Here are five ways to approach B2B Twitter engagement:

1. Original content

While it may seem like a no-brainer, it’s easy to get so caught up in sharing other Twitter users’ original content – such as industry news articles or upcoming conferences – that business accounts can lose any sense of value for existing or new followers. If you don’t have a blog that’s being updated on a weekly basis, re-purpose eNewsletter content, news releases or field updates. The more non-promotional, the more valuable.

If nothing else, take Twitter at its micro-blogging face value: With a blog editorial calendar-like mentality, draft 140-character tips, observations and FAQs that act as mini, distilled blog posts.

2. Retweets

Sharing information on Twitter that you found valuable for your B2B operation helps to both demonstrate your stake in the industry and recognize users you follow on Twitter as valuable sources of information. Retweeting customers, trade and national media outlets, and industry associations helps to build affiliation, trust and camaraderie. When appropriate, offer your own commentary on the tweet or its linked information. However, always attribute the original source for each tweet.

3. On-the-ground updates

The beauty of Twitter is its mobility. While live-blogging and video blogging can sometimes be difficult, Twitter allows users to update followers from wherever they are. For B2B companies that employ sales teams spread out across multiple regions or that attend trade shows to support lead generation, this is a key point.

Instead of posting tweets from a cubicle, utilize Twitter to post “from the field” tweets that offer up information no one else could post. While your competitors might be tweeting about the same trade magazine article in everyone’s feed reader, tweets such as “Just had a great conversation with the manager of Smith Inc. in Atlanta” or “About to head into a keynote speaker presentation – what questions would you have on IT policies for B2B companies?” show your company has its hands in issues and events across the industry.

4. Hashtag monitoring

Just like your company should know the keywords that bring visitors to its B2B website, it should identify hashtags and keywords that your target demographics use to share and find information. People rarely follow broad search terms such as #socialmedia, #business or #distributors. Instead, they focus on niche qualifiers around specific industry terms, weekly Twitter chats, locations and conferences.

Once you know what hashtags are most often connected to the types of information your company is interested in, set up searches on Twitter to passively pull in tweets that mention them. This gives you an opportunity to follow Twitter users who tag their tweets, reply to questions that your business is qualified to answer and get a general feel for how your target audience behaves on Twitter. Twitter clients such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite make hashtag monitoring easy, but you can also set up RSS feeds using Twitter’s search engine.

5. Personality tweets

Just like you wouldn’t attend a networking event and talk exclusively about your company, tweets don’t have to be straight-up product, company and industry oriented all of the time. Think of Twitter as a cocktail party, where comments about the weather, family, pop culture and general observations help color conversations. Although Twitter gets a bad rap as that “What I Had For Lunch” tool, your followers can better relate and engage with you if you present yourself as a real human being with real interests – that might be outside of your everyday industry updates.

“Personality tweets” often work best when the account is managed by one person clearly referenced in the profile bio, as consistency in tone and voice can help to manage followers’ expectations. However, if your account has multiple contributors, mark tweets with users’ initials to build a similar foundation for personal connections.

What other ways is your B2B company engaging with followers on Twitter?

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Be Creative

At first, not having social media apps or location-based social gaming available for the BlackBerry drove me to read everything I could and absorb as much as possible. Without any available apps, I had to explore creative ways to monitor social media, get involved and stay with the goings-on in the evolving electronic marketing world. Sometimes this meant lugging my laptop to more places than I would have wanted, but you do what you must. In this sense, I learned to not let system limitations hold me back. Instead, I took a deeper look at our organization’s systems and the various social networks we were involved in, and found ways to track our social campaigns and traffic to our sites. I learned to not rely on my mobile device for notifications, and have a much better understanding of our systems, their capabilities, and their shortcomings because of it.

Be Ambitious/Passionate

Here is where the BlackBerry influence may be a little weaker. This is a personal quality or characteristic that I feel is vital to the success of any electronic marketing manager. In an environment this dynamic and ever-evolving if you do not eat, sleep, breathe and live the electronic world you will always be one step behind. I remember the initial struggle I had with social media and Twitter because it was not easily accessible (we are talking November 2007). And that is where as a BlackBerry user you are the 5 foot, 100 pound defensive end trying to walk onto a national powerhouse football team. No one is going to make it easy for you, and your iPhone counterparts will always have a leg up. You must have the heart and drive to go that extra mile to be successful.

