Social Media and B2B, myth is broken

You have got a business and have got an online presence too? Congrats, time to celebrate. Couple of months down the line, you expanded your online presence to social media, the most talked about medium. You have developed a very good looking and interactive Facebook page and with efforts you've got some active followers and fans. Time for three cheers again.

Everything was so good until you realized that the efforts you are putting in managing the FB page are not reflecting in terms of sales or ROI, and then you started making up your mind that social media is just a hype, it doesn't work. At this juncture, somebody who is so called an "EXPERT" of social media whispers into your ears that you are into B2B business and having a FB page is a good strategy for B2C but may not always work for B2B. This expert doesn't tell you the tools you need to resort to in order to get benefited from the social media, consequently, a more prominent thought that Social media works for B2C businesses but not a good medium to consider for B2B, makes inroads into your head permanently. Now you adorn the status of "EXPERT" and are ready to spill the beans everywhere.

I read an interesting article on social media Vs search on forbes website with the title Social is Intriguing, But Search is Proven, where the author has compared the two form of online advertising and proved the efficacy of search over the social media, when it comes to B2B marketing. Though, it is a very good article to go through but compares two completely different mode of online marketing. Where search is completely "intent" driven i.e. a user was looking for something with an intent and luckily (pat the back of your SEO guy) came across with your page, got his/her intent fulfilled and went away. He/she may or may not come back to your page ever, they may not even remember the name of your website. They don't need to. On the other hand social media, just like videos are driven by "interest" i.e. you want to connect with a brand or company because you are interested in them. You may not always be a buyer but could be a strong admirer or influencer in buying cycle. Remember, no marketing is as good as word of mouth. A user, advocating your brand is the best brand ambassador, you can ever have.

The biggest question is if ROI is the correct parameter for Social media. Which is the better sales pitch, a cold call or pitch where you already have some relationship in place. Most of you would vouch for the later, won't you? If yes, then why are we judging Social media only on the matrix of ROI? Isn't this medium is good in building a network of your prospective, who may not be shelling out money on your products as on today, but may get convinced enough in future to become loyal customers with you? It is all about having relationship in place before you can pitch them for your products.

In a recent study done by KnowledgeStorm of B2B technology decision makers the following statistics were revealed:

• 90% Participate in Video
• 80% Participate in Blogs
• 80% Participate in Wikis
• 69% Participate in Social Networks
• 53% Participate in Podcasts

The above stats are convincing enough to prove that how important it is that B2B companies explore social media marketing channels.

One picture is worth of thousand words. Hence uploading a picture below to that I found on web. I hope it should help you out to formulate your social media strategies.