I understand (to some extent) why the B2B sector has been slow in taking up the online space, I just don’t agree with it. In particular it seems that B2B is ignoring Social Media as simply this glossy tool for marketing directly to consumers.

The fact is, the social media phenomenon is a human phenomenon. Last time I noticed, those involved with B2B still fit in that category. So no matter the specific industry, the opportunity must at least be explored. At its best a social media strategy for B2B will open up networks, generate leads and streamline your business’ customer communications. At its worst, you can spend too much time tweeting, posting updates and sharing articles.

The risk is worth it and in addition to the advantages noted, it all contributes to a company’s search engine performance, which nobody can argue with. So to get to the point, here is my Business to Business Marketing Guide to Social Media. They’re five of the biggest names but that’s for a reason isn’t it?

LinkedIn
I start with LinkedIn because it is being heralded as the social networking platform more suited for B2B. The Facebook for professionals (not really but that’s what they say). It has more than 2 million members in Australia and 100 million members worldwide.

Create your individual profile and complete as much information as possible, the more info and the better your SEO return. Make sure you change your public profile to include a vanity URL, i.e. linkedin.com/johnsmith. Connect with as many of your contacts as you can, then go through their contacts and identify some opportunities. Start joining groups that are relevant to your industry and engage.

You should also create a company profile and again complete as much of the profile as you can including products or services. Then encourage other companies to connect with your company.

Finally, there is an advertising platform for LinkedIn and it’s great. You can target other members via location, company and their job title. It can be a really effective tool depending on your specific business. For example, if you’re selling business insurance you could target the CFO’s within your local area from companies with 100+ employees.

Blogging

I would say blogging is the single-most beneficial social media platform for B2B. It can be time consuming but the advantages plentiful. Blogging will drive traffic to your website in ways that you may not have realised. So let’s say that you’re a professional services business with hundreds of competitors all trying to rank in the top five results in Google. The beauty of writing blog posts is, you write about something specific, something that your potential clients are searching for. Instead of searching ‘Accounting Company Melbourne’ or ‘IT Company Melbourne’ they might search ‘How to start a business’ or ‘IT Opportunities for small business’ and all of a sudden there you are (and not the hundreds of competitors)..

Blogging also allows you to validate your knowledge within the marketplace. Sure the customer can read your website and everything that you say you can do for them but they will get more from your opinions on relevant topics.

Facebook
I consistently find myself advising B2B clients on one or the other, Facebook or Twitter. Facebook is primarily an opportunity for you to create an online community for your brand and business. It is a great opportunity to encourage conversations and is best utilised when you can get a level of engagement from that community. This may or may not be possible for your B2B.

I guess an exception in this case is to use Facebook as a customer service tool. Let’s say you’re still in that IT business and you invite your clients to use your Facebook page as an opportunity to ask small questions, so your tech guys can leave answers that are there for the whole client community to see. If it makes it easier for the client, it has to be good for business right?

Twitter
A little more susceptible to a one-way conversation (still highly recommend you engage). Identify the companies you would like to target and follow them. Look for local business and follow them. Search to see who is talking within your industry and follow them. Before you know it you’re engaging in the industry and wider business community. If you want to get attention of people try retweeting them and engaging. Use hashtags to enter yourself into a live stream of conversation. Share relevant articles, express your opinion, share your blog posts, ask people to connect with you on LinkedIn.

Twitter like Facebook can also be a terrific customer-service tool. I rarely like to give telcos a plug but @telstra uses Twitter really well as a customer service tool, which if your query is generic is a real time-saver (compared to waiting on a call)

YouTube
The online video site is the second-largest search engine online. It’s a great opportunity for you to upload product and/or services videos. You can also use the site to produce video blogs with the same theory as above. Whatever the strategy, potential clients can find your videos through search engines to help convince them of your services or alternatively you can actively promote the videos to get that next client over the line.

