My original intent for today’s blog was far different than what you’ll see here. Today, Tamar Weinberg, Mashable’s Community and Marketing Manager,wrote a post called 13 Essential Social Media Lessons for B2B Marketers from the Masters. I saw it on Twitter, and I thought it was too important for my design and construction industry audience to miss. So many architects, engineers, and construction firms are still wary of social media. I myself am not sold on every aspect, but I’m open-minded and I continue to explore what works in our business to business context.
Many of you focus on a variety of market sectors: higher education; corporate; public sector such as municipal or local or federal government; research and development; entertainment; hospitality; multi-family housing; elderly care facilities; developer and built-to-suit projects; highrise buildings; K-12 education; retail and restaurants; the lists go on and on. So we’re all desperately (or is it skeptically?!) trying to figure out if clients and prospects from those sectors are involved in social media. And if so, how can we wield influence using that medium?
If you do not have time to read the article (link above) which asked social media gurus for their topmost advice regarding business to business (B to B) social media advice, then please at least take a quick visit through the snippets I’ve pulled below…I feel these are worth consideration to firms within the AEC industry.
On supporting your sales process: Providing interesting content (like video testimonials or how-to information) is a great way to encourage prospects, warm up leads, and convert to sales opportunities.
On creating a social media approach: …Learning to quickly get clear on what I wanted to accomplish with social media, so that I didn’t spin my wheels….Understanding which sites and when to use them will save you many hours of time and possibly wasted staff resources and money.
On proving expertise: One of the things that social media can be great for is making expertise visible to the world. White papers can be largely replaced by blogs, long winded demos by online video. When you consider social media as a way to extend and prove expertise, the possibilities are vast. NOTE: this is key, because all of us in AEC know that we’re always trying to prove our expertise.
**My favorite #11: by Brian Solis. Read the whole thing, because it speaks to this: Yes, social media may not be highly prevalent among some of our AEC clients yet, but we need to prepare for when it will indeed be more prevalent.
On the core principle: Social media isn’t about you, it’s about them.
On making it work with your existing process: Find ways to fuse social media tools with offline engagement….Bring your client’s social media profile information into your CRM system to help your sales folks learn more about your client’s day to day life…
On style: “Learn to be human again….Be more spontaneous and make deeper/better connections with clients.”
On steps: Have a goal. Get buy-in and put the right people in place. Move beyond broadcasting. Create and distribute a set of Social Media Guidelines to employees.
On research and entering the arena: B2B is the leading source of social media lessons for me. Every {social media} experience in B2B is revealing and educational when research serves as the catalyst for strategy, media programming, engagement, and metrics.
On if top leaders actually rely upon social media for answers: Without knowing realizing it, {a particular} CEO was entirely reliant on Social Media for their final decision. And…Social Media is probably easier to link to true ROI in the B2B space than it is for B2C.
On making it a better experience for your clients: Learn to cooperate with your competitors and collaborate with others in your industry towards better client experiences.
On getting ideas through analysis of others’ successes and failures: B2B professionals often only look within their niche and sometimes fail to borrow from the consumer world.
A subtle ‘opposite’ of the abovementioned point: B2B companies benefit most from social media when they don’t try to emulate the engagement strategies of their B2C counterparts {rather, look to them for insights, but not for emulation}….And, leverage the improvements in company-client interactions brought about by social media, including those related to user experience, real-time client service discussions, and the integration of social media with existing business practices to create new product or service offerings.
I look forward to hearing from you, dear readers. Which B2B points, if any, resonate with you? Which B2B points have you already discovered (and practiced) within your own firm?