Social Marketing to the Business Customer

Ninety-three percent of business customers start the buying process by searching the web, and spending on B2B social media is expected to grow 21 percent annually through 2013, but reaching a select group of business customers through social media remains elusive, intimidating and overwhelming to B2B marketers.  Are Facebook, Google and Twitter the best services to focus on, or should niche online networks like LinkedIn, SlideShare and Alibaba.com get more attention?  How can marketers and business leaders allocate resources to the networks most likely to deliver the greatest return-on-investment?  And how can business executives minimize the chances that the network they lead with becomes obsolete?

Author Paul Gillin and strategic corporate communications consultant Eric Schwartzman’s new book, SOCIAL MARKETING TO THE BUSINESS CUSTOMER; Listen to your B2B Market, Generate Major Accounts Leads, and Build Client Relationships (Wiley; Hardcover; January 2011; $27.95; 978-0-470-63933-7), the first book devoted exclusively to B2B social media, answers these and other questions with straight-forward, non-technical language and gives readers easy-to-understand strategies and tactics for integrating social media into the B2B marketing mix.  Loaded with practical examples, B2B case studies and best practices, the book guides readers step by step through the process of building and executing a social marketing strategy that specifically addresses the unique needs of business customers.

It's no secret that social media tools offer powerful, new ways to build and cement customer relationships, but the most prominent success stories in books and the media have been about customer markets. The potential for the same tools to transform B2B marketing has been largely overlooked.

The book presents extensive research, compelling stories, and expert recommendations targeted exclusively at B2B companies and niche marketers. Social Marketing to the Business Customer makes the business case for using social media to revolutionize customer outreach, bringing companies in contact with their customers and creating customer-to-customer dialogues that drive repeat business more effortlessly than ever before.

Make no mistake about it.  Social marketing will revolutionize B2B marketing, and Gillin and Schwartzman show business communicators how to pick the social media services that best support their B2B sales funnel, accelerate sales cycles and lead to stronger customer relationships.

Social Marketing to the Business Customer includes:

• Step by step instructions for monitoring and mapping B2B social media conversations using entirely free online tools and services
• An easy to execute social marketing strategy that appeals to stakeholder committees directly responsible for B2B purchasing decisions
• A social media policy template businesses can customize to empower virtually any organization to integrate online conversations seamlessly into its business culture
• Easy to use formulas for calculating ROI using real-world metrics that business executives will understand

From the basics of social media tool selection, to keyword strategies that get your products and messages on the first page of search results, to the widely varied forums that businesses can use to build and sustain meaningful dialogues, Social Marketing to the Business Customer makes this diverse and often-confusing world accessible, actionable and quantifiable. It is the ultimate primer for B2B marketers looking create customized, targeted strategies that maximize outreach and increase productivity.