Social Media in B2B Marketing: What We’ve Learned

A few days ago, in the lead-up to Social Media Day, our friends at Savvy B2B Marketing posted some valuable lessons they’’ve learned about social media along the way. Now, with Social Media Day upon us, a few of us here at MLT Creative thought we’d do the same thing. Here are some select insights, ruminations and realizations we’’ve had about social media over the past year:

Sarah Young, account executive
“It’s a little scary that one ill-conceived tweet or post can cost a brand not only its reputation, but also the loss of actual money or, worse yet, a job or account. Everyone’’s watching, even if it doesn’’t feel like it, so you have to choose your words wisely.”

“But I also feel very empowered by being on the cusp of current events because of social media, and I’’m lucky enough to work somewhere that encourages us to use and explore it. I just tend to know what’s going on before most of my peers. It’’s changing the way we all communicate, which is really exciting. It’’s making this huge world a whole lot smaller.”

Elizabeth Baker, account executive
“The most important advice I could give about social media is “”Be human.”” A lot of marketing topics can be pretty dry but, if you’’re able to relate them to your own personal experiences, you can engage a lot more people. Even though these conversations occur over the internet, make sure your own personality does’n’t get lost.”

Matt Albert, designer
“I’’ve learned that, to me, numbers aren’t everything in social media. I know I probably won’t ever attain 3,000 followers in the Twitterverse and I’m comfortable with that. I think the old adage “”quality over quantity”” applies to my views. I would rather share items of interest to me and my industry with a select group of followers on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn than get preoccupied with appearing in the forefront of my connections’ streams.”

Dave Morris, content strategist
“It’’s interesting to me how many of last year’’s hot social media properties like Digg and StumbleUpon are quickly not so hot anymore. Meanwhile, it was a great year for LinkedIn, gaining even wider acceptance mostly because they’’ve been hard at work. Now there’’s talk of LinkedIn company pages replacing corporate websites!”

“I’’ve also noticed clients becoming more interested in blogging many for the first time. They’’re simply seeing the payoff, and they’’ve become more avid blog readers over the last year. It’’s a fearless instinct that, in my opinion, will likely continue.”

Billy Mitchell, president & creative director
“My experience with social media has been all work with some play along the way. Social media, for business-to-business marketing purposes, takes a serious commitment but the rewards are worth it – and I have proof. The most important reward for me has been finding my tribe. I now know hundreds of other professionals in my industry through ongoing interaction and thousands through occasional engagement. Social media also lets me engage with clients and prospects without being intrusive.”

“I like the idea of active thought leadership and I’’m proud of the content our team at MLT Creative creates and share. But most of all, social media enables me and encourages me to never quit learning.”

If you’’ve had any thoughts of your own about social media, feel free to share them with us in the comments below.