B2B Executive’s How-to Guide to Social Business

B2B Executive’s How-to Guide to Social BusinessThe B2B Executive’s How-to Guide to Social Business is an executive primer on developing B2B relationships much faster and cheaper.

If you have been on several “social media” platforms as a firm or individual for some time but feel that you’re barely scratching the surface, this guide will help you boost your results significantly because: its goal is to help you develop B2B relationships more efficiently, instead of “selling” yourself and it shows you how to use B2B-oriented platforms in concert to increase leverage. If you would like some background on the profound distinction between “selling” yourself and focusing on relationship, “Social Business Disruption of B2B Sales & Marketing” crystallizes it in 8 minutes.

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B2B Customers Getting More Social Fast: How Marketing and Sales Can Evolve

B2B Customers Getting Social Fast: How Marketing and Sales Can Evolve explains how clients/customers are smarter and want a new kind of relationship | The new economics of business reputation

B2B Customers Getting Social Fast: How Marketing and Sales Can Evolve: evolutionWhile preparing to launch Social Business Services for B2B Sales in January 2012, I have been engaged in its Ecosystem Audit. I have plumbed online conversations about B2B Sales and Marketing adoption of social business (erstwhile social media). I have been struck by a recurring realization: a large part of Marketing and Sales as we know them is significantly out of alignment with B2B customers. Social business is permeating customer networks throughout the economy and changing customer behavior and expectations. This has created a rare opportunity for B2B marketing and sales people who understand and respond ahead of the market. If I’m right, this could be one of the most important posts you read this year.

Two quick examples of misalignment: one of Marketing’s underlying assumptions is that it is not economically feasible to have large-scale one-on-one customer conversations, so marketing must […]

Case Study: IBM's Experience with B2B Social Business

The example was IBM’s corporate social responsibility and green initiative. They realized it would be incongruent or unsavory to have a (physical) conference for green initiatives in which people would burn tons of CO2 getting there, so they held it in Second Life. The sales conversion ratio was equal to physical conferences. […]

Increasing Customer Transparency: Real Threat or a Paper Tiger for Marketers?

Should you worry that interacting with your customers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs will let your competitors poach your customers? How increased transparency affects business and how you can use the trend to drive your competitiveness […]

Realizing Value: The Social Network Life Cycle Model

Life cycle model for social networks provides a blueprint for investment, along with goals, activities and milestones for each stage. A plan of action for creating value from enterprise social networking initiatives. […]

How Social Networks Change the Rules of Business Development and Profit

How you can use LinkedIn to maximize the number of clients in your portfolio that map to your firm’s unique selling proposition—boosting profitability […]

LinkedIn Case Study and ROI: Business Development in Professional Services

Emerging LinkedIn case studies; here is one in which a LinkedIn member generated a quarter of a million dollars through LinkedIn – plus he landed an SVP job […]