Businesses have propriety information that has to be shared within the organization, which has led to the development of intranets and internal social software like SharePoint. Internal web based communications serve a very important purpose, but as B2B marketers, it is our job to bridge internal and external digital content.

Balancing whether content should be public or private on the web is one of the most important and under discussed issues in B2B social media.

Example:
A company is setting up a private B2B social network for its partners to access special discounts, education, information and ordering.

In the example above what content should be public to help attract new members to the community? What information should be for members only to protect sensitive information from getting to competitors?

My Take:
When you have a situation like this, the easiest reaction is to say that all information in your community is private and that you have to invite members to join. Unfortunately, it is hard to build and sustain a online community that way and limits the potential reach and application of your community. A better approach may be to have the community private, but have some of the education-based information public in the form of a blog or public forum as a method to support inbound marketing efforts. A request to become a member feature could be incorporated alongside of the public content as a way to drive membership and support lead generation.

While this is only one possible scenario of when public versus private content can become an issue, from this we can pull a few guidelines to support decision making on this issue.

If you can answer yes to the following questions, then it is likely the content in question should be public:

Does it help inform potential customers?
Is it free from proprietary information?
Is it information your customers are actively seeking?
Is the information well-written?
Does it integrate well with the other information on the page/section it will be published?

Sure, there are many other factors that exist when determining whether information needs to be on the public or private side of the firewall. However, the most important thing to remember is that someone needs to continually check internal content to see what pieces can be effective when shared externally.

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Wouldn’t you want to know what you friends and peers are bookmarking?

Using Social Bookmarking For Your B2B Company

Social bookmarking accounts are not limited to individuals. B2B companies have an opportunity to leverage this social platform. Here are a few basic steps that can help a B2B company get started with social bookmarking.

1. Set Up A Social Bookmarking Account For Your Company – While Delicious is the most popular social bookmarking service you can also use Diijo or Magnolia. When setting up the account use the name of your business as the username and make sure you completely fill out your profile including a link to your Web site.

2. Make It Easy For Employees To Share Bookmarks – Social bookmarking services have simple tools like Bookmarklet or Firefox plugins that make it easy to bookmark a link without visiting the Web site of the service you are using. Make sure the employees that will be supplying bookmarks know how to use these and work them into their daily habit.

3. Share Interesting Stuff – Make sure the bookmarks you are sharing are of interest to the communities you are trying to influence on the web.

4. Be Diligent About Tags – Tags are words that are added with a bookmark to tell other users that this link has information that they are looking for. Because of this, it is important to always enter good tags for your links. Most bookmarking services suggest tags for you, which makes this process easier.

Taking B2B Social Bookmarking To The Next Level

Once you have the basic process taken care of I would recommend developing a strategy to integrate information from your social bookmarks into your overall inbound marketing strategy. The goal of social bookmarking is to help people find the stuff you share. It is up to you to help determine what they do once they find your links.

Here are a few ideas to beef up social bookmarking effectiveness:

1. Make Sure To Bookmark And Tag Your Own Stuff – Think of the social web as a series of search engines. Each social bookmarking service has its own search engine. Bookmarking relevant links on your web site and tagging them correctly can help more users discover your content.

2. Streamline The Bookmarking Process - Does your company tweet? If so you could use Tweetmarks.com or Tweecious to save any of the links you share on Twitter to social bookmarking site Delicious. Twitter is only one example. If you think about how you share links, there is likely a solution to get those links to the social bookmarking service of your choice.

3. Remember That Social Bookmarking Is Social – Besides allowing people to share links, social bookmarking sites are also powerful social networks. Investing time in building community on social bookmarking service will help to bolster the engagement and improve click-through rates of links shared.

Has your organization used social bookmarking?

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Many companies are spending a large amount of money monthly to build online networks for social media marketing and organic search engine marketing purposes. While this is important, they are overlooking a core advantage that they have: employees. I don’t care if you have 5 or 500 employees. Getting your whole organization involved with social media is a business advantage that you can not afford to ignore.

