B2B companies must start implementing social media marketing

B2B companies must start implementing social media marketing

January 19th, 2010 // 11:27 am @ admin

As we meet with existing and potential B2B clients in the New Year, I constantly get the feeling that everyone is extremely anxious to see results, fast. With limited budgets, B2B companies are running out of patience and have really high expectations from their marketing investments. They want to see fast returns and when we discuss social media marketing, everyone expects to see immediate results.

B2B companies should keep in mind that due to their complex and often longer sales cycles, it is more challenging to develop and measure the influence of social media on their business in such a short amount of time.

This doesn’t mean “forget it” or “what’s the point”. It shows necessity in embracing and preparing oneself for the integration of social media marketing into their existing plans. Procrastinating and sitting on the sidelines will only make integration in the future even more difficult and from that point, they have to play catch-up. Companies should always ask themselves, “Where are my customers?” and “How can I reach them?”

As it appears in Wikipedia under the term “social media marketing“:

“Social Media Potential for Business to Business”

“Business technology buyers participate socially more than adult US consumers. Forrester surveyed technical and line-of-business decision-makers who buy technology. Socially, this is an extremely active group compared to US adults or many other groups. Almost all (91%) read blogs, view videos, or listen to podcasts online, and just 5% don’t participate in any social activity at least monthly. More than three fourths of respondents say that peers influence their purchase decisions, more so than any other media or information source.”

As you can tell, customers and prospects for B2B companies are also online and are constantly participating in social media. More and more, they talk about the likes and dislikes of product that they could potentially utilize. My suggestion is: Even if you don’t have social media as a part of your current marketing plan or if you think your target audience does not participate in it, at least “Listen” and “Monitor” to find out if:

1- People are talking about your product
2- People are talking about your competition
3- What your competitors are doing
4- Where these conversations are happening

If you are already participating in social media, make sure that you track every single one of these interactions and collect all relevant data. Without this, you cannot make any future plans for social media when necessary.

Another reason why B2B companies should not ignore social media is that it brings value to other internal departments within the organization, such as: employee collaboration and support, product development and customer support. Also, please keep in mind if you are having a difficult time getting upper management’s buy-in on the integration of social media marketing into your current plans, these internal benefits just might be the justification for further investments.

Social media tools are inexpensive and sometimes even free. Getting them to actually produce results requires investment in time, money and expertise.

Category : Blog & social media marketing