I was going over some data at the marketing charts website and was kind of surprised to see a report stating that business to business companies don’t have much of a social media presence. I read the report, and it got me thinking. What could these companies accomplish with social media, and how should they use it to their advantage? It seems we (as marketers) focus alot on business to consumer social media marketing, especially when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, and maybe that’s the major problem. So I’d like to discuss some ways that business to business companies can use social media to their advantage. Let’s start by discussing…

Top barriers to social media for business to business companies

According to the report, there are 4 main reasons why b2b companies don’t focus as much on online marketing. Here we go…

1. Insufficient personnel to maintain - It’s not surprising that this is number 1. So many companies have downsized, and they are continuing to do so (HP just let go of a ton of people the other day). However, why do you need to hire more people to do this? Here’s what I think. I would solicit blog entries from employees and offer some sort of reward for entries that are picked. Wow, pretty simple. Every one of your employees should have a presence on LinkedIn. If not for the company, then for their own good. Encourage them to post and answer questions. Now you have a social media presence and you didn’t even have to hire anyone.
2. Lack of organizational knowledge - I’m not sure what they mean by “organizational” knowledge, but I think that if you don’t know something you need to go and figure it out. There are a ton of online resources to find out more about online marketing. There are tons of books out there. If you don’t have time to research them yourself, then pick a different career. To think, these guys call themselves marketers. You should always make time to educate yourself.
3. Preference for traditional marketing - Let me say something here (like you have a choice). I prefer traditional marketing. And yet, I still engage in online and social media marketing. Why? Because I see the advantages, and also because a marketer needs to use any and all weapons at his or her disposal. If you aren’t using social media, you’re leaving a big weapon in the armory collecting dust. There’s no reason for that.
4. Perceived irrelevance to their field - Bottom line: you have to go where your customers go. This is 2010, take a deep breath and say it with me now, twenty-ten, soon to be eleven. People go online to find information. When you go fishing, you probably go to the lake where there are tons of fish. Why is marketing any different. Sure you’re dealing with a company, but that company is made up of individuals. And individuals like to go online to educate themselves. If you have a presence online and provide relevant information, then those individuals will find you. That’s called marketing.

What can b2b companies do to take advantage of social media

1. Start a blog - We’ve talked about it before. People go online to find information. Provide useful information to people and they will find you (and your company). Provide information on all aspects of your industry and your business. Like I said before, solicit entries from your co-workers (you’ll be surprised at all of the great ideas and talent that you have on board). If you can become an industry expert, then you can’t help but increase your brand awareness… and your profits.
2. Get on LinkedIn - People go to Facebook to interact with friends, relax, and play games, and all that good stuff. People get on LinkedIn to interact with other professionals, and to learn. You and every one of your co-workers should have a presence on LinkedIn. You should spend time asking and answering questions, linking up with other professionals in your industry, and basically becoming a part of the community.
3. Be one of the few - The fact that not many b2b companies are using social media means that the ones that do are ahead of the game. Going back to the fishing analogy, if you’re the only one at the lake, you’re going to catch alot of fish. Get started, stop making excuses and do it. Your competition will hate you, but your customers and prospects will love you.

What do you guys think? How can b2b companies take advantage of social media? What other obstacles do they need to overcome?

Wise words from one of my favorite bands (Rage Against the Machine), “know your enemy”. In marketing, you are competing with other companies, and even industries (look at how movie theaters compete against DVD, and television) for scarce money. In order to succeed, you need to arm yourself with all the knowledge you can about your competition. You need to know their strengths, weaknesses and strategies, so that you can develop your plan to defeat them. Great, so you already knew that. But how do you go about obtaining this information? Here are some quick tips for you…

1. List your direct and indirect competitors. How are you going to learn about your competition if you don’t even know who they are? As one of my old mentors (and good friend, you know who you are) would say, “make a list”. Don’t forget to include both direct (companies that provide similar products or services to yours) and indirect competitors (companies that provide products or services different from your own that satisfy the same need).

2. Pay them a visit. After you have your list, you should visit your competitors website and learn what you can. Not only will you learn about their products and / or services, you will also learn how they are marketing themselves, what they think of their own brand, and you will be able to get an idea of which type of customers they are targeting. You can also learn about their history, and the officers of the company. If there is a trade show, visit them and find out all you can. If they have a store, go in and patronize them. Find out what you can up close and in person. It’s important to do this early so that you will get a fresh impression of what type of business they run.

