IBM Remakes Marketing Team to Key on Social Media Channels

Expect IBM (NYSE: IBM) to rely heavily on social media, leveraging Twitter and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) hangouts among other vehicles, to supplement its product, brand and channel marketing strategy going forward, according to Ed Abrams, IBM midmarket business vice president. Abrams offered an update — and some clues as to where IBM is heading next — in an interview with The VAR Guy.

In the last 18 months, IBM quietly has remade its marketing teams both in the U.S. and globally, retraining its people to use social channels not merely to drive demand for IBM products but also to take stock and engage with what’s being said in the social stratosphere about the company’s brand, marketing presence and the utility of its equipment, said Abrams.

“We have changed our marketing and communication team,” he said. “We had to learn how and where to most effectively leverage all this social media capability. For example, we had people who were direct mail specialists but now are specialists in how best to use Twitter. It’s the evolution of marketing.”

Why the retraining and redirection of marketing personnel? To have the right people in place with the right skill set to push deeper into the social media world, Abrams said.

“We will continue to push further into social media as way we go to market, driving engagement and interaction thru social channels,” he said. “In that context, we’ll deliver proof points, access to experts and expertise to solve IT problems of our audience,” he said.

This is good news for channel partners, who have much to gain from IBM’s marketing intentions, according to Abrams. The vendor isn’t thinking about reducing its investment in channel marketing in favor of social media but rather using those outlets to augment traditional ways of raising awareness and boosting demand, he said. “We’ll continue to invest heavily in co-marketing and marketing with MSPs and traditional partners to drive demand through their environments,” Abrams said.

IBM’s blueprint spans what Abrams called “active listening” on social media channels (a practice not confined to IBM—Cisco, among others, also “listens” intently to what’s said and urges partners to do so as well) and providing content where appropriate. Doing so comes with the tacit understanding that social media sentiment isn’t gospel but rather directional.

“IBM wants to be responsive to our customers,” Abrams said. “We’re out there with our own tools listening to conversations going on in social stratosphere. We’re building a library of influencers who in real time can get involved in those conversations to provide content.” With social media, IBM’s positioning and market direction can be altered quickly: “You have options for the 8-minute, 8-hour or 8-day reaction,” he said.