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B2B Social media and how it differs from B2C communications

B2B Social media – How businesses need to have a voice and communicate to their audience – How it differs from B2C communications

In 2000 the Cluetrain Manifesto shook up the traditional marketing and advertising world.  To some it was hubris, to others is sounded like an odd language- and more dot com hype. For those that understood what it actually said- two reactions came forth, one was an almost blind allegiance to it, the other merely passed if off as yet another manifesto.

Little did anyone know that the emergence of Friendster, Blogging, RSS podcasting and online video would shift business models and change the very face of the globe.

The Mobile Social Web of today has embraced the Cluetrain.  Now it seems everyone is talking about Social Media.  Social Media simply is the umbrella term for content generated by people.  And you have really good content and you have really bad content.  The most important aspect of communication is simply to revisit the four parts to communication:

• Message
• Messenger
• Medium
• Audience

If any part of the above four break down then the entire thing breaks down.  So using social media in a business to business sense you simply have to adopt the best of what is working in the consumer web and bring it to the Business Web.  Really it all boils down to context and purpose.

Ah but Social Media- is for 14 year old kids wanting to share music and Gaming tips?

If you think that Social Media is not relevant to your business to business marketing and communications efforts you are mistaken.  Social media allows us two very different approaches: Direct and indirect.  Direct is pretty much talking about yourself, your industry and your own role within it.  Indirect is removing your brand- focusing on the market or industry- the point with indirect is building up credibility as a thought leader- resource or asset that you can capitalise upon later.

Examples of course would be research articles, how to videos, other related instructional efforts and even webinars.  The focus of course goes back to the Cluetrain Manifesto:

Markets are conversations.

You cannot control a conversation you can only participate or ignore.  And if you are like me and come from a background of traditional marketing you may have a hard time understanding the loss of control is actually a good thing.

http://www.scottmonty.com/2010/03/study-most-effective-b2b-social-media.html
Scott Monty made news- he is the Social Media Manager at Ford Motor Company.  As a Pioneer in the space Scott made a name for himself by riding the cresting wave of social media.  Simply Scott took the best of the Consumer Web- and applied it for his organisation- using the tools that existed and wrapping them around context and purpose.

In the same manner Scott- speaks about the best B2B adoption- and you will see the parallel it is all about applying what tools and strategy works in one market B2C and wrapping context and purpose and using it in another B2B.

Sounds simple?

Well yes and no.  Any business discipline takes practice, testing and the discipline to keep it going.  This constant evolution of idea, test, feedback and retest helps your organisation be much more agile.  Agility is one of the benefits of Social Media.  Your organisation can react quickly to crisis; can make your marketing and PR spend go much farther in communicating to your audience.

A good blog that I tend to keep reading often says it all in its title ‘Convince and Convert’ that the goal of social media is to make big companies seem small, and if I think about that for just a second it goes all the way back to the cluetrain. ‘We as humans are inherent social beings, the need to communicate and connect is inherent to our being.’  No matter the size of your company you are going to have to speak to people as if they are in the same room as you.  Wrapping value around context and purpose that is relevant and compelling for your audience is the way to have success. 

And remember to test, test and test.

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-marketing/crushing-the-myth-of-b2b-social-media/
B2C and B2B marketers are largely using the same social tactics. The differences may then lie in use cases and expectations. The variation may come in how social media is used, not which social media are used.

Size Doesn’t Matter

I’m also often asked about how social media execution differs between large and small companies. The difference is actually very small, as the goal of social media is to make big companies act like small ones.

Untill next time

Mike

Mike

Based in Kent, I work with companies and individuals to boost their online presence. As an Internet marketing consultant my work covers many areas of inbound marketing from strategy and planning, content creation, email automation social media and much more. Outside of this you'll find me with my 2 German Pointers on Ashdown Forest.

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