B2B Genie – B2B Marketing Blog

How familiar is this story?

A company’s bosses were hesitant to have a website built because they didn’t see its value. Fast forward a bit and they weren’t sure about this proposal for SEO and PPC as they couldn’t see that the benefits outweighed the extra expense.

Wind on further and after they finally yielded to all of the above, someone has to go and sell Social Media, often to quotes like, “what do you mean Facebook? My kids are on that thing all the time. Why would we want that?” and “I don’t see how 140 characters can generate me revenue, surely doing your actual job would generate more revenue!”

Against this kind of resistance it can be hard to clarify the benefits when generated revenue is speculative and tough to accurately report.

Is there an easy way to prove the benefits?

One way for a company to test the water in a positive way is to elect social media champions. Within every company there is a wealth of knowledge and experience about the industry in which the company operates. The crux of social media is that there is an audience for almost everything. If your company have knowledge and experience in that subject then you can utilise it to position yourselves as an industry voice. From this position your company can grow its presence and interact directly with existing customers, potential customers and peers to promote your products and services direct to market and build your brand.

That’s great in theory but how do we start?

Mark Schaefer of Schaefer Marketing Solutions tells us:

Many social media “purists” will advocate an all-hands-on-deck approach to social media similar to what Zappos has popularized. In practice however, this is extremely difficult and an aspirational goal at best.

Even with a well-defined social media policy and extensive training, getting everybody to buy-in can be very difficult and expensive to execute.  Instead, I recommend starting out small – in a department, in a product line, or perhaps in a region to test the water, celebrate some quick wins, and eventually leverage best practices across the company.

In Summary

Social Media is an important tool for any company, and can level the playing field when a smaller company is fighting for market share. The implementation process doesn’t need to be a major upheaval of company processes, nor will it turn your company into a fishbowl for all of the world to examine. All it takes is for one or more employees to plan activity, select networks and areas to focus on and define some goals and targets to work towards, and begin to implement.

There is no template for success, no guide to instant “guru” status. It requires planning, hard work, determination and experimentation to be successful, but the rewards for success can make a significant difference to not only the bottom line, but the brand and its perceived image.