So everyone in marketing says you have to use social media more. You know all the sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and the site that I always thought was the most narcissistic thing ever, Twitter. But using it for B2B seems a little tricky out side of LinkedIn, which is really meant for business anyway. Finding my target market in Facebook or Twitter seems like going to a masked ball. How do I know if the VP of Regulatory for a biotech is posting in the Men who like knitting group in Facebook?Ironically, I'm involved in a pretty interesting discussion in LinkedIn as part of a professional marketing group about using Facebook and Twitter for B2B. Nobody has the definitive answer or even more than anectodal evidence of it working. Everybody says write good, interesting content. Well, that's a little motherhood and apple pie because you always want to write good and interesting content. When my time is already at a premium, do I just Twitter anything important or interesting and just hope somebody out there is searching SharePoint for FDA regulated environments or how to help with the new Massachusetts Security Law. That doesn't sound much better than writing good web content and do your best SEO. How do you rise above the noise when it seems like Twitter is ALL noise?
It's pretty funny that businesses on Facebook have fans instead of friends. You want to be my fan? Really? You haven't even heard me sing yet. I was told by a expert in this field that the Facebook search engine is fast becoming one of the most used on the web. But what's behind that data? Is it mostly being used to find old classmates and colleagues or new musical acts? How much of that is for businesses and not to sound like a broken record, but how much of that is B2B?
I'm a big fan of LinkedIn and have jumped right into some good discussions. I've learned a lot too. I hesitated the first time I had to correct a very long post about what SharePoint couldn't do for life sciences companies, because so much of it was wrong. But years of posting on message boards for fun taught me the diplomatic way of refuting something without just posting WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! (Even though I thought it....)
It's kind of funny. I even feel like taking on different personalities depending on what site I am on. On LinkedIn, I'm in my suit and Anne Klein heels. On Facebook, I'm in jeans and munching on a snack. (I'm newly addicted to Orange flavored Craisins.) On Twitter, I'm in cutoffs and flipflops. (Looks in mirror, calls Pilates instructor to make the next session a little tougher.) Is meeting a potential client in a casual way better for potential business? Or will they still tell me that budgets are tight in the first half and ask for a handful of Craisins.
(C)Copyright 2009 CourtSquareGroup
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