Are social networks appropriate for B2B marketing?

It can hardly have gone unnoticed that the Internet today has evolved way beyond e-mail and web sites. A whole new raft of applications wrapped up under the umbrella term of web 2.0 are actively expanding and opening new communication channels and the sharing of information at an accelerating rate. Plus a whole lexicon of new terms that go with it. According to Wikipedia the term "Web 2.0 describes the changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web culture communities and hosted services, such as social networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs and folksomomies." 

Perhaps the biggest question to B2B marketers is whether phenomena like Facebook are a passing fashion - not long  ago the talk was of MySpace - or a genuine new communications channel they should be using. Then what about Twitter where communication  is limited to just 140 characters, or the professional networks such as Linkedin and Plaxo? Or of course YouTube. The next question -  recognising that millions are using these systems and increasingly through mobile phones and netbooks rather than sitting at a PC workstation - is,  are our customers using them anyway? Of course in the conventional marketing world ABC circulation figures and readership data would guide advertisers in the choice of media. In fact traditionally canny advertisers would not commit to a new title until it was established and circulation certified, rather than gamble client money on an unproven idea. Most SMEs are careful with money because they need to be and I suggest there won't be many with a line item for Facebook in their marketing budget, however compelling the opportunity seems. Using any of these appealing new tools demands time - either of internal staff members, or outsourced - and time means money. It is often assumed that additional tasks can simply be managed in house. The reality is existing staff should already have a full time job - if not, then what are they doing? It does of course require company knowledge so a sensible approach might be to work collaboratively, allowing a team  including external agencies such as PR, to deal with their specific job function but additionally using an appropriate web 2.0 channel as one of their communication tools. 

Future blogs will consider how social network sites can provide a communication channel for customer relations, news delivery, prospecting ad even sales.