Simple Tasks Employees Can Do To Make An Impact
When getting an entire B2B organization involved with social media, key priorities exist. The first is to educate current employees and empower them. Secondly, a process needs to be in place for new employees to get trained as they join the company. Though I would point out, that having some type of social media policy or guidelines for employees online behavior should be a precursor to this level of involvement.

Ideas For Getting Employees Involved

1. Set Up And Optimize LinkedIn Profile – LinkedIn is the default B2B social network and when developed across an entire company it can drive powerful results. For example the URLs in a linked profile can be customized with anchor text to help send search engine ranking authority to a corporate Web site from each of the employees profile pages. Additionally employee profiles can be optimized for searches within LinkedIn that can help drive leads and new business opportunities.

2. Establish Employee Blog or Posterous - While things like Twitter or Facebook are good for sharing information online and building credibility about industry knowledge, they don’t transfer the full communications benefits in the way that a blog does. If employees contribute to a corporate blog, then it only makes sense that you help them establish one of their own. This way they can better learn how online communication works and can hopefully begin sharing information relevant to their own interests, both professionally and personally. Posterous, a simple blogging platform, I have mentioned before is a quick and easy way to get something set up that is not overly technical or hard to use.

3. Educate On The Proper Use Of Social Networks For Business – It seems that the stories people talk about when referencing how employees use social networks are all negative. A main reason is because organization doesn’t help educate employees in regards to online etiquette. Though if your organization establishes good practices, then employees can understand the best way to support the company while they are having online conversations.

While these are only a few simple examples of ways to get employees engaged in social media, I encourage you to think of the possibilities for your organization. Think of the goals you could achieve if you empowered people who are already advocates for your company.

Is your company doing this?

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When it comes to social media a major concern for B2B companies is negative feedback and managing risk. While this is an important concern, it amazes me that more B2B companies aren’t concerned about something far worse: apathy. Apathy is the thing that will stall social media marketing success faster than anything else. Apathy is what gets executives and marketers fired. Apathy is what stops someone from being an effective leader. Apathy is the social web’s version of silence. It makes your company irrelevant.

Understanding from the beginning that you need to actively work to generate comments and interactions is important when starting a B2B blog. Comments and interactions drive sharing of content and will drive leads. The question everyone wants answered is how do companies get comments and avoid apathy?

6 Ways To Generate More B2B Blog Comments

1. Take A Side – Being vanilla doesn’t get you comments. A major issue many companies have in social media is they are so worried about risk that they publish content that is not interesting and overly product centric. If you take 5 minutes and look at the business content on the web today that is generating the most comments, the common element of the posts would be that they all pick a side of a issue or debate. The content isn’t offensive and doesn’t generate unneeded risk. It is simply an interesting opinion and perspective. Have you picked a side in a blog post recently?

2. Ask Questions – People love to talk about themselves. Sometimes though they need to be prompted to do so. Asking questions in blog posts is a great way to generate comments. At Social Media B2B we often ask a few questions at the end of each post, but we also include some through out the post as well.

3. Answer Every Comment – Something that companies and blog authors sometimes do not to well is responding to comments. People want to believe that they have been heard and didn’t put a comment into the black hole that is the Internet. Answering comments provides affirmation and increases the chance that a reader will leave a comment again in the future.

4. Mention People In Posts – Bloggers have long understood that if you link to another person’s blog or mention their name, it will often lead to them leaving a comment on the post. This works especially well for B2B companies because more and more organizations are implementing social media monitoring systems that track these mentions, thus increasing the likelihood of a response.

5. Use Social Networks To Drive Comments – Sure you can ask questions in your blog posts, but additionally you can also leverage social networks to ask for comments and position blog posts in different ways that may lead to more interaction. When sharing a blog post on a social network like Twitter or Facebook, it is not an obligation to simply post the title of the entry and a link. Instead you can directly ask for comments or pull a sentence from the post that you feel may generate more conversation.