Honourable @Mentions

Quora
A simple Question and Answer tool. Users follow particular topics and when a question is put out there, those following submit their answers and they are voted on. It’s great for those looking for the answers of course. But the opportunity for B2B is to follow the topics relevant to your industry and answering when you can. By answering you are establishing a knowledge within the marketplace and creating more links to your website and improving your overall search engine presence.

Google+
It’s the newbie out there at the moment, already tipped to reach heights greater than Twitter and LinkedIn. I’m yet to be convinced at this stage because, whilst I love the features, it’s hard to network when you know very few people using it. But if some of the expectations are true then it could very well be a social media tool well worth B2B adopting.

Among a few it features Hangouts, Circles and Sparks that might all benefit B2B. The Hangouts are a great way to video chat and perhaps coordinate face to face meetings between the sales team and prospective clients. The Circles feature would allow a B2B to segment their audience and tailor communications accordingly.  The Sparks feature will allow you to let your audience know when you’ve published content they’ll be interested in.

SlideShare
It’s a great site that allows you to upload your powerpoint presentations like you would videos on YouTube. People can search their interests and find your presentations. It’s a great way to get people to look at your work and of course use the opportunity to encourage people to connect with your company.

Whatever platform you choose to investigate, I hope you don’t flatly dismiss social media as being an opportunity for businesses marketing to consumers… You can always benefit in engaging with potential clients on a human level, isn’t that what the free lunches and tickets are for?

Follow these tips and you'll always have something better to say than this!

Blogging is an easy way to attract more attention to your website. Lawyers’ blogs can be extremely popular and informative if published correctly. There are several things you can do to increase your law blogs’ popularity.

Not publishing consistently is one of the most common mistakes made by bloggers. Readers want to see consistent posts. If you let too much time pass in-between posts readers may think you’ve abandoned your blog. Worse yet, if your blog is linked to your website potential customers may assume your website is also out of date, rendering all of your valuable information useless.

Another common mistake bloggers can make is lack of professionalism in posts. Readers don’t want a lawyer that can’t produce a professional blog. If you want to write about something personal or anything you’re opinionated about, keep a blog separate from your firms’. Keeping a personal blog anonymous may also be a good idea. Your legal blog should only contain objective and helpful information.

Bringing community affairs into your blog is a great way to invite locals to visit your blog. Post information related to the legal issues surrounding top news in your community and readers will be flocking to your blog to keep up to date on current affairs. Just be sure to keep it objective and stick to the facts. Don’t let your opinions or emotions override your good judgment when writing, and responding to, posts.

If readers can’t understand what you’ve written they won’t be in a big hurry to visit again. While legal terms may be second nature to you, they’ll easily leave your readers confused and stressed out. Thoroughly explaining any legal jargon and using simple terms when possible will help your readers understand the topic at hand.

Using some common sense and following these simple tips will help you to use your blog to your firms’ advantage. Thinking before you post could easily mean the difference between a few sporadic page views and hundreds of loyal, weekly readers.

What does Google+ mean for your business?

Google+ has been gaining steam in the social media world since the beginning of its test prelaunch in early July. Gaining upwards of 1.7 Million Google+ accounts in its first week, and rising to an estimated 4.5 Million accounts the following week.  All before the social media site has even officially gone public! Holding accounts for some well known names such as Seth Goden, Myspace’s Tom Anderson, and even the social media bad boy himself, Mark Zuckerberg.

Google+ is currently only offering accounts for people. Business profile pages are still in the works. But while the numbers continue to rise, and people start to “check out this new Google social site everybody is trying to be invited to,” businesses should be busy licking their lips at the SEO possibilities.

Here are a few reasons why your business should be preparing for Google+ business pages.

Combining Google+ Pages and Search Engine Rankings

It is quite possible Google will integrate the amount of feedback a +1 button on Google+ posts receives into their search rankings algorithm.  Helping Google sort out the relevant and quality content from the irrelevant.

What does this mean for your business?

This means there will no longer be a separation between a business’s social media presence and its search engine rankings.  The two will then be one in the same. Providing quality and engaging content will, in real time, affect a company’s search engine presence. Helping give hope for smaller businesses everywhere!

