Social Media B2B

A part of B2B marketing that many people don’t think much about is having a point of view. Traditional marketing textbooks lay out the steps to creating a marketing plan, and marketers have succeeded by following those steps. Nobody had to take a stand for doing it this way or that way. Sure, there may have been a variety of tactics used to meet the goal, but in the end, it followed a similar model that everyone else used.

Right or Wrong

In the age of social media, things have gotten very different. Many have said that there is no wrong way to do social media. Does that mean that there is no right way to do social media? We have seen that social media does not exist in a “just add water” format where you can follow a series of steps to achieve results. Not only that, but a recent survey of marketers has shown that many are scaling back their enthusiasm for what social media can achieve. They are looking for more actionable results. This is a good thing because it is forcing marketers to experiment, review results, iterate, fail, iterate again and repeat this process until they can show something that looks like success. Experimenting is fine, and so is failure, because this starts getting to the point of doing social media right. Not right for all, but right for your company or client.

A Point of View

So what does it mean to have a social media point of view? Social media marketing did not really exist as a discipline five years ago. Many social media writers, thinkers and practitioners have been codifying best practices and other advice for the past few years, but there is not a definitive approach to social media for B2B companies. Anyone working in or consulting on social media needs to develop their own ideas or adopt the ideas of others as their own, and stand for those ideas. That is their point of view on social media. This means marketers need to be exposed to a variety of social media writers and speakers to determine which ideas resonate with them and are most appropriate for their company. And their company develops a social media point of view that reflects that point of view.

There are things that social media can do and those that it can’t do. A social media professional with a strong point of view cannot be bullied into agreeing to using social media for something that it can’t do for a B2B company. One example would be trying to use it for a huge number of quick sales. It’s just not a good fit.

Build or Buy

When a B2B company is looking to start exploring social media it frequently starts with an internal advocate. This may be someone who has a personal interest in social media and has developed the start of a point of view by reading and absorbing what they can. Companies reach a point early on where they need to decide if they want to build or buy a social media point of view. This is very much like the software issue of building a tool yourself or buying something off the shelf. Managers can invest in getting an internal person up to speed. One benefit to this option is that they have strong product and company knowledge. The other choice is to hire someone from the outside. This person brings a stronger point of view on social media and commands more respect internally regarding that point of view. There are pros and cons to each decision that relate to money, time and authority.

How have you developed your own social media point of view, and did you realize that that may be the point of view of your company?

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