6. Have Coworkers Comment – The Internet is about momentum. A blog without comments doesn’t have momentum. Think of content on the social web, the same way you would think of how a mob of people acts. People like to gather around a hub of action and pile on to it. So how do you make this behavior happen when you don’t have any action? Generate some initial action yourself. Have employees, business partners and others close to the company leave comments to blog post to show that action exists around that idea.

Blog comments are valuable for many different reasons. They help ideas spread, provide valuable insight, generate offline conversations, etc. How do you generate blog comments for your B2B blog?

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When examining the lack of B2B social media adoption one of the core hurdles I have found is that B2B marketing executives are unsure how to build a lead generation pipeline using social media. Sure, social media lead generation strategy is different for every industry and business, but I would argue that any B2B social media lead generation pipeline shares some basic steps.

1. Understanding Online Analytics
Many people get caught up in much of the “shiny” aspects of the web and forget that its key benefit is data. Individual and companies that can best understand online data and use it to optimize their social media pipeline will be far ahead of the competition. Not only is understanding data from the web key to the development of B2B companies, it is also the first step in establishing a B2B social media pipeline.

Before you start a social media lead generation strategy, it is important to have some types of analytics connected to your Web site. Like man things on the web there are both free and paid web analytic tools that can be installed on your site. Google Analytics is the most popular free version, though services like Woopra and Clicky offer different approaches to web analytics. However, Google provides really good online video that explains analytics and you should watch it even if you don’t use their platform. I have embedded an introductory video that is a good resource for people who don’t understand the data available on the web.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We aren’t done with analytics yet. One major mistake that is easy to make is the assumption that you are covered as long as you have a way to collect data on your corporate Web site. In the world of the social web data, and subsequently lead generation, is possible across the web. Looking at analytics could be an entire post in itself, and maybe it will be. But it is important to have analytics across social platforms, even if it is simple data collection tools like Bit.ly for Twitter and the built-in Facebook data provided for Fan pages. Data from across the web allow you to see a bigger picture and readjust efforts as needed.

2. Develop A Content Strategy
Social media lead generation begins and ends with content. Content is king. That is preached on the web daily, so I won’t harp. However, I am going to discuss the issue many organizations fail to prioritize. If the goal of social media for your business is to drive leads, then it is critical that you have a content strategy to determine what content drives leads and how to best distribute it. How do you do this?

First you need to use your understanding of your customers and influencers to begin to have an idea of the type of information they are looking for online. You need to then overlap this content with content distribution platforms: blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, User Forums, etc. In the first 90 days of your content execution you need to produce different types of content: text, audio and video and distribute them at different channels and at different times. During this period use the analytics as described earlier in this post to see which type of content, distribution methods and timing drives the most leads and engagement. Through this process you should be able to develop a content strategy that can be continually tweaked to drive lead generation.

3. Build An Infrastructure To Gather Leads
Content can drive qualified traffic, but if no infrastructure is in place to make clear calls to action and collect lead information, your content strategy is more of a branding play then it is lead generation. The first step is to determine what a lead is for your product. Is it an request for a sales call, a subscription to an e-mail newsletter, or maybe be a simple request for more information?

Once it is clear what the lead is, then it is important to plan how to best integrate this process in the simplest way possible across not only a blog or corporate Web site, but across all social outposts on the web. And don’t forget to coordinate this with offline distribution channels too. When putting this system into action, be sure to make it as easy as possible to change calls to action and messaging, as that will be continually optimized during the year.

4. Establishing Back-End To Manage Data
Leads don’t matter unless your business can get the information to the right person who can close the deal. So depending on the lead data, it may go different places, such as an e-mail list or a database of a CRM system. Beyond having a system like this established, a critical step is segmentation. If you are using a CRM system, then all the leads that come into the system need to be marked as sourced from social media. This segmentation is a key component of determining ROI of B2B social media, as it subsequently determines future investment in B2B social media lead generation. Though for many, these data systems seem basic, but it is how the data interacts with the system that is the true point of value.

