Recently I read a blog post and I couldn’t believe my eyes… it completely knocked the idea of B2B companies using social media.  Well I completely disagree! If you are a B2B entrepreneur have you ever been to a networking event where some attendees seem so desperate to get your sale on the spot and you just want to run out of the room as fast as you can?  I have been to events like this and they are just awful, at least online it’s easy to clear out the stuff you don’t want to see rather than make excuses to end an awkward face to face conversation.

Business to business covers many different kinds of businesses from accountants, management consultants, graphic designers, PR consultancies, advertising agencies, solicitors, corporate caterers and much more.  If you are a B2B company you shouldn’t discount social media because it seems trendy or it seems better suited to business to consumer companies.  Your social media presence should be professional, it should reflect your core brand and it should be used to connect your brand to a wider audience.  Social media should be used for engaging with your community, not selling to it and this is where many B2B companies fall down.

Here’s why I believe business to business companies should be embracing social media…

• Social media is all about connecting and building relationships… this takes time just like it does in the offline world.  Don’t expect to sell on social media – it won’t happen!  Social media can increase your brand presence, regardless of who you sell to.  Social media will expand your brand’s horizon, reach clients that you may not have the opportunity to connect with offline and increase your bottom line as a result.  Again it all takes time…

• LinkedIn is not just for recruiters, it was one of the first social networking platforms for business professionals and it continues to evolve to reflect the changing world of social media.  As a social media professional I’m a B2B company and three of my largest contracts this year have come from my LinkedIn contacts.  Like most other LinkedIn users I don’t use the LinkedIn network to push my services, it is purely my online CV showcasing the experience I have and how I am utilising social media in my own business.

• Business owners are time poor, attending networking events and finding useful contacts takes up valuable time.  It is much faster to make connections on social media platforms and tweets will often reveal the person behind the brand.  Social media will never replace face to face meetings and phone calls but it can certainly help speed up communications.  A tweet is limited to 140 characters, it forces people to get to the point unlike email!

• These days it’s so easy to research a business online and judgments are made quickly.  If social media is well utilised and reflects your brand it should strengthen your opportunities.  All businesses need a pipeline or the funnel where opportunities comes in – social media can increase the top of the funnel if it’s done right.  Then it’s up to you to manage the funnel successfully by strengthening relationships and differentiating yourself from the competition… social media is perfect for this.

• If your B2B company isn’t embracing social media then what does it tell me about your business?  Particularly if you are in the creative or IT sector I could actually be worried that you aren’t up with the latest technologies and perhaps aren’t as established as you claim to be on your website.  If you’re a business that is going to have a lot of input into the success of my business how do I know from your website that we are on the same wavelength?  What if your competitors share more information on social media… will that ultimately effect my purchasing decision?  Yes it’s more than likely that it will.

• Social media works brilliantly with visuals… Facebook albums allow you to showcase your portfolio, blogs allow you to publish photos and videos along with your written content and Twitter allows links to websites, photos and YouTube for greater engagement.  Even accountants and solicitors can come up with interesting and useful videos so you shouldn’t write off social media because you think your business too conservative for social media.

• Just because you are selling business to business, doesn’t mean that your client is selling to only businesses… in fact it’s quite likely that they are selling to consumers meaning they should have a presence on social media and hence you’ll be able to connect with them.  (note the word ‘connect’ rather than ‘sell’)

• Let’s kill the myth ‘social media is a time-killer’ – well yes it can be but smart entrepreneurs will know how to utilise tools like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and set-up links between social media profiles so that they are reviewing all social media platforms with a concise and effective plan.  iPhones and Blackberry’s make Tweeting a relatively quick and painless experience.  Twitter lists are an awesome tool for effectively managing who you follow, reviewing what others are saying and finding great Tweeters to engage with.  An effective social media strategy can be implemented with just 30 minutes a day, just because you have a Facebook page and Twitter account doesn’t mean you spend 24 hours a day in front of your computer wasting time.

If you are a B2B company don’t be scared of social media and certainly don’t think that it isn’t relevant for you because you are B2B.  If you are a B2B company we’d love to hear how you are using social media, what’s working – what isn’t and how much time you spend on it.