B2B firms operate differently from B2C firms. They have fewer (but larger) customers, the products sold are in a semi-finished form, the sales cycle is lengthier and product pricing usually is much higher.
One aspect of marketing that B2C firms have been using effectively has been social media. In contrast, B2B businesses are struggling with the question of social media in their marketing plans. rightly so, it is a different but challenging medium. Well, here are some tips on how B2Bs can use social media today.
Social media is a powerful communications tool and being part of the new digital marketing toolbox, it cannot be utilized with traditional marketing messages and positioning. The easy part about a B2B firm using social media is which social media to use. The usual suspects stand out : Facebook, Flickr, Bebo, Ning, Twitter, YouTube – if you have video content, slideshare. The hard part is planning and executing your social media strategy.
Step 1 – Set specific goals :
Always ask yourself : What is the purpose of this social media exercise and what do I hope to achieve from this? Only when you have a complete answer should you begin. Typically for a B2B, you could use the following :
- Increase sales leads by X% for 2010 using social media.
- Increase email enrollments by Y% for 2010.
- Increase telephone leads by Z% for 2010. (Use a 1-800 telephone number specifically for this exercise so that you know the exact numbers of leads from this exercise.)
Step 2 – Who’s going to do this?
Who’s the best fit to communicate via social media? Whoever takes the lead in your social networking role must be open, informative, objective, available and most of all – truthful. They have to be prepared to take feedback from users regardless of its content, to respond openly and fairly, and to tell the truth no matter how much it hurts. Openness and honestly is essential for your social media marketing to succeed. Zappos and Whole Foods have their CEOs use social media to communicate directly with their customers – but they are B2C organizations. B2Bs already have their CEO participating in the sales process so perhaps the CMO or the head of Internet marketing can lead this by communicating either via Twitter, Linkedin or a Blog.
Step 3 – What are you going to communicate?
The information you communicate should be educational, informative and of interest to your audience. Ease up on the self promotion as something like that will backfire. Social networks are places where people go to socialize and relax. Any product promotion will be dismissed promptly. Be thoughtful. Educate, inform and speak in the language of your customers to identify needs and provide solutions to them. Provide them with white papers, research statistics, product information and suggestions. You should remember that this medium will complement your other customer-marketing activities like email and direct communication.
Step 4 – Where you will communicate?
I wrote down a list of the usual social media suspects above. However, you just cannot start a blog and think that it’s the solution to everything. This is the part where you really try understand your customers habits. Where do they spend their time online? What do they read and where they look for their information?
Try to get into the minds of your customer. Do these guys even use social networks? If Facebook is not where they’re at – then are they on a industry specific network on Ning or are they part of a industry group on Linkedin? They may also tweet?
Remember that technical buyers may read the latest product review blogs, but do the economic buyers, in the form of CEOs, read blogs at all? It’s highly possible that they read the more traditional communication media – like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. It is thus critical to match your media and messages to your audience.
Social media allows you the opportunity to humanize your company. In the B2B world, while you are in touch with your customers because they buy from you, social media being a different environment allows a more open social interaction which in turn, can deliver some excellent feedback from your customers about your business. The image alongside based on a survey by Marketing Sherpa is quite revealing about how marketers perceive social media.
If your audience uses Twitter, use it to get closer to your customers and prospects as they will be donating lots of information that’s useful in relationship building. Follow your audience’s Twitter streams, and you get a sense of how they think. Linkedin is another great way to learn about your audience. Find out which groups your prospects participate in via Linkedin, and find out what those groups are discussing. It’s very possible that these prospects communicate about their company as well as have questions related to your products in their discussions in these groups. Use the conversations as an opportunity to find out where your prospects are in the buying process.
Hope this post was useful. Please feel free to comment on the same. Good Luck!
