Brain Vibe

Passion.  A marketing must.  If you don’t believe in what you are selling, will your customer?  Probably not.

Take a look around at social media in B2B.  Those that are embracing social media have passion.  They want to help the customer.  They think their solution and brand is the best.  They have confidence in what they do.  They know they are good at it.

Leading B2B brands get passion.  Think of Cisco, Intel, IBM, HP, and Google.  They have distinct ideas of who they are and what they offer.  They know their customer and align to their needs.  They speak their language across all vehicles and departments.

Best in breed B2B companies are incorporating social media mechanisms into their marketing strategy as much to get their thought leadership position out there and shape customer opinion as they are soliciting customer interaction and perspective.  IBM’s Twitter account for their IBM Cognos business intelligence solution is active and reciprocating.  It provides updates and information on events, thought leadership, and technology updates as well as responds to tweets from customers.  In fact, if it identifies interesting reads and content that align to its perspective, you can count on the fact the IBM Cognos will RT (re-tweet) to its followers.

Tech companies have known the power of social media even before social media had an identity.  They have fostered customer advisory groups, forums and open-source development for a decade or more.  In technology, networking and communities are recognized vehicles for growing your business and aligning your solutions to the market.  In fact, this has even driven venture capitalism (VC) investment strategies.  In the VC world, an idea isn’t enough.  Networking to gain buy in and adoption prior to building your solution is a must.  You build your market before there is an recognized market.  This is the tenet of social media success.

But, it all goes back to passion.  Passion is the cornerstone to success.  Passion is addicting.  Passion is infectious.

Customers are passionate about their business and its success.  If you don’t have that same passion and enthusiasm when you engage with the customer, you lost at 10 seconds.  In all other forms of maketing your passion is delivered through a “push” mechanism.  In social media, you have the opportunity to connect your passion to the customer’s passion.  It is only through social media marketing that you have the opportunity to engage even prior to a sales engagement.  You meet the customer prior or during their problem identification and need.  It is then that channeling your passion throught engaged social media will pre-convert customers or nurture them prior to the decision cycle.

Take the opportunity to throw away stale marketing vehicles that don’t  exude passion.  Leverage social media to deliver your passion.  Then, leverage your traditional vehicles to collaborate and further extend your passion.  After all, if you aren’t passionate, why should your customers be?

Filed under: b2b, customer relationship, sales, sales 2.0, social media, b2b, b2b marketing, Business, Google, Hewlett-Packard, HP, ibm, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Marketing strategy, Open source, social media, social media marketing, Twitter