Social Networks for B2B Companies – A Beginner’s Plan

If you haven’t already made social networks part of your 2008 plan, it’s understandable.  Confusion reigns on how to use these venues for B2B business advantage.  However, I’m sure you’re experiencing a nagging feeling that you’re missing the boat somehow and the rest of the business world, including your competition, is out there making fast and furious work of social networks.  First, there are two questions you ask about how your company will use social networks:

•  What can I hope to gain from participation in social networks now?  It pays to be realistic about the potential for business impact using social networking in its current state.  If you hope to use it as a major lead generating mechanism, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.  Social networks can currently be used to connect with constituents and colleagues, collect valuable client feedback and establish a rapport with your buying community.
• Which ones?  There are a dizzying array of social networks springing up, some more general business and others dedicated to specific audiences.  The answer lies in the service you’re offering and the target audience you’re attempting to reach.  For business, I’m partial to Linkedin, but am hearing so much buzz around Facebook becoming more business-friendly that I think it’s worth checking out. (Gaining personal information about a prospect with whom you are about to meet is a definite advantage to Facebook.)  If, however, your products/services are geared to a very specific audience, I would recommend finding the most trafficked networks for that community.  Here are just some samples of social networks that I’ve come across and their associated participants:

• Information technology:  http://www.ittoolbox.com
• General business: http://www.xing.com/ , http://www.linkedin.com/ , http://www.jigsaw.com/ , http://www.facebook.com/ , http://www.viadeo.com/en/connexion/
•  Marketing b2b community:  http://www.beetoobee.com/
•  Health Care:  http://www.dailystrength.org , http://www.patientslikeme.com , http://www.sermo.com/ , http://www.organizedwisdom.com/Home , http://www.revolutionhealth.com/ , http://www.sermo.com/
•  Finance:  http://community.dynamics.com/ (sponsored by Microsoft), https://www.cakefinancial.com/app/pubHello.do   

Once you’ve chosen the right social network for your business and buying community, here are some actions I’d recommend taking now to leverage your participation.  These are relatively low in resource consumption, but will allow you to test the social network waters with an appropriate amount of effort.

1.  Listen to your constituency: If there are groups already dedicated to your particular product area, assign someone in your organization to read postings, engage with readers and really understand the needs of your target prospects.  As with all interactions with prospects and clients online (including personal blogging and blog responses), I would recommend producing a company communications guideline that outlines acceptable behaviors, such as no discussion of products in development, no competitor bashing, no discussion of revenue plans/goal, etc.
2. Challenge your management team: Social networks are all about connections between individuals.  Let’s face it – B2B sales are all about relationship building with your prospects.  It’s a natural fit, but sometimes cumbersome to execute on a grand scale.  Here’s an idea to put the two together.  First, challenge your management team and Board of Directors (if you have that type of relationship with your BOD) to complete their profiles (I recommend starting on Linkedin).  Second, ask sales to create a Top 50 list of prospects that they’ve been trying to penetrate.  Finally, review the list in light of their new connections to find any opportunities for introduction.  It’s amazing how many 2^nd level introductions can be accomplished if the effort is made.
3.  Sponsor a group:  Companies are beginning to sponsor groups with their company names to engage customers and prospects in an open dialog.  Yes, it’s risky.  Someone may enter an uncomplimentary posting to which you will have to respond.  However, the benefits of hearing what your clients have to say directly should outweigh the risks.  Just be sure to have a mature (read:  someone not likely to fly off the handle and who is familiar with company’s public relations messaging) person be responsible for monitoring and responding.  Once you’ve established this trusted forum, you can use it to garner new product ideas, announce product enhancements, promote company events such as webinars, local meet-ups and trade shows, launch new products or use as a recruiting tool for the company.  Don’t forget to market the group’s existence across other venues, such as on your web site, at customer events, and in company literature.
4.  Answer questions in your category:  Make sure that your company is known as an expert in your field.  This might require time and effort on the part of your engineering staff or product managers to produce quality responses that jive with the company message.
5.  Ask questions in your category: Want to know what your audience would like to see in new products?  Ask them!  Along with more structured surveys and focus groups you might be conducting, social networks might yield some surprising results for product enhancements.
6.  Learn about the competition:  In the same way that social networks are an open forum for discussion, they are as well an open book for information.  Take advantage of this and assign someone to perform regular competitive analysis. 

I hope these suggestions are helpful.  They represent a minimal effort, but potentially a big cultural shift for your organization, so don’t forget to garner buy-in at all levels prior to launch.  Establishing your social network presence could also be a cause for celebration for your company and should energize employees and customers alike.  After all, it represents an exciting entry into the new media world that holds more and more promise daily.