Five Things Every B2B Marketer Should Know About Social Media

As you are planning your social media efforts, here are five things to consider.

1. It’s not a panacea or a magic pill that will cure what ails you.

Your problems will remain your problems. Social media can help, but if are struggling to generate leads or have slow response times in your contact center, social media alone won’t fix that. On top of that, Twitter gives your customers another vehicle to communicate with you. If you are not prepared to listen and respond, think twice before creating @yourcompanyname.

2. If you are doing it, because that’s what the “cool kids” are doing, you are bound to fail.

Yes, there are B2B companies succeeding with social media. Your company can too, but only if you make social media part of an overall marketing strategy tied to specific goals. Facebook, Twitter, You tube…there all just tactics. If you’re only thinking about creating a Facebook page because your main competitor did…slow down and consider how the use of social media can help you achieve your overall goals. If you are doing it for any other reason and you don’t have it tied to specific goals, you’ll likely be wasting your time (not to mention that you will have no way to monitor and measure your success).

3. If you are the internal champion or evangelist, roll up your sleeves, you are in for the fight of your life.

I can almost guarantee the moment you sit down for your presentation with your boss and you pull up Twitter – you’ll see a post like this one I sent last week:

@MarketingVeep you can always use a paper towel in a pinch -Jeremy

“How can something like that help us,” she’ll say. Followed by a few minutes later, “Facebook, my kids are on Facebook 24×7, I’m always telling them to stop wasting so much time on there.”

If the executives in your company are new to social media, you’ll need to be prepared to use every opportunity to consensus build. Without the support of the entire management team, your social media road will be much harder to travel. [BTW- @Marketingveep needed coffee filters on a Monday morning.]

4. You have already underestimated the investment in time by at least half.

While the majority of social media tools and web sites are free to use, they all take time to manage. Lots of it. A blog can be especially time consuming due to the writing involved (at the same time though, it can be the most rewarding). You and your staff are likely stretched pretty thin already, it is important that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. Start slowy and measure time spent to help you plan better for future initiatives.

5. Don’t let fear cripple you, you will make mistakes.

Write this down – I will send a tweet with a typo. I will not panic.

While there are best practices in social media, much of your success will come through trial and error and learning what tactics work best for achieving your goals. Like any marketing program, not everything will work or go as planned. Don’t let that stop you from trying. The benefits far outweigh the typos.

What else should B2B marketers know about social media?

Author: Jeremy Victor | Website | Twitter

Jeremy's the founder of Make Good Media and Editor In Chief of B2Bbloggers.com. B2Bbloggers.com is a B2B Marketing online magazine discussing the evolution of B2B marketing. Topics include content marketing, B2B social media, demand generation, marketing automation, and more. Sign up. Get all the articles via email.