ARTICULATED

Among my smart friends and former colleagues who are marketing types in the B2B sector, many struggle to even entertain the notion that investing in a social media strategy is a good use of time. For those who are intrigued, many worry that their CEO might think they’ve lost their mind.

In February Forrester Research found that buyers in the B2B sector are extraordinarily active in social media. (Read about those findings on Forrester’s Groundswell blog here.)  This week’s post by Matt Heinz on Blogging Innovation (@innovate on Twitter) – “Five Steps to a Successful B2B Social Media Strategy” — may be the best piece I’ve found on how B2B companies might successfully proceed into social media strategy.

Here’s a post I wrote on this topic last month with my B2B-marketing friendsin mind.  I think it speaks the language many former colleagues and I have shared over the years.

I just read a very interesting blog post by social media expert John Dvorak, arguing that social media is not a particularly effective marketing tool. Full post is here.

He offers supporting data, but what I find most compelling is his common sense, funny explanation:

“Joe! Hi! How’s the wife? I have a discount coupon for you for the next time you rent from Dollar. Ten percent off, buddy!” … Obviously this is not the way friends interact. So why are they going to suddenly interact online like that?”

Like so many communications folks, I’ve argued to both nonprofits and B2B clients lately that we should be thinking up strategy for social media. But despite all my readings, I continue to be challenged by that nagging ole’ question, “Why?” Dvorak’s eye-opening and entirely common-sense post confirms my trepidation. But also maybe clarifies?

The case I find myself making to nonprofits is that a good social media strategy can present a sound (if not terribly measurable) way to dramatically improve “stakeholder relations.” A social media strategy could be a cheap and fairly free-flow way to keep the nonprofit’s most enthusiastic volunteers and donors in-the-know, engaged and listened to. If and only if those things are done well, those people can ultimately be called upon to do more, and that’s good.

The case I find myself making to B2B companies, at least the kind I’m talking to, is that a good social media strategy can grow awareness and credibility by nature of the company’s honest and active “participation” in its marketplace. That means finding and engaging online, candidly and visibly, with employees, trading partners, and key customers – actually listening to what those folks have to say! – then finding ways to feed that input back into corporate strategy-setting. None of that directly results in sales. But done well, it supports it.

Am I right? I hope so. I think so, even if Dvorak is correct in his assertion that using social media to disseminate rental-car coupons doesn’t really work. If only I were 100% sure.