Posts Tagged “B2B social media”

May 10 2009

What is the long term prognosis for social media?

Posted by fmdays in Uncategorized, tags:

While I remain bullish about the potential of these channels, I have a bunch of concerns about long term adoption by pragmatists and laggards particularly in the B2B world.  Here is my logic:

Advertising based business models are weak: Regular readers of the ’slice know about the poor response rates of Facebook ads.  Without a strong ROI from this advertising, companies will eventually steer clear of this medium or prices will be driven down to a level reflecting its effectiveness.

Where are the doctors, lawyers and other “regular” business people? I can see them wanting a presence in the social media world but until these media can improve service delivery, increase sales or cut costs, it will be a nice to have experiment for some guy in marketing.

Customer conversations are great: Engaging them online is valuable but it is challenging to measure the impact.  We’ll see in the long run if customer satisfaction or retention rates improve from these online interactions.

Someone’s gonna pay: In many cases, however, we just don’t know who that will be.  I love what people like TipJoy are doing in the micropayments space but we still don’t have strong revenue models for many of these sites.

Call me old fashioned: One of the things that helped Web 1.0 explode was when business people realized they could sell more stuff by having an ecommerce site.  I’m still waiting to hear more of these B2B stories from the social media world.

So what does this mean?

We need to keep innovating and testing.  There is a great deal of option value in being a part of the conversations.  They are happening out there whether you like it or not.  Also,  I know this isn’t a very web 2.0 idea but repurposing and syndicating your content through these channels can have a positive impact on your search engine marketing and help you reach prospective customers. Just be don’t be an idiot, be relevant, and add value to the conversation.

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Apr 30 2009

Are you a social media laggard?

Posted by fmdays in Uncategorized, tags: , , , ,

I frequently get a variant of this question from many of my marketing colleagues and I usually answer it with a big, fat “it depends”.

Are your customers using social media?

Are important conversations happening online without you (that you should be a part of)?

Without knowing your particular B2B market, I am going to go out on a limb and take the bold position that there is still time to become an “expert” in social media and use it effectively to grow your business.  I know, I know, that is a broad generalization but don’t take my word for it.  Ask some of your customers what they are doing.  Search for your company’s name in Google blog search. Do a few Twitter searches. Check out Twellow to see if any of your competitors are on Twitter.

My experience is that most of the action in the social media world is in the B2C realm.  That is not to say that the “enterprise” types are ignoring these new media, but they are no where near a point of oversaturation. Opportunities exist in many markets to become a thought leader.  It is up to you whether it is worth the investment in time and money to make it happen.

I’ll give you three simple things to do dip your toes in the social media pool.

  • Sign up for a handful of LinkedIn groups.  There are many of them.  Follow the conversations and drop in an occasional comment.
  • Find three blogs in your space and start reading them.
  • Check out what your competitors are doing with social media (ie blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Slideshare, etc)

You will notice I didn’t say “go sign up for Twitter” or “start a blog”.  You need to figure out if these media make sense relative to your business goals and competitive environment. In the end, social media is just media.  You need to align them with your objectives and ruthlessly test them.   Only you can answer the question about how they fit and if you are a laggard.

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