While consumer brands tend to steal the social media headlines, tremendous opportunities exist for B2B companies to leverage social media as a way to build brand interest and qualify potential customers. This session led by marketing consultant Ed Peterson at the SOCON13 Conference reviews best practices for content marketing on key social media channels, provides small business owners with social listening and social service tactics standard in many large B2B enterprises, and addresses how social inputs contribute to customer nurturing and the path to new sales. Topics covered are strategically geared toward small business owners; agency teams new to the unique requirements of working with B2B accounts and journalists; and marketers and educators unfamiliar with the dramatic changes in marketing fueling modern business.

1. #socon13
Ed Peterson - @ed_peterson

2.  Content marketing
 Inbound marketing
 Search engine optimization
 Credibility and standing in your industry
 A cultural foundation for your business
@ed_peterson @ed_peterson

3.  Marketing exist to gain new customers and
keep current ones. This goes for social, too!
 Analytics and marketing automation are
powerful, but do not expect perfection.
 Make the funnel an easy ride
 “Content to Contact to Cash”
@ed_peterson

4.  Identify buyer personas
 Landing page strategy
 Editorial planning
 Role of the community manager
 Cracking the code for management
@ed_peterson

5.  Keywords and your industry knowledge drive
basic content strategy
 Conduct a content treasure hunt
 Give a microphone to the best and brightest
in your organization
 Steal a play from Hubspot - 10-4-1 rule
@ed_peterson

7.  Real-time inbound marketing for business people
 Encourage every member of your team to have a
complete LinkedIn profile
 Assist senior leadership in all functional areas with
creating profiles
 Begin the culture of social sharing with LinkedIn
updates
@ed_peterson

8.  Complete company details using your keywords
 Have a killer cover image taking advantage of the
new Company Page layout
 Recognize the value of your recruitment brand and
consider investment in a premium career page

9.  Lower volume, higher quality
 Strive for visual element
 Post directly into LinkedIn
 Monitor post stats and learn from what works
 Experiment with targeting features @ed_peterson

10.  Great vehicle for
product details
and media
 List Contacts
 Monitor closely!
@ed_peterson

11. @ed_peterson

12.  Facebook for business vs. business on
Facebook
 Mapping where engagement becomes
interest
 Seek and promote opportunities for
transactions and connections
@ed_peterson

13. @ed_peterson

14.  Inbound marketing
power play
 Vehicle to capture
email addresses
 Path to owned
media
@ed_peterson

15. @ed_peterson

16.  Custom tabs
 Promotions
 Role of on page
conversation
 Balance of page vs.
feed
 Look out for
Messages!
@ed_peterson

17.  Content - Images
 Format - Concise
 Call to Action
What you are saying
When you are saying it
@ed_peterson

18.  Likes peak around 8 p.m. EST, shares around
6 p.m. EST.
 Remember the 80/20 rule for U.S. population
Chart via Mashable.com @ed_peterson

19.  Reach
 Growth
 Engagement
 PTAT acid test
@ed_peterson

21.  Fast, accessible,
cumulative
 Ticker tape & database in
one
 Vehicle for industry and
product leadership
@ed_peterson

22.  Be serious about listening
 Find relevant hash tags before you invent them
 Be the news breaker at conferences and events
 Identify, engage and reward influencers and
thought leaders
@ed_peterson

23.  Content meets conversation
 Your customer assumes Twitter is customer
service
 “Tweeting a landing page does not kill a puppy”
@ed_peterson

24.  Community built on topics, not relationships
 135 Million active users
 Corporate focus at Google on bringing Google+
into all products
 Premium real estate in the top right hand corner
of search returns for logged in users
 Social equity contributions

25.  Photos now appear in all posts
 Functionality of Google+
hangouts constantly
improving. Viable alternative
to 3rd party webinar hosting.
 Google+ communities
recently launched. Power
alternative to stale LinkedIn
groups.

26. 关系
Guanxi
Invest in relationships and show respect
@ed_peterson

27. -Mayo Clinic-
Don't Lie, Don't Pry
Don't Cheat, Can't Delete
Don't Steal, Don't Reveal
A solid, well communicated social media
policy is critical to the integrity of your digital
marketing
@ed_peterson

28.  Paid promotion moving from display advertising
into the Timeline
 Great segmentation options require knowledge
of your customer and specific objectives
 More powerful options require more expertise
 Experimentation will yield results!
@ed_peterson

29.  Great resources, scalable investment
 Buy what will get used
 Take advantage of eager vendor community for
knowledge, free trials, comparison shopping
 Seek accountability and obsessively share market
intelligence and customer insights
@ed_peterson

30.  Keep social from becoming isolated
 Ask what your customers and your
competitors are doing online
 Ask how your efforts and your content are
supporting your customers
 Have the right context for accountability
@ed_peterson

31.  B2B customers are still consumers
 People expect to interact with your brand on
their terms, 24 hours a day
 Entertain, Inform and provide utility
 Within the matrix of B2B integrated marketing,
social media is a tool for discovery
 Never stop closing listening
@ed_peterson

33. For the Marketing Executive For the Community Manager

34.  Social Media B2B Blog
 Marketo B2B Blog
 Prominent Placement (awesome SEO)
 Business to Community Blog
 All things Hubspot, including Dan Zarrella!
 See it live – Social Media Club, Local
Meetups, Local Professional Groups (AiMA)
 B2B Marketing Insider
 B2B Google+ Community