Social Media B2B Marketing

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR B2B MARKETING
ASUTHOSH NAIR & JASPREET SIDHU

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. WHY SOCIAL MEDIA MATTERS IN B2B MARKETING II. HOW CAN YOU START? BASIC RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
I. II. III. IV. PLAN YOUR STRATEGY DO YOUR RESEARCH SET YOUR GUIDELINES GET CRACKING

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III. HOW ARE OTHERS DOING IT
I. PRODUCT LAUNCH II. LEAD/DEMAND GENERATION & CUSTOMER RETENTION III. BRAND BUILDING & MANAGEMENT

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www.b2bento.com

IV. MONITOR AND MEASURE RESULTS V. NOT THE FINAL WORD

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WHY SOCIAL MEDIA MATTERS IN B2B MARKETING
Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is undergoing a sea change. Traditional marketing channels like television, the print media, and outdoor advertising no longer deliver the return on investment they once promised for a simple reason: your customers are spending less than 25% of their time paying attention to these channels. Wondering where all the action is taking place then?

Here's a clue:†1 - More than 133 million blogs indexed since 2002 - More than 10 million users create 1,500 new "tweets" every second - Facebook user growth for the 35-plus demographic has grown to 12 million users in the first quarter of 2009
Welcome to the world of Social Media. Where conversations, interactions and consumer-generated content get mashed up into a heady mix that's potentially marketing elixir. Remember the days when we heard of new brands and products through either word-of-mouth, press reviews or advertising? Now, take all these, add loads of opportunities for strong customer relationships, and what you have is social media. In fact, over 90% of B2B buyers are already using Social Media tools, often to research and execute purchases.†2
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Source: "A2/M2 Three Screen Report," Nielsen/NetRatings. Q1 2009. Source: Forrester Research. Feb 2009.

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