By now, you’ve probably heard all the good reasons why your B2B should be using social media; maybe you even caught our recent post recapping research showing that that’s exactly where your early-stage buyers are doing much of their product/vendor short-listing these days.
So you’re giving it a try …or maybe you’re committed to try, but being deterred by seeming roadblocks or uncertainties about how to proceed. And that’s certainly understandable …after all, you do want to get it right.
If it’s any consolation, you’re definitely not alone. What you need, though, is not a support group of like-minded souls; what you need is some straightforward advice as to how to face down and overcome those getting-started obstacles. And that’s exactly what we found recently in a presentation given by Adam Singer at IMS/Minneapolis, and nicely summarized in a post by his boss, Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing.
Here are the 7 problems Adam identified, with his suggested fixes…
Flying blind
If you’ve been reluctant to start, this may not be you (yet); but too many companies jump into social media tactics with no idea about the who, what, when and where of the social web, relative to your product/market space. You’ll need to develop a listening program to answer those “w” questions. (You can find a veritable compendium of social media monitoring software tools in a fairly recent post by Chris Koch over on his B2B Marketing Blog.) Listening is critical to understanding brand, competitors and the key terms that are relevant to your audience on the social web.
Unsure where it fits (who owns social media?)
As with every business activity, resources need to be allocated and responsibilities assigned so as to have accountability and ownership. With social media, it’s usually best to establish social media goals and responsibilities in different parts of the organization; however, the different departments should still cross-pollinate efforts and work together as a team.
Inconsistent participation
Companies must be consistent with their social participation. The recipe for this is to lead from the top (creating visible executive buy-in), establish goals, set aside resources and provide a feedback loop to contributors. Tap passionate community members and activate them as brand ambassadors.
Lack of confidence
It requires confidence to believe that people will listen to and find value in what you really want to say. Whether you’re right or wrong may be less important than simply being passionate.
Digitally unsavvy team
According to a Forrester Research survey that we briefly summarized in the same post referenced off the top above…
- 91% of business buyers read blogs, watch user-generated video, or participate in other social media
- 55% are members of one or more social networks
- 43% are creating social-media content (blogs, uploading videos or articles, etc.) for business purposes
These and similar data led Forrester’s Josh Bernoff to the rather stark conclusion, “If you’re a B2B marketer and you’re not using social technologies in your marketing, it means you’re late.”
The good news is that your team can learn to be social-media savvy through training, participation, listening and engagement.
Data paralysis
Data should help drive decisions, but don’t wait for it to the exclusion of creative ideas from your team.
Lack of personalization
Use real team members in your social media efforts; don’t hide your brand behind some fictitious persona. Forge real relationships with those you eventually hope to influence. Don’t send in the Legal shock troops as a first response to social-network dissension.
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The unfamiliar can always seem intimidating. Perhaps the very best advice is to “just do it!” You’ll learn more – and faster – by doing than by any amount of advance planning. And if you get lost, your friendly Web marketing consultants are always there to help.
I think of social media as the “great divide” in marketing. Some take to it like a duck to water; others cannot seem to make it click. It’s good to see it like journalism – it thrives on sensationalism. As Seth Godin said, merely being “good” is bad in social media… you need to be “remarkable”. Another thing to bear in mind is that the conversion rate for social media traffic is often way smaller than search – it’s cheaper to obtain and a smaller proportion of it leads to sales.