If your own experiences haven’t proved it yet then maybe the continual stream of surveys and reports have at least shown without question how buyers and suppliers today are using social media today as a part of their strategy.

What does seem confusing is the variation between this surge in social media participation and the issue that many B2B businesses are still experiencing in really showing useful results from social media marketing ?

Dig more deeply into these surveys and reports though and you can see some striking information. What it reveals is that actually measuring a return from social media marketing is pretty difficult and knowing precisely who is accountable for social media activity is equally as misleading.

However this is over casted by the headline shown in reports like Marketing Sherpa which demonstrated that 60% of staff believed they were informed although they don’t have any previous experience with B2B social media or PR. This means they have no successful base from which to run their activity.

So , to bypass the failure pile because you’ve jumped in with only “hope” as your guide, these 7 things are mistakes to keep clear of which will increase the probability of your social media activity being a hit for your company.

1 – Hard Selling

Unlike their B2C counterparts, B2B is less reckless about buying decisions or as price-sensitive so “deals” or “specials” simply do not work so well. B2B social media is about interaction and information sharing. The hard sell will get you ignored at best and hated at worst.

2 – No Planning

You can not just dive in and expect to create results from social media like some expect from one off direct campaigns. It actually needs time to build market relations and attract interested supporters. All too often folks give up and don’t update their profiles or content and worst they no longer continue with their campaign, which is in direct contrast to people who have achieved great results with social media, who had a clear set of targets and supporting activity which they used to benchmark results and adjust their strategy as they went along.

3 – Always Uninteresting

Just like any “social” event, its folk that take an interest and are fascinating in response to conversations that engage with the most people at the event. The “bore” however , drones on about themselves or what they do and their standpoint and so they’re the last person that people want to spend some time with. Instead folk ignore them or find how to avoid them. Online you should share your own content, but spread that among other content that supports your own views as well as your audiences perspectives.

4 – Virtual Non Existence

There’s no point in creating content in the first place if no-one reads, listens or watches it. Use social media to share your content and magnify your messages strength. RSS feeds are also a great way to syndicate content across the web so that others can find it.

5 – Shortage Of Consistency

Anybody who has a market or consumer facing position whether its offline, on-line or both must maintain their business or professional personality online so that when folk come across them during searches that point to their LinkedIn, Twitter or other social sites it represents a consistent message and branding that doesn’t confuse or concern potential customers.

6 – Poor Measurement, No Management

If you do not know what folk say about you, your competitors or your market as a whole then you can’t thank people that support you and cope with critics. Its not about being a control freak but shaping conversations for the greater good and showing you are interested and actually care in whats being said. Its also a great way of finding out what folk are actually thinking.

7 – Plans That Do Not Consider Compounding And Leverage

Social media is not an isolated part of your marketing activity. In reality each step on-line should impact on all other parts of your strategy, if done correctly, thereby increasing its complete value further. Publicity releases can link to web sites and social media profiles which link to other content which are also linked from your e-mail signatures and linked back from other micro sites. Its a webs of supporting links and references.

By avoiding these 7 mistakes, you will ensure your social media marketing campaign isn’t banished to the failure pile overnight.

This article comes from eB2BLeads a UK Inbound Marketing Agency that integrates search marketing, content marketing, serach engine optimisation social media marketing and PR into an internet marketing strategy that utilises science and art to create leads, sales and loyalty.

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