Keeping Your Customers Organized

Google+ offers a more aesthetically appealing way to keep your friends organized with “Circles.”  Easily allowing people to click and drag their friends into different categories such as: Closest Friends, Family, Work Buddies, etc.  Allowing certain posts to be only seen by circles predetermined by the user.

Google+ business pages can categorize their fans into the different stages of the customer cycle.  For example: Top Customers, Need More Information, Recently Purchased, etc. The ability to categorize your fans and then post content to that specific circle will be a huge advantage.

Google Offers and Maps

With Google’s answer to the growing success of Groupon, Google Offers­ would be a realistic integration into the Google+ business page. Supplying a very user friendly daily deals service.  To compliment this feature would most likely be the feature of Google Maps.  Displaying directions to your business, or the closest business franchise locations.

What does this mean for your company?

It would be wise to incorporate a Google+ promotion that leads to a Google Offer for your business.  Allowing you to again keep what would normally be separate entities, one and the same.  Also, Google Offers would then be linked to a convenient Google Map of all the closest business locations where the offer can be redeemed. Take all extra steps out of the equation.

These are my thoughts into the wonderful minds of Google and their future development of Google+.  If you have any thoughts on your own of how you see Google+ growing, please leave them in the comment sections below!

They can peacefully coexist!

Traditional marketing can include newspaper, television, or radio ads. It can be anything from brochures and fliers to special events and parties. Traditional marketing includes the proven techniques that have been used throughout history to increase business opportunity. Though it seems to be outdated, traditional marketing is still as effective today as it was during pre-internet times. In fact, according to Deliver magazine, direct mail influenced 76 percent of online purchases in 2009.

Social marketing is the newest hip approach to advertising your business. With the popularity of the Internet, today’s world goes online for almost anything they need. Social marketing envelops that aspect of today’s world by making their ads tech friendly. Using popular websites, social marketers today have the ability to target a specific audience; a benefit that traditional marketing can never offer. Social marketing can greatly increase your company’s visibility and can even provide many opportunities for networking. Another major benefit of social marketing is the cost. In many cases, it’s free. Your return on investment (ROI) is going to be amazing compared to traditional marketing.

Both traditional and social marketing have clear benefits and letdowns. Though they may seem quite different at first, they work best when combined. Traditional and social marketing complement each other perfectly and will help to push success rates through the roof. While it’s tempting to pick one method over the other, using both marketing methods together can greatly increase your chances of success.

What's your best Facebook marketing idea?

Lay out the rules. Let your friends know what to expect by clearly laying out the rules and expectations of people using your page. If you’re building a page for reviews only, state clearly on your page that any post that isn’t a review will be deleted. Letting users know what to expect will help to encourage people to post on your page.

Keep it professional. Your business contacts won’t care what you’re having for dinner or what your family is doing for the holidays. Post only updates and information that your customers will appreciate knowing, such as upcoming events or specials. Save your family pics for your personal page.

Help your customers find you. Include all relevant information on your Facebook page. Don’t make your customers do all the hard work, they shouldn’t have to search for your address or phone number. Keep all your contact information and relevant business information in an easy-to-find place on your page.

Update your page regularly. Keeping content on your Facebook page current will let users know they are in the right place. If you haven’t posted anything in over a year, your customers may assume that you don’t often use the page and skip adding you as a friend. Answering questions and emails and updating your page will keep your page current.

Research your demographics before placing an ad. Facebook ads are great tools to reach your target audience. Facebook will allow you to choose your target demographics and will even let you know approximately how many people your ad will reach. Use these tools to your advantage and create the most efficient ad possible.

Some of Guy’s wisdom:

• Think mantra, not mission statement
• For presentations, think 10/20/30 (10 slides, 20 minutes long, 30 point font)
• With social media, engage fast, with many people, and often
• When you help someone, and they thank you, simply respond with “I’d know you’d do the same for me”
• For successful social media, provide value with:
• Info (links, stories)
• Insights
• Assistance

Twitter is the best way to discover what’s new in your world.

