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Reid Carr is a social media expert.
Social media is necessary for your business if your primary target is regularly online.
And while this is not everyone, B-to-B versus B-to-C is not the determinant.
Social media is a place for feedback (I believe it was Ken Blanchard who wrote, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”), for sharing opinions and solving problems.
Social media is also a great way to circumvent spam filters and reach customers or prospects directly.
The way to maximize the opportunity is to find the right mix of tools and vehicles and then put a communication strategy in place to use them efficiently and effectively.
In BtoB, the most common tools are a combination of blogs (allowing comments) as well as LinkedIn and Twitter. Flickr, Facebook, YouTube and wikis layered in are appropriate for others who are more Web-savvy.
Your mix and level of dedication will be unique to you, but getting your subject matter experts talking in social media circles, if they fearlessly “know their stuff,” can only serve to enhance your position in the market.
You can have multiple Twitter accounts, multiple blogs, etc. Having several subject matter experts with their own Twitter accounts, in addition to the corporate account, can increase both your reach while also honing your focus in each communication channel.
The CEO may blog about strategic issues facing the company while corporate communications can highlight positive community outreach. The company Twitter account could focus on news about the company while a service account could simply deal with customer concerns.
There are many ways to get “in the game.”
However you choose to get going, you should at least monitor social media for your name, your employees, your competitors and your industry. Useful information you learn there might encourage you to get into the conversation.
There are many tools that can help you monitor conversations including Google Alerts, search.twitter.com and other more sophisticated software packages like Radian6 or BuzzLogic.
Reid Carr is president of Red Door Interactive, which specializes in Internet presence management. Follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Tags: SDNN
