In the last leg of my traditional journalistic career, I worked for a newspaper dedicated to business. Therefore, the phrase B2B (or business-to-business) was one that inhabited my day-to-day work life. However over the last year and a half, I’ve stopped looking at B2B as meaning business-to-business but rather brand-to-brand.
Social media made the difference
In an era where much correspondence evolves from social media, it’s hard to ignore this particular medium. But so often we aren’t sure who we are talking to when we are responding to a brand via social media.
Business to business was a great model until social media stepped onstage. And don’t get me wrong – the business-to-business model still works. However, as businesses use social media more to communicate with others in their industries, they maybe need to concentrate more on the brand than the business. That’s why the “who” is so important.
Who are you talking to?
I only work with one business brand via social media, ColorMetrix. The reason why I do is because as project manager for the company I am heavily involved in the day-to-day operations.
There have been other instances when clients have asked me to manage their social media networks. My response is that I’m willing to set up brands on the networks and train the company’s employees to eventually take over the accounts, but I won’t be responsible for it indefinitely.
The reason I advise having an employee manage a business’s social media account is because no one knows a company better than the people who work there. Businesses that farm out their social media presence to third party agencies can sometimes find it difficult to be credible or valuable online to clients, customers or to other brands.
Also if you are responsible for a business social media account, you should note that in the bio of the account. In the ColorMetrix bio, we make it clear that Jim and I are the voices behind the logo. Telling those engaging with the brand who is speaking for it adds credibility.
Back to the B2B
Once you start thinking about your business as a brand in social media, it will be easier and more rewarding to engage and interact with other brands. After you have established the “who” of your brand, it’s time to build online relationships. Below are my top 10 guidelines I follow for the B2B (brand-to-brand) relationship.
- Look for other brands in your industry and make a connection.
- Be conversational. Don’t just market without engagement.
- Don’t be afraid to tout other brands’ products and success stories. Maybe they will return the favor.
- However at the same time, consider your competition. You probably don’t want to tout another company’s service or product that you also provide.
- Join and participate in a Twitter chat. The weekly #printchat has been a huge resource for ColorMetrix.
- If another brand (or client or customer) engages with you on a network, always respond.
- Create a strategy for consistency of posts on a network. Nothing turns off a potential friend or follower more than viewing an account that hasn’t been touched in a month.
- Care about what you share. Read relevant blog posts and consider their impact before you share them on your network.
- Don’t share confidential information.
- Don’t be defensive or argumentative. Avoid controversial topics and swearing.
On my personal social media accounts and with the ColorMetrix account, I find I am more likely to engage with brands that follow similar guidelines like the ones I shared above. While it’s difficult to have hard and steady rules for engagement on social media, having a strategy has been beneficial and essential in growing some valuable B2B relationships.
What is your strategy for B2B in social media?
I was going to jump into the @mikezielonka and @Shelby Sapusek thread but I decided to just make a more general comment.
Quick background: I'm the "He" half of SheHe media, and that means that I edit Shelby's post before they are published and she does the same for me.
Yesterday as I read read/edited this post I knew the section Mikey zeroed on on would be controversial. I had to make a decision that even though I know of two local agencies that actually do handled "farmed out" social media well, should I let this fly.
The easy thing to do would have been to suggest to Shelby that she soften up the language a bit, bit I decided against that course of action. Instead I wanted to see if people like Mikey would jump in and offer their 2 cents, and I like the way this turned out.
I think Both Mikey and Shelby are correct. Incidentally, I'm also the guy at ColorMetrix that turned the social media keys to the castle over to Shelby. Whoever is doing your social media, really needs two things to do their job correctly.
1. A solid understanding of who your company is and what their product or service is.
2. Virtually instant access to a team within your company that allows them to find the answer to any question they don't have at their own fingertips.
That's it, well that and a winning social media personality which I think Shelby has proven she has.
There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with "farming out" social media management to an agency. The issue lies in agencies not doing social media management not right or not caring. There are 2 core strategies you MUST follow if you want to successfully partner with a client to manage their social media:
1 - Learn their business with them. I've become an expert on Hondas, Mortgages, Software Development, Dog Wellness, & more. It's not easy and took a dual commitment to ensure I had what I needed to drive conversations. Your partner at the client's business must be accessible by IM or EMAIL or TXT to get you information that you need FAST. The number 1 reason clients need help with social media is because it's painful for them and frankly in life you move away from pain towards pleasure.
2 - You have to cover your costs...It takes time and energy (aka its expensive) to become "one with the client". It takes a good 3 months to get things going but once "training camp" is over...the conversation and the ROI start to show up.
@mikezielonka Mike, thanks for reading and commenting. I guess I would argue that what you have done as a "social media agency" is much like the relationship I have with ColorMetrix. I learned about and became involved in the company over time so that I had a good understanding of the company and therefore could speak (read: in social media) intelligently about what they do. You appear to have taken the time to learn several different businesses so that you can talk about them in social media intelligently. My advice about not hiring a social media agency to do all your social media is more about those blanket agencies who say "I'll do three FB statuses a week and 20 tweets a week for X amount of dollars." These agencies are generally hired online and have no clue who they are representing. I warn against turning over the keys to someone like that. What you are doing seems appropriate; as long as you are willing to spend the time to really get to know and represent those companies well.
@Shelby Sapusek PS - I love your LiveFyre Profile Pic!
@Shelby Sapusek I'd say that in most cases outsourcing your "social media shouting" won't really result in positive ROI. The only exception may be if your looking to purely "inform" an establish audience with relevant industry news.