Know Your Customer

This is a fundamental key success factor for any marketing professional. We all have such unique demographics of customers that I would never try to generalize any kind of advice on why you can or cannot accurately know your customer because of the platform you use. I will say though, with the ever increasing amount of traffic coming from iPhone and iPad users, can you truly say as a BlackBerry user that you can speak toward the user experience your customers have when they come to your website? How about what your tweets look like on their iPhone Twitter clients? How about Droid? It’s not easy. I have borrowed friends’ iPhones to test new pages or designs on our sites. I’ve even gone as far as driving to Best Buy on my lunch hour to test our site on an iPad.

That being said, my design mentality always has me thinking about design elements and user experiences. What troubles me the most is the environmental influences that lead us to feel more comfortable about one thing over another. We should not only take into account how things render on individual devices, but also how common elements in design lead iPhone users to certain expectations and preferences, while Droid and BlackBerry users may have completely different ones. So, as a BlackBerry user, do I truly know what my mobile users want?

Be Persistent and Persevere

So despite my negative portrayal of the BlackBerry platform and its limitations for electronic marketing managers, there is hope. We all have a network of resources at the tip of our fingers. Get to know the devices in your company. Know that you can walk down the hall and have a user test on this device or on that platform. Know that you can shoot a certain colleague a note to meet over lunch in return for a quick test of that new promotion. Simple. Easy. Cheap. My company president would be proud. Take advantage of features from email service providers that render your email marketing messages in various email clients and on various devices. Make sure your provider has this. It is critical.

Pay attention to your analytics. As a marketer for a high-ticket, once-a-year purchase item for B2B clients, mobile traffic to the sites I manage is sparse. I do, however, know that I expect to see a certain number of iPhone/iPad visits each month and I watch for trends in their traffic. If I see high exits or low site time on a particular page for mobile visitors, I’ll reach out to my networks and test to see if I can determine the problem. Get to know your mobile customers from a distance through analytics and, when combined with some first-hand testing on those various devices, you’ll be in pretty good shape.

Do I believe you can truly be a successful electronic marketing manager as a BlackBerry user…Yes. Do I think it is easy…No!!!

I believe BlackBerry users are highly handicapped by the platform when it comes to truly understanding the electronic marketing environment. We are a minority of the mobile web traffic on the internet and an even smaller minority in the social media world. The lack of apps available for us to fully participate in the social media community is binding and relegates us to outsiders in lots of social media events and conversations If you disagree, try attending an all day social media event and running out of battery with a BlackBerry.

Have you struggled in your marketing position with only a BlackBerry? Let me know in the comments below.

JT Moore is the Electronic Marketing Manager at ASPE, Inc., a national leader in providing skills-based training solutions for the Information Technology, Systems/Software Development Lifecycle, and Financial markets. Follow him on Twitter at @j_t_moore.

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While every organization must be ready to successfully react to crisis situations, any B2B PR pro worth his or her well-worn AP Style Book will agree on the importance of proactive messaging opportunities for the C-level suite. Traditionally, this has been achieved by drafting talking points, pitching CEO bios to trade reporters and securing keynote speaking opportunities in hopes of spreading the word about the B2B company, its products and its key messages.

Increasingly, social media has opened up new outlets for management to monitor and participate in consumer and media relations. CEOs using Twitter have received the most attention when it comes to social media for the C-level set, but what about YouTube?

If your B2B company is utilizing YouTube (and it should be), here are some reasons your CEO should be a regular contributor:

1. Addtional Media Training

While a B2B CEO’s main job isn’t media relations, he or she will come into contact with journalists (and bloggers) as a primary company spokesperson. The key to interacting under pressure with media is practice. However, mock interviews at a biannual media relations refresher held by the PR staff aren’t enough.

By becoming a regular part of the company YouTube channel, B2B CEOs will gain additional exposure to what works and what doesn’t work on camera, and how things like eye contact, nervous ticks and natural speech patterns can distract viewers from key messages. While a company YouTube video will probably be scripted and provide room for retakes and edits, additional face time in front of a camera will help prepare top management for “real” interviews with reporters and ease the canned and stilted feeling that often comes across in executive interviews.

