I've been spending a little time recently thinking about how useful social media are for business-to-business marketing (B2B). A few weeks ago I attended an excellent training event, organised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, with the rather melodramatic title of 'Digital Marketing Bootcamp'. Mostly this was concerned with B2C, rather than B2B. I think most marketers would recognise the relevance of social media to consumer marketing. But what about B2B? This I had to check out for myself.
Now, the ever helpful Dr. Harker has already assisted me in my embryonic stabs at using Facebook, while some time ago, more or less in complete ignorance, I signed up to something called LinkedIn. At the same time, I have one or two extremely up-to-date colleagues who are never without their iPhones and iPads, and whose every movement I can follow through foursquare, twitter and Facebook. I reckon this means that I am probably a little ahead of the social media curve compared to most people in their sixth decade of life.
It turns out that Facebook is already used to some extent for B2B - meaning, you can find quite a few B2B Facebook fan pages. (Although, in a recent development, you don't become a 'fan' any more, you just 'like' them. But I guess they're still called fan pages.) Two interesting, and contrasting, ones to look at are www.facebook.com/sodexocareers and www.facebook.com/cisco. The Sodexo Facebook page has lots of interesting exchanges between people who work in the catering business, with advice provided by Sodexo on how to register your c.v., how to apply for jobs with Sodexo, what jobs are coming up, and so on. So it's basically a recruitment site. The Cisco page is a different matter, and has a great deal more going on. There are clearly aspects of 'soft' corporate marketing - like nice, friendly posts from senior execs. But there is also genuine mutual cooperation going on to exchange useful information - it looks like a useful user community for techies who like to play with Cisco systems. So, there is some 'co-creation of value' going on here, as we marketing academics like to call it.
LinkedIn is clearly the social network that is designed for business professionals. You can use the search facility at LinkedIn, for example, to look for purchasing professionals in the environmental services industry (I just did). Then, potentially, you have the makings of a B2B marketing list. However, compared to Facebook, LinkedIn is a midget. One question doing the rounds at social media blogs is whether Facebook could just wipe LinkedIn out if it chose to.
Right now, the use of social media in B2B marketing is embryonic and evolving rapidly. No doubt there will be plenty of opportunities for bright marketing graduates over the next few years!
Now, the ever helpful Dr. Harker has already assisted me in my embryonic stabs at using Facebook, while some time ago, more or less in complete ignorance, I signed up to something called LinkedIn. At the same time, I have one or two extremely up-to-date colleagues who are never without their iPhones and iPads, and whose every movement I can follow through foursquare, twitter and Facebook. I reckon this means that I am probably a little ahead of the social media curve compared to most people in their sixth decade of life.
It turns out that Facebook is already used to some extent for B2B - meaning, you can find quite a few B2B Facebook fan pages. (Although, in a recent development, you don't become a 'fan' any more, you just 'like' them. But I guess they're still called fan pages.) Two interesting, and contrasting, ones to look at are www.facebook.com/sodexocareers and www.facebook.com/cisco. The Sodexo Facebook page has lots of interesting exchanges between people who work in the catering business, with advice provided by Sodexo on how to register your c.v., how to apply for jobs with Sodexo, what jobs are coming up, and so on. So it's basically a recruitment site. The Cisco page is a different matter, and has a great deal more going on. There are clearly aspects of 'soft' corporate marketing - like nice, friendly posts from senior execs. But there is also genuine mutual cooperation going on to exchange useful information - it looks like a useful user community for techies who like to play with Cisco systems. So, there is some 'co-creation of value' going on here, as we marketing academics like to call it.
LinkedIn is clearly the social network that is designed for business professionals. You can use the search facility at LinkedIn, for example, to look for purchasing professionals in the environmental services industry (I just did). Then, potentially, you have the makings of a B2B marketing list. However, compared to Facebook, LinkedIn is a midget. One question doing the rounds at social media blogs is whether Facebook could just wipe LinkedIn out if it chose to.
Right now, the use of social media in B2B marketing is embryonic and evolving rapidly. No doubt there will be plenty of opportunities for bright marketing graduates over the next few years!
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