Unleashing the B-2-B Value of Social Media
There’s no doubt that LinkedIn is marvellous for unravelling new opportunities, but what I’ve discovered recently is that strong social-cred on other social networks (mainly Facebook & Twitter) can also enhance B-2-B relationships.
Engaged Fans & Followers = Social-cred
Because fans and followers aren’t counted on balance sheets they don’t yet have the influence they deserve in B-2-B interactions. But this is sure to change, especially now that there’s a new breed of B-2-B buyers who have very high levels of social participation.
Because this new breed is likely to understand the value of social-credibility why not flaunt yours when attracting new business partners, contracts, and sponsors. An engaged online community shows potential business partners that you’re engaging with people so well that they’re willing to devote some of their precious and very scarce attention to whatever it is that you’re doing.
Attracting New Business Partners
Having an active and loyal online community allows you to use stats, testimonials and examples of great interactions to help win over a potential business partner. But more than this, it gives you the phenomenal advantage of being able to quickly gather tangible evidence about the sentiment towards a partnership or business venture. Simply sending out a twitpoll or starting a discussion on your Facebook page will give you a glimpse into the minds of your most loyal customers. Imagine bidding for a new contract and being able to show that 85-95% of your fans also love the company that you’re partnering with and want you to work together, what customer centric company could argue with that.
Cross Promotion
As long as it’s done tastefully there’s nothing wrong with cross promotion. Social media ‘gurus’ promote each others’ books, sites and products all the time, they do it in their blogs, podcasts and tweets, why should it be any different for companies? If your business has established a great following then you clearly have a platform from which you can promote your potential partners and stakeholders. Advocating cross promotion simply adds another string to your bow when entering in B-2-B negotiations, and ultimately makes you more attractive to partner with.
Sponsorship Opportunities
Most companies want to sponsor athletes, sports teams, events or charities. But where many organisations struggle is finding a cause that both they and their customers believe in. This is where having a responsive following helps. By running a “what cause should we sponsor” poll you’ll be able to align your sponsorship efforts with the things your customers care about the most. Your savvy online community might even give you options that you’d never before considered.
On the flip side, if you’re an organisation seeking sponsorship you can simply ask your fans and followers about the brands they love and use, with this sort of information you can then approach the most popular company with a tangible reason why they should sponsor you. Significantly more powerful than cold calling.
I have no doubt that there are hundreds of other ways to use your social-cred to help in a B-2-B setting, please let us know what you’re doing with yours.
Thanks To My Tweeps
I don’t have a Kutcher-esk following, not even close, across all my accounts I engage with about 2,500 people. Yet two weeks ago my followers gave me enough social-cred, experiences and examples of great interaction to land a pretty big opportunity. So in an effort to say thanks I’ve mosaic’d most of my followers below. They’re all great people and I recommend that you follow as many as you can.
If you’ve been playing “Where’s Wally?” with your avatar and had no luck I apologise, the site (twitter mosiac) that I used to make this mosaic didn’t quite pick up all my followers, dumb I know.
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