10 Tips for B2B Brands Getting Started in Social Media

Posted by Dean Whitney on 4 October 2009 | 1 Comments

Tags: social media, B2B

It's becoming clear to B2B brands that social media is an important part of their marketing mix. We work with a variety of Technology and Life Sciences brands, especially Pharma and Biotech companies, that are starting from scratch to develop a social media strategy.

In this series of articles, I will outline a social strategy that is essential for B2B brand managers to understand when getting started in social media.

B2B chain of influence is complex. To influence the audience and perception in any B2B business vertical often requires establishing authority across a multi-faceted ecosystem of experts, decision makers and product users. Often business groups propose solutions to decision makers that are responsible for budgets across departments. C-level decision makers seeking a solution to a key business requirement often employ multiple managers and consultants to recommend vendors and product strategies.

B2B consumer psychology has changed. The psychology of today's business consumers has fundamentally changed. People are influenced more by other people as much, if not more than, brand messaging. The greater the reputation and authority of those people, the more influential they are. When a key leader in their field advocates an approach, method, tactic and/or brand, their audience is likely to adopt that opinion to support decision-making and guide their colleagues.

The 10 Tips - Going from Zero to Social and Beyond

By no means will this article cover every facet of social media for B2B, and I'm sure new things will be discovered as this is authored. I've found that for our clients, the thought of initiating a social strategy seems complex and daunting.

1. Your Website is the Hub
2. Audience Assessment: The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy
3. Discover the Right Keyword Search Phrases (KSPs)
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
5. Campaign Strategy
6. Social Media Operations
7. Customer Acquisition
8. ROI-based Planning
9. Social Media Monitoring
10. What's Next

In this week's article, we will talk about the importance of a company or brand website as a component of your digital marketing strategy and the necessary features it should have:

1. Your Website is the Hub

Your website is critical to your marketing strategy. You must have a technology platform that supports key functionality necessary for executing a modern Web 2.0 social media campaign. You need to have agility to continually post content, events, and report on what's happening with your brand, while empowering thought leaders in your company to join in on the conversation. Features such as:

• A content management system that makes it easy for markers to publish articles, blogs, update content, sidebars, custom forms and graphics.
• The ability to create search engine friendly URLs (www.yoursite.com/blog/blog-title vs. www.yoursite.com/a46c6d48c22a/?vgnextoid=nVC00718=default). 
• Semantically correct HTML code using the latest HTML programming standards. Alternate HTML content for website messaging delivered using Flash or other rich media.
• Ability for brand managers to edit and manage website metadata: keywords, descriptions, tags, alternate tags on images, publish dates and semantic markup.
• RSS feeds at the category level allowing visitors to subscribe to site updates, blogs, blog categories, comments, product categories, press releases, etc. 
• A good feature is to have integrated social media feeds and updates from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. 
• Ability to display rich content from media sharing sites such as Flickr, YouTube and Slideshare, as well as alternate feeds to video and audio content via iTunes. 
• Sophisticated analytics tools to provide in-depth insight around how visitors use the website. 
• The ability to create and manage custom landing pages with forms that can be used for specific campaigns.