Social Marketing to the Business Customer: Listen to Your B2B Market, Generate Major Account Leads, and Build Client Relationships - Hardcover

Gillin, Paul; Schwartzman, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470639334 ISBN 13: 9780470639337

Publisher: Wiley, 2011

Synopsis

The first book devoted entirely to B2B social marketing

B2B markets are fundamentally different from consumer markets. Decisions are made on value, not impulse. Buying cycles are complex, often with many stakeholders involved. Relationships and support are critical. Bet-the-business decisions demand discipline, knowledge, and lots of information.

This hands-on guide covers topics unique to this segment, including cost justification, prospecting and lead generation, matching tools to the sales funnel, building, B2B search engine optimization, social media monitoring, social media policy development, long-term client relationships, gaining stakeholder support, building a more transparent organization, and what's coming next.

• Features plentiful examples, case studies, and best practices
• Focuses on the channels that are most effective for B2B marketers
• Builds on the authors' more than 30 years of combined experience in the new media/social media space, as well as two previous successful books

Leverage the vast business-to-business potential of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and many other social media platforms today with Social Marketing to the Business Customer!

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Use social marketing to energize your B2B relationships

SPENDING ON B2B SOCIAL MARKETING is expected to grow 21 percent annually through 2013, yet the innovations of successful companies get surprisingly little attention. This book guides the reader step by step through the process of building and executing a social marketing strategy intended specifically to address the unique needs of business customers.

It's no secret that social media tools offer powerful new ways to build and cement customer relationships, but the most prominent success stories in books and the media have been about customer markets. The potential for the same tools to transform B2B marketing has been mostly overlooked.

Until now. Social media visionary Paul Gillin and strategic corporate communications consultant Eric Schwartzman have teamed up to present research, stories, and recommendations targeted exclusively at B2B companies. Social Marketing to the Business Customer presents a compelling case for using social media to revolutionize customer outreach, bringing companies in contact with their customers in unprecedented ways and creating dialogues that drive repeat business and reveal new revenue opportunities.

B2B relationships are inherently social, and Gillin and Schwartzman show how to use the new breed of tools to uncover the human potential in every business and involve customers at every stage of the development, sales, and support process. You'll learn how to:

• Create an organization that integrates online conversations seamlessly and comfortably into its culture
• Develop an engagement strategy that reaches all the stakeholders in a decision
• Plan marketing campaigns that take full advantage of social media tools—separately and in combination with each other
• Find the communities that attract your customers and target markets—and become an essential member of them
• Calculate ROI using real-world metrics that business executives understand

From the basics of social media tool selection, to keyword strategies that get your products and messages on the first page of search results, to the widely varied forums that you can use to build and sustain meaningful dialogues, Social Marketing to the Business Customer makes this diverse and often-confusing world accessible and quantifiable. It is the ultimate primer that enables B2B marketers to create a customized, targeted strategy that maximizes outreach while maintaining your message.

From the Back Cover

PRAISE FOR
SOCIAL MARKETING to theBUSINESS CUSTOMER

"This is the book I was too lazy to write. Gillin and Schwartzman have broken the code to how to approach B2B marketing with social media."
—CHRIS BROGAN, President, Human Business Works, and coauthor of Trust Agents

"Gillin and Schwartzman not only dispel the myth that social media is limited to B2C marketing, they demonstrate how business customers are redefining the boundaries for influence, decision-making, and lead generation."
—BRIAN SOLIS, author of Engage! and BrianSolis.com

"While most of the social media hoopla to date has been in the consumer space, social media will have an even larger impact on B2B companies seeking to build deep, long-term relationships with their customers.This book is extremely timely as a guide on how to do just that. If you're in the B2B space and looking to grow your business, this is the book for you."
—LARRY WEBER, Chairman, W2 Group, and founder, Weber Shandwick Worldwide

"In the old days, the B2B marketer's sole job was to generate leads and hand them over to salespeople to nurture and close. No longer. Buyers evaluate your offerings continually on the Web, and if you're not engaging through social networks, your company is at a tremendous disadvantage. Paul and Eric show you how the most successful B2B companies reach buyers via social marketing."
—DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT, bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR and Real-Time Marketing & PR

"If your company is still blocking access to social networking sites or considering them as a 'productivity drain,' think twice! For many B2B companies,it is THE new way to engage with customers, communicate with suppliers, and generate leads. A solid social media presence is the only way to open and humanize your business and master crisis communication. This books shows you with very practical examples that there is no good reason not to use social media."
—MATTHIAS LÜFKENS, Social Media Architect, World Economic Forum

"If you want truly expert advice on selling the value of social media to the CFO of a B2B concern, stop everything and READ THIS BOOK."
—MARK STORY, New Media Director, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0470639334
• ISBN 13: 9780470639337
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272