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?

Here we are, the final trend in Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae, “new gatekeepers, no gatekeepers.” It used to be that large companies only worked with other large companies. Basically a big company would pay top dollar to promote a product on television with commercials, reviews, news stories, whatever. Smaller companies couldn’t afford to do things this way and were therefore left out of the party. Those times are over. How much does it cost to be on YouTube? That’s right, absolutely nothing. And even better, the audience actually seeked you out, and therefore you didn’t need to interrupt anyone. Wow, you just bypassed the traditional gatekeeper.

The true gatekeeper in today’s marketing landscape is Google. If you can be on the first page of Google it means that you’re among the most relevant pages on the internet regarding your chosen topic. But unfortunately many of us will not be on the first page of Google. We need help. Which means that you need to look at other ways to promote your webpage, podcast, video, blog, etc. You can have excellent content, but what does it matter if no one sees it. We’ve discussed some ways to get your name out there, but the most important of all is to just go out there and be a part of the community you are trying to build. If your site is about marketing, then go out to all the marketing blogs and comment on the things that are interesting to you. Before long, you will have the visitors, listeners, and all that good stuff.

So yeah, I’m looking at you guys that visit, but never comment. I know you’re there because I check Google analytics. I dare you to comment on this post…. if you’re marketer enough. And be sure to leave a link back to your own blog.

Well, that’s it for Meatball Sundae. I hope you guys dug it… dig it… whatever. I recomend reading the book yourself as there’s tons of insights I’ve left out. It’s definately worth it if you’re serious about online marketing.

Notable quote from this section:

• “The web is the biggest haystack in the history of mankind, and you’re just a tiny little needle. You might be sharp and you might be shiny, but without help, no one will ever see your webpage, listen to your podcast, or watch your video.”

Back when I was in college studying marketing, they showed us the marketing funnel. I’m not sure if they still teach this, but if you’ve studied You’ve probably seen it too. It’s basically a process where you start with a large number of prospects then proceed to a shorter number of qualified leads, then to customers, then to clients. This is the old way of doing things. In the past, marketers had no choice but to interrupt people and inform them about your company’s offerings… whether they were interested or not. The focus was on mass. Marketers needed to constantly fill that funnel with fresh prospects constantly. My how things have changed. Seth Godin discusses the shift away from mass (yet again) with his twelfth trend in Meatball Sundae, “the shift from how many to who”.

We’ve talked about it before, and we probably will again. Now is not the time to waste resources spamming people. Instead you should focus on exactly the people that are interested in what your company offers. Think of it like this. If the old approach to marketing was a hand grenade, then the new approach is like a phaser from Star Trek (or a laser for my readers that aren’t cool enough to watch Star Trek). It’s very focused on individuals not on random groups. These individuals, if targeted correctly will be your biggest fans and will go out and spread the word to others in the community. If you’ve segmented the market properly, finding these communities online should be a piece of cake.

Even if you have a product that appeals to a large group of people (say beer for example) it doesn’t mean you should spam random people. There are appropriate places for your message, and it’s your job as a marketer to find them. Maximize your resources (time and money) don’t waste them, marketing to an audience that doesn’t care or can’t afford you’re offerings.

The problem with a lot of online marketing is that many companies try to focus on using the new tools of the internet to focus on doing things the same old way. They look at things like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and online ads to interrupt masses of people and spam them with their message. It just doesn’t work that way, no matter how much you want it to. Especially online, it’s very easy to click away and ignore your message. In order for me or any other consumer out there to be interested in what you are offering, it must be relevant to what I’m looking for at that instant.

Anyways, you get the point. Focus on individuals not on mass. Only two more trends to discuss!

Notables quote from this section:

• “Let’s be really clear: the web is the single worst medium ever devised for interrupting people who don’t want to be interrupted.”
• “Marketers who are in sync with this new tool realize that it won’t let you do the old thing better, what it will let you do is find people to spread the word for you.”

Yesterday I mentioned that a picture is worth a thousand words. Check out this link for an example of this. Video game developer Naughty Dog (known for creating the amazing Uncharted games, the Jak & Daxter series, and the Crash Bandicoot series) is apparently quietly sponosring kennels for animal shelters in California.