3. Dig a little deeper. Visit www.hoovers.com and check out their financials. If they are a publicly traded company, then there are tons of sources to go to get additional information. Go to www.dnb.com and check out a credit report. Remember those officers you learned about in the previous step? Google them and find out more about them. This will let you know a little bit more about how decisions are made at this company.

4. Set a date to follow-up. Like all marketing, competitive analysis is a process not a project (we’ll probably discuss this in detail in a future post). This means that you need to set up a follow-up date in your calendar so that you can go through the process again, and find out what’s changed. If you’re dealing with professionals, then your competition is looking at you just like you’re looking at them, and they’ll react to whatever strategy you’ve chosen to take them down. Do yourself a favor and stay vigilant.

Once you know all about your competition, you can use this information to find out what you can do better or differently than them. Develop your strategy and watch the competition suffer. We’ll talk more about how to take these suckers out in the future.

Hey, I’m not an expert on competitive analysis, so if any of you readers have anything to share, let me know in the comments, or email me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com

The sad truth is that at some point in your personal and/or professional life, you will encounter failure. Sometimes it comes when you lose a key client, or deal. Sometimes it’s when you let someone important in your life down. Sometimes the door closes behind you and you get that realization that you’re about to hear some bad news. It’s hard. I know all too well from experience. As a matter of fact, just yesterday I was faced with failure for yet another time in my life. I guess that it’s only appropriate that I discuss my feelings here, so that you can learn from someone else’s painful experiences.

Your first reaction will probably be sadness, or anger, or even fear. Your friends and family will tell you that this is a waste of time. And you know what? They’re right. You already know that, but it won’t change the way you feel inside. Deep down, you’ll know that it’s your fault. And if you’re any kind of professional, you’re going to ask yourself what you could have done better. What could you have done to avoid the situation? To be honest, if you’re still feeling emotional then it’s too early in the game to be asking such questions. The true first step in dealing with failure is to let your emotions out. Obviously you won’t want an audience for this part (or maybe you do; I am posting here afterall). Whatever you need to do, scream, cry, or even laugh… do it. Here’s step #2:

Distance yourself from yourself. Easier said than done right? I should know. Anyone that knows me will tell you, I’m one of those guys that wears his heart on his sleave. But the truth is, when you’re dealing with a failure of some kind, you need to look at the situation from the outside. Look at things from an objective point of view. This will help you avoid being emotional. We’re all human, and emotion runs high during times like this, but believe me when I tell you that it will cloud your judgement. When you’re dealing with failure, you have important decisions to make, and they need to be made with a clear head. With this objectivity in place, then and only then you need to ask the tough questions. What happened? Why did it happen? What could you have done about it? What can you do about it now? You can’t change the past, only the future, and it’s totally up to you. Which brings me to step #3:

Determine your attitude. When you are down, it’s easy to react and have a negative attitude; I’m kind of at this point myself right now to be completely honest with you. But let me say that again… it’s easy. When is the last time that you’ve seen or heard of a situation where the easy thing to do has been the right thing to do? It almost never happens. True professionals are never satisfied with the easy way. The difficult thing to do when you’re faced with failure is to maintain that positive attitude you had when things were actually going your way. Whatever you have to do to re-capture that attitude… do it. Remember, success is all about attitude. What helps me sometimes is just knowing that I have so many people in my life that care about me. I’m lucky in that regard. You probably are too, but may not know it yet. Talk to your family, and when all else fails, talk to me. I’m not going anywhere, you can reach me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com. I assure you, I am a real person, and will do my best to help you through any situation you may encounter.

So what’s next? Step #4 is taking action. At this point, you’ll feel a little older, a little wiser. A person at emotional peace, armed with knowledge and a winning attitude can accomplish just about anything. Whatever you decide to do next, now is the time to do it. If you’re not at this point yet, then you need to go back and attempt steps 1-3 again (either that, or I don’t know what I’m talking about).

So there you have it. To summarize, here’s the Evil-Marketer method for dealing with failure:

1. Let your emotions out.
2. Distance yourself from yourself.
3. Determine your attitude.
4. Take action.

Not bad if I do say so myself, I just made this up right now. If anyone else has anything to add, you know what do (translation for those that don’t know what to do: post in the comments section below or email me).