2. Thought Leader

By joining the small ranks of B2B CEOs proactively using YouTube, your CEO will automatically become a thought leader in the social space. Beyond that, a regular YouTube feature can also help to showcase the expertise that carried your CEO to his or her top spot in the first place. Film shorts spots that allow him or her to talk about why your company is using social media; hit on two or three industry news items and have your CEO offer his or her opinions; or touch on new products or services and the value they will bring to customers.

3. Thinking Outside the Suit

For customers, potential customers, media and even internal employees, top management of B2B organizations can often seem elusive, elite and out of touch. A regular video post can go a long way to develop these relationships, especially when you consider that many of these people may never actually lay eyes on these busy men and women.

Consider a monthly Q&A with questions submitted from company stakeholders; a location-specific feature that discusses the different cities and events he or she has traveled to on business; or, depending on the manager’s comfort level, a simple “Catching up with…” spot that lets him or her give a quick update on the company, his or her job and even personal interests.

4. Crisis Credibility

Last week, Jeff wrote a post on the importance of a B2B social media crisis plan, and included a point about executive video responses to the situation. When a crisis does hit, a B2B CEO who has been participating on his or her company’s YouTube channel all along with have more credibility with online stakeholders, as well as more experience in talking with – instead of to – his or her company’s online followers.

How is your B2B company utilizing your top management on your organization’s YouTube channel?

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“5 Types of Posts to Feed Your Business Blog” was a Hubspot blog post that compared five very different types of food to the different types of content that best populate a business blog. Author Rick Burnes maintains that between spinach posts (longer posts that showcase your expertise) and roast posts (in-depth posts that require research and showcase data and analysis), all bloggers need some raisin bran:

Raisin Bran – Useful, Everyday Posts

Most of your posts should be raisin bran. They’re very practical and usually framed as how-to advice. Serving dentists? How should they use new tools? Serving restaurants? What’s the most efficient reservation software?

You should work hard to make sure you’re good at these posts — that you can whip them out, and that your readers engage with them and like them.

No matter what industry you’re in, these types posts will serve as core content, round out monthly editorial calendars and allow more time for your staff to focus on “big picture” blog posts. These planned features, which could be included weekly, bi-monthly or monthly, provide readers with regular, expected content.

Here are five core content ideas to start with:

1. News roundups

B2B companies seek and receive news every day, whether it comes from a daily monitoring e-mail sent put together in PR, a Twitter stream, mobile news app or (gasp!) the newspaper. You’re always on the lookout for breaking news, feature stories, columns and opinion pieces that affect your company, your competitors, your customers and your industry. So why not share it?

Putting together a weekly news roundup post helps your readers (and potential customers) stay on top of of the same issues you are monitoring, and provides added value to them by putting all of the week’s important stories in one easily shared post.

Make it happen: Monday is a great day to post a news roundup, as many people are actively seeking news to start off their weeks. Pull together five to seven news articles or blog posts from the week and bullet each out, including the article title, source and a brief excerpt or summary.  Take it one step further by adding your own thoughts and engaging readers by asking a question about each article.

2. Twitter roundups

Similar to a news roundup, a Twitter roundup highlights the people and organizations you find valuable to follow. Memes like Follow Friday exist for a reason: Just like in the business world, it’s worthwhile to recognize and thank people who are valuable contributors.

Make it happen: Use the “favorite” option on Twitter to flag tweets that make you pause, think, disagree or set off a lightbulb in your head. Pull those tweets together at the end of each week and use the data in different ways: The first week of the month could be a list of key industry tweeters to follow; the next, a collection of linked screenshots that connect to interesting blog posts. Feeling extra adventurous? Post tweets that offer up advice, suggestions and opinions sans links – it’s hard enough to relay a worthwhile idea in an entire blog post, let alone in 140 characters or less.

3. Meet the team

Use what – or, this case, who – you’ve got.

Social media helps put a voice, face and name to organizations, making it easy to spotlight employees in your organization who make your business successful. Using an interactive medium such as video breaks up the usual text-heavy paragraphs of blog posts and makes an employee more than just a voice on the other end of a phone call.

