Social media for B2B: Avoid this common marketing mistake

This Slideshare prezo below (by Radian6.com) outlines the process very well, but watch out for allocating too little time for content production.

Analyze the audience the way a journalist would

It doesn't matter that you met your content quota (in this example, one e-book per month) if you don't gain traction with your target audience.

Analyze the audience the way a veteran journalist does by looking for:

(1) the unexpected

(2) info needed for decision-making

-- both from the audience's perspective, not the company's. (There's more to that ... much more.)


Give direct access to sources; a fact sheet won't work

Give the content producer direct access to people with direct experience using and developing the product or service.

They need to see demos and do interviews. It's not enough to hand them a fact sheet filled out by marketing staff (HUGE mistake there).


Process the info, don't just fling it

Allow time for an editing process that isn't just "freewriting," which means the putting of words on the page. Or in the case of video, simply uploading what you caught on the flipcam. Instead, leave time for processing the info in a way that permits storytelling, which will hold your audience's attention long enough to get your gist, giving them the time and a reason to identify with the info and -- ideally -- share it with friends.

Enjoy this presentation (below). I particularly like the metrics, which make it easy to quantify success.

Final advice:

(1) Be sure to tie the metrics to business goals, not just outreach goals.

(2) Consider hiring content producers with enough experience to read the direction of ongoing industry debate, so you can better position your company as a thought leader.

Social Media for B2B: It’s Not as Different as You Think

View more documents from Radian6.

How to gain relevance with your target audience

The old joke from my days as a science writer was that the photo was too often the same: a man in a plaid shirt presiding over a metal box filled with wires.

That's how I came up with the mantra "Write about people with problems, not boxes with wires." As writing coach in technology PR for the past 10 years, I asked professional writers to think about the group of people that both journalists and marketing directors share an interest in, and write about them.

Customer, reader -- one and the same

Marketing directors care about the customer; journalists care about the reader. And guess what? That's the same person. Write about that person -- his problems, decisions and actions -- and the technology and messaging come along for a free ride.

But write about the technology or the messaging and ... zzzzz. MEGO sets in.

Keep eyes from glazing over

MEGO stands for My Eyes Glaze Over. (I got that phrase from a Los Angeles Times New Delhi bureau chief. )

This is how to gain relevance with your target audience: Write about the audience.

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