Social Media B2B

This is a simple reminder that once you start down the path of social media, it must be integrated into all of your B2B marketing communications. Remember the old days when everybody got a web site and you had arguments over where and how to list it. Would people really remember a URL that was printed in an ad? Do we need to identify it as a web address or will people recognize it? Well, we are at the same point in the social web.

You have done everything right and created social media strategies and policies. You have executive buy-in. Lots of employees are excited and want to share their passion for the company with others. You’ve set up the accounts in all the appropriate places like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even some niche networks in your industry. This is a great beginning. All these profiles show up in Google searches for your company, because they all have great page rank.

But your current customers, the ones with their own passion for your company, are not going to Google your company name. There is only one way they will know to engage with you in these social spaces. You have to tell them. Does this mean you write a press release touting your new Twitter account? No. Besides looking foolish at this point in the evolution of the social web, your customers are not likely to read it. You need to tell them in places where they are already reading: your web site, email, printed materials, brochures, catalogs, trade shows, invoices. Simply put, this is not an announcement, but another way for customers to communication with you.

While I will let your designers figure out how to appropriately incorporate this in your printed materials, I will address your web site and email. Your main social profiles need to be listed on the home page of your web site. These don’t have to be big shiny logos if those don’t fit in with the look of your site. Text links or small logos are fine. If you put these in the sidebar or the footer, they will be visible on every page of the site. Remember, these sites are communications channels, so this is now part of your company’s contact information. When I look for social site links on a web site I look three places: home page, about, contact page. After that I move on. Sometimes this information is bundled with the blog, but that’s not enough. It needs to be included at the top level of the web site.

If you are sending email newsletters to your customers, it goes without saying that your social profiles need to be included. Check with your email service provider, as there may be a template available that already includes these. If you are working with a designer on the look of your email communications, just tell them the icons need to be added. Again, they can make this work for you and look nice. That’s what they do.

And finally, email signatures are one of the most important branding opportunities for your company. It is the largest communication channel you have with your customers, vendors, and prospects. And one of those seemingly minor details that I have strong feeling about. (Jeff steps on soapbox) Here are my thoughts about how these need to be addressed:

1. Someone needs to own the email signature. It doesn’t matter if it’s marketing, PR, corporation communications, or even the CEO. As you will see, the CEO is probably not a good choice.

2. Establish what information needs to be included. These are name, title, company, contact information, company web site, main social profiles. This may sound elementary, but a consistent email signature across a company, with clear contact information, makes a big impression. This is your brand.

3. I’m not going to address the design of the signature, but everyone should use the same standard font and size. If you include a logo, be aware that these often show up as attached files and are not displayed. And think about how this all looks on mobile devices, too.

4. After distributing the information to employees, pay attention to who is using it correctly and let them know the correct format. This is a challenge in any size organization, and sometimes seems like a waste of time to enforce this. Just remind employees of the importance of professionally branding your company. And giving customers the ability to communicate with you they way they want to, and not the way you want them to.

Do you have any other suggestions for making sure your customers know how to find you on the social web? Let us know in the comments.

Jeffrey L. Cohen is the Managing Editor of SocialMediaB2B.com. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @jeffreylcohen.