B2B Web Strategy Blog – eMagine

Social Media: Out of the dorm room and squarely into B2B marketing

June 24th, 2009 Posted by: Bill Gadless

Whenever we bring up social media with a new client, we’re braced to receive “that look” …the one that says, “Oh no, you’re talking about that Facebook, Twitter & YouTube stuff that my college kid is so addicted to.”

Well, kinda/sorta;  but also about LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, forums, private social networks, rich media (chiefly video), wikis, blogging, and more.  And that reaction (“the look”) is so 2006.  The fact is that social media have long since become a staple of B2C online marketing, and are rapidly becoming a wave that B2B marketers will miss only at their peril.  Don’t believe us?  Well, we’ve blogged about this before, but let’s take a look at some more recent research…
Your customers/prospects (and some competitors) are using social media…
On the customer side… writing in Forrester’s “groundswell” blog, Josh Bernoff discusses recent research done by Forrester’s Technology Industry / B2B group, “The Social Technographics of Business Buyers” (you can get the report if you’re a Forrester client;  or anyone can register to hear a Webinar on the topic).  Some of their key datapoints:

• 91% of the surveyed technology decision-makers were “Spectators” – meaning that they are reading blogs, watching user-generated video and participating in other social media.  And 69% of them said they were using these technologies for business purposes.
• 55% of these decision-makers were actually members of social networks (“Joiners”) – much higher than expected for mature businesspeople and not college students.  Nearly 30% of them claim that it’s “for business purposes”.

On the vendor side… eMarketer’s free newsletter recently reported on research conducted by MarketingProfs and Forrester Research, looking at how B2B marketers were planning this year’s budgets.  They found that the percentage of B2B respondents who expect their budgets for various social media categories to either increase or stay level in 2009 (vs. 2008) was just astonishingly high:

Blogs                                92%
Discussion forums, social
networks, communities     89%
Other Web 2.0 media         86%
Online video, podcasts,
rich media                       85%

Great examples of B2B social-media use are popping up everywhere
As just one example… take a look at the “Thank an Engineer” video campaign that Amber Pizano runs for Texas Instruments (see especially Amber’s responses to Kipp Bodnar’s brief posting);  it’s helping TI build brand loyalty among design engineers – its buyers – by showing that TI “gets” them and values their central role in innovation.  Oh, and doesn’t the mere existence of a blog named “Social Media B2B” speak volumes?!

What you should be doing …now
In light of all this, there are some steps that every B2B should be taking:

• Understand how your market consumes social media;  there are many choices now, so it only makes sense to invest in a sequence that roughly parallels your buyers’ usage (the “our customers aren’t on social networks” excuse is quickly fading away).  Don’t be too embarrassed to survey them;  your users have a vested interest in your success, so they’re usually willing to help you understand them better.
• Based on that understanding, develop a plan;  and decide ahead of time what metrics you’ll use.  Think of social media as being more like PR – i.e., more about “buzz”, loyalty- and image-building than about lead generation – and you won’t be looking for ROI in all the wrong places.
• Assign the task of “listening” for comments about your company/brand and engaging with those talking about it.  (For a cautionary tale of how not doing this can result in major missed opportunities, see Jeff Cohen’s analysis of Siemens’ deficient follow-up to its recent presentation at VoiceCon.)  It may sound defensive, but with the right approach you can win lots of influential hearts and minds simply by joining conversations that are in progress anyway.

Not sure you’re on the right track?  Your online marketing consultants should be able to help you create or fine-tune your social media strategy.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy,Internet Marketing