Conversations that Aren’t about Mel Gibson: the B2B Social Media Case Study, Part 1

Author:

Eric Anderson

Source:

A couple of months ago, White Horse released the results of a survey comparing adoption of social media marketing by B2B companies vs. B2C, looking at issues of staffing, management buy-in, and the use of specific tactics.
 
The report got some good pick-up among our marketing blogging brethren, and their individual spins on the results were a veritable study in glass half-full/half-empty interpretation: some declared that the B2Bs are stuck in the social stone age (not my conclusion), while others observed that B2B marketers are right in the thick of things, social-wise, if only they could get their C-levels to see the light (which was pretty much my conclusion).
 
As the author of the report, I feel I owe B2B marketers an apology. While I did manage to place the blame for the B2B social lag squarely on C-level naysayers in the report—noting that only 9% of B2C upper managers are bearish on social, compared to a whopping 36% for B2B – I offered frustrated B2B marketers a rather narrow and unsatisfying remedy: contact White Horse, and we’ll set those C-levels straight.
 
Yes, it’s true. I sullied the sacred cause of knowledge-sharing with a shameless agency plug. And the proof of my transgression is that not every B2B marketer in the land has so far beaten down our door to learn how we can turn things around for them. This could mean that they’d prefer some method of building a business case for social media that didn’t involve talking to me. That is understandable.
 
And so as penance for my transgression, I now devote the rest of this post (and all of the next one) to sharing what I know about building the B2B business case for social – a kind of DIY for those who would prefer a sharp stick in the eye to an agency phone call. (Again, I get it.) There are just three things you really need to know:
 
1. Social media is not what your CEO thinks it is...
 
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