B2B and social media

Nice to see this piece in the Financial Times highlighting the uses of social media for business-to-business brands. You might also like to see me on the subject here. As you may have gathered, I'm a fan of content marketing, and that includes content generated by customers and potential customers on social media. Some of the most effective 'network building' campaigns I've been involved in have used groups built on social media platforms to understand what's on customers' minds and then develop opinion and advice which can be trickled back into the market.

One thing, though - subtlety is key here. Whatever content you attempt to feed into Social Media channels for a serious B2B audience has to be informed and neutral. Suggesting your product is the solution is Social Media Death - offering genuinely helpful advice and insight positions you as a thought leader so that when your team makes that sales pitch, at an appropriate time and place, your prospect already knows and respects your senior people as experts in their field, and you've jumped stages one and two of your sales process.