B2B Social Media Marketing

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is too often the ugly stepchild in the marketing family, especially when compared to the golden child that is business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. B2C marketing gets all the glory, so much so that when people talk about marketing without a modifier, it’s usually assumed they mean consumer marketing, never business marketing.

This is despite that fact that B2B marketing makes up a significant portion of overall marketing activity. Roughly one-third of all commercial searches on Google are B2B in nature, more than 50 percent of Google’s target advertisers are B2B, and almost 38 percent of Yahoo’s target advertisers are B2B.

Many people at B2B companies have reservations about jumping into social media for their company. To some it seems like a waste of time, resources, and just downright silly. Adding a social element to your marketing message is new and the loss of control can be overwhelming.

Yet at the same time, millions of business professionals each day are reaching as far as their keyboard for the answers they need most. People are looking for information, yes, but they’re also looking for other people, too. Companies they can trust. In this environment, corporate transparency is critical for your company. Research also shows that buyers in the B2B sector are one of the largest groups participating in online social networks.

10 Things a B2B Company Can Do to be Social Now

1. Add photos of your staff
2. Add a link to each employee’s LinkedIn profile
3. Update staff bios to accurately describe their expertise and cut out the gobbledygook
4. Write about things your next business partner, customers, or members are searching for.
5. Update your blog regularly – at LEAST once a week
6. Make sure the design of your blog matches the design of your company website
7. Be the best you that you can be. Don’t try to be someone else
8. Generate good helpful content and not a constant sales pitch
9. Recommend vendors and business partners on social networking sites
10. Add links to your social media sites in the footers of your outgoing email – let people know where you are available to connect