy Generator tool to identify hot topics o Customize your message, remember for example, to change LinkedIn automatic generated subject line o Be empathic, thank new followers, show theme there’s a person behind the tool o Follow other companies and engage with their people. Promote other businesses and, for example, their career opportunities Engage Take Action

FocusEngage Take Action Followers are more active when explicitly called for action. 2 Microgoals, 2 actions to call for: o MG#1: increase the number of LinkedIn followers o encourage existing employees to connect with Icertis’ page o Post an invite to follow your page within relevant Linkedin Groups o Invite your followers to share content and post comments. Be explicit using short questions (what do you think.. share this...) o MG#2: increase the number of product demo downloads o In your post or status updates link often Icertis website with the invitation to download a demo o On the website be sure to spotlight the product demo, ideally in the home page Take Action

Focus Grab Attention Engage Take Action Who is the target audience for Icertis’ thought leadership message? Leaders within cloud computing Technology evaluators Journalists and media covering innovations in cloud for potential story content New untapped markets

Focus Grab Attention Engage Take Action Icertis is one of the leaders in enterprise solution for the Azure cloud, your ideas and opinions matter Provide relevant content to audience which is diverse – IT evaluators require more technical information, media will latch onto sound bites and shorter form pieces Infographics – comparisons between cloud solutions and standard enterprise solutions Blog as the mouthpiece for pushing out your message, keep readers engaged

Focus Grab Attention Engage Take Action Effective blog posts are the best way to engage with your audience, provide hooks to get readers to respond, offer opinions, get conversations going, use responses as a way to generate more blog content Encourage readers to share posts via social sharing buttons use different tag lines to hook in different audiences and channels Engage in person – Icertis’ main face to face engagement is at trade shows and conferences, use social media as a way to publicize events and appearances

Grab Attention Engage Take Action As Icertis ramps up their presence in social media, there will be more opportunities for networking and engagement Ask followers and readers to share content via retweeting, liking posts, encouraging them to follow Icertis on various social channels, encourage them to download white papers, slide decks Measure success using social monitoring tools and web analytics Focus

Grab Attention Engage Take Action Icertis needs to build a brand that reflects them as an expert in cloud management Icertis is the leader in cloud management and should establish themselves as a thought leader. Social media presence can help build a strong brand awareness Focus

Grab Attention Engage Take Action * Redesign website for SEO purposes. * Create profiles in popular social media channels, as well as a blog. * Provide regular informative contents in these channels * Develop a “voice” and a “personality” of a thought leader in the subject matter * Incorporate social media in industry trade shows and conventions. Focus

Grab Attention Engage Take Action Be engaging End blog posts with questions. Invite readers to share their thoughts and comments Retweet and respond to tweets that are informative and relevant Focus

Grab Attention Engage Take Action Utilize tools such as Google Analytics on your website Facebook “likes” Number of Twitter followers and retweets YouTube subscriber count and video views. Focus

Icertis website recommendations for going social