Comments on: There’s No Such Thing as B2B Social Media

By: Sourcing3 Buyer & Supplier Magazine - Top 47 B2B Marketing Posts – Hot Topics Ning and Facebook – July 2010

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 01:32:17 +0000

[...] There’s No Such Thing as B2B Social Media- B2B Voices, July 23, 2010 A group of us here in the office have been having some discussions lately about our digital and social media capabilities in the B2B social media space. If you work in an agency, you know how it goes – the big, splashy, sexy B2C stuff tends to get all the attention. After all, they have Ashton Kutcher. We have engineers, analysts and ROI models. [...]

By: Aaron Pearson

Aaron Pearson — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 19:53:59 +0000

It's Aaron actually. But thanks for the comment David. Actually, I'm not at ALL disagreeing with you. In fact, we're doing some research right now at our firm to reinforce the very point you're making – just how different B2B social media is from B2C in terms of what it take to be successful. The point I was actually trying to make (and yes, the headline was written provocatively I admit) is that all the kinds of programs and initiatives that might fall under the term B2B social media is so broad that if you toss out the term “B2B social media,” people might have very different ideas about what that entails. Very interesting about the Wikipedia entry, or lack thereof, and thanks for the blog post too – I'll tweet that one out.

By: David Rosen

David Rosen — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:10:42 +0000

Alan,

First, I love your posts -- especially the one on being a buzzkill. Second, I have to respectfully disagree with your contention that there's no such thing as B2B social media. Two reasons:

1. Business communities behave in different ways than consumer communities. Yes, they have a lot in common, but there are so many variations in culture, topics and most important, goals, that I believe it's its own animal. It needs to be approached differently.

2. The purchasing cycle for B2B is much different than B2C. The level of complexity, rationales behind buying decisions, pricing models, number of people involved, types of impact, regulatory hurdles, and types of legal relationships are also different.

I'm not saying it's night and day with consumer social media, but it's different enough so that the social media strategies and tactics will be...well, different.

You've inspired me...I just went to Wikipedia and found -- to my horror -- that there was no B2C v. B2B section in the entry on social media. I've just added one...just a header...and I invite everyone to start making the entry together.

I'm happy to be wrong in all this, and really look forward to your thoughts. I think you've done a public service in stirring the pot on this issue and we'll all be the better for it.

Here's the link to the Wikipedia entry on social media:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

Here's my blog post on the topic:
http://b2bformula.com/2010/08/04/oh-nose-theres...

By: 07.2010:newzuri despre social media all over:

07.2010:newzuri despre social media all over: — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:12:51 +0000

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