Make it happen: Invest in a Flip Cam for less than $200 and use it to interview members of your staff. Blogs are about personality, so dig deeper than questions such as “Where did you go to college?” Use the opportunity to let employees show off their expertise, passions, hobbies and anecdotes. Let them deliver first-hand stories about their experience in the company, without relying on canned talking points. In the text of the post, offer up their contact information so readers can continue the conversation. If your organization is small, use subsequent weeks to check in with team members to see what they’re doing, their thoughts on industry news and predictions for coming months.

4. Mailbag

Think of this feature as an interactive version of the FAQ page on your Web site, and use it to point out features, services, Web site pages, contact information and facts about your organization that readers may not know.

Make it happen: Utilize your sales team – they’re on the ground, talking with customers everyday. What questions do they hear most often? What misconceptions do they run into about your product or services? Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are also good places to find out what kind of information people are searching for.  Invite people to leave their own questions for future Mailbag posts in the blog’s comment section.

5. Social media and (your industry here)

If readers are finding your blog (and using Twitter and Facebook to get there), chances are they’re interested in social media. Spotlight non-competitors, customers, researchers, educators, media and others in your industry who are engaging in social media. This builds relationships, gives the person you interview a reason to link to and promote your blog, and helps you learn something along the way.

Make it happen: Keep an eye out for good candidates and approach them with an interview request. If they’re from out of town, send them a few questions via e-mail, record a podcast over the phone or get extra mileage out of that Flip Camera and interview them in person. Focus on takeaways other could implement from their experience, and ask them how they feel the social space is impacting the industry. When you post the interview, send him or her the link so they can promote it on their sites, and tweet it out using their Twitter handle.

What other types of core content do you use to build out your B2B blog’s editorial calendar?

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The paper recounts the history and social practices of Microsoft adCenter, the paid search tool that is a rival to Google Adwords, and allows businesses to place advertising on Microsoft web properties. This is a great resource for B2B companies looking to get started in social media, or those who need to provide some tweaks to their programs.

The social media topics the white paper describes are:

• Listening
• Blogging
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Social Media at Live Events
• Social Media and Search Engines

The most important part of the white paper is the final section where the Microsoft Advertising crew lists six types of ROI (return on investment) measurements and includes their specific measured items, like growth in reach, most popular tweeted links correlated to reduced call center volume, surveyed potential customers to determine revenue growth, earned media, monthly analytics reports, and increased awareness of social media within the organization.

Have you thought about documenting your social media efforts to share with others?

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What if your product wasn’t good? What if your customers tell you that your product isn’t any good? What do you do? The natural reaction is likely to get defensive and tout the aspects of the product that you think are strong and shy a way from conversations that are negative about your product. This means that social media marketing for your business is likely out of the question. However, what if you had the opposite reaction and tackled the negative head on. Domino’s Pizza did.

Over the holidays in the US Domino’s Pizza launched more than just a campaign. It made a dramatic change in its business, and one that all B2B companies can learn from. Domino’s was tired of hearing customer feedback and research that told them that people didn’t like the taste of their pizza. In response to this Domino’s completely changed all the the ingredients of their pizza in an effort to improve it for their customers. Think about this point as it applies to your B2B business.

Does your company care enough about its customers to rebuild a bad product from scratch? Secondly, if you did rebuild it what type of response would this change generate from customers?

Domino’s also knew it was not enough just to change their pizza. They knew that for this new recipe to succeed they needed to tell people about the change and encourage them to try this new pizza. To do this they leveraged traditional advertising as well as a social microsite: PizzaTurnAround.com. This microsite holds many lessons for B2B social media professionals.

B2B Social Media Lessons From Domino’s

Lesson 1: Be Honest With Your Customers – People hate being lied to. The only thing worse than being lied to is being disregarded. At the heart of Domino’s new effort is a simple acknowledgment that for a while they ignored customers and sold bland or bad tasting pizza. It seems like a simple sentiment, but it has powerful effects. Try doing it yourself. What would happen if you told a customer the reason a new release of a software product was being delayed was due to the fact that a couple developers were out because they recently had a new addition to their family? Isn’t that response likely to generate a better response from the customer that some line about how all of the amazing new features are taking longer to test?

