Comments on: Do You Know What Your B2B Peers Are Up To With Social Media? 4 Ways To Find Out

By: MrGoogleAlerts

MrGoogleAlerts — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:38:58 +0000

Google Alerts can do a lot more than just monitor your brand's name. You can use it to actively mine for B2B sales leads. I've written a lot about this on my Google Alerts blog. Here is a recent post on B2B lead generation you might find useful:

http://www.alertrank.com/mrgooglealerts/2009/04...

By: MrGoogleAlerts

MrGoogleAlerts — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:38:58 +0000

http://www.alertrank.com/mrgooglealerts/2009/04...

By: Kate Brodock

Kate Brodock — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:39:41 +0000

Every comment here makes a great point. It really takes and industry shift in mentality to get the process of using SM in marketing, but it's a shift that needs to happen, and is proving to be beneficial.

We do plan on sing case studies on this blog, and if there are any in particular that you think would be beneficial, please let us know.

By: annabarcelos

annabarcelos — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:22:09 +0000

Amy & Rachel – Thanks so much for your responses. As Rachel said, companies won’t have a choice but to add social media to their mix. I agree if they want to enrich relationships with their customers and increase credibility of their brand. B2B has always been conservative in adopting new marketing media, and as I said in my previous post, I give lots of kudos to those individuals at these companies who take risks and take a change with social media marketing. It’s a win-win, and all of B2B will catch on, hopefully!

I encourage both of you gals to contribute to this blog. If you have case studies you would like to add, new information you come across, just let me know (anna at lifeinmarketing dot com).

By: annabarcelos

annabarcelos — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:16:28 +0000

Thanks for commenting Katherine. There will come a time where transparency in business will be critical to obtaining new customers and retaining existing customers. Social media is completely transparent, which may be why B2B organizations shy away from it. Us against them will no work, and instead collaboration and partnerships will be a more successful approach for businesses. The larger B2B organizations always seem to be laggards when it comes to new marketing technologies and media. I am proud of the few people within these organizations who have stood up and on some occasions taken risks to prove the effectiveness of social media marketing.

Waiting for a competitor to use social media is not a good strategy. It’s all about shattering tradition and taking a breath of fresh air, and most importantly thinking about your customers. They are out there talking about you and your competitors. Don’t you want to know what they are saying?

By: Rachel Levy

Rachel Levy — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:37:59 +0000

I don't think it's an option anymore… businesses NEED to be incorporating social media into their marketing mix.

By: kvcanipelli

kvcanipelli — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:57:12 +0000

The rapid advances of social media are causing even conservative B2B execs to rethink their engagement strategies. We work with the industrial sector where everyone tends to know everyone else and buying/sales processes are very long and heavily spec driven, and social marketing is still looking for a place to roost. I've heard some very creative objections to social networking and SMM, most of them due to lack of insight on how much the Internet changed business process. My favorite? From the mouth of an otherwise visionary CEO of a technology-based service business: "None of our customers read blogs. None of my guys read blogs. We're not wasting our time with a blog!" While at the same time pressing for media coverage of new product advances. The ice melted recently when a competitor announced their new corporate "thought leadership" blog.

Like so many technology shifts throughout history (think telephone systems or transportation networks), the value of social media is fundamentally in the network. If "sharing" isn't a norm in the industry (information or assets), resistance to SMM will continue. Until one day, when the critical mass is achieved. Then minds will open to how social media can be integrated into business process.

Katherine Ventres Canipelli
marketingFOLIO, inc.

www.marketingfolio.com/the-industrious-marketer

By: amymengel

amymengel — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:55:29 +0000

Anna - You are so right - so many companies are really fearful of adding social media to their marketing mix, for the reasons you stated but also just out of lack of understanding of what it can do. I think starting out by just monitoring what is already going on is a great way to show organizations that they are probably already being talked about somewhere online.

Not every company needs to go whole hog right away and not every social media tool is appropriate for all companies. Companies can start small by simply interacting with what's already out there. Instead of starting their own blog or podcast, they can comment on posts and engage in existing online communities that fit their niche or industry. If a company starts out by monitoring, like you said, then they can get a better sense for where there might be a good social media fit for them and can shape their strategy around the information they've gathered through the monitoring process.

I also think it would be great to see some more B2B case studies of effective social media. That would really help organizations see how something like a ComcastCares or Dell IdeaStorm or Southwest Air social strategy translates to B2B. It's often hard to look at those B2C case studies and parse out how similar strategies could be tweaked for B2B, so additional B2B social media case studies would go a long way (and I'm sure we'll eventually see some on this blog!).

@amymengel