This week the URL shortening service Bit.ly launched a new service called Bitly.TV. This service aggregates the most popular videos being shared using the URL shortening service. It provides a quick look at what is popular right now. So what if a B2B company took this idea and built on it?

Capturing What Employees Share
URL shortening services continue to launch, and while some people like them and others don’t, they serve an important function. What if a B2B company created a custom URL shortener for its employees to use? For example, a large company like GE could create GE.me as a URL shortener. This would brand any links shared as coming from someone at GE.

A corporate URL shortener could address many issues:

1. Capture information that employees are already sharing on the web in one place.
2. Reinforce corporate branding on the social web.
3. Denote that the link is not spam

For me the biggest opportunity for doing something like this is capturing the brain power and interest of an entire company. If the short URL service were adopted company wide, then one dashboard could exist to view the most relevant links and information to employees and customers at any point in time.

Knowledge Is Power
Once you have a digital pulse of an organization, thanks to the data being generated by a corporate URL shortening services, a world of options opens up for you.

You can use the information captured in your URL service to:

1. Guide your blog content.
2. Direct Facebook, Twitter and other social network content and conversations.
3. Focus e-mail and direct response calls to actions and offers
4. Educate sales and marketing on trends and issues
5. Guide product developments and enhancements

While all of these are key benefits, the best opportunity likely is the overall credibility that will come from a more accurate, “not just marketing” tone of your business on the Web.

Dealing With Data
Let’s be clear, I don’t think that you should just throw all the popular links onto the web and display them in the way Bit.ly did. I think that it is up to internal staff to understand the data provided and use it to impact business objectives and tactics, like the ones mentioned above.

This brings up an important issue to understand. The more resources you devote to the web, the more time you need to allocate for data and analytics reporting and interpretation. Understanding data from the social web will be a key success factor for B2B companies in the future.

With the popularity of URL shortening services it should be possible to license technology from an existing service or find a program that has experience building one as a way to get your own corporate short URL started. Your employees are already sharing relevant business information with other services. Shouldn’t you capitalize on the branding and data possibilities of actions they are already taking?

Is this something you see becoming a trend? Would your business consider doing this?

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Now let’s look at how the 80-20 rule applies to social media. Since social media is still so new in many B2B organizations, managers have not been running the numbers in a strict fashion to determine the value and ROI of the programs and campaigns. People still focus on the wrong numbers. How many followers, fans, retweets did you get? Sure this is a measurement of reach of the message, but if it is not aimed at a targeted audience, it is of little value. So many traditional marketers and seasoned PR folks throw their training and their instincts out the window for social media. They suffer from bright, shiny object syndrome. Many approaches are just not focused properly.

This is not the way social media will succeed and survive in B2B companies. Social media must be held to the same standards as other communication initiatives. If you can’t figure out how to engage with your target audience on social media, don’t do it. Be authentic. Be transparent. But your goal still needs to drive your target audience to a call to action. What do you need them to do that translates into sales?

What happened to 80-20? Well, it turns out that the social media audience that you are fitfully chasing is part of the 20% of your business. Why don’t you focus your social media efforts on the customers responsible for 80% of your revenue? Remember these are the customers that don’t require handholding. They currently don’t require excessive resources. Stop chasing the little guys and work with the big customers. They are already efficient. Use social media to make them more efficient. That would increase sales.

Sit down and spend some time to find their pain points. They probably relate to things like product information and shipping information. Set up private wikis or forums to post that internal information just for their eyes. Establish closed social networks for interaction with product managers. Set up video chats or webinars. Anything you have seen on the social web can be password protected and kept private. Treat these customers like they are responsible for 80% of your revenue and give them the tools they need to run their business. Oh yeah, they are responsible for 80% of your revenue.

What are some other ways you can leverage your business information in social ways to help your best customers?

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