Last week 1000heads was invited to attend the B2B edition of ‘Social Media Huddle’ hosted by Dell, Google and For Immediate Release [FIR].
The networking event – the third in its series – takes the unconference route in its execution, whereby guests can create their own sessions for others to attend on the day. I’ve been to a few events like this in the past and it can make for a really interesting day as you never quite know what to expect until you arrive.
The #dellb2b event (to give it its proper twitter name) however, had a very specific aim of ‘bringing together senior communications and marketing professionals to exchange and share experiences on B2B social media for their mutual benefit’. Nice.
The big draw in this instance was guest speaker and internationally recognised thought-leader in the social space, Brian Solis.
I’ve known Brian for a few years now but this is the first time I’ve heard him speak in the UK. A master of the soundbite, his talk was insightful and to the point. I’ll post the slides from the day in a second, but first – here’s a snapshot from my notes and tweets for the day [including key quotes from the man himself] –
Brian Solis
James Whatley
“46% of B2B respondents said social media was perceived as irrelevant to their companyâ€
“By not saying anything in social, you’re saying everythingâ€
“B2B marketing spend will grow from $11m in 2009 to $54m in 2011â€
“93% of business buyers believe all companies should have a social media presenceâ€
So basically, what BS is saying is that, when it comes to B2B – believe it or not – you should apply the same rules of listening and engagement that you do to consumers – ie: You listen. You learn. You engage. You create.
“What is the ROI?”
“There is no ROI of social media programs.”
“However, there is definitely ROI for social media programs that are setup to do something”
Again. Not new. But a truism.
Some choice tweets?
All in all, plenty of food for thought there, raising a number of issues that we’ll come back to another day.
If you’d like to listen to the presentation yourself, Nevile Hobson has kindly posted the audio version and it may well make an interesting accompaniment to Brian’s slides, embedded below.
Yep agree with this.
I don't see why it should be any different for B2B than B2C. Sometimes i suspect it works even better for B2B, as your customers are often more limited, so you can have a direct social relationship with the <100 people. That's difficult to achieve with big B2C brands, as the feedback becomes very messy and noisy.
But benevolence is a good word. I've said on my lil' blog that Social Media can build Goodwill. http://danielgoodall.com/2010/… – certainly doing good things (and “making happiness your business model”) should pay dividends in terms of reciprocation.
And also, I agree that Social Media does not have a ROI. It's a similar point to one I've made before about not needing a Social Media Strategy; you need clear goals, and a strategy, and using Social Media is one way of achieving those goals.
That is all.