B2B Social Media – Essential Quotes and Links

B2B Social media is a very opinionated field. I thought I’d share some of my favourite quotes and links with you. Please do add your own.

Content Marketing

“On average, 30% of B2B marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing”

“Large B2B companies outsource content creation more frequently than small companies… Writing and design are the two functions most likely to be outsourced.”

“”58% of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budget over the next 12 months.”

Source: The Content Marketing Institute’s B2B 2014 Report.

 

Social or media?

“…marketers of all stripes seem to have accepted (for now) that social media in large measure = Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube and blogs. This is a bit disheartening and dangerous, as social media is and can be a lot more than just your company’s presence on these sites. It’s this focus on “media” rather than “social” that could doom this industry eventually.”

Source: Jay Baer,  Convinceandconvert.com

 

B2B versus B2C

“It’s The Engagement Level, Stupid—and business audiences are more engaged by nature of their livelihoods and thus, social media marketing signifies a HUGE opportunity for B2B marketers. An even BIGGER opportunity, I contend, than for B2C marketers.”

Source: CK’s Innovation Blog

 

Strategic uses for social media in B2B

Social media can deliver many things, but for me, it offers business three key things.

1. It offers an opportunity to boost customer acquisition by expanding a brand’s reach, add scale to campaigns and enhance conversion through recommendations.
2. It can help form deeper relationships and advocacy through improving customer service, brand reputation and even product and service quality.
3. It also provides the opportunity to access a huge market to test, trial and crowd source new ideas about your products and services.”

Source; Rene Power,  Smart Insights

 

Taking your time

“A successful social media strategy takes time to implement – much more than you would expect. Budget enough time, because you’ll need it. And you likely won’t see instant dividends. But the endeavor is hugely rewarding if you don’t take it lightly.”

Source: 8 common mistakes B2B companies make on social media

 

My commentary

Increasingly B2B social media is moving beyond tradtional PR and news. It is a place for pre-competitive collaboration, for dialogue and for ensuring brand stories join up. Many companies are still slow to react and focus resources on B2C efforts. Some of the current research cited above points to B2C as having a profound impact on B2C as well as on B2B. It requires a more holistic and enlightened approach.

How do different social media platforms join up? Where are there unnecessary overlaps> Shared and syndicated content can enhance more than one organisations’s B2C efforts. We can share articles, initiatives and even product information. This happens in very customer facing organisations already. I buy an electronic device. It goes wrong and I can contact the manufacturer’s warranty support team directly via the retailer web site. Integration serves customers. It can link the supply chain better and also enhance marketing efforts.

The problem is one of assumptions. Walls of mistrust and insecurity within an industry or sector can inhibit and even block B2B social media, creating “spin” and positional content. When this is done in front of customers we see competitors clumsily fighting for our custom. We don’t trust the spin we read.

B2B social media needs to become more social and its media needs to form part of a narrative that serves value-adding collaboration as well as end-customer satisfaction.

For many, there’s still a long way to go.

 

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Paul Levy is the Author of Digital Inferno

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