5 Challenges in B2B Social Media and What to Do to Assert Influence

Social Media is about communicating with friends, followers, influencers, leads. It’s about connecting to new people. We all live within the framework of a socially driven atmosphere, whether or not we choose to take part.

For business, social media is still fairly new. Many businesses are still figuring out how to get the most (or something) out of social media. In social business, you want to find new partners, clients, customers and eventually inspire healthy professional unions out of the newly found connections. While business-to-consumer (B2C) business can result from an impulsive emotional response or visually appealing image – in business-to-business (B2B), it is often a bit more complicated.

As most B2B deals concern a larger sum of money and often have a strong impact on the involved companies, the decision process involves a decent amount of research. Background information, past projects, press clips, personal recommendations, industry challenges and presented solutions – this all can help in the decision of whom to work with, which services to use and what products to buy. This is exactly where the content comes into play in the social media equation for business. With your content, you can give a potential client all the information he or she might look for and, in addition information, stories and insight can trigger a more loyal type of interest. This combination makes people aware of who you are, what your expertise is, and what type of advantages your business provides.

Why is it so hard for businesses to work with one another in social media?

There are several reasons social media is hard for B2B companies. For starters, many social outlets only let us take a glimpse at the most common challenges businesses face. Formulating the type of meaningful connections that inspire solutions is tough. Also, the real benefit of social media usually only shows after some (long) period of time, while new strategies for B2B evolve every day. Each new platform gives new B2B promises, but reward from these innovations requires hard work and patience. Even the established social media gurus learn something new every day.

When you are starting (or struggling) with social media as a B2B company, it helps to be aware he challenges you will face and tips for how to deal with them:

1. No Immediate Feedback

Most people expect a reply as soon as they initiate conversation (via a post, tweet, status update, photo, etc.). We see activity on large social media channels all the time: blogs get comments, tweets get shares and articles get views. Why am I being ignored? The hard fact is that plentiful interaction (most often) does not arise overnight. Becoming an active publisher (who receives widespread attention) in social media, first requires establishing connections and healthy dialogue. Otherwise, you will find yourself speaking to an empty room.

To connect and communicate with people, do not only publish content. Initiate conversation by commenting on other peoples’ posts, share your content with communities where you are familiar, and post on platforms that inspire professional connection.

Suggestions: LinkedIn groups, news aggregate sites (ex. SocialMediaToday or Business2Community), and social-professional publishing platforms (ex. exploreB2B).

The real feedback and communication in social media needs time to build. But, you can help it along by being visible through great content, interesting comments, contacting and interacting,  and sharing and pushing content wherever possible.

2. Success Cannot Always Be Measured

People expect calculable results from their efforts. The better you can measure results and relate them to your efforts, the easier it is to argue why it is worth putting so much effort into something. (I, myself, am a mathematician and see the value of numbers.) However, I had to learn: social media does not always give you a clear, measurable answer. Success, in most cases, comes later after you already invested a lot of time and effort that didn’t appear in your analytics package.

Sometimes, (especially in the beginning) you will only be able to assume the relationship between your social media activities and the outcome. In this situation, you have to rely on your former research and intuition. You also have to pay close attention to how your few followers/commenters behave.

Remember: your ability to analyze people allows for more depth than an algorithm.

Even though social media might be free, it is not cheap. Undoubtedly, you will invest time, energy and money – paying a hefty price (in cash and in patience) for your influence. No one will be able to tell you beforehand, when and how strong your “HOORAH!” moment will be. Predictability in social media is limited. At first, you will only get small hints that you are on the right track, but business will eventually follow if you allow yourself to be patient within a system of trial and error, watch the behavior of industry leaders, and remember that communication is key in the kindgom of social media. Do not let torrent nature of web 2.0 discourage you.

3. Visibility is Not Free

Social Media is a fast running business. Almost every network that comes to mind relies on a feed for updates. The post from last week, the tweet from a minute ago and the share from last hour: they are lost in the anonymity of social media overflow. If you do not update your activity, you cease to exist. One post, one comment, one contact is nothing. Consistently building a reputation via constant activity is what matters. The goal is to create a following that will – in the end – give you and your business the visibility and trust in reputation that is needed to make new business deals.

All those ‘leaders’ who get thousands of views, shares, likes and tweets on their posts, have worked to inspire and maintain these relationships for a long time, most of them for years. Do not expect to reach the same stage of visibility within days, weeks or months.

When you start with social media, your network most likely consists of the fair number of friends and business connections you established in real life. Do not look at other people’s following and compare yourself, especially when they have been a lot longer in the game. Instead, learn from them: watch how they interact, how the utilize different networks and connect, communicate and share with these influencers.

Remember: Demand does not work in social media. If you push too hard to get the attention of your target group and/or industry leaders, you will face a backlash or be ignored. Offering something in the form of your knowledge, advice or connections, is more likely to get you a response.

4. Scattered Information

When you tap into social media for business, the first thing you will probably hear is, “Strong content is the key to success.”

I am not going to argue against this, as it is absolutely true. But there are several things to keep in mind, if you want to get the most out of your great content. Where you publish and how you share your content make a difference in your visibility.

Becoming active in more than one social arena gives you the opportunity to reach out to different types of people, or – if you do it right – your same target group via various channels in which they behave in different ways. There are a fair amount of outlets where you can create content: blogs, publishing sites, discussions groups, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Once you get someone interested in your company (your goal in the first place), this potential customer will want to find a place where they have access to your collective portfolio of work – a place where they can learn more about you. A company blog is one place to provide this collective body of work. There, you are free to publish an unlimited amount of content. However, new (or infrequently maintained) blogs have a hard time gaining exposure. Consider creating a professional company profile for publishing, where the articles of multiple employees can add up to an extensive company profile, such as offered by exploreB2B.

5. Targeting is Hard

Web 2.0 is a large and unorganized mass of people. Structuring this mass to adhere to business needs was not the primary goal of most (presently) large social media outlets. This often makes it hard for businesses to target the exact people they are looking for. In some networks, this results in business representatives stacking up on contacts (assuming more contacts equals more business), focusing on the quantity of their social media connections, rather than their relevance. In most cases, this is a short-sided approach.

In the long run, creating high-quality targeted content to attract relevant customers, clients and partners makes for a lasting and more lucrative investment. While the goal is (naturally) to have as many relevant followers/connections as possible, fewer well-targeted contacts mean more for your business than bundles of people who are not, in fact, interested in what you do or sell. If you are shooting for long term success, aim for high-quality content and connections.

When you put this altogether…

Once you understand and accept the special characteristics of social media for B2B business, you can see why this system of communication is challenging for B2B professionals. Businesses have difficulty finding “easy and cheap” success in social media, because frankly, this formula does not exist. To take control of your social media management, accept the fact social business requires time, effort, consistent communication, content creation skill – and endurance. Despite initial (and possible long-term) difficulty –  toughen your business skin and keep your eyes open for opportunities to learn, grow and master online business interaction through commitment and communication.

(This post was originally published on exploreB2B)