Marketing
Issue No. 49 - October/November 2009
Is social media useful for B2B?
by Dr David Corkindale and Dr David Corkindale
“Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it’s not better.”
+Posted on Twitter by Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist, Google
I think this could capture the situation we have with the Social Media phenomena at the moment. Malcolm Auld’s presentation at Marketing Week in Adelaide recently poured cold water on the frenzy and hype surrounding activities like Twittering, “by twits”.
I can remember 10 years ago Gerry Harvey of Harvey Norman being ridiculed by marketing pundits for not going into online retailing in a big way. They said he did not “get it” and would be out of business soon.
He replied, on Channel 9’s Business Sunday program that his online store did far less trade than his
smallest bricks and mortar one and he expected it to
stay that way.
He was right for his industry. Now we have business managers being told they have to engage with the new Social Media, for example Facebook, My Space and LinkedIn. Should they? And, particularly, what should those in B2B industries do?
Back to marketing principles
An important starting point is to find out what ‘media’ your customers and stakeholders are using regularly and if this includes the ‘new media.’
If it does not then you just need to monitor the situation to make sure no competitor introduces it to them as there are benefits to both sides in using it – as will be indicated later – but it comes at a cost to you. Not everyone is an avid user of new media.
It would be very good practice when signing up new clients to finding out, along with their demographics and business details, to what degree they are users.
Some authorities of web use behaviour say there is a 90:9:1 rule. That is: 90% of the online population just observe what others are posting online in the Social Media; 9% occasionally submit something and 1% are ...
