Forget about the question of if you should or shouldn’t leverage social media for B2B marketing. Forget even that you can see a direct link to ROI. If you aren’t blogging, networking, and conversing with your customers and the market through social media, you lost already. Why? Social media marketing in B2b is what a website was back in the 90′s, it is the game changer. If you use social media you have credibility and authority. Without it, you are a wall flower.
Customers want to hear your voice. They want you to be a thought leader. It is more than the stale white paper. It is about the tone and interaction you are willing to subscribe to when you engage in social media marketing practices. A community, a blog, you tweets, they all help you create authority simply by stepping out.
The number one role of marketing in B2B is to convince your customers that it is worth spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on your solutions. If you aren’t credible, authoritative, and a leader, chances are slim a customer is going to consider you. Just being aware of you as a provider isn’t enough. The benefit of social media marketing is that as much as it improves awareness, it ultimately establishes you as a player.
And, if you really have to prove quantitatively that social media marketing is improving ROI (of course you do!), stop looking at awareness. Track the movement of your brand across leadership, credibility, and mindshare. Chances are, your social media marketing efforts are paying off here.
Filed under: b2b, communication, customer relationship, marketing/advertising, social media marketing, b2b, brand equity, business-to-business, social media marketing, though leadership