Lesson 2: Use Third Party Social Media Endorsements To Boost Credibility

B2B companies want people to say only great things about their products. This is an unrealistic expectation. No matter how hard an organization may try, it can’t make everyone happy. There are always going to be people who don’t support your product or your organization. Conversely there are people who will always support you. The people that are really important are the ones in the middle. Think about the last time you bought something from Amazon. Was it the 5 star customer rating that sold you? It was likely the 3.5 star rating that offered deep insights into the pros and cons of the product.

How do you move the people in the middle to your side? They need to be convinced by other people who were in the middle and now have begun to support your product. Domino’s knew this. They included a live Twitter search stream on PizzaTurnAround.com (see image above) as a way to help convince people that are on the fence about trying the new pizza. Are all of the Tweets positive? No, but they are all credible.

Lesson 3: Mix Selling and Lead Generation Directly With Social Media

Sales and social media go together. Don’t listen to people who tell you they don’t. In this Domino’s example we can see that they have put an advertisement for their new pizza with a call to action on the top right of the microsite. Their goal is to get people to try their new product. For this to happen, they have to make it easy for people to do it. Do you have direct sales or lead generation tied to your social media activities? If not, why? To be effective, social media and sales needs to work together.

Being Remarkable is About Doing What Others Won’t
While there are many B2B social media lessons that can be learned from this Domino’s campaign, the most important is likely the simplest. To be remarkable, to be a company people talk about, to command respect, your organization has to be willing to do things for its customers that no one else in your industry would.

What other lessons did you take away from this Domino’s campaign? Should B2B companies adopt this approach to product improvement?

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11 B2B Social Media Predictions For 2010

Most Popular Posts on Social Media B2B in 2009

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LinkedIn is still the most popular social network that is solely focused on business use. It is widely used by professionals in B2B industries to hire employees, find vendors and generate leads. One of my biggest complaints this past year was how terrible the LinkedIn iPhone app was to use. I spend much of my social networking time on my iPhone. However, the LinkedIn app was basically not usable. It was so bad that you could not accept new connection in the app. You had to go to the web interface to do that. For most of 2009 the LinkedIn application was easily one of the worst applications on my iPhone and as a result, didn’t get much use.

As we are about to start 2010 LinkedIn as released a major update to is iPhone application, version 3.0. As you can tell from the screenshot at the top of this post, it as an entire new look and user interface. This new design looks a lot like the Facebook iPhone application.

The Facebook iPhone app is very well done and very easy to use, so I can’t really blame LinkedIn for moving to this type of design.

What Is New In 3.0

Version 3.0 of the LinkedIn iPhone brings a lot of changes to the design, but also adds some new features. One of the most interesting additions to the application is the “IN Person” feature.

The new feature allows people to connect on LinkedIn and share contact information when they meet, using the iPhone’s built in Bluetooth wireless technology. This feature can help save a lot of follow up time for those who dig back through cards and then manually send out LinkedIn invitations.

Additionally, you can now select profiles to mark as favorites, so you can add them directly to your application home screen. This can be very handy if you have some contacts that you need to monitor closely while on the go. It also makes it easy to download contact information from LinkedIn directly to your iPhone. This information can then be synced with CRM systems, which is a big step in the right direction.

Closer But Still Not There
While this upgrade is a huge improvement from the first versions of this application and has useful features for B2B users, there is still so much that it doesn’t do. The app still focuses on connections and doesn’t get to some of LinkedIn’s other features. The biggest feature missing is the lack of LinkedIn’s Answer platform. The ability to quickly look up answers and conversations from LinkedIn while in a meeting or on the road would be huge, not to mention having the ability to contribute answers when you have a few spare moments while traveling.

The new version of the app also does not include Groups or Events. The Groups function is where the major discussions happen on LinkedIn, not within status updates (which show up in the app under the discussions tab if they get comments). While some groups are more spammy and self-promotional, this is one of the prime sources of lead generation within LinkedIn. And the best use of the Events function is to connect with people while at an event. This is something that would be enhanced by its access on a mobile device, rather than on your laptop back at your hotel.

I think LinkedIn did a nice job on these updates, but a few more features are still needed to make this the killer B2B mobile application that it can be.

