B2B Social Media Top Down for Strategic Thinkers

David Edmundson-BirdMMU Business School

Agenda

• Who am I?• An Intro to B2B Social Media• Positioning a Brand in the Social Media Space• Engaging with the B2B Marketspace• The Conversation – B2B Social Media as

Marketing and PR• There’s always room for a Top Ten Tip List– Even for Senior Managers

AN INTRODUCTION TO B2B SOCIAL MEDIA

An Introduction to B2B Social Media

• B2C– Purchase decisions don’t require complexity– Decisions are quick– The world of FMCG

• B2B– Careful consideration of complex decisions– No single decision-maker– Slow

Networks of Persuasion

The B2B Supplier

The B2B BuyerLobbyists

Government Bodies

Suppliers of Primary

Suppliers of Support

Clients Suppliers

Trade Associations

Collaborators

Instinctive marketing thinking

Less obviousmarketingthinking

The B2B Social Media Marketing Opportunity

• Not just communicate with B2B customers• Engage with– Your customer’s clients– Your suppliers of primary and support– Your client’s trade association– Lobbyists– Regulatory bodies– Collaborators

POSITIONING A B2B BRAND IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA SPACE

Positioning a B2B Brand in Social Media

• Where can only you occupy?• How can you establish your brand as the sole

occupant in a given social media position?• Some old-fashioned principles apply:

The Social Media “Proposition”

• Why does your B2B brand exist?– The differentiation and relevance• Not only to B2B customers but to other stakeholders

– It’s the clear focus for your staff– It’s the clear focus when other people engage

other people about your B2B brand

ENGAGING WITH THE B2B MARKETSPACE

Engaging with the B2B Marketspace

• You need to make a number of decisions – look at your Networks of Persuasion– Which of the network contacts will you engage with as a

business?– Which of the network contacts will other contacts

engage with about you?– What will you do?

• Say things to them?• Listen to them?

– Which platforms and environments will you use to engage with them?

Social Network Contacts

• Need to decide who is key from your network segments– There may be network elements that you don’t

want/need or shouldn’t engage with– Who has the most persuasion capability within

your network – can you engage with them so that they engage for you?

What to do in Engagement

• Think of the Social Media Proposition– Build engagements you make on the social media

proposition– Each engagement with a stakeholder needs to be

personalized and relevant– Consider the agendas and motivation of the

stakeholders• Can they be motivated to engage with other

stakeholders on your behalf?

What to do in Engagement

• The Listening Post– Consider engagement as a feedback channel too• Product design• Reputation management• Consultation• Complaints

Platforms & Environments

• What is/are the preferred platform(s) of your stakeholders?

• Avoid attempting to engage where they are not• You will increase engagement if you use the

right environment– And legally use words such as ROI

• Consider the role of the 4 social environment types

Apps

B2B Social Media Environment Types

Syndication Communication

Collaboration

Interaction

Sharing documentsRecommendation environmentsSocial bookmarkingSyndicationWebinars

Photo sharingQ&A systemsSocial networksVideo sharingWikis

BloggingBlog directoriesInstant messagingMicrobloggingPodcastingRSS

THE CONVERSATION – B2B SOCIAL MEDIA AS MARKETING AND PR

The Conversation

• The B2B buying cycle is long• There are different stakeholders involved at

different stages• The conversation needs to happen in the correct

place and context– Is it

• Collaborative?• Syndicatable?• Interactive?• Communicative?

The Conversation Example

• Are you wanting to communicate?– Can you communicate with participants in these environments?

Which specific platform are they one?• Blogging

– Squarespace, Movable Type, Blogger, Wordpress

• Blog directories– Technorati, Blogs.com, Blogpulse,

• Instant messaging– Gtalk, Jabber, AIM, MS Messenger

• Microblogging– Tumblr, Posterous, Twitter, Jaiku

• Podcasting– Podcast Alley, iTunes, Blip.FM

• RSS– Postrank, Feedblitz, Feedburner, Bloglines, Icerocket

THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR A TOP TEN TIP LIST

Even for Senior Managers

The B2B Social Media Strategists Top Ten Tip List

• Think about all of the participants in your network of influence– Not just your customers

• Know that it is not instant– Slow-boiler

• Think about B2B Brand differentiation• Think about your social media proposition• Work out who the No.1 network participant is– Not the no.1 customer

The B2B Social Media Strategists Top Ten Tip List

• Only work in social media channels that the network participants use

• Use social media to distinguish yourself• Have different propositions in different

networks for different participants• The conversation is happening anyway• B2B Social Media for is about influencing

rather than selling

THX 4 Listening

• Mail me– d.edmundson-bird@mmu.ac.uk

• Tweet me– @groovegenerator

• Link me– uk.linkedin.com/in/davidbird

• Phone me– 0161 247 4603 / 07774 556343