Plug, plug, plug. Plug your Twitter account into every corner you can fit it into. Highlight it on your website, post it on your blog, and list it in your contact information. If your customers don’t know you’re on Twitter they won’t know to follow you. The more you plug your account the greater response you’ll get from users.

Do unto others. If someone follows you, return the favor and follow them. This will let your fellow Twitterers know that your account is active and regularly checked. On that same note, if someone sends you a tweet, respond promptly to let them know that you check your account regularly; they may be more likely to follow you if they know you’re always available.

Balance it out. If you have only a few followers but are following hundreds of people potential clients may pass you off as a spammer. Spammers are a huge problem on social networking sites and users are getting weary of any behavior they feel suspicious. Keep your list in check by following only a few people at a time and then waiting for them to follow you back.

Tweet carefully. Anything you tweet is likely to be sent immediately to your follower’s cell phones in a test message. There’s no way to take back something that you regret sending out. Before you tweet, check your messages carefully for typos or mistakes. Nothing will make you look more unprofessional than consistent bad grammar. Choose your words carefully and don’t forget to spell-check.

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Follow FIND the CLIENT, we follow back. But only if you’re cool.

Don't forget to take the GREAT test!

If we want to accomplish something, whatever it may be, we’ll need to influence another person to either buy our stuff or buy in to us. It’s the process and use of enchantment that allows it to happen.

When you’ve enchanted someone, you’ve probably done something good, for both them and you. That’s what makes Enchantment such an ethical approach to influence. As Guy says, it’s the art of changing hearts, minds and emotions.

This book will make you stop and think, so I’d recommend reading it straight through once, and then again with a highlighter.

Think you’re enchanting? Try Guy’s GREAT test to see how well you do:

http://www.facebook.com/enchantment?v=app_6009294086

Nothing better than free dirt!

Customer Service and Gratis Gifts
Despite a company’s best efforts to provide for its customers, not every customer walks away satisfied. Whether it is a faulty product or poor service at a restaurant, offering a gratis gift can turn an unhappy customer into a loyal one. By giving customers that bring complaints to management a gratis, or free, gift card or sample product shows the business values its customer base and cares about the experience that customer had with that business.

Employees and Gratis Gifts
Gratis products are often used to motivate employees, especially in retail businesses. Businesses may run contests for their employees to increase sales or improve customer service. Offering a gratis prize to the employee with the most sales or compliments from customers not only motivate, but also make the workplace more enjoyable.

At first, the idea of giving away gratis merchandise or other items may seem to cost a company money and lower its profit margin. However, keeping customers coming back and retaining employees that go above and beyond will only benefit a company. Offering gratis items or services as part of normal business practices can actually help a company become more profitable.

Critical Takeaway
Your gratis item should be something of value, or perceived value. Certainly, it’s got to be better than an offer of free dirt!

Photo credit by zpetch.

LinkedIn has a store, where you can buy branded merchandise. Up for sale include mugs, shirts, luggage tags and even reusable grocery shopping bags. For me, I’ve got my eye on the lapel pin for in-person networking.

The LinkedIn blog is frequently updated with all the new and cool enhancements on the network. Writers use the content here for their own blog posts. And for those of you who like to comment on blog posts, the structure here publishes your profile URL, which is a unique twist, and may help you with optimization.

A fairly new feature is the ability to reorder the elements on your profile. Via simple drag and drop, you can move the pieces of your profile around to best highlight your skills, expertise or experiences and stand out from the crowd.

I launched my first DirectAds campaign earlier this week, and the results seem promising. The targeting is robust, but the $10/day minimum is pretty high when compared to Google and Facebook ($1/day or so). More to come on the results of my campaign.

LinkedIn also makes it very easy for you to promote your profile with badges. When logged in to your account, the badges are automatically updated to include your profile URL.

I hope you find these features useful to your networking goals on Linked In, and I welcome your comments, and connection requests.

Photo credit by ilco.