Derek informed me of an article he recently published on how manufacturers can use social media to win business. He found in Forrester’s report that only 30 percent of global manufacturers planned to increase social media spending in 2012. What about local manufacturers? He believes that small to

mid-sized manufacturers have the most benefit in building social media outlets compared to global manufacturers. Why? Read his article as he outlines tools to help small and mid-sized manufacturers generate brand awareness, engage/share information and gain more business:

• Think strategically when developing a social media plan
• Use Facebook and Twitter to brand your company and build an audience
• Promote your brand with YouTube or a blog (i.e. share a factory tour or customer testimonial)
  • Love this idea!!
• Expand your network to target sales prospects via LinkedIn

In response to my last post on the debate if social media works in B2B, I think this article proves that social media can be successful in B2B if you use the right tools in front of the right audience.

Big thanks to Derek for reading the Canyon B2B fishbowl and pointing out a helpful resource to our readers!

Businesses are clearly using social media, but how much business is actually being generated from social media outreach?  The problem is there are few data points for sales impact. There are many studies about B2B social media successes (see these Top 10 examples), but no information regarding the correlation to actual sales metrics.

So, what is the best B2B social media resource?

I found a great article in Fast Company that takes a look at LinkedIn being a great resource for B2B businesses to find information on companies and people. And, a recent study by Performics said that almost 60% of active social networkers claimed that LinkedIn was their most important social network.

Image: splashmedia.com

I found a great example of an active B2B social networker company using LinkedIn— IBM. IBM has over 450,000 followers on LinkedIn, making this B2B company the most followed company on the network. IBM features recent blog posts, tweets and stock prices. More importantly, IBM features over 300 job postings and recommendations, driving viewers to learn more about particular jobs and departments of interest.

So, what do B2B companies need to do to grasp this kind of following in social media?

Before incorporating any social media channel into your communication plan, you must ask yourself a couple questions. Is your target audience using these channels? And, if so, how can you calculate the sales impact from using social media? And how does your company plan to define B2B success from a social media perspective?

How is your company using social media? Have you found any sales impact?

How often do we truly listen? To our co-workers, customers, and most importantly – customers prospects? Even further, how often do we absorb what we just heard and use it to our benefit? Sometimes we’re moving so fast that information goes in one ear and out the other.

In B2B Marketing, listening is our most powerful weapon. We B2B marketers most likely listen in one of three ways. How you improve your listening in those facets is the true test!

Photo credit: Orin Woodward Leadership Inc.

In-Person
It’s not every day that you get face-to-face time with a customer or prospect these days. Face-time to me also includes email, phone and Skype.  All are considered real-time situations where you have their direct attention. Take this as the perfect opportunity to improve your listening skills.

You might have perfect eye contact or the best e-mail voice, but if you’re not genuinely listening to what they’re saying, you’re only diminishing your chances. You need to make them feel most important. I really like these tips to improve your listening – I’ve also found them to improve my memory retention!

Online
Improve your listening by being where your customers are – online! There are an endless number of conversations happening online that impact your business that you should be listening to and monitoring. Go where your customers are and follow their conversations – listen to their challenges, opinions, and questions.

You can rely on social media networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Facebook to see into the minds of your customers and prospects and conduct custom, keyword/phrase searches.  Contribute as you see fit, but mainly just spend some time online listening and tracking what people are saying, particularly about your brand.

Another great tool that I use daily is Google Alerts. Set up an automatic alert when your brand name or company is mentioned online. It actually gets pretty addicting and the conversation comes to YOU.

Post-Sale
Are you asking your customers/prospects to share their feedback with you? And if so, how frequently? Most importantly, how are you showing them that you’re listening?

Make surveys or focus groups a part of your strategic marketing plan. You can conduct these in person, online or even via video conference. After you decide on the channel, decide on the frequency – monthly, annually, after every sales experience, etc.

By asking them questions and showing them that you care about their opinion, you can listen reactively to your customers while simultaneously proving that you’re trustworthy because you value their input.

Ultimately what will you gain from listening better?

• Trust – it’s rather important
• Knowledge – insight into your customers’/prospects’ behavior, decision-drivers, needs and opinions
• Perspective – what do people think of your brand? What is the state of the industry?
• Ideas – listening might spark something you never knew you or your company needed

I’ll now leave you with four great quotes from Dale Carnegie on listening:

• “Learn to listen more than you talk.”
• “Many people listen, very few actually hear.”
• “If you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener”
• “To be interesting, be interested”

Which Carnegie quote speaks to you the most? What social networks do you use regularly to listen or what are some of your most useful listening tips?

