Where Does Social Media Fit in B2B Marketing?

I recently did a series on Empowering Your Sales Team. I’d like to turn my attention to another topic for a few posts: B2B Marketing. But before all of you B2C folk click away, I think you’ll find that some of the same lessons apply to you.

Business-to-Business marketing is often thought of as less sexy and interesting than consumer marketing.  That may be true for some companies, but certainly not all. But there are a lot of very innovative B2B companies out there that understand this one fundamental principal: businesses buy like consumers today and consumers are all over social media.

Social media is the term we apply to a collection of Internet tools that include blogging and tools like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Foursquare. At first glance, they all appear to be exactly what they claim: social, trivial, and fun.  B2B shouldn’t be fun, should it?

But there’s a lot going on here that makes perfect sense for B2B marketing. Social media is all about spreading the word about things individuals like and dislike. In social media, things can happen quickly. Good news grows real roots and bad news moves at the speed of light.

Social media is actually the perfect set of tools for the B2B marketer. It’s a way to grow and share content about your business, your market, and your customers. It’s a way to establish credibility, and it’s a set of tools to let you address PR disasters in minutes.

The core of any good B2B social media approach is content...lots of content. That’s where your blog comes into play. Nothing increases Search Engine Optimization (SEO) like great content that's frequently published. And if you’re publishing things that are interesting and valuable to your customers and prospects, you’ll quickly find it is one of the most cost- effective ways to spread the word about your products and services.

Chris Brogan, author of Trust Agents, says, “Content is my best B2B social media lesson. I’ve seen many companies learn that providing interesting content (like video testimonials or how-to information) is a great way to encourage prospects, warm up leads, and convert to sales opportunities.”

Once you’ve got your blog in place, you can start using Twitter to spread the word. You should also consider getting your customer service team up on Twitter ASAP. Having your team watch Twitter for your company name and keywords on Twitter are great ways to spot a problem. Responding to it and fixing it immediately can win you big praise.

Then you can move on to Facebook Fan pages and other social media tools. It’s worth nothing that Facebook has over 500 million users. How many of your customers are also Facebook users? There are endless things you can do. It’s helpful to have a strategy and make social media part of your overall marketing plan. Your social media strategy and plans don’t have to be difficult and you don’t have to employ a team of teenagers to make it work. It’s just another way, perhaps a better way, to communicate directly with your customers and prospects.

I’d love to hear what you think about social media and how you’re using it in your business and as part of your overall marketing plan. Give me a call or drop me a line.