7 Keys to B2B Social Media Success

If Facebook were a country, it would be the 6th largest in the world! It's growing by 228% a year.But even that rapid growth is eclipsed by Twitter, growing at 1,382% a year.

Why?The basic human need to connect, but it has major ramifications for the B2B seller.

If your company wants to do lead generation, you need to engage in active listening.Social networks are where you need to be.You need to post your content everywhere and make it really easy to find, and engage in listening and sharing.

Email and marketing in the past was batch and blast. Lead generation changed. Now you need a Facebook Fan Page, a Twitter profile and a presence on Linkedin. Get your company name out there before someone else takes it. (By the way, the fan pages for Wal-Mart and Nike do not belong to those companies.)

Our goal is not to teach you how to use social networks in Lead Generation, but rather to share the need to embrace them. I urge you to pick up Paul Dunay's great book, Facebook Marketing for Dummies, and read it.

Another really important book for B2B sellers is Social Media and the Contact Center for Dummies. It's a quick read that explains how to set up a listening platform from companies like Radian6, Networked Insights, Nielsen BuzzMatrics and Visible Technologies. Then it explains how to connect the listening platform to your contact center.

Why is this so important? A recent study showed that the single most important factor in your engagement with prospective customers is your speed of response. A listening platform integrated with a call center provides a quick-response process for lead generation.

Does social media really work in B2B selling? Yes, it does.

Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook are the big three, but there are many ways to engage B2B buyers using social media.

We also wish to thank the authors for quoting us in this great book.