Industry experts continue to encourage businesses to adopt social media best practices. And it looks like they are starting to listen. According to a White Horse survey, 86% of B2B companies are investing in some form of social media. If you want to compete in your industry, it’s time to get social.

Let’s use LinkedIn as an example. How do you know if LinkedIn is right for your business? Ask yourself these three quick questions:

1. Do you offer a product or a service?
2. Do you have a sales force responsible for engaging new prospects?
3. Does your customer base have a presence on LinkedIn?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, there is a place for your business on LinkedIn.  In a recent HubSpot article, they described LinkedIn as being similar a tradeshow. Imagine LinkedIn as a place where you can share new products, a recent whitepaper, get involved in industry discussions and get introduced to new prospects.  And it’s hard to get noticed if you don’t have a presence – being aware of and involved in the conversation can sometimes be the most important – and effective – first step.

Are you ready to take that first social step? What social media tool performs best for your business?

In less than 4 years, Lady Gaga has grown her net worth to $110 Million. She is responsible for shaking up an industry that has been struggling to adapt to technological advances since 2005 when digital downloads gained mainstream acceptance and labels struggled to combat piracy. Her strategy started with taking advantage of the power of social media to connect with her target audience through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and has grown to include partnerships with MAC Cosmetics, Polaroid and Google Chrome.

Gaga's "Born This Way" album cover. 2011 Interscope Records.

Businesses can learn a lot about social media from the Queen of Pop. Lady Gaga uses emotion, engagement and interactivity to connect with her audience (little monsters) and in exchange builds trust. Her little monsters trust her, her brands and her partnerships – all contributing to her net worth.

Here are 3 quick practices that can help your company be more successful when using social media to engage with prospects and customers.

1. Cultivate your Audience by making sure your content is relevant.
2. Embrace Technology and use it to communicate and interact with your audience.
3. Keep it Simple and provide a clear path for your audience.

Social media has been key to the success of Lady Gaga and can help grow your business too! How is your business using social media to interact with clients and prospects? If you need help executing a social media plan, contact @canyoncomm – we’d love to help!

The first issue of the magazine is out and you can download the digital version for $2.99 or pick up the printed copy for $4.99. A year’s subscription runs $29.99 and comes with digital access.

The debut issue’s cover was designed by Yiying Lu, the artist responsible for the infamous Fail Whale on Twitter. The magazine features articles by social media heavyweights such as Simon Mainwaring, Beverly Macy and Shelly Kramer. Some of the articles you can expect to read in the first issue are Shifting Social Media into Social Transformation, Data and Context — The Road to Good Decisions and Connected Engagement is the Key to Social Media Marketing.

At a time when print publications are shrinking, it seems counter-intuitive to have a social media print magazine. In fact, it seems to go against everything Social Media stands for – the social aspect. Social Media connects people, brings them together cross-platform, and allows them to connect by self-selecting where (and when) they want to be heard. A magazine does the opposite – it’s a very isolating, a one-on-none experience. But it does offer information, which hopefully you can share within your social network.

But what I can’t argue is that the magazine comes at a time when social media has a tremendous impact on the modern business world and shows no signs of slowing in the near future. I am curious to see, how will the magazine fare? Is this the publishing world’s next attempt to remain current, or a legitimate effort to build and communicate a whole new social media audience?

Do you think the magazine will be successful? Are you planning on purchasing the first issue?

Little did Joyce know that almost a century later the concept of “friendships” would be virtually re-defined. With the evolution of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) your friendships and B2B engagements take on a whole new meaning. Who would have ever imagined that you’d be friends with, fans of, or “like” a business?

This concept is becoming more and more critical in the B2B space. In fact, a recent study showed that people’s social opinions can influence business decisions. Plus in a recent B@B Magazine webinar I attended, the speaker, Rishi Dave from Dell, cited that B2B social communities are bigger than B2C communities. And B2B social communities actually drive leads, pipeline and thought leadership when implemented correctly and are embraced by the whole company.

News flash —some of your biggest social influencers are actually your company’s own employees. They can help work every step of the sales process and can help make B2B social communities successful, especially when an effective internal training model is adopted.

