Social Media B2B

Every B2B company has advocates, fans and influencers, but they are not all created equal. In a recent article published on the The Network, Cisco’s newsroom there is a discussion of super influencers. Every company has those too.

Traditionally, you had a core group of customers that you went to for validation of your marketing or sales programs. These customers were also your biggest advocates. Others who sang the praises of your B2B company often went unnoticed by you. Well, unless they approached you at your trade show booth and managed to convey their excitement about your products in a non-creepy, pre-internet way.

Today all that happens online. Customers provide recommendations about your products and services. Sometimes it is solicited by others. Sometimes it is just put out there. Those fans and advocates now can shout louder and further about your company than ever before using a variety of social media. You also have the ability to easily discover them with free and paid social media monitoring tools.

When looking at your super influencer population, the Cisco article poses 5 great questions for understanding how to leverage this group in a social media environment.

1. What do your super influencers share?

2. Where do they share it?

3. What motivates them?

4. How can you make them famous?

5. What rewards do they want?

By answering these questions about your super influencers, you are on your way to using this online segment help spread the message, and the valuable content, of your B2B company.

What have you done to discover and nurture your super influencers?

Article reference: Used with the permission of thenetwork.cisco.com.

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