New Social Media Marketing Industry Report

Galen De Young | B2B Social Media | March 28th, 2009

Michael Stelzner of White Paper Source recently released a study on how marketers are using social media to grow and promote their businesses. Nearly 900 marketers were surveyed.

One of the great questions in the study was an open ended question that simply asked, “What question about marketing with social media do you most want answered?” The question only allowed one answer and was designed to reveal the most pressing concern people had on their minds regarding social media. The 685 responses were then clustered into groups and ranked. The responses likely mirror some of you own questions regarding social media and reflect people wresting with selecting the right tactics, measuring the effectiveness of this new media, and how to effectively use it.

The remainder of the report attempts to answer some of those questions by presenting other findings from the survey. While the report is not specifically focused on B2B marketing, it’s filled with  great information of significant relevance to B2B marketers. Here’s just a few of the findings  in the report: (more…)

 

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Five Reasons Why Negative Comments on your B2B Corporate Web Blog Might Be Positive

Mike Marn | B2B Social Media | October 16th, 2008

What are you afraid of? Launch a blog; people go negative on you, and you could lose some business, right? Why even give your critics a platform to be critical, or worse, bad mouth your company, brand, products, or services? Hey, doesn’t this fly in the face of everything we know about marketing, building brands, and protecting brand equity?  Why concede an inch of space to detractors?
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Some Corporate Blogging Insight That Might Be Worth a Fortune

Richard Hatch | B2B Social Media | August 3rd, 2008

If you want some great insight into corporate blogging, both B2B and B2C companies, check out the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki, a directory of Fortune 500 companies with business blogs. The wiki, started as collaborative project between Wired Magazine’s Chris Anderson and Socialtext’s Ross Mayfield, is a wiki compilation that’s following active public blogs by company employees blogging about their companies and/or products.

With Mayfield, Easton Ellsworth of We Know Media and John Cass of PR Communications have joined the effort to expand the project. Included on the site are lists and links of blogging Fortune 500 companies, example blogs for each (many have multiple blogs), examples of other social media in use (Twitter, etc.), and reviews. As a side note, you can also write and submit your own reviews of Fortune 500 corporate blogs there. (more…)

 

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Why are B2B Companies so Anti-Social When it Comes to Social Media?

Mike Marn | B2B Social Media | July 28th, 2008

After all, it’s really just about relationships. The kind your salespeople brag about, and the kind you desperately hope to develop with customers so that price isn’t the only consideration. Heck, the kind that make barbecues more fun. Many companies preach the value of relationships constantly.

But disguise that relationship thing as “social media’ and they don’t even recognize it. Shun it. Or fear it. And as a result, they often do one of two things:

• Let their uneasiness keep them in their comfort zone, and out of the social media environment
• Barge onto the social media scene with a blatant selling agenda—exactly the kind of thing you wouldn’t dream of in those other settings.

Simple fact: social media fuel relationships. And relationships fuel sales. But you can’t jump from A to C. You need “B” in there along the way. And while you’re pursuing those virtual relationships, don’t focus on the sales value of each contact or on-line exchange, any more than you would stop and measure ROI after every stroke in a round of client golf.

Think of your social media efforts as sowing seeds. You never know which seeds will take root. But if you don’t sow any, you can count on a pretty sparse garden.

B2B folks, it’s time to get off the fence, and into the conversation.

 

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Can Social Networking Sites Deliver for B2B marketers? Absolutely, Positively!

Mike Marn | B2B Social Media | June 11th, 2008

A recent AdWeek article quotes FedEx executive Steve Pacheco as saying “It’s the next logical step for FedEx.”

He’s not talking about entering a new international market, or altering their business model, or a new Domino delivery option, like “30 minutes or it’s free!”

Nope. Pacheco is the Director of Advertising for FedEx, and what he was referring to is virtual delivery, via a new Facebook application. Now members of that social network can send one another FedEx “packages” that can include photos, links, little digital goodies, etc. The recipient clicks on the FedEx package to “open” it.

Traditionalists might smirk at such serous talk about a merely virtual presence that isn’t directly monetized. They shouldn’t. (more…)

 

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