5. Construct Workflow To Maximize Conversion
This step is about doing the daily and weekly steps needed to make lead generation better. When you are developing your content and lead generation strategy for leveraging social media it is important to plan how the tactics will be optimized. Think about the data you need to see from the web and the frequency in which you need to see it to improve the overall conversion rates of your strategy.

Social data provides information in real-time in many cases. The biggest mistake B2B companies can make when thinking about B2B social media lead generation is to think that this type of lead generation is like a Ron Popeil rotisserie “you set it and forget it”. This type of content focused lead generation is constantly changing and because of this a business must include this optimization step to see maximum ROI.

6. Institute “Social” Sales Follow Up and Nurturing
Leads are useless without an appropriately timed sales follow up and subsequent nurturing. The point of this step in the B2B social media lead generation pipeline is to realize that customers’ expectations are changing. While they may want a call to discuss a product, they also might want a question answered on platforms like Twitter, Facebook or their personal blog. In understanding these customer expectations, sales organizations need to make sure that they have team members who can facilitate these social interactions once the B2B social media pipeline has been started.

This is another part of the funnel where social CRM systems and social media monitoring systems become critical in facilitating social actions and providing the information sales teams need. Ask yourself what training your sales team needs to get “social.”

7. Establish An Autopsy
All good plans have a goal. All good plans can likely be done better a second time. When planning your pipeline development it is important to schedule an autopsy at the end of each goal time period. Though you optimize the pipeline constantly, it is this autopsy in which all stakeholders gather to discuss the successes and needed improvement at each point in the process. The lessons learned from the autopsy can then go to directly improving the process and establishment of new goals.

A B2B social media lead generation pipeline isn’t really that different from a traditional B2B sales funnel in terms of process. The biggest issue is speed. It happens faster then other lead pipelines and this timeliness needs to be supported appropriately.

Would you add other steps? How did you build your social media lead pipeline?

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We are just getting started in 2010 and aside from gadget announcements from CES, the subject with the biggest amount of buzz on the web has been location-based social networking applications. Much of this buzz was created, when one of the leaders in the space, FourSquare announced that it was opening up its platform to all cities around the world. With all of this buzz, it begs the question, do these location-based networks have use cases for B2B companies?

The short answer is yes, they do. The first round of businesses that will begin to leverage these location-based applications will be local establishments like coffee shops, restaurants, gyms and other types of consumer-based small businesses. The application of services like FourSquare for them is pretty straight forward. For these businesses FourSquare acts like a public loyalty program. A quick look at the page for a business location shows who goes there and with what frequency.

How do located-based platforms benefit niche B2B companies? I can think of three cases in which they may work in the future, as these applications and the technology that supports it grows.

Making The Case For Location-Based In B2B

1. Adding A Valuable Layer To CRM – Location-based applications like FourSquare are the precursor to enterprise level location-based applications. As location-based technology begins to work its way into the enterprise, one of the key uses will be to manage sales teams and add richer data to CRM platforms. B2B companies will have private location-based networks for their sales staff. Using the GPS functionality in most smartphones used by sales staff, smart sales teams will automate locations of sales visits into the CRM system for a more accurate log of sales and nurturing activity. Additionally, it will make it easier for executives to change a sales person’s schedule to go talk with a “hot lead” because they will be able to do it on physical proximity in near real-time.

2. Identifying Prospects and Facilitating Lead Generation – Any good sales and marketing team for a B2B company has a profile of what their customers are like, or customer personas. They have an idea about their personality, what motivates them, the types of activities they like to do. A significant part of who a person is, are the places they go and the people they spend time with. If you are in the business of selling software to engineers, then you can find the places in your sales area that engineers are likely to frequent and use location-based applications as a way to connect with them.

