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?I don?t deal with customers. I?m business to business.? If my clients want to find me, they can go to my webpage or call me.?

Yes, we?re still having this discussion about social media and B2B companies.

I think one problem is the word ?social?. It?s a soft word.

Substituting social media for ?digital networking? might be an easier sell to B2B?s.

You?re not just being social, you?re building a business relationship over a ?digital golf game? or a ??digital business lunch.
I used to be the Sales and Marketing guy for a local theatre company that toured the US extensively. This was before social media.

Each year we?d fly south to attend performing arts conferences where we?d pitch our shows to impresarios and producers who would hoped would buy our them for their theatres, conventions halls, municipalities and corporations. They would then sell them to their market ? B2B, right?

The exhibitions were expensive, time consuming and resource heavy but indispensable. The best lead generations and networking was made? off the?the floor;?in the hallways, at breakfast?etc.

Social media enables that kind of networking without you having to pick up the dinner tab.

Imagine if we had Google+ Hangouts, Skype or blogs?

As?Amy Porterfield?says in her case study of?Cree;? a B2B industrial LED lighting company:??Remember that you?re not selling to other businesses or to ?consumers,? but instead you?re always selling to real people whose buying decisions are driven by emotion.?Speak to that emotional side, as?Cree has done by infusing the hot buttons of bad lighting in the workplace and people?s passion for environmentally friendly products.?Find your cause and use it in your messages and share it on your channels.??

In his post:?Destroying the 7 Myths of B2B Social Media,??Brian Larson?summarizes?Jay Baer?s?answers to some common B2B social media objections.

My Customers Don?t Use Social Media
Forrester research shows that 81% of online adults use social media. Regardless of whether your business is B2B or B2C, it is people who ultimately make the purchasing decisions?and 81% are using social.
Social Media Doesn?t Apply to Our Business
Does your brand have a story to tell? If you answered yes, than social applies to your business. It?s a forum to tell your story. The primary reasons any business uses social are:

Social Media Is?Not Worth the Trouble

Forrester research found that 86% of business technology decision makers use social media for professional reasons. Social is actually MORE important for B2B than B2C. Why? With longer sales cycles, social can actually reduce the touchpoints needed to close a sale.

Is social media right for every B2B business?
No.

If you don?t have leadership from the top to propel a social media strategy, then it will fail. Without sufficient resources invested and the company committed, a business won?t be able to maintain either the level of engagement or volume of content to see positive results.

You can outsource consulting, strategy, monitoring, and even content generation but you can?t outsource ?you?.

Oli Gardner?shared this infographic created by?Inside View. It contains some great ammunition to volley at those B2B social media naysayers.

Enjoy and be social.

?

Permalink:?http://blog.rockthepost.com/?p=7479

Photo Credit: Flickr ? greg westfall

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About the Author.?Ray Hiltz is owner and founder of Communications NewRayCom, a Social Business Consulting Company. He writes a business and social media blog at (http://newraycom.com) and speaks regularly to audiences of entrepreneurs and small businesses owners about the benefits of social engagement.

Source: http://blog.rockthepost.com/2012/11/are-you-too-business-to-business-for-social-media/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=are-you-too-business-to-business-for-social-media

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