Insights Into Marketing

Is B2B (business to business) really prepared for social media promoting?

The quick answer is “no.” The long answer “is about. Lets just say that most commonly, these types of corporations are social media curious. My agency gets a lot of B2B questions from marketing, sales and PR executives with firms that are truly keen on doing something slightly different — you know, funny and more edgy. Half the time they chicken out and return to whatever they were doing before they called us, which typically includes sleep-inducing Product videos and downloadable PDFs that they will no doubt force on company customers who have grown used to this, along with their tasteless breakfast and lukewarm coffee each morning.

My first reaction is to think they know their customers better than I do , but then I understand how crazy that sounds, and decide that they simply don?t understand social marketing. Heres a quick crash course in case you need to get up to speed. Ill go into more detail in a future article.

Social media promoting checklist:

1. Create goals

2. Develop a solid social media marketing system

3. Integrate the social media system across all departments including marketing, sales and PR

4. Create funny, entertaining, engaging, educational, shareable content like videos, blog posts, graphics, updates and programs as social focal points

5. Inspire your target audience to share via social networking

6.Build and nurture an interested fan base of potential customers

7. Actively engage that audience across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social networks

8. Measure

9.Adjust fire

10. Repeat it

The whole concept is to supply content that will grab peoples attention and get them interested enough in what youre offering to ask more questions, analyze, learn more. But wait, You say. Im meant to grab peoples attention This is B2B, not B2C. Yes, I know but guess what That business thats finally going to purchase your stuff is really an individual with work mates, friends and a strong social life both on and offline.

B2B is still people selling to folks, not buildings selling to buildings

Business to business, unarguably, is one business selling stuff to another business, but the marketing pros and customers involved are still people, not buildings. The purchasing decisions get made by individuals who are influenced by the same fun, cool, shiny selling and methods that influence B2C purchasers.

The major difference between B2B and B2C selling is that with B2B, there are less decision-makers for us to aim at for each product.

A software developer may sell 50,000 units to one large business , but for each 50,000 users there could be one person or little team accountable for finding and introducing the new software option to that business. What if you might reach those 50,000 potential internal advocates directly and mobilize them to influence the person responsible for company software purchasing?

As with B2C, B2B purchasers are training themselves

The purchasing process is changing fast in both the B2C and B2B sectors. People are looking to teach themselves rather than be sold to. So essentially, they're selling themselves on your services and products. Your job as the selling, sales or PR arm of your company is to:

a. Get their interest

b. Differentiate your services and goods from the other guys

c. Point them towards the information they need

Office sharing thru social networks is huge, and good content gets shared and discussed like crazy. Pin your marketing message on the right content with the right social media strategy and your audience will reward you by steering it to your buyers.

John has over 40 years of experience in business promoting sales engineering general management online property planning for the last 20 years John has been an active Meditation Student. He has worked for and with worldwide companies such as IBM Electronic Info Systems and Mahindra British Telecomm. He has a BS from Brown in Computer Science an MA through IBM in Industrial Electronics he also has a PhD in Global Trade and Management from the London College of Business and Trade.