Social Media is often misconstrued as a medium for business-to-consumer or B2C engagement and discounted as a viable communications network for those companies focused on business-to-business transactions. However, B2B, as in any other field impacted by online activity, is faced with a prime opportunity to not only cultivate communities in social networks and other social channels, but also amplify awareness, increase lead generation, reduce sales cycles, and perhaps most importantly, learn and adapt to market dynamics in real-time.
Ignorance is Bliss Until It’s Not…
Customers and those that influence them, regardless of industry, are migrating to the social Web at varying paces. While social or digital strategies do not replace proven means that are in play today, they do however, require augmentation and shifts in resources commensurate with the distribution of attention, where it’s focused and to what extent.
In my research, programs measured in hindsight are not the only views that offer 20/20 vision. Unobstructed foresight is now attainable and in some cases, predictable, based on our investment in time, energy and creativity in how we analyze online behavior, interaction, and ultimately influence. And, our ability to study and put research to work is only limited by our process for learning and adapting to earn and increase resonance within our target markets.
Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of listening to focused online interaction, is the ability to breakdown the decision making process and how customers and influencers impact behavior. To say it blatantly, social media makes it possible to identify and segment the specific stages of decision making online and how to in turn, respond in ways that steer interest in your favor. The results of these interactions also lend to the importance of adaptation. As we learn more about the challenges, considerations, and sentiment of our potential stakeholders, we can introduce those insights into future designs, processes, and communication.
If we are not part of the decision making process, we are then absent from the decision.
Opportunity Clicks
To help make the case, Outsell recently published its “Annual Advertising and Marketing Study” and in the report, Outsell states that B2B advertising and marketing spending will increase by only .8% to $129 billion. Interactive spending, on the other hand, will escalate by 9.2% to $51.5 billion this year.
As Social Media becomes pervasive in workflow and influence, Outsell’s study shows that spending is following the trend. To that end, B2B marketers will increase spending in social networks by 43.3%. While it’s not necessarily as alluring as social, company websites are only receiving a boost of 7.5%.
When we study engagement in interactive media, we find that we captivate attention in a very dynamic environment, but we lose them with each click that we either intentionally or unintentionally introduce to lead their experience post engagement. Many times, the click path is aimed right at the company site, and if we were to analyze the design and effectiveness of B2B websites today, we might just find that a large number are stuck in time, representative of an era more aligned with Web 1.0 than Web 2.0. Opportunity clicks, and without defining a rich and rewarding click path as well as an enriching experience, which most likely requires the renovation of the corporate website, all online activity associated with increased social spending, will bear the brunt of defining and capitalizing on attention, within social networks, the moment it’s captured.
As part of the study, Outsell surfaced preferences for business engagement and activity in social networks. When asked to rate the effectiveness of particular networks, more than one-half of respondents claimed that Facebook was either “extremely” or “somewhat” effective. LinkedIn ranked second with 45% surprisingly (and not so surprisingly) ahead of Twitter at 35%, which of course, ranked higher than MySpace at 25%.
As eMarketer noted, when HubSpot ran its B2B North America survey, it found that businesses ranked LinkedIn on top at 45% ahead of Facebook at 33% as most effective in lead generation.
B2B, or any business or organization, must evaluate and implement interactive strategies in order to earn relevance and hopefully resonance in order to compete for the present and the future.
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Hi Brian
Social media marketing is often misconstrued to be mainly for B2C but a lot of B2B companies have still not woken up to the power of content marketing via blogs and websites and the ability of social media to spread and amplify that content. A lot of companies are certainly stuck in Web 1.0 with very static websites.
Jeff, indeed. It's a conversation I have almost daily…
I totally agree with @Jeff Bullas, the emphasis, when using social media marketing is put in achieving the goals related to B2C marketing rather than B2B. And even though the vast majority of the entrepreneurs claim to know about the B2B concept, actually getting to practise it is not the same and results are not the expected ones, most of the times. There should be more information shared among entrepreneurs in order to actually get to take advantage of social media both for B2C and for B2B purposes.
Hi Brian,
I think that there are a huge number of companies out there that realise there is a shift happening but are having trouble getting their heads round that it requires a shift in thinking from old-school broadcast to engagement and conversation. This a huge cultural shift and may take more time than many of us would like or recommend.
Adrian
You've hit the nail on the head with “…cultivate communities in social networks and other social channels, but also amplify awareness, increase lead generation, reduce sales cycles, and perhaps most importantly, learn and adapt to market dynamics in real-time.”. The whole idea behind Sales 2.0 is to get companies to connect better with their customers and prospects.
We've all seen how B2C models are leveraging the information on social networks. The time is ripe for B2B models to do the same. Connection Mapping is emerging as one of the most important ways to get your customers to refer you to others.
I talk about this and some more business trends around how Sales 2.0 is helping B2B salespeople connect better with their prospects in my latest blog: http://blog.insideview.com/2010/04/27/connectin…
Awesome writeup. It's hard to find good content on the uses of social media from a B2B aspect.
I think that as social media becomes more used in a B2B world, business will find new ways to be able to drive traffic throughout their social ecosystem, as they “also amplify awareness, increase lead generation, reduce sales cycles… learn and adapt to market dynamics in real-time.”
Tools like Facebook Like ReTargeting ( http://www.likeretargeting.com/ ) already offer businesses a way to actually ReTarget Facebook 'Like' ad units, which will highlight the end user's friends who already like the brand. Another tool, Flowtown, allows users to target their contact list specifically by the social networks that their contacts are in, and the tool will highlight your contacts who are influencers.
This is just the beginning, but from a B2B aspect – tools to enhance your social presence are building up.
B2B engagement through social media would only work for those DMU's that have the key decision makers available on-line.
So a mix of social media and traditional routes would be best, to engage with the business that is right for you. Check social media first, then move on to other options. Would you agree?
I find that many B2B organisations just have a website and email, nothing more, not even any e-commerce. (Please note I am a student and do not currently submerse myself in B2B organisations, only on various projects).
Hi Brian, excellent post. B2B sales engagement through social media is rewarding and time consuming if not taken seriously.
I have looked into the ways of getting best out of social media and have come up with some tips. Read them here : http://blog.insideview.com/2010/05/02/investing-too-much-time-on-social-media-how-to-boost-your-roi
not surprising the linkedin is more effective considering it's ability to reach targeted individuals and influencers
“Outsell surfaced preferences for business engagement and activity in social networks…more than one-half of respondents claimed that Facebook was either “extremely” or “somewhat” effective.”
What your post highlights for me is that as B2B marketers we can take a lesson from freelancers and realize that our networks are our networks are our networks. Business comes from people who know trust and like us regardless of the platform upon which they reside. Now that we can track 'Likes', we can begin to see to social context through which our content passes.
The use of social media gives more power to COMMUNICATION. Its more than advantageous to any organizations but not a helpful distraction to some single business owner.
I would have to agree.. it seems like LinkedIn does bring a lot more leads.. more qualified too which is the ultimate key. I have answered a few questions dealing with my industry and get good response.