Imagine this: Your best friend comes to you one morning and tells you she's had it with her telephone. She's throwing it away because it doesn't help her with traditional handwritten communication.
Crazy talk, right? Your friend doesn't need a different tool for traditional communication, she needs a new approach to communication.
Traditional B2B marketers who resist
social media
aren't much different. They resist social media because it doesn't work when they use it as another outbound marketing channel.
Instead of rejecting social media as a channel, traditional marketers need to reject their outbound approach to marketing.
Traditional marketing -- outbound marketing -- is about buying attention. You figure out where your target customers hangout, then you buy access to them. You fill the pages of trade publications they read with print ads. You interrupt them with unsolicited phone calls at their office. You send out mailings that they throw away.
These tactics are incompatible with social media. If your Twitter account is simply a product information broadcast, you won't have many followers. If you don't share any helpful, interesting or fun content on your Facebook account , your pages will get little traffic.
On the other hand, if you reject this approach to marketing, and use social media as part of an inbound marketing strategy, it will become a core part of your marketing mix. If you engage with your industry's community on Twitter, if you share top-notch content on Facebook, and build relationships on LinkedIn, social media will work for you.
"Wait!" you say. "We're a B2B operation! We don't have social-savvy customers like B2C companies."
Lame excuse.
No question, social media grew out of the consumer space, and B2C examples of social media success are easy to find. But take a step back. Look at the value that businesses get out of social media. You'll see it's not specific to B2B or B2C companies. Consider the three main benefits marketers get from social media:
- Listening -- Every company needs to listen. Doesn't matter if you sell solder paste , CRM software or fencing supplies . You need to listen to your competitors, your customers, your prospects -- your community. Social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook make this easier.
- Reach -- Reach is important to any marketer. It's the number of people you can communicate with directly via email, telephone, or any other channel. You need this whether you're selling to consumers or businesses. Social media tools media it easier to build.
- Nurturing -- Nurturing is another critical marketing task for all companies. Regardless of what you sell, you need to build trust with potential customers and educate them about your company and your products. Social media facilitates the development of personal relationships at scale. This makes it an ideal tool for nurturing in any business.
How do you use social media at your company? Have you found it useful in a B2B context?
If you're interested in discussing B2B uses of social media, join me and a group of other B2B marketers tomorrow morning at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council event, Social Media in Real Life . Use the discount code SMtrench09me .
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Ken Karnack 8:45 AM on November 12, 2009
I think that social media can work for anyone.
Personal Training Dallas
Dan Tyre 8:53 AM on November 12, 2009
Social media is one of the most interesting personal and business phenomena in the last 100 years. If you choose to ignore the converstation, you do so at your own peril. I just don't understand the mindset of people talking about your industry, your company, your products and how to address them and people not wanting to join that conversation, but lots of people are waking up fast and using it to their competitive advantage.
Shelley Isaacson 9:15 AM on November 12, 2009
While I agree with much of what has been said about judicious and informed use of social media, it is like any other marketing medium, it will only be as successful as the strategy that drives its use, the continuous evaluation and adjustment of its application. Another very interesting medium that marketers need to understand and apply intelligently to their own challenges and objectives.
Jeff Molander 10:47 AM on November 12, 2009
The Web was supposed to disrupt (if not kill) existing service-based businesses – from travel to real estate agents. Yes, Trulia.com, Zillow.com are still around today. But so are Realtors who are suddenly part of the dot-com disruptors' business plans!
As it turns out “all that data” the newbies provide home buyers and sellers with isn't so terribly valuable by itself. The interpreters are.
Further, the “wisdom of crowds” (opinions, knowledge sharing) is helpful but not always wise or valued. Buyers and sellers still value working with knowledgeable, credentialed people. Trust and critical thinking matters more.
In this context, who better to pioneer “social media” than Realtors?
They should be teaching the digital experts! Given their expertise in facilitating conversations that lead to consumer trust they clearly do “get it.” They simply need to understand how to best choose and apply new digital marketing tools. Yet Realtors and brokers – like so many other business segments – are largely convinced they “don't get it” and “it's too technical.”
Why? You can thank the "social media experts!" and, yes, the outdated, inappropriate QUALITATIVELY focused ("reach and frequency) traditional marketing mindset.
Joe Machuta 1:06 PM on November 12, 2009
This is a great article. I think that each time someone in the B2B space screens a call or dumps an email that they should think of karma and then think about being more active on social media sites, both as a thought leader and as a potential client...social media could present a great media exchange.
John Ribbler 2:48 PM on November 12, 2009
In my experience, business-to-business companies, both large and small, tend to be aversive to change across the board, and have been so for generations. I've find them to be resistant to advertising, PR, direct mail and anythings else that they have not done for years. In general, I don't know that their skepticism over pursuing social media would be any more acute than it would be toward the idea of adding an additional trade show.
www.media-proinc.com
Buzzlord 3:52 PM on November 12, 2009
I think the right approach is to blend social media into your overall marketing approach.
Social media is just a tool. Businesses need to find out what works for them and for their customers, and social media can be a great way to get that feedback.
I completely agree that those who try to use social media the same way they would traditional B2B marketing will struggle -- most people would consider joining social media only to broadcast 1-way marketing messages to be the definition of spam.
Deborah Richmond 5:18 PM on November 12, 2009
There definitely are businesses who are resisting social media and social networking. But those that are willing to give it a try and are open-minded about how they use it will be miles ahead of their competition who are resisting.
javier 5:32 PM on November 12, 2009
Hi all, the article is great and i agree with much of it has been said. I would like to point that it is very important to integrate this new way of communication with customers with the other channels of communication. For exemple, in my industry is very important to keep the Call Center because in many times the client wants to someone to talk a to solve the problem. In the other hand, you all will agree that there is a sort of information that could not stay in any social media. After saying that, the clue question is to make a good redefinition of the mix channels. I hope my words would give a bit of light to other collegues.
See you.
Cliff Kinard 11:22 AM on November 17, 2009
Great post. But I believe failure of B2B traditionalists at social media can be attributed to a deeper fundamental flaw of "silo" organizations and finance.
We get budget for social media in many different places but the main source is marketing and sales. If your funding is from marketing and sales then your conversations will be skewed to bring ROI rather than nurturing.
Customer service budgets are under so much pressure and reductions that they have become short-sighted. So don't expect help there.
Nimble firms like Zappos figured this out very quickly and did not "silo" social media within marketing. As more larger B2B firms "get it" they will be more successful.
B2B Rocks 10:37 PM on December 02, 2009
Thought provoking piece. Thanks! Regarding examples of B2B marketing in the social media space, Intuit has done some interesting stuff which probably reaches both smaller business customers. You can check out a summary on my blog:
http://rockingb2b.blogspot.com/2009/11/intuit-reaches-b2b-and-b2c-through.html