Business to Business Social Networking

Social Networking in Business to Business (B2B) is becoming common more and more as websites become available. Companies are using this internet medium to promote sales activities, new products or services, promote the company, and other “word of mouth” marketing activites in a viral environment through the use of social networking sites like YouTube, FaceBook, and My Space for example. LinkedIn and Plaxo even have recruiting efforts involved.

B2B companies are producing content on these sites to attract more qualified members to them. This is both written and video displays, depending on the desire and social networking site.

On the internet, much of the social networking has been done. Social networking, book marking sites, video, and image sharing websites provide the ideal framework for a successful viral marketing campaign. For example, having an article published on sites like Flickr can generate hundreds to thousands of visitors to the client's website in a very short time. Having a video listed on the most popular page of a video sharing website can produce a tremendous amount of traffic to the client's site.

Successful B2B social networking is different than business to consumer (B2C) website activities. The consumer market attracts all audiences to well known names and products; GAP, Ralph Lauren, Coca Cola, Oprah, Apple. But what about the B2B market of products; EDS, Unisys, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft? These audiences are more fragmented with internal employees, external partners, third party vendors, channels, and their customers and prospects.

B2B marketing in social networking is structured and directed at a more targeted audience. They know who their audience is, what they care about, and how to market to them? The social networking function is similar to the consumer market of word of mouth advertising and sharing, just more internal industry and business market bound.

Social media is a different process for the B2B crowd. It's about being a more informed buyer and seller. Success in B2B social networking depends on providing enough content on the site that leads to interaction, sharing, and engaging the customer's and prospect's interest for potential sales engagements.

B2B marketers first need to assess the relevance of social networking within their own industries and target audiences. Not every customer or salesperson cares about blogs or podcasts. Social networking needs to become part of the integrated marketing plan that ties into and compliments these other channels.

There are many reasons social media can be a productive marketing channel or platform. The purpose should dictate strategy and tactics used for reaching desired business goals.

There you go. Many companies are now starting to take advantage and use social networking for their marketing and sales channels. Let me know what you think.