They didn’t make a big deal about it. They didn’t alert the media and say “hey look at what we just did! Aren’t we a great company.” No, they just went out and did it. And guess what? I read about it online, just like you are now. In a world where everyone has a camera, it was bound to be publicized in some way. Even if it wasn’t, who cares? At least they still helped some homeless dogs out.

The moral of the story is not to do good things and then sing your own praises; instead, do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, then let your community spread the good word for you. Then sit back and reap the rewards.

I remember when I first discovered ebay way back in the day. Thankfully I had a job back then, and spent most of my disposable cash on all kinds of products that I just couldn’t find in stores. I used to by manga (Japanese comics), out of print books, out of print CD’s and old NES games. It was fun and cool, and it opened up a whole new world for both companies and consumers. With ebay and other auction sites like Bonanzle customers can now buy products directly from each other. As a matter of fact it’s about time for another shameless plug (it’s been a while since the last one). If you’re a woman, and are into clothes and stuff, check out my friends auction site here. Seth Godin’s discusses this with his ninth trend in Meatball Sundae, “direct communication and commerce between consumers and consumers.”

Many businesses have been created (or have become more successful) because of this new trend. My favorite bookstore in the world, Half-Price Books has taken advantage of this customer to customer interaction. Sure, they buy and sell used books, but I’m talking about their community meeting groups. I don’t know if all of their locations offer this, but the main store on Northwest highway in Dallas offers a place for clubs and groups to meet up and discuss their chosen topic. That means all you pen-and-paper rpg folks can game it up, all you manga readers can get together and swap and discuss books, poets are welcome to come out and try their new stuff out on an audience, Star Trek fans can live long AND prosper (how about that?), etc. I don’t know of any other company that offers this type of meeting place, and I applaud Half-Price books for doing this (HPB marketing team, please start promoting this stuff).

Instead of fighting against this trend (look at what software producer Electronic Arts is doing to punish people that buy used games; they call it “project ten dollar”), companies should embrace and even encourage their customers to interact with each other. Let’s be honest, the genie’s already been let out of the bottle anyway; we’re going to talk to each other whether you like it or not. Get with the program and create a place where your customers can talk to each other. If you don’t, just don’t be surprised when you competition does (and takes home some extra goodwill and business as well).

Trend ten discussion coming soon.

Notable quote from this section:

• “As social networks become more powerful, consumers will gravitate to each other, not just informing each other about their experiences but banding together into unions that will pressure organizations for more of what consumers want.”

A few years ago Chris Anderson wrote a book called The Long Tail. It’s an excellent read and very much recommended. Godin’s fifth trend in Meatball Sundae is exactly this, “the long tail.” Basically what this means is that as a company introduces more product lines, sales usually increase as a result. This means that companies are creating more and more products to cater to small niche groups rather than mass appeal, one size fits all type of products. In the past there was a clear market leader, but as the marketplace has become more and more segmented, the leading brand is often “other.” For example, the leading soft drink may be Coke (don’t hold me to this, I didn’t do any research on it), but if you look at the leading soft drink among 25 year old males, it may be different.

In the past, if you didn’t have mainstream tastes, then you were out of luck. Products that you would enjoy simply weren’t promoted. And why not? Why would a company spend millions of dollars to market to a small little group of pinball machine enthusiasts (or whatever). Today, on the internet, you can find a fan page or a discussion board for just about any subject you are interested in. And it doesn’t cost millions of dollars to put a product in front of this captive audience. There’s money to be made for companies that serve these niche markets and know how to promote to them.

So what does this mean for you, the evil marketer? It means that you should find a market that hasn’t been found yet; a group that is under served. Create something so awesome that the people in that market will go out of their way to find you, then serve this community. If you can connect enough of these types of markets then you will definitely be on your way. In today’s marketplace, you don’t need to be one of the big boys to be profitable. Concentrate on a market that the big boys don’t serve and don’t really care about, and you can really succeed.

Notable quotes from this section:

• “Consumers reward providers that offer the most choices, and the economics of creating and selling a product have fundamentally changed.”
• “It’s not about what you think the market wants, or what you want the market to want. It’s about creating and assembling a collection of goods and services that captures the attention (and commerce) of the people who truly care.”
• “The web allows minor obsessions to coalesce.”