This got me thinking that the idea of a single Friendship Day is seriously antiquated — in today’s day and age, Friendship Day is everyday and everyone is an influencer.

Who are your favorite B2B “friends”?

• State Farm Home Run Derby – this year players are posting content live from the field via Facebook and Twitter. Fans can follow their favorite players and see things from their point of view.
• SmartPHX – an app (developed by Arizona State University students) that helps both visitors and locals connect to downtown Phoenix hotspots and events.
• MLB Commissioner Bud Selig ran his 11^th Annual online Town Hall meeting to discuss the state of the game, with user-submitted questions through MLB.com.

Event based social media tools are becoming a popular way to engage with your audience. The same principle of creating meaningful experiences for your customers also applies in the B2B space. And BtoB Magazine has a great list to help marketers “Get your social community up and running” the bases.

Have you had any success integrating social media into marketing your event? Have any favorite apps the help you keep a pulse on your B2B customers and prospects?

MLB All-Star Game logo courtesy of the Arizona Diamondbacks and MLB.

There has never been any real doubt that social media is big. However, recent valuations of some of the social media giants provide us some insight as to just how big they really are. While it does not come as a shock to most to see the values of social media bigs like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Groupon to be substantial, the fact these companies have annual revenues that are a small fraction of what they are worth is intriguing.

Facebook received a recent valuation of $75 billion, making it more valuable than Disney. This is despite the fact that Facebook only has an annual revenue of $2 billion, while Disney on the other hand has pulled in over $38 billion in 2010.

To see these companies valued at so much more than their revenue is confusing for some. Marketers however, should be enthused by this. The valuation of these social media giants is reflecting their utility. Facebook may only gross $2 billion a year, but how many other mediums allow you to engage, interact, and network with over 700 million people?

The fact that these social networking mediums are growing not only by users but also by value, is testament to the fact that marketers are on to something when then invest in social media marketing. They have recognized that social networks have extreme value and potential in regards to connecting with consumers on multiple levels, and it appears that financial investors have jumped onboard as well.

These extremely high valuations and bubble margins exemplify the effectiveness of social media, and represent just how much potential they have (an apparent potential that is worth about 50 times the annual revenue).

So what are you waiting for? Social media is booming, you don’t want to be left out. While some of these companies like LinkedIn are publicly traded (and trading for a solid $100/share), I don’t mean join into a piece of shareholders pie, but rather, become active in the extremely successful, scalable, and ever-catchy social media world that nearly 10 percent of the world’s population is already involved in.

For some B2B marketers, social media can be a new and unfamiliar, so they have been avoiding it, or afraid to try it. However, there is so much material and guidance available, than anyone can dive into it and with a little research and effort, become effective at it.

The beauty of social media is that there is plenty of room around the fire for whoever wants to join in.

There is so much opportunity and room for growth. This is why investors recognize the immense power and potential that social media has, and why they are willing to place such a large price tag on it. Is your latest B2B campaign tapping into the power social media? Can 700 million people be wrong?

Check out this video from inside a convenience store as the tornado actually hits the store, sucking out the glass in the process:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I read Mashable quite frequently, the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture.  This past Monday, the featured article on Mashable’s home page was titled 4 Ways to Help Missouri’s Tornado Victims, which caught my attention immediately.

This article reminded me of how great social media really is and the ways it can actually help people in times of need. Mashable collected some ways you can support those in Missouri:

• Relief Spark, a non-profit focused on remodeling schools, turned its Twitter feed into a resource of information. Sample tweets direct first responders to meeting places and to posting what shelters have just opened their doors.
• Facebook pages including the Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery Page and Joplin, MO Survivors’ Page were created to help residents find loved ones and join in the recovery process.
• You can search Missouri-based Red Cross shelter centers to learn more about programs, needs, and how they are helping the tornado victims.
• OzarksFirst.com, a local community and new site, put together a resource with help hotlines, phone numbers, and web pages for volunteers and victims.

This Mashable article concluded with:

“Let us know in the comments how you plan on helping and any other good resources to get aid to Joplin.”

The comments are outstanding and this article was tweeted more than 2,000 times in less than 24 hours. The article ends with some great advice – with all charities and non-profits, make sure any site you visit is properly registered and trustworthy before blindly sending money. Make sure your help does the most good possible.

My thoughts go out to everyone impacted by this terrible disaster, but it’s comforting to know that there are so many online resources to help bring us all together – isn’t it amazing what social media can do?