B2B and social media...wheres the love?

Its interesting about how much buzz is given to social media marketing...I must have read ten articles over the weekend about it. But the more I read about marketing on sites like myspace, friendster, facebook, blogs, etc. the more I realize that it is primarily B2C companies taking advantage of this new medium with the B2B crowd staying cautiously out of the fray.

Why is that?

Of course it is inherently easier to mass market a consumer product. You have a much larger pool of potential customers and the marketing is less complex than that of B2B. It will always be easier to go viral talking about the iphone instead of email marketing deliverability rates. And you can market the iphone to millions while an email marketing solution is limited to hundreds of potential clients (maybe thousands if your lucky).

So does it make sense to abstain from social media marketing then?

In a word...no.

The B2B approach to this kind of marketing should not follow that of B2C. You don't need to rely on huge buzz to drive interest in your product so don't feel the need to employ trendy video gimmicks, silly contests, or controversial blog posts in an attempt to "go viral". Its not your style man!

Here are some simple mistakes to avoid.

1. Resist the urge to create a "company" myspace account. This will just make you look silly - especially when no one signs up to be your company's friend.


2. Don't try to accumulate a mass amount of friends. You will look as desperate as the high school geek trying to build a friend empire online.


3. Don't waste your money advertising on myspace. I don't think many high school and college students are in the market to buy your products or services.


4. Like I said before...no cheesy you tube videos. You will never be able to compete against a guy getting hit in the crotch or the cat playing the piano.


5. Don't blog because everyone else is doing it. Alot of people wore a mullet in the 80's too. Know when something makes sense for YOU to do...we can't all be Billy Ray Cyrus.
   

Instead, just simply encourage your employees to use them.

The best way to approach social media in the B2B world is to actually use the social networks that all of your friends, colleagues, and business associates use. Specifically, Linked In is fast becoming the "professional" alternative to sites like myspace, friendster, and xanga. It is a social network site specifically for maintaining business and industry contacts.

But it is not the only resource. If a lot of your contacts are using myspace, get on myspace. In the end you want to stay in touch and be accessible to those people you know and have relationships with. And by using those social networking sites you will find additional contacts...who may even eventually buy something from you.

I'm not saying that there is not a larger marketing opportunity with these sites either. The potential for brand building is great and well thought out strategies exist for making the most out of marketing on them...even if your B2B.

But in the end it's always been about building relationships ...and its no different online.