Do you agree? Do you like the new design?

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1. eMarketer: 12 Digital Marketing Predictions for 2010
Lee Oden reviews the predictions made by eMarketer and finds mobile, ecommerce and social search leading the way in the new year.

2. 10 BtoB Marketers Predictions for 2010
Paul Dunay starts his predictions with the importance of Facebook for B2B marketers, and also talks about mobile, corporate websites and lead generation.

3. 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010
Ravit Lichtenberg wrote a guest post on Read Write Web that highlights the all-encompassing nature of social media, the importance of ROI and the role of women in social media.

4. Social Media 2010: it’s time to get boring
The Church of the Customer follows an in and out format with the following entries included as in in 2010: turning employees loose on Twitter, Foursquare and the CMO participating in social media.

5. This is the future of social media
Mark W. Schaefer’s list looks unlike any other and includes his thoughts on human coupons, ongoing privacy debates, man-machine interface and the digital divide.

6. 100 Social Media & Content Marketing Predictions for 2010
Joe Pulizzi put out the call for predictions and presents over 100 predictions from more than 60 marketing, content marketing, custom publishing and social media thinkers and writers. The trends he found across those predictions are video, mobile, outsourced content, quality content and offline conversations.

7. 2010 Predictions: Will social media reach ubiquity?
Jennifer Leggio also turned to her network for predictions, and she presented the thoughts of 31 thought leaders, entrepreneurs and social media practitioners. Her summary of these predictions is that social media will be more about how companies do things, rather than a shiny toy.

8. 11 Smart Marketers Shared Their 2010 Predictions
Beth Harte takes a different approach to crowdsourcing Marketing Profs predictions and opens the question up to their LinkedIn Group. This gets responses from smart people you may not know. Integration is seen as a key to success in 2010.

9. Six Social Media Trends for 2010
David Armano points to emerging trends that include establishment and enforcement of social media policies, encouraging competition and mobile social media replacing cigarette breaks.

10. Looking ahead to 2010 with Shiv Singh
Mary Ellen Slayter spoke with Shiv Singh about what he sees as the trends for 2010. They included the growth of social brands, customers’ impatience for mediocrity and the applification of everything.

11. Five Social Media Predictions for 2010
Joel Postman sees augmented reality going mainstream, location-based apps dissolving into features of social networks and more regulation of social media.

12. eMarketer Weighs In on 2010 Trends: Social Media & Paid Content
Debra Aho Williamson predicts marketers will need better measurement on earned media, the increasing importance of social search and the the growth of advertising on social networks. Paul Verna anticipates Twitter building its business in 2010, rather than its audience as it did in 2009. He also see the changing of online news content and the convergence of digital video as trends in the new year.

13. 8 Predictions for SEO in 2010
Rand Fishkin collects his SEO predictions for 2010 including the changes ahead for Google’s real time search results, the importance of personalized search and increased spending on SEO. If you are not well-versed in SEO, even just reading this post of predictions is a good primer in SEO.

You can also check out our 2010 B2B Social Media Predictions.

If you have written your own prediction post or you have read ones that we missed, please add them to the comments below.

Note: This post was a collaborative effort with the list compiled by Kipp and the summaries written by Jeff. And it only matters if you take issue with the list or the summaries. And because Kipp’s picture is at the top.

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Looking toward 2010 the changes likely to happen will be far less sexy and shiny than the trends and tactics that were the focus of 2009. For B2B companies 2010 will be about more clearly connecting social media to business objectives and better understanding how to measure the direct and indirect return on investment of social media.

From a B2B perspective integrating social media into the sales funnel to support lead generation and transactions will be a top priority. B2B companies are likely also to shift more budgets to inbound marketing strategies, which are likely to include social media. Social CRM systems and integrating social data for sales team decision-making will also begin to happen on a broader scale in 2010.

Here are my 11 B2B Social Media Predictions for 2010.

1. Sales Staff Get Social Media Savvy – Next year social media is getting out of the B2B marketing department and starts creeping into other business functions. One of the departments that is going to begin to realize social media’s impact on its objectives is the sales team. With customers changing their habits and getting information differently, sales professionals will have to adapt. Once they learn about the added edge that social media gives them in terms of client and industry knowledge, they will start to slowly change their habits. This will be a slow process but it starts in 2010.