3. Tradeshow and Event Marketing – For many B2B companies tradeshows and other business events are all about lead generation. This lead generation has traditionally been conducted through giving away prizes or electronic RSVP information where data is collected. Location-based applications provide a new level of lead generation at events. Location-based applications would allow for more prospect information gathering and real-time offers and discounts pushed to attendees. Imagine you just announced a new product at a press conference, wouldn’t it by powerful to send a special discount for that product only to those people who were physically in that room for the announcement? Checking in on a location-based platform would be their application for the discount.

Are location-based applications going to see rapid B2B adoption in 2010? It is unlikely. Conversely though, they should not be immediately dismissed without thoughts to the potential application they have towards business objectives.

What are your thoughts on location-based applications? Do they have a place in B2B?

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So why not examine what some of the most successful businesses are doing and see how those strategies apply to your business? If someone else has invested a lot in proving these strategies, it seems worth spending a little time thinking about further applications of them.

When it comes to online marketing Google has been a major success story for monetizing and marketing successfully on the web. Let’s look at some of the elements that has made Google so successful and discuss how they apply to B2B online marketing.

1. Context – If you don’t read any other ideas on this list, I hope you will read and remember this one. Context, the ability to serve advertising related to what a person is search for or to a message in their Gmail, has been one of Google’s key success factors. Context is also the fuel that helps power the social web. Context should be at the core of all B2B online marketing discussions.

Thinking about context forces you to think about your customers through the right lens. It forces you to thinking about how customers need different information in different situations. Context is critically important wen thinking about B2B social media, because often you are engaging different audiences through one type of media. When this happens it is important to have a strategy to provide context to each of them.

2. Convenience – When thinking about convenience and B2B online marketing, relate it to a concept that organizations are familiar with: upselling. In B2B sales, taking an existing customer and then selling them new and additional product lines has been a staple of growing B2B business. Think of convenience as the online marketing equivalent of upselling.

Google has provided their customers with added convenience: Google Maps, Google Local, Google Documents, etc. In doing this, they also drive revenue growth. Convenience should carry through the entire B2B online marketing experience. From opt-in direct marketing, to engagement, to e-commerce, it is critical that every step is thought of with convenience in mind. Something as simple as allowing a customer to easily contact an employee with questions can make a major difference in sales conversions.

3. Experimentation – Over the past few years Google has been out to prove that the old adage “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained” is true. They have experimented with new products like Google Wave and have acquired a wide set of companies. I am not suggesting that you go buy another company. Instead I am suggesting that you a allot a part of your marketing budget to experimentation. This doesn’t mean waste money, instead it means try something that you have thought about doing, but were to scared to see fail.

Read all of the reviews of Google Wave. Most people don’t like it. That hasn’t stopped Google from continuing development. You can do this on your own scale. Be smart in how you experiment. Traditionally it seems not to be the experiment, but more the criticism that is the issue. Remember that most great innovations fought through heavy criticism before they eventually succeeded. This goes for marketing as well.

4. Admit What You Don’t Have – Google buys companies. Actually Google buys a lot of companies. Even an organization as large as Google realizes that it doesn’t have it all. This same self-awareness is critical to success in B2B social media marketing. Understanding when you don’t have things like good customer databases, landing pages, and other elements that are important in supporting your overall campaign. It is easy to get stubborn and think that “my campaign is so good, that it will be ok that I don’t have the right landing page.” The truth is that in a highly competitive online marketing place every little experience improvement matters. Use this as a reminder to examine and admit what your campaign is lacking and fix it.

5. Make It Simple – Our final lesson is taken directly from the Google homepage. I like to think of the Google homepage as an example of the perfect B2B call to action. The page is clean and simple. When you arrive you are clearly prompted to do one thing: search. Are your calls to action this simple? Is your overall user experience of your external and internal web tools this simple? In B2B we love to over complicate things and squeeze 100 product benefits on a page. The next time you are thinking about doing this, remember the Google homepage and the success that it has had. That should help you keep it simple.

Are their other lessons we should be learning from Google? Do you spend time looking at models that have been successful on the web to see if they apply to your business?

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