Social Media For B2B Marketing – How To Get Started
13 years, 2 months ago - February 17, 2011
The Marketing Plan is a highly detailed, heavily researched and, hopefully, well written report that many inside and possibly outside the organization will evaluate. It is an essential document for both large corporate marketing departments and for startup companies
According to the report, traditional tactics just aren’t providing the return on investment that they used to. Our B2B buyers are spending less than 25% of their time paying attention to TV, print and outdoor advertising.
Where are they spending their time? Social Media. Hundreds of millions of blogs, thousands of tweets per second and huge growth in user numbers across the main social sharing sites Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin. B2B buyers are taking part in this trend with as many as 90% reporting that they use social media tools.
The report lists 7 reasons why B2B Marketers should use Social Media:
- Social media provides the multiple touch points the B2B buying process demands
- Social media can help identify hard to reach contacts within organizations
- B2B professional are already actively networking
- Social media enables 3rd-party influence on the purchase decision
- It’s easy to showcase thought leadership through social media channels
- Social media is cost effective
- Social media enables rapid response to the unique requirements of the B2B buying process
How To Get Started
- Plan Your Strategy: I have always said the first objective of social media is to define your objective. Whether you are looking to support your brand, drive leads, support customers or all of the above, it is important to have a clear set of objectives going in.
- Do Your Research: Define your audience. What channels are they using most? What are they talking about?
- Set Your Guidelines: I was proud to see B2Bento use the SAP company guidelines as a leading example along with other B2B IT names IBM and Intel and B2C brands Kodak and the BBC.
- Get Cracking: The paper emphasizes that it is not enough to be visible. You also have to add value to the conversation through content, insight and thought leadership. It also highlights the need to be “transparent and genuine with their reader base.”
The white paper also goes into a few cases studies of companies that are executing on their social media plans and achieving real results. It also provides tips and advice on how to monitor results.