2. Inbound Marketing Gets Cash - In looking at the marketing mix and budgeting for 2010, forms of inbound marketing like social media and search engine marketing are likely to receive an increase in their share of the budget. While numbers may still remain much smaller than traditional advertising and direct mail, these budget upgrades will give inbound marketers the support they need to demonstrate ROI and increase investment in following years.

3. Location-Based Fills In The Gaps – Right now we live in two worlds: offline and online. The bridge between these two for B2B companies is leveraging devices with GPS functions to make location an important component of business information. Location will be a more important component of CRM data, B2B social networks, as well as other business applications. Knowing when and WHERE leads and clients are will improve relationships. Location is a game changer.

4. Social Media Lead Generation Becomes Common Place – Experimentation comes to an end in 2010. Social media, while being about conversations and great content, is going to get down to directly supporting lead generation. B2B companies realize that social platforms can generate leads, which directly create sales and transactions. Connecting leads from social media to CRM platforms and then closing sales cycle is what will happen in 2010.

5. Social Media Publishing Gets More Multi-Media – Recently I have been talking about video content in the B2B space. Next year will continue a trend that has seen diverse types of media used in B2B. Video both recorded and livestreamed will see an increase in use, but it is likely that B2B companies will start using more images as well, to help better tell their story. While text and audio have been the staples of B2B social media content up to this point, that will change in 2010.

6. Influencer Marketing Gets Even More Important – In the first quarter of 2009, 30 percent of B2B trade magazines closed. Historically, it has been these magazine relationships that B2B companies have leveraged to reach important industry influencers. In 2010 industry influencers are going to take a more active role in social media because of its low cost of entry and declining competition from print publications. As industry influencers use social media to build influence, companies will follow to engage with them and realize the importance of building credibility online.

7. Mobile Can No Longer Be Ignored - B2B companies on the digital front have focused heavily on their Web sites in recent years, but they have focused less on how their Web site works on mobile devices, or more importantly, how their lead generation processes work on mobile. The popularity of devices from RIM and Apple are causing a rising of the tide. These devices are giving users the expectations that all things should work on their mobile device and work as easily as their favorite applications. It is the companies that realize this and focus on simplifying the user experience that will be successful.

8. Corporate Web Sites Get Social – Corporate Web sites that are stagnant, are becoming useless. The next generation of B2B corporate web sites is going to be much more social. As lead generation and branding efforts transition to online, businesses will realize that engagement, relevance, and dynamic content on their corporate Web site is the best way to support these efforts. Things like product reviews, blogs, and content aggregation will begin to become common place as companies fight to be the “portal” for their industry.

9. Social and Real-Time Search Drive B2B Social Media Adoption – Search engines are an important source of inbound marketing leads for many B2B companies. In 2009 the major search engines made a lot of changes. Google’s shift to real-time search was one of the most important. Now that search engines have begun to include data from social networks and have started using online relationships to prioritize results it will become more important than ever that B2B companies participate on the social web in 2010. It is likely that those that don’t will begin to see a drop in online inbound marketing results.

10. B2B Gets Smart About Social Data – The light bulb is going to go off in the heads of many executives across major B2B industries. They are not only going to realize that “social media is here to stay.” Most already know that. The major revelation is going to be that the user generated content created every second on the social web can help them make better and more informed business decisions. Leadership will begin looking for ways to collect and analyze this data and then use it to improve product development, customer service, marketing and other aspects of business.

11. The Firewalls Start To Come Down – Currently the major road block for business to business social media marketing success is the blocking of social content and platforms in the workplace. Many employees and decision makers are restricted from accessing major social platforms and user generated content. This will see a major change in 2010 because organizations will realize that this interaction is important to their bottom line and that employees need to access information to make better choices for the business. The younger generation will help with this by advocating for this type of communication, but leadership will ultimately realize that business communications methods have fundamentally changed.

I am sure that many other changes will occur in 2010, but these are the items I feel are the most important and are likely to change. Do you agree? Have you seen things in your business to suggest otherwise? What did I leave off this list that should be on it?

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