Those of you doing research will notice how few articles feature B2B social media case studies. Additionally most examples focus mostly on social media engagement, not the top questions most B2B marketers have, such as: how and where do I find my audiences, how do I develop a B2B content strategy and editorial calendar, and how do I measure ROI. 

But I have good news. Today’s Social Media Week panel, The Importance of Targeted Audience in B2B Social Media, had a stellar group of practitioners who were determined to answer B2B Social Media questions head on: Michael Timpone of Kapow Events, Brian Yamada of Microsoft, Brian Burkhart of SquarePlanet, John DeRango of CCC Information Systems, SquarePlanet’s Brian Burkhart and moderator Linda Dao of Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

When it comes to B2B social media, there are three fundamentals I wanted to share with the audience:

1. To be successful at B2B social media marketing you have to integrate social media practices with sales practices and vice-versa. Your sales team will have to start thinking about content, storytelling and problem-solving, and social media marketers will need to start thinking of sales conversion process, audience profiles and how to turn a contact into a lead. And if you can bring SEO and PR into the mix, even better.

2. Social media for B2B companies has to do with structure and discipline, not with what’s fun and comfortable. It has to do with doing things that may be uncomfortable, such as writing, and appearing in video interviews. But that’s how you establish yourself in the business community as a trusted resource. There are no shortcuts. After all, people don’t buy from brands, they buy from people they like and trust. So you must put in the effort to establish yourself and/or your organization as a “thought leader.”

3. Social media marketing starts with your website, and so does your evaluation of results. I asked the attendees today how many knew the yearly value for their website visitors. If you were to average your sales from website leads in a year, over the number of website visitors, what value per visitor will you get? 0 raised hands! No-one knew. Not even the entrepreneurs. When I asked how many in the audience knew where they were currently getting their leads from, less than 1/3 of the room raised their hands.

Evaluating social media results starts with knowing the performance of your associated channels, knowing your current sources of revenue. If you ask every single lead (and in the B2B space you will sooner or later talk with your new customer directly, whether it’s email, phone or in person) where they heard of you, you will get a better sense of how well your social media works.

Below you will find a summary of other highlights from the panel. All